Tag Archives: teaching

AASL Top 25 Websites for Teaching and Learning

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This is a little late seeing as the list was released months ago, but here are the Top 25 Websites for Teaching and Learning per the American Association of School Librarians.  Please be sure to visit the direct link to view how each resource supports the AASL Standards for 21st Century Learning as well as ideas on how to incorporate them into your curriculum.  For my teachers convenience, I’ve indicated which sites are open or blocked by our district.

Animoto (open) – turn your photos into music videos.

Classroom 2.0Classroom 2.0 (blocked) – “… the social network for those interested in Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies in education.”

Curriki (open) – a collaborative lesson plan sharing community.

Diigo (blocked) – access, organize, and share your bookmarks without being tied to a specific computer!  Mine can be found under hloy22, but I haven’t make the conversion to Diigo – I still use Delicious (blocked), also as hloy22.

Edublogs (open) – free blogging platform for teachers and students – and the one I’m using now!

Facebook (blocked) – do I really need to try and explain what Facebook is to you guys?  A popular social networking site to communicate and connect with your friends and family.

Good Reads (open) – a social network for bibliophiles.

Google Reader (blocked) – tired of visiting your favorite websites only to see they haven’t been updated in a while?  Why not use Google Reader to visit those sites for you and gather the data in one place.

MindMeisterMindmeister for middle/high school students or Bubble.us for elementary students (both open) – online mind mapping tools.

Ning (blocked) – you can create your own online social networking site and/or join others already created.  For example, Classroom 2.0 is a Ning.

Our Story (blocked) – “Save stories, photos, and videos on a collaborative timeline.”

Partnership for 21st Century Skills (open) – “The Partnership for 21st Century Skills is a national organization that advocates for the integration of skills such as critical thinking, problem solving and communication into the teaching of core academic subjects such as mathematics, reading, science and history.”

Polleverywhere (open) – online survey maker.

Primary Access (open) – “PrimaryAccess is a suite of free online tools that allows students and teachers to use primary source documents to complete meaningful and compelling learning activities with digital movies, storyboards, rebus stories and other online tools.”

RezED (blocked) – “… the online hub for practitioners using virtual worlds, offering access to the highest quality resources and research in the field to establish a strong network of those using virtual worlds for learning.”

Second LifeSecond Life (blocked) – an extremely popular online virtual world.

Simply Box (blocked) – not familiar with this one, but apparently you “capture” websites or portions of websites and organize them visually.  You can share them with others, too!

Skype (blocked) – “Can you hear me? Skype is a basic and easy-to-use service that offers free voice, video calls, conference calls, instant messaging and group instant messaging. Download the software; connect to the Internet and you’re good to go.”  My Skype username is also hloy22.

SOS for Information Literacy (open) – “… a dynamic web-based multimedia resource that includes lesson plans, handouts, presentations, videos and other resources to enhance the teaching of information literacy.”

Teacher Tube (open) – school appropriate YouTube alternative with educational videos.

TwitterTwitter (blocked) – a social networking site where you communicate with your friends and family in 140 characters or less.  Allows for quick updates and/or sharing of ideas/resources.  My Twitter id is @heatherloy.

VoiceThread (open) – think, interactive PowerPoint.

Wikispaces (blocked) – collaborative sharing space/community.

Wordle (open) – create word clouds from text and see what words/phrases are used more frequently.  You can also create custom word clouds.

Zoho (open) – “Zoho offers an all-in-one online collaborative package; it provides online tools from mail and presentations to notebooks and wikis, with many tools in between.”

Disclaimer – the sites I’ve indicated as “open” in my district only apply to the first page of the site.  Any site that requires a login has the potential of being blocked when you dig deeper into the site (ex: Zoho individual resources are probably going to be blocked.)

Odds & Ends (03/01/09)

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BBC News: “Primary eudcation ‘too narrow‘” – article arguing that early education focusing too much on math, English, and testing is leaving kids with a deficient education.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized – the video does a pretty good job of breaking down how our economy got the way it is today.

iSerenity – room too quiet (or has an annoying noise in the background)? Use iSerenity for soothing ambient noise?  I particularly like the Library Lullaby.

“My Top Tips for Teaching Teens” by Alan Sitomer – examines issues such as teaching teens to “bounce back,” change their attitudes, set goals, never give up, etc.  Well worth reading.

Last, but definately not least, two sites that highlight the Inauguration of President Obama.  The first is “The Big Picture” from The Boston Globe which has photographs of the event and from around the world.  The second is from Gigapan and has one large photograph that you can zoom or pull out to get the whole effect of the swearing in of President Obama.  Yes, it’s a little late in the scheme of things, but it’s still useful!

Odds & Ends (11/24/08)

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SignOnSanDiego.com: “Funds sliced, teacher sells ads on tests“ – I can’t remember who I got this from, but it is so apropos to our school right now.  Teachers have just been budgeted to one case of paper (for how long, I’m not sure) so this could be a creative way to offset costs.  I just don’t think our district would allow this ‘fundraiser.’

Scott McLeod – Teachlearning Blog “Teaching administrators about Wikipedia” – I must admit that when Wikipedia first made my radar I, too, was adament about my students not using it and/or treating it as an unreliable source.  Since learning more about it, especially after watching the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales TEDTalks video, I’ve changed my mind.  While I think students should be allowed to BEGIN their research on Wikipedia, just as with any encyclopedia, they shouldn’t use it as their ONLY source.  Just as with Google, it’s a way of finding out quick information or answers to questions, but students still need to judge for bias and accuracy.

Time for a Story – a Windows Live Messenger service that allows you to share storytime with your child even when you are apart.  Seems an easy enough setup – PC, Internet access, Windows Live Messenger, a webcam, and microphone.  The benefit of this method over say, Skype, is that your screen has the narration and your child’s screen shows the story/animation.  Watch the demo.  Unfortunately, I’m on a Mac and don’t think Windows Live is available for Macs.  Bummer!

Here’s one that is not really an educational or professional tidbit, but in this economic crunch, you may find it useful:  CouponMom.com Registration is free and you can print grocery coupons, resturant coupons, and request free samples.