Least Tern > Resources for Teachers
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Resources for Educators Using Technology
Portals | Search Engines | Virtual Trips
Lesson Plans & Activities for Tech Integration (General Materials)
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Second Language Studies | ESLBibliographic Citation of Online Resources
Portals - Listed here are portal sites (organized site listings) that cover many subject areas and multiple k-12 grade levels and that are informational in focus. Updates are frequent. New links will appear at the top of each listing. Many of these sites contain lesson plans, but if you are seeking lesson plans specifically, also check the links at our Lesson Plans and Activities page.
Network for Good - portal for charities accepting online donations and volunteer sign-ons
Elementary:
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Cool4Kids - sites annotated and selected by kids and teens - not as well updated as you might like, but if you connect you will generally find interactive, lively sites that appeal to kids
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Enchanted Learning - a controlled searching environment - subscriptions for home and school are available - basic searching is free - limited, but useful
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K-3 Resources from Tapped In - teacher selected set of resources for classroom use - Christina Wilder's description of how she selected the sources is a guide for all teachers - you will need to register and login (free)
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KinderSite - new portal containing only peer reviewed sites that support education
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KinderStart - interesting site focused upon information about children - easy to use format is aimed at parents, teachers and care-givers - does include lesson plans - some commercialism
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NIEHS Kids' Pages - from the National Institutes of Health, activities, challenges/brainteasers, jokes, links for elementary - includes many educational activities that will engage and teach environmental and health issues
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Primary Web Sites - Internet resources for primary students - includes a section on "teacher productivity"
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Reference Information for Elementary School Students - Use this site to build your own "portal" for a project - includes encyclopedias, maps and more - from Linda J. Burkhart
- Resource 2000 - Elementary Links - personally selected resources for the elementary classroom
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Teacher's MousePad - very thorough and well maintained listing for
Elementary level - covers most subjects - includes tips from experienced
teacher
K-12 -
EdIndex - materials gathered by Bernie Poole - huge link sets sorted by teacher need
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About.com - billed as the Internet with human intervention - search results are annotated by actual humans
- All
Africa.com - pan-Africa news site - in French or English - start with
How to use this Site - be sure to look in the sidebars for focus topics,
which include political, environmental and social topics
- AOL@School - information, lessons, resources for students and for teachers
- Apple
Learning Exchange - well edited Internet resources in a searchable database
- do not require Apple computers
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BJ Pinchbeck's Homework Helper - as much help for the adult teacher beginning a quest - lists most of the university sites of use
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The Awesome Library - topically arranged, reviewed web resources
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Blue
Web 'N - searches for lessons, tutorials, information for the classroom
should start here - bookmark this one
- CLN
- Community Learning Network - maintains a topic-specific listing of
"theme sites" that group current resources around a curricular
topic - there is also a Subject Search
- DiscoverySchool - resources for Teachers - includes Kathy Schrock's Guide, clip art library, links
- dmoz: Open Directory Project - these are reviewed sites (safe searching, safe use)
- Educational Hotlists from the Franklin Institute
- Educator's Reference Desk - resource now for ERIC lessons and articles
- emtech
- vast listing for parents and teachers - little guidance but there is a
plethora of subjects each of which expands
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EOE (Educational Object Economy) - maintains a searchable listing of
Java applets - generally can be used by linking to site containing the applet
- annotated - excellent resources for Science especially (modeling, virtual
experiments)
- eThemes - selected child-safe resource lists prepared for teachers by graduate students - the approach is thematic
- Finding Data on the Internet - subject listing of best sources for education and personal use
- General Reference Sites for Middle School Student Searching - links to encyclopedias, maps, dictionaries, biographies
- Internet Public Library - current resource listings of just about everything - try the Online Newspapers
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Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators - a lot here if you can stand the overkill.
- Kids Image Search Tools - from KidsClick - general search enablers plus links to collections for Art, Astronomy, Animals and History/Society
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Landmarks
for Schools - resources, primary sources, raw data for use in the
classroom. This site is serious about using the Net as a resource for
scholarship at the HS level.
- Lives, the Biography Resource - claims to be the largest guide to biography sites on the Web - posthumous only - includes links to diaries, oral histories, journals - this site is no longer maintained, but we will keep the link active until a new version appears late in 2004 (promised)
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MarcoPolo - k-12 discipline specific web sites for teachers - includes activities and lesson plans
- MEL
- The Michigan eLibrary - resources selected by librarians
- NewsDirectory.com - portal site for media services, including links to searchable newspaper archives, online magazines, TV networks - when you locate a resource, be sure to remove the frames by clicking on the button provided
- RainbowTech - resource guides for use of technology across the curriculum
- Reach Every Child - portal site for k-12 education from Horace Mann School in NYS
- ResearchBuzz - interesting weekly postings, many pointing to new databases and search engines
- Resource 2000 - links to news, travel, education, parenting - you name it - quick and easy
- Sites for Teachers - portal for teacher resources, not rated - short annotations - search function
- PBS TeacherLine - web sites for teachers - lists both portals and links to resources for learning to teach with technology - Math, Science, English/Language Arts
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Teaching and Learning on the Web - Web-based materials selected by the Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction - every subject area, selected as sites that use the web as a medium for learning
- techLEARNING - Web Picks from Technology & Learning - selected learning sites
- Teach-nology - a "web portal for teachers" - links to activities, worksheets, lesson plans, articles, "safe searching" portal for students, rubrics, tutorials, more
- The
Teacher List - showcases one new educational site a day; free registration;
option to receive new site list via e-mail - clicking on the divisions opens
up access to archive of the best of the best, by subject
- Web Library - Free Media - for education only, copyright free photo images in a searchable database
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Websites
to Find Statistics On-Line - just about all topics of interest to
kids, including sports and media - portal site that must have been built
for k12 use!
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YouthLearn: an Annotated Database of Educational Sites - this organization focuses upon community youth activities - sites in most subject areas
Commercial:
- Questia - commercial product provides full-text of materials for which they hold permissions - research journals - subscription based individually - there are many FREE articles available on the site for common school research topics - many features are only available with subscription
- SAS
inSchool - interactive materials for teaching science, English, math,
social studies and Spanish (online, offline, software) - activities linked
to standards - allied with Carolina Biological Supply and other educational
suppliers
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Web Feet - well reviewed subject guides - includes web quests - collections are for purchase only
- United Streaming - maintains a library of standards-aligned short videos, searchable by topic - membership required for school use - membership includes a tools for building quizzes and understanding assessments around videos
Search Engines, Subject Directories
Elementary - Safe Searching
Search Engines
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AJKids (Ask Jeeves Kids) - be sure to turn on the Adult filters in Preferences!!
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AltaVista - access Settings, then change family filter options - as a parent or teacher, you can set a password here that will filter all searches - be sure to Save settings, then set AltaVista as the home page - no longer the strong engine it used to be, AltaVista is still a good engine for .mp3 and image searches
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Dib Dab Doo and Dilly Too - will appeal to younger students - scroll down for a few interactive games
- dmoz
- open source and people-edited search engine - SafeSurf choice
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Google - access Preferences and turn on the SafeSurf options - be sure to Save Settings
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KidsClick! - kid friendly, guaranteed resources for teachers and librarians
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Kid's Tools for Searching the Internet - multiple search engines on one page - many different from the above
- Kids.Us
- did you know that there is a domain available for child-safe sites?
Linking to this address will lead you to the sites approved for k-12, education
and fun
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Tek
Mom's Search Tools for Kids - another multiple search page - includes
academic subject searching and an image search
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Yahooligans! - friendly, safe - good image and media library
Directories and Listings
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Child-Safe Search Engines and Educational Directories - up to date listing
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Internet Search Engines for Kids - search multiple safe engines and sites from this one page - would be a useful homepage
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Kid Safe Search Sites - listing of search engines and directories
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Oswego (NY) points us to additional Children's Search Engines (and Directory sites) - link to the resources from here
Teacher, Student - including niche (specialized) search engines that search The Deep Web (databases that spiders can not search)
PC Magazine: Search Web - schematic showing the relationships between search engines, from the article How to Find Anything Online
Specialized Search Engines and Directories - points you in the right direction based upon the type of information you are seeking or the type of source in which you expect to find it.
- Biography Resource Center - from the Gale Group - searchable full-text database of biographies - fee-based (a free trial is available)
- CiteSeer - Scientific Literature Digital Library from NEC - search article text or citations - full-text of articles can be downloaded or viewed in .pdf format
- Complete Planet - search over 100,000 searchable databases and specialized search engines - watch out for a window-loop
- Dogpile - a metasearch engine - quick and friendly - students like this one - images, audio and multimedia (video) searches
- dmoz
- open source and people-edited search engine - SafeSurf choice
- FindArticles - searchable archive of e-published articles - links directly to article - bibliographic citation will be confusing as FindArticles framing can not be removed - print article and e-mail article options - advertising
- Google - continues to be the most highly rated engine in terms of speed and quality of first hits
- HighWire - search articles in the Library of Science and Medicine - searching is free but full-text or .pdf versions generally require subscription
- HotBot - recommended by HS educators
- InfoMine - from the Scholarly Internet Resource Collections - includes a k-12 subsection
- IncyWincy - search engine spider for the Invisible Web (its new name is The Deep Web)
- JSTOR - searchable archive of scholarly publications - entirely fee-based - academic institutions (local college) may be your best bet for access
- KartOO - visual display of search results makes this an exciting new tool - give it a try
- LexisNexis.Academic - fee-based full-text database of information in news, business, government, legal issues
- Librarians' Index - subject site searches - selected by public librarians
- Lives, the Biography Resource - claims to be the largest guide to biography sites on the Web - no longer being updated, but still available
- LookSmart - a directory engine
- Mooter
- this is new and different - results are "clustered" into topics,
of a sort, which are initially displayed graphically, then in a Google-type
list - be sure to look beyond the first cluster - descriptive text is not
necessarily from the page to which you will be sent (generally an index
page).
- netTrekker - a fee-based search engine that aligns content to state and national standards - designed specifically for education - free trial
- SeacheBooks.com - search for text, authors, content in e-books
- SearchEdu.com
- searching can be limited to education, military, dictionaries, thesauruses,
encyclopedias, A&E Biography
- SearchGov.com - search all of the US government sites - links to state and local sites and e-sources
- SpeechBot - searches speech recognition versions of audio and video content - results in links to web sites
- Teoma
- a new search engine that claims to outspeed Google - recommended by John.C
Dvorak of PC Magazine
- The Invisible Web - directory of often overlooked resources, including accessible databases
Virtual Trips - virtual trips may contain a videoconferencing element so look for this in the description - general Videoconferencing equipment providers often link schools to virtual trip opportunities - find subject-specific tours under academic subject resource lists
Virtual Field Trip Time Management - printable form for teachers to use to evaluate and plan
Web Tools Newsletter - Virtual Field Trips - how-to, guides, places to go
- Blackwell's Best Virtual Field Trips
- Center
for Puppetry Arts Education provides k-12 virtual instruction in topics
such as hands-on puppet building, literary topics, nature and social studies
topics, and puppetry topics - Middle and Upper School programs are available
- Creative
Connections Project - Online School Field Trips - Rain Forest, Africa,
China, Galapagos - this is a classroom-to-classroom connection - email,
images, art and information exchanges
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Tramline Virtual Field Trips - a listing covering all subject areas - would like to rope you into purchasing their software - there is a new listserv for teachers who wish to share questions and ideas - this is a very useful listing of excellent field trips at the Chapter 5 support page (for the print guide they sell) - I recommend also the resources provided to help you plan and structure a trip: Chapter 3.10: Examples and Tools (scroll down the page)
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Innovative Teaching: The Best Virtual Field Trips - large listing - international
- MuseumStuff.com - locator for virtual museum exhibits - by topic
- Museum of Television and Radio offers distance education opportunities for k-12 (video conferencing) that draw upon their vast collection of video and audio clips to expore themes such as puppetry, advertising, presidential campaigns and civil rights
- Nassau BOCES provides an excellent list of virtual video conferencing trips
- OOPS Virtual Field Trip Page
- PacBell has a listing to get you started, including short annotations - video conferencing trips
- Rainbow Tech listing - personal favorites selected by a super teacher
- Virtual Field Trips - provided by Utah - clean, attractive site
- Virtual Fieldtrips - a listing provided by Oswego, NY schools
- Virtual Field Trips - social studies and geography, most the Americas - from the University of Mary
- Virtual Field Trips - elementary level listings for Social Studies, Science and Art - up to date and subdivided by topic - the site includes planning tips and activity template
- Virtual Tours - a listing developed by Right In Class and Carolyn Hinshaw - also visit RealTime Tours of cities and explore the site, which is dedicated to moving education outside of the classroom
This page is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
E. Sky-McIlvain
8/11/04