Science: I used to think EdHeads was perhaps a bit too elementary but not anymore. These are very high level thinking activities like Hip Replacement, Create a Line of Stem Cells, and Deep Brain Stimulation. I tried the Simple Machines thinking that would be easy but I had a tough time identify all those simple machines in my kitchen.

Math: It is basketball season and what could be more appropriate than learning how to play Math Basketball from a well know Algebra/Geometry teacher. Take a look.

Civics: I am somewhat of a voyeuer. I look at other teacher's, other school districts, and even other states standards. Well, here is a site from Ohio Able Research Center that gives loads of Civics lesson plans developed for their standards and to help ESOL students as well. Since it is by standard, you can easily find new ideas to presenting similar standards for Virginia.

English: This one is a repeat but so worth looking at. Shmoop has loads of peotry and literature lessons but best of all, this site answers the age old question, "Why should I care?" If you don't have that grand justification as to why this is part of the curriculum, take a look at Shmoop and see if they can't put it into words.

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The topic today is using the various forms of assessment you'll find in Blackboard such as the Hot Spot or Jumbled Sentence options. These can be very simple formative assessments but also a change from the normal multiple choice so many students see. How can that be bad.

Worthy Websites:

Social Studies/English: We really want to have "cool" assignments and nothing is cooler than texting on an iPhone. So now you can ask students to create a text dialog between two famous people and it will look just like the real thing. Fake iPhone text does not require a log in and produces a printable page or an image that can be captured with print screen and uploaded via Assignment Manager. Do the same with the Fake Tweet Builder page as well. A few more options but any creative teacher will find a use for these.

ESOL and Special Ed: Is internet research daunting to your students? Have no fear Qwiki is here. This is the best search engine for students to make research fun and easy to understand. Type any general search term in the engine and watch how it aggregates a wonderful multimedia experience just from webpages and images. Best of all - it reads it aloud. (this site previewed at EdTech 2011).

SMARTboard users: Folks are always looking for a great resource for notebooks. This one combines the methodology of Marzano AND loads of free downloadable notebooks by subject. Educational Services Unit #3 provides this wiki with all the bells and whistles. They've posted even their workshop's files so take a look.

Civics: Time magazine is the epitome of current events however, they can build a case for the study of history as well. Their photo essays are stunning and emotional every time. As an example, this collection called the Top 10 Protest Symbols groups together some brilliant photo journalism and a teachable topic. Be aware that some photos can be disturbing so you may want to use only a select few.

Blackboard option: Placing a pdf in Blackboard is ....well.....dull. But if you use Embedit it becomes more interactive and usable (OK interactive may be stretching it a bit). Embedit is a free service that creates an embed code for your webpage. You can use the red pen as I have done to highlight areas on the page. And if you ask me, it just looks snazzy.



All Teachers: More than numerous blogs to follow, there really are too many. So what is a teacher to do? According to this Ning, it is all how you develop your PLN. PLN stands for Personal Learning Network and if you're a career teacher you really should have one. Keeping up with it is another story. I really feel there are some worthy thoughts at the EduPLN and I'm sure you'll find a great video to watch when not grading.

For these and many other resources visit mrsbrown's diigo library!

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