Technology in Your Classroom : Hot Websites :
Hot Websites May 2003
By Linda Lindroth
Here are some colorful websites to help further integrate art into your curriculum
May marks a time for reflection as the current school year winds down, but it's also a time for new beginnings as teachers look ahead to plans for next year. Here are some great resources for accomplishing both goals.
Internet4Classrooms Projects
www.internet4classrooms.com
This is an outstanding resource for project-based learning that covers all content areas with projects categorized by grade level. Click on "Teacher's Guide to International Collaboration on the Internet" to access an excellent tutorial guide for K-12 project-based learning.
The link to "Tutorials and Guides" in the menu offers a multitude of excellent web resources for curriculum projects. "Starting a New Project" is a practical guide for the classroom teacher with reviewed resources to provide additional help. "Tips for Online Collaboration" posts a Top Ten list for project collaboration. You'll also find links to project examples for all the content areas. Don't miss this excellent resource for online global communication.
Brainchild Online Assessment
www.brainchild.com
How much easier can it get? Start with the U.S. map, click on your state and select your grade level (grades 3-8, and Exit Level) for math or reading – and get an assessment score for how well a certain student meets the specific state criteria at that grade level. You can print the scored assessment with feedback upon completion of the test.
Each test is made up of 24 questions for math and 12 for reading, presented with colorful diagrams and illustrations. The multiple choice questions give students practice in taking computerized tests. In the reading assessment, the reading passage is the length of a short story and features six related questions for each story. Immediate feedback provides the opportunity to review and correct mistakes and/or study each of the strands.
For information about Achiever! – a CD-ROM version of this online assessment with mini-tutorial lessons – click on the Brainchild link or call 800-522-8171.
KidsHub
www.kidshub.org
This is a great resource to include in your summer learning newsletter for parents. It's free and has no advertising! The learning games for upper elementary and middle school are based on core content and engage students in active learning. One of my students' favorites was "Human Bones," which can be found by clicking the "Quiz Hub" link. They loved the challenge of constantly improving their scores to try and reach the "Class Top Five" list I posted weekly in my room.
Are you having trouble keeping up with current events, particularly amidst all the end-of-the-year activities? This website features Current Events (from www.cnn.com), News Stories (from The New York Times LearningNetwork) and a Daily News Quiz to make sure you and your students have the latest details about world events. The site also features extensive links specifically for parents and teachers.
RFB&D Audioplus -- Tech Spotlight
The spotlight is on technology accessibility and Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic has new technology to make this happen. Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, or RFB&D for short, is the nation's educational library for people with print disabilities. In serving those with print disabilities for 54 years, RFB&D used more than 5,200 volunteers last year to record 4,011 new titles. They distributed 246,303 recorded textbooks during 2002. The nationwide locations offer a number of volunteer opportunities.
RFB&D now has released digitally recorded textbooks on cds that can be played on special players (available from RFB&D) or on standard multimedia computers equipped with special software. This new technology allows students to navigate by page, chapter or heading on one AudioPlus cd instead of 8-12 cassettes per textbook, which only offer forward and reverse.
RFB&D's Learning Through Listening program is available in individual and institutional memberships that are valid for 12 months. Memberships give schools access to RFB&D's library of more than 93,000 recordings. For more information about RFB&D, call 866-RFBD-585 or visit www.rfbd.org
Linda K. Lindroth is Technology Editor and Web Coordinator for Teaching Pre K-8. She is also a K-5 Technology Teacher in Lexington, KY.
May 2003, Vol.33, No.8
