We all know the typical method of timeline creation in schools. “Draw a line, add some dates and document events in chronological order”.  Students will typically use poster boards, markers and possibly cut out images. The students in Mr. Papa’s grade 8 social studies class in our district are putting a new spin on...
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I have been working in instructional technology for the past 10 years. During that time I have experienced the development of some amazing instructional tools. The Google Art Project goes directly to my “best of” list of innovative web-based tools! The Google Art Project uses Google Earth street view technology to allow visitors to...
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I recently came across the PhET website project that was developed by the University of Colorado. I have found it to be a really great resource for all grade levels. Here is a description of the site taken directly from their about page: PhET provides fun, interactive, research-based simulations of physical phenomena for free....
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I came across these two websites recently while working on an interactive curriculum portal for our Language Arts Department. Both sites contain interactive activities and games for teaching Grammar.  Learn English was developed by the British Council. It is designed for ESL students, but the activities can be used in any elementary language arts...
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SMART and Scholastic have worked together to create a series of Smartboard lessons that teach students the process of story writing and analysis. There are a series of four lessons that cover: 1. Planning Stories 2.  Story Styles 3. Creating Characters 4. Re-inventing Stories The lessons are designed for students in grades 2 or...
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The following website  has 16 live underwater webcams of the Gulf Oil Spill.  It is very interesting to watch. This type of resource would be great to pull up on a smartboard as a discussion starter. It would also have a place in current events lessons. http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/bp-live-oil-spill-cam.html
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MYBYTES is an interactive website sponsored by Microsoft. It contains a free and easy to use Music mixer that allows for the creation of your own music track. The finished track can be downloaded as an MP3 to be used in a digital story. Completed tracks can also be shared on the site for...
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I have written about the website http://edu.glogster.com. It is a website that allows students to create digital posters. These posters may contain text, images, videos, and clip art. There are some really great examples available on my wiki page as well as on the Glogster site. You can read my previous post on Glogster...
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I came across the website the other day. It is called analyze math http://www.analyzemath.com/. I found it to be a great resource for creating interactive math lessons.  Here is a description from the website: “The site includes several java applets to investigate Graphs of Functions, Equations, and Algebra. Topics explored are: equations of line,...
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In my workshops I have referenced a number of places to find pre-made smart notebook lesson templates.  The site I most often reference is www.smarttech.com. This is the home page for the company SMART. There you can access notebook lessons organized by grade, subject, and/or CCCS. Smart has introduced a new site that I...
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