Last year when I was a tutor for an elementary school servicing grades k-5, I had a resource room that had access to one online computer and an overhead project. Before the work week started, I looked for good website(s) for my lesson plans to allow for the limited time we had. Some of the websites were to enhance instruction or an interactive learning tool for the students.
I'm glad to find good resourses but, I need to be more organized to be more effective. I have websites and resources on flash drives, Diigo, Delicious, and on more than one desktop.
While home, my search usually begins with a Google search or going the Volusia County Schools homepage for educational links. In the "School" tab on top, the elementary school I worked for website includes educational links under the link for “Students”. The Google search usually located Education World in the top 5, a free online resource guide and it is always a positive experience to locate interactive games or information that I can use in a lesson.
So today I am a “Researcher”, I am taking my time to really look around educational websites. When I went to my old friend Education World, I loved their Math Machine it helps to answer questions for all different levels of math. The link is in Integrating Technology; Education World has always made it easy to put together a lesson or to increase my library for my current students adding interactive games for math and language arts. You can share the article you are reading through social bookmarking services like Diigo or Delicious or follow Education World on Facebook and Twitter.
I selected a second website and felt it was instrumental in locating resources, the websites was Pedagonet. I could really use the YouTube videos in Math Tricks. I tutor a group of 3rd graders and think math tricks are a great ice breaker when students are finding it hard to work on math or reading in an afterschool program. Other than that, I already have collected many of the resources that are on that website from other sources.
I've been on Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators before but really looked at it this time. This time I spent most of my time looking for resources for me as a teacher and student and for my students were the tabs, “Alpha Index”, and “Sites of the School Days”. This is where there are hundreds even thousands of links. There are enough to have broken links and it is no big deal.
Now that I have taken my time looking for educational websites, and bookmarking them, I hope that when I am in a rush that I stop and remember which ones can be used to help my students learn BEST through online resources and that I keep a better library where I lists my favorites.
Janet
ReplyDeleteIt seems like you are very familiar with the different resources that are offered to teachers on the internet. I am interested to hear more about the math games from "Math Tricks." I am always looking for online activities to reward students in my class but also will expand their knowledge of the content. Are there games that were more appropriate for middle school aged children? Also, if this game runs through YouTube, my students will not be able to access the games at school because of district internet restrictions. This may be something I will have to address to my administrators on a case-to-case basis.
I will locate my math tricks for you. They are on the MAC desktop.
ReplyDeleteJanet,
ReplyDeleteI could really relate to your post in that I too felt like I was always spending a lot of time surfing the web for resources. Once I started to keep everything in one folder on my bookmarks and on flash drives it did make it easier. I am not always the most organized person though so this is an ongoing process :) I visited Pedagonet after reading your post. I had never really spent time looking at this site but I am glad I did! It is something that I can see myself using in the classroom.
-Catherine