National Council of Teacher of Mathematics (NCTM) has a great website that is wonderful tool for all math teachers. It has even more tools that are specific for the middle school setting. The best part is that you do not have to be a member of NCTM to get the benefits from the site, although you will get a lot more benefits if you are. However, for those who are not members, they can still take advantage of various different lesson plans that are based on the NCTM standards, and look through assorted articles that can help make a better math classroom.
http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/
Teacher Source is one of my favorite sites to use when creating lesson plans especially for math. PBS has set up this website that is loaded with different hands-on activities that cover almost every subject imaginable. Also the lesson plans are usually quite specific. You never have to second-guess what you are doing. The lesson plans usually have great extensions and discussion questions linked to them. With today focus on standards, a majority of the lesson plans have been linked to every state learning standard, as well as standards from other countries like Australia and Canada. You cannot go wrong if you find a lesson you like on PBS’ Teacher Source.
This site is an extremely comprehensive site for teachers. It provides lessons across all the contents and allows teachers to specify their search by age/grade and topic. This site not only provides teachers with individual lessons, but it also offers thematic units and interactive activities. For a social science instructor, Scholastic has activities from the signing of the Declaration of Independence to present-day politics. In addition, Scholastic has links to interactive sites for students to gain further practice in the subject matter being studied. Additionally, Scholastic will link your search to sites outside of their page in order to allow you to obtain the information and resources that you need for instruction.
http://www.educationworld.com/
Education World is not only an excellent site for teachers to access lessons and documents for their classroom; it is also a superb site for educators to advance themselves professionally and technologically. Here, middle school teachers can access the latest in developmental news and learn about the upcoming trends in education. Education World even has a link to “Ten Great Sites Every Middle School Educator Should Know.” While being an extremely comprehensive site, teachers could easily navigate this site and find many resources they could use to better their instruction and practices. This is an excellent site.
The web site is titled The Educator’s Reference Desk. I have found this website to be very useful in the past few years. I like to search the site for lesson plans. It has a wide verity of subjects. The subjects are cut down into even smaller subgroups. This allows you to search the site very easily. The site not only has lesson plans for teachers to look at, it also has tips for classroom management, planning, assessment, higher education, and motivation. It also has information for parents, counselors, librarians, and so on.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/education
The web site is a branch off of the National Geographic web site. I feel it is a great website for teachers to use. It can be used to get ideas for lesson plans. Under the heading of lesson plans you can choose subject area, resource type, and grade level. There is also an area designated for teacher communication. Here teachers are able to search newsletters, grants, calendar events, and standards. Yet, another heading is for shopping. This allows teacher to have access to National Geographic videos, catalogs, magazines, posters, and books. Overall, I feel it is a web site that any teacher could benefit from.
http://members.aol.com/donnandlee/
This is an excellent web page for teachers to look for history lessons. There are unit plans that are for all middle school grades. I have personally used this website for many World War II lessons and Great Depression lessons. The lessons have all of the standards and are easy to follow. They contain good content and have great activities to go along with the lessons. The students really enjoy the lessons that came from this lesson.
http://www.remember.org/educate/intro.html
When I was teaching the lesson on the Holocaust, my students wanted to know more about what was left today. I found this wonderful site to help me explain what is left from a survivor’s point of view. This website is a journal that a survivor wrote and when they visited Auschwitz they took pictures of places that meant something to them. It is very interesting to read about their experiences in the places where so many people died.
The web site Middle School . Net , is a good web site for middle school teachers. This web site is useful in a number of ways. This site lists resources on the web that teachers can use for a number of content areas. In addition to that, the web sit offers a number of links to aid the teacher in researching standards, using reference materials and incorporating technology in the classroom. The site also offers lesson plan suggestions for core curriculum areas. This web site would be useful in developing a social studies lesson by offering links to resources on the web that deal with a specific topic. This web site is not only recommend for teachers, but it can be very useful to administrators and support staff as well.
http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/
The web site, PBS Teacher Source, is a useful site for middle school teachers in all content areas. This web site offers a number of resources to aid in developing and enhancing a lesson. The site offers teachers the ability to choice a specific content area. Then, the teacher can narrow the search by grade level and then an even more specific topic, for example government and civil rights. Once the teacher has chosen the criteria, the site then displays a number of lessons that meet those standards. The lessons that are displayed list a number of possible activities, suggestions on how to present the information, and discussion questions that relate to the theme. In addition to that, lessons often offer suggested videos to use in conjunction with the lesson plan to enhance the lesson.
http://www.lessonplanspage.com/
This is a great resource for teachers that I use often. When you enter the site, you can pick the content area and then grade level. The lessons are divided into categories. For example, middle level social sciences are comprised of community, culture, economics, environment, etc. The lessons vary in quality, but are for the most part well developed. Units are also included throughout the content areas. In addition, connections are made to other content areas for integration possibilities. Teachers may also add their own lessons to the content areas or grade levels. This website is easy to navigate and does not contain many pop up ads.
At www.teacherplanet.com, teachers can access lesson plans, theme units, worksheets, and other teacher tools. This website is user friendly and easy to work through. A user will not get lost as there are links always accessible at the top of the page. The website provides links to other websites that contain this information. Some of the websites are user friendly while others contain many pop ups. Some of the links are for products that must be purchased and cannot be viewed electronically. One interesting section of this website is certificates on a variety of topics. Some of these topics include, teamwork, perfect attendance, and honor roll certificates.
www.nationalgeographic.com/forcesofnature
This website is the one I am showcasing. It can be used by teachers or children. This site allows you to interact with your students by guiding them through learning about natural disasters. It focuses on four dynamic features: earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes and tornadoes. In each area, you can go through a tutorial that allows you to do short activities and read short descriptions of the pictures you are viewing. This site also has video clips, real photos, case studies, and simulations that are available by clicking on the tab. You do not even have to download them. From this site, you can click on a link to look at lesson plans and preview the movie “Forces of Nature” that National Geographic has put out.
http://www.teacherplanet.com/calendar/0704.html
This website is for teachers and it gives many resources. You can look at lesson plans, themed units, and worksheets that you can use for in your classroom. You can print off certificates to give your students when they do a good job or rubrics and puzzles. It offers flashcards for your students and teacher software and posters that you can buy for your classroom. They even feature free software. It also lists popular sites for teachers. You can look at job openings and create a web resume. It lists grade book programs that you may want to use to keep track of your students grades on the computer rather than a in an actual grade book. TeacherPlanet.com is definitely a good addition to your collection.
http://www.historychannel.com/classroom/classroom.html
This classroom site is a great informational site for teachers. This site allows you to download video and audio clips from the History Channel specials and also pictures for classroom use. This site provides information for ordering full length History Channel specials. This site provides teachers with information about topics in history such as the Civil War, famous speeches, Ellis Island, and other timely articles. This site has resources such as teacher’s manuals, study guides, and discussion boards. Teachers could navigate information on “Today In History” and introduce fun facts into their classroom.
http://home.comcast.net/~dboals1/boals.html
This site is titled “History/Social Studies for K-12 Teachers.” And it lets you explore classroom and lesson ideas, provides links for other lesson plans, and information on diversity along with many other resources. The diversity section of this site lets you choose from a variety of diversities like women, disabilities, races, and religions and provides information on these topics. The articles in the diversity section provide articles and information on famous people in history that fall into that particular category. This site also contains information for parents. This site would be great for classroom preparation and for educational purposes.
This website is designed, created and updated by the National Science Teachers of America. Included in this website are science lesson plans for any age level, any type of science and comments on these lessons as to what works and what doesn’t work as far as implementing each lesson. In addition to high-quality lesson plans, the website features interesting science-related articles, access to additional resources, and links to current events. Overall, this site is relatively easy to navigate. You can find a lot of credible information in a short period of time—a great feature for those busy teachers!
What student doesn’t love going on field trips? This website is a great tool to help prepare teachers for an awesome (and educational!) time at the St. Louis Science Center. What is especially nice is that it has various activities for students of all ages and all learning styles. It provides teachers with opportunities to enhance their teaching while creating exciting learning experiences for their students. Many of the resources included in this website are specially designed to “bring the Science Center into the classroom”—a great feature to share with your students.
I thought that this website was very helpful. It had a ton of great science lessons for middle school students. It also provided links to other science sites that I found helpful as well. The one thing that I really enjoyed about this site was that you didn’t have to stay in the one domain. Your options are always open.
This site is really neat. It can be a tad confusing sometimes though. I like it because you can find so many different types of lesson plans for all ages. It provides interactive lessons as well as inquiry. I really like the fact that most of the lessons can be modified to your classroom. I also liked that most of the material lists on the some of the lessons are from the home and you do not have to buy a kit for them.
This website is an excellent resource for teachers, counselors, principals, parents, community, and even the school nurse. Teachers can browse through titles, authors, references, news events, lessons, and special education. Also, teachers can select their own content area and search in greater depth. Once on the inside of the content area, teachers can find lesson plans, resources, helpful websites, and browse through several subtopics within their specified content area. This website is a free site based out of Wisconsin. This is an excellent resource and can help a teacher create, or add to, lessons in any content.
This website is an excellent search engine for teachers. It will connect teachers to the places on the web they are trying to find with a detailed search. Teachers can search by specific grade, or they can select several grades if they are uncertain. Teachers can also search the selections on the site if they just want to browse through. The site also accepts lessons, resources, etc. from teachers. Searches can be detailed or can be broad by searching subjects or keywords. Teachers also have the option to click whether they want to search for free resources or pay sources on the internet. I think this site is an excellent tool for any teacher.
The contents of this site are very simple, but for a language arts teacher I find them absolutely fantastic. This site features the work of thirty authors like Aesop, Darwin, London, Mary Shelly, Bram Stoker, Poe and Mark Twain (just to name a few). By simply clicking on the author’s name, you can look at a selection IN ITS ENTIRETY! Chapters break down the longer novels and stories. These books are all out of copyright (according to the site), so viewers are free to download whatever they would like to use. Even if you did not want to use an entire work, this site would be a great way to get interesting sections of work from various authors.
http://www.ed.gov/free/index.html
There is so much information on this site that it is hard to find a place to start. The best part of the site is the huge archive of information for students to view and research. There is a great mixture of topics ranging from a study of Tupperware and how it is tied to our nation’s past to a segment that explains and illustrates how our government works. The viewer can navigate by using helpful subject indexes and there is also a search aspect that can be used to find specific information.
This website, healthfinder, is a guide to reliable health information. This site is attractive, simple, and offers valuable information for a health teacher to access to supplement the textbook. It has a health library, information from A – Z regarding prevention and wellness, diseases and conditions, and alternative medicine, plus medical dictionaries, an encyclopedia, journals and more. It also has just for you, selected health topics organized for men and women, by age from kids to seniors, by rack and ethnicity, and for parents, caregivers, health professionals, and others. One other is a directory of healthfinder organizations, which are selected health information web sites from government agencies, clearinghouses, nonprofits, and universities. This is a site as a health teacher I will add to one of my favorites.
This website, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, is a valuable tool for every health teacher to keep in their favorites. Actually, not only is this site for health content but science and other content areas can use this website. This site always offers current events, what’s happening in the world today. There are many items/issues in this site that would aid a health teacher for supplements to the textbook. Some of the health and safety topics addressed are diseases, environmental health, health promotion, emergency preparedness and response, and travelers’ health among others. What I especially like about this website is that they post what’s going on in the world. Currently the site addresses West Nile virus, and heat related injuries, etc. Back when SARS was an upcoming epidemic they had information related to that issue. This is a very informational website which I have referred to many times for updated information. The cdc.gov site is a good supplement to the textbook.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/colonialhouse/resources_web.html
This website would be good for teachers. This site provides more in depth information about early settlers. There are many different aspects about early settler life discussed on this site. One of the links on this page includes a pilgrim museum. This alone could provide many different views on early settler life. A teacher could find primary and secondary sources on this site. Also included is information about how the governments back then operated. This could be a useful starting point for an activity on comparing and contrasting present and past governments.
http://www.glc.k12.ga.us/BuilderV03/LPTools/LPShared/lpdisplay.asp?LPID=42653
This is a website that has a lesson plan for teachers based on early settlers. The lesson contains information that a teacher might not normally know from his or her experience. It also includes what kinds of goals teachers should shoot for when they are on a lesson or unit based on early settlers. The site also gives a time breakdown of the lessons presented. This can help further the teacher’s knowledge of early settlers so questions that students have do not go unanswered.
http://www.glencoe.com/index.html
This website has information for secondary teachers of almost any discipline. For science teachers, it contains information on the products it sells as well as information on earth, life, and physical science, biology, chemistry, and physics. It includes links to other science websites that contain lessons, activities, information on science, audiovisual materials, software, and a list of suppliers for scientific equipment. Students will likely become more interested in science due to the interactive, educational, and exciting information on the links.
This website is great for teachers of all age groups and subject areas. It provides teachers with lessons covering many subject areas, as well as activities. A teacher can search a particular discipline and/or search for a particular grade, and then seek out the topic of interest. The site provides additional recommendations on books, media, and links to other websites. A variety of multimedia is available to download and /or show directly from the site. TeacherSource provides teachers with the option of searching for standards of which they would like to match. Also, teachers can personalize this site to meet their particular needs, such as when you log in it directly takes you to chemistry 9-12. Another feature is online professional development courses, as well as discussion boards for teachers to correspond with each other. Technology and the way it can help teachers teach are addressed on this site.
The Math Forum @ Drexel is a great site for teachers as well as for students. This site has links to all types of teacher and student resources. You can research sample problems for geometry, algebra and calculus. There is also a wide range in the level of problems. The levels start at the primary level and go beyond the college level. Students have the opportunity to work problems or find example problems with all of the mathematical steps worked out. There is also links for educators. You are able to research mathematical teaching techniques and innovations taking place in the mathematical educational field.
http://www.aaamath.com/index.html
At the AAA Math website, you can start by choosing topics by subject area or by grade level. You are able to look up numerous mathematical topics. One can either get tips about working problems or the correct manner in which to work every kind of mathematical problem. After giving the sample problems on each topic, the site offers practice problems and immediate feedback. The site also offers a link to a glossary for mathematical terms. This would be beneficial for students when they come across a word on their homework in which they are not familiar.
This site is absolutely wonderful. It has everything for teachers and students. Teachers can find thousands of lesson plans. There are also many classroom resources available. There is even a career information section inside. The site also has a link to the state standards. The site also offers free stuff. As a teacher it is always nice to get freebies. Supplemental materials like Algebra worksheets are available to download. This site also contains recreational math like puzzles and games. There are weekly brainteasers and problems of the week. It has a place for Middle School Math Workouts too. The site offers books for all ages and has a place for teaching math at home. It has a store to purchase all of these aids. This address also contains conversion charts, graphs, and calculators. The best part about this site is the section on Test Prep and Study Tips. Teachers can use this to get ready for the big test.
This is a good site for teachers to use. It has hundreds of lesson plans from kindergarten to grade 12. The lessons contained in the middle school section are excellent. There is a section on web resources that helps with algebra, geometry, and many others. This site contains interactive math tools as well. The middle school section contains an inquiry on practice lesson. It is important because it entails group work. There is a section on standards and a New Vision for School Mathematics. The best idea this site has is the problem solving and connections link. Teachers are able to help students better by using these tools. Real life problems and their solutions are encountered.
This website contains information for professional development as a social studies instructor, membership information, as well as the council’s publications. There is a section for teachers to explore a variety of teaching resources, lesson plans, the national social studies standards, and trade books for young people.
A former history teacher designed the History Lab as a way to teach students about history in an inquiry based approach. By simply choosing the grade level, and topic (American, European, World, or Ancient History), teachers can create lessons and activities based on online primary sources. The Library of Congress currently uses the History Lab as a part of its educator institutes.