ESL Websites & Software

I asked my teammates if they knew of any websites or software that help ESL students as they learn to read and write. We came up with the following:

• RIF Reading Planet - Reading Is Fundamental - reading activities for kids
  
• Kidspiration - software that can help build vocabulary with picture support
• MES English - "free printables for teachers"
  
• Boardmaker - software - "symbol-based printed activities for students with special needs"
• Starfall - "where students have fun learning to read"
  

Do you have additional suggestions?

Science and Social Studies Educational Websites

Science

• BBC's Science Clips
• Monterey Bay Aquarium
• Toon University
• BBC's Bitesize Science
• Simple Machines
• Weather Maker
• The Water Cycle
• Wolfram Demonstrations Project
• Black Holes
• Electromagnetic Waves
• The Electromagnetic Spectrum
• NASA Science for Kids
• Science NetLinks
• Science Online
• Harcourt School Science
• Science With Tom
• Medical Mysteries
  

Social Studies

• Utah History Encyclopedia
• Utah.com
• County, State, & Country Reports
• The History Channel
• If You Were President
• Gilbert Stuart Making Faces
• The Underground Railroad
• Lizardpoint Geography
• Ancient Rome
• Pearson Social Studies Library
• Smithsonian's History Explorer
• National Geographic's Xpeditions
• EconEdLink
• EDSITEment
• The Kennedy Center's ARTSEDGE
  

Integrating Technology into the Curriculum

Online K-12 teacher resources:

• Canyons EMT
• UEN Core Curriculum
• UEN Student Center
  
• Thinkfinity
• Literacy Network
• Elementary Technology Lessons
  
• Miss Blunt's Engaged Classroom Blog - I frequently post ideas and links on my blog, so click on "Follow" at the bottom of the sidebar or get the RSS feed to receive notices about new posts. Also on my blog: use tags to make your search for specific topics easier, follow me on Twitter, and link to other Ed Tech and teacher blogs
  

**See also my "Reading and Math Educational Websites" post for a lesson plan outline.

County, State, & Country Reports

Several teachers have asked me to suggest online resources to help their students research for county, state, and country reports. Following are some sites I found. Please comment and share your favorite county, state, and country information resources.

Counties of Utah:

• UEN's Counties of Utah
• Pioneer Library - Pioneer has a list of Utah resources. On the Pioneer site, click on "K-12 Schools", then check out the "Utah Collection" column.
• UEN's Core Curriculum Links - UEN provides a list of helpful links for every Core standard and objective. Go to the UEN Core Curriculum page, and select the subject area you want help with. For example: Geography of Utah (SS Standard 1), Utah History (SS Standard 2), Government of Utah (SS Standard 3)
• Utah - Life Elevated (utah.travel)
• Utah.com
• Try searching the name of your county in Google. Most counties have a homepage with cultural, historical, and current information about their county.
  

The United States:

• CultureGrams - States Edition - My favorite! You can access this site through Pioneer Library. It does require a license to access. When you go to the site while on the canyonair network, you will automatically be logged in. If you need the login name and password to login at home, they are listed on the Pioneer homepage.
• Pioneer Library - Pioneer has a list of research resources -- everything from encyclopedias, to search engines, to image collections, to sound clips. On the Pioneer site, click on "K-12 Schools", then check out the "General Reference Collection" and the "Additional Library Resources".
• UEN's Core Curriculum Links - UEN provides a list of helpful links for every Core standard and objective. Go to the UEN Core Curriculum page, and select the subject area you want help with. For example: North American Colonies (SS Standard 1), American Independence (SS Standard 2), US Constitution & Bill of Rights (SS Standard 3),US Expansion (SS Standard 4), US as a World Power (SS Standard 5)
• FactFinder Kids' Corner - Fun State Facts! - from the US Census Bureau
• netstate.com
• 5th Grade State Report Websites - a list of helpful websites
  
• States Timed Test
• Sheppard Software Us Geography - states & capitals tests as well as state information
• Encyclopedia.com
• US States and Regions at ppst.com
• Infoplease Origin of State Names
• Regions of the United States
  
• Try searching the name of your state in Google. Most states have a homepage with cultural, historical, and current information about their state.
  

Countries of the World:

• CultureGrams - World Edition - My favorite! You can access this site through Pioneer Library. It does require a license to access. When you go to the site while on the canyonair network, you will automatically be logged in. If you need the login name and password to login at home, they are listed on the Pioneer homepage.
• Pioneer Library - Pioneer has a list of research resources -- everything from encyclopedias, to search engines, to image collections, to sound clips. On the Pioneer site, click on "K-12 Schools", then check out the "General Reference Collection" and the "Additional Library Resources".
• UEN's Core Curriculum Links - UEN provides a list of helpful links for every Core standard and objective. Go to the UEN Core Curriculum page, and select the subject area you want help with. For example: Ancient Civilizations (SS Standard 1), Middle Ages/Renaissance (SS Standard 2), Revolutions (SS Standard 3), Current Global Issues (SS Standard 4)
• Embassy.org - Click on the "Embassies" link at the top to get addresses to send letters to embassies of countries around the world. Many embassies will send information, recipes, and even music, books, or posters.
• Lizardpoint Geography - geography tests for various countries and continents
• CIA World Factbook
• Lonely Planet
• countryreports.org
• infoplease Countries of the World
• Encyclopedia.com
• Scholastic's Global Trek
• Try searching the name of your country in Google. Most countries have a homepage with cultural, historical, and current information about their country.
  

Vancouver 2010 Olympics

There are some really fun resources and activities on the Vancouver Olympics site, and plenty of unofficial sites with information and activities for kids. Here are a few of them. Feel free to comment and tell me your favorite Vancouver 2010 sites!

Official Site:
http://www.vancouver2010.com/

Mascot Games:
http://www.vancouver2010.com/mascot

Kids Activities:
http://www.kidsturncentral.com/links/2010olympics.htm

WritingFix

The literacy facilitator at Midvalley Elementary is an incredible resource if you need help teaching writing. She recently showed me the site writingfix.com, created by the Northern Nevada Writing Project, that contains wonderful resources, ideas, and lesson plans for teaching 6 Trait Writing. We all know the Direct Writing Assessment is rapidly approaching for 5th grade, and every teacher at every level should be teaching the 6 Traits, so I thought this site would be particularly helpful. Check it out!

Be sure to pay attention to the following great content on the site:

• Writing prompts
• Writing lessons
• The writing process
• Reviser's Toolbox
  
• 6 Traits
• Writers Workshop
• Writing across the curriculum
• Teacher books and resources
• Poetry
  
• Mentor texts
  
• E-mailed writing lesson of the month
• iPods Across the Curriculum

Other helpful sites linked to WritingFix include:

• Listen Up! Using music and lyrics to inspire meaningful writing
• Always Write
  
• Write in the Middle

Let me know what you think of the site. Are there other sites about teaching writing you've found helpful?
(Check out other online literacy resources listed on my "Reading and Math Educational Websites" blog post.)

Skyward Review

The end of the elementary grading period is rapidly approaching. Here are some reminders/updates to help you have success using Skyward Gradebook this time around:

• Print Cue - IT has added more servers and more print cues to avoid the delay in printing we had last grading period.
• Safari - Using Safari instead of Firefox has solved the problem of the rows and columns not lining up on the screen. Safari has also been loading Gradebook more quickly.
  
• Guided Reading Levels - In order for your GRL's to appear on the report card, we had to assign each level a percentage. The numbers that are now attached to the GRL's don't mean anything. They are only there so the correct levels will appear on your report cards. The percentages will not show up on the report card.
  
• Events - You must enter at least one event in each skill area you would like to have count toward the final grade. If you only enter a final grade for a skill area without any events, the subject area grade will not calculate correctly.
• Points - Grades are weighted by total points. If you want each skill area weighted equally toward the subject are grade, you must have an equal number of points in each skill area.

Visit the Canyons EMT (Educational and Media Technology) website for Skyward documentation and instructional videos. http://emt.canyonsdistrict.org

Remember to start entering your grades early! Do a test run of your report cards at least a couple of weeks ahead of time to make sure everything is showing up correctly.

Your Educational Technology Specialist will not be in your building on your February 26th EBL day due to the UCET conference. Plan ahead and get help early!
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A few more notes from Help Desk:

• The explanation of guided reading levels should be correct this term.
• “M” for modification is an option in all events, skills and subjects.
  
• You should also see an option for NA this term.
  
• 5th and 6th grade report cards should show the explanation in the number boxes at the top for the letter grades A,B,C, etc.
• If you have any trouble running reports or with blank fields again, please contact Help Desk or you Ed Tech.
  

Simple Teacher Websites

There are many options available to teachers who want to create a website for the class/classes. Here are a few options my colleagues and I have tried:

My UEN

• Free
• Utah teachers automatically have a my.uen account
• Pre-set template
• Fast, easy to use
• Simple design
• Content entered into boxes on the page
• Tabs to navigate to multiple pages
  
• Links to lessons on uen.org

Blog (I have always used Blogger, but there are many options for blogging.)

• Free
• Linked to your Google account
• Choice of templates, or create your own if you know html
• Can edit html
• Simple, one-page design
• Content entered in as posts or on side-bar
• Multi-media

Wiki (I have always used Wikispaces.)

• Free - educators can get a free account without advertisements
  
• Create as many wikis as you want with the same account
• Choice of templates, or create your own if you know html
• Can edit html
• Multiple-page design
• Content entered onto separate pages that can be linked
• Navigation bar on each page
• Multi-media
• Upload documents
• Formatting of text can be a little challenging at first
  

iWeb

• Pay through MobileMe account
• Limited amount of space
• Design your own layout
• Similar interface to other iLife applications
• Multiple-page design
• Content entered like a Pages document - your choice of design/layout
• Multi-media
• Quickly draws on items in iPhoto and other iLife applications
• Upload documents

Google Sites
Google Sites is fairly new, so I haven't actually tried it yet. I have seen it, though, and it looks simple and really great. If you have used Google Sites, please comment and let me know what you think.

Dropbox
I have had several colleagues recently tell me that Dropbox can make a nice, simple website too. Comment if you know more about it!

What have I missed? What are the pros and cons of each of these tools? Are there other ways you are creating quick and easy-to-manage teachers websites? Please comment.

I have decided that each of these tools are useful in their own way. If a teacher is looking for something that is quick and easy, I recomment my.uen. I have loved using a blog to have students contribute with their own posts, pictures, links, and movies. But, my favorite for classroom management has been a wiki. I like that I can have several pages, each for a specific purpose (information about me, parents, homework, students work, calendars, content areas, etc.), and I love that I can upload documents (worksheets, permission slips, donation lists, assignment outlines, class rules, etc.).

Here are examples of my teacher websites:
My UEN: http://my.uen.org/myuen/77889
Blog: http://bluntsixth.blogspot.com/
Wiki: http://bluntclassroom.wikispaces.com/

Learn to Use the Mouse

Activities to help kindergarten students improve their mouse skills:
Starry Night
Catch the Apples
The Three Monkeys
Fish World
Interactive Paper Dolls
Drag and Drop Matching Game
Feeding Frenzy
Click and Drag Animals

New NetSafe Videos

UEN has new free online videos and public service announcements available to watch and download to help teach kids safe Internet use. Check it out:

http://www.netsafeutah.org/index.php

Also available on Nut Intuit:

http://www.nutintuit.com/Default/