World's Largest Rube Goldberg Machine

I know I said I was not posting until the New Year but I saw this World's Largest Rube Goldberg Machine Lights a Christmas Tree and I just had to share.  If you are teaching science here you go.

Prepfactory

Do you or your students need help prepping for the ACT, SAT or  Middle School English, Math or Reading.  Prepfactory has organized videos for reviews and then tests.  Give it a  try by clicking here.
This will be the last post until January 9th 2017.  Have a great winter break.

Day Drawing Challenge

This might be good for your art class to do over the winter holiday.

Indie Writer's Deathmatch

I usually don't post two posts in one day but I just saw this contest and there is only one week left so I will post a second post today.  If your students write short stories you might want to have your best submit by clicking here.

Build a Wall

In June of 2015 to be president-elect Donald Trump said the following:

Well if you are teaching Geography or Current Issues, there are many walls being built.  Check out this short video.

Stephen King's Tips on Writing

You can visit Stephen King's website by clicking here.  Here is an infographic from him.

Periodic Table Game

I have posted several different periodic table posts.  Just type in "periodic table" in  the search box in the top left of my page and you find many of them.  Today's is a game which might be great as a review.  Try it out by clicking here.

Grosvenor Teacher Fellow Program

From Richard Byrne, The Grosvenor Teacher Fellow Program is now taking applications from US and Canadian teachers interested in field work expeditions to places around the globe.  The entry deadline is the end of this month.  To see the entry information click here.

Wages and Me

If you are teaching a course in Careers, Personal Finance or Mathematics this lesson might be for you.  The Wages and Me lesson click here.  One of the links in this lesson points to the US Department of Labor Occupational  Employment Statistics.  You can see that page by clicking here.

Teaching History

This website is authored by Jonathan Burack.  Material is arranged under the three categories of: Teaching Materials, History Content and Best Practices.  To see the website click here.

Literature Map

If you have a hard time finding books for your students to read, this site might help.  Type in the name of an author that they like and it will produce a map of similar authors.  To see the site click here.  Below is one produced for the author Steve Berry.

Trigonometric Functions using real world examples

Kathy Stevens from Calgary Alberta had her students involved in a series of labs that highlighted trigonometric functions.  If you are teaching a course that deals with drawing sinusoidal curves this might be a good watch.  Just click on the Watch on Vimeo button below.

Credo

Want a new place for your students to start a research project?  Well Credo might be the place.  It is a search engine of encyclopedia entries.  When you click on a result it gives you a summary of the article in the encyclopedia, a list of related terms and copy and paste citation in MLA, APA, Chicago and Harvard format.  Check it out by clicking here.

Silhouette collage art

The following Silhouette collage art lesson is from Christine Theodore.  The students used flashlights to trace each others silhouette then covered them with magazine clippings with words that described themselves.  I think this could work with Tagul as a word cloud after the silhouette image has been placed in Tagul.

100 Leaders in World History

If you are teaching or having your students do a project on world leaders then this site might be for you.  To see it click here.

QC French

Here is a link to QCFrench.  They have French lessons and worksheets.  The worksheets might be used as a review.  To see the site click here.

Interactive Periodic Table with Videos from Ted-Ed

As usual Ted-Ed has great videos for you and your class.  Here is something a little different.  The Periodic Table they supply is interactive such that if you click on an element you get a Ted-Ed video of the element.  To see the website click here.

Purpose Games

If you want to review for a test this might be a place to look.  If you need to practice naming parts of the skeleton or practice your algebra try this site.  To see the site click here.  To see an algebra game click here.  To see a label a skeleton game click here.  To see a plant cell game click here.  Make sure to use the search box to look for previously made games or make your own.

Compound Interest Calculator

If you are teaching compound interest in your Economics, Personal Finance or Math class, this compound interest calculator allows you to adjust the starting age, the interest rate and monthly savings amount.  It then slowly draws a graph of your savings and shows how much is principal and how much is interest.  To see the calculator click here.

National Geographic MapMaker

If you need a map making tool, you might want to try MapMaker by National Geographic.  To see the website  click here.  You might need a tutorial on how to use this in your classroom.  To see some tutorials click here.  There are new interactive  tools on MapMaker since these tutorials were made.  Namely, Country Facts and Flags, Latitude and Longitude, Custom text, photos and videos.

Spanish 411

A couple of weeks ago I posted about Spanish4Teachers.  To see that post click here.  Today I found this site that has Spanish Lessons, Vocabulary, Verb Conjugator, Practiqemos and Resources.  Easch Lesson has tabs that are  Full Lesson, At a glance, Presentation and Infographic.  The Presentation tab opens up to a slide show.  A sample of the Infographic is shown below.  To see the site click here.

Systems of Equations Bingo

If you teach systems of equations algebraically and need a nice review exercise you can use this Bingo activity.  To see the Bingo activity click here. 

SafeShare.Tv

Safeshare will remove all Youtube ads and suggested videos which might not be appropriate for your students.  Just put the Youtube or Vimeo URL into the box and click the Generate Safeview button.  Your video will now show up on a SafeShare page that will ask you if you want to put a description of the video.  That is up to you.  Maybe you might want to put some questions there.  Hit the submit button.  You can now copy the new URL code at the bottom and use that to show the video to your class.    To see  what an old Youtube video of my son looks like on SafeShare click here.

50 Reasons to Exercise

This might be right for your Physical Education class.

Modifying Primary Sources

Is it okay to modify primary sources that your students use?  You might want to read this article by Wineburg and Martin, Tampering with History: Adapting Primary Sources for Struggling Readers.  To read this article, click here.

Current Events Writing Prompts

The New York Times has been generating writing prompts for years.  Topics included are: Technology, Internet & Social Media, Technology in Schools, Sports and Athletics and much more.  To see the prompts click here and here.

Chem Collective

This website is a collection of virtual labs, tutorials and activities.  Topics include: Stoichiometry, Thermochemistry, Kinetics, Equilibruim, Acid-based Chemistry, Solubility, Oxidation/Reduction and Electrochemistry, Analytic Chemistry/Lab Techniques, Physical Chemistry and Properties of Solutions.  To see the website click here.

A Lesson in Leadership

Even if you are not a football fan you might want to read this article about how you handle mistakes and failures, be it yours or members of your team/business/organization.  To see this short article, click here.

Soundation

Soundation is a free service that is similar to Apple's Garage Band.  According to their website "Soundation is a powerful online music studio with professional features like recording, effects, virtual  instruments and over 700 free loops and sounds."  To see the website click here.

Oil Pipeline through British Columbia

If you are teaching Current Events or Geography in Canada, the National Geographic Society has some lessons and activities on the proposed oil pipeline through British Columbia.  To see the lessons click here.

Spanish4Teachers

I just noticed this website that includes many different items from a pull down list at the top.  Items include  lesson plans,  power points, worksheets, culture, readings, vocab, grammar, etc that you could use in your Spanish Language class.  Check it out by clicking here.  

Magic Gopher

I saw that Richard Byrne posted about this website.  The Magic Gopher is site that asks you to pick a two digit number and then subtract the sum of the two digits from the original number.  The gopher then asks you to look up the symbol associated with the result and voila the little one  guesses your answer.  The key is that a two digit number say "ab" is mathematical really 10a+b and if you subtract the sum of the original digits you are doing 10a + b - (a + b) = 9a.  If you notice all multiples of 9 on his list have the same symbol.  This could be used as an introductory to algebra by asking your students how the gopher does it or if you are teaching the distributive property.  To see the website click here.

53 Ways to Check Understanding

Here is a link to a bunch of assessment strategies.  Thanks Martha M.  To see them click here.

High School Financial Planning Program

Last week I posted about Dollar$ and Sense from H & R Block.  It was a teen financial literacy document.  Here is another similar item.  From their site, "HSFPP offers free instructional resources to teach teens in an instructor led classroom".  Materials included are: six student guide books, teacher lesson plans and powerpoints, activities, handouts and performance based assessment and online practice quizzes.  To see the site click here.