Professional+Resource+Sharing+Page+Jan+2009

Please upload your professional resource that you shared with the class (prior to the class you will present). Feel free to upload a link so that we can "see" it!

Day 1 - Nadine Mathu [|http://freerice.com] This is a not-for-profit site designed to help users test and enhance their vocabulary and other academic skills while providing humanitarian aid to underdeveloped countries. Questions adjust according to students' correct or incorrect responses in order to provide increasingly challenging levels. Sponsors donate rice/foodstuffs to the needy in developing countries through the UN World Food Program for correct responses. One caution: it is addicting!

Day 1 - Nikki Nelson This web site helps you find out the literacy levels of books for your classroom and find out books based on literacy levels you are interested in. You are also able to purchase materials from this site. E-Books, ability to search for accelerated reader quizzes, and lists of books that support specific state and national curriculums is also avaliable.**
 * [|http://www.titlewave.com**]

Day 3 (Wednesday)-Amie Heinzelman [|www.mypyramid.gov] This is an active website that allows users to explore the benefits or eating healthy and exercising. Included in the website are my pyramid menu planners and daily tracker to help people maintain weight or move to a healthier weight. This allows individuals to keep track of how many calories they consume in one day and the calories expended during exercise. Also available are nutrition podcasts, food pyramid facts, healthy tips, and resources for preschoolers, children, and expecting mothers.

Lindsey Cordes http://www.learningplanet.com/stu/kids0.asp This website can be used for students in grades K-6. It can help learn different subjects through fun activities online. It helps teach subjects like their ABCs, numbers, shapes, colors, grammar, telling time, mathematics, and geography. You can choose the grade you are in, what game you would like to play, and what subject you want to learn.

Day 3 - Chelsea Ruff http://teachingtreasures.com.au/index.html This website has resources that can be used for multiple subject areas. You can access worksheets and interactive activities in areas that include English, Math, Science, Art, and Knowledge. These worksheets and activities are classified into sections based on age rather than grade and there are worksheets and activities available for students ages 5 - 11 and up. One nice thing about the activities/games featured on this site is that once a student fills in the charts/graphs featured in the activities section they can check their answers and see which questions they answered correctly and which they answered incorrectly. The interactive activities available on this website would be a valuable supplement to a classroom lesson.

Day 3 - Pam Benedon http://www.kdp.org/ This website is an excellent resource for teachers and future teachers. You can find literally hundreds of ideas for lesson plans, classroom activities, worksheets, and many other creative ideas for in your classroom. Once you have become a teacher this website can give you information on the nearest teacher conventions to you or which are relevent to your subject matter. In addition, there is a discussion board in which you can write posts and discuss issues with other teachers in your field. You can also buy resources for your classroom on this website. You will find everything from posters for the classroom walls to books. As an extension, there is a wide variety of external links to lead you to even more resources off of the KDP website.

Day 3 - Nick McFadden [|www.eduhound.com] This website is a collection of resources on a variety of subjects. It has information about topics such as civics, editing, Mexico, US, states, and voting to name a very few. My favorite part of the website is that you can find a lot of lesson plans for a lot of different different subjects (and not all of them are under the section for lesson plans). I clicked on Health P.E. under the "browse by eduhound categories" and it took me to a long list of lesson plans submitted by other teachers, and i've only just begun to explore it.

Day 4- Ben Lancour http://www.pecentral.org/ This is website has many resources for the aspiring gym teacher, students and even parents as well. The goal is to provide the latest information about developmentally appropriate physical education programs for children and youth. For teachers there are lesson ideas for every game that you can think of. For children there are many ideas to battle the increasing obesity rate and includes different exercise programs. (Log it- a pedometer logging program)

Day 4 - Dave Riley http://www.teach-nology.com/ This website has a ton of useful information for any teacher. There is a little of everything for everyone, including a glossary of education terms, worksheets, and themes for lessons. There is also a message board where people interesting in education can join in discussions with one another on all sorts of topics. In addition to all of this, under tools there is a great section with free educational games that are both informative and fun. Just try alphabet jungle, it's a blast.

Day 4 - Val Yost http://abcteach.com/ This website contains myriad resources for teachers of any subject. There are multiple useful tools and activities that can be used in many settings will all different types of students. There are even templates available to create word searches, crosswords, and Sudoku puzzles just to mention a few. There is also clipart available to create exciting visual tools for the classroom. The only downside is that some of the website's features requires a membership that costs around $4.00 a month... Many activities however are available for free and should definitely be checked out!

Day 4--Trina Hopfensperger http://www.kidsknowit.com/ This is a free online database website that is mainly directed towards student use. The title of the page begins with a bit of a self-esteem booster being called "The KidsKnowIt Network: The Totally Free Children's Learning Network", in which children may choose from a vast array of topics including but not limited to Animals, Astronomy, Chemistry, History, Geology, Spelling, Memory and much more. Then they may narrow down their search to the most specific (for example, animals => butterflies => artic skipper) and then learn about that subject through in-depth descriptions and valuable images. There are also numerous categories of educational games for children of all ages to partake in including Dinosaur, Geography, Biology, Math and many more games. Another smart touch I felt was adding the "Funnies" section which has educational comics to amuse students. One last little application of this page is the free educational music and movie downloads which can very easily be integrated into lesson plans to add as scaffolding for student learning. The page itself seems rather well-organized with high-graphics to catch an individual's attention and allows a student to self-direct their learning, which can be a very empowering tool for young learners. There are also many games that can help students to learn while still having fun. I enjoyed navigating throughout the page, feeling that it was very user-friendly and inviting to individuals of all makes and sizes. I understand that this is getting to be a bit long-winded, however, I just wanted to finish with a quote from the home-page of The KidsKnowIt website providing their motto: " Making education fun and free. Free educational Websites For the young, and the young at heart."

Day 4--David Fitzpatrick [|www.nobelprize.org/educational_games] There’s nothing like learning from the best. [|Nobelprize.org’s] educational games section is all based on recent developments in the various facets of the Nobel Prize. The content matter is more topical then its ‘FREE EDUCATION GAME’ counterparts and the games maintain a wonderful balance of gaming and intellectual merit. The games are fun, look great, and familiarize students with what the greatest thinkers in the world have come up with. It seems geared for middle school students (grades 6-8).

Day 4--Sarah Nelsen [|www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/ce] This website caught my attention in that it offers activities that have to with many different aspects of education and incorporates all subjects. This website offers ideas, lesson plans, and activities for any level that promote such things as self esteem, collaboration, creativity, etc. Many of the activities incorporate more than one subject within its parameters and give ideas for further discussion after the activity. I especially like that writing and reading activities are created for subjects other than English/Language Arts (even though that's my major). I think this website is worth knowing about.

Day 7 - Jessie Scheer http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/ This Website has lots of things to help out a begining teacher and expereinced teachers looking for new ideas. There are lessons, tips, different themes, a place to discuss ideas and lots of pritables to use in the classroom. There are numerous things to help out every teacher from special education to health to the arts, no teacher is left out. This website also is not grade specific there are resources for preschool all the way up to 12th grade as well as topics that are not school subjects such as family involvment and learning centers. Another great thing is that it is all free!!!!

Derek Malcore [|http://www.readwritethink.org/index.asp]

This is a literacy based website which offers teachers of all content areas lessons and ideas for involving and teaching reading and writing in any class. The lesson plans are very detailed and helpful making them great for new teachers or teachers trying to implement new literacy learning lessons. There is also a great section for students which offers tons of really fun and useful plug-ins which can be downloaded for free. Some of them were learning games while others were creative activities for students to participate in. I really thought that there "Book Cover Creator" was an awesome idea for bringing in a creative and artsy activity you could use after having the students complete a short story.  Pierce Geffers [|www.edhelper.com]  This is an educational website that provides teachers ideas and resources to use in their classroom. It provides material for reading and writing, math, Prek-3, critical thinking, social studies, language arts, special ed., foreign language, science, art and high school. It is used for grades Prek-12, but most of the activities pertain to elementary and middle school. There are planned activities and ideas for teachers to implement into their own lessons.

Traci Behnke http://schoolexpress.com/index.php

This site is great for students and teachers. You can play games, take quizzes, download free worksheets and eworkbooks, and much more. The site focuses on almost all content areas, and even if your content area isn't there, you will most likely find something useful for your students. I really enjoyed the daily news quiz, because it would be a great way to keep your students updated on what is going on in the world. There is a member log in but you do not need to be a member to do most of the things. It is a great way for students to learn and for teachers to interact in different ways with their students.

Tim Czajka http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/ This is an educational website through national geographic which is geared for kids. It gives kids acess to quizes, videos, challenges and a whole bunch of other stuff that is interactive and will teach them about a wide range of topics to help expand their knowledge of the world. I personally enjoy the mystery word scramble because it quizes general knowledge and spelling at the same time.

Day 9- Spencer Schulz http://www.teacherplanet.com/calendar/12-WINTER-08.htm

This site is a great resource for teachers. It has every thing from themed unit ideas to work sheets to jokes for teachers. There is an awesome part of the website called teacher tools. It has miscellaneous links to everything a teacher could ever need. It has games for students to play, reference tools, rubrics, and even stock advice. This site is a teachers dream. It has a wide range of tools for teachers from all disciplines.

Arthur Long http://www.gradebook.org/ This site is a great teacher for all teachers and all subjects. There are many great links: some for all grade levels (College, Secondary, and Primary), and for all departments and subjects. The site have resources for teachers, parents, and students as well as worksheets, and lesson plans for all content areas that are included within a school's districts curriculum and what I like it includes physical education. Also there are some games within the fun room.

Maggie King http://www.gamequarium.com/ This site is a great interactive tool for teachers and kids. There are links to games, movies, teacher help, and many others in different subjects. It is primarily used for pre-school thru fifth grade with lots of activities for alot of different ideas. It also has free ebooks that range in subjects. This site has alot of fun and is a great tool for many teachers.

Day 9 – Zach Johnson http://www.softschools.com/ //Softschools.com// is a resource made available to educators teaching grades PK-7. Students can also benefit from this interactive website. For teachers, //Softschools.com// offers worksheets, puzzles, quizzes, and games for multiple content areas. Students can get involved by playing different games that challenge their minds. Math, science, social studies, Spanish, and French are all included on this website.

Sarah Kichefski [|www.teenink.com] This website gives students a chance to get their stories, poetry, or other literary pieces published. Teen Ink is not only online, but there is a printed magazine that is available free of charge at the Oshkosh Public Library. Literature and Art are the main focuses for this website/magazine. This website also includes interviews with celebrities, information about colleges, summer programs for teens, and blogs. This website also offers contest for literature written by teens. Lastly, there is a section for teachers to subscribe to Teen Ink magazine and get it in print every month, teacher advisory board, and teacher resources (lessons, etc.).

Abby Lewitzke [|www.pbs.org/go] I really liked this site. It isn’t very content specific but it does allow students to participate in a wide variety of activities. There are tons of games on it that range from environmental cleanup games to advertising. This site also has more art focused areas like coloring pages and it even has spots where you can sing along with the characters from some of the shows. The whole site is from PBS so we know that the facts are reliable and the site will be safe for kids to use.

Kevin Murphy [|www.funbrain.com] I thought this website had a lot to offer young children while trying to learn subjects such as math, geography, english, and music. This website has many differnt games for children to play and is very educational. This website also has a section that helps kids work on their reading by picking out verbs, nouns and ajectives to create their own story. The website is nice because it is very easy to find games in your content area. The site has a section for teachers that is one click away from finding material for your area.

Ben Herland (Day 9) [|Fun School Kaboose] This website has alot of fun interactive games that students can learn from. Many of the games involve memory and most games involve a deeper message than what the game is itself. For example there is a very elementary game that involves picking up litter in a park, this overlying message is for earth day. The site includes math games, language games, science games, geography and history games, sports games, arts games, and music games. I really liked this website because it covers a vast array of subject matter and the games are very in skill level.

Christina Mann [|www.education-world.com] This is a website for teachers. It offers lesson plans for most content areas. What I liked about these lessons plans was that they had ideas to incorporate other subject areas into the lesson plans. It also offers learning games for most subject areas. It also offers printable templates ranging from awards, to bulletin boards, to calendars, to goal setting sheets, to holiday worksheets and many more. It offers webquests in many different subject areas as well. Another great feature is the professional development "tab". This offers vitrual workshops on different subjects, ways to achieve better classroom management, and it also address parent teach relationships to name a few. Another unique aspect is the five minute fillers link. It offers many fillers relating to many subjects for the days where you have an extra five minutes to spend. This website is any teachers best friend!!

Mike Schmitt http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/home.jsp The Scholastic website is a great site for promoting literacy and teaching kids about current events. It is fairly interactive, with movies and games available. The teachers' section has lots of lesson plans and general tips for new teachers. There is also a discussion area for new teachers to get advice from other teachers. In the students' section, the Write & Publish department seemed very useful for students of all ages. The writing tips cover a variety of different styles (fiction, news writing, book reviews), and are a good example of different literacies for different subjects.

Mathew Lawniczak http://www.internet4classrooms.com/teacher.htm This site isn’t the site you want to go to if you want crazy graphics or cool games. This is a site you want to go to as a teacher if you have a question. This site covers every area and seems like it can give an answer to any question in education. I wanted to find a site that could help the new teachers. I found this one, and I would really recommend this site to any teacher out there. It offers lesson plans and worksheets / graphic organizers as well. One thing I really liked was for PE majors, it has a great section that offers up to date rules to new and old games. Its just a great resource page. Amanda Huck [|learn4good]

This website looks at a variety of different content areas, including: art, music, math, science, languages, and sports. It contains games for children to play, as well as activities for teachers to use in the classroom that are free to print and download. It also gives a list of a variety of recommended books for all ages from the preschool level to high school to children with special needs. There is also a forum for disussions for teachers and parents on the site.

Kevin Maher http://www.senteacher.org/

This website offers lots of free resources for teaching students with special needs. Under the links tab, teachers can read a brief description of nearly every condition your students may have. It describes characteristics of each of the many conditions. Also helpful are the printable resources for a variety of topics from telling time to mathematics. The behavior chart would be especially useful for any teacher with students with special needs in their classroom. The Free Downloads page has many interactive games geared towards special needs students. I think this resource is great for a Special Ed or Adapted PE teacher. It is also useful for Regular Ed teachers because nearly every classroom will have one or a handful of students with special needs.

Chris Mayer http://www.eduref.org/

This is a really handy website for teachers, new or experienced. I chose this website because it has lesson plans and information for a wide variety of subjects and topics related to resource supported educational websites. It was created by the Information Institute of Syracuse. It has a highly specified way of searching through topics for information or links, as well as many carefully categorized lesson plans. It also has an AskERIC search engine for educational materials not directly on the website.

Danielle Schneider http://discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm This website is useful for both teachers and students. It provides classroom and home resources. In the classroom resources it provides lesson plans thats teachers can use for all different grades and subjects. It also provides resouces for new teachers such as information on technology they can use in their classroom and classroom management. There is also a section called fun tools where students can do intereactive activities in many different subject areas. Under home resources there are a number of different videos students can choose from to learn about every different subject area in school.