Saturday, July 26, 2008

Highlights for this month!

In an effort to support my classroom teachers I am going to publish a monthly collection of the newest classroom resources.

My first for elementary students is a site created by two retired teachers I met at NECC. I will be interviewing them soon and will like the podcast here. They designed the site as a place for students with reading levels from 2nd to 4th grade to research animals, presidents, geography and they are constantly adding to their site. We purchased a subscription from them for our elementary school. It was less than 100.00 for the whole school for the school year. This is such a bargin. You can get more information by going here http://www.facts4me.com . I hope you enjoy their site as much as I do. Be sure you bookmark their site when you get there.

This is for anyone looking for primary source documents from American History. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is making primary documents available from all eras available FREE of charge. There are podcasts from historians, lessons plans , and a searchable database of more than 60,000 primary-source documents and transcripts for classroom use and online exhibitions. Also you will want to check out their related site, History Now. If you have never used primary source documents with your students make this year the year you try it out.

This is for anyone looking to engage and motivate their students with lessons and digital resources used by other teachers in your subject or grade level. You can search Nortel Learnit, and Curriki for great ideas and lessons. You can also pay it forward and send in your own lesson ideas for others to use. Check out and register for this site, Nortel Learnit. I love this statement on their lesson plan page, " The 6E's lesson plan format was developed by teachers in consultation with faculty from schools of education in North America and is based on a constructivist model of teaching.
The model we have developed is called the 6ES Model of Instruction (6 E's and an S--Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate, Extend, and Standards)." from the Nortel Learnit , learn about their lessons.
I loved their lesson, Getting Along for early elementary, with a clear social studies theme.
Then this one for grades 7-12 Our troubled world, global issues.
Just by checking out this website your first month of school would be planned!

Come back next month for some more goodies.
Over and out!

2 comments:

Pamela Joy Taylor said...

I have spent about an hour on your site and it is very informative and helpful. Thank you for all the good ideas. I have taken notes and bookmarked and am planning to incorporate them into my plans for the coming year.

I am a district librarian with 2 libraries and time is---well, impossible. But I am trying to plan ahead and you are helping! Thanks!

Cheryloakes50 said...

Pamela,
Thanks for your comment. Just start with one thing. And if I could recommend one place to start, check out Joyce Valenza's library page. She is a librarian and has a great deal of ideas. But, just start with ONE, then build. http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1340000334.html

Cheryl