Wow! What a tremendous amount of resources for me to use in the classroom. The two that stood out the most for me to use in the classroom are the ReadWriteThink website. I thought that this website was very helpful in the fact that it helps teach poetry. Not only does the website offer important information about different types of poems, but it also guides students to using the site to create such poems. I actually was so excited about what I explored through this website that I just had to try it in my classroom! I had my students create a simple acrostic poem about winter. They didn't need much pre-teaching, before they were introduced to the website and the poem template. The template walks the students through the whole process of creating such a poem. When I looked through the site, it also highlights fractured fairytales, and walks the students through the process of creating a fractured fairytale as well. My students were so excited about creating just the acrostic poetry, that I figure I could use this webiste as an option for students to explore during independent time during reading centers after they finish their classroom work!
Another site in which I was very impressed with was the Oracle Thinkquest Competition. In my district, science is co-taught, so I teach it 1 time a week with another teacher. She does most of the teaching and I serve as her aide in the classroom. After exploring this site, I was able to gather information on the water cycle, which is a unit that we are discussing in science right now. Up popped not only information about the water cycle and the different parts of the cycle, but I was given lots and lots of diagrams, definitions for the water cycle terms. In addition, I was able to find an activity, where the students could create their very own water cycle, and wow, what a great way to teach the water cycle. I strongly believe in the hands on approaches to learning, and I feel that this could help my students demonstrate their understanding of the water cycle so well! Also, this site offered me many different types of quizzes and activities for me to implement into my teaching of the water cycle. Different crosswords, word finds, different links to different cycles, and other interactive approaches to learning were great resources for me to get familiar with. I actually brought them to my co-worker's attention and we decided to use the quizzes to help the students become more confident in their knowledge of the water cycle!
Glad you found valuable resources by exploring the links to the free resources. Return to the link when you have time to find additional resources You now have at least three web tools to integrate into your teaching including the Storybird one. Good luck with using these tools, and post more once you implement the tools and can report further on student response and learning Be thinking about how the technology allows us to accomplish what otherwise might not be doable and in ways that promote hands-on, engaged learning.
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