The Top 101 Web Sites for Teachers

In advance of the summer Olympic games in China, the National Geographic Society has put together China’s Journey, a wonderful section about the country on their web site.

Most of the materials are also in the May issue of their magazine but online you’ll find many more photographs, including those uploaded by Geographic readers, along with interactive quizzes and maps, and links to much more information.

The writing level of the articles is at least high school so it may not be a place to send your students. However, there is a wealth of information and images for any classroom studying China, the country, the people, and culture.

Posted on April 16th, 2008
Filed In: Around the World

The numbers and types of overlays for Google Earth just keep on growing. Now they’ve merged their mapping technologies with the contents of the New York Times.

To display the layer, open Google Earth and in the Layers section in the left column, open the Gallery and click the box next to New York Times.

When you zoom in you’ll see Times icons in places where stories in recent editions of the newspaper and web site are set. Click on the icon for a summary and link back to the full story.

If you don’t see the Times layer, you may need to update your copy of Google Earth, the basic version of which is free. If you see too many icons on the map, turn them all off first by clicking on the box next to Primary Database in the Layers section.

This is just one more example of why Google Earth is fast becoming an essential tool for the classroom. And for more help with using Earth and Google Maps, take a look at this page.

Posted on April 9th, 2008
Filed In: Around the World, Information & Current Events

For those who still study dinosaurs, the National Geographic Society offers a wonderful interactive Prehistoric Time Line for you to use with your students or for them to explore on their own.

Each stop on the time line is accompanied by a short description and a picture illustrating the concepts being described. Each article also has a link to another page that offers much more information about that particular period.

While you may have some parents and students disputing the opening statement that “Humans have walked the Earth for 190,000 years, a mere blip in Earth’s 4.5-billion-year history.”, this is a great tool for clearly illustrating some huge concepts of time and history.

Posted on March 23rd, 2008
Filed In: Science & Math

The people at the Library of Congress have worked hard to provide access to materials from the public collections on their web site, especially through the wonderful American Memory.  Now they are reaching out even farther by posting more than 3000 images in flickr.

Based on a quick scan through their section, the pictures seem to be pretty high quality, most in color from the 40’s and 50’s. More importantly, the images come with fairly detailed documentation about the subjects and origins of the pictures, are extensively tagged, and have no copyright restrictions.

Hopefully, this is just the start of the Library and other public educational institutions extending access to their materials by offering them through the common gathering places on the web like flickr.

I wonder when their video collection will start showing up in YouTube.

Posted on January 17th, 2008
Filed In: Information & Current Events, US History & Government

In the more than 150 years that Scientific American has been publishing, their mission has always been to explain a wide range of topics in science and technology to the educated layman. But their material (both print and on the web) is still usually too complex and/or too long for most teachers to use in their classroom.

That’s where 60 Second Science comes in.

The site is written as a blog with frequent posts about current events and issues in science, many accompanied by professionally produced podcasts. Each entry addresses a single topic using straightforward language and, of course, taking a minute or less. You can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes or any other service that uses RSS feeds.

The reading/listening level of the materials is certainly high school but science teachers at other levels may find some features they can use to present news and information to their students.

Overall, a good site that attempts to make science understandable to all of us non scientists.

Posted on November 29th, 2007
Filed In: Science & Math

Following on the mapping theme of the previous post we have a great site that ties into both Geography Awareness Week (November 11 – 18) and Google Earth.

My Wonderful World, a project led by the National Geographic Society, offers seven days of activities to help kids learn about the people and cultures of the Asian continent. Each day on Asia: Continent of Contrasts includes one or two activities including videos, games, and five different Google Earth KML files. Download the Earth files, double-click on them and the program will open with an overlay to offer some information about Asia, complete with images, videos, and links to more information

As always, you will need to have Google Earth installed and a broadband connection to take advantage of these resources. And when you finish with Asia, don’t forget to explore more of what My Wonderful World has to offer.

Posted on November 12th, 2007
Filed In: Around the World

The World Bank has a new information web site that could be a great research tool for students studying other countries. Geo.WorldBank.org is a mashup of Google’s world map with data from the bank’s projects and other statistics. The map shows a variety of icons spread all over the world, color coded to the income level of the people, with stars indicating active projects.

Click on an icon to get an overview of the country or region. The information box for each will usually have a tab for general demographic and economic data as well as one for recent news stories. In each information box you can also create a printable report on the country using the data.

While the site also allows you to subscribe to an RSS feed of the news items, keep in mind that they come from the World Bank itself, not from a journalistic source, so there could be a bias in the reporting.

Despite that, this site is worth a look, both for the amount of information available and the ease with which it can be found.

Posted on November 6th, 2007
Filed In: Information & Current Events

You may have heard of Web 2.0 and maybe even School 2.0. Now comes Art Education 2.0, a social networking site for art educators. Think MySpace except this is for teachers who are interested in exploring new technologies in their classrooms and connecting with other educators with the same interest.

The community was created by an art teacher and is hosted by a site called Ning which allows anyone to create a free social network around any topic they choose. You will need to get a free Ning registration to fully participate. This is not a place to send your students, and social networking even with other teachers may not be your cup of tea. But if you teach art, take a peek into the future.

Posted on October 1st, 2007
Filed In: The Fine & Performing Arts

This past July an international foundation announced a list of the new 7 Wonders of the World, selected through the “first ever global election”. The complete list is on their web site, along with other information. However, also take a look at the special exhibit of full-screen QuickTime VR images at Panoramas.dk.

As the name implies, each “movie” opens at the size of your computer’s screen and allows the user to drag the image around to see a 360 view of the location. The photography is excellent, although the perspective in one or two is not perfect (see the Colosseum) due to the technology required to capture the full image in one shot, which is the only way to get a picture like this with lots of tourists around. The shot of the Taj Mahal is rather strange due to the text reference to the web site in the middle.

To view these VR images you will need to have a relatively recent version of QuickTime installed. A high speed connection will also allow the files to load quickly.

If possible, put these VR movies on the big screen in your classroom and take your students on a trip around the world. They make great discussion starters.

Posted on September 9th, 2007
Filed In: Around the World

So, how do you make science teaching exciting? The Exporatorium does that every day, both at their wonderful hands-on museum in San Francisco and on the web.

One feature of the site that illustrates this excitement is their take off on the cooking show Iron Chef called Iron Science Teacher. In the short videos, watch as two teachers from the museum’s summer teacher institutes are given a “secret ingredient” and a short period of time to cook up a science lesson which they then present to the live audience.

While the museum offers live webcasts of the program, you’ll want to check out the large archive of past contests including theme shows for various holidays and for common items from the kitchen. You’ll need to have a current version of the Real Player installed to view any of the videos, which makes it difficult to download the files for use offline.

Iron Science Teacher is a lot of fun but more importantly offers some great ideas for using in the classroom.

Posted on August 19th, 2007
Filed In: Science & Math