Brain Honey for Teachers

BrainHoney | Learning To Share | Benefits

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BrainHoney

Track Grades & Manage State Standards Daily
State standards are required, so why not utilize a teaching, learning, and grading system designed around them?

Easily build a scope and sequence in minutes with BrainHoney by dragging and dropping pre-selected state standards onto a schedule. Share it with your colleagues. Then use the same system to track student progress by grades or objective mastery or both.

Teacher News

Alltop - Top Education News

All the top Education news.

Learning Blog

2009 June 24 | Upside Learning Blog

Top 100 Learning Game Resources
Abhijit Kadle | June 24th, 2009 | Game Based Learning, Learning Technology
5

Do You Need Games In Your Elearning Mix?When writing the whitepaper about Casual games, I did a fair bit of research and looked at several hundred web links. While doing so, I documented a few of the better ones. I’d been mulling posting these to the blog. So here they are - a Top 100 Learning Game Resource list. If you are already developing learning games, these links will broaden your horizons, as they did mine. If you are contemplating beginning – it might help to look at links that interest you to get some grounding ideas.

Links for New Teachers

100 Helpful Websites for New Teachers | Teaching Degree.org

You’ve been preparing for teaching for years, and now you finally get your chance to have a class of your own. With so much to learn as you get started, it can be overwhelming keeping it all straight. The following websites are loaded with helpful information that new teachers will appreciate.

Sites Just for New Teachers

Free Technology for Teachers

Free Technology for Teachers: 30+ Alternatives to YouTube

Over the last year I've done a few posts about alternatives to YouTube. This post consolidates all of those resources into one list. If you have a suggestion that should be added to this list, please leave a comment...

Learning Beyond the Classroom

ReadWriteThink: Summer Activities - Learning Beyond the Classroom
  ReadWriteThink, established in April of 2002, is a partnership between the International Reading Association (IRA), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and the Verizon Foundation.

NCTE and IRA are working together to provide educators and students with access to the highest quality practices and resources in reading and language arts instruction through free, Internet-based content.

Yenka.com

Yenka is a new generation of educational modelling software from Crocodile Clips, which lets you simulate concepts and create content easily. (More...)

Teachable Moment

Teachable Moment -

The postwar situation in Iraq is the subject of much debate. Decisions being made now will have significant consequences for Iraq, for the Middle East, for U.S. relations with other countries, for the United Nations, and for President Bush's reelection campaign.

The two readings below offer a summary of recent developments in Iraq, Bush administration policies, and domestic and international reactions to them. Following the reading are suggestions for classroom activities. Because this issue is intensely controversial, teachers may find useful "Teaching on Controversial Issues," which is available on this website, as well as other recent sets of lessons on Iraq, especially "A Democratic Iraq?" and "Rebuilding Iraq: Problems and Questions."

Babies Understand Numbers as Abstract Concepts

Babies understand numbers as abstract concepts - life - 08 June 2009 - New Scientist

Our ability to think of numbers as abstract concepts is probably innate and even babies barely a few hours old seem to have the ability, researchers say.

Abstract numerical thought is the ability to perceive numbers as entities, independently of specific things. It can be demonstrated by the humans capacity to link a certain number of objects to the same number of sounds, irrespective of what the specific sounds or objects are. But whether this ability is innate or learned through culture or language wasn't known.

Making Teachers Nerdy

Making Teachers Nerdy

Do you have students who take family vacations or have special opportunities to travel during the school year? What sort of assignments do you require them to do while away? Do they journal their adventures and gather brochures to report back to the class? If so, you’ll be very interested to read how today’s guest writer, Mary Rizzo, a Technology Assistant and Webmaster at Parsley Elementary in Wilmington, North Carolina shares with you her travel buddy project ideas. I was thrilled she contacted me and I hope you’re inspired about this twist to the travel buddy project. Thanks Mary for sharing your story at Making Teachers Nerdy. Hopefully, many schools will be inspired to duplicate the idea and start their own traveling mascot program.

Teacher's Domain -- Media Resources

Teacher's Domain

Free Online Media Resources
The Teachers’ Domain online library offers more than 1,000 free media resources from the best in public television. These classroom resources, featuring media from NOVA, Frontline, Design Squad, American Experience, and other public broadcasting and content partners are easy to use and correlate to New Hampshire and national standards.

Technology for Teachers and Students

20+ Must-Read Education Technology Blogs for Teachers, Students, and e-Learners | Online Schools and Degree Programs

Over the past decade the information technology revolution has drastically changed education. Never before has so much information been available, with new technologies popping up daily to help us make sense of it. The dedicated bloggers featured in this post are your best bet for keeping up with the cutting edge of e-learning.

Best Universities Lectures

100 Free Online Lectures that Will Make You a Better Teacher | Best Universities

Great teachers know that learning doesn’t stop as soon as you graduate from college. Teachers learn from their experience, from their colleagues, from their students, and any number of other resources. If you are a teacher looking for ways to expand your knowledge base, here are 100 free lectures you can watch to help facilitate some of that learning

Excellent Suggestions for Educational Purposes

HELP! Educational Blog

# Should the Government be Paying Students for Good Grades?
# 5 “Warning Signs” of a Gifted Child
# The 32 Most Commonly Misused Words and Phrases
# 13 Mental Fitness Exercises to Keep You Sharp
# How to Manage Your Testing Anxiety

Ideas that Inspire

Ideas to Inspire

'Ideas to Inspire' is a collection of collaborative presentations, which offer a large number of ideas for engaging lesson activities. They are the result of the collaboration of teachers from all around the world.

100 Twitter Apps

100 Tips, Apps, and Resources for Teachers on Twitter | Online College Degree

Twitter can be at first glance a strange phenomenon and many don’t understand its purpose right away. However, Twitter is a powerful tool that is growing in popularity as word spreads of its potential capabilities. The idea of writing small blog posts of 140 characters or less to a group of your followers is actually a revolutionary new way to bring communities together, learn from each other, and keep updated with all that is happening. Busy teachers may feel that taking the time to learn how to use Twitter isn’t worth the return for the students benefit, so that’s why this list of 100 tips, apps, and resources is worth browsing. Find out how to get started with Twitter, ways to use it in an educational setting, and tools to help you use it better with these resources below.

LEARN TWITTER FOR EDUCATORS

Twitter for Teachers: Home - Twitter for Teachers

How would you like to co-author an e-book to teach educators about Twitter?
For information on how you can participate in this project, visit the How to Contribute page.

This e-book is intended for use by teachers from primary, elementary, secondary and post-secondary schools. The contents of the book are made available under an attribution, non-commercial, share-alike Creative Commons license. Any and all contributions to this resource are deemed to be done on a voluntary basis. Edits to this resource may be edited, deleted or otherwise modified by the moderators of the site.

Google Power Searching Tips

Google Power Searching Tips for Students and Universities

Google is the go-to search engine for both students and librarians. But with so much information on the web, it can be difficult to navigate Google and find exactly what you are looking for. The following Google power searching tips are designed to eliminate this common difficulty and lead you to the relevant information you need.

Teachers First

TeachersFirst: The web resource by teachers, for teachers

TeachersFirst is a rich collection of lessons, units, and web resources designed to save teachers time by delivering just what they need in a practical, user-friendly, and ad-free format. We offer our own professional and classroom-ready content along with thousands of reviewed web resources, including practical ideas for classroom use and safe classroom use of Web 2.0. Busy teachers, parents, and students can find resources using our subject/grade level search, keyword search, or extensive menus.

Tools for Educators

Tools for Educators - free worksheet makers, game creators, 100% customizable worksheet generators with images!

FREE worksheets, worksheet creators, printables wizard and on-line teaching materials makers with images
from Tools for Educators.com . Use these
printout generators, game makers, and programs for teachers
to make and print
teaching resources with pictures
or
text
. They are simple, but beautiful, versatile and powerful. I hope your students (and you) enjoy the resources.

Jigsaw Classroom

The Jigsaw Classroom: A Cooperative Learning Technique

Welcome to the official web site of the
jigsaw classroom, a cooperative learning technique that reduces racial conflict among school children, promotes better learning, improves student motivation, and increases enjoyment of the learning experience. The jigsaw technique was first developed in the early 1970s by Elliot Aronson and his students at the University of Texas and the University of California. Since then, hundreds of schools have used the jigsaw classroom with great success. The jigsaw approach is considered to be a particularly valuable tool in averting tragic events such as the Columbine massacre.

Sloodle integrates with moodle!

sloodle - Virtual Environment Learning System

SLOODLE is an Open Source project which integrates the multi-user virtual environment of Second Life® with the Moodle ® learning-management system.
Sloodle provides a range of tools for supporting learning and teaching to the immersive virtual world; tools which are integrated with a tried and tested leading web-based learning management system.

pbwiki Classroom Collaborative Wiki

Educational Wikis | PBwiki

PBwiki for Classrooms

PBwiki hosts more classroom wikis than anyone else in the world, and lets you create a simple, secure wiki in about 60 seconds. Wikis drive engagement and collaboration. A wiki is a live, evolving document – but gives you user tracking and access controls to monitor your wiki at all times.

Self Made Scholar

Self-Education Resource List

Self-Education Resource List

The internet is an invaluable resource to self-educated learners. Below is a list of some of the most helpful sites out there including opencourseware materials, free libraries, learning communities, educational tools, and more.

Including links to individual classes would make this list too long. So, I’ve added umbrella links that will help you find the material you need with just a little searching. For example, instead of listing individual classes, I’ve provided links to college opencourseware websites and course directories. From there, you’ll be able to find the individual subjects you’re interested in.

If you know of an umbrella-type link that should be included, please email me here: selfmadescholar@gmail.com.

The 4th R "Recess"

Well - The 3 R’s? A Fourth Is Crucial, Too - Recess - NYTimes.com

The best way to improve children’s performance in the classroom may be to take them out of it.
Skip to next paragraph
Well

Should schools make recess and outdoor time a bigger priority for children? Join the discussion.
Go to Well »

New research suggests that play and down time may be as important to a child’s academic experience as reading, science and math, and that regular recess, fitness or nature time can influence behavior, concentration and even grades.

Grade Saver - Reviews, Tests, Books, Essays, Lesson Plans

Study Guides & Literature Essays | Guides & Notes for Books, Movies, Poetry & Plays | GradeSaver

Study Guides and Literature Essays by ClassicNotes™

Study guides are offered for free by GradeSaver on novels, plays, poems and films ranging from Animal Farm to Yonnondio: From the Thirties. Each study guide includes essays, an in-depth chapter-by-chapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and quiz. Study guides are available in PDF format. We have literature essays associated with our study guides that are unique and only available through GradeSaver. Each academic essay has been edited and approved by our editors. Many essays are "A" papers that have been written by students from Ivy League colleges.

Pop Tech Conferences

Pop!Tech - The Impact of Technology on People


Pop!Tech is a one-of-a-kind conference, a community of remarkable people, and an ongoing conversation about science, technology and the future of ideas.

Teacher Vision

Creative Writing Teacher Resources (Grades K-12) - TeacherVision.com

Creative Writing Teacher Resources
Build solid creative writing skills with our extensive collection of printables, graphic organizers, and lessons plans. Encourage your students to demonstrate their creativity – and their writing skills – with our resources. You'll find poetry activities, short-story writing exercises, journal topics, printable worksheets, art projects, and more!

Flat Stanley

The Official Flat Stanley Project

In 1995, Dale Hubert, a Grade 3 teacher in London, Ontario, Canada, began the Flat Stanley Project. He invited other teachers to take part by hosting flat visitors and to encourage their students to write their own Flat Stanley journals.

One of the many advantages of sending flat visitors is that they can visit friends by travelling in an envelope. Students' written work goes to other places by conventional mail and e-mail. You can check out the Flat Stanley List of Participants to see where you can send a Flat Stanley or who might be sending a Flat Stanley to you, but the best way to arrange exchanges is through the Bulletin Board. After completing the Teacher Application form you'll receive a username and password that will allow you to login to the Bulletin Board.

PBS for Teachers

PBS Teachers — Resources For The Classroom

What’s an Activity Pack?
A growing library of theme-based widgets – each containing links to high-quality PBS resources and activities for multiple grade levels!

Learning Courses Free

Teacher Professional Development and Teacher Resources by Annenberg Media

Advancing
Excellent Teaching in American Schools

Annenberg Media uses media and telecommunications
to advance excellent teaching in American schools. This mandate
is carried out chiefly by the funding and broad distribution of
educational video programs with coordinated Web and print
materials for the professional development of K-12 teachers. It is part of The Annenberg Foundation and advances the Foundation's goal of encouraging the development of more effective ways to share ideas and knowledge.

Teacher Tube Video

TeacherTube - Teach the World | Teacher Videos | Lesson Plan Videos | Student Video Lessons | Online Teacher Made Videos | TeacherTube.com

After beta testing for almost two months,
TeacherTube officially launched on March 6, 2007. Our goal is to
provide an online community for sharing instructional videos.

Meet the new quizmaster

Apple - iTunes - What’s on iTunes? - iPod Games - iQuiz

Sure, you can play iQuiz for hours of fun. But you can also become the quizmaster by creating your own custom trivia packs, syncing them from iTunes to your iPod, then sharing them with others.

How the iPod can be used in the classroom

TeacherTube - iPods in the Classroom

iPods in the Classroom

College Lectures from the World's Top Scholars

Academic Earth

Academic Earth is an organization founded with the goal of giving everyone on earth access to a world class education

WebQuest Home page

WebQuest.Org: Home

You've arrived at the most complete and current source of information about the WebQuest Model. Whether you're an education student new to the topic or an experienced teacher educator looking for materials, you'll find something here to meet your needs

Adobe - elearning

Adobe Rolls Out eLearning Suite : January 2009 : THE Journal

Adobe has debuted its new eLearning Suite, a system designed to facilitate courseware authoring, media editing, and the creation of other learning materials. The company has also launched Captivate 4, an upgrade to its eLearning content authoring tool.

Project Based Learning

Welcome | Edutopia

Edutopia's Project-Based Learning teaching module is designed for either a two- to three-hour class or session or a one- to two-day workshop, and is divided into two parts.

Studiyo Create quizes, etc - Excellent Learning tool FREE

Create Great-Looking Interactive Quizzes (in minutes) - embed in any website / blog!

MyStudiyo offers a rich solution for creating online quizzes. Make quizzes in just minutes and embed them in any website or invite players to your MyStudiyo Channel Page!
Got a large website?

Want to increase engagement and retention? MyStudiyo Premium allows you to add layers of new interactive quiz content, with customized skins, scoreboards and integrated recommendations. Contact us to find out more.

Create Educational Games and Activities

ClassTools.net: Create interactive flash tools / games for education

Classtools.net allows you to create free educational games, activities and diagrams in a Flash! Host them on your own blog, website or intranet! No signup, no passwords, no charge!

Free Online Learning - 700 Videos -Math

Khan Academy

The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere.

We have 700+ videos on YouTube covering everything from basic arithmetic and algebra to differential equations, physics, and finance which have been recorded by Salman Khan. He has also developed a free, adaptive math program available here.

To keep abreast of new videos as we add them, subscribe to the Khan Academy channel on YouTube.

The entire video library is shown below. Just click on a category or video title to start learning from the Khan Academy!

Write your own poem - Have it converted automatically to music

P22 Music Text Composition Generator ( A free online music utility)

The P22 Music Text Composition Generator allows any text to be converted into a musical composition. This composition is displayed in musical notation and simultaneously generated as a midi file.

Magnetic White Board

PolyVision Debuts Bluetooth Interactive Whiteboard : January 2009 : THE Journal

PolyVision Debuts Bluetooth Interactive Whiteboard

by Dave Nagel

PolyVision has launched its new "eno," a new classroom technology designed to combine a traditional whiteboard and magnetic surface with Bluetooth-enabled interactive capabilities.

White Board update

Promethean To Launch Platform-Neutral Interactive Whiteboard Software : January 2009 : THE Journal

Ed tech developer Promethean said it will release a new interactive whiteboard software suite that's designed to work with any whiteboard brand and on multiple platforms, including Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. The software, called Activsoftware Inspire Edition, will debut next week at the 2009 FETC convention in Orlando, FL.

Activsoftware Inspire Edition combines Promethean's Activprimary and Activstudio suites and is designed to integrate with Activclassroom technologies, including Activote and Activexpression Learner Response Systems, according to the company. Some of the other features include:

* Option to upgrade for dual-input mode;
* Support for UI customization;
* Pre-packages media, including flipcharts, backgrounds, images, shapes and activities, available via Promethean Planet; and
* Support for integration with external media and software, including PowerPoint.

Promethean said Activsoftware Inspire Edition will be available in March. It will come in Personal and Professional editions. The professional edition will run $99 for new users but will be a free upgrade for existing customers or for new customers purchasing Activboards or Promethean Learner Response Systems.

SMART Boards for smart Teachers

Teachers Love SMART Boards

The goal of Teacher Online Training is to provide teachers with the best SMART Board training and resources available so they can utilize the SMART Board in the classroom more effectively.


Tons of resources, information, training and lessons for the SMART Board.  This is an excellent Blog.

Lectures Going the Way of the Blackboard

At M.I.T., Large Lectures Are Going the Way of the Blackboard - NYTimes.com

The physics department has replaced the traditional large introductory lecture with smaller classes that emphasize hands-on, interactive, collaborative learning. Last fall, after years of experimentation and debate and resistance from students, who initially petitioned against it, the department made the change permanent. Already, attendance is up and the failure rate has dropped by more than 50 percent.

Scitable - the learning site

Scitable is an open online teaching/learning portal combining high
quality educational articles authored by editors at NPG with
technology-based community features to fuel a global exchange of
scientific insights, teaching practices, and study resources. Scitable
currently contains articles in the field of genetics, and is intended
for college undergraduate faculty and students. Future plans involve
extension of Scitable to other fields within the life sciences, as well
as to other audiences.


Learn At Scitable