Ryan Collins

🕹️ Do Something Great! 😄

Author: ryan

  • Teacher resources at Education World

    Billed as “The Educator’s Best Friend”, Education World®, has a ton
    of resources for teachers and school administration, such as:

    • Lesson Planning
    • Professional Development
    • Administrator’s Desk
    • Technology
    • School Issues
    • EdWorld at Home

  • Free math materials for students, teachers, and parents

    There are free resources for students, teachers, and parents over at
    Math Goodies.

    Math Goodies is a free math help site featuring interactive lessons,
    puzzles and worksheets. We have provided free homework help since
    1999! There are more than 400 pages of activities for students,
    educators and parents.

    They also offer a CD with even more activities for use offline.

  • Microsoft licences ‘not value for money’, say schools

    [Microsoft licences ‘not value for money’, say schools: ZDNet Australia:
    Jobs: News Trends][]

    In a series of interviews with education professionals at the Bett
    educational technology show in London, ZDNet UK found broad consensus
    that Microsoft educational licensing agreements are too expensive.

    Especially when there happens to be good alternatives to Windows and
    Office.

    [Microsoft licences ‘not value for money’, say schools: ZDNet
    Australia: Jobs: News Trends]: http://www.zdnet.com.au/jobs/news_trends/soa/Microsoft_licences_not_value_for_money_say_schools/0,2000056653,39233214,00.htm?feed=rss

  • Great integration of social studies and Internet tools

    Fifth grade students at Lewis Elementary in Portland, OR, are using the
    free services Flickr and MapBuilder.net     in their European Exploreres
    social studies unit.

  • Cold, Ice, and Snow Safety

    From KidsHealth.gov, Cold, Ice, and Snow Safety.

  • Can Wikipedia can be saved for our schools?

    Andy Carvin on his blog presents a case for Turning Wikipedia into an
    Asset for Schools    . Instead of blindly following what’s in Wikipedia,
    use it to present “teachers with an excellent authentic learning
    activity in which students can demonstrate their skills as scholars”:

    […]Take a group of fifth grade students and break them into groups,
    with each group picking a topic that interests them. Any topic.
    Dolphins, horses, hockey, you name it.

    Next, send the groups of kids to Wikipedia to look up the topic they
    selected. […] The horse, for example, has an extensive entry on the
    website. It certainly looks accurate and informative, but is it?
    Unfortunately, there are no citations for any of the facts claimed
    about horses on the page.

    […]The group of students breaks down the content on the page into
    manageable chunks, each with a certain amount of facts that need to be
    verified. The students then spend the necessary time to fact-check the
    content.
    Once the Wikipedia entry has been fact-checked, the teacher creates a
    Wikipedia login for the class. They go to the entry’s talk page and
    present their findings, laying out every idea that needs to be
    corrected. Then, they edit the actual entry to make the corrections,
    with all sources cited. Similarly, for all the parts of the entry
    they’ve verified as accurate, they list sources confirming it.

  • Winter Olympics lesson plans and resources

    Kathy Schrock has put together a ton of resources for using the Winter
    Olympics in your classroom, including the history of the Olympics,
    lesson plans, and activities. Check them out at her website.

    *UPDATE*: Her site has moved to http://kathyschrock.net/blog/

  • Google Earth – Available for the Mac or PC

    Google Earth, a free application, allows the user to view in 3D
    places around the world.

    Want to know more about a specific location? Dive right in — Google
    Earth combines satellite imagery, maps and the power of Google Search
    to put the world’s geographic information at your fingertips.

  • The Amazing Flash Card Machine – Online Flash Cards

    Create online flashcards with The Amazing Flash Card Machine – Online
    Flash Cards    :

    Welcome to The Amazing Flash Card Machine, an interactive web
    application that allows the user to create interactive web-based study
    flash cards.

    Students! Create flash cards to help you study for your next exam.
    Make them publicly available, and your classmates can study from the
    same set.

    Teachers! Create flash card sets for your students. Assign each set
    of flash cards it’s own unique username and password giving your
    students access to them without having to register.

  • A web based graph creation tool

    Example GraphNeed a way to easily create a graph? The National
    Center for Education Statistics, a division of the U.S. Department of
    Education has put together an easy to use tool to create bar, line,
    area, pie, and XY graphs. Users can email the graph to themselves, which
    will also give a link to save the graph for 30 days.