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Teachers, what do you do when you are teaching division and your students just don’t get it?  Just like we learned in college, you go back to manipulatives.  Once children  understand concrete examples, they can start moving to abstract problems.  Until they get to that point, any visual examples you can provide the child will help.  For example, the online E-Lab through Harcourt School Publishers is a wonderful opportunity for children to “see” division problems. The first site illustrates division with two digit divisors. (See picture below.)

The second site by E-Lab allows children to practice division with remainders depending in the problem you type in. (See picture below.)  Very few sites give children a visual representation of how division works, so these sites are valuable resources to teachers.

Happy dividing!

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Check out the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives!  Right now this is a free site, and I’m not sure it will stay that way because the site is already advertising their activities on CD.  However, for now teachers can use this site in math class for free. The site offers a variety of online math manipulatives for K-12 ranging from Base Ten Blocks, to geoboards, and spinners.  Now you can use these items without the mess!  Virtual clean-up!  I used the geoboards in my class and laughed – the children were still expecting the rubber bands to snap off the screen and hit them.

Another one of my favorite sites is the interactive online clock.  Project this website in class to help your class tell time on an analog clock.  Using the red and green buttons at the bottom of the screen will allow you to create different times on the clock.  Notice that the sun and moon will rise and set in the background as you change the time, which helps the children distinguish between AM and PM.  If you use a Smartboard or an interactive whiteboard, this site is even better since students can come to the board and use the buttons to change the time in class.  Use the button on the right side, you can also display the time in a digital clock, so the students can compare the clocks side by side. Since you can hide the digital clock, it’s great for quizzing the kids on the analog clock since they can check their work on the digital clock.

A few other sites worth checking out for math instruction:

1.  Online graphing calculator

2. Interactive Math Games (such as Arthimetic Four)

3.  Create a graph

4. More virtual manipulatives

In Frederick County Public Schools, students are introduced to the Solar System in second grade. Since many kids can’t understand the concept of city and state versus planet and solar system, how does a teacher explain the enormity of the content they have to teach? There are many space-related websites that can help the kids see what they can’t with the naked eye. For example, check out the “Earth and Moon Viewer“. This site shows pictures of the earth from space from the point of view of the moon or the sun. There are also selections for “day and night” view so you can compare how the earth looks during both periods. A sister site of the “Earth and Moon Viewer” is the “Pick a Satellite” website. Just as the name suggests, you click on one of the many satellites in space to see a current view of the earth. If you don’t find what you want with the first one, try another.

The pictures you find on both of these sites work great with Smart Boards. By projecting an image of the earth from space, have the students come to the Smart Board and label the different oceans, continents, countries, major cities, regions, and weather patterns. I have tried this numerous times in my classroom and have covered all of these topics easily with just one picture, and the kids are actively engaged to come to the board and label the picture. I make it similar to an “I Spy” book, and the kids have fun as they learn from real world pictures of the earth.  The Smart Board can also be used with the site called Sky Map, which allows you to see which stars and constellations that are above you.  By projecting the night sky, students can use the marker on the Smart Board to label constellations and identify major stars.

The website “All Known Bodies in the Solar System are Larger Than 200 Miles in Diameter” is a simple site with a major impact.  All the bodies in our solar system are shown lined up from biggest to smallest so that you can compare sizes. This is a wonderful visual aid for teaching relative size.

The “Cassini Imaging” website shows flybys of various planets from different space probes. The mini movies can be played directly in the brower or downloaded to be played later. The 5-10 second clips show amazing views of Jupiter, Saturn, the moon and the earth. It’s a wonderful way to take your students up-close and personal into the Solar System.

Also, the “virtual reality moon phases” website allows users to enter any date (month, day, year, time) into the website and it will return with a picture of the moon phase for that day. Even though the website is not visually appealing with the green font against the black background, the content on this site is priceless. There is a great corresponding lesson that goes along with this website called “Birthday Moons“. The lesson comes complete with a sheet for the children to complete as they work through the activity. Basically, the kids enter their birthday into the moon phase finder, and record the moon phase for that day on their sheet. From there, the kids enter every third day into the moon finder until they complete a month long cycle from their birthday. Each moon phase is recorded as they go. While this is a very motivating lesson to do with kids, you may want to prepare kids ahead of time just in case their birthday moon is a “new moon” since nothing will be there. If you are creative with this ahead of time, you’ll avoid tears of disappointment! You’ll find using these sites in class will make teaching the content easier!

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Social studies lends itself so easily to online sites! I already mentioned my favorite online history game, The Pyramid Challenge, in a previous post. Any teachers, parents, or students who are interested in social studies for research or interest should definitely check out these sites. First, head over to National Geographic’s site for educators. Even though the ads on the right-hand side of the site can be a bit annoying, it has a a great selection of tools including: current events, lesson plans, maps and photos, and professional development. They have a wonderfully detailed online activity on Jamestown and life in 1607. As you click through Jamestown, you’ll find links to music, recipes, and maps. It gives a small glimpse into what life was like at that time. Clicking under the “maps and photos” section, you’ll find a link to Xpendition Atlas, which has a wide selection of maps in black and white perfect for printing and copying for classroom use.

Just as interesting is National Geographic’s site on environments. There are section to explore such as habitats, natural disasters, global warming, and goiing green. Who wouldn’t want to make lightning strike or unleash an avalanche? I do!

Finally, check out the link to mywonderfulworld, which was created to “give the kids the power of global knowledge”. There are separate sections for teachers, kids, and parents. You can find links to educational travel programs for students or take virtual tours of any continent you wish to visit. Looking for lessons based on the geography standards? Look no further! Do you want to test your global IQ? Here’s your chance.

If you teach social studies or are just fascinated by it, you’ll definitely find these sites worthwhile.

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Audacity is a free sound-editing program that can be downloaded from the Internet. I have used it for podcasting in my classroom and found it to be very easy to learn. For those just starting out, you may want to check out a tutorial on Audacity. Many people use Audacity to create and edit podcasts, but there are many more ways you can use Audacity in the classroom besides podcasting.

For the reading and language arts class, you can read poetry outloud for hear the rhythm and rhyme. You can record reader’s theater, storytelling, or examples of reading fluency for each child. The students can write interviews, how-to instructions, and classroom news sessions. Listen to this example recording by Christopher Walken for “The Raven” and imagine being able to create similar performances in your visual and performing arts class. Speech teachers and ESL teachers can use Audacity to record a child’s pronunciation and use the recordings to show progress. For music class, teachers can record students singing or playing instruments. If you have a projector that will allow you to project your computer in class, you can then play and show the music to your class to demonstrate rhythm and sound waves. Audacity can be found in math lessons as well. There is one lesson that teaches all about the dynamics of sound waves and another that teaches you to “see music” with harmony and dissonance. Check out the lesson plans!

Remember, there is no power like the power of the spoken word.
Children find listening to their own voice motivating (I know, go figure), so why not channel that into something powerful in the classroom? Once I started podcasting with my third grade class, even my most reluctant writers were scrambling to get information onto paper. Like the old “Life” cereal commercial said, “Try it! You’ll like it!”