The Final Frontier

Want to make a Big-Bang in science education?

Tap into the Space Telescope Science Institute's curriculum based
on discoveries being made by the 17,500 MPH traveling looking glass!
(AKA - Hubble Telescope)

To read the full article from Edutopia ~ Click here.

To begin utilization of this amazing tool to teach science in your classroom,
click here.

Open Your Mind ~ Close Your Wallet

If your wondering how your school can make ends meet in these tough economic times while still providing a quality education;
open your mind to open source!

A recent article published by LinuxPlanet, oulines 55 Free educational products ranging from core curriculum, (Math, Science, English), to Learning Management systems.

For example, Jmol, is a Chemistry app allowing students to create diagrams of atoms, molecules, macromolecules, crystals, and more.

To view the full article, click here.

When I Grow Up?

My son is leaving for college in a couple weeks and has know idea what he wants to major in let alone a career choice! Fortunately he is surrounded by friends and family members who are prosperous because of their education. Sadly, far too many American teens aren't this lucky.

If public schools are to succeed in breaking the cycle of poverty we must show our students a tangible pot of gold at the end of educational rainbow!

Thanks to a Microsoft, this task has gotten much easier with their FREE online learning program, CareerForward.

To visit the CareerForward site, click here.

A League of Their Own

Trying to get your students excited about science? Lab activities and field trips are great but what about the classroom or at home?

Tabula Digital has released a series of online, science based games for 3-5 grade students to learn through active play and competition.

And like so many other digital resources, they are 100% Free!

To access these games, click here.

Lordy~Lordy...look who's 40!

40 years ago, yesterday, the Apollo 11 mission carried Neil Armstrong to the moon! It's difficult to fathom the technology involed to accomplish this amazing feat and harder still to provide today's students (tomorrow's astronauts?)with a proper historical perspective of what this meant to humankind.

But now, thanks to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, our kids can experience, and hopefully be inspired by the past.

To visit this FREE site, click here.

Health Games = Healthy Kids = Healthy Learning

I grew up in the 70's learning from Seseme Street and The Electric Company.

However, today's kids want more than passive viewing, they are hungry for Active Doing!

Fear not, Grover and Cookie Monster have e-volved and are still providing FREE, interactive education content for today's digital learner.

The focus is on a healthy diet which has been directly linked to improved academic achievement.

To visit, see, and PLAY ~ Click HERE.

Examine ~ Research ~ React

The Smithsonian is offering interactive web tours to help our students explore America's rich and varied cultural heritage. Students will be challenged to tap higher order thinking skills by utilizing the tools provided to examine, research, and react to the incredibly interesting artifacts of historical significance.

And best of all, it is absolutely FREE!

To visit the site, click here.

Shmoop There It Is!

Shmoop wants to make you a better lover (of literature, history, poetry and writing). See many sides to the argument. Find your writing groove. Understand how lit and history are relevant today. We want to show your brain a good time.

Our mission: To make learning and writing more fun and relevant for students in the digital age.

Shmoop is currently a Beta Test. To paraphrase Robert Frost, we know that we still have miles to go before we sleep.

To visit Shmoop, click here.

Learn to Laugh & Laugh to Learn

"Humor is needed in literature because it ventilates or disrupts oppressive conditions, it provides a different lens to view reality, provides hope, pleasure, and fun."
Zarnowski (2000)

The moralistic, didacticism of 17th Century Puritan literature is gone. If we want our children to read, let reading be enjoyable, and the universal sound of enjoyment is laughter!

Comic Creator, a free online tool for educators, is just the right medicine to cure classroom boredom. Students can easily write and illustrate their own stories, or develop a comic strip as an extension exercise for assigned readings.

To visit Comic Creator, click here.

Middle School Literacy

Teachers' Domain is a multi-modal, multi-media approach to providing middle school literacy instruction. Utilizing standards-based lessons delivered with the support of online video, audio, flash interactives, images, and documents, Teachers' Domain is an excellent FREE (cross-curricular) resource to engage your students in Literacy.

To visit Teachers' Domain, click here.

Escape the Middle School Math Maze

Enter the Learning Labyrinth! Yet another ~FREE~ standards-based resource for teaching math. MIT's Education Arcade in conjunction of FableVision has created a game based tool to build pre-algebra skills.

Lure of the Labyrinth is a digital game for middle-school pre-algebra students. It includes a wealth of intriguing math-based puzzles wrapped into an exciting narrative game in which students work to find their lost pet - and save the world from monsters! Linked to both national and state mathematics standards, the game gives students a chance to actually think like mathematicians.

To learn more by visiting the Labyrinth homepage, click here.

Magoogle, You've Done It Again!

If seeing is believing, Google Earth has provided an amazing pair of eye opening lenses to improve our view of the world.

According to Al Gore who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work raising awareness about climate change:

“This is an extremely powerful educational tool,” “One of my fondest hopes is that people around the world will use Google Earth to see for themselves the reality of what’s happening because of the climate crisis.”

One cautionary note for educators, don't download applications to your network unless you intend to use them! Ask any IT professional and they will tell you that band width is a scarce resource that must be conserved to ensure an adequate return on our educational investment.

To link to the google earth site, click here.

Free Art!

Looking for creative ways to integrate Art education into the curriculum?

Virtual fieldtrips, cybermuseum tours, and investigatory collaborative learning are just a mouse click away.

Click here for a comprehensive search engine.

Click here for cybermuseum tours.

Click here for a glossary of museum terms.

Click here for a collaborative learning guide.

Don't Bully the Bully!

Often educators are forced into the role of cyber-judge and executioner in order to maintain web-safety and classroom order. However, most of us prefer to teach, which is why we became teachers and not sheriffs.

Instead of threatening students, why not provide lessons to encourage proper digital communication and safety? After all, standards-based lessons are already available and they are absolutely free!

Click here to visit CyberSmart! and learn more.

What a Web We Weave!

An emerging tool for project-based, discovery learning is the webquest. Like many other vehicles for instruction, not all teachers deliver the goods in an appropriate manner. Before sending your students off on a digital safari, it is important to provide a framework for learning.

To view a webquest template, click here.

The Turtle Wins!!!

Digital Building Blocks

As a child, what was more fun...playing with a house of blocks or building the house of blocks? I was partial to building, and truth be known, destroying! Wouldn't it be nice if your kids today actually built something? Thanks to Platinum Arts, they can, and it is absolutely free!

"Platinum Arts Sandbox is an open source easy to use standalone Free 3D Game Maker and 3D Game Design program currently being used in many schools throughout the world that allows kids and adults to create their own video games, worlds, levels, save the princess adventures and quests, even cooperatively! The goal is to make it accessible to kids but also powerful enough for full game projects. With a simple click and roll of a mouse wheel users can modify the world however they want. In the words of Margaret, a nine year old Sandbox whiz I babysit for, “Press Edit and go fulfill your dreams!”.

Click here to visit their site.

21st Century Sandbox

Explore History

At the Smithsonians' History Explorer.

This standards-based resource for teaching American History features:
Lessons
Activities
Games
Digital Field Trips

All can be searched by grade level and are designed to tap critical thinking skills helping to bring history instruction to the 21st Century Learner.

And like so many other learning resources, it is absolutely free!

To visit the Smithsonian History Explorer site, click here.

What do Oxygen, Potato Chips, and Car Tires have in common?

Visit the NSF's multi-media library to find out. Featuring rich, engaging, instructional video on everything from robotics to genomes...earthquakes to recycling.

And like so many other educational products, it is absolutely free.

To visit the NSF media library, click here.