Educational+Websites+for+Secondary+Students

= = flat = Description: =
 * Getting online is easy, but finding useful educational websites can be difficult. This session will provide several fun and educational websites that teachers can use in secondary classrooms. Moreover, it is important for teachers to know how to find trusted educational sites, so this session will also help teachers do that too. Please keep in mind that many of these resources will work on systems that are able to use flash-based content, so iPads will work if they have the Rover app.

= Audience: =
 * Beginning to intermediate. Secondary focus, but appropriate for all grade levels

= Learning Goals: =
 * 1) Learners will be able to identify management resources and useful applications to make instruction more efficient.
 * 2) Learners will be able to create a plan for positive classroom culture around iPads

= Agenda =
 * 1) //**Intro & Overview**//
 * 2) //**My Favorite Resources**//
 * 3) //**Implications for ELA and SpEd (Inclusion & Intensive)**//
 * 4) //**Trusted Sources**//
 * 5) //**Miscellaneous great sites: Potpourri and practice**//

= I) My Top Six Favorite Resources (Today. . .) =
 * How I pick these: They must meet my criteria of being 1) educational, 2) free, 3) engaging at multiple grade levels, 4) time saving for everyone, 5) informative, 6) an improvement for communication, 7) applicable to multiple contents 8) student friendly 9) teacher friendly 10) reliable (rarely down or unlikely to disappear)**


 * 1) edmodo : Student micro-blog, grade book, assignment submission, parent communication, apps and more . ..
 * 2) Twitter : Micro-blog, news source, student/parent/teacher/administrator communication, easy, addictive and more . ..
 * 3) Wikispaces (or any other free personaI website maker) Websites are great for everything, especially getting into digital learning.
 * 4) Discovery Puzzlemaker : oldie, but goodie. Make multiple types of puzzles for everything from back-up plans to skills practice to review guides.
 * 5) instagrok : Best little research engine ever!
 * 6) pocket: Formally read it later, just a fast way to save online content for later viewing.

= II) Implications for ELA and SpEd =


 * 1) === **Differentiated** ===
 * 2) === Multi-modality ===
 * 3) === **Opportunities for leveling** ===
 * 4) === **Instantly repeatable for mastery** ===
 * 5) === It's crazy awesome ===

= III) Trusted Sources: =

Where do I go for help? Who do I trust?

 * 1) If you don't have twitter, get a twitter account, then
 * 2) follow my teacher tech favorites list, then
 * 3) Grow from there!

These are my Top 12 favorite people on Twitter. The links are to each one's website.

 * 1) Larry Ferlazzo : ELA Sage- Best know for his "Best of" lists. If you need an activity that appeals to all learners, he has it.
 * 2) Scott Newcomb : Master at mobile learning devices, and he the most courteous person on twitter!
 * 3) Jerry Blumengarten : Also know as Cybraryman. Is the "go to guy" for all digital resources.
 * 4) Kelly Tenkley : Tech integration savant, and one of the most creative thinkers on the net. She has already had all my best ideas.
 * 5) Tony Vincent : Hero of Handheld devices. Great for Project Based Learning and podcasting and focuses on more than iOS devices
 * 6) Shelly Terrell : Motivational Speaker and tech reformer. Great at getting people to think about practice, follow her edchats on twitter.
 * 7) Vicky Davis : Great for flat classrooms and pretty much anything else collaboration related.
 * 8) Glenn Moses : ( Old Blog / New Blog ) Glenn is a major proponent of blended learning and always manages to push my thinking.
 * 9) Michael Wacker : Online solutions guy. Super with edmodo, google apps and blended learning.
 * 10) Bud Hunt : General, all around gets it and knows it guy.
 * 11) Bernajean Porter : Hands down, the best person out there for digital storytelling!
 * 12) Richard Byrne : Google master and great for learning about new online tools.

Twitter Cheat Sheet: By @tysonkimberly

If you don't want to mess with twitter, bookmark my Paper.li for ed tech called "**Inspired Education**" (pretty good, huh?). //( Paper.li compiles whatever feeds you want to put into it, and puts it into a newspaper format)//

= IV) Miscellaneous Great Sites: Potpourri and Practice =

__**Teacher Time Savers:**__

 * **Students finding sites. Turn :( into :)**
 * 1) Embed links in your own site: Create a site using google sites or wikispaces
 * 2) Use QR codes if students have mobile devices: Suggestions- QR generator kaywa ; App Qrafter
 * 3) Shorten long URLs using tinyurl or bitly
 * 4) Tweet links and have students follow you
 * 5) If your students (or you) want to get faster at searching the web using google, go to power search tutorial
 * 6) If you are using iPads and want to use a site regularly, make it a link on your iPad. Use the link below to help you.
 * Adding to Homescreen : Follow the steps to make any website into a quick link icon on the iPad


 * **Testing/surveys: makes students response and grading awesome!**
 * 1) Proprofs : Starts free, but will cost after trial period. With recent improvements it has become one of my favorite online test generators. There are many others out there, if you are look for free stuff.
 * 2) Google docs : Use forms to create surveys
 * 3) Poll everywhere : text responses to questions (for use with mobile phones)


 * **Study Help and tools for blending/flipping classrooms:**
 * 1) Online notes: evernote (my favorite) and springnote
 * 2) Flashcard makers: cram.com and study blue
 * 3) Practice online tests: use proprofs to create practice tests and alter the settings out of exam mode to show correct answers.
 * 4) Podcasts: use audioboo or vocaroo to have students record projects and download/email them. You can do the same for them.
 * 5) Create video tutorials: vimeo to upload video to make them accessible on the web.
 * 6) Online games for practice: see "games section" below
 * 7) feedback widgits: Answer Garden and Wallwisher


 * **Digital Citizenship:**
 * 1) For everything from movie reviews to cyber-bullying prevention: common sense media

__**Resources by Content:**__

 * **Language Arts:**
 * SERP Institute : You need to create an account, but then it is searchable. Very good resources for teachers
 * Good Reads : A way to share, compare and get recommendations based on books you have read
 * One Word : Awesome for warm-ups and brain breaks. Receive a word and just write for on minute
 * Figment : Write, publish and connect with other readers and writers. Great for enriching and challenging students
 * Inanimate Alice : Designed for middle school aged students. I'm just learning about this one, but it looks so cool, I had to include it. It requires multi-media usage, interactions between text, sound, visuals and the audience. Almost a game, but more like a piece of curriculum.


 * **Math:**
 * Khan Academy : Instructional videos for multiple contents with a heavy math focus.
 * Kids Numbers : Good for K-8 math skills practice
 * Math Play : Math games focused on mainly K-8
 * Math Central : Math resources that go up to and beyond Algebra that is searchable. Very mathy (is that a word?)
 * Sites List : Huge list of math sites with some descriptions


 * **Science:**
 * Learning Science : interactive site with tons of lessons broken down within the content. Not pretty, but very functional
 * Scitable : science library and learning tool
 * Science Kids : Maybe not for secondary, but has a good deal of learning games and science concepts models
 * Ptable : interactive periodic tabel of elements.
 * Science Daily : News articles, videos and more sorted by topic
 * Who Pooped?: kids figure out the answer of the question


 * **Social Studies:**
 * iCivics : Great Civics learning games. My favorite is "Do I Have a Right?"
 * Sheppard Software : Good for multiple subjects. Great for quickly memorizing political maps
 * History Channel : Great shows, games, this day in History, citizenship stuff
 * BrainPop : History explained in short videos. Some are free, others are not.
 * Youngzine : Great for middle school current events and offers teachers the ability to create classes/rewards
 * Other Current Events: Time for kids, CNN Student News and Dogonews
 * Museumbox : I just learned about this, so I'm figuring it out. Neat for presentations and multiple content areas & purposes.
 * WorldSavvy: I'm just now finding out about this one. Looks like it would be great for geography and current events.
 * TravelPod Game: Find world locations. Speed + Accuracy = points
 * KidsGeo: Geography and science games


 * **Art:**
 * grabbabeast : Make a monster and use it for an e-card
 * phototropisms : trippy way to make art. I can't really describe it, you have to see it.
 * graffiti : does what it says
 * Drips : make Jackson Pollock-esque paintings
 * DAM Creativity Resource : Denver Art Museum resource that is sortable for cross-content lessons


 * **Music:**
 * isle of tune : I have spent hours playing with this. Super fun! Great projects for creating and assembling music. You gotta see it, too hard to explain quickly and do it justice. It also has an app for mobile devices.
 * Carol maker : Oh Em Gee! Fun and occasionally obnoxious. Make Christmas Carols. Great for those days before winter break.
 * Google Doodles for Les Paul . Out one day, but not forgotten. Strum virtual guitar strings to create and send a song.
 * Ujam : More advanced that the above. Good for making actual tunes with more freedom to choose arrangement and sounds.
 * NYCP Game Room : Online music games for kids.


 * **Physical Education:**
 * Bam : Site by the CDC for kids to ask questions, play games, learn about diseases and what not
 * Map My Run : Track and map runs and routes. Similar cycling one is called Map My Ride
 * Strava : Works with mobile devices that have GPS. Track and compete online with running, cycling and more
 * PE Central : Compilation and description of PE related and kid friendly sites on the web


 * **Technology**
 * codeacademy: kids learn to write code through an interactive (free) web-based program


 * **World Languages:**
 * Free Rice : fun game site for teaching French, German, Italian and Spanish words among other content areas.
 * Live Mocha or Busuu : (These cost money, so I have not used them) I can't advise here. See this article to help you decide if you want to invest in either.
 * Online Translators : There are a ton out there, the link is for a list of top ten. Multiple sites have agreed that babelxl is the best.

__**Any Content Cool Sites**__

 * **Games:**
 * @http://www.usmint.gov/Kids/games/ : Mainly History and Civics
 * @http://www.freerice.com/ : Language, Math and Humanities
 * @http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/ You name it, it has most content areas
 * @http://www.funbrain.com/ : Math and Language Arts
 * @http://www.coolmath-games.com/ : Mainly Math
 * @http://engineering.com/GamesPuzzles/tabid/82/Default.aspx :STEM
 * @http://www.icivics.org/ :Civics
 * [] STEM
 * @https://www.cia.gov/kids-page/games/index.html : Puzzles
 * @http://www.olotolo.com/index.php :Science


 * **Presentations:**
 * Glogster : Poster-maker that can use sound and animations
 * Prezi : Zooming presentations. It's like PowerPoint for the non-liner thinker
 * wordle : Make word clouds. You'll know what this is once you see it
 * Mapwing : Make virtual tours of locations or systems online
 * Brainshark : Augment PowerPoints and other blah presentations with voiceovers and access them on a cloud
 * Infographics : this is a link to a page that lists a top ten of infographic tools.


 * **Digital Story Telling:**
 * xtranormal : A bit time consuming, but allows one to make a video using CG people and settings.
 * animoto : Super easy way to make a collection of photos into a text and music presentation.
 * Zoo Burst : Make 3D pop-up books
 * Mix Book : Online scrap-booking
 * Simplebooklet : Make brochures and small booklets online
 * Blabberize : Take a picture, create a mouth on the picture and record sound. Worth looking just to see the alpaca
 * wevideo: cloud based video creation software with free version


 * **Avatars:**
 * Simpsons : classic Simpsons avatar. It's also a games site, so look for the "//Create Your Simpsons Avatar"// tab.
 * clay yourself : free claymation avatar from Hotels.com
 * voki : Animated speaking avatar
 * dopple me : very customizable avatars


 * **Cartoons & Comic Strips (still frame and animated):**
 * Zimmer Twins : Make animated adventures of the Zimmer Twins and their cat.
 * Kerpoof : Create animated cartoons, cards, movies and stories
 * Make Believe Comix : Make single or multi-frame traditional comics using predesigned characters
 * Bubblr! : take pictures from flickr, and add voice bubbles to them to tell a story


 * **Other Games/Brain Breaks/Activities For Extra Minutes:**
 * Sploder : Online game maker that requires no code writing skill (it's awesome)
 * kako messenger : make a singing telegram. Hilarious.
 * grapheine : Subtitle foreign films, B movies and old films. Super fun, and can be used in any class.


 * **General Collaboration:**
 * Titan pad : like a google doc, its a blank sheet that gets around needing a sign-in.
 * google docs : any google doc can be shared, the problem is getting students google accounts
 * babel with me and today's meet : private chat rooms
 * voice thread : Can cost money for upgrades. Group conversations with media
 * [|Second Life]: Virtual world, don't get into this until you are ready.


 * **Global Collaboration Projects:**
 * skype : if you don't have it, do what I did. Create an account, then make one for your mother. That way you can communicate when your here in the winter and she is down in Arizona. For some reason, my mom wants to see my face, so will yours.
 * How to? Here is a link by Kim Cofino to a great getting started page and Larry Ferlazzo's best ways to find joint online projects page.
 * Who's looking? Here are links to skype for education, the DOE guide and EFL Project Peace


 * **Website Tools and Widgets:**
 * Cluster Maps, Revolver Maps and Feedjit : Hit Counters/feed widgets
 * Widget box : Countdown timer widgets
 * Online stopwatch : Free online timers


 * **Clip Converters:**
 * Keepvid: My new favorite for converting videos. Seems to really work well with Promethean.
 * Zamzar : Take videos or other online files and convert them for download. Super useful for short video clips where you don't want to risk losing an internet connection at the wrong time.
 * Clip converter or media converter : Same as above, another option. Useful if you reach a usage limit.


 * **Royalty Free Photo Searches:**
 * Kids click : searchable video, audio and images for students
 * Open Clip Art : public domain clip art
 * Photo Searches that should all be school appropriate:
 * @http://pics.tech4learning.com/
 * @http://animalphotos.info/a/
 * @http://worldimages.sjsu.edu/
 * Photo Searches that may have mildly inappropriate images:
 * @http://www.freefoto.com/index.jsp
 * @http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/
 * @http://www.public-domain-photos.com/


 * **Video:**
 * Safari Montage : (DPS only) Search, customize and arrange educational videos.
 * Youtube : any video clips
 * Teacher tube : school appropriate video
 * List of 100 : Compilation and description of video sites that are useful to teachers


 * **Tutorials:**
 * Khan Academy : Student friendly "how to" with heavy focus in math, but also science and humanities.
 * You can also check out online tutorials: commoncraft and howstuffworks

>>
 * **Blooms:**
 * See Kelly Tenkley's livebinder for great digital tools organized by how they hit blooms. Very cool.
 * **Research Related:**
 * [|RADCAB]: Online information evaluation
 * [|Bibme]: Online bibliography maker


 * **Teacher Resources:**
 * FERPA : if you are ever unsure if you can do it, check the laws
 * cloudlock: (costs $$), but a solution to safety and Google Apps
 * Free Ed : Teacher resources, sortable by content


 * **No Registration Required Websites:**
 * **[|Nathan Hall's Diigo List.]**

**Final Notes:**

 * **not all of the sites above will work on all devices.**
 * **some sites may be blocked depending on district internet filtering.**
 * **be sure you have explored any site you use before introducing it to students.**

Take the Survey: Click Here Workshop Title: Educational Websites for Secondary Studients Presenter: Kevin Croghan

// Also feel free to check my other websites: //

My classroom site: http://mrcroghan.wikispaces.com/ My Twitter: @mrcroghan