Teaching & Learning Resources

This is only a small portion of what is available to use in classroom lessons.  Do the examples you see hear demonstrate any kind of need for instructional change when you teach with a digital projector?  How are these resources different than using an overhead?

Language Arts

 ePals Classroom Exchange
http://www.epals.com/

Take meaningful writing to the next level!  ePals provides a free venue for global ‘pen pals’ and meaningful student writing/communication.  Write as a class and use the projector to display letters written to your class.

 P.O.V. – Borders (Web only series)

http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2002/borders/index_flash.html

P.O.V.'s Borders is a Web-only series on PBS Online. A showcase for interactive storytelling, the series asks about the borders in our lives, both literal and metaphysical. The first episode of P.O.V.'s Borders deals with the theme of migration. The second episode of P.O.V.'s Borders will be premiering in the Fall of 2003. Sign-up for the P.O.V. newsletter and get updates about Episode 2.

 Math

Guide to State High Points
http://www.americasroof.com/usa.shtml

Use real data displayed through your projector to create graphs.  Students can work on a range of projects from traditional graphing to using Microsoft Excel to make electronic graphs.

 Learning about Rate of Change (NCTM)
http://standards.nctm.org/document/eexamples/chap6/6.2/index.htm

Online visual examples can truly enhance a lesson or even make a concept clear for a student that might not otherwise be able to grasp it.  When those visuals are interactive, they become even more effective.  Take a look at this example that demonstrates a constant rate of change.  What kind of conclusions would you have your students draw?

 BrainPop
http://www.brainpop.com/

Your brain just might pop with the wealth of lessons located hear!  You can watch two movies per day free or even look into a membership if you are interested in watching more.  These are great projector activities to start the day, get students thinking or use as reinforcement on your big screen.

Science 

CIESE – Collaborative Projects
http://k12science.ati.stevens-tech.edu/collabprojs.html

CIESE sponsors and designs interdisciplinary projects that teachers throughout the world can use to enhance their curriculum through compelling use of the Internet. We focus on projects that utilize realtime data available from the Internet, and collaborative projects that utilize the Internet's potential to reach peers and experts around the world.

 The Nine Planets
http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/nineplanets.html

Take a virtual tour of the solar system and discover more about each planet than you may have ever known before!  Information is available for not only the planets but also for many other components of our solar system.

 WebElements periodic table of the elements
http://www.webelements.com/webelements/scholar/

Interactive and FULL of content.  Experience the elements of the periodic table in ways never before possible in a classroom setting.  From text, to pictures, to video, this site has it all.

 Social Studies 

Anne Frank: Her Life and Times
http://www.annefrank.com/site/af_life/1_life.htm

A picture filled scrap-book is one of the many resources available on this site.  Top notch content. 

Atlas – Xpeditions @ nationalgeographic.com
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html

The ability to display any map of any location (borders or no borders – the choice is yours) is available at your fingertips!  Enhance any location specific lesson.

 History 

The Civil War as Photographed by Mathew Brady
http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/lessons/brady_photographs/
brady_photographs.html

The National Archives provides a variety of primary source resources on its electronic archives page.  Bring your students face-to-face with real history, real photographs and real documents.  This Civil War lesson is just one of the many resources available from NARA.

You Be the Historian
http://americanhistory.si.edu/hohr/springer/

Enter detective mode and use a variety of problem solving situations to determine historical context.

 Electives 

A. Pintura: Art Detective
http://www.eduweb.com/pintura/index.html

This is another example of a problem solving situation where students work through several situations and compare art from a variety of painters to a mystery painting.  This site works through style, brush strokes, coloring and more.