The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics has had a great website for years now.  The site, Illuminations, is filled with resources to help you incorporate technology into you math lessons.  You will find 108 online activities that help to make math come alive in the classroom and a collection of 607 lessons for preK-12math teachers.  You can search for activities by grade level that students can use on the computers or on your interactive white board.

One activity that I enjoyed using with my students was the Tessellation Creator.  This allowed students to virtually manipulate polygons to try and create a pattern that tessellates.

A brand new feature to the site is The Dynamic Paper. The Dynamic Paper application allows you to create images of nets for 3‑D shapes, tessellations of polygons, number grids with any number of rows, columns, and integers, spinners with various numbers of sectors, and more! You can then create a PDF worksheet with the images you choose, or you can export the images to JPEG format for use in other applications or on the web. Check it out!

Happy tech trails Blue Devils!

This Friday, why not take your class on a trip around the world? On of my fellow “20 to Watch” recipients is Jenny Buccos.  In 2003, Jenny founded ProjectExplorer.org a nonprofit organization that produces free, online videos from many different countries. She is an amazing woman who wants students to learn about other cultures and experience the world from their classrooms and homes.  Here is a video of explaining  more about Project Explorer:

from ProjectExplorer.org on Vimeo.

I love Jenny’s passion and dedication to educating  our youth about their global community.  Using the site, your students can get a “virtual passport” and learn about life outside of Westfield.  The site not only contains great videos, but provides photos and lesson plans free of charge.

Check out the content and resources provided on Mexico:

Happy tech trails Blue Devils!

iCivics.org

This is a great website to help you teach civics to your students.

In 2009, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor founded iCivics to reverse Americans’ declining civic knowledge and participation.  Today iCivics is made up of  a national leadership team of state supreme court justices, secretaries of state, and educational leaders and a network of committed volunteers. Together, they are committed to passing along the legacy of democracy to the next generation.

In just two years, iCivics has produced 19 educational video games as well as vibrant teaching materials that have been used in classrooms.  Today the site offers the nation’s most comprehensive, standards-aligned civics curriculum that is available freely on the Web.  They are also focusing on teaching children how to write effectively.

This site has a wealth of resources, is well organized, and contains activities for all ages.

Here is Justice O’Connor talking about it on today’s “Morning Joe”.  Skip ahead to 2:40 to see her comments and a great overview of the site.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Happy tech trails Blue Devils!

All of the best K-5 online, interactive, educational games and simulations in one place!

These activities work great with your SMART board or interactive whiteboard for whole group or small group instruction or use in the computer lab or at home for individual learning.

Links to MANY interactive tools in all subject areas.  These sites would greatly enhance your curriculum and a great way to incorporate technology into your lessons.

Happy tech trails Blue Devils!

A few teachers asked for templates so they could do their plans on the computer. I am attaching a weekly plan book template and a mini-lesson template for reading workshop. Each are able to be edited for your own needs.

Happy tech planning Blue Devils!

WeeklyLessonPlanTemplate

Mini Lesson Template