Category: Websites

Here’s a great list of age-appropriate, safe websites that will inspire third graders whether they’re in your classroom or at home (check here for updates):

1. Riding the Wind with Kalani
2. Weather Websites
3. Wild Weather Adventure
4. All About America
5. USA Puzzle
6. 360^o views from around the world
7. Computer lab favorites
8. How stuff works
9. Quick quizzes—how much do you know?
10. Thinking Skills–Riddles
11. USA Puzzle
12. Water Cycle–very visual; good tool for lower grades
13. Water cycle–interactive
14. Water cycle—label diagram

More resources for third graders

33 Resources for Read Across America Day

Hour of Code Lesson Plans by Grade

3rd Grade Resources

Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, contributor to NEA Today, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.

Here’s a great list of Special Needs websites. I’ll display it below but click the link for an updated library (check here for updates on links):

1. Occupational Therapy–a long list of great apps including stress, social skills building, and more
2. Read&Write–for students with dyslexia or English language learners who struggle with reading and writing.
3. Signed Stories–beautiful stories in sign language
4. Speech Therapy and Language Apps–apps like Conversation Builder, StoryBuilder, Tense Builder, Rainbow Sentences, designed for kids who need a different approach

So much available to differentiate for every student’s special need. Here are 50 of them:

1. Disabilities—Microsoft

Autism

1. Autism browser—Zac Browser

Blind

Dyslexia

(more…)

Throughout the year, I post websites and apps the Ask a Tech Teacher crew’s classes found useful, instructive, helpful in integrating technology into classroom lesson plans. Some, you agreed with us about; others not so much.

Here are the reviews you-all thought were the most helpful in efforts to weave tech into the classroom experience:

1. Quick Review of 7 Popular Math Programs
2. 4 Great Alternatives to Google Classroom
3. 7 Tech Tools for PE Teachers
4. 15 Websites to Teach Financial Literacy
5. 28 Unique Ideas for Publishing Student Work
6. How to Use Google Drawings
7. 3 Apps That Encourage Students to Read
8. 17 Great Research Websites for Kids
9. 22 Websites and 4 Posters to Teach Mouse Skills
10. 13 Ways to Use Canva in Your Classroom

Oh–would you mind adding me to your social media links? Here’s where you can find me:

Twitter:   @AskaTechTeacher

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/Jacqui.Murray1 

Instagram: @AskaTechTeacher

Sign up for the newsletter! 

Thanks! Have a wonderful 2021!

(more…)

Every year, January 1st, is Public Domain Day. This is an observance of when copyrights expire and works enter into the public domain–free for all to use. According to Duke Law Center for the Study of the Public Domain, here are some of the newly-available artistic works you might like a/o January 1, 2021:

• F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
• Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
• Ernest Hemingway, In Our Time
• Franz Kafka, The Trial (in German)
• Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy
• Sinclair Lewis, Arrowsmith
• Agatha Christie, The Secret of Chimneys
• Aldous Huxley, Those Barren Leaves
• W. Somerset Maugham, The Painted Veil
• Edith Wharton, The Writing of Fiction
• Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto, A Daughter of the Samurai

–Comments are closed but feel free to contact me via Twitter (@askatechteacher). (more…)

As High School seniors prepare to graduate, many will choose something about computers for their job or continued studies. There’s no greater excitement than being part of the team that puts a face on the internet with web design. Here’s a great overview of that field from a school that prepares students for this future job:

How do I become a web designer?

Many of our older students are now considering what careers they wish to pursue. Some will decide to work locally while some will either choose to study locally or abroad. With information technology playing an integral role in all our lives and with even the smallest of businesses having a website, we have seen an increasing trend in the number of students who wish to become web designers. Of course, this has become a complex field with lots of competition, even when qualified.

As a international school in Bangkok, we always encourage pupils to follow their dream careers and seek employment in something that they enjoy. As part of our role as educators, we must prepare students for what to expect in the world of work. In particular, our HS students often need guidance about how to begin their journey, and our careers team are always available to make suggestions and offer help as required. In this article, we will look at what is necessary to become a web designer upon leaving school.

What is the role of a web designer?

Web designers conduct work on various types of website, either for themselves, the company that they work for or for their own clients. It can cover a broad range of topics from relatively simple blogger sites to complicated e-commerce websites with multiple landing pages and sometimes hundreds of thousands of products. However, the role also involves other aspects, aside from the technical points, and this can often go overlooked.

A web designer will need to meet clients to establish what they require for their site. It will include gaining an insight into their business, their objectives and their client base. From here, it is the designer’s job to formulate a plan, showing the structure of the website, including choosing text, background and colour schemes. In some cases, the web designer may be asked for their advice regarding branding and the inclusion of multimedia.

After the site has been completed, the web designer will conduct thorough testing and once complete, upload the site to a server, from where it will be available to the public. Some clients may ask the web designer to work with them on an ongoing basis, managing the site, and uploading fresh content.

(more…)

Here’s a great list of age-appropriate, safe websites that will inspire 2nd graders whether they’re in your classroom or at home (check here for updated links):

1. Edutainment with BBC
2. Games that make you think
3. Puzzle of student pic–create
4. Plant games
5. Plant life cycle
6. Computer basics
7. Computer puzzle
8. Parts of the computer
9. Videos on Computer Basics K-6
10. Google World of Wonders
11. Mt. Everest
12. Flash cards and more
13. Grammar—Adjectives
14. Grammar games
15. High-frequency words—hangman
16. Vocabulary Fun
17. Vocabulary-Spelling City
18. Word and logic problems
19. Word Study Games—Merriam Webster
20. Virtual tour of America—via Biplane

More websites for 2nd graders

2nd Grade Resources

33 Resources for Read Across America Day

How to Teach Digital Citizenship in 2nd Grade

16 Word Study Websites for 2nd Grade

Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, contributor to NEA Today, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.

Here’s a great list of age-appropriate, safe websites that will inspire 5th graders whether they’re in your classroom or at home (check here for updated links):

1. Animals
2. Wolfquest—simulation–DL
3. Civics games
4. FBI Games
5. Looking Glass—animated story
6. Snap!—runs in your browser
7. Tynker
8. Wolfram Alpha widgets
9. Dig hole through the earth with Google Earth
10. Whyville–Social Media Sim
11. Spent
12. Earth science animations
13. Geography for Kids
14. Geography Games
15. Geography Games II
16. Geography—geonet game
17. Geography quiz—Seterra
18. Maps—Make them
19. States games

(more…)

Here’s a great list of age-appropriate, safe websites that will inspire 4th graders whether they’re in your classroom or at home (click here for updates on links):

1. Coffee shop--the economics of running a business
2. Everfi.com–finances for K-12
3. Learning Games from BrainPop
4. Virtual weather, machines and surgery–clever, mind-expanding games; some are free, others fee so look for ‘free’ under the ‘games’ tab
5. Grammaropolis–membership required; see if your school has joined; lots of grammar-intensive fun games
6. Samorost—problem solving adventure in outer space; one game free, the rest for a fee
7. Simulations–varied science games; highly popular; they do a good job of explaining complicated science
8. States of Matter Game–a simple Quia game
9. Internet research sites for kids–an age-appropriate list of safe internet research websites for kids
10. Libraryspot.com–another age-appropriate list of safe internet research websites for kids
11. Research—facts–and age-appropriate list of safe internet research websites for kids
12. World Almanac for Kids

(more…)

Here’s a great list of age-appropriate, safe websites that will inspire kindergarten-age children whether they’re in your classroom or at home (check here for updated links):

1. ‘I love you’ in languages Afrikaans to Zulu
2. Counting Money–a collection of visual money websites for kindergartners
3. Edugames—drag-and-drop puzzles; great for mouse skills
4. Internet4Classrooms–-popular Kindergarten links
5. KinderSite—lots of kindergarten websites
6. Mr. Picasso Head–draw a Picasso potato head
7. Shapes and colors
8. The Learning Planet–worksheets and games; free
9. ZooWhiz--collection of math, reading word skills and literacy games/learning with a zoo theme–requires registration (free and then fee)

(more…)

Space units are always exciting. Part of it’s the history, but a lot is that space is our final frontier, a wild untamed land that man knows so little about. Now that Elon Musk’s SpaceX has safely delivered American astronauts to the International Space Station for the first time in almost a decade, the fever of excitement over space couldn’t be higher.

I have a list of over 20 websites I use to support this theme for K-8. Here are five of my favorites: 

SpaceX ISS Docking Simulator

This simulator will familiarize users with the controls of the actual interface used by NASA Astronauts to manually pilot the SpaceX Dragon 2 vehicle to the ISS. Successful docking is achieved when all greeen numbers in the center of the interface are below 0.2. Movement in space is slow and requires patience and precision.

This can be played online or as an app through Google Play.

Educational Application

This realistic webtool is an excellent scaffold for MS and HS students connecting STEM to their curiosity and excitement about space. Good applications not only for space but engineering, mechanics, and computer technology.

Cost: Free

Age group: MS and HS

Overall rating: 5/5

Build a Satellite

This is an online simulation that challenges students to build a working satellite. They choose what science their satellite will study, select the wavelengths, instruments, and optics that will be required, and then build! After launch, students can learn about a large range of real astronomical missions dating from the 1980s and the data they collected.

The game is a cooperative effort of the James Webb Space Telescope and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Educational Applications

To build a satellite, students must understand advanced topics like wavelength and optics, and research scientific areas such as black holes, the Early Universe, and galaxies as they select what their satellite will study. A real interest in telescopes and space science will make this game more meaningful.

Cost: Free

Age group: High school and college

Overall rating: 5/5

(more…)