This is the time of year when teachers worry about math facts and the automaticity of math skills. The following websites focus solely on that facet of math. I’ve broken them down by grade level, but you can decide if your second graders are precocious enough to try the websites for grades 3-5 (click here for an UTD list):

K

• K Math Skills
• Math Videos (not practice, but fun to watch)
• Money flashcards
• Numbers

1^st

• First Grade math skills
• Money flashcards
• Numbers

2^nd

• Math Flashcards
• Math Practice Test
• Mental Math
• Mental Math Drills
• Minute Math
• More Quick Math
• Multiplication Tables (more…)

This list covers all sorts of science from nature to geology. Like with the math websites, for my students, occasionally I put a list on the internet start page and let students go there during sponge time (click the link and see what’s up this month, so close to the end of the school year): BTW: Links go bad. Click here for an updated list.

1. Breathing earth–the environment
2. Dynamic Earth–interactive
3. Earth Science Digital Library
4. Electric Circuits Game
5. Forest Life
6. Forests
7. Geologic history
8. Geologic movies–great and fun
9. Human Body Games
10. Moon around
11. Moon—We Choose the Moon (more…)

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!Q: How often should I back up my current project? How about my whole hard drive?

A: I teach my students to save early, save often when they’re working on a project. You decide what you can tolerate losing. Ten minutes or Ten hours. After all, if the computer loses your work, you’re the one who has to start over.

As for the entire computer, once a week is good. Me, I save each project I’m working on and then save-as to a back-up location. I hate losing my work.

BTW, most people skip this. Don’t! It’s easy.

Questions you want answered? Leave a comment here and I’ll answer it within the next thirty days.

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Here are quick, safe spots to send your students for research (for updates to this list, click here):

1. All-around research site libraryspot.com
2. Dictionary www.dictionary.com
3. Edutainment site—requires subscription www.brainpop.com/
4. General info research www.infoplease.com/yearbyyear.html
5. Internet research sites for kids http://ivyjoy.com/rayne/kidssearch.html
6. Kids search engine for the internet kids.yahoo.com (more…)

Every Friday, I’ll send you a wonderful website (or more) that my classes and my parents love. I think you’ll find they’ll be a favorite of your students as they are of mine.

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As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!Q: My homepage got hijacked! I mean, it no longer opens up to what it used to. How do I fix that?

A: Go to the page you want as your homepage. Here’s what you do next:

• If you’re in Firefox, go to Tools–Options
• Click on General
• Click the button that says, Use Current
• Say OK

If you use IE: (more…)

This list has a little bit of everything, and will kick-start your effort to put technology into your lesson plans:

1. 10 Tech Alternatives to Book Reports
2. Analyze, read, write literature
3. Animations, assessments, charts, more
4. Biomes/Habitats—for teachers
5. Create a magazine cover
6. Create free activities and diagrams in a Flash! (more…)

Second graders (sometimes first graders) learn about money. The only way to really ‘get it’ is by repetition, so I came up with a list of websites to provide redundancy for each type of learner. Thought I’d share them with you (check here for link updates):

1. Coin Counting
2. Counting Money
3. Money—counting
4. Piggy Bank
5. Pick A Coin
6. H.I.P. Pocket Change
7. Cash Out

Do you have any to add to this list? These are mostly for youngers–I’d love some for older age groups. (more…)

If you didn’t make it to ISTE 2011, you missed a great time. There was more going on than any sane person could absorb in a month and all 30,000+ of us attendees tried to do it in four days. The seminars cover every topic from tech integration to how to use specific programs to general trends. I tried to attend a few of each to not only learn new material but to make sure what I’m teaching is as relevant this year as when I first taught it to my classes.

Here are some of my thoughts:

• Teachers are not lecturers. We are guides, even fellow-learners
• Students learn by doing more than being taught. Encourage this
• There are a lot of ‘right’ ways to learn
• Students are problem-solvers. Let this happen
• Technology is about offering options in learning styles
• Technology offers different ways to teach different learners. Use it that way.
• Work beyond the classroom because class is too short, kids aren’t engaged the entire five hours
• Paperless classroom is possible. Figure it out.
• Virtual presentations so kids hear from the experts in real time (more…)