Primary Resources

Click here to research

This website is amazing.  Federal resources for educational excellence. Great for student research in areas of social studies and science.

Vaudville - Primary Resource

Another Great Resource

Link to Teacher Resources and On-Line Student Activities

Tons of stuff on this website, free.

Teaching a Themed Unit: Pinterest to the Rescue

I am combining my love of Pinterest with my love of planning and organization.  Now, I am creating boards and treating them as folders to hold all my resources for teaching any given unit.  I can include books, videos, blogs, websites, photos, maps, travel brochures, scanned primary source material, etc.  I know many people may already be doing this, but it just occurred to me.  I can spend 15-30 minutes gathering resources from the web, and have MORE than enough material to teach any given unit.  For example, one of my boards is called The School of Athens.  This simple little unit can actually cover art, history, science, math, literature, writing and drama.  For example, the chemistry involved in preparing lime for fresco is quite high level (and dangerous!) and extremely interesting.  Not to mention, many of the scholars that appear in the painting are early scientists and mathematicians. The painting holds the unit together, with endless instructional possibilities spanning across the curriculum.

link to School of Athens Board

Editing Resource

Click Here For Peer Edit Form

I will probably tweak this, but it is a great start.  There are some examples on how to model peer editing as well.  I feel this is such a crucial part of the writing process.  One of the most important elements to make this successful is the culture of the classroom. Without a safe space, kids will not take this seriously.