New Teacher Web Sites
Help and Advise for New Teachers from Teachers
Beginning Teacher’s Tool Box
http://www.inspiringteachers.com
This site, by the veteran teachers of Inspiring Teachers Publishing Group near Dallas, Texas,USA, offers everything from an “Ask Our Mentor a Question” section where you can e-mail questions or concerns to a veteran teacher, to “Tips for New Teachers” that include inspiration, humor and top 10 things to do before school starts. Be sure to check out the Beginning Teachers Message Board where you can ask for or offer advice.
Teachers Helping Teachers
http://www.pacificnet.net/~mandel/index.html
“By teachers, for teachers’ is the goal of this site. Here, middle school teacher Scott Mandel andother contributing educators provide basic teaching tips to beginning teachers – things that they can immediately implement in the classroom. It offers lesson plans and has features like “Poem of the Week” and “This Week’s Stress Reduction Moment.” This site also has a list of education websites organized by subject area and topic.
Teachers.net: Mentor Support Center
http://www.teachers.net
Beginning teachers will definitely want to check out the “Mentor Support Center” from
Teachers.net. This feature brings together educators in category-specific chats, such as the chatboard specifically for beginning teachers. The site also includes lesson plans, live meetings, a bookshelf with a list of useful resources , and a newsletter.
I Love Teaching.com
http://www.iloveteaching.com
Designed to encourage new teachers and those studying to be teachers, I love Teaching.com offers the experiences and wisdom of a veteran teacher. Click “Tid-bits” for a list of things a rookie teacher wishes that she had known before stepping into the classroom.
The New Teacher Center
http://www.newteachercenter.org/
The New Teacher Center (NTC) at University of California Santa Cruz is a national resource dedicated to teacher development and new teacher training, and the support of programs and practices that promote excellence and diversity in America's teaching force.
What to Expect Your First Year of Teaching
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/FirstYear/
The U.S. Dept. of Education offers this FREE online book (in PDF format, requiring Acrobat Reader): a compilation of award-winning first-year teachers’ experiences, challenges and successes. It includes tips on how to have a successful first year, advice from veteran teachers and a discussion about the things for which no training could have prepared new teachers.
Great Expectations: Helpful Hints for Beginning Teachers
http://www.positiveparenting.com/resources/feature_article_018.html
“When the door closes and all those faces are looking up at me, will I have something to say?” “Will I ever be able to fill all those hours until Lunch?” “What if a parent comes to me and can only say, “You’re the teacher?” Positive Parenting On-Line answers these and other essential questions new teachers have – and shouldn’t be afraid to ask.
Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators
http://discoveryschool.com/schrockguide/
Kathy Schrock, who has recently moved to the Discovery Channel Online, provides a list of education websites so well organized that you don’t have to be an Internet whiz to find
something you can use. Click on one of Schrock’s famous pencils to find info you can use.
The New Teacher’s Guide to the U.S. Department of Education
http://www.ed.gov/PDFDocs/tchguide.pdf
Every teacher, beginning or veteran, should know how to use the resources of the U.S.
Department of Education. This document in Acrobat Reader (PDF) format explains many of the educational acts under the direction of the DOE and the FREE services and information available to assist educators in complying with those acts in addition to other classroom resources and thinks you didn’t realize you need.
MentorNet – An Online Supplement to Pathwise Training
http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/edhd/programs/MentorNet
This site presents information on Pathwise’s four domains and related 19 criteria, an overview of the Pathwise observation and mentoring program, an overview of an assessment tool for the evaluation of first-year teachers, the home page of the Ohio Department of Education, the State of Ohio’s Teacher Education Licensure Standards, websites of projects that are conducting Goals 2000 grants and activities, definitions of terms related to Pathwise, frequently asked question to Pathwise issues, and an online Pathwise forum.
Ohio Resource Center for Mathematics, Science and Reading
http://www.ohiorc.org/
This website contains instructional resources – lesson plans and units rated as best or promising practices; content resources – support for classroom instruction including data sets, tutorials and applets; professional resources – support for teacher learning, including research, policy and standards; assessment resources – specific assessment items or tasks, correlated to Ohio and national standards; general educational resources – resources beyond specific content areas, designed to support effective practice.
Free Text to Speech Downloads
ReadPlease
www.readplease.com
NaturalReaders
www.naturalreaders.com
Help Read
http://helpread.net
ClickSpeak - if you use Firefox as your web browser for Mac and Windows
http://clickspeak.clcworld.net/index.html
WordTalk - a plug-in for Word for Windows. It places a toolbar inside your word document that provides speech feedback with highlighting as well as a talking spell checker. Type “wordtalk” into the search field. Please read the download instructions carefully as there are two files that you need to download and install.
www.oatsoft.org/software
Trace – Accessibility Tools
http://trace.wisc.edu/world/computer_access/win95/win95sha.html
Free Screen Reader
Thunder
www.screenreader.net
Internet Organization Tools for Students
TrackStar - Collect Web sites, enter them into TrackStar, add annotations for your students, and you have an interactive, online lesson called a Track. Create your own Track or use one of the hundreds of thousands already made by other educators.
http://trackstar.4teachers.org/trackstar/
netTrekker d.i. – a search engine for schools, supports differentiated instruction with standards-based online resources, organized by readability level. Free trial, but subscription service after that. http://www.nettrekker.com/di/
Center for Implementing Technology in Education - CITEd is supporting school districts in using technology to provide differentiating instruction.
http://www.cited.org/index.aspx
Online Curriculum Resources
Google- Type in topic followed by “kids” to find content in a “kid friendly” format
www.google.com
Kidipede-History for Kids
http://www.historyforkids.org
World Almanac for Kids Online
http://www.worldalmanacforkids.com
Social Studies for Kids
http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com
Hyper History Online
timelines and maps divide content links into categories…math, science history http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/History_n2/a.html
Facts Encyclopedia for Kids
http://www.refdesk.com/kids.html
Science Made Simple
http://www.sciencemadesimple.com
INFOHIO - Information Network for Ohio Schools
www.infohio.org
Webmath - Online Homework Help Tool
www.webmath.com
SpellingTime.com - is an interactive tool designed to prepare children for weekly spelling tests by utilizing a fun, dynamic approach. Parents or children can enter the spelling words each Monday and SpellingTime.com will create a 4 step, instructional learning program
http://www.spellingtime.com/
Funschool Kaboose- Fun games for Early learning.
http://funschool.kaboose.com
PBS Kids – Reading Between the Lions- initial, medial, final sounds identification - Grades k-2 http://pbskids.org/lions/games/ears2.html
Alfy.com - Online stories that could be used to focus on social situations (new school, fight with sibling, etc.) - other resources are available throughout this site as well: http://www.alfy.com/games/learning/
Literactive: Need to register, however resources are free. Materials range from leveled reading games, printable resources, poems, games, etc. http://www.literactive.com/Home/index.asp
Starfall: A learn-to-read online resource. Materials available on this site include ‘live’ stories, download printouts cover such topics as classification, silly stories (with rebus word bank), word search, label
www.starfall.com
Ten by Ten Current Events
www.tenbyten.org
Tek Mom-search tools for kids
www.tekmom.com
Scott Foresman Reading: Textbooks often have websites that provide free activities to go along with their text book.
http://www.sfreading.com
Kids Magazines Online
Time for Kids : http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/
Weekly Reader Online: http://www.weeklyreader.com
Sports Illustrated for Kids: http://www.sikids.com/index.html
American Girl : http://www.americangirl.com/agcn/index.html
Zoo Books : http://www.zoobooks.com
National Geographic for Kids: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngkids/
Scholastic News: http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/
Online Books
Children’s Storybooks Online
http://www.magickeys.com/books/
Online Books
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/search.html
Project Gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/
Bibliomania
http://www.bibliomania.com/
Page by Page Books
http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/
Books read by people
Actor’s Guild – “Storytime Online” - 17 popular picture books read by actors – story activities included: http://www.storylineonline.net
Book Pop Books and stories read by author
http://www.bookpop.com/index2.html
Word Prediction Software
Skippy Word Predictions (60 day demo)
http://www.tni.be/products/word-prediction-start.php
Organizational Tools
Writing Competency Assignment Guide
http://www.rio.maricopa.edu/distance_learning/tutorials/writing_guide/create_a_paper.shtml
Read Write Think – time organizer
http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/timeline/index.html
Assignment Calculator
http://www.lib.umn.edu/help/calculator/
NoodleTools- Bibliography Tool
http://www.noodletools.com/tools.htm/
Multimedia Authoring Tools
Photo Story 3 - a free Windows-based program that lets you quickly create a slideshow using PowerPoint with narration, music and special effects. Here is a link to an article from Technology and Learning that provides some curriculum-based applications for this program.http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.php?articleID=196604105
Photo Story 3 -
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx
CAST Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Book Builder. Use this site to create digital books that build reading skills for children, ages 3–10. Your universally designed books will engage and support diverse learners according to their individual needs, interests, and skills.
http://bookbuilder.cast.org/
Other Online Resources for Differentiated Instruction
Using Technology to support Diverse Learners
http://www.wested.org/cs/tdl/view/tdl_tip/40
Differentiated Instruction
http://www.frsd.k12.nj.us/rfmslibrarylab/di/differentiated_instruction.htm
Online, Video, and Print Resources for Differentiated Instruction
http://www.gpschools.org/ci/diff/resources.htm
Providing Authentic Multi-leveled Instruction
http://www.coe.wayne.edu/wholeschooling/WS/Links/WSCLX3AuthTch.html
Better Living Through Technology: http://www.betterlivingthroughtechnology.com/index.htm
Internet4Classrooms
http://www.internet4classrooms.com/index.htm
Classroom Solutions in Assistive Technology
http://intranet.nwoet.org/karen/default.htm
Fulfilling the Promise of Differentiation –Carol Tomlinson
http://www.caroltomlinson.com/other.html
