A Teacher's Journal: Websites to Explore

iTunes Podcast Library
http://www.apple.com/itunes/

Yup--you read that right! iTunes is quite possibly one of the best instructional tools that teachers and parents can use to support the learning of their children. You see, iTunes has the fastest growing collection of podcast programs being created by and for teachers available online.

There are regular programs supporting developing writers (seek out Grammar Girl and the Princeton Vocabulary Review Minute), developing foreign language students (with courses covering German, Spanish, French and Latin), developing scientists (I like Dr. Carlson, the EcoGeeks and the National Geographic Video Shorts) and developing mathematicians (although I can't count, so I'd better not make any recommendations here :).

Many of these programs are audio recordings that can be downloaded to a computer and played time and again--or to your child's iPod for learning on the run. Several are also video recordings, adding a visual element to learning. Most podcast programs are episodic-- meaning that new recordings are available on a regular basis.

Oh yeah, and podcasts are almost always entirely free!

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives
http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html

Who would have thought that Utah State University would have developed one of the most significant mathematics teaching tools available on the web?!

But that's exactly what you'll find when you visit their National Library of Virtual Manipulatives--a collection of applets that introduce students in grades K-12 to concepts ranging from Number and Operations to Data Analysis and Probability. The applets can be used for independent study by students at home or as a part of structured lessons designed by teachers.

And like iTunes, these resources are completely free!

Read-Write-Think
http://www.readwritethink.org/student_mat/index.asp

My wife is a bit upset at the Read-Write-Think people today because I stumbled upon it yesterday just as we were getting ready to sit down for dinner. "Yes, dear---I'll be down in a minute," I said. An hour later, I was still lost in digital reading teacher nirvana!

Read-Write-Think is a site that provides a collection of tools that students in grades K-12 can use to tackle a wide range of writing tasks. There are essay organizers, Venn diagram tools, outliners, character analysis supports and poetry starters---and I've only gotten through about half of the resources available on the site.

Something tells me that my dinner--as well as my wife--is going to be cold again tonight!

BBC Skillswise
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/

For some strange reason, I've always been a fan of those crazy Brits! Big Ben, Parliment, Tea and Biscuits, The Union Jack are all absolutely smashing----but it's the BBC Skillswise website that I find to be the most valuable!

Designed to support the development of basic literacy and numeracy skills in school-aged children, Skillswise contains entertaining tutorials on topics across the reading and math curriculum. This is a site that parents of upper elementary and middle school students are bound to find valuable in their efforts to "lay the foundation" for future success in their kids.

The Exploratorium
http://www.exploratorium.edu/index.html

I finished reading a biography of nuclear scientist Robert Oppenheimer recently and learned that his brother---also an accomplished physicist---ended up opening a museum called the Exploratorium in San Francisco.

Being naturally curious, I tracked down the Exploratorium online and was completely blown away by what I found. The Exploratorium website is easily one of the most interesting science sites that I've come across in a long time. There are interactive cow eye dissections, live webcasts of classroom programs (check out the Iron Science Teacher broadcasts) and fun simulations teaching science concepts in a constructivist way.

They even have "Extremophiles." I'm not sure what they are, but I'll bet they'll catch the attention of your kids!

Anyway---hope you find these sites to be interesting. Maybe I'll post a new list each month or so. For now, though, I'm done. I've gotta finish exploring before dinner's ready or I'm a dead man!