Teaching Practices
The following websites will help teachers in need of new ideas, lesson plans, curriculum and technology support. In addition, these websites will help teachers with assessment practices.
Tune in at Turn-it-in
http://www.turnitin.com/static/index.html
Once papers have been uploaded, this site allows a teacher to comment on the essay, peer review, grade assignments, and check for plagiarism. Plagiarism is a major issue for many teachers because it is “easy for well-intentioned students to overlook the boundaries between what they themselves have produced and what they have slid from one screen to another” (Howard & Davies, 2009, p. 66). This website claims that it “allows educators to check students’ work for improper citation or potential plagiarism by comparing it against continuously updated databases” (http://www.turnitin.com/static/products.html#originality_checking). This can be a beneficial website for any teacher working with a written assignment.
Detect it
http://www.plagiarismdetect.com/
This website has the same features as turnitin.com, but it is a free service that students can use to ensure that they have properly cited their sources. The site was created to prevent plagiarism and is a useful site for students, parents, and educators. Sites that teach students how to cite information properly make students accountable for learning which is important in education.
Go Blogging
www.blogger.com
Higdon and Topaz (2009) discuss how creating a blog for a classroom can help “to foster deep, conceptual understanding of course material while helping to create learning environments” (p. 105) for students and teachers. The blog can be used to create pre-class discussion with students at the high school or college level. This is just one example of a website that can be used for this purpose.
Teach it and Share it
www.teachnet.com
This website is an area for teachers in multiple content areas to share lessons, exchange ideas, and explore resources to be utilized in the classroom. The activities are primarily aimed for elementary and middle school level, but there is some high school related material. An interesting link on the site is entitled Take 5 (http://www.teachnet.com/powertools/take5/index.html ). The various ideas can help extend a lesson or just become a different tool to have ready when necessary. The writer understands how teachers can benefit from learning various strategies to extend learning.
Assess Learning
http://www.score.k12.ca.us/
This is a site based on California content standards, but can become a valuable resource for elementary and high school teachers to explore resources to utilize in the classroom. The site is divided into four categories: mathematics, science, history/social science, and language arts. Each link provides resources, lesson plans, ideas, and information based on California standards for teachers to use in the classroom. The site also includes assessments that match California’s requirements, but can be used in any classroom.
Obtain Free Lesson Plans
www.lessontutor.com
This free website allows teachers to reproduce free lesson plans, worksheets and includes cross-curriculum units to be used from preschool to grade 12 in various content areas. Not each level is available, but there is enough that range between the grades that make the website useful for a teacher. The sharing of ideas for a teacher can be beneficial for gaining new strategies or methods to teach a certain topic. A fresh approach can be beneficial in connecting with students and this site may be able to offer a teacher this opportunity.
Go on a WebQuest
www.webquest.org
San Diego State University created this site to categorize various WebQuests to be utilized by classroom instructors. According to Dodge (as citied by Bates, 2008), WebQuests are “designed to use learners’ time well, to focus on using information rather than looking for it, and to support learners thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation” (p. 11). The website can be used to find, share or create a WebQuest. The ability to search a database can help a teacher to utilize technology without recreating something that already exists. Students can benefit by exploring various content areas and utilizing technology to learn, thus creating an interesting learning experience.
Created by Crystal Grace Barletta and Richard Falletta Last Updated April 13, 2009