Interactive Web Sites

As I've looked for good, interactive web sites that can be used on Smart Boards and other interactive white boards, I've found that these web sites are more likely to be accessible in groups rather than singly. So, most--although not all--of the web sites listed in today's blog entry are locations where you can browse and choose the web sites most useful to you. I think you'll find some very helpful sites in this list!


TeachersFirst (http://www.teachersfirst.com) shares an interactive web site that can be used to help study Edgar Allan Poe’s poem, The Raven. Literary devices highlighted are alliteration, assonance, internal rhyme, and vocabulary words. I think this is a very interesting approach for studying this poem, but I do have to admit that Poe is my second-most favorite poet!
http://www.teachersfirst.com/share/raven/index.html

While still at TeachersFirst, check out the featured sites for the week of September 30, 2007. You’ll find several interactive web sites that look very useful…

• BBC-GCSE Bitesize English, recommended for teaching writing in grades 8 through 12
• and other web sites: reading, upcoming elections, oceans, music

http://www.teachersfirst.com/feature.cfm

Teacher Magazine (http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/) features the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives which has more than 100 free digital games, tutorials, and virtual manipulatives. PreK through grade 12 students can practice a variety of mathematics concepts aligned with the standards. Activities range from playing with virtual blocks to programming a “turtle” to navigate a maze.
http://www.nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html

Readers of Edutopia in a survey taken in 2006 (http://www.edutopia.org/best-site-download-free-lessons-and-materials) considered Marco Polo as the best site for downloading free lessons and materials. Marco Polo is now known as Thinkfinity: Literacy, Education and Technology
(http://www.marcopolo-education.org/). I think the easiest way to search for interactive sites at Thinkfinity is to use the Search Thinkfinity search engine (http://www.thinkfinitysearch.org/MPSearch/Basic_Search.asp) with interactive as the keyword. This search engine finds the interactive web sites and indicates which professional organization (e.g., NCTE or NCTM) is responsible for them. You’ll find some very good sites here.

To learn about the Constitution, try http://edsitement.neh.gov/ConstitutionDay/ where you can interact with information gathered from documents, background essays, and a bibliography. You'll be able to read George Washington’s annotated draft of the Constitution, visualize the Founders by using an interactive painting, and participate in other interesting activities.

The NetSmartz interactive web site teaches students about Internet safety. Many resources, including videos are available… and the site is up-to-date.
http://www.netsmartz.org/

Interactive Websites for Grades PreK-12 in reading, language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, and assessment are available.
http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/interactive.htm

teacher tap has interactive web sites, games, and activities for a variety of areas.
http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic86.htm

Interactive Websites for the Primary Grades as compiled by Sue LeBeau for mathematics, literacy, science, and miscellaneous topics are available.
http://www.suelebeau.com/priminteractive.htm

Elementary Mathematics Sites can be found at http://edweb.tusd.k12.az.us/ekowalcz/math/elementary_web_sites.htm.

Ten Cool Sites provides some interesting sites at the Exploratorium when you do a search for interactive.
http://apps.exploratorium.edu/10cool/index.php?searchtext=interactive&cmd=search&submit.x=0&submit.y=0