Thing 14 -Online content to explore:  Curriki, Thinkfinity, etc.

Purpose:  To learn about the various online resources that can provide self-tutoring and curriculum resources.

Background:  A variety of free curriculum resources have developed over the years – some by companies and some by educational institutions. 

Discovery Activity:

1. Choose several of the resources below to explore.  During this exploration time, your goal is to find at least 10 resources you can use or can recommend to others.  (You can save these in a Word document or in your Diigo or Del.icio.us account).

2. Explore Curriki – www.curriki.org

Please do join Curriki and the Clovis Online School group.  Find at lease 4 resources you can use and make note of them. 

3. Explore Thinkfinity – www.thinkfinity.org

Search and find a resource that you can use.

4. Explore Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators - http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/

Search and find a resource that you can use.

5. The federal government, through an initiative called FREE (Federal Resources for Educational Excellence) has made all of their department resources available to the public.  http://free.ed.gov/ .  Use this search to find something or use the Goggle government search to find other things:  http://www.google.com/unclesam.

6. There are a variety of resources listed below.  All are robust with a variety of resources and lesson plans.  Choose at least three of these and identiy at least resources that you can use.

• PBS Teacher Network – http://www.pbs.org/teachers/
• Discovery Education Network - http://school.discoveryeducation.com/
• Smithsonian – http://www.si.edu/
• Gilder Lehrman – http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/
• Library of Congress – http://www.loc.gov/families/
• Library of Congress Activities for Teachers - http://memory.loc.gov/learn/
• National Archives – http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/
• National Archives for Education - http://www.archives.gov/education/index.html
• Calisphere (UC digital resources for education) - http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/

Subject Specific Websites (English, history, math, science, etc.) - http://www.clrn.org/weblinks/index.cfm

SCORE (California specific) - http://www.score.k12.ca.us/

Teaching American History Grant Resources - http://teachingamericanhistory.org/

Teaching History - http://teachinghistory.org/

Blog Post: “Thing 14, Online Resources”:  Create a blog post about which online resources you found that you can use.  Put at least three of the web links you found into your blog post.  Explain how these can be used with students.