Curriculum

Here is my link to my screencast over livemocha.com: [] Give it a few seconds (6 or so) for me to start talking. TipCam has some lag so I wait a minute rather than being cut off.

Cradleboard Teaching Project This is a curriculum site that could be used in a history class or any class in elementary grades where accurate history of Native American is needed. However, this is not just a basic history site with dull facts. Of course, it has lesson plans that you can simply click, print and follow in class from grades 3-12, but it has much more than that. It does take dedication to benefit from this though. You have to have an account and be active on their discussion board and forums for at least a year and then you are allowed to enter the Cradleboard Partners program, where Native American classes become linked with your class of the same grade level in a different part of the country. A website is created specifically for just the two classes to have discussions on a forum and do activities together. In addition to the website and the connection, teachers get a full binder of lessons to use and a school calendar so that they can be reasonably worked in. overall, I can see elementary grades finding more time for this than high schoolers and I could also see them benefiting more; however, Native American education has been slipping greatly in the last few years to the point that the Trail of Tears now gets no more than a paragraph in history textbooks. This sort of in-depth study may still be needed in high schools to really education our children about what textbooks are leaving out now. This program, however, is not only applicable to history, but you can get curriculum for music, dance, science and geography that are all based on Native American culture, so it can really be applied to pretty much any area of education. Here’s the link: http://www.cradleboard.org/

Curriki Curriki is a curriculum site that is full of lessons plans for all grades and subjects. Teachers can select what subject and grade they teach and search for what they need using keywords or they can simply browse by subject. This site is free and very user friendly. It also doubles as a social networking site for teachers to connect and share ideas or vent or just make friends. In addition to just finding small lessons, you can access full units, which would be super helpful for a new teacher in elementary especially (in fact, I wish I knew about this site my first year!). There are also interactive resources, which kids will find entertaining and will get them to learn with fewer discipline problems – as we all know! Here’s the link: []

Open Source Physics O.S.P (or Open Source Physics) is a site that is free and designed as an interactive physics supplement for teachers. It is run off Java and has a ton of simulations that kids can play around with to solidify what they learn in school. Of course, there are lesson plans that can simply be printed and come with worksheets attached, but there are also discussion boards, simulations, and models. In addition to all this, it’s free and it covers almost every subcategory of science imaginable, which is a bit deceptive based on the name. Here’s the link: http://www.opensourcephysics.org/