Six Websites Every Homeschooler Should Know About
by Michelle Kretzschmar
www.diycollegerankings.com
There are gajillions of education related websites out there. Some
focus on the ins and outs of homeschooling. Others provide subject
content, science, history, foreign language, you name it-it's there.
And then there are the ones on how to teach the content. Some are
amazing, others not so much. Some are current, others are populated
with dead links. It's really overwhelming. You can't possibly keep
track of them all.
I don't know about you but I can start of looking for specific
resources on the Battle of Gettysburg and find myself an hour later on
a site for poetry about science. In the process, I've bookmarked about
half of the sites I traveled to in between because they are really
very cool sites and I'm sure that I'll use them one day. Did I
mentioned that I've recently abandoned my bookmarks and decided to
just start over?
Anyway, over the years, I have found some sites to be more reliable
than others and always a good place to start a search for lesson plans
and contents. So I'm listing them here. I'm sure I'm missing many good
sites, please feel free to let me know which ones. However, I do have
a few criteria for sites to be included on the list.
They have to have been around for a while. There are some great new
sites out there and they may be in for the long haul but it's not yet
an establish fact. I have consistently used these sites over many
years and many grades.
And so comes requirement two, they need to cover a wide age range,
within reason. So this list excludes
Khan Academy,
Connexions, HippoCampus,
and the open courseware available from a number of universities. These
are excellent sites for high schoolers but don't do much for
elementary level.
The final requirement is that they have to be easy to use. No long
registration requirements (too bad
C-SPAN) and not be glitchy or result in frequent encounters with
broken links (sorry CASES
Online.)
Ultimately, the majority of these sites "curate" other sites which
means that they are keeping track of new sites and which sites are
still functioning. This is good news for you since you don't have to
bookmark every site you come across and tag them appropriately. These
sites are doing it for you.
Must Know Sites in No Particular Order
Federal Resources for Education
Excellence
Includes more than 1,5000 federally supported
teaching and learning resources from dozens of federal agencies. New
resources are added regularly. You can search by subject or views new
sites in the New Resources section.
EDSITEment!
This site
is maintained by the National Endowment for the Humanities. It has
three major sections: Lesson Plans, Websites, and Student Resources.
You can search lesson plans by grades, subjects, and the number of
class periods required. The website section is useful since it
includes non-federal websites. And if you ever need to scrap your
lesson plan for the day and want to find a quick substitute, check out
their calendar of historical events.
NASA
for Educators
You will find everything NASA for educators at
this site. It includes an education calendar, TV schedule, programs
for students and teachers, podcasts, and, of course, teaching
materials. You can search the teaching materials by grade, type of
material, and subject area.
Digital Library
for Earth System Education (DLESE)
Here you'll find anything
related to teaching and learning about the Earth System. The resources
include lesson plans, data, interactive models, and field trips. You
can search by grade, resources type, collections, or standards.
PBS Teachers
PBS
provides web resources that go beyond what appears on it's stations.
The site includes lesson plans for various programs along with media
clips and supporting activities. Not only can you search by the
usual grade, topic, and resources types, but you can also select
specific programs.
Cool Science
Nice collections of videos, animations, lectures, and virtual labs.
There's also a section where you can "Ask a Scientist." If you're
looking for something different than your set curriculum for science,
this is a place to start. And you can search for resources by type,
topic, and grade level.
Other sites to keep an eye on:
These are still thin in some of their content areas but I would
expect them to grow rapidly.
CK-12 FlexBooks Library
iTunes U
These I haven't used but are recommended by others.
National Science Digital Library
Illumniations
Beta sites, need I say more?
BBC Schools
National Geographic Education
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