High Def Teacher

High Def Teacher is a a totally free community of teachers dedicated to finding the best resources on the web and the site provides links to resources that are divided up by content area, top rated, and newest.  On the main page you will see the most recently shared resources and an average rating for each site.  Also you will find the "Site if the Week" for each content area based resource.  You will also find a feature article on the right side of the page.  Visitors to the site can also submit their own resources and participate in forums as well.  If interested you can follow High Def Teacher on Facebook and Twitter.

Nota - Whiteboard Collaboration

"Nota allows users to mash your ideas and media together with friends in a dynamic whiteboard wiki. Using photos, videos, and other web content you can instantly create brainstorms, presentations, scrapbooks, and enjoy an interactive chat with more than 50 friends."
"Using Nota’s proprietary toolset, users can instantly integrate text, video, maps, clip art, photos from web album or on the local computer, or license-free images from Flickr, and material from an ever-expanding array of sources. Users can then instantly embed their work in Facebook or blogs, and can share and collaborate with friends."

To see Nota in action check out the video on their About page.

Prezi Theme Wizard

Prezi, one of my favorite new tools has finally created a Theme Wizard for their colors and fonts, thus allowing for even more personalization.  They have also made it a lot easier to embed a YouTube video as well by providing a simple URL copy and paste window.  Below you will see three screen shots and each one will explain what the new Theme Wizard allows you to do.

Theme Wizard Page 1 allows users to select various background colors as well as upload a logo to the presentation.  The logo is limited to a 250x100 pixel image.

Theme Wizard Page 2 allows users to choose both the font AND color for the Title 1, Title 2, and Body text. 

Theme Wizard Page 3 allows users to choose the colors of the various frames, the shapes, arrows, and lines, as well as the highlighter color. 

What is great about the wizard is that as you make the changes, the wizard shows you what your changes will look like, so there is no going back and forth seeing how your presentation will look.  If you prefer not to use the wizard, you can also click on the "Manual" button and it will allows you to type in the color reference keys that you would like for your presentation.  This has taken a great product and made it even better. 

Weekly Core Subjects Resources

Here is another edition of Weekly Core Subjects Resources. 

English
1.) The Poe in the Pit is an interactive comic that allows you to click on icons to view images, videos, and information about Edgar Allen Poe. 

2.) Vocab Genii is a site that offers users the ability to play a game to learn vocabulary.  The game will switch up the letters and you have to put them in the right order based on the definition provided.

3.) Grammar Bytes has several features for teaching grammar.  You will find detailed definitions, exercises, handouts, presentations, and tips and rules about grammar.

4.) Creative Writing Prompts provides just what you think; prompts to help write stories, poems, blogs, etc.  There are over 300 possible prompts...almost enough for every day of the year.


5.) The National Writing Project focuses the knowledge, expertise, and leadership of our nation's educators on sustained efforts to improve writing and learning for all learners.

6.) The Poetry Archive exists to help make poetry accessible, relevant and enjoyable to a wide audience.You will find resources for teachers and students as well as valuable resources for teaching poetry.

7.) Poetry 180 is designed to make it easy for students to hear or read a poem on each of the 180 days of the school year.  

Mathematics
1.) Math Learning Games for Kids is more of a site for elementary and middle school teachers.  It seemed promising so I thought that I would share it here.  Some interesting games to learn about common math
concepts.

2.) Real World Math is designed for educators who wish to extend the concepts of the math curriculum beyond the pages of the text. Within this site you will find lesson ideas, examples, and downloads for mathematics that embrace active learning, constructivism, and project-based learning while remaining true to the standards and all while using Google Earth.

3.) That Quiz are math activities for students and teachers to help prepare for various math tests and learn various math concepts.

Science
1.) DNA from PBS is a great site to learn about DNA.  The site has videos separated into five sections.  There is also a section for Teachers with resources for using the site. 

2.) 3D Solar System Simulation is a simple simulator to learn about the location of the planets and other aspects of the solar system.

3.) The Molecular Workbench is a free, open-source tool that creates and delivers visual, interactive simulations for teaching and learning science and engineering.

Social Studies
1.) European History Interactive Map is a great way to see how the continent of Europe changed over time.  There is also a lot of statistical data available for those changes as well.  A great resource. 

2.) Teachinghistory.org is designed to help K–12 history teachers access resources and materials to improve U.S. history education in the classroom.  Resources are available for K-12 classrooms.

3.) History Matters serves as a gateway to web resources and offers other useful materials for teaching U.S. history and is designed for high school and college teachers and students,

4.) HyperHistory is an expanding scientific project presenting 3,000 years of world history with an interactive combination of synchronoptic lifelines, timelines, and maps.