Instructional Links

General | The Arts | Foreign Language | History & Social Studies | Language Arts | Mathematics | Science | Technology

General

• Virginia's Community of Learning: A Global Resource is the title of the Commonwealth's new learning portal. This is a Web site that provides curriculum, instructional, technology and professional resources for educators and students. It appears to be one of the most comprehensive educational sites on the Internet.
• edhelper.com has free lesson plans, math worksheets, word and critical thinking problems, Webquests, and other educational materials.
• A to Z Teacher Stuff features on-line lesson plans, thematic units, literature resources, and teacher tips.
• www.bigchalk.com is a learning portal for students, teachers, librarians, and parents.
• www.epals.com--If you would like your class to carry out a collaborative learning project with students from another state or country, ePals is the site to visit. There are over 65,000 classrooms representing 182 countries using this service.
• www.cnnfyi--As you would expect from a site sponsored by CNN, this site is a rich resource for information on current events.
Teaching K-8 IdeaSite is the Web site of the magazine of the same name.
• ThinkQuest^®is an educational initiative committed to building and redefining "community" by challenging learners of all ages to create high-quality educational Web sites. The result is a library of over 1,000 sites created by students and teachers from around the world. There is also a database of lesson plans for incorporating the Web sites into your curriculum.
• FunBrain.com features 30 educational games, such as Math Baseball, that children can play on-line. There are also resources for parents and teachers.
• Encyclopaedia Britannica has made the on-line version of its encyclopedia available at no cost. You can access it at britannica.com. Please note that the initial demand for this service overwhelmed Britannica's Web server, so you may have to try several times before you reach the actual content.

• Teachers.Net is one of the most comprehensive teaching-oriented sites on the World Wide Web.
• The Library of the University of Virginia: UVa's Alderman Library has embraced the Internet as a means of providing access to a wealth of digital media. The library's digital holdings include Electronic Centers that provide resources for teaching literature, geography, music, and the social sciences.

• Odyssey of the Mind: The official Web site of the OM Association, Inc., the organization that runs the international Odyssey of the Mind competition.
• The Internet Public Library is an attempt to organize the vast resources of the Internet along the principles of good librarianship. It includes links to the full texts of many works of literature and scholarship.

• The BrainStation: A directory of K12 resources

• The Core Knowledge™ Web site has many high-quality lesson plans for preschool through eighth grade. This site is based on the work of University of Virginia professor E. D. Hirsch, Jr. Dr. Hirsch's work also influenced the Virginia Standards of Learning, so you can be sure you will find a lot of lesson plans that correlate with the SOL's.
• K-12 Teaching Resources on Yahoo: This link takes you directly to Yahoo's comprehensive list of K-12 teaching resources.

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The Arts

• K-12 Arts Resources on Yahoo: This link takes you directly to Yahoo's comprehensive list of K-12 arts instructional resources.

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Foreign Language

• VDOE Foreign Language Instructional Activities and Resources 

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Language Arts

• If your young readers are curious about the people who created their favorite books, Learning About The Author and Illustrator Pages is a great Web site to introduce them to their favorite authors and illustrators. This site has links to over 600 author/illustrator sites in alphabetical order.
• Need resources for teaching literature to grades K-6? Marcia Goudie has put together a Web site with many reading and literacy links for young students.
• K-12 Reading Resources on Yahoo: This link takes you directly to Yahoo's comprehensive list of K-12 reading instructional resources.
• ERIC: The ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication is dedicated to providing educational materials, services, and coursework to everyone interested in the language arts.
• PALS: Phonological Awareness & Literacy Screening activities from the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education.
• The New Bartleby is an on-line collection of poetry, essays, and fiction. Authors range from Thomas Payne to W.E.B. Du Bois. There is an emphasis on 20th century poetry. It also includes the inaugural addresses of every U.S. President through George Bush.

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Mathematics

• Eric Weisstein's World of Mathematics bills itself as the Web's most comprehensive mathematics resource. The site is most useful for students taking advanced math courses.
• K-12 Math Resources on Yahoo: This link takes you directly to Yahoo's comprehensive list of K-12 math instructional resources.
• The Math Forum is an online community devoted to mathematics and math education. It has resources for elementary through college levels. The site features a Problem of the Week competition, with math problems for elementary and middle school students, and problems for higher-level students studying geometry, algebra, trigonometry and calculus.
• Eisenhower National Clearinghouse for Mathematics and Science Education is a portal to the best science and mathematics resources available on the Internet.
• MEGA Mathematics: Sponsored by the Los Alamos National Library, this site features story problems that can engage children at a variety of different grade levels. The emphasis is on using math to solve real-world problems. For example, in one activity, students try to determine how many colors are required to produce a map.

• Math teachers and students who are using the Texas Instruments TI-89 graphing calculator will find tips, free software, and other resources on the Texas Instruments calculators Web site.

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Science

• If you have trouble getting your students interested in learning about latitude and longitude, then add a bit of local flavor to your lesson. This link shows you how to use Microsoft's Terraserver Web site to locate an aerial image of any location in Smyth County and superimpose a latitudinal and longitudinal grid over the image.
• You can create maps from GIS (Geographic Information Systems) data at ESRI's ArcData Online site. The University of Virginia's Library lets you create themed maps of any Virginia county at the Virginia County Interactive Mapper Web site.
• You can view aerial images of most locations in the United States at Microsoft's Terraserver Web site. The images have very good resolution--you can see details as small as sidewalks.
• www.brainium.com is a science resource targeting students and teachers in grades 3-8. Its curriculum is aligned with the National Science Education Standards.
• Science teachers can localize their units on precipitation by monitoring how much rain has fallen in Smyth County. The National Weather Service has seven automated rain gauges in Smyth County. Data from these gauges is updated every 15 minutes on a Web site. You can also view archived rainfall data for Smyth County and other Virginia counties. Finally, the National Weather Service's Blacksburg Regional Office has a Web site with lots of additional climatic data that you will find useful in teaching science.
• www.exploratorium.edu is the Web site of San Francisco's Exploratorium. There are lots of science activities here. If you are using frogs in your biology class, be sure to visit the frogs exhibit.
• K-12 Science Resources on Yahoo: This link takes you directly to Yahoo's comprehensive list of K-12 science instructional resources.
• Eisenhower National Clearinghouse for Mathematics and Science Education is a portal to the best science and mathematics resources available on the Internet.
• National Geographic: The quality of this Web site is on a par with the magazine, which is very high indeed. There are outstanding geography resources for students and teachers, including a selection of maps that you can print and use at no cost (as long as you are using them for non-commercial purposes).

• The United States Geological Survey (USGS) is charged with documenting the nation's water, geological,  and biological resources. Its Web site features a Learning Web, devoted to K-12 education. The Learning Web includes a set of lesson plans and activities on topics such as mapping, global changes, earth science, caves, and volcanoes.
• The Virginia County Interactive Mapper lets you create a map of any Virginia county. It is a great resource for teaching Earth Science SOLs.
• America's Roof features a list of the highest points in the United States, along with first-person accounts from people who have ascended those heights. Be sure to read the Mt. Rogers account.
• SpringWalker™: This site includes links to biology and physics teaching resources on a new class of machine that amplifies humans' walking and running motions.
• The U.S. Government's official time Web site. lets you synchronize your watches and clocks to the official time. You can find resources on the history of timekeeping, calendars, and other aspects of time for your students.

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History & Social Studies

• The National History Day is not just one day, but a yearlong education organization that makes history come alive through educator professional development and active student learning.
• The Roanoke Times & World News has published a three-part series on the history of Saltville. One of the articles showcases The Museum of the Middle Appalachians.
• Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids is a terrific site for social studies resources. It has areas for all grade levels. Content runs the gamut from simple cartoons that will appeal to young students to the full text of important historical documents, such as the Constitution and the Federalist Papers.
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• Second-grade teachers working on the Egypt SOL will find this site very worthwhile. There are over a dozen primary units on ancient Egyptian culture, including hieroglyphs, lesson plans, and how to build a paper model of a Pharoah's death mask. Be sure to visit the hieroglyph translator. Please note that a couple of the links on this site don't work, or are linked to sites that run very slowly. The Pyramids link is one that doesn't work. If you need information on the Pyramids, try the PBS Nova virtual tour of the Great Pyramid, or visit the National Geographic site.
• K-12 History Resources on Yahoo: This link takes you directly to Yahoo's comprehensive list of K-12 history instructional resources.
• K-12 Social Studies Resources on Yahoo: This link takes you directly to Yahoo's comprehensive list of K-12 social studies instructional resources.
• In 2007, we will celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown. In preparation of that event, Virginia Tech, the University of Virginia, the Virginia Center for Digital History, and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities & Public Policy have created a Web site devoted to Jamestown. The site includes teaching materials, a timeline, photos and maps, and documents produced by the original settlers.

• The New Bartleby is an on-line collection of poetry, essays, and fiction. Authors range from Thomas Payne to W.E.B. Du Bois. There is an emphasis on 20th century poetry. It also includes the inaugural addresses of every U.S. President through George Bush.
• The National Park Service is entrusted with caring for our country's natural and historical treasures. Its Web site enables you to learn more about these treasures. You can even take a "virtual tour" of sites such as Abraham Lincoln's home.
• The mission of the Virginia Center For Digital History is to develop high-quality, well-researched, and reliable history materials for the World Wide Web and deliver them to schools, colleges, libraries, historical societies, and the general public. Based at the University of Virginia in Alderman Library, the Center's goal is to make history in a digital format, make it widely accessible, appealing, and useful. Center projects include the award-winning Valley of the Shadow Project and two new online digital history initiatives--a History of Modern Virginia Project and an African American History Project.

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Technology

• The Virginia Department of Education has published A Handbook for Technology Integration that will help teachers integrate technology into their instruction. The handbook includes model lesson plans.
• Do you want to learn more about the Microsoft Windows operating system and Microsoft Office? Microsoft has a series of free Web-based tutorials to help you learn the basics of this software. Tutorials are also available for Publisher, Microsoft's desktop publishing program; Microsoft Works for Windows and the Macintosh; and FrontPage, Microsoft's Web authoring software. For more information, visit: www.microsoft.com/education/tutorial/classroom/.
• The Hands-On Technology Program is a collaborative effort between AT&T and a New Jersey public school system to develop science experiments and other hands-on activities using everyday, inexpensive materials. It includes material lists and teaching tips.
• The VitaLinks page has links to a number of lesson plans for middle school classes. A unique feature of these lesson plans is that they integrate Microsoft Office 97 applications (Word, PowerPoint, Access, and Excel) into classroom instruction. The Smyth County School System is planning to purchase Office 97 with the new computers that it will place in seventh- and eighth-grade teachers' classrooms later this spring. Each lesson plan is linked to one or more Virginia SOLs.
• Microsoft has a Web site with lots of ideas for integrating computer applications into the elementary, middle, or high school classroom.

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This page was last updated on November 14, 2002.