Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Busy Teacher's Cafe



http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/

Busy Teacher’s Café is an excellent K-6 grade Resource website for educators. This colorful and inviting website, developed by Erika Gomez-Schanne, contains free worksheets, activities, lesson plans, suggestions for classroom management and much more. Its user friendly features are well organized which makes finding resources and activities convenient and easy.

Free Printables are available for Reading, Math, Language Arts, Writing, and Classroom Management and organization with customizable forms, monthly calendars, discipline letters, behavior charts, and classroom newsletters. The Theme Activities include worksheets, lessons, and activities for both content areas and holidays or seasons. There are also Literature Activities using Favorite Books which provides lessons, resources, and links for use with children’s literature. Several of the books listed can be conveniently purchased from Amazon.

Another amazing feature is the Teacher Resources section which includes both an array and abundance of resources. The Monthly Resource Page has a variety of resources for the themes of the month all in one page which takes away the hassle of digging up activities all over the internet. The Mini-offices section provides links and tools that contain information for students to use on writing, math, or science. Teachers are able to submit and share effective and useful tips and ideas. New teachers can also benefit with tips and links to help them get off to a good start. The Classroom management section maximizes effectiveness with ideas to organize students, space, time, and materials. For those teachers who want to create their own website, there are resources, directions, links, and graphics to make it possible. This feature also focuses on literacy with Literature Strategies and Activities, Author Studies, Literacy Centers, Writing Workshops, Writing Process, Journal topics, Test Prep, Recommended book lists and many more to effectively teach literature.

For more materials and resources, teachers can check out the BTC Shop, BTC Blog, Guestbook, Sites for teachers, and posted class websites. Busy Teacher’s Café has so much to offer educators by providing reliable, practical information in almost every aspect of teaching and learning. All K-6 teachers will appreciate the free on-line curriculum resources, materials, lesson plans, teacher forms, graphic organizers, downloads, and links which contributes to success in education!

RCampus



http://www.rcampus.com/index.cfm

RCampus is a comprehensive Educational Management System and a collaborative learning environment for educators and students. Educators can utilize its open and free high quality tools to perform academic tasks easily and effectively. The main components of RCampus include: Website Builder, Build Campus Community, ePortfolios, Course Management System, Class Finder, Tutor Connection, and Book Exchange.

The Website Builder allows the educational community to utilize site templates, message boards, calendars, tag boards, member lists, and an on-line content builder in public and secure pages. Users are also able to customize their domain name. In the Build Campus Community component, faculty, committees, departments, groups and classes are able to integrate their websites. Using ePortfolios educators and students can effectively collect and organize their work. They can also create multiple portfolios to showcase accomplishments and professional growth for a lifetime.

The Course Management System provides tools for educators to manage their classes, coursework, grades and communication. From a single log in teachers can access their class website, grade book, message boards, document center, calendars, and receive email notifications. Teachers are also able to utilize the Rubrics building and assessment tool which has a variety of templates to build simple to complex rubrics that meets teacher expectations and criteria. Class Finder is a search tool for students to find classes listed by the school in order to plan out their class schedule and register for classes.

The Tutor Connection is effective for tutors to post their profile and availability and for students to easily find a tutor in the local area. Tutors can create tutor rooms with message centers to effectively communicate with their tutees. Finally, in the Book Exchange Component teachers and students can network with other schools or utilize the internal Message Center to sell and find books. Emails are safe and secure for communicating information about books.

RCampus is an excellent comprehensive Educational Management System for educators and students. It’s an easy-to-use system which provides high quality and fully integrated tools for educators and students to access from any location with just a single log in. Thus, during this time of technological advancement, this online educational management system is both beneficial and effective for collaboration amongst the educational community and professional growth in education!

Tools for Educators



http://www.toolsforeducators.com/

Tools for Educators is an awesome website for teacher resources and tools which are both versatile and free. Developed by Mark Cox, this website is an affiliate site of Mighty Education Systems (MES). It contains free worksheets, worksheet creators, printable wizard and on-line teaching material makers with images. Teachers are able to create 100% custom resources with pictures or texts by using the printout generators, game makers, and programs available.

The variety of resources include: a Word Search Maker, Dice Maker, Board Game Maker, Crossword Maker, Bingo Board Maker, Maze Maker, and Domino Maker. The Spelling Worksheet Maker and Reading Sheet Wizard allow teachers to create worksheets in three different ways: choose the correct spelling, read and choose the picture, or read and write. There are also Writing, Spelling, and Tracing handouts with images in which students can write or draw based on the picture. The Vocabulary Handout creator and Word Bank Worksheet Creator also allow teachers to create vocabulary, writing, and spelling handouts with images or text. Language Teachers will find the Listening Test Worksheet Maker useful as it utilizes audio files with MP3 downloads to match a theme of choice. To recognize student achievement, teachers can utilize the Certificate and Award Maker. All of these resources are useful for preschool, elementary, and ESL teachers as well as those who teach foreign languages such as French, Spanish, German, Greek, Japanese, and others.

This website offers other features such as top sites for Primary Games, Kids, Parents, Teachers, ESL, and TESOL max. Childcare Lounge provides links for preschool children and Alphabet Soup includes websites for more Teacher and Parent Resources. For additional resources and materials, teachers can explore more features such as Flash cards, Certificates, Calendars, Sticker Charts, and Cards in sponsored links from 123PrintCards.com, 123 PrintCalendars.com, and 123Certificates.com. Also, matching ready-to-print flashcards, games, worksheets, and phonics materials are available at MES-English.com. With all of these provided links, teachers will find a wealth of resources and materials for their lessons.

Tools for Educators is an amazing website for teachers who are looking for ways to provide fun and versatile resources and materials for their students. Whether teachers chose ready-made worksheets or want to create and customize their own handouts based on their lesson or theme of focus, this is the perfect website! At toolsforeducators.com, preschool, elementary, ESL, and Language teachers will be able to effectively enhance their student’s learning experience!