Activities for PI Day: 19 Sites to Spark Your Students' Interest

Math teachers around the globe will be celebrating on March 14th, which commemorates the mathematical constant  π. (It is also Albert Einstein's birthday!) Wikipedia's definition is as follows: "The number π is a mathematical constant that is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter and is approximately equal to 3.14159."  There are many things that math teachers can do to make the celebration fun for their students. Please share any of your additional ideas in the comments section below.

Activities and Links- from the Lesson Plans Page

Discovering the Magical Pi- lesson plan from TeacherVision; fro grades 6-8

Estimating Pi Three Different Ways-from the New York Times Learning Network

Exploring Pi- fro from Scholastic; grades K-8



The Irrational Webquest- from Math Goodies

Lessons and Activities- from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

Lesson Plans and Other Activities for Pi Day- from Education World

Math Resources for Pi Day- from NEA

Pi Across America- activities, word problems

Pi Day- the official site offers tee shirts, videos, news and events

Pi Day Activities- Pinterest board

Pi Day Activities and Lesson Plans- from A to Z Teacher Stuff

Pi Day Fun- from the Mensa Foundation

Pi Day Teacher Resources- from the Lesson Planet

Pi Day Theme Unit- from edHelper; printables in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian

Pinterest Board About Pi

Teach π- "A one-stop Pi Day shop for teachers and number lovers"; activities, music,stories, people

Videos for Pi Day- from WatchKnowLearn; covers ages 7-18

41 Great Blogs to Follow By Subject Area

There are hundreds of thousands of education blogs out there on the web.  If you are not following anyone on Twitter in your subject area, how do you get your information? Are you registered on a wiki? Did you join any social networks like NING? Maybe some of you are even asking, "what's a wiki?" Here's a great place to start: read blogs in your area of study. Subscribe to them in a reader (RSS= really simple syndication) or via e-mail, whatever you find easier. This information should be available on the blog. Want to add any blogs to this list? Feel free to post a comment.

ART

Art of Apex High School 

The Art Teacher's Guide to the Internet 

The Teaching Palette

EARLY CHILDHOOD
A Place Called Kindergarten-teacher Jonelle Bell
Preschool Daze- preschool teacher and director Kristen Neufeld Epp
Teacher Tom

EDUCATION POLICY
Change Agency- Stephanie Sandifer blogs about education 
Practical Theory- Chris Lehman, principal of the Science Leadership Academy

Schools Matter-explores issues in public education policy

ENGLISH

The Scholastic Scribe- journalism and AP English teacher

Shakespeare Teacher 

SpeechTechie- interactive technologies you can use in language lessons and interventions.

ESL

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day- a treasure-trove of sites from this ESL/ELL teacher

Teacher Reboot Camp- Shelley Terrell's blog covers language education, training (she gives webinars) and something for every teacher

GUIDANCE COUNSELORS

School Counseling Matters: The Professional Weblog of Rick Scheibner

HISTORY

Teaching the Civil War with Technology

U.S. History Teachers' Blog 

MATH 

The Exponential Curve- written by math teacher Dan Wekselgreene, this blog seeks to "generate and share ideas for teaching high school math concepts to students whose skills are below grade level".

I Speak Math- shows how to integrate technology and mathematics; written by Julie Reulbach

Math in the Middle - written by a middle school algebra teacher

Math Teacher Mambo- Ms. Cookie posts ideas for the classroom, including lesson plans

The Number Warrior-written by Algebra I, College Algebra, and Pre-Calculus teacher Jason Dryer

SCIENCE
Action-Reaction- physics teacher Frank Noschese
Always Formative- middle school science teacher Jason Buell

Educational Technology Guy

Quantum Progress- 9th grade physics teacher's award-winning blog
Teaching Chemistry: Building a 21st Century Chemistry Classroom - high school chemistry teacher Ellena Bethea

TEACHER-LIBRARIANS

100 Best Blogs for School Librarians

AASL Blog- The American Association of School Librarians

Neverending Search- Joyce Valenza's blog for School Library Journal

Top 50 School Library Blogs

TECHNOLOGY  INTEGRATION

Free Technology For Teachers - Richard Byrne's wonderful blog with technology resources

Kathy Schrock's Kaffeeklatsch- Kathy's resources can also be found on Discovery Education's

NCS-Tech- K-8 Ed-Tech resources

Thuman Resources- Lisa Thuman's "21st Century ideas to help facilitate good teaching and learning."

WORLD LANGUAGES

Blog Italiano- Italian

CT for Language Teachers

eTools for Language Teachers- written by a French teacher from Canada

French Teacher

Learn French

Los Bloguitos- Spanish

Spanish Plans- lessons and resources for Spanish teachers

Math Teachers: Looking for 3D Geometrical Prisms? Here are 10 Sites Where You Will Find Them

One of our math teachers came to me the other day and asked me if I could find him images of 3D geometrical prisms, especially those he could print out and have his students put together. As I surfed the web for him, I started to put together a list:

3D Geometrical Shapes- Help with Math.com has lots of pre-drawn 3D shapes for your classroom

3D Shapes-print and put together a heptagonal pyramid, play the 3D Shape Game and more; for younger kids

Geometric Shapes to Print 

Google Sketch-Up Math Project- 3D shape printable templates

K6 Geometric Shapes-explains volumes and surface areas; color images

Interactive Geometry: Prisms

Interactives: Geometry 3D Shapes- in color!

Name the 3D Shapes- worksheet for younger kids

Paper Models of Polyhedra- have your students download and put together a 3D model; many to choose from

Prisms with Examples- color diagrams

44 Professional Development Opportunities

Need professional development credits? Seems that today with all the budget cuts, the only way to get a salary increase is to move across guide as well as up a step. Some will give you graduate credit and some are actually FREE! At any rate, this list should give you more than enough resources to accomplish that task.

21st Century Schools- short list of online courses


360 Education Solutions- online professional development; huge listing links to many universities

Canter -development online; graduate credit

Capella University -online coursework


Colorado State University- online graduate courses

Computer/Technology Professional Development Resources

Education Week Teacher PD Sourcebook- four main areas include Practice & Pedagogy, (i.e. differentiated instruction) Content Area, (i.e. computer/technology) Leadership. (administration) and Specific Populations. (i.e. special education) They have 730 companies listed here.


Education Week Teacher PD Directory- extensive listing of professional development opportunities

Educational Impact

Enztein-free online courses


Fine Arts Teacher Professional Development

Foreign Languages Professional Development

Free Online Graduate Courses!!!- sponsored by the Annenberg Project

The Heritage Institute -continuing education for K-12 teachers


K12 Teacher Staff Development- small course listing


Knowledge Delivery Systems- list of 8 colleges offering online courses

Learner.org

Learning Port- over 700 resources from various organizations, including the Department of Education, NEA and Edutopia. Many are free; all list the format, duration, cost, access, certificate, (if available) video, assessment, 508 compliancy and when the course was created.

Library of Congress Professional Development

Loyola Marymount Enhancement Courses- graduate credit; one of the least expensive per credit


National Council of Teachers of English- on-demand webinars

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

National Science Teachers Association Professional Development

Online Course Providers- over 75 colleges listed here

PBS TeacherLine

Plato Learning

Professional Development Institute

SAS in School

SimpleK12

Social Studies/History Professional Development Resources

Tapped In -collaborative activities, school chat sessions


Teacher-Courses.com

Teacher Education Institute- mainly 3 credit graduate courses

Teacher Online Education- site created by teachers

Teacher's Learning Center- 1, 2, & 3 credit courses; accredited nation-wide

Teachers First -Professional Resources Matrix

Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)- online education programs

The Teacher Tap -free professional development resources

Touro University Online -online courses

University of Phoenix Online - online courses; graduate credit

University of Wisconsin-Stout- online courses; graduate credit


Virtual Education- choose from a list of courses

WePapers- online study group, including free lecture notes and presentations


Wide World- developed at the Harvard Graduate School of Education