My 200th Post! Study Skills for Your Students: 58 Sites and Apps

All students need help with their study skills. Are your students aware of how to properly take notes? Some think that writing down every word will help them. Others can take notes but don't seem to be able to manage their time.I've put together a listing which will work for our 21st Century digital learners, as it includes smartphone apps. There are thousands of apps out there and it is impossible to cover all of them, so if you have a suggestion, please add to the comments below.

UPDATED 2/9/18

SITES
100 Self-Help & Study Skills for Students with ADD

Comprehensive Guide to Better Study: 53 Smart Tips for Students- 6 parts

Create a Good Environment for Studying at Home- from Edutopia

Easy Notecards- "Easy Notecards is a place for students and teachers to create, study, print and share interactive notecards (flashcards) for their textbooks."

Education Atlas-study skills guides for students, including general guides, test-taking guides and study skills by subject area

Effective Study Skills- written by Dr. Bob Kizlik

Effective Ways to Study Better- from EliteWritings.com

Five Lessons for Note Taking Fun-  from Education World; each is marked for the appropriate grade

Good Study Habits- from Lesson Tutor

How to Actually Enjoy Studying- terrific post from Ivy Panda which uses infographics to easily explain the studying process.

How to Improve Study Skills in Middle School- there are 7 tips on this site, as well as some helpful videos. The only annoying part is the ads which are visible (you can click "x" to close them) while you are trying to watch the videos.

How to Study.com- excellent site has loads of information, including SAT study tips, good listening in class, test anxiety and taking notes in class.

How to Study Effectively- covers study skills, reading, test taking; site states "suitable for all ages"

The Learning Toolbox- modules for students, teachers and parents; from James Madison University

Mastering Your Time- explains how to manage your time

Mondofacto- geared towards secondary to college aged students, there is help with research, writing, testing

MyNoteit- online note taking tool for students; take, edit, share notes

Notetaking Paper- generates a pdf which you can print

Notetaking Skills

Note-taking Video- from Dartmouth University; runs 8.24 minutes.

Setting Useful Goals

Steps to Effective Textbook Reading

Study Guides and Strategies- very comprehensive listing includes Learning and Studying, Project and Time Management, Writing and Vocabulary, Thinking and Evaluation, Reading and Research and Math and Science.

Study Navigator- special search for research, including encyclopedias, thesauri, dictionaries and more

Study Skills for Students- from Education Corner; guides include Study Skills, Test-Taking and Resources By Subject.

Study Skills Guide- tips, strategies

Study Skills Help and Study Tips- this is a downloadable file

Study Skills Tips and Homework Help for Math

Study Tips- for secondary students; includes writing help, test-taking tips, learning information

Summarizing- information includes printable worksheets in English and Spanish

Teaching Elementary Students How to Study- from the National Committee for Research and Technology in Educational Communities

TeAchnology Resources- study skills activities, success packs and how to improve study skills

SMARTPHONE APPS

Android
Evernote- remember everything, from to-do list to websites; create documents

Remember the Milk- task manager

Spanish Droid Flashcards Free- "Spanish Droid FlashCards has a translation dictionary, in addition to an array of flash cards with commonly used phrases, verbs, adjectives, nouns, days, weeks, colors, months, and seasons."

StudyBlue Flash Cards- for Android

StudyDroid Free- "create flashcards on your Android device or online at StudyDroid's website, and then sync them."

Vocab Builder Lite- (also $$ version) Android app helps you build vocabulary 

Blackberry
Evernote- remember everything, from to-do list to websites; create documents

Flash Cards- basic math problems

General English Assessment Quiz- 5,000+ multiple choice questions for GRE, TOEFL, IELTS, SAT.

Learn Spanish- ($) 256 audio lessons; also available for English, French, Italian

MathSP SAT and PSAT Math Prep

Moo Math Lite- for very young kids

NElements Free- periodic table of elements

Practice English Grammar

Solar System Q Fact Book

Student Buddy- ($) organize assignments etc.

Student Notes- for high school students; covers algebra, geometry, trigonometry, grammar, physics, biology, chemistry, etc.

iPhone
Biology Exambuster: Nerves

Dictionary.com iPhone App- free download gives you a dictionary at your fingertips.

EleMints: Periodic Table-  ($)

Evernote- remember everything, from to-do list to websites; create documents

Flashcards Deluxe- this iPhone application costs $3.99 and lets you organize your flash cards into stacks. Studying was never this much fun!

Geometry Facts Flash Cards ($)

Gengo Audiocards: French

iSpeak Spanish

iThesaurus- a free iPhone application which offers a thesaurus with 140,000 words.

Math Quiz for all Ages- ($) from kindergarten to college

Remember the Milk- task manager  

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

7 Things My Students Should Know About EBSCO

We are very fortunate to receive a free subscription to the databases of EBSCO from our state library.  It's a resource that offers a long list of databases, and so few of my students know how wonderful it is. I decided to make a poster which explains the 7 most important things they should all know about EBSCO. Here's the information I covered on it:

1. You can trust the information you find on EBSCO.
Although too many students feel that all they need is Google, I have tried to explain to them that Google does a great job of searching, but it doesn't tell them which sites they can trust. EBSCO's databases can be trusted.

2. You can create an account and save articles to your folder "in the cloud".
Once a student is logged into our EBSCO site, they can create an account, which can then be accessed from any computer with an Internet connection. As articles are searched, favorite ones can be saved to the folder for the future.

 3. Always choose "FULL TEXT" when searching for an article.
Not every article is available beyond the abstract. You MUST refine your search to include only full text articles. They are available as either HTML text (view in your browser) or PDF. Either format can be saved to your folder.

4. If the full text of an article is not available on our school's connection to EBSCO, they can try the public library's EBSCO just by entering their library card number.
Our school's package of databases is not the same as the public libraries or colleges. Although the specific database might claim to offer full text articles as far back as 1975, you might find that many are unavailable. I always explain to the student that as long as they have a library card, they can utilize the databases through the county library cooperative. Our county system offers ProQuest, EBSCO and Infotrac.

5. When you choose HTML text and view your article in the browser many of the articles will allow you to listen as someone reads it to you.
Choose from 3 accents and speeds if you like. This is a great feature for ESL or SPED students who could use assistance. The option is also available for downloading the MP3 file to the iPod or computer.

6. Points of View offers pros and cons on hundreds of topics.
From alternative energy to Zionism, this database will assist you when presenting both sides of your topic. Resources include newspapers, periodicals, books, radio/TV transcripts, primary source documents and images.

7. EBSCO has a mobile app.
The digital generation should be familiar with this, right? The app is available for iPhone, iPad and Android devices. Every time I share this with a student, they are surprised this app is available.

Teach Sociology? Check Out These 20 Sites

American Sociological Association- resources for teachers and students

Free PowerPoint Presentations

High School Sociology Activities- from eHow
 

Internet Resources for Teachers of Sociology- from the Library of Congress; very nice listing!

Intro to Sociology Slide Presentation

Lesson Plans About Sociology- from PBS' documentary series POV

Sociology Central- includes free downloads of teacher notes

Sociology: General Resources- from Bubl Link, the catalogue of Internet Resources

Sociology Glossaries and Dictionaries

Sociology Lesson Plans- from the Educator's Reference Desk

Sociology Lesson Plans- from mrdonn.org

Sociology Lesson Plans and Activities- from the Lesson Planet

Sociology Projects for High School

Sociology Syllabus-  from teacher Nick Scharrer

Sociology Syllabus- from the Pittsburgh Public Schools (for grade 12)

Sociology Websites- from Spartacus Educational; nice long list

Sociological Research Online 

A Sociological Tour Through Cyberspace

SocioWeb- independent guide to sociological resources on the Internet; essays, topics, theories, online journals and more

Teaching High School Sociology- blog written by  Chuck Schallhorn

Teaching Sociology- journal which is published quarterly for teachers

Ta-Da!! Construction Finally Finishes!

For those of you who have been following the saga of the new construction in our library media center,  the three new classrooms are finally completed. We might have lost close to a third of our total space, but we gained back our library. No more classes in the main room. No more signs telling the students they couldn't enter when a class was there. We now have a cozy space and the added bonus of a quiet space for the faculty. This now gives them a second room to work in-between classes. Now I can go back to posting on this blog instead of lugging books here and there. Thank you for understanding!

16 Free Alternatives to Microsoft PowerPoint: Create and Store Online!

 I have never been a fan of PowerPoint. My school computer is a Windows Dell and at home I have all Macs. Microsoft's version for the PC is a better interface than the Macintosh. Coincidence? Hardly. Microsoft has succeeded in gaining the lion's share of the computer market, but Apple has had an incredible showing the last several years. I will always be a Mac girl. All right, I seem to have gotten off point. When students are working on presentations for class, it is always easy for them to lose track of where they last saved it, and that's why using the cloud works out best. EXAMPLE: Due date for the school project is after the school vacation and one kid chimes in "But our family is going to the Bahamas for spring break!" No problem, dear. Do you have access to the Internet at your hotel? (They answer "yes") Then you'll be able to get to your project on the website. Here are 16 free presentation programs which store your projects in the cloud:

9Slides

280 Slides- Beta ended on this program in December 2011; nice, simple interface

Ease- part of GNOME desktop

Empressr

Google Docs Presentation- not my favorite, but it does the job 

KOffice- online open source software includes KPresenter; works on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Kizoa- free slideshow and collage maker

Knovio

Libre Office Impress-the presentation part of this free office suite

NeoOffice- made for Mac computers; includes a  presentation module; download required; also available for Android smartphones.

Powtoon- "bringing awesomeness to your presentations"; use their cartoon characters to make a great presentation for you

Prezi- "make your presentations zoom"

PreZentit- "Create, share and show your presentations online"

Sliderocket- my students love the program for its ease; teachers love it because students can't lose their work because it resides on their site

ThinkFree- office suite like MS office

Zoho Show

Political Corruption: A Timely Topic: 22 Places to Find Resources

Former Illinois governor Rod Blagjovich reported to prison in Colorado to begin serving a 14 year prison term. He might be the current corrupt politician in the news, but he's hardly the only one with a colored past. If you teach history or political science, here are a list of resources.

10 Worst Political Scandals - from Newsweek Magazine

America's 50 Most Scandalous Political Scandals- some are a bit racy

Articles About Political Corruption- N.Y.Times

The Battle Over Reconstruction- three lessons

Bartelby.com- search "political corruption" and you'll get results from all over the world

Chicago Times Articles on Political Corruption

Daryl Cagle's Political Corruption Cartoons- many cartoonists represented here from all over the country

Government Statistics- chart shows corruption by country

Infoplease Encyclopedia

Newsweek Magazine- articles on political corruption

N.J. Corruption- my state has been in the news a lot lately...

Political Cartoons- democracy and corruption

Political Cartoons from Nixon's Presidency- Watergate

Political Corruption in American History- this timeline covers 1760-2010

Political Corruption Lesson Plans- from the Lesson Planet

Presidential Scandals

Rage Against the Machine- N.Y.Times lesson plan compares Blagjovich scandal with a Times article about machine politics from 1876.

Rod Blagjovich- Illinois Governor who was impeached for trying to sell Obama's vacated senate seat

TeacherVision Resources on Political Corruption

Time Magazine- articles on political corruption

Timeline for Scandals in American History- from Google; covers 1900-2009

Ulysses S. Grant: Savior and Blunderer