New Teaching Resources for September

Student Activities

Several new student activities have been added since the last update. Teachers can find a set of three activities that will help students learn how to represent and compare integers and determine absolute value. How many computer-generated arithmetic problems can your students answer in 60 seconds? Arithmattac
k is a new math resource on misterteacher.com that teachers can use for drilling math facts.


A number of science activities have been added as well. First, there is a set of activities that teach students about thermal energy and temperature. Next, students will be able to define reflection and refraction after completing activities on the properties of light. Finally, activities on forces will teach your students about contact and non-contact forces like air resistance, gravity, magnetism, and friction.

Resources to Become a Teacher

There are many programs on the Internet that offer education degrees online. You can attend classes from your own home and work at your own pace. This is a decent alternative to going to a campus university for your teaching degree.

SMARTBoard Mini-movies


There are few new SMARTBoard mini-movies for math teachers. You can find one on parallel lines and two on parallelograms: one that shows congruent angles and one that shows congruent sides. Two new probability mini-movies are now up: coin flip and roll of the dice.

I've added a K-2 section to the library. Here you'll find mini-movies on recognizing patterns, addition and subtraction, and adding doubles. The
re will be many more mini-movies to come for this section.


There are four new science mini-movies, all on the topic of simple machines. Teach your students about the three classes of levers with two simple animations. Also, be sure to download both inclined plane movies to teach about the relationship between length and effort force.

COMING SOON! More mini-movies on K-2 math concepts, probability, and patterns (more advanced).




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Please help me improve the resources on misterteacher.com. I welcome feedback and I do take suggestions on content that you would like to see as a mini-movie or student activity. Email Jamie Tubbs.




Check out: Everything Geometry Alphabet Geometry Social Studies Resources

Goal for 2009-2010: Integrate iPods into the Subject Areas

A few years ago another teacher and I received a grant from Best Buy for the Online Science Fair. After purchasing the materials, we had quite a bit of money left over and decided to buy three iPods. Unfortunately, because of other priorities, the iPods were put in a box and set aside for the past three years, wasting away.

NO MORE! This year I have decided to put these tools to use. One of my goals for 2009-2010 is to find the best ways to use these three iPods in my classroom. At this point, my goal is to have my students consume information from the iPods rather than produce information for them. In other words, I have no plans to have my students create podcasts, videos, slideshows, or any other content. Instead, I'm looking to use the iPods in the following ways:

• Math Intervention: Students will view video podcasts and Unitedstreaming videos on topics that they are struggling with in math. For instance, say my students take a quiz on prime factorization and a few don't do so well. During a specified time they will be invited to my classroom to watch a video on an iPod that teaches prime factorization. After viewing the video and completing some more practice, they will be allowed to retake the quiz for a better score.
• Math Enrichment: It's unfortunate, but we math teachers often are so busy teaching our students the required concepts that we often don't get a chance to show them how cool math can be outside of the classroom. I'd like to have several videos/podcasts on the iPods that show situations in the real world where math is involved (like the Fibonacci sequence in nature, Game Theory, etc.). There are a few on the Math Guy Podcast.
• Science Enrichment: If a student shows an interest in a topic we are studying, I'd like to be able to find a podcast or video for him/her and have it ready for them to watch on an iPod. HowStuffWorks has a content channel on the Apple Learning Interchange with some interesting videos.
• Social Studies Enrichment: Current event videos come to mind here.

After doing a simple Google search (ipods classroom) I found some sites that will be helpful to any teacher looking to integrate iPods:

• Learning in Hand - Here I found out how to download a video from UnitedStreaming, add it to iTunes, and then convert it to a format that the iPod will understand.
• Education World has a nice page of links to some sites on iPods in the Classroom.
• Apple Learning Interchange

I Need Your Help

I don't get a ton of comments on this blog, but I'd like to ask if any readers have other ideas for using iPods with your students and/or if you know of other resources where I could find some. Thanks!

Check out: SMARTBoard Mini-movies Student Activities

Guest Post: Teachers of Tweens: Top Tips for Grabbing Your Students’ Attention

If you’re a teacher who works with kids around the “tween” stage – 9-13 years old – you’re probably exhausted by the end of the school day. This age group can be a lot of fun, because they’ve yet to become cynical or snobby and are still young enough to enjoy playing games, going out to recess and doing projects with friends. On the other hand, tweens are just entering adolescence, which means that they’re self-conscious, experimenting with romantic feelings, joining cliques, and starting to get the appeal of sarcasm, eye rolling and rebelling. Teachers, not just parents, may find it tough to catch, and then keep, the attention of teens as they try to educate them day after day, but there are a few tricks you can use yourself to outwit your tween students.

• Reference current pop culture: Kids get sucked into the pop culture and celebrity world at an even younger age than the generation before them. If you want to keep up with what they think is cool, educate yourself on the names of a few pop stars or teen actors that your students respect. Use these references when appropriate to help your kids relate to the lesson.
• Work with technology. An old-fashioned projector or even PowerPoint presentation isn’t going to impress your kids, so learn how to use tools like Twitter, wikis, iTunes, or Flickr to keep up .
• Invite guest lecturers. Show your kids ho relevant the skills they’re learning in class are to the real world by inviting guest lecturers to talk about their jobs and experience. Students are always interested in anyone new who shows up in the classroom, and you’ll get a break, too.
• Start with a media clip. Before introducing a new lesson – or as a way of reinforcing an old one – start your presentation with a clip from a popular song, a movie or a TV show that illustrates your point. Your students will be more likely to analyze the situation and discover the lesson’s real-life impact that way.
• Host mock or mini events. Get your kids to participate in an important lesson by setting up experiments, mock debates, classroom polls or elections and other projects that allow them to take on an active role. Their experience will help them understand the lesson on a deeper level.

This post was contributed by Emily Thomas, who writes about the best online universities. She welcomes your feedback at Emily.Thomas31@ yahoo.com

New on misterteacher.com: Thermal Energy | Properties of Light | Arithmattack

New Teaching Resources on misterteacher.com

Student Activities

On the Everything Geometry website you'll find several new student activities on Angles. With these activities kids can learn to identify and describe the relative size of acute, obtuse and straight angles with respect to right angles. The activities begin by defining what an angle is and how they are measured. From there, students can navigate through three additional pages on right, acute, and obtuse angles. There are several mini-movies throughout the activities and quick quizzes to check understanding.

Coming Soon! Student activities on integers, basic geometry terms, forces, kinetic and potential energy, thermal energy, and light!

Mini-Movies

The SMARTBoard mini-movie library continues to grow with mini-movies on angles mentioned above as well as science movies on thermal energy and properties of light (reflection and refraction). Use them to teach your students the following:

• Temperature is a measure of thermal energy.
• Light bends, or refracts, when moving from one medium to another.
• Law of reflection - light reflects off an object at the same angle it strikes it.

Remember, to preview the mini-movies, just click on the link of the movie you'd like to see. To download them, right click (control-click on a Mac) on the link and download the movie to your computer. To insert it into a Notebook file, open Notebook and simply go to the INSERT menu and select FLASH FILE. From there, just navigate until you find the file you downloaded.

Coming Soon! Mini-movies on simple machines and probability.

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Check out: Rainforest WebQuest | Constitution WebQuest | Bright Ideas