This week I want to share three more interesting Web sites which I hope will prove to be of benefit to you and your students . . .

1.  Better Lesson - This site has over 300,000 resources uploaded by teachers you can browse.  You can also upload and share your own resources, plus connect with fellow educators around the world.  The home page has featured lesson plans, too.  You can register for a free account simply by giving them your name, e-mail address, and selecting the school where you work.  Once inside your own account, you will see featured files for elementary school, middle school, and high school levels.  Each school level is divided into the core curriculum subject areas of math, science, social studies and English.  You can add a personal profile with a biography and photo if you desire.  Once you have an account, you can upload files in many different formats - Word, PowerPoint, Adobe, etc.  You can design courses as well, inputting information into a lesson plan template.  As you save documents, you can select whether you want them shared with the public or keep them private.  Luckily, many of the teachers using this service are allowing their documents to be public so you can choose what you'd like to utilize.  No sense in re-inventing the wheel if something else is already out there you can use!

2.  Class Parrot - I am so impressed with this site!  ClassParrot allows you to text students or adults in a safe, simple way.  The home page suggests you use the service to remind your students of upcoming exams, homework updates and reminders of events.  Also, parents can opt to receive texts, too.  Very quickly, I established a free account and added a class.  The next screen gave me instructions to send a simple text message (@mrsmeear) to a certain number.  Once I did that, I immediately got a reply that said "Thanks, Mrs. Earnest needs to know who you are before adding you to @mrsmeear.  Please reply with your full name."  After I sent my name, I received a text that said "Welcome to ClassParrot Melissa Earnest!  Mrs. Earnest will use ClassParrot to keep you posted.  Your phone number will remain private."  I then sent a test message to myself and it came through very quickly.  As part of the service, you can create a poll asking students or parents to reply with a Yes or No answer to your question.  You can also see a history of messages you have sent.  For the members, you only see the name they sent, not their phone number, so the system is secure.  If you click the Setup tab, you can get a printable page of instructions for students and parents to start receiving the messages.  You can click the "How It Works" link to find out more about ClassParrot.  Again, I was very impressed with how quickly I could set up an account, set up a class, register a class member and send a quick text message.  The initial free account gives you 500 messages. 

3.  Dynamic Periodic Table - For the chemists out there, here is an interactive periodic table.  Colorful and easy to read, you can click on any of the elements to find out more about them.  For example, clicking on Ag (Silver) I see the Wikipedia article about the element, plus a picture, general properties, physical properties, vapor pressure, atomic properties, and other information.  Back to the full table, you can select different features to show - weight, names, electrons, and even a wide version.  You can also select different languages.  Simply hovering your mouse over the Nonmetals and Metals groups, the table will change color accordingly, highlighting the types you select.  Across the top there are four tabs - Wikipedia, Properties, Orbitals, and Isotopes.  Selecting any of these tabs will bring you to a different appearance of the table with even more selections.  I'm the first to admit, chemistry was not my favorite subject in high school, but maybe if I'd had this interactive table, I might have found it a lot more fun and much easier to learn!

I hope you will try these three sites soon!