Content Exploration

I am going into Secondary Education Social Studies and I chose to review the software Google Earth. Google Earth is a tool that virtually lets you travel anywhere in the world. You start with a space to type in the specific location that you are trying to find. The location can range from being as specific as a complete address or as vague as a major U.S. city. Once you type in the area that you want to go you hit search and the software will "fly" to that location. It will then present you with a zoomed up view of this location. Using the cursor you can move around to surrounding areas or you can even zoom in close enough to see the very top of that building. This screenshot for instance, is a zoomed and angled view of IU's very own school of education.
I would use this in my classroom to give my students a better understanding of the area that we are currently studying. I could give the students a different look into the area and the area that is surrounding it. I believe this would help the students to know the area much more in depth and would also help then to understand the material we are covering.
Google Earth could be looked at as a simulation tool. It allows you to go anywhere in the world and do so in a split second. It makes the impossibility of traveling to all these places possible. A way that a teacher could use this as a tutorial is by using the path feature. As a teacher I could ask of my students to recreate a path used during a certain event by mapping the path on Google Earth and then showing me.

BrainPOP.com

BrainPOP.com is a site that offers a fun, interactive way for students to learn about different subjects. The main page is a listing of all the different subjects that the site offers. You then click on a subject and it takes you to another page which is broken into different categories related to the main subject. This site is really great because digital natives can easily relate to it. It has bright colors, cartoon like animations, and shows the information in a productive way.
I would use this in my classroom probably in some sort of computer lab. I would gather my students into a computer lab and assign them each something different relating to the site. I could make worksheets that require going on the website and finding the different information. This way the students learn a lot about the topic at hand and can learn how to successfully navigage through this website so they can go back to it if they need it for studying.

FREE.com Teahcing resources and lesson plans

Free.com is a site that offers a bevy of different teaching resources and lesson plans. It is broken down into dozens of different categories that apply to several different subjects. It then offers you links to other websites for the different category that you end up to land on. At the top of the home page there is also four different links labeled animations, pictures, videos, and primary docs. This is the area that provides you with great resources for the four categories listed.
I would use this in my classroom for a few basic tools. It would be great for me to make my lesson plans. There is a large selection of lesson plans for social studies so that would be very handy for me as a teacher. I could also utilize the different videos, animations, etc for my classroom. This is another tool that is very efficient. It would solve several different issues (lesson plans, resources, etc) in one convenient location.

Rubistar. A great tool for rubrics

Rubistar.com is a free website that helps teachers to create quality rubrics. It is broken down into different subjects and areas that you might want to make your rubric. There is also an area where you can create your own games, maps, etc for your classroom. Each subject is broken down into various sub categories that go with the main subject. It is a great resource for a teacher who is looking for a quick, effective way to create a rubric.
I would use this in my classroom probably in two or three ways. The most obvious way being to make rubrics for my class. The other ways I would use it would probably be for such things as the games or maps. I see this as being a way for me, as a teacher, to have a quick resource that can help me in a couple different key areas of my classroom.

How Teachertube would help my classroom.

Teachertube is a website very similar to youtube (shock I know). It takes educational videos from all around the country and conviently puts them on one website. The videos are all in some way related to something educational. This is a great source for teachers to find educationl videos for the classroom.
Teachertube would have many advantages for using in my classroom. It would provide a great visual aid for my students to learn by. A teacher can find almost any kind of video that applies to their subject on teachertube. These videos would provide a great way for the students to be entertained and still go about learning. The digital natives of today's classroom, I think, would find this method of teaching very exciting.

edHelper.com...One Efficient Tool

Edhelper.com is a website that takes any subject you can think of and breaks them down into categories. It then takes these categories (social studies, math, english, etc) and gives you dozens of different puzzles, worksheets, timelines, etc that you can print out for your class.

I would use this in my classroom in many different ways. I could use this website as my primary source for different worksheets, puzzles, etc. It would work as a very efficient tool for me as a teacher. It would save me a ton of time searching for worksheets and different ways to evaluate my students progress. These worksheets are a great way to let the students show their progress and let themselves judge how well they are doing in the class.

The other benefit that this site has is the variety that it offers. There are so many different subjects and categories that it would be hard not to find something that applied to you as a teacher. And once you find the specific subject that applies to you there is an even larger amount of worksheets and activities offered. The possibilites that this website offers can be countless and can have so many different benefits to a teacher.