Research Guide: Elementary & Secondary Education Web Resources

General Educator Resources

Copyright Kids: The goals of the Copyright Society's Kid's Website are to provide an educational tool to define, explain, and apply copyright issues in language understandable to Middle School students, be an educational resource on copyright issues for teachers and parents of 5th - 8th graders who are engaged in a creative process and instructions about how to protect your own creations by registering them with the U.S. Copyright Office in the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
EdIndex: A Web Resources for Teachers and Students: These resources include books, sets of tutorials, and presentations, as well as links to thousands of quality websites that provide information and learning materials for subject areas across the K-12 curriculum.
EduHound: Everything for Education K-12: "Links to resources for most subjects taught int he K-12 curriculum".
Educator's Reference Desk: Provides high-quality resources and services, including over 2,000 lesson plans and 3,000 links to top-quality online educational information.
Federal Resources for Educational Excellence: Compilation of hundreds of Federally supported teaching and learning resources made available by over 30 government agencies. Topics range from popular culture to literature to paleontology.
GEM: The Gateway to Educational Materials: Sponsored by the National Library of Education, GEM is a gateway to quality Internet lesson plans, curriculum units, and other educations resources.
Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators
LessonPlans Page: Features over 3,000 lesson plans arranged by subject for pre-K – 12.
New Teachers Home Page: A great resources for beginning teachers.
New York State Education Department: Official site of the State Education Department. Includes information, publications, and links to sites relevant to education in New York State and the United States, including NYS Learning Standards.
No Child Left Behind: The official Department of Education No Child Left Behind site, with everything you need to know from the wording of the original legislation to toolkits for parents and educators.
PBS Teachersource: This excellent site provides over 3000 educator-created, standards-based lesson plans, all searchable by grade and topic.
Smithsonian Education: With links for educators, families, and students, this site offers lesson plans, background information, and homework help.
Teacher Resources: These resources can help teachers increase their expertise and assist them in improving their teaching methods.
Teachers Helping Teachers: Lesson plans, teaching tips and ideas that are provided by teachers for teachers and updated weekly during the school year.
U.S. Department of Education: Official site of the Department of Education. Offers links to sites relevant to education in the United States.
The WebQuest Page: his site offers tips on creating WebQuests which are inquiry-oriented activities that require the students to gather information from the Internet. Sample WebQuests for all grade levels are provided.

Children's Literature

Caldecott Medal Home Page: Lists and provides summaries of the award winning books from 1938 to the present. Information is given about the medal and how it is awarded.
Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site: Provides reviews of children's books with ideas for using these books in the classroom. Includes a list of the reviews arranged by title, author, and grade level.
Children's Book Council (CBC): The Children's Book Council, a non-profit trade association of children's book publishers and producers of related materials, promotes the use of quality children's books. The Seasonal Showcase highlights children's literature by topic.
Children's Literature Web Guide: While not updated since 2001, this site provides excellent internet resources related to books for children and young adults.
Children's Picture Book Database: Bibliography of over 5,000 picture books for children preschool to grade 3. The database can be searched by keyword to locate books with storylines appropriate to the curriculum.
Coretta Scott King Award: This annual award is given to an African American author or illustrator for outstandingly inspirational and educational contribution.. The books promote understanding and appreciation of the culture of all peoples. Listing of current and past winners are given.
Database of Award-Winning Children's Literature: This easily searchable database of nearly 6,000 records provides information about winners from 72 awards covering six countries ( United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, England, and Ireland).
Newbery Medal Home Page: Lists and provides summaries of the award winning books. Information is given about the medal and how it is awarded.

Computer Science and Technology

Finding Information on the Internet: Provides tutorials on everything from searching on the Internet to evaluating web pages.
History of Computers: A compiled directory of computer history links. Topics range from the abacus to the mouse to Bill Gates.
The Quality Information Checklist
: A fun graphic-based guide to website evaluation.

Elementary Education

Clearinghouse on Early Education and Parenting: The Clearinghouse on Early Education and Parenting (CEEP) is part of the the Early Childhood and Parenting (ECAP) Collaborative at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. CEEP provides publications and information to the worldwide early childhood and parenting communities. CEEP is the successor to the ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education.
Elementary Education Resources: An index to a collection of quality sources collected by Pittsburgh faculty Bernie Poole and Yvonne Singer in the areas of character education, early childhood, assistive technologies, learning disabilities, foreign languages, health, physical education, language arts, math, music, arts, science, and special education for elementary school.
New Ideas and Educational Resources for Elementary School Teachers - Teaching K-8: Classroom Actitivities, Teacher Resources, Author Interviews, FREE resources, and Bulletin Boards are on this site sponsored by Highlights magazine.

Family and Consumer Science

Epicurious: Recipes: Search for recipes published in Gourmet and Bon Appetit by ingredients, course, type of dish preparation method and several healthy options including low/no sugar and wheat/gluten free. User comments for each recipe are especially useful.
Food Safety Research Information Office: Supporting the research community by collecting, organizing and disseminating food safety research information. Subjects include food processing, pathogens, contaminents, and sanitation and quality standards.
Food Related Mini Units: Mini units cover a wide variety of foods from eggs to almonds to raisins and plum pudding. Each has recipes, facts and activities.
KidsHealth: Provides doctor-approved health information about children from before birth through adolescence. Created by The Nemours Foundation's Center for Children's Health Media, topics include staying healthy, everyday illnesses, growing up, and more.
Managing Your Checking Account: Information and tools to help in selecting and maintaining a checking account.
The Meaning of Food: An exploration of culture through food. What we consume, how we acquire it, who prepares it, who’s at the table, and who eats first is a form of communication that is rich with meaning. Features Food and Life, Food and Family, Food and Culture.
Nutrition.gov: Providing easy, online access to government information on food and human nutrition for consumers. A service of the National Agricultural Laboratory, U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Occupational Outlook Handbook: Nationally recognized source of career information, designed to provide valuable assistance to anyone making decisions about their future work lives.
Sew Young, Sew Fun: Site geared towards teenagers learning to use a sewing machine, but some of the projects use hand sewing for younger students.
: A collection of useful articles written by teens, covering topics ranging from cell phone plans to eating disorders to living wills, with related links for each topic.

Foreign Language and Study Abroad

Anacleta's Spanish & World Language/Culture Links: Created and maintained by Kathy Siddons, an experienced spanish teacher. Many quality sites useful for FLES (Foreign Language in the Elementary School) world language, dual language, immersion and bilingual instruction and background resources and references. There is also a separate special section of "teacher pointers" gleaned from Siddons' personal classroom experience.
Dave's ESL Cafe: The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World. Check out the "Stuff for Teachers" section.
StudyAbroad.com: Comprehensive source of information on educational opportunities to study in other countries. Browsable by subject, country, or city. Includes information on health, safety, scholarships, and financial aid.

Higher Education

Colleges and Universities Home Page: Links to web sites of American and international institutions of higher education.

Math

The Math Forum: This site provides links to math-related discussion groups, web sites, and units and lessons. Ask Dr. Math is an archive of answers to questions about teaching and math education.
MathWorld: The Web's most extensive mathematics resource. Created, developed and nurtured by Eric Weisstein with contributions from the world's mathematical community.
Visual Math Learning: This program is designed to provide parents and classroom teachers with the means to better employ visual imagery. It is designed as a supplementary resource to help students in their mastery of mathematics. It is also designed to help parents to better understand mathematical concepts as they work to assist their children in home learning.

Reading and English

The Literacy Web: Designed to promote the use of the Internet as a tool to assist classroom teachers in their search for the best practices in literacy instruction. This easy-to-use site lets you search for links by grade level, and also offers links for teachers, literacy topics, and research.
Web English Teacher: All-in-one comprehensive resource for all aspects of English. Arranged by topics including book reports, children’s literature, critical thinking, journalism, media, mythology, professional resources, debate, and young adult fiction.

Science

Cells Alive!: Fascinating site that provides outstanding images and animations of plant and animal cells, phases of meiosis and mitosis, and much more.
Cool Cosmos: From the infrared zoo and photo album to the laws of the universe, this educational site is sure to fascinate. This site is a portal from NASA’s Education and Public Outreach that involves students in science with multi-disciplinary educational materials produced with the goal of engaging the young minds of future generations of scientists. Also includes activities and lessons.
National Science Digital Library: Created by the National Science Foundation to provide organized access to high quality resources and tools that support innovations in teaching and learning at all levels of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education.

Social Studies

Lesson Plans and Resources for Social Studies Teachers: Links to Internet resources and lesson plans for Social Studies teachers.
Teachable Moment: Activities for High School Students: This site provides educators with timely teaching ideas to encourage critical thinking on issues of the day and foster a positive classroom environment. It is a project of Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility.

Special Education

disABILITY Information and Resources: List of links related to various disabilities and special needs, inlcuding links to websites about adapted clothing, accessibility products, legal resources, travel and recreation.
Students With Special Needs: Offers a comprehensive resource for parents and teachers of those who are challenged physically, emotionally, or cognitively, including information about gifted learners. Includes articles by specialists, stories of parents and teachers who have found successful ways of dealing with their children's needs, state and federal guidelines, links to related sites, and many other useful resources.