General Portals | Software Specific Portals | Millburn Portals

A Web Portal is a web site that offers a broad range of resources. The ones listed below are specifically for educators, and each one is worthy of hours of exploration. Finding one or two web portals that you like can be a great asset to your lessons.

http://42explore.com/ 4 2 Explore is a thematic pathfinder containing over 200 themes in all subject areas. " This web project provides "four to eXplore" for each topic. On each page you'll find definitions, activities, the 4 good starting points, and many more links and resources for the thematic topic. Go to the About Site page for more information about the website."

http://www.4teachers.org/ "4Teachers.org works to help you integrate technology into your classroom by offering FREE online tools and resources. This site helps teachers locate and create ready-to-use Web lessons, quizzes, rubrics and classroom calendars. There are also tools for student use. Discover valuable professional development resources addressing issues such as equity, ELL, technology planning, and at-risk or special-needs students." It contains Rubistar, one of my personal favorites.

http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/index.shtml "A to Z Teacher Stuff is teacher-created, and designed to help teachers find online resources more quickly and easily. We offer lesson plans, thematic units, teacher tips, discussion forums for teachers, downloadable teaching materials & eBooks, printable worksheets and blacklines, emergent reader books, themes, and more." The home page contains a user friendly way to search for lessons in any subject and grade level.

http://memory.loc.gov/learn/ American Memory Learning Page from the Library of Congress contains lesson plans, theme activities, interactive games, a guide to the American Memory Database and more. This site also includes a comprehensive guide to copyright.

http://www.aolatschool.com/ "AOL@SCHOOL provides educator-reviewed classroom resources for K-12 students and teachers. Here you can quickly find activities, research materials, multimedia resources and lesson plans for primary, elementary, middle and high school classes. Locate educational resources for math, science, language arts, social studies and more."

http://ali.apple.com/ Apple's Learning Interchange is an excellent resource for integrating images into the curriculum. It contains a wealth of ideas, activities and lesson plans for all classroom levels. Scroll to the bottom of the page for specific links, or use the searchable database. Although the software may be Apple specific, the ideas can be used with any platform.

http://www.the-atec.org/resource.asp ATEC contains an easily navigated drop-down menu of many useful resources for educators.

http://www.nvnet.org/nvhs/edresource/ Bill Timme's vast list of resources include subject area and educational search links.

http://www.cod.edu/teleconf/digital-treasures/Digital.htm Digital Treasure's amazing list of primary source links.

http://school.discovery.com/ Discovery School's comprehensive portal which includes lesson plans, teaching tools, homework helpers and Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators. There is something here for everyone.

http://www.educationworld.com Education World is a "complete online resource" that includes "a search engine for educational Web sites only...original content including lesson plans...site reviews" and more. It includes both a directory and a keyword search engine.

http://www.eduref.org/ "The Educator's Reference Desk builds on over a quarter century of experience providing high-quality resources and services to the education community. From the Information Institute of Syracuse, the people who created AskERIC, the Gateway to Educational Materials, and the Virtual Reference Desk, the Educator's Reference Desk brings you the resources you have come to depend on. 2,000+ lesson plans, 3,000+ links to online education information, and 200+ question archive responses."

http://edsitement.neh.gov/ Edsitement, "The Best of the Humanities on the Web from the National Endowment for the Humanities in partnership with the National Trust for the Humanities, and the MCI Foundation. This educational partnership brings online humanities resources from some of the world's great museums, libraries, cultural institutions, and universities directly to your classroom." The main topics include Art & Culture, Literature & Language Arts, Foreign Language, and History & Social Studies.

http://eduscapes.com/ Eduscapes was designed by Annette Lamb and Larry Johnson "to share a love of learning with others. As authors and educators, (they) work with teachers, parents, and children around the world to effectively integrate technology into teaching and learning environments."

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html Enchanted Learning contains a multitude of activities and resources for elementary school students.

http://www.ed.gov/free/index.html Federal Resources for Educational Excellence is a consortium of "more than 30 Federal agencies who formed a working group in 1997 to make hundreds of Federally supported teaching and learning resources easier to find. The result of that work is the FREE web site. For an overview of what's available here at FREE, please visit the site map."

http://www.homeworkspot.com/ "HomeworkSpot.com is a free homework information portal that features the very best K-12 homework-related sites together with engaging editorial in one high-utility, educational spot."

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/ Internet for Classrooms is highly rated by the International Society for Technology in Education. This site provides lesson plans and templates to help teachers teach students how to use the Internet.

http://www.archive.org/index.php "The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded to build an ‘Internet library,’ with the purpose of offering permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format."

http://www.kidsclick.org/ KidsClick! is a portal designed for kids by librarians. It is a reliable directory sorted by subject area with a keyword search at the top of the page. The literature section includes leveled books, and the top of the home page has some great links to search lessons for kids.

http://lii.org/ The Librarian's Index to the Internet mission statement is to "to provide a well-organized point of access for reliable, trustworthy, librarian-selected websites, serving California, the nation, and the world...Every week, LII staff and contributors identify Web resources and enter draft records into the LII database. Then librarian-editors review and upgrade records to ensure entries meet LII selection criteria."

http://www.marcopolo-education.org/home.aspx Marco Polo "is a nonprofit consortium of premier national and international education organizations and the MCI Foundation dedicated to providing the highest quality Internet content and professional development to teachers and students throughout the United States. First launched in 1997 as a collection of standards-based, discipline-specific educational Web sites for K-12 teachers" MarcoPolo contains links to the following partners:

http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/ Pac Bell's Blue Web 'N "is an online library of 2008 outstanding Internet sites categorized by subject, grade level, and format (tools, references, lessons, hotlists, resources, tutorials, activities, projects). You can also browse by broad subject area (Content Areas) or specific sub-categories (Subject Area). See "About this Site" for a scoring rubric and answers to other burning questions!"

http://www.scholastic.com/ Scholastic's Portal is organized into five different sections: parents, kids, teachers, administrators and librarians. The teacher section includes lesson plans, online activities, teaching strategies and tools.

http://www.suelebeau.com/ Sue LeBeau's portal full of great links. If you ever get a chance to hear her speak, enjoy!

http://www.thejournal.com/highlights/roadmap/default.cfm T.H.E. Journal's Educational Road Map to the Web.

Software Specific Portals

http://www.adobe.com/education/main.html Adobe Education connects its products with lesson plans and how-to information. Use the Instructional Resources page to find exactly what you need.

http://ali.apple.com/ Apple's Learning Interchange is an excellent resource for integrating images into the curriculum. It contains a wealth of ideas, activities, and lesson plans for all classroom levels. Scroll to the bottom of the page for specific links, or use the searchable database. Although the software may be Apple specific, the ideas can be used with any platform.

http://www.inspiration.com/resources/index.cfm Inspiration's user friendly search tool for finding ways that graphic organizers can support teaching and learning. Use their Integration page for ideas.

http://www.strategictransitions.com/mathpage1.htm Inspiration math diagrams for classroom use.

http://www.microsoft.com/education/default.mspx Microsoft's Instructional Resources, containing links to tutorials, lesson plans, how-to articles and more.