SOLs are approaching very quickly! I remember when I returned to education in 2004 I was a bit taken aback by the World Geography pacing guide which had me finishing instruction by April 21. It did not make much sense to me since the last day of school was not until June. And then I remembered — SOL End of Course exams are actually given in May, many weeks before the end of the school year. (I still have issues with this, but that’s a topic for another day)

With that in mind, I know many of you are getting ready to delve into SOL preparation and review for your students and you may not know where to find our SOL online resources. At the start of the school year, I moved them all to our web portal. You can find them under the category “SOL Preparation”.

If anyone is aware of any resources that are not included in the portal, please post a comment with the link so that they can be shared with your peers. Then, I will add them to the portal ASAP.

Today I’m posting not one, not two, but THREE websites that our Social Studies and Science teachers might find useful. I can’t take credit for finding them, though. As usual, I depend on the generosity and intelligence of others to point me in the right direction.

The first site, Exploring Earth, was sent to me by our Oceanography teacher, Cathy L. Select a chapter from the left and then use the navigation buttons along the top to find some really neat resources.

The next two sites I discovered through Jim Gate’s Tipline. He is the bee’s knees (Do people still say that, or am I just a dork? – Don’t answer that. I already know the answer.) when it comes to wonderful tips and tricks. For our Social Studies teachers, check out 270towin.com to trace the history of our presidential elections. For our Science teachers, here is a nice ”clickable” periodic table.

Just two more days to go…..

We’ve added quite a few more links to Hylton’s PortaPortal that you will want to check out. One of these is Primary Source Learning that our Gifted Education teacher, Janice G., shared it with me. It looks like a great resource! She was also kind enough to share the training materials for the site. If you would like copies, just come by the IT Lab.

Additionally, if you are looking for the SOL remediation resource links, they are also now on the PortaPortal.

Yes, today’s Website Wednesday features a two-for deal! In addition to the MyRocketbook.com site you see below, I’ve also found a couple of great sites for free Social Studies videos — John Stossel’s 20/20 segments and izzit.org.

Enjoy!

As a kid, I remember waking up at the crack of dawn to catch all the Saturday morning cartoons. In between shows like the Super Friends, Scooby Doo, and the Land of the Lost came these wonderful bits of wisdom from Schoolhouse Rock.

To this day, the only way I can recite the preamble to the Constitution is if I sing along to the Schoolhouse Rock tune….

You can find many of the best known Schoolhouse Rock videos posted to Teachertube. Just do a search for “Schoolhouse Rock”.

Download Video: Posted by creatively at TeacherTube.com.