HippoCampus

I really liked this site.  At first I was discouraged because I couldn't find what I wanted, as there is no link for English or Language Arts.  Then I thought I'd look up the historical contexts of books I teach, and I didn't immediately find what I wanted.  I was searching alphabetically for the rise of American Communism before WWII, and didn't find anything; but once I found "Un-American Activities" I found  some interesting information about the Red Scare of the late 1940s and 1950s.  I like the video footage that is there, and I like how short the videos are.  They are something you could use in class without taking up the entire class period, or something you could post on a website like schoolloop and have students watch at home.

After looking at several videos on the Roaring 20s, the Great Depression, and other historical events, I swtiched over to the Algebra link.  Since my son is in pre-algebra, I thought I'd see what was there.  I don't know how useful this program would be for teachers in the classroom, but it is great for students (and parents!) at home.  I was looking specifically at factoring and the site took me through the steps so easily that I was able to re-learn how to do it quite easily.  It then gave practice problems and solutions.  It was fun, and I spent a little too much time fooling around doing problems.

Although there wasn't information for my subject area, it was a fun site to explore.

Thinkfinity

When I started for searching for lessons for some of the novels I was teaching, I hit the Language Arts link instead of the literature link (which I didn't originally notice) and was disappointed to find nothing.  Once I saw my mistake and hit the right link, I found tons of useful information.  I started by searching lessons for the Great Gatsby and found several lessons that would be great for my junior CP English class.  There were ideas for both fun activities and writing assisnments, and they were aligned with state standards.  The writing assignments also came with grading rubrics, which I like to use but hate to write.

After searching The Great Gatsby, I searched for lesson for Streetcar Named Desire which I will be teaching next.  I'm looking forward to using some of the introductory information to start the play.  This is a very useful resource, and I definitely will be using it in the future.