FreeRice

FreeRice
http://freerice.com/
is a non-profit website run by the United Nations World Food Program. The site has two equally important goals. To provide education to everyone for free and to help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free. Students answer vocabulary questions and for each one they get right, rice is donated to feed the hungry. This is a great way to study vocab and help Change the World at the same time.

Just a website that we should not forget . . .
Use in the classroom the last 5 minutes!!!

Got Brainy - SAT Prep / Vocabulary Builder

Got Brainy
is a vocabulary building site with a twist. Students and teachers can create or view mock-motivational-posters or videos for vocabulary words that often pair ironic or sarcastic images with a word and definition. This site might be best used with an upper-level High School English class studying for standardized tests. (SAT/ACT) However, it can be used for ESL students as well to pair images with new vocabulary words and simple definitions.

http://www.gotbrainy.com/

Exploratree - Interactive Thinking Guides

Exploratree
     http://www.exploratree.org.uk/
Exploratree is a free web resource where you can access a library of ready-made interactive thinking guides, print them, edit them or make your own. You can share them and work on them in groups too.

Thinking guides support the thinking or working through of an issue, topic or question and help to shape, define and focus an idea and also support the planning required to investigate it further. Exploratree guides can be used as a basis for whole class discussion, or emailed to individuals or groups to complete. They can also be used as a presentation tool to share your findings and thinking with others. As well as providing a set of ready to use thinking guides, which are completely customisable and shareable, Exploratree also enables teachers and students to create their own simply and easily.

Take a look at an introductory video:   http://www.exploratree.org.uk/movie.php

With Exploratree you can:

• Use our ready-made thinking guides

• Make a new thinking guide from scratch
• Use it to set class projects
• Print them out (they can go as big as A0)
• Change and customise thinking guides, you can add or change text, shapes, images etc.
• As a teacher, you can set up the sequence that you want the thinking guide to be revealed in, so that you can stage the thinking activity
• You can fill in a thinking guide and complete your project on the website
• You can present your project
• You can send your thinking guide to a whole group of people
• You can submit a thinking guide for comments, so it can't be edited but just reviewed
• Work in groups on the same thinking guide

aMAP - "Argument Creator Map"

http://www.amap.org.uk/create/

aMap is short for ‘argument map’.  The idea is very simple – to promote the art of arguing by mapping out complex debates in a simple visual format.

aMaps come in two different formats:
- Interactive personalised aMaps, which you can make here

- Printed pocket-sized aMap “argument guides”, which you can buy here

Using aMap in the classroom! 

At its heart, aMap is about helping people get to grips with complex issues and getting people to think –  ideal for use in the classroom for lessons like Critical Thinking and other philosophical based subjects . . .
The underlying structuring of aMaps is based around “informal logic” – this is the logic people use to argue in everyday life.  Informal logic has a four-tiered structure:
- Your position (I think ...) – what you think overall
- Propositions (Because ...) – reasons that support your position
- Arguments (As ...)– supporting arguments that back up each of your propositions- Evidence (Supported by . . .) – supporting evidence to back up your arguments

This critical thinking exercise for teachers focuses on helping students to develop arguments – all part of aMap’s critical thinking educational resources for teaching critical thinking in classrooms across schools and colleges.

The ability to develop a good argument is an essential skill to have in everyday life – whether for professional or personal reasons, the ability to argue well will get you a long way in life.
Start an Argument!!! 
 http://www.amap.org.uk/create/