Lesson Plan Template 1 2008: Fill & Download for Free

Found from elsewhere: All sites may not be free, haven't checked.1. Best for Young ReadersThe Stacks - Launching Summer 2008!At The Stacks, students can post book reviews, get reading recommendations, play games based on the latest series, watch "Meet the Author" videos, and more. It's like Facebook for reading and it's safe for school, too. Your whole school will want to participate in the "You Are What You Read" campaign, which asks users to list their five most important books.2. Best for Lesson PlansThinkfinityThere are so many lesson plan databases online, but Thinkfinity stands above the rest because its content comes from the best names in learning-language arts from ReadWriteThink, math from NCTM, science from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and more.3. Best for Finding BooksLevel Books With Book Wizard: Find Books by Reading Level, Topic, Genre | Scholastic.comUse Book Wizard to level your classroom library, find resources for the books you teach, and create reading lists with the click of a button. You can also plug a title into the BookAlike feature to find books with an easier, similar, or more difficult reading level.4. Best for Craft ProjectsFor EducatorsWith hundreds of lessons for every grade level, you're guaranteed to find a colorful idea for your class, such as the "Chinese Dragon Drum" for Chinese New Year or the "What Do You Love?" project for Valentine's Day. Sign up to be a Gold Star teacher so that you're first on the list to test new Crayola products.5. Best for WritingEducation NorthwestThe creators of the 6+1 traits of writing offer a terrific overview of the model on their site, with research to support the program, lesson plans, writing prompts, and rubrics. You can also find writing samples to practice scoring and see how other teachers scored the same piece.6. Best Online DictionaryFree On-Line English DictionaryAdd the children's version of the WordsmythNow widget to your toolbar, and students can look up new vocabulary no matter where they are online.7. Best Math gamesNational Library of Virtual ManipulativesAt the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives, you'll find activities for every area of math at every grade level. Need to teach shapes to preschoolers, for example? Try the Attribute Blocks, which challenge students to sort virtual objects. Working on functions with middle schoolers? Drop numbers into the function machine to identify the pattern.8. Best for GeographyGoogle EarthZoom over the Sahara desert. Fly past the streets where your students live. Take a tour of the Eiffel Tower. You can do it all with Google Earth, the tool that makes the world feel a little bit smaller with its map-generating capabilities. If you're new to Google Earth, the tutorials offer a great introduction.9. Best for HistoryHomeThis fantastic site acts as a clearinghouse for all of the educational materials developed by government organizations. You can find primary sources, videos, and photos for just about any topic. For example, listen to "Fiddle Tunes of the Old Frontier" or find a timeline of Ben Franklin's life. And it's all free!10. Best for ScienceNational Science Teachers AssociationThe National Science Teachers Association site is a goldmine for classroom teachers who may not feel as comfortable teaching geology and astronomy as they do reading and arithmetic. You'll find journal articles, experiment ideas, and a roundup of the latest science stories in the news.11. Best for Middle SchoolWrite yourself in. FigmentFigment is a new site that allows young writers to post their work, receive criticism, and read others' contributions. From fan fiction to poetry to novels-in-progress, all types of writing are encouraged and shared. Be aware that not all content is school appropriate.12. Best for Virtual TripsSmithsonian Education - WelcomeThe Smithsonian offers thousands of resources for educators, including lesson plans, virtual tours of their latest exhibits, and the opportunity to connect with experts in the field. In one lesson, "Final Farewells," students can see a school yearbook from the Civil War era up close, and discuss how the political climate may have affected the content.13. Best Web 2.0 ToolA complete educational solution for digital and mobile teaching and learning.Glogster bills itself as a tool for making "digital posters," or glogs, containing pictures, text, video, links, and animation. A glog on To Kill a Mockingbird might contain a link to the Scottsboro trial, a clip from the Gregory Peck movie, and a drawing of the tree where Boo Radley leaves gifts for Scout. Fun!14. Best for the IWBLesson plans and resources for your SMART BoardGo here before creating any lessons for your interactive whiteboard from scratch. Chances are you'll find an existing lesson ready to grab and go, or at least inspiration from other teachers who've taught the same material. Plus, the customizable Whack-A-Mole game is a must-have for test prep and review.15. Best for IWB NewbiesFree Teaching Resources, Lesson Plans & WorksheetsIf you're new to interactive whiteboards, don't miss the help available at Promethean's teacher community. You'll find a boatload of tips and practical advice, addressing questions like "How do I find websites that work with an IWB?" "How do I use PDFs?" and more.16. Best for Wiki HelpPage on wetpaint.comWetpaint will walk you through the process of creating wikis and connect you with other teachers using them in the classroom. You'll find great examples to share and templates for starting a book club wiki, for example, or one centered around a community service project.17. Best for Video ClipsTeacherTubeTeacherTube is the best source for instructional videos in a safe environment. We especially love the clips of teachers showing off the catchy rhymes they've made up to teach certain topics-check out the "Mrs. Burk Perimeter Rap" and the "Mr. Duey Fractions Rap."18. Best for MoviemakingxtranormalMoviemaking has never been easier than it is at Xtranormal, where all you have to do is write a script and choose a background and characters, and the text is transformed into a short animated clip. The classroom possibilities are endless-challenge kids to write an additional scene for a book you are reading, or have one character explain the water cycle to another.19. Best Standards HelpCommon Core State Standards InitiativeWhether or not your state has adopted the Common Core, you'll want to bookmark this site, which not only offers an overview of the new standards but provides a thoughtful framework for how the standards were determined and what we can reasonably expect students at given grade levels to achieve.20. Best for Tough TopicsTeaching ToleranceAlong with an excellent blog that tackles some of the more difficult aspects of education, Teaching Tolerance offers activities and teaching kits on topics ranging from the civil rights movement to the separation of church and state.21. Best PD On the GoAnnenberg Learner - Teacher Professional DevelopmentMany of the professional development series from the Annenberg Foundation are available on demand here, with videos on teaching measurement, writing workshop, and more. You'll see master teachers at work and undoubtedly snag an idea or two for your own classroom.22. Best For Your CareerNEA - NEA HomeIn the hustle and bustle of the classroom, it can be easy to lose track of the outside forces affecting education. The NEA explains how to take action regarding the issues you care about most-including merit pay, NCLB, and funding for education.23. Best for InspirationClassroom Solutions, Top Teaching Ideas in Teacher Blogs | Scholastic.comReading the Top Teaching blog is like paging through a cooking magazine. Just as you might be inspired to try a 12-course meal instead of your usual mac and cheese, you'll leave wanting to push your teaching to the next level. And even if your classroom will never look like blogger Beth Newingham's (in a word-amazing!), you'll benefit from these veterans' wealth of experience and knowledge.24. Best Reality CheckIt's Not All Flowers and SausagesSometimes you want inspiration...and sometimes you just want to connect with someone who understands the frustrations of field trip forms, unmotivated colleagues, and the latest buzzword your principal mentions at least a dozen times a day. When the business of school has got you down, visit Mrs. Mimi's blog for a sympathetic friend, a laugh, and the priceless knowledge that you are not alone.25. Best for Teacher GiveawaysScholastic TeachersSo we may be biased, but we think we're offering up some of the Web's best giveaways on our Facebook page. Every week our fans have the opportunity to win prizes such as children's books, T-shirts, and flash drives. All you have to do is "like" us. And stand by for the fascinating discussion that happens on our page, too

Not to any Republican ever, from the looks of their answers to this question. They say the Electoral College saves them from the horrors of Mob Rule. And that latter-day reincarnation of Sodom and Gomorrah, AKA California. And it’s what the Framers wanted, and the Framers were inerrant with perfect knowledge that what a nation of 4 million largely self-sufficient, 90% rural people with little tech beyond the wheel and muskets need governance-wise is exactly the same for a nation of over 320 million that’s over 90% urban and is inextricaly woven into networks of trade and alliances with over 100 other nations and has nearly everyone able to nearly instantly communicate with nearly everyone else.What this shows is how profoundly irony-impaired Republicans are. There’s a reason why like .1% of standup comedians are Republican (and by a recent Pew survey only 6% of scientists are Republican).Take the “mob rule” trope—by which they mean Democrats—urbanites—people with unAmerican (that is, non-rural-Anglo white Fundamentalist male) values.Well, try to imagine Hillary Clinton leading a mob of any sort. Now try to imagine Don the Con Trump leading a lynch mob, complete with pitchforks and torches.The former? Preposterous. She’d be trying to describe her 15-point plan for addressing coal miner displacement by cheaper natural gas products and coal companies’ mountaintop removal operations, which obviate the need for miners. And her demographic is college educated people, suburban women, cosmopolites, various minorities—too diverse to be good mob material.The latter? Too easy. Trump rallies have the look and feel of lynch mobs already. And his fifth-grade-level vocabulary and consistently inflammatory demagoguery is far better suited to a bunch of angry louts itching to string someone up. When Trumpublicans talk about mobs, it smacks of projection, don’t it?Then there’s the trope that Clinton only won the popular vote because of California. First this reflects the fact the Trumpublicans have trouble with absract reasoning, so they focus on people and places to hate—and the state they hate is California.Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. California sends considerably more tax dollars to Washington than it gets back. And guess who gets our largesse? Red states. Ungrateful moochers.And they have such a pathetic need for California to fail. People—remember the 10 Commandments? One of them is about envy, isn’t it? Or have Trumpublicans edited that out of their version?California is a powerhouse with a bigger economy than Russia’s. Its gorgeous landscapes and cities make it a world tourist destination beloved by people everywhere, which helps make up for the malignant cancer metastasizing through the federal government’s political stratua. We pay a lot for housing, but a lot of that is California’s “outdoor tax”—meaning we aren’t stuck in our homes half the year, due to the great climate. And in California old people aren’t forced out of their homes by rising taxes, beause our Proposition 13 protects them–-how many other states can boast of that? And we have some gun regulation—not only that, but an NRA “A” rating would be the kiss of death for candidates for most elective offices here. If right wing ideologues with mediocre job skills don’t want to move here, well… je suis desolée…If Trumpublicans really respected the original intent of the Constitution, and make the Electoral College a deliberative body again.At the very least they’d support increasing and reproportioning the Electoral College to match the ratio of small to large states that was extant in 1787. The size difference is roughly six times as large now as it was back then—and the distinctions between the different states is now smaller than the distinctions between rural and urban American regions everywhere.But that would require Trumpublicans to regard Democrats as American citizens who are owed a modicum of respect and consideration. That is, to compromise with us.Instead they exploit loopholes in our institutions to rule us with an iron hand—as they represent 100% of the voters and we are but slaves. Which is in fact the cultural template they’re working from and have been working from ever since the Dixiecrats became the Dixiepublicans en masse in the 1970s.In doing so they’re ignoring the lessons of history. When you rule as a minority, if you treat the majority as if they have no say in deciding anything…if you pack the courts with all your people and none of theirs…if your gerrymandering gives you a large majority of Representatives even where a majority of voters are Democrats…if you quickly pass legislation to geld incoming Democratic governors and attorneys general in states that had had Republicans in those posts…if you purge voter rolls on the downlow and pull every trick in the book to suppress Democratic votes…if you oppose legal immigration mostly because immigrants mostly vote Democratic when they naturalize…if you eagerly accept the massive “information operations” assistance of a hostile foreign nation in winning an election and in reinforcing your positions afterwards up to this moment and refuse to object to it or investigate it or do anything to defend America against this ongoing cyberinvasion…whle at the same time you treat us as foreigners in our own land…Well, then…the majority is only going to put up with your crap for so long.And then you’ll get to learn a simple lesson: when you have the other guy over a barrel, he will ALWAYS remember how you treated him when he gets off that barrel.As ye sow, so shall ye reap.“The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC).“Every vote, everywhere, would be politically relevant and equal in presidential elections. No more distorting and divisive red and blue state maps. There would no longer be a handful of 'battleground' states where voters and policies are more important than those of the voters in 80% of the states that now are just 'spectators' and ignored after the conventions.“When the bill is enacted by states with a majority of the electoral votes– enough electoral votes to elect a President (270 of 538), all the electoral votes from the enacting states would be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and DC.“In a 2008 survey of Californians, 70% of residents and likely voters supported a national popular vote.“The bill has passed 32 state legislative chambers in 21 rural, small, medium, and large states with 243 electoral votes, and been enacted by 10 jurisdictions with 136 electoral votes – 50.4% of the 270 necessary to go into effect.”NationalPopularVoteon Facebook via NationalPopular VoteInc”https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/20769-california-ballot-initiative-would-rig-next-presidential-election-for-republicans

Having helped hardware startups on Kickstarter and Indiegogo raise millions, there are 8 distinct patterns that come up every time when it comes to running a successful campaign.Here’s what it takes to have a 6-, 7- and even 8-figure campaign for a physical product.As an example, open any random campaign of your choice and checkmark:#1 Product NeedThe product you are looking to launch on Kickstarter or Indiegogo must have a proven need that enough, and not just a handful of, people are actively looking to meet (unless you are the visionary who's trying to invent a new category).Having sold hundreds of millions of $ worth of physical products, Lori Greiner of Shark Tank has a simple 3-step process for choosing her investments:is it a “hero or a zero” (here's her advice on how to know)can it be made at an affordable price (and thus easily scalable)is the market broad enough for it (do many people need it)Knowing you are building the right product is to actually have multiple real-life competitors (3-star Amazon reviews of similar gadgets will give you a decent idea of what people really look for / miss in a product) or having observed similar, successful campaigns.You can also come up with a solution to a painful problem that you had yourself. The tricky part here is you might be the only person having this problem. In this case, go outside of the building to find out by talking to people 1 on 1 (many people neglect this step) - to avoid bias tell them it's not your product and that you are working for a market research company.Making sure you are on the right track is to actually sell the prototype (or 3D renders) multiple times after a demonstration. Convince prospects to buy it - offline, once they say yes, just don’t take their money. Online - use a website builder such as SquareSpace or Shopify.#2 Market DirectionAnswer this before reading on:Which of the following is most important when building a startup – the team, the idea, the business model, the funding or the right timing?Perhaps the idea? Or the team? Or maybe the millions you raise?Likely the world’s most successful VC, Marc Andreessen, has one thing to say about what matters most when building a startup – the market.Bill Gross, another billion-dollar investor from the Valley, confirms this in a (must-watch) 7-min TED talk after studying 200 (both successful and failed) billion-dollar businesses. He calls it “timing” but they essentially mean the same thing:Airbnb (2008) and Uber (2009) launched right after the financial crisis when people were looking for ways to save / make extra money. Their massive success is now evident (you’ve tried them both).Wearables, drones and IoT gizmos are funded daily these days – that’s because the wave of the industries is surging. No wonder why Nest sold to Google for $3B and that’s also one of the reasons FitBit is now worth billions.Unless you are inventing a category, like GoPro did with the affordable action-cams, there will be a significant correlation between the amount you raise during your campaign and the industry your product is in.Example: Lily, the most funded hardware campaign EVER (with $34 million in pre-orders on their own website), is a camera drone which rode the drone wave like this dude.Pro Tip: A product in a growing industry will increase the success chance even if the product is not perfect yet.#3 Design Execution“Shut up and take my money!”That’s the reaction when you visit apple.com and look around for a few minutes.You see a beautiful website, simple & clean product presentations and gorgeously crafted gadgets, rendered in high-quality detail.That’s the meaning behind the perfect Design Execution.But hey, let’s face it – we are not Apple. And we don’t have to be.A good design execution means you need to polish your prototype to the point where potential customers are delighted to see it, touch it and eventually ask to buy it.Kickstarter does not allow product renderings so you can’t simply make a bunch of high-quality realistic photos and put them out there.Indiegogo, on the other hand, allows renderings so if your product is only a concept or MUST be rendered for people to see it, you are free to do so.In the latter scenario, you can take TAKTIK’s approach - they showed amazing 3D renderings of their iPhone 6 cases and went on to raise more than ¼ million. However, this is dangerous and things don’t always go as planned (see their ‘UPDATES’ section).Example: The Elevation Dock is a great illustration of neat Design Execution. Being the first hardware campaign to ever cross the $1M mark, the overall look and feel were well on par with Apple’s design language and the aluminum used in their flagship products.Pro Tip: People make buying decisions with their eyes (i.e. emotions). Try to make your offering as appealing as possible even if it’s just a prototype.#4 True FansAnother element that all multiple-figure success stories have in common is the hot community (subscriber list) built before launch.Creators ignore this, hoping that “Traffic will come from the platform, so I don’t have to worry”, i.e. “Build it and they will come”. This couldn’t be further from the truth - 90% of the traffic to your campaign will be brought by YOU and your own efforts and no one else.Coolest Cooler’s first campaign was a flop, but Ryan kept these 300 early supporters highly engaged during the next several months, while he iterated the product and shot a new video, mixing up the buzz for his record-breaking $13M campaign.Statistically, if you reach 30% of your goal in the first week or less, you have a 90% success chance. Assume that 1% - 5% of your list will buy once you launch and reverse-engineer the list size to meet that 30% on the first day(s). Later on, conversions from visitors during your campaign will levitate around 1%.Here's an example:Goal = $50,000Early bird price = $99People needed on day 1 = 500This translates to a pre-launch list of 10,000 subscribers at 5% conversion rate.Later on, conversions from visitors during your campaign will levitate around 1% - could more, or less, depending on the attractiveness of the offer.Here’s how to build a pre-launch list of people:Read: How to Gather 100,000 Emails in One Week (Includes Successful Templates, Code, Everything You Need) (or how Harry’s got 100k emails in 1 week)Read: http://crowdfundinghacks.com/how-kittyo-gathered-13000-opt-in-emails-in-5-months (13,000 emails in 5 months).Read: How to Launch the Biggest 30-day Crowdfunding Campaign in History) (How GlowForge raised $28m in 30 days)Example: After setting 2 crowdfunding records (their first campaign went on to raise $10M and the second one $20M), Pebble has launched yet another campaign and went on to raise over $1M in 1 hour - that’s the power of the community.Pro Tip: NEVER, EVER launch a campaign without having a subscriber list of engaged supporters to kickstart your day 1. Having a community around your product could mean fly or die!#5 Engaging VideoThe average person’s attention span is now less than a goldfish (seriously) - it’s 8 seconds (YouTube lets you skip video ads after 5 seconds).So, one thing is clear - you have very little time to convince someone to continue watching your video.2 to 3 minutes for the whole video is a good rule of thumb. Longer videos tend to get boring. Data says the shorter, the better - though, not always (11:24 min video and $6M+ raised on Kickstarter).Tell a personal & compelling story about who you are, how you’ve got here and what your product is about - again, in a visually appealing, creative and engaging way. Here’s another example.Or, if you don’t feel comfortable enough in front of the camera, the video could show the product and its many use cases (even without voiceover). The Travel Jacket proves this with millions raised on Kickstarter.Pro Tip: The video is the very first thing someone sees when visiting your project - it gets your foot in the door, so make a good first impression (you don’t get a second chance).#6 Campaign Page & RewardsThe next thing someone will look at is your campaign page & rewards. Follow a similar structure: Short Pitch and Product Image / Value Proposition, Press Mentions & Quotes, Media Kit, Problem, Solution, Share Banners, Features, Benefits / Use Cases, Testimonials / Social Proof, Rewards, Team, Story / Prototype Iterations, Schedule.Almost every successful hardware campaign has “Early birds” or a number of units at a super discounted price, usually up to 50% off the MSRP (manufacturer's suggested retail price). This incentivizes early push from your most eager supporters.When structuring your rewards, avoid no-value “digital high-fives”. No one cares. Here’s an AMAZING $1 reward, although hard to offer by everyone. Hardware startups should avoid offering T-Shirts - they are just a distraction, bringing extra workload.The page is a reflection of what people have watched. It should be well-structured and logical, following and expanding what’s being described in the video. Tools like Canva (design) and Piktochart (infographics) make creating content for your campaign easier.Example: The BetterBack is probably the best example of everything discussed so far. Great product, growing market (people are hunching over since forever), visually appealing & easy-to-use, a community to support it, engaging video, 50% off rewards, high-value $1 reward, and a well-structured page.Pro Tip: Take a look at what similar or popular campaigns in your space are already doing and simply try to keep up or improve it with yours. No need to reinvent the wheel.#7 Aggressive MarketingThink you are done after you launch?Wrongly assuming you won’t need to invest anything, people will magically find your campaign and the money will flood your bank account?I hate to break it to you, but no 6- or 7-figure campaign (with some viral exceptions) got there just by launching and keeping their hands folded.Once you hit “Start”, the key to a successful outcome is an aggressive marketing campaign to your target audience across social networks & all channels your customer hangs out at - niche websites or blogs and communities.A rule of thumb to consider is to have 10% of your planned funding goal or actual funding target as a marketing expense.Let’s say you are aiming at $100,000 - in that case budget in for at least $10,000 purely for marketing if you ever want to come close to that number.Example: With their very first campaign, the Sondors e-bike founders, who went on to raise over $6M, have spent $100,000+ on marketing until they crossed the $1M mark. From there, it went viral and media outlets picked it up like crazy, which built up their momentum.#8 Get the media to write about your campaignFollowing the principles from my upcoming PR course, FlipFlic got featured in TheVerge, Wired, CNET, DigitalTrends and more, reaching just shy of $100,000.Researching the right journalists consumes the most time and energy - aim for people who have covered similar campaigns. Finding the following information is critical: first name, email address, publication, links to relevant articles.Free publicity from influential outlets requires a combination of factors such as the relevancy, the "cool"-factor you bring and newsworthiness your product has to offer.Launching on Kickstarter and first THEN approaching journalists is a campaign suicide. You need to reach out AT LEAST 3 to 4 weeks prior to the launch and even sooner if you have prototypes/production units to share.Pro Tip: Tech journalists are swamped with hundreds of pitches every day, so to guarantee at least some coverage, aim for at least 200-300 contacts.Read: Ivaylo Kalburdzhiev's answer to What are the best possible suggestions for running a successful PR campaign for Kickstarter projects?BONUS TIP:Once you launch, submit your project to GadgetFlow - use promo code ‘D1F’ for 20% offThe GadgetFlow is a curated directory of awesome gizmos for tech people.They’ve successfully promoted over 6,000 crowdfunding campaigns and bring consistent ROIs.The stats are also pretty impressive:28M People Reached Per Month11M Platform Visits Per Month900K Social Media Followers1.1M iOS & Android App Downloads169K Email SubscribersSubmit your project here and use promo code ‘D1F’ for 20% off on any plan.