[00:00:00] Shanna Martin: Thanks for listening to the Tech Tools for Teachers podcast, where each week we talk about a free Piece or two of technology that you can use in your classroom. I’m your host, Shanna Martin. I’m a middle school teacher, technology and instructional coach for my district.
[00:00:32] Fuzz Martin: And I’m her producer and husband, Fuzz Martin.
And I love editing podcasts because it’s such a wild life.
[00:00:43] Shanna Martin: Not
[00:00:44] Fuzz Martin: my best.
[00:00:45] Shanna Martin: Wow. OK,
[00:00:48] Fuzz Martin: I love editing pod casts and seeing a wildlife. Can you tell when I am enthralled.
[00:00:56] Shanna Martin: Oh my.
[00:00:57] Fuzz Martin: Hello.
[00:00:57] Shanna Martin: Hi, how are you? I’m
[00:00:59] Fuzz Martin: great. Just had some, uh, Instead of, uh, oat milk latte for fall feeling. Good.
[00:01:06] Shanna Martin: It’s very fall like
[00:01:07] Fuzz Martin: this good old October. Pecan.
[00:01:09] Shanna Martin: K and carmel apple!
[00:01:11] Fuzz Martin: Pecan, fall, fall ish latte.
Yeah. Good night. Very, uh, uh, basic actually. Uh, so how, uh,
[00:01:19] Shanna Martin: how’s,
[00:01:20] Fuzz Martin: how’s the year going ?
[00:01:21] Shanna Martin: It’s going great. Yeah.
[00:01:22] Fuzz Martin: Good. Great. Good.
[00:01:23] Shanna Martin: Finished parent teacher conferences and, and so many things happening, but it’s all good. Kids are great.
[00:01:29] Fuzz Martin: Good.
[00:01:30] Shanna Martin: So a couple weeks ago?
[00:01:31] Fuzz Martin: Mm-Hmm? , yeah. A couple weeks ago. Yeah. Most
[00:01:34] Shanna Martin: We talked about the National Park Service.
[00:01:37] Fuzz Martin: Correct.
[00:01:38] Shanna Martin: And we highlighted all of the cool tools on episode 1 92. One.
[00:01:45] Fuzz Martin: 192. Yes, 192. You’re correct.
[00:01:47] Shanna Martin: Yeah. And so Coming back, not coming back to that site, but a complementary site to the National Park Service, um, that is used often in the classroom and very helpful for resources, and I thought I’d share it this week, which is the National Wildlife Service.
And we’re going to talk about the National Wildlife Federation, hence where your wildlife pun
[00:02:13] Fuzz Martin: came in. Yes, My questionable pun. Questionable
[00:02:15] Shanna Martin: pun. So there’s some things I’m going to highlight about the National Wildlife Federation because this is a collection of super awesome sites. So let’s go with my top five things first.
And I’ll start with there are lots of resources for all ages on the site. So while it’s awesome for teachers, it’s also awesome for kids to navigate and families. So it’s very friendly for many people. , it’s super easy to find the information. So if you’re clicking like it’s labeled really well, which I always appreciate.
There are free articles, which are always things that we’re looking for, to read in the classroom for kids to do research, to practice our informational text reading and all that kind of stuff, so there’s lots of free things for them to read. They have a whole wildlife guide that’s available, which is really cool for kids when they’re into animals and they’re doing some research.
And I know, depending on grade level, sometimes we’re trying to find things that are like kid friendly online. And you can link it right to the wildlife guide if you have a choice board or something like that. That would be really easy for kids to do. And then also there’s tons of resources for families.
So this is one, like if you have a newsletter or something like that, you can use it in the classroom and also share it with families, which is pretty awesome. So National Wildlife Federation has so many cool things. The website itself is just nwf.org?
[00:03:32] Fuzz Martin: Yes.
[00:03:33] Shanna Martin: So nwf.org. And. It’s great. It’s, it’s just very easy.
So let’s start with, like there’s a kids and family section. There’s an educational resource section. I’m going to start with educational resources and Little Ranger Rick’s on Little Ranger Rick. Anybody read Ranger Rick as a kid?
[00:03:50] Fuzz Martin: I used to get Ranger Rick as a kid.
[00:03:52] Shanna Martin: I know we’d love Ranger Rick. So now they have like digital versions of Ranger Rick.
But anyway, so wildlife guide and you click on the wildlife guide and it’s just on our educational resources. You could just link that into something for your kids choice board or Google classroom, whatever you’re going to use. And you just scroll down. Also they use like easy to read texts, which I appreciate.
Back from the brink. So they’ve endangered species. Like you can click on that and we’ll talk about specific endangered species like the bald eagle and Florida panther. And what’s nice is they also do the cool, like highlight the animal. So then when you’re reading or kids are reading the text, you can click on like gray wolf.
It will then link you to information about the gray wolf. It gives you their endangered status, their classification, and then a description of the animal, where their range, their diet, behavior. So if a kid’s researching an animal, they can start the article reading about it, and then they can learn all about it, including conservation, and they have fun facts attached to it, which is really just an easy way for kids to research.
So right into the article, they have information. So, that’s like the endangered species part in the first part of the wildlife guide. If you continue to scroll down, it says like, it’s all about America’s wildlife. And they have your categories, so birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, plants and fungi. Fungi, fungi,
[00:05:13] Fuzz Martin: fungi,
[00:05:14] Shanna Martin: fungi.
Like me.
[00:05:17] Fuzz Martin: Wow.
[00:05:18] Shanna Martin: Invertebrates and fish. So I’m going to click on birds. We love a good bird story. I was hoping you were going to pick on the Something else. Well, you can click on it and I’m sure you’ll read it while I’m talking. I did, I’m on insects. And so, endangered species, they talk about climate change, and that’s another highlighted word.
So you click on climate change, it gives you a whole article about it. Which is really helpful for kids. But then if you scroll down, it talks about different species of birds. So then they have like small perching birds and birds that live near water. You can pick the bird you want. So I’m going to pick What do I want to pick?
Common Loon. I’m picking a Burrowing Owl. It’s a hunting bird. So, Burrowing Owl. Now it, like, it’s, it shows you on the little, they have a little, like, graph that kind of shows you if it’s endangered or not. Gives you the classification. And again, goes through the description, the range, the diet. A fun fact, they have sources of information, which is cool.
And then all of that that you need. So each animal that they have within their wildlife guide has a whole little setup. So you could have a classroom’s worth where every kid has a different animal or species that they’re researching, that they’re sharing about. They can do it for writing and they can do it for research.
They can do it for science. They can do it for the background. They can do it for all kinds of things. So there’s just all different ways to use it, which is awesome. So that’s just one tool on this website. They then have a collection of educator tools that you can click on, you can sign up to get the educator tools, and you have resources, you share your email with them, and then you like join, or you like register to be a teacher, and then they share the different information, and they have EcoSchool, which is a whole program that you can certify like your elementary or secondary school for, Uh, and they have a program and a framework and all kinds of tools for teachers that you can sign up through, like their equal school program, which is pretty cool.
And there’s just, there’s so many things. They then have like specific educational programs if you want. They also have, a variety of. Like reports that you could read if you need, if you need to really dig into information with your kids. So those are all there and available. Then they also have, like, you can link to their magazines.
Now, some things with their magazines, obviously like people pay to have their magazines, but what’s kind of cool is if you click, like, I want to read this issue. What’s kind of nice is they do offer some of them for free. So you can actually get into like certain issues. I think it’s the newest issue.
Maybe that’s free. Or the one that’s posted is available. So you can actually access some of their stuff for free online, which is awesome. And then like that’s under the magazine category, they also have a section for, kids and family. So you can do connecting kids in nature. That’s its own section and it gives you ideas and they talk about like National Green Hour and how do you build a green hour into your, into your kid’s day.
And then different ways to connect kids with nature and they have all kinds of resources and ideas and things like that. They also have Ranger Rick Kids and I was like, oh, this looks super fun. Couple things about the Ranger Rick. page once you click on it. Some of it, you have to have the login. So if you are a Ranger Rick purchaser,
[00:08:34] Fuzz Martin: you can get
[00:08:35] Shanna Martin: in there.
You can get in there.
[00:08:36] Fuzz Martin: Sure.
[00:08:36] Shanna Martin: But there are options for, like, if you click on the magazine. You can click on the current issue and you can read parts of the current issue online, which I think is kind of cool. So there are some pieces that you have access to, that you can see and you can learn about the animals and stuff like that.
So there’s different pieces where some is just for subscribers under the Ranger Rick stuff, but some of it you still have available. Where you can kind of see, like, there’s craft projects and stuff like that, and you have options to get into those things. So, some of the content you can see, some of it you can’t because it’s blocked unless you’re a Ranger Rick purchaser.
Subscriber. Subscriber. That’s trying to think of the word. Subscriber. We got you.
[00:09:17] Fuzz Martin: We got you, boo.
[00:09:18] Shanna Martin: Thanks. So, that information is there. But there’s so much available through the National Wildlife Federation site. That’s available for kids and for families. They also have like the about us parts. They have like the history and heritage and, conservation in the United States and how that’s changed over time and all kinds of stuff.
So there’s just so many cool resources, and a great way to find some informational texts for students and. Those kids that love animals, which I know many, many kids are like, I love a turtle and they want to learn more about them. This is a great way to share these resources with them in class and then have them, it’s a good site that has information that you can direct them to that, you know, was coming from, a good source of information.
Many things. And it’s just, it’s a cool, easy to navigate, like family friendly. Site to dig around in.
[00:10:08] Fuzz Martin: Agreed.
[00:10:10] Shanna Martin: Yeah.
[00:10:10] Fuzz Martin: Yeah.
[00:10:11] Shanna Martin: National Wildlife Federation. So, once you’re done with the National Parks, you can go to the National Wildlife and we can do all the things outdoors. Yep.
[00:10:19] Fuzz Martin: So again, nwf. org.
[00:10:23] Shanna Martin: There you go.
[00:10:24] Fuzz Martin: By the way, I found a t shirt on there, uh, thing that I’m definitely buying for our oldest daughter.
[00:10:28] Shanna Martin: Okay.
[00:10:28] Fuzz Martin: Uh, it has a grumpy, uh, little chickadee with a hat on it. Uh huh. And it says, Say It Ain’t Snow.
[00:10:35] Shanna Martin: Oh, cute. And she’s,
[00:10:36] Fuzz Martin: she’s gonna like that.
[00:10:37] Shanna Martin: Yes.
[00:10:37] Fuzz Martin: By the way, if you like , um, if you like those like old school, like grandma has like a, uh, like a, a nature, a card, a cardinal, uh, Uhhuh and a like a snow setting.
Yeah. They sell all of those. And I think like Yes, because those are back in style. They are trendy. Yes. Yeah. Uh, they’ve got a really good shop , and it supports the National Wildlife Federation.
[00:10:57] Shanna Martin: That’s amazing. .
[00:10:59] Fuzz Martin: Yeah. So, so while you’re digging around. As we get into the holiday season. There you go.
[00:11:05] Shanna Martin: You can do that too.
And support.
[00:11:07] Fuzz Martin: Yes.
[00:11:08] Shanna Martin: That’s amazing. Well, thanks for tuning in. This has been the Tech Tools for Teachers podcast. If you ever have any questions, you can find the app formerly known as Twitter at Smartinwi or on threads or Facebook or anywhere else that you might find me on social media. If you want to get more information on the links to the technology discussed in this episode, you can visit smartinwi.com
com. If you’d like to support the show, please consider buying me a coffee or two. Visit buymeacoffee. com slash smartinwi or visit smartinwi com and click on that cute little purple coffee cup. Your donations help keep this show going. New episodes almost each week. Thanks for listening. Go educate and innovate.
[00:11:48] Fuzz Martin: The ideas and opinions expressed on this podcast and the smartinwi website are those of the author, Shanna Martin, and not of her employer. Prior to using any of the technologies discussed on this podcast, please consult with your employer regulations. This podcast offers no guarantee that these tools will work for you as described, or will even work in that matter, but we hope they do.
And we’ll talk to you next time, right here on the Tech Tools for Teachers podcast.
