Wild About Learning: The National Wildlife Federation

Thanks for listening to the tech Tools for Teachers podcast. For 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

and I'm Her producer and husband, Fuzz Martin. And I love editing podcasts because it's such a wild life.

Really?

No, not my best.

Wow. Okay.

I love editing podcasts. It's a wildlife. Can you tell? Then I am enthralled.

Oh, my.

Hello.

Hi. How are you?

I'm great. Just had some. Just had an oat milk latte for fall. Feeling good.

It's very fall like it is good old October pecan chaos and caramel apples.

Pecan fallish latte. Yeah. Very basic, actually. So how's the year going?

Going great.

Yeah.

Finish parentage conferences and so many things happening. But it's all good. Kids are great.

Good.

So a couple weeks ago. Yeah, a couple weeks ago, yeah. We talked about the National Park Service.

Correct.

And we highlighted all of the cool tools on episode 192.

1192. Yes, 192. You're correct.

Yeah.

And so coming back, not coming back to that site, but a complimentary site to the National Park Service 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 Federation, hence where your wildlife pun came in.

Yes. Thank you. My questionable pun?

Questionable 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 is 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 when 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 n w f.org.

Yes.

So nwf.org dot. 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 gonna start with educational resources. And little ranger Rick's on little ranger Rick. Anybody read ranger Rick as a kid?

I used to get ranger Rick as a kid.

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.

It's just under educational resources. And you could just link that into something for your kids choice board or Google classroom, whatever you're gonna use, and you just scroll down.

Also, they use, like, easy to read text, which I appreciate, back from the brink. So they have endangered species. Like, you can click on that and we'll talk about specific endangered species like 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, your 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 talk. It's all about America's wildlife.

And they have your categories. So birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, plants and fungi. Fungi.

Fungi, fungi, like me.

Wow. Invertebrates and fish. So I'm going to click on birds. We love a good birdhouse story. I was hoping you're gonna pick on something else.

Well, you can click on it, and I'm sure you'll read it while I'm talking. 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, and you can pick the bird you want. So I'm gonna pick. What do I want to pick?

Common loon.

I'm picking a burrowing owl.

Okay.

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 could do it for writing. 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 eco school, which is a whole program that you can certify, like your elementary or secondary school for.

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.

Yeah.

And there's just 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.

Sure.

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.

Oh, cool.

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.

Yeah.

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 national green hour and how do you build green hour into your. Into your kids 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, you can get in there. You can get in there, sure.

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 Wick 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. We got you, boo.

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 text 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 is coming from a good source of information.

Yeah.

So many things. And it's just, it's a cool, easy to navigate, like family friendly site to dig around in.

Agreed.

Yeah.

Yeah.

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. So again, nwf.org.

There you go.

By the way, I found a t shirt on there thing that I'm definitely buying for our oldest daughter.

Okay.

It has a grumpy little chickadee with a hat on it. It says, say it ain't snow.

Oh, cute.

She's gonna like that.

Yes.

By the way, if you like. If you like those, like, old school, like grandma has like a, like a car, a cardinal, and like a snow setting, they sell all of those.

And I think, like, because those are back in style.

They are trendy.

Yeah. They've got a really good shop that supports the National Wildlife Federation.

That's amazing.

So while you're digging around as we get into the holiday season.

There you go. You can do that, too. And support, good call.

Yes, support.

A good call. 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 @smartinwi or on threads or Facebook or anywhere else that you might find me on social media. If you wanna get more information on the links to the technology discussed in this episode, you can visit smartnwi.com.

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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 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.

Shut up.