iSpeech

iSpeech www.ispeech.org Convert documents to audio and your web pages for free - without software, instantly!
Simply enter the URL of the web page or upload the file you want to have read and we will convert it into audio you can listen to, share, embed or download.

This site is so cool! It is great for all grades, but I think it will be extremely beneficial for struggling readers and our special needs students. You can create an account if you would like but it not necessary.
Example of an uploaded file:
Aren't We All Teachers of Literacy
http://www.ispeech.org/documents.php?mid=d5512d23f2941d52ed000d431f63e63b

Plymouth School Webpage: http://www.ispeech.org/documents.php?mid=cf53eceeb44d4df5918763a7fb6633de

***TO STOP THE AUDIO- click on the orange square.

Virtual Legos

Cubescape http://www.themaninblue.com/experiment/Cubescape/Ever wanted to create your own isometric pixel picture, but didn't know what the word isometric meant? Well, now you can fulfil your wildest dreams with Cubescape!
Great for your math curriculum! Extremely user friendly- check it out and see how you can use it!

Electronic Posters

Glogster http://www.glogster.com/edu/? is a nifty web 2.0 tool that allows you to add a little ‘glam’ to electronic posters that then can be embedded into your web page, blog, or wiki. Pick a background, drop on some shapes, add links, text, and pictures, and grab the embedding code. You don’t need to create an account to use the tool. You will want to monitor this with students as the site contains others' unfiltered glogs, but don’t shy away from adding your own glitz to your pages with Glogster.
In the education version, teachers can create accounts and they will be given student accounts names and passwords.

Example-Took about 10 minutes without any prior experience.
http://denabud.glogster.com/glog-584/

Inspiration at Home

Inspiration is a great resource, the problem is many of our kids don't have it at home. Check out My Webspiration http://www.mywebspiration.com/

Webspiration is afflliated with Inspiration and lets users create free online accounts. Students and teachers can create diagrams and transfer them to outline form at home save them to their online account and access them at school. It even has the option to download and upload the documents to Inspiration 8.

History Wired

History Wired http://www.historywired.si.edu/#Smithsonian Institution's HistoryWired: A few of our favorite things. This experimental site introduces visitors to some of the three million objects held by the National Museum of American History, Behring Center.
This site is great for history research. Students can access information by year or topic.

Spell with flickr

This site is just fun. You can have your kids practice their spelling words or you can insert the words into a blog or your website like I did below.

Determining Credible Websites

Check out the list on the link and share with your students. http://technologyresources.pbwiki.com/Checking+the+Credibility+of+Websites

Classtools.net

Classtools.net (http://www.classtools.net)
The website classtool.net lets you create fun quiz games using your own questions or word lists. Practice your skill in any subject playing Flash arcade games such as Manic, Miner, Random Name or Word Picker and Word Shoot (16 games in all).

ISeek

http://education.iseek.com/iseek/home.page
iSEEK Education is a targeted search engine for students, teachers, administrators, and caregivers.
• Safe - Put your mind at ease with safe search technologies and editor-reviewed content
• Authoritative - Search hundreds of thousands of trusted resources from universities, government, and established noncommercial providers
• Intelligent - Instantly identify lesson plans, activities, school subjects, grade levels, and more with iView navigation
• Time-saving - Register to bookmark any URL for storage in MySEEK, your own searchable Web-based library
• Allows you to put a website address in and find out if it is a valid or biased site.

Jog the Web

This is great site in which you can create tracks. A track is a way to lead people through the web from one page to the next. By a simple click these people can go through the webpages YOU like, in the order YOU like and even read comments YOU left. You can do all this for FREE. Check out some examples.
Google Earth for Educators (We do have Google Earth on all district computers)
Search the site for tracks that are already done.

Blabberize Learning

Blabberize is a free program that lets your pictures talk. You upload a picture in which the person, or animal, is facing the camera and has their mouth closed (that gives the best results). Blabberize is a fun website that can be used in a variety of ways in your classroom! You can teach foreign language, tell a story, have children read and share their own writings, give a book talk, share learning about a unit, the options are endless. All you have to do is go to the site, sighnup for a free account and follow the step-by-step directions.

Check it out! www.blabberize.com

Examples:
I made a Blabber for You!

Common Craft Plain English (Great Videos)

Do you feel like you are out of the technology loop? Do you hear terms like, blog or wiki and say - huh? Common Craft Plain English has short videos that give plain english explanations. http://www.commoncraft.com/

Teacher Tube

www.teachertube.com
The teacher version of You Tube can be a great resource for you and your students! You can find awesome videos to supplement your lessons. There are videos on every topic for all grade levels. Once you find the video you can link it to a blog or a PowerPoint. Check it out! WAIT!
One cool feature about TeacherTube is it allows users to download and convert videos for convenient use in your classrooms.

We are well aware that downloading during the day can be next to impossible...SO you have two options. #1: Copy and paste the URL and send it to Dena or Lynn and we will download for you and save in the N-drive Media Folder for your use. #2 Go to the N-drive Media Folder and open TeacherTube download instructions to complete the process on your own.

Here is a link to example of videos on Math Raps.

Flecks All Over the Sight

Fleck www.fleck.com
Have your students ever been frustrated when trying to navigate a website? Fleck is a perfect solution to help guide your students to finding the information needed in a timely manner.
Simply go to www.fleck.com and enter the website you want to annotate. Fleck allows you to put notes (similar to post-it-notes) on the page. You can help students connect to the text by providing some background knowledge, point out graphics that are meaningful or ask questions pertaining to the reading. The options are endless. You will need to create an account to manage your fleck sites. You also have the option to make your fleck site public or private.
Click on the following links to see some examples.
Iditarord http://extension.fleck.com/?sh=e70d3809de5311fb2c8a1b815ad4f0bb10b626f1
Digestive System http://extension.fleck.com/?sh=c73841146f6d3eff47cf40c0a018b03f03ed3e2a

Trading Cards

Trading Card Maker http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/deck.php
These trading cards can be a fun and easy integration project for your class. There are other options for activities at this website. Students and teachers can create trading cards for science projects, a jigsaw puzzle for a reading project, a class calendar with assignment due dates and lots more. There are tons of cool simple projects that can enhance your curriculum.
Other Examples
Try it out and share your experience.