Assistive Tech Tools Make Learning Accessible to All

Find an amazing collection of free tools and resources from the Innovative Educator

Universal Design for Learning

• Apps
• AudioBooks
• Free text to speech
• Graphic organizers
• Multimedia and digital storytelling
• Study skills tools
• Literacy tools
• Writing tools
• Collaborative tools
• Research tools
• Math tools
• Tools That Compensate for Handwriting Issues
• Helpful Apps

 25 Incredible Assisstive Technologies

QR Codes/Readers

5 Reasons I Love Using QR Codes in my Classroom - excellent explanation of QR Codes and their benefits

12 Ideas for Teaching with QR Codes

Brought to you by the Letters Q and R - from Teacher Tech Talk

Cybrary Man's QR Code Resources - WOW!

Getting Started with QR Codes and Learning from The Learning Exchange 

Must-Have QR Code Apps from Dzinepress.com

My First QR Codes Activity

QR Codes Bring Art and Poetry to Life 

QRVoice.net  - Enter a message and a QR Code is generated. Once scanned it'll play the message with a synthesized voice.

Using QR Codes in the Classroom

Using QR Codes in the Classroom

Utilizing QR Codes in Learning

Virtual Library Display Using QR Codes

QR Codes in the Media Center


QRStuff.com
At QR Stuff we give you the opportunity to generate QR Codes in ways that most of the other places on the Internet overlook. Not everyone is happy with only having a handful of data types to choose from, and just being able to create a puny little QR code image file that's only good for pinning to a web page, so we've extended the possibilities to include innovative ways to get the QR Code you need out into the "real world" where it can actually work for you:

• Create QR Codes for well over 20 data types and smartphone actions
• Unlike most other QR code generators we don't force you to use our URL shortener.
• Generate QR Codes in printable formats - either a single code or as an array of codes - and then you print them out yourself.
• Generate a QR Code and then email it to someone.
• Generate QR Codes that are good enough to use as artwork for a t-shirt and allow you to actually buy the shirt with your custom QR Code on it via the Zazzle print-on-demand website.

Discovery Education Alert!

 Discovery Education Joins Forces with WebMD to Create Free Lesson Plans

When it comes to healthy living, it's better to instill kids with good eating habits at a young age. A mentality that includes healthy food and exercise choices is an important one that kids need to be made aware of at an early age. 

Discovery Education has teamed up with WebMD and Sanford Health to create free lesson plans for teachers called fit 4 the classroom (no relation to the D-organization fit4D, though). The program is an off-shoot of WebMD’s fit program, which is a set of at-home tools for parents and their kids. This program was launched in September, and schools are encouraged to have teachers incorporate these lesson plans and tools into their established curriculum,  alongside the basics like science and math, so that students can “learn how to make positive, healthy lifestyle choices” — ostensibly something kids are not learning regularly now!

Engage and Amaze Your K-6 Students with Siemens Science

Clean up oil spills. Make slime. Create sand dunes. Leap into learning like never before.

Hands-on Science Activities and Videos in Life, Earth, and Physical Science

The Siemens Science Day website offers a variety of tools and resources that will help you reinvent science class. You'll find new, original hands-on activities and supporting videos, a teacher support center with best practice guides, monthly themes and an Ultimate Cool School sweepstakes. 

Clean up oil spills. Make slime. Create sand dunes. Leap into learning like never before. In the Teacher Support Center, Find 5-minute prep kits, related websites, and a teacher toolkit that will help you prepare for your Siemens Science Day hands-on activities.

Win a Wireless Lab from Discovery Education and CDWG

Enter EVERY day until May 3 for a chance to win one of two grand prize wireless labs. For 16 weeks of the new year, you'll also be eligible to win a WEEKLY PRIZE. Get extra entries for Tweeting and referring your colleagues. Top referrer wins a notebook computer! Share. Tweet. Pin. Get the word Out to Win. Enter Now!

Apps: iPad, iPhone, & Android

Pearltrees are efficient ways to organize resources and links. Check out thousands of resources here: 1-1 iPad Class, ipad Classroom, iPad Research,  iPad Tips and Trick, Parent iPad Info, Thousands of Apps

30 Free Apps for Celebrating & Learning About December Holidays

1000 Educational Apps: Organized by Subject and Price from compiled by the Texas Computer Education Association

iPads in the Classroom

103 Interesting Ways to Use iPads in the Classroom

6 Examples of iPad Integration in the 1:1 Classroom: French IV, French V, Calculus, Trigonometry, History, and Digital Literacy

A Principal's Perspective: Getting the Most out of iPads in the Classroom
 
Dispelling the Myths About 1:1 Environments

Giles County iPad Tips, Tricks, Apps (by grade and content level)

An Introductory Guide to iPads for Teachers
 EdTechDiva: The One iPad Classroom - Classroom Management, iPad Lessons, Tips with a App Focus,  Tips & Useful Apps, Kid-Filtered iPad Browser, iPad Link Collection, Bloom's Apps (USE the links to the left), Bloom's Explained 
 
Heidi Songs: Tips for the One iPad Classroom and a free iPad Rules Download; other posts on her favorite apps include: Great iPad Apps for Pre-K and Kindergarten! More iPad Apps, and a New Counting Creatures Addition Book! Seven Weeks Down:  More Fun With Counting Creatures, iPad Apps, and More! Three Weeks Down and I LOVE My Class! Teaching CVC Words:  What To Do When They Are STILL Not Getting It

How to Roll Out a 1:1 iPad Program from Edutopia

How the iPad can Transform Classroom Learning 

Teacher Experience and Expectations in the One Computer Classroom from the Perspective of Two Elementary Teachers
 
Apps
Top 200 (FREE) in Education for iPad  - from AppShopper
100 Essential iPad Tips & Tricks from TC Geeks - may also download an iPad manual here
100 Best Free iPhone Apps for Educators
100 iPad Tips & Tricks - FREE download 
75 Top Free Apps - from Art of the iPhone
60 iPad Apps in 60 Minutes - presented by Tim Owens, IT tech at Longwood University
50 iPad Tips & Tricks
40 iPad Apps that Librarians Love 
40 Most Awesome iPad Apps for Science Students
28 iPad 2 Tips and Tricks from PC World 
25 Android Apps for Education
25 Best iPad Apps from creativefan
20 Amazing iPad Apps for Education from TeachHu
20+ Apps to Support Digital Storytelling
App Advice - Apps Guide & Apps List show apps and reviews of ALL kinds
App Annie (top 200 free and paid educational iPad apps; other categories available)
Apple: iPad How-To's, 
Apps for Administrators  from iPads in Education
APPitic - a collection of 1,300 + apps for education - mostly FREE
Areas included: Preschool, Multiple Intelligences, Bloom's Taxonomy, and Themes in all content areas 
Appolicious - Find and share the latest and best iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, and Android apps from the recommendations of others as well as from the editors. Review 10 new app articles per day with two video reviews. Search dozens of categories, from art to education to music to travel. Also check out these: Appolicious Facebook fan page, Appolicious on Twitter, Appolicious Android Apps Facebook fan page, Android apps on Twitter, Appolicious iPhone app, and our Appolicious iPad app
Apps for Speech Therapists
Apps for Speech/Language Teachers 
Apps in Education - good collection - ALL content areas, including Apps for Teacher
Apps in Education
Apps in Elementary School from iPads in Education
Apps in High School from iPads in Education
Apps in Middle School  from iPads in Education
Apps that Build General Expressive Language, Oral Communication Skills, Listening Comprehension Skills, Visual Arts to Stimulate Language Learning, Increase Grammar Skills, Develop Vocabulary Skills, Develop Story Making/Storytelling Skills, Build Writing Skills, Writing Preparation/Mind Mapping, Reading Skills, Interactive Book Apps and more)
Assessment Apps for a 1:1 iPad Initiative
Best Apps for Kids - all categories, grade levels
Best Apps from Common Sense
Best Free Education iPhone Apps
Best Free iPad Apps from iPad Insight
Best iPad Apps for Education from MakeUseOf
Best iPad Tips and Tricks: These tips and tricks might be of interest to you and be especially useful if you've just gotten an iPad. Many of them will also work well on  the iPhone and the iPod touch on the same mobile operating system.
Bing - Bing is a FREE decision engine designed to work on your iPhone. Bing can find whatever you are searching for and help you get there—down the street, the other side of the world, or somewhere in between—Bing has the answer.
iBrainstorm - FREE; multi-device collaboration tool; from iPhone to iPad with the flick of the finger
Board Cam Lite - FREE; make great live presentations; live interaction with the camera image, an image stored in your device, or a whiteboard; customizable pointers, connected pointers, labels, and freehand drawing; video and audio recording; store different settings and contents for later use; make live dynamic presentations of objects, images, and using a whiteboard to a large audience; record videos, video tutorials, and video how-to's; prepare your presentations ahead and store your settings and content; LITE version relies on the iPad 2 video mirroring feature to perform it's external video output, so will work only with external video adapters that support the feature
CommonSenseMedia iPad Apps Review - arranged by age/grade level/content area
Complete List of iPad Tips, Tricks, and Tutorials from How-to Geek
Digital Storytelling with the iPad
Districts/Schools Using iPads in the Classroom 
eClicker - a personal response system that allows teachers to poll their class during a lesson;  provides teachers with the real-time feedback they need to be sure their messages are being received; developed for smartphones and laptops; eClicker leverages the hardware already in the hands of many students providing a low cost polling solution for the classroom; need the eClicker Host app running on an iOS device, a Wi-Fi network, and students with internet-enabled devices to participate
Educreations - transforms your iPad into a recordable whiteboard that captures voice and handwriting to produce amazing video lessons that you can share online; touch, tap, talk; FAQs; FREE
Edutopia K-5 iPad Apps According to Bloom's Taxonomy - lists highlight apps that connect to the various stages on Bloom's continuum of learning
FreeAppAlerts - DAILY free iPhone and iPad apps 
Free iPad Books  (tutorials, resources)
Fun Educational Apps - app reviews for the iPhone, iPod, and iPad; reviews broken down by age group; give away offers occasionally
Giles County iPad Tips, Tricks, Apps (by grade and content level)
Going Mobile - Apps for Life - learn about apps used to support those with disabilities iPad Academy -tips, tutorials, app collections, more
iPad Articles, Blogs, Forums
iPad: A Magic and Revolutionary Guide - FREE download or view online from MakeUseOf
iPad Apps for Education
iPad Apps for School
iPad Curriculum -  collection of the best in applications, practices, and deployment of the iPad as a learning device
IPad Exploration - guided tour wiki with great resources
iPaddiction - 
iPad Quick Tips, Tricks, & Tutorials
iPad Schools Wiki - a clearinghouse of applications, lessons and experiences using the iPad in the classroom
iPad Tips, Tricks, & Tutorials
iPad Video Training Videos 
iPads in Education - exploring the use of iPads and eBooks in schools and colleges
iPads in Schools - Livebinder Collection
iPhone Apps for Education (free & paid)
iPhone, iPad and iPod touch Apps for Education - iPhone, iPad and iPod touch apps for education; included apps: speech & language, ACC, sign language, organization & scheduling, reading & writing (children's book apps, letters, decoding, spelling, handwriting, ebook reading apps, writing and story telling apps, writing preparation apps), math, music, song, art & photography, game, accessibility, early integration, fine motor development, app collections, productivity apps, remote desktop apps
iPhones, iPods & iPads in Education - Choose from the list on the left
Photosynth - Interactive Panorama Capture and Sharing - "Photosynth for iOS is the panorama creation app that makes it easy and fun to capture and share interactive panoramas of the places, people, and events that are important to you. Using the latest in computer vision techniques, Photosynth allows you to not only make a panorama from left to right, but also up and down, enabling you to capture a full “sphere”.
Qwiki - "Explore 3,000,000 topics in a format perfect for the iPad: learn about what's near you, across the world - and everything in between. Labeled "a seed that will blossom into an Internet wonder" by the NY Times, Qwiki combines thousands of sources to present concise, interactive summaries of millions of people, places and things in an experience optimized for the iPad. Explore topics by searching or browse a worldwide map highlighting landmarks, monuments, cities, towns, and more." 
Reach Every Child - apps with explanation
Recommended iPod Apps - 194 apps shown complete with grade level, description, iTunes link, and content area in easy-t0-read spreadsheet format; another view of the collection
Tammy's iPad Resources - apps are categorized
Teach with your iPad - breaks down apps by subject; type; grade level; and other
Therapy App 411
Ultimate List of Tools and Resources for iPad Developers and Designers from admixweb
What Can I do with an iPad in an ActivClassroom? - Excellent blog post with many suggestions; scroll down to comments as well for good info


Chris | Live Tech Support | Video Help | Add to iTunes

iPad, iPods, iPhones for Regular Ed or those with Special Needs 

Apps for Autism - 60 Minutes Report - Take a few minutes to view this video. You can hear the tears and joy in the voice of Lesley Stahl as she witnessed the personal way the iPad has made a difference in the lives of those with autism. Apps mentioned include Proloquo2Go, AutismXpress, and Look in my Eyes.
Apps for Special Needs in 2012
Apps for Students with Dyslexia
Blogs for the iPad for Students with Special Needs
Eric Sailers, Speech-Language Pathologist, Resource Collection - iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices and applications for (special) education; included: App/Accessory Lists, Volume Purchase Program for Educational Institutions, Tutorials, Reviews, Communities, Company/Personal Websites, Manuals
iPad and iPhone Apps for Those with Disabilities - Apple, in the Special Education section, offers more that 80 apps for the iPhone and 15 apps for the iPad in 10 categories ranging from communication to emotional development and life skills.
iPads, Apps, and Children with Special Needs
iPads are Changing the Lives of People with Disabilities
iPads as Assistive Technology
iPad Opens World to Disabled Boy - NY Times story
iPhone, iPad and iPod touch Apps for (Special) Education - iPhone, iPad and iPod touch apps for education and special education; divided according to content
Occupational Therapy Apps
One Place for Special Needs - Apps categorized according to specific need; excellent collection
Rebeccah School: iPad Workshop: iPad Apps for Special Needs Students  
Teaching Learners with Multiple Special Needs  - Resources and ideas for teachers of learners with severe, profound, intensive, significant, complex or multiple special needs
Tech in Special Ed
Using iPad Apps for Those with Developmental Disabilities - excellent resources
Welcome to my WikiSpace: iPadAppsClarkstown - explore the links to the left

Apps That Should Accompany You to the Next Conference

(Teacher Reboot Camp)

NoteTaking Apps - available on the iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad; some have Android and Blackbarry equivalents

• AudioNote Lite - free; combines functionality of a notepad and voide recorder; type notes, record what is being said by the speaker, use highlighter or drwaing tool to create visuals; LITE version allows 10 minutes of audio per note and 2 hours total; full version ($4.99) allows you to share notes by email and wifi
• Evernote - Create text, photo and audio notes that auto-synchronize your notes to your Mac or PC. Makes text within snapshots searchable. Add, sync, access, and share files (PDF, Word, Excel, PPT, and more) among the different versions of Evernote. Free version available on iPhone, iPod, Android, and Blackberry. ** Try keeping notes of the presentations and workshops you attend or try brainstorming and planning your next presentation on this app!
• IStudious Life -  free; take notes then make flashcards for studying; student centered; create notebooks for each class (FREE version limited to 4 notebooks), 2 sections per notebook, 3 pages per section, 6 flashcards per notebook.; PAID version is unlimited ($2.99)
• Jot! Whiteboard Free  - a simple, fast whiteboard that lets you sketch out your ideas and share them in real time; draw, take notes, share ideas via email or save them as photos; collaborate in real time over the Internet with Live Sharing
• Microsoft OneNote - Create up to 500 searchable notes with next, pictures, and bullets; make & manage to-do lists; free Microsoft SkyDrive online storage to access, edit, and manage notes from anywhere
• Mindblowing - Gather audio, video and photos into a colorized mindmap. Enter the main topic, title, or theme in the main node then create branches with images, audio, or video attached. Send the mindmap with the attachments through email. Free version available on the iPhone. This is my recent review of this app which gives several ideas on how to use it with students.
  ** Try keeping notes of the presentations and workshops you attend or try brainstorming and planning your next presentation on this app!
• Posterous - Available only from outside Cleveland City Schools. Want to blog and report the workshops or presentations in one location on a website quickly? Although, Posterous is the easiest way to blog it can also be used to effectively collect notes to publish immediately on a blog without any registration. Include a mix of text, photos, and videos as well as tags and location information. Share immediately on Facebook and Twitter! Even allow others to add to your posts (set this up through the web app vs. the mobile app). Free version available on iPhone, iPod, Android, and Blackberry.
• ScratchWork - Web surf and take notes side by side or view each in full screen; email notes as PDF or plain text; save notes with corresponding web pages; insert images, drawings and graphs; sync notes to the cloud; User's Guide
• Smart Doc Lite - FREE; best for educational and business purposes; easy and non-frustrating interface; add text anywhere in your page; free hand drawing, shapes; add images and edit; record sound simultaneously while drawing; import and export

Storage Apps

• DropBox - Get 2 GB of storage for free to upload photos, videos, documents, presentations, and audio. You can make these private or public (provides you a link to share for others to download). Save photos and videos taken with your phone’s camera, share and send files via email, or copy and paste links to share with another app. Export files to other apps and favorite them for offline viewing. Free version available on iPhone, iPod, Android, and Blackberry.
  ** Try storing your presentation slides or handouts and easily provide a link to your participants to download.

• IBooks - I access my conference pdf programs, transportation maps, and other documents offline with this free app! You have scrolling features, zoom, bookmarking and more. You even have a great looking shelf to organize your collection. You can also have access to some free/paid books to keep you entertained during your free time! Any pdf attachments in your email can automatically be opened and immediately stored in this app! Free version available on the iPhone, iPod, and iPad.

Streaming Apps

• Ustream Broadcaster - livestream any conference event after you attend for availability after the conference. Tween and chat while livestreaming for the event. Register free ahead of time. You will then have your own channel created that others can visit. Free version available on the iPhone and Android. 
• Ustream Viewer- This app simply allows you to watch Ustreamed events on your iPhone. 

Free Presentation Apps

• NearPod - Teachers Call Slide-Sharing iPad App NearPod like PowerPoint on Steroids
• Mighty Meeting - Manage a library of PowerPoint presentations directly from your smartphone or tablet and share them via email, blog, Twitter, or Facebook. Start or join web meetings directly from your laptop, iPhone, iPad, or Android phone. Nice interface! **For hosting a webmeeting or viewing your Powerpoint slides on your smartphone!
• iClicker Lite - The paid version offers more but try out the free version. Use your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad as your PowerPoint remote clicker to view slides and slide notes as you present. Make annotations and show it to your audience as you present. Need wifi. **For navigating your Powerpoint slides during your presentation! 
• Presenter Pro - Professional presentation training app that includes advanced presentation skills techniques with graphics, audio, and video clips, access to Rexi Media for additional presentation skills coaching or PPT design guidelines, a “tip shaker” for accessing hundreds of quick tips and a checklist feature, which enables you to store and e-mail any topic paragraphs to refer to later. View this while traveling to your next presentation. **For preparing your next presentation!
• Adobe Connect - Are you presenting a webinar on Adobe Connect? Have your audience access it through a free app supported by iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, and Android. Your audience doesn’t have to miss any of your presentations. The free app allows them to see your slides and chat with others. **For hosting a webmeeting on your smartphone! 
• FuzeMeeting/ Fuze Meeting HD for iPad - Are you presenting a webinar on Fuze Meeting? Have your audience access it through a free app supported by iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Blackberry and Android. Your audience doesn’t have to miss any of your presentations. The free app allows them to see your slides and chat with others. Features include instant web conferences, live desktop sharing of files (supports Word, PPT, PDF, and others), and start meetings immediately with access to your address and personal IM contacts from multiple networks like Gmail, LinkedIn, Yahoo and more. **For hosting a webmeeting on your smartphone!
• Prezi for the iPad - Free but still has some problems and only seems to work on 4G.  You should be able to create, edit, and present your Prezi presentations. Give it a try - it’s free!
• SlideShark - FREE; view and show PowerPoints on your iPad; preserve animations, fonts, graphics, colors; tap or swipe to advance animations and slides; connect to TV or projector

Twitter in Education

100 Ways to Use Twitter in Education, By Degree of Difficulty from Edudemic: The Basics, Etiquette, Connecting, Classroom, Professional Life, Pro Tools, Who to Follow, Applications to Emulate

Educational Technology & Mobile Learning Resources from Educational Technology and Mobile Learning:

• Teachers' Roadmap to the use of Twitter in Education
• Should you Twitter? Decide from this interesting flowchart on Twitter.
• 60+ Educational Tweeters to Follow 
• How to Twitter in 60 Seconds
• Twitter Tools, Twitter Tools & More Twitter Tools for Teachers
• 5 Twitter Tools you Must Use as a Teacher
• 12 Twitter Tools all Teachers Must Know About
• What Teachers Need to Know About Hashtags
• 10 Ways Teachers can use Twitter for Professional Development
• Twitter for K-12 Classes Simplified
• Teachers' Guide to the Use of Twitter in the Classroom
• Twitter Tips Every Teacher Should Know About
• Top 10 Educational Hashtags for Educators
• The Best 15 Hashtags for Teachers
• Teachers' Comprehensive Guide to the Use of Social Networking in Education: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
• How to Cite Tweets in Academic Papers
• URGENT: Secure your Twitter Account
• TWITTV - Watch Twitter Trending Videos
• Some of the Best Twitter Tools & Apps
• Twinslator: Free Tool to Translate Your Tweets

Professor Word - FREE Bookmarklet

ProfessorWord is a free bookmarklet that can be used on any website to:

1. Get the definition of any word with the click of your mouse
2. Identify more than 5,000 SAT, ACT, and GRE vocabulary words

Create a free account to save words and create personalized study lists.

Toasted Cheese

Encourage creative writing! Toasted Cheese is a literary journal that publishes daily writing prompts on a monthly calendar on its website. The whole month is laid out for teachers with a different prompt for each day. You can click through the previous months to find old prompts. The site also hosts a Weekly Writing Chat, a 24/7 Writing Forum, as well as Monthly Articles on Writing and Quarterly Writing Contests based on one or more of the prompts from the calendar.

Children & Youth in History

This site is designed to help teachers and students learn about the roles of young people throughout history by providing access to information about living experiences of children and youth from many perspectives as swell as changing ideas about childhood and adolescence in past cultures and civilizations. Questions such as these are addressed: What was it like to be a child or adolescent throughout history? How is childhood defined? How has it changed and how has it remained the same? What factors have shaped childhood and how did children shape history, society, and culture?

These resources are FREE for educational use:

• a Primary Source Database with 350 resources along with guidance on how to use those sources critically and tools for annotating and organizing the sources;
• 60 Website Reviews that focus on valuable online resources for studying and teaching the history of childhood and youth in world history, including those covering Africa, Wast Asia, Europe, Latin America, Middle East/North Africa, North America, Pacific Basin, South/Southeast Asia;
• 11 Teaching Modules that provide historical context, teaching tools, and strategies for teaching with sets of primary sources drawn from the Primary Source Database; and
• 25 Teaching Case Studies by experienced scholars and teachers that model strategies for using primary sources to teach the history of childhood and youth.

BackStory with the American History Guys

BackStory is a public radio program & podcast that brings historical perspective to the events happening around us today. On each show, renowned U.S. historians Ed Ayers, Peter Onuf, and Brian Balogh tear a topic from the headlines and plumb its historical depths. Over the course of the hour, they are joined by fellow historians, people in the news, and callers interested in exploring the roots of what’s going on today. Together, they drill down to colonial times and earlier, revealing the connections (and disconnections) between past and present. With its passionate, intelligent, and irreverent approach, BackStory is fun and essential listening no matter who you are. Segments may be streamed online or downloaded and used in your classroom as desired.

Teachers tell the History Guys that BackStory segments are well suited for use in the classroom, adding depth to discussions of the historical roots of contemporary issues. Shows like “Body Politics: A History of Health Care” give context to pressing social issues in today’s news. Seasonal specials like “American Pie: A History of Thanksgiving” reveal little-known facts about our holiday traditions, and are accompanied on our website by a wide range of resources for further exploration, including primary source documents and audio slide shows.

Production support for “BackStory with the American History Guys” is provided by the David A. Harrison Fund for the President’s Initiatives at the University of Virginia; the National Endowment for the Humanities*; the University of Richmond; the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation; James Madison’s Montpelier; the Perry Foundation, Incorporated; Cary Brown-Epstein and the W. L. Lyons Brown, Jr. Charitable Foundation; UVA’s Miller Center of Public Affairs; Caroleen Feeney; Marcus and Carole Weinstein; Jay M. Weinberg; Trish and David Crowe; Claire Gargalli and David Carley; JoAnn Hofheimer; and an anonymous donor.

Google Street View

Google Maps with Street View lets you explore places around the world through 360-degree street-level imagery. You can explore world landmarks, view natural wonders, navigate a trip, go inside restaurants and small businesses - and now even visit the Amazon! Browse the gallery to see collections from around the world.

Google’s World Wonders Project brings to life the wonders of the modern and ancient world. It allows users to virtually explore and navigate a neighborhood through panoramic street-level images. With videos, photos and in-depth information, you can now explore the world wonders as if you were there.

Classroom materials for primary and secondary school history and geography are available for teachers to download free of charge. These include suggestions of lesson plans, student work sheets, and presentations. The material is designed to be flexible, allowing teachers all over the world to use it in various forms and levels of curriculum.

Themes included are Archeological sites, Architecture, Cities and Towns, Historic Sites, Monuments and Memorials, Palaces & Castles, Parks & Gardens, Places of Worship, Regions & Landscapes, Wonders of Nature. You may browse by theme or by continent. Teachers guides are available for all units, both primary and secondary levels.

FREE Resources from Strategies for Writers

Zaner Bloser offers many FREE resources for all types of graphic organizers, pre-writing, writing, differentiated instruction, mini-lessons, revising lessons, and mode-specific rubrics. There are also student and parent resources available.

You will also find these reference documents on his site:

• Correlation: Common Core State Standards
• Strategies for Writers Foundational Research
• Strategies for Writers Scope and Sequence
• Text Exemplars
• Websites for 21st Century Literacies
• Writer's Handbook

Tennessee’s Watchable Wildlife

Tennessee's Watchable Wildlife has extensive information on the birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians of Tennessee. Students will find life history and additional information on each species that is specific to Tennessee, a variety of photos of each species, and songs or calls for many of birds and frogs and toads.  Students will also discover detailed information for nearly 200 places to watch wildlife in the state.
From their website:
"We developed the web site and information so it is a valuable educational tool for students of all levels from K-12 and beyond.  Students of all levels can sort the birds by color or taxonomic group in order to identify birds seen at a classroom feeder or on a field trip and then read about their nesting biology and population status.  In addition to the pages presenting all the birds and mammals of Tennessee, we have created a page that shows all the non-native birds and mammals in Tennessee, which addresses Ecology Standard 3, Check for Understanding 3255.3.3 about identifying native and non-native species in Tennessee."

Enriching Literacy with Cell Phones

"September is National Literacy Month, and what better way to celebrate and promote literacy than focusing on the tools that students own and love: their cellphones! Using cellphones to enhance learning does not require that they be used in class. If you are in a school where cellphones are banned, the ideas shared here are also applicable outside of class." Read more...
Thanks to Richelle Shelton for sharing this resource...

Common Core Resources

Do you need help incorporating the Common Core Standards into your classroom activities?

Start with Thinkfinity’s State Standards Search Engine.  Choose Tennessee from the state list in the pull-down menu. This filters for the specific alignments that will match Tennessee's version of the Common Core Standards.

Choose your grade level and content area, then submit your request. The next screen shows exactly what standards set you have chosen at the top and lists that standard’s subsets with clickable links at the right, indicating how many Thinkfinity resources are aligned to that standard set.

Edutopia presents a thorough collection of resources to enhance the understanding of "Common Core". Browse by grade level, view strategies, explore the video collection, visit blogs and community forums, schools that work, and classroom guides. 

The Complete Facebook Guide for Educators

Educational Uses for Educators from Tech the Plunge: 100 Ways You Should be Using Facebook in your Classroom; 50 Useful Facebook Tips for Teachers; 8 Real Ways Facebook Enriched Ms. Schoening's First Grade Class; Using Facebook to Connect With Students & Parents; Facebook Apps for eLearning; Facebook Top 20 Facebook Apps; A Guide to Facebook Security for Adults, Parents, and Educators

FREE from Teacher Created Materials

More than 400 lesson plan400 lesson plans; FREE monthly calendars complete with events that can be incorporated into the curriculum; FREE monthly activities; FREE writing prompts

Top 25 Reading & Language Arts Lessons & Interactives

Voted as the top 25 reading and language arts lesson plans from Thinkfinity (ReadWriteThink partner), these focus on persuasion, plot structure, comparison-contrast, cause and effect, poetry, essays, newspapers, fairy tales, and more. These are only 25 of the hundreds of lessons available.

Here you will find the top 25 reading and language arts interactives from Thinkfinity (ReadWriteThink partner). Interactives are web-based tools that students use to learn about language, to organize, summarize, and analyze, or to write and print poetry or prose. These tools span all grade levels—from word play games for kindergartners to graphic organizers for high school students.

Video Games & the Brain: 14 Facts We Now Know

91% of kids now play video games. What are the effects? All good? All bad? What role do these games play in society? Here are 14 facts based on research completed during the past 10 years.

Search Engine Goodies

Boolify - a graphical search tool powered by Google; creates a visual representation of a Boolean search; focused on the logical relationship between words (chocolate and ice cream not frozen yogurt); uses images of puzzle pieces to show how these words fit together; shows the result of changing the words in the search with the modifiers
 
Google:
12 Ways to be More Search Savvy from Google - Teach students how to be more search-savvy, how to efficiently find and research information, how to judge its authenticity, and when to ask for an adult's assistance.
Is Google Making Us Stupid? - great read by Nicholas Carr

Quintura for Kids - visual find engine; search term yields the Quintura Cloud; visually navigate and easily refine in order to find relevant information faster and more efficiently

Qwiki - Visual Search Engine - MUST-SEE - Look up places, people, anything, and get a whole multimedia definition. This is a cool way to watch a multimedia definition. You may explore topics by searching or browse a worldwide map highlighting landmarks, monuments, cities, towns, and more.
"Qwiki (Alpha Version) is working to deliver information in a format that's quintessentially human – via storytelling instead of search. We are the first to turn information into an experience. Our goal at Qwiki – to advance information technology to the point it acts human. Currently, Qwiki's technology has been applied to describe millions of popular topics - but soon we'll do much more. Our team needs your help in reaching our goal: join our alpha now to help test Qwiki and shape the future."

Search-Cube - a visual search engine that presents web search results in a 3-dimensional cube interface; view up to 96 websites, videos, and images; Javascript and Flash Player version 9 or higher required; note directions for flipping cube, dragging & rotating cube, and opening a site

spacetime3D - allows you to see your searches; enter your search term for pictures of web page results from your search; works in any browser; no download; Mac and PC

Tag Galaxy - type search term; drag to rotate; mousewheel to zoom; click earth for photos

Lexipedia - Where Words Have Meaning

With  Lexipedia,  simply type in a word, select a language (English, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish), then Submit. You may narrow the results by Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb, Fuzzynyms, Antonyms, or Synonyms for a web of results, all color-coded.

A Teacher's Guide to Using Facebook

This guide is available on Scribd and is attributed to Bernadette Rego.  Her introduction to the guide:
"Welcome to the Teacher's    Guide to using Facebook! As educators, social networking can carry tremendous potential benefits in one's professional development as well as staying in touch with friends, family, and colleagues. Facebook is one of many social networking tools available which is considered popular due to its versatility in what can be shared-everything from installing and creating fun applications (e.g. movie quizzes) to posting photos of your recent family reunion. However, as educators we also have a professional image to uphold and how we conduct ourselves online holds no exceptions. As you may have already heard, there have been instances reported by media in the past of teachers demonstrating professional misconduct while engaging in inappropriate dialogue about their schools and their students, posting pictures and videos of themselves engaged in inappropriate activity, and the likes. Some feel that being online shields them from having their personal lives exposed. On the contrary, how we establish our online identity can carry far greater repercussions than we could ever have imagined.It is, nonetheless, reassuring to know that there are ways of protecting ourselves from being exposed while online. This guide is intended to help you set up a profile using Facebook which best suits your personal and professional lives. This guide was written to educate you on ways of establishing your profiles which uphold your professional image."

STEM Collaborative

STEM Collaborative.org offers four online adventures in math and help middle school students make real-world math connections. Each interactive project includes: teacher guides/educator resources, lesson plans and interactive activities, standards alignment chart, rich multimedia and video, and helpful tips and hints for classroom integration. Key math concepts within geometry, pre-algebra, Algebra I and II are covered. Interactives with measurement, proportional reasoning, balance, scale, weight,, volume, and others encourage active learning, strengthen students' core understanding of middle school math concepts and reinforce reasons to love math. (description from their site)

Hippo Campus for High Schools & Colleges

HippoCampus - FREE - Subjects: Arithmetic, Algebra & Geometry, Calculus & Advanced Math, Statistics & Probability, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Earth Science, Economics, History & Government, Psychology, and Religion; multiple topics, links, simulations, and resources under each content area; browse by subject, standard, and/or textbook; no assessments, but you may add your own

"HippoCampus is a project of the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education (MITE). The goal of HippoCampus is to provide high-quality, multimedia content on general education subjects to high school and college students free of charge.
HippoCampus was designed as part of Open Education Resources (OER), a worldwide effort to improve access to quality education for everyone. HippoCampus content has been developed by some of the finest colleges and universities in the world and contributed to the National Repository of Online Courses (NROC), another MITE project. NROC makes editorial and engineering investment in the content to prepare it for distribution by HippoCampus. Both HippoCampus and NROC are supported by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation."

Teachers Pay Teachers - An Open Marketplace for Educators

Founded by Paul Edelman, a former NYC public school teachers in 2006, TeachersPayTeachers is the world's first open marketplace where teachers buy and sell original teaching materials.
From their site:
"TpT's mission is to make teachers lives easier by bringing together those who create curricula with those who are seeking fresh new approaches in the classroom. Teachers work hard and deserve extra compensation for all those hours spent lesson planning. Newer teachers and those looking for ideas can save time and leap ahead in competency by learning from veterans. We strongly believe that the ensuing exchange lifts all boats and leads to the better sharing of best practices. In the end everyone wins, especially our students."
Expect more than 17,000 FREE items (just click on the FREE button), all categorized according to type, grade level, subject, or state. This is definitely worth Prices on other items start as low as 50 cents. Items do not have to be shipped, as they are digital downloads. You will find almost 10,000 lesson plans, 50,000 activities, 5,000 exams/quizzes, 19,000 worksheets, 5,500 whiteboard activities, 15,000 PowerPoints, 9,000 novel studies, and more than 90 additional types of resources. Grade levels go from Pre-K to Adult and staff in all content areas. You may browse by category, subject, grade level, price, or state. You will be surprised how many teachers from Tennessee participate!
You will also find great resources on the teachers' blogs.
Read excerpts of news stories relating to those using the site.