PosteRazor

PosteRazor is a free software that easily helps you make your own posters at home. All that you need is an idea, the PosteRazor freeware and a standard color printer. PosteRazor is open source and a really small download at 484KB. You will need your credentials to override the block.

This is one of the best solutions to the problem of creating large size digital posters. Imagine assigning to your class a project which includes mapping the important developments in a novel. Your students could create a digital image using PowerPoint - saving it as a .JPeg image, dropping that JPeg into PosteRazor and print out large size poster to share in class. A great application for Spirit Week. If you wish to use at school it does require a download so contact me or the IT department. Here is the link: http://posterazor.com/

NEO K12

Neo K12 is an outstanding online collection of educational videos, lessons and games for students in grades k-12. Neo K12 believes that “kids learn best by ’seeing’ the real world.” They have created this site with that belief in mind. Neo K12 has cataloged the best free online educational videos from the Internet in one place. Each video is watched and reviewed by k-12 educators to ensure their accuracy and appropriateness for students. Subjects include physical science, life science, human body, earth and space, social studies, math, English (including phonics, stories, and grammar), and fun videos such as time lapse, slow motion, arts and crafts, learn magic, music lessons, and sports lessons. In addition to videos, Neo K12 has Web 2.0 tools. The School Presentation tool is a mashup of Flickr and Wikipedia, and allows users to create and share presentations online. To create a presentation, students choose pictures for their presentation from Flickr, read and article about the subject from Wikipedia, and then add text to their presentation. When the presentation is finished, it can be printed or viewed online as a slideshow. Quizzes, games, and puzzles on Neo K12 are an interactive way to improve learning. Teachers can create and share videos playlists complete with notes and instructions for their students. Many of the videos are linked from YouTube. You may need to unblock YouTube using your credentials prior to accessing some of the videos. Here's the link: http://www.neok12.com/

Prezi - Taking PowerPoint to the next degree.

Easy to use and free. Great tool for you or your student to create presentation. Check out the video and the site and sign up for a free account: http://prezi.com Make sure you sign up for the expanded student teacher version. You will get more storage and watermarks will be removed.

Lie to Your Students!

That's right. Lie to your students. Here is how it works. Take one minute in the beginning of class to tell your students that you will lie to them today. It is their job to find the lie and report it to the entire class during the next scheduled class. During the next class give students an opportunity (2 minutes) to report what the lie was and provide the accurate information. You may use your creative ability to come up with some rewards system to compensate the student(s) for finding and reporting on the lie. This can be used in any subject area with any group of students. Not only does this provide an opportunity for students to research beyond the classroom setting it serves as a good review of the previous day's lesson.

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Special thanks to Jason Heiser for this great idea.

Thinkfinity.org

This site has it all. Lesson plans, interactives, other resources all tied to the state standards. If you are looking for something to jazz up a lesson this is a great place to start. http://thinkfinity.org/home.aspx

Audio Owl

This site has quite a list of audio books in the public domain. http://www.audioowl.com/

Imagination Cubed

This is an amazing site. It is a black board for drawing and/ or solving problems. The finished board can be e-mailed. When opened, the e-mail give you a stroke by stroke recreation of the drawing or solved problem. As a teacher you can make comments and return to the creator. http://www.imaginationcubed.com/

Google Squared

Google Squared displays the results of a search in a spreadsheet format. This spreadsheet format allows users to quickly compare the results of a search. Users can alter the fields in the spreadsheet to further refine a search. Just point your browser at www.google.com/squared

Present.ly

Present.ly gives your department the ability to instantly communicate their current status, ask and answer questions, share media, and more with the revolutionary communications method pioneered by Twitter

https://presentlyapp.com/

WolframAlpha

WolframAlpha is new. It was launched on May 15. It's a search engine but much more. All subject area teachers will want to try this one.
Wolfram|Alpha is the first step in an ambitious, long-term project to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone. You enter your question or calculation, and Wolfram|Alpha uses its built-in algorithms and growing collection of data to compute the answer.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/index.html

SharePoint

SharePoint is a great tool. From creating your own home page, blog, or wiki to creating a homework drop box for your students. If you are interested in this great service contact the IT department.

Google Tools Course

The Google Tools course is running each Wednesday afternoon in May. I will be in room 115 starting around 3:15 PM. If you are not registered but would like to attend a session or two just drop by. We have room. If you wonder what we will be discussing just point your browser at: http://cff09.wikispaces.com/

Interactive White Board Activities

If you have an Interactive White Board you won't want to miss this great resource. The emphasis is on math but there are other subject area resources as well. Click on the logo to visit this site.

File2.ws

File2.ws is a free website that converts any of your own files into a public online web page. Every converted file to a web page has a unique web address so you can share it with friends, or other people on the internet. This allows information to be shared quickly and efficiently to a large audience. Just point your browser at: http://file2.ws/

start.io/

If you find yourself looking for a nice place to hold all of your favorite links, http://start.io/ may be your answer.

It holds all of your most used links so you can get to them quickly from wherever you are, and it's super customizable. Just sign up, add your favorite blogs, news sites, forums, or anything else you go to every day and you’re ready to go!
RSS readers keep spitting content whether you're caught up or not. With a startpage, you interact with the content on your own time, without the hassle of swimming through long streams of text.