|
Web 2.0 Tools
Great Graphic Organizers for Every Subject
-
Go to Science.com has an extensive collection of graphic
organizers for you to print, edit, or preview. Categories
include: general purpose organizers, compare/contrast, sequencing,
hierarchies, work habits, research, cause and effect, and concept.
Jeopardy Templates
Tune Doo
Universal Design for Learning Book Builder Tool
Free Flashcard, Quiz, Worksheet,
Stickers
and Game Creator for Teachers
-
Free
Flashcards and Printables for early Reading, phonics and Language
Instruction
-
Flash Games to
practice grammar, spelling, prepositions, superlatives,
tenses, and more.
-
Free
stickers and charts to honor student effort and learning in
reading, language, work habits and more.
-
Free
PRINTABLE certificates: Just fill in student names,
the date, the reason for the award and print great certificates for
free.
-
Personal
Education Press sponsors a free website for teachers, students,
and parents to create flashcards, practice games, quizzes, or
worksheets for language arts, math, science, or social studies. Word
lists are built in for each subject. You can also choose lists
of the top 100 words or create your work in Spanish, English,
French, or German.
Free Online File Converter
-
To convert audio,
video, image, or document files to a different format easily without
downloading a program, visit:
http://www.zamzar.com Zamzar will even let
you create PDF files from your Word docs.
Reference Tools
-
 InfoPlease
Almanac, Dictionary, Thesaurus, Atlas, Encyclopedia, biographies,
News, Sports, Art, Health, Homework center.
-
One
Look allows you to look up words in multiple online
dictionaries at once
- For Merriam Webster's online
dictionary and
thesaurus.
-
 By using the
Visual Thesaurus
students can finally see the definition and
connotation of each synonym generated. Or students can easily click on
any of the synonyms on the screen to open a new search for words that
have that specific connotation.
-
For all the poets in your class, be
sure to bookmark this
rhyming
dictionary.
Bibliographical
Citations:
- As you teach your students to create
bibliographies for their reports and research papers, you may want to
visit Easy Bib,
a free online advanced bibliography maker. Another site that is
especially helpful for younger students is:
Noodle
Tools Quick Cite . For information on citing online
resources, visit the Online Reference Guide to Using Internet Sources
site:
Citation Styles for Online Resources.
Geographic and Political Data
-
NationMaster: world statistics, country comparisons,
geographical data, maps, flags, and lesson plans.
 4Teachers.org
rightfully claims: "This site helps teachers locate and create
ready-to-use Web lessons, quizzes, rubrics and
classroom calendars. There are also tools for student use. Discover
valuable professional development resources addressing issues such as
equity, ELL, technology planning, and at-risk or special-needs
students."
 QuizStar
is a free online tool that allows you to create and assign quizzes.
Results are available in a powerful report management tool.
Students can also take quizzes and review their results online.
 
Clip art licensed from the Clip Art
Gallery on
DiscoverySchool.com
top
Keyboarding is a critical
component of our student technology standards and is vitally
important to enable students to benefit from many of our
district writing and software programs.
The BBC has created a FREE, bright and colorful typing
program for students titled:
"Dance Mat Typing." It has varying levels of
difficulty and starts at a perfect level for "newbies." It
might be a great resource to share at conferences for
parents to use at home too.
Another site with free typing
tools, including "words per minute" tests is
Free Typing Game.net.
Click here to go to the free download
 Use
your digital photos to create slideshows with music, transitions,
special effects, and soundtracks.
Here's what Microsoft is saying
about the features of their newest free download, Photostory 3:
"Create slideshows using your digital photos. With a single click, you
can touch-up, crop, or rotate pictures. Add stunning special effects,
soundtracks, and your own voice narration to your photo stories. Then,
personalize them with titles and captions. Small file sizes make it easy
to send your photo stories in an e-mail. Watch them on your TV, a
computer, or a Windows Mobile–based portable device."
For great tutorials to get started, try
one of the following links:
top
 Audacity
is a great, free, open source software for recording and editing sounds
to add to your videos or slide shows. You can download it for free at
this link:
Audacity
Download.
top
If you're looking
for a professional concept mapping tool like Inspiration, download and
experiment with the
Cmap Tools Program. The following quote describes their
commitment to offer this tool to educators for free.
"The
CmapTools client is free for use by anybody, whether its use is
commercial or non-commercial. In particular, schools and universities
are encouraged to download it and install it in as many computers as
desired, and
 students
and teachers may make copies of it and install it at home."
--Institute for Human & Machine Cognition (IHMC)
Click on the image at the right to examine
this tool's capabilities.
top
 The
Discovery School website offers a free
Crossword
Puzzle-Maker program to teachers. You can create crossword
puzzles and save them in an online account.
top
Free PDF File Converters
-
Foxit Reader is a great new PDF reader/writer with many
features that are valuable for
our work! It is a very small download file. It allows you to
create PDF files from documents or to save PDFs as text files.
Some features require an upgrade to their full (for a fee) version.
But, it is an excellent PDF conversion program.
-
Several educators have mentioned that they
recently downloaded this free PDF Maker that creates PDF files from any
program from which you can print. They can be read by Acrobat Reader.
Visit PrimoPDF
to
download the free version of this great program.
-
Another free PDF maker
that doesn't require you to download a program is: Zamzar.
Visit their site at
http://www.zamzar.com to convert your files.
Rubric Resources
Templates |
Ready-Made |
Further Information
Rubrics are
excellent tools
to help students understand the goals for projects and assignments. They are invaluable in helping
teachers have a more objective way to assess work. Students know more
clearly what a score or grade represents when they can read the detailed
descriptors on a rubric scale. Writing rubrics can prove challenging, but
there are many tools, resources, and samples available to help. You may
want to start with a checklist which you can create easily on the
Project Based Learning Website. |
from
pre-generated
objectives and performance indicators. Edit them
freely for your
specific instructional needs. This is a great starting point for building
outstanding rubrics. (Note, in Rubistar you're limited to a four point
rating scale.)
