Let's Talk About MetaSearch Engines: See How These 15 Give You Results

The metasearch engine. My students couldn't even tell you what that means. Google is their only friend when it comes to searching. But what if someone wants to pool their results from more than one search engine? Perhaps Yahoo, AskJeeves or Bing? That's where these 15 metasearch engines come in. Perhaps my students will give them a try........Beaucoup- 2,000+ Search Engines, Indices and DirectoriesBrain Boost- this is an answer engine rather than...

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Is Dewey Done? See What These 17 Sites Have to Say and Then Decide

Ever since bookstores have been selling books, they have shelved them by subject area. When patrons go to any subject section, they can usually find the book they are looking for by the last name of the author. This includes fiction and nonfiction books. Those of us who were taught to use the Dewey Decimal System are used to using decimals for the ten nonfiction sections from 000-999. When a student asks me to find a particular book, all I need is...

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Teaching the Gifted and Talented: 33 Websites Where You Can Find Good Resources

I wish the Internet was available to me as a kid in elementary school. In New York City, where I attended kindergarten through sixth grade, they called the gifted and talented class "SP". I remember being put into a class to learn French, but very little else. I figured out how ahead I was only when I entered junior high school in New Jersey. The French language I had studied for three years allowed me to coast through French class for the next four...

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Need Suggestions for Your School Newspaper? Here are 9 Places to Find Story Ideas

10 Sources for High School Newspaper Story Ideas40 Great News and Feature Story Ideas- from the University of Vermont 40 Sports Features Idea50 Places to Shop for Story IdeasArticle Ideas for High School and Middle School Newspapers High School Newspaper Story Ideas How to Find Story Ideas- from the Student Newspaper Survival BlogShare Your Newspaper Ideas- hundreds of ideas for articles are on this pageTopics for a High School Ne...

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Geography Teachers: Try These 44 Web Sites With Your Classes

Animaps- create and view beautifully informative maps Best Blogs for Geography Geeks- 50 listedThe Best Websites for Learning and Teaching Geography- from Larry Ferlazzo's siteCensus Bureau GeographyFree Blank U.S. State Outline MapsGeoGame- interactive geography gameGeography for Kids- listing created by teacher Kathy MitchellGeography for Little People- kindergarten Geography From Space Quiz 2009- from the SmithsonianGeography and Maps-from ALA...

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New Page Posted: Graphics

I've just added a new page which has everything related to graphics: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Create Comics Online, Creative Commons Images and Photos and Fonts. The page will be constantly updated when new things come alo...

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19 Sites Where You'll Find Free Fonts

Free is always good. And when it comes to fonts, there are so many out there, why pay for them? This list should keep graphic design teachers and other creative sorts like me busy. One thing to remember: the downloads are in a .zip file, so your school might block this action. My suggestion is to download and unzip the file at home, then have your tech person add it to your computer at school.1001 Free Fonts1001 Fonts- most popular ones are hereAbstract...

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The Shelving Issue: How Do You Handle it?

Why do students just return books anywhere on the shelves? I have signs all over the library encouraging them to put them on our blue carts (they are marked) if they don't remember where they took them from. Yet, I always find them shoved above books, at the end of the wrong row or in the wrong section. Funny thing, I remember doing the exact same thing when I was a kid, and I just "figured" that the staff would take care of it.Elementary school teachers use shelf markers (with a student's name) when they send their kids into the stacks to find...

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Viber Allows You to Call & Text For Free!

Viber is an application for iPhone® and Android™ phones that lets you make free phone calls and send text messages to anyone who also has the application installed. This app makes it very useful for communicating with other teaching colleagues from all over the world (Relatives, businesses, schools, whatever) I personally haven't tried it yet, but if you have used Viber, please give us your feedba...

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Teach Photography? Try These 22 Sites For Lessons and Resources

PHOTOGRAPHY21 Photography Lesson Plans- from PBS 100 Ways to Use a Digital Camera  Ansel Adams Photography LessonThe Basics of Photography Lesson Plan  A Beginner's Guide to Digital Cameras- learn about pixels, aspect ratio, types of graphics formats, memory and digital/optical zooms. Digital Camera SitesDigital ImagingDigital Photography Tutorials Every Picture Has a Story Lesson Plan- from Smithsonian Exploring...

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Check Out Word Hippo

The interface is simple. Students can enter a word and find its definition, similar words, opposite words or words which rhyme with that word. The translator offers 12 different combinations of translations and you can download translation software Babylon 9 for free. Word Hippo can be used by students of all ages, even though the name gives you the impression it is just for younger ki...

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Nothing Quite Like a Real Book

A student asked me today if I own a Kindle or a Nook. My answer was simple; I still love feeling the pages and turning them one by one. And I also have a stack of books I haven't read yet lining my bookshelves in my home library.  Yes, one day I personally will jump on the bandwagon, but for now......Here's a video animation which was created by a bookstore in Canada named Type Books. It sums it all up for ...

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Watch YouTube Videos with VuSafe

Looking for safe and secure place to save those videos for your class? VuSafe allows you to create your own library of videos, as well as "use VuSafe to find videos, post them to a VuSafe library, organize the videos using keywords and categories, and share them with their students safely. The service removes all outside content present on sites such as YouTube, eliminating access to inappropriate comments, advertisements or other non-approved videos." If your school presently blocks YouTube, you will still be able to show the videos on VuSafe,...

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Looking for Better Lessons for Your Class? Why Not Try BetterLesson!

BetterLesson is a great (and free) social network just for teachers. Collaboration is easy and you can use any of the thousands of resources on the site. Share your own lesson plans or download any which other teachers have uploaded. Here's a brief introduction to BetterLess...

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Loads of Educational Apps on APPitic

Reviewed by Apple Distinguished Educators, APPitic is a super site which boasts more than 1,3000 plus educational apps. Main categories include: SPED and Autism, Pre-School, Themes, Multiple Intelligences, Bloom's Taxonomy, ISTE NETS and Teachers. Many apps are free, and there are also those which cost $$. The site can be translated into 10 different languages. I've been an Apple girl since the first Mac computer, and I am very excited about what...

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PikiFriends is Great For ESL Students

PikiFriends is an "online 'penpal' program made for junior and senior high school students and teachers only. Member students and teachers manage their own personal profiles and communicate with each other in a variety of ways using English. The main goal of PikiFriends is to improve English communication skills among EFL students".  PikiFriends provides a safe, filtered environment and teachers have a lot of control over the student accoun...

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Students Love My Big Campus' Facebook Interface

The first time I saw Edmodo, I knew that students would find it "cool". That's because the interface looks like Facebook, right down to the color choices. Several teachers in our school have been using Edmodo with great success, enjoying the safe web environment. Enter My Big Campus, an online program which also looks like Facebook, and in a safe environment allows students to store files, (say goodbye to the school's server) monitor assignments and due dates, interact with their peers in class and collaborate. They can also access normally blocked...

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18 Places Where You Can Find FREE Kindle and Nook Downloads

Now that our iPad2 raffle was a huge success, I am trying to decide how to use those extra dollars. As a teacher-librarian, I am always interested in getting our students to read and enjoy reading, so I thought the next big step was getting eReaders for the library. I am still on the fence as to which one to purchase, so I thought I'd start my research by seeing how many sites have free downloads for Kindle and Nook. I was surprised at the results;...

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READ180 Assists Struggling Students

"READ 180 is a comprehensive system of curriculum, instruction, assessment and professional development proven to raise reading achievement for struggling readers in Grades 4–12+. READ 180 is designed to maximize student engagement, teacher effectiveness, and leader empowerment."  ESL  and special education students will see their Lexile scores increase when they apply the program.  Scholastic provides a list of funding...

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Facebook in the Classroom: 21 Web Resources (If you're not blocked)

20 Reasons You Should Be Using Facebook in Your Classroom  25 Great Facebook Tips and Tricks 100 Ways You Should Be Using Facebook in Your ClassroomThe Best Reason for Teachers to Use Facebook- from Tech the Plunge A Teacher's Guide to Using Facebook- written by Bernadette Rego; 22 pagesCreating a Facebook Page for Your School- written by Brad FlickingerFacebook Guidelines- Papillion-La Vista School DistrictFacebook4Education Wiki- started by...

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Bookshare Offers Assistance to Students with Disabilities

I am fortunate to have a blind young man working for me in the media center. His positive attitude and spirit lift me daily, and he never ceases to amaze me with his ability to navigate the computer lab and library. There are so many things that the sighted world takes for granted, and Matt reminds me of these things every day. Today I learned about Bookshare®, (2012 Reader's Choice Award winner from eSchool Media) a site which is an online library...

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14 Things You Might Have Missed: Why Not Try Them in 2012?

 Happy New Year, everyone!  I am back from an extended vacation and ready to get back to work. (Thank you for being patient!) I would love to hear what you would like to see on the blog in 2012. Please leave your comments and suggestions at the end of the post. Here are are few things you might have missed in the past and are worth mentioning again.12,000 Newspapers From Around the WorldThe world's 400 largest cities are represented on...

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