The links in this post are broken down into categories to help you find what you’re looking for.
Resources of Resources
FreeTech4Teachers – freetech4teachers.com
Richard Byrne, award winning author of FreeTech4Teachers, must never sleep because he updates his blog almost every single day multiple times per day. His site is a wealth of information when it comes to educational technology.
L. Houle’s Wiki – http://lhoule.wikispaces.com/NO+Registration+Necessary
L Houle’s Wiki is a collection of over 200 links to “no-registration required” web 2.0 resources. Eliminate the frustrations of having to sign-up before you start working with your students.
Classroom Management
ClassDojo – classdojo.com
Class Dojo is one of the few educational apps that focuses on Classroom Management. Teachers that use it frequently speak of it highly. By setting up your classes, you have the ability to award positive or negative behavior points to your students. The points are aggregated to provide you, students, and parents with valuable information regarding student behavior. It also compliments the SMART Board very well.
ELA/Math
ScootPad – scootpad.com
ScootPad is an ELA/Math common core aligned website that features practice questions for students. The free version grants you the ability to set up your classes with teacher created student usernames and passwords which you can assign appropriate common core challenges to. The paid version gives you greater control over what content you assign to your students.
Productivity
Goo.gl – goo.gl/
This web app is a URL shortener and QR Code maker. This is nice if you need your students to enter long website addresses when you go to the computer lab.
Pixlr Express – pixlr.com/express
This web app lets you edit images in your browser. This is especially nice if you have GIANT digital photos that you’d like to crop and/or resize to make more web-friendly (resize to 600 pixels).
Google Earth
Balloon Maker – mmacfadden.com/balloon-maker
Google Earth Balloon Maker is a tool for making virtual field trips in Google Earth. While adding a placemarker to Google Earth is relatively easy, adding well formatted content is not. This web application generates the HTML for you to paste into your Google Earth Balloon.
Online Publishing
KidBlog – kidblog.org
This website facilitates online whole class publishing and seeks to address the concerns teachers have regarding young students publishing on the internet. Teachers can set up their own classes with teacher generated student usernames and passwords.
Online Museums
When searching for online resources, consider exploring the websites of museums whose focus is similar to yours. They often contain high quality interactive virtual exhibits. Take for example:
Grade: 2nd
Unit: Presidents
Website: jfklibrary.org/Exhibits/Interactive-Exhibits.aspx
Grade: 4th
Unit: Simple Machines
Website: msichicago.org/online-science/simple-machines/activities/simple-machines-1/
Grade: 5th
Unit: The Colonies
Website: history.org/history/museums/multimedia.cfm?sort=interactive
Apps
Kindertown – kindertown.com
Kindertown finds and organizes the best educational apps for kids ages 3-8 years old. The homepage features an easy to use search filter that helps you narrow down your selection by age range, device, and price. A second level filter limits your search results by subject area.
iPadapps4schools – iPadapps4school.com
Android4schools– Android4schools.com
Richard Byrne of FreeTech4Teachers.com regularly features useful apps for the iOS and Android platform.
Genius Scan
This iPhone app easily converts printed documents into crisp PDFs that you can email to yourself or save on your phone.