In these days of tightening budgets and limited resources, educators are working even harder to do more with less. But some things in life are free, and we have compiled a list of these free on-line educational resources. From posters to organizers to educational search engines, here are offers from sites recommended by teachers across the country.
iKeepBookmarks
Take your list of favorite sites with you! You can access bookmarked/favorite sites anywhere you have Internet access with this great Web-based tool.
The Collaboratory Project
A free, easy-to-use, web-based collaborative environment that teachers use to develop project-based activities and management tools. Features include virtual libraries of Internet resources (called "Cybraries"), Email ability, group calendars, and collaborative projects with other students from around the country. Lots of great information! Request a free account by clicking on “Participate.â€
Filamentality
Don’t know HTML? No problem! Create and share web-based activities without having to have a computer science degree. Just choose a topic, search the Web to gather your links, and combine the “filament†of the Web with a learner’s “mentality.â€
Birthday Alarm
Remember students' and colleagues' birthdays (or other significant curriculum-driven dates) by setting Email reminders. The site sends an Email requesting your contacts to register their information. You can also manually enter dates. Then a week before the big day, the site prompts you with an Email reminder — giving you plenty of time to get a card or plan your lesson.
TeachNet
PowerPoint presentations of Jeopardy, Hollywood Squares, and more can be customized with your own questions and answers to create a fun, interactive review!
Hot Potatoes
Six applications that enable you to create exercises (interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering, and gap-fill) for the World Wide Web. Hot Potatoes is not freeware, but it is free of charge for those working for publicly-funded non-profit-making educational institutions who make their pages available on the Web.
Assign-A-Day
An online teacher-managed calendar and class syllabus. For each of their classes, teachers can create an individual calendar and add assignments for their students to view. Absent students can keep up with their work and parents can keep up with their children’s homework.
Print-A-Poster
Free educational and motivational posters that you can download and print for use in your classroom.
Discovery Channel School
Find hundreds of original lesson plans, create your own puzzles and quizzes, download free clip art or view Kathy Schrock's updated list of educational Web sites.
The Internet is full of lots of valuable, free educational resources... but also a lot of junk! This list is by no means all-inclusive, but should give you plenty of activities to augment your lesson plans, have a little fun with your students, and save you the trouble of having to search for new activities to engage your students.
Email: David Pendery
