CALL_IS_VSL

A free visual dictionary and online thesaurus. Enter a word to see related vocabulary. R Byrnes: "Snappy Words could be a good resource for students that are stuck in the rut of using the same words and phrases repeatedly in their writing. Snappy Words will give those students access to alternative words and their definitions much faster than thumbing through a thesaurus."

Interactive games and challenges, including climate, birdsong, and mammal adaptations. Great supplement to content-based learning.

From R Byrne: This is the most useful collection of screencasting tools I've seen. Includes both Windows and Mac applications. There are several worth trying and having on your desktop. Show Me What's Wrong, offered by Screencast-O-Matic, might be of particular help: it can be sent to a student having trouble with an application. When he/she opens the mailing, they start recording their screen, audio recording as they explain what they are doing and why they are having a problem. When they close the application it is mailed to you. This list of tools also includes some for capturing iPad and Android device screens, including AirDroid that can mirror your tablet on Mac or Windows computers.

This is a great online tool, and will accept pictures or icons for the students' names. Can assign attendance check for all students at once. Video tutorial.

Some ideas and resources. Literature is a good way to engage ELLs, even if at first the language seems hard. His language is so much a part of the English-speaking world's culture that Shakespeare has to be included. And it's required, usually in high school. Learning short passages and performing them is a great activity and will help with pronunciation, too.

A great visual presentation of a scaffolding activity for younger learners - but adaptable to older ones, too. Use drawing to spark deeper thinking and set pathways to research later.

R. Stannard's online screencast video of how to do everything with YouTube, from setting up an account to creating channels.

R. Stannard's colleague gives us a screencast of how to use COCA. The training video also explains what a corpus is and how to use one, so this has a far wider application than just for CoCA.

Why online professional development can be quite different from on-land meetings and pd.

"The days of foldable paper maps are numbered but the world wide web is opening up the potential of maps by offering an amazing variety of cool websites that teachers should take the time to explore. Below are ten great mapping sites for you to use in the classroom."

R. Stannard's video tutorial on LiveBinders.com, which is useful for creating online digital portfolios. Use LB to create webpages. This video has some examples to show the potential (entry level LB is free), ways to set up tabs and creating a good design, embedding video, and so on.

A multi-user collection of over 300 tools. Original based on a presentation for Norfolk Public Schools by Mickie Mueller, this LiveBinder is updated frequently. For all levels of learners.

A simple online recorder to get you started with podcasting. The tool creates an mp3 file that you can download or share with a link. R. Stannard has a training video for using RecordMP3 at http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/mp3recorder/index.html.

This set of sties has some great resources to spark writing and discussion in your class: write about a picture, do research to find resources that explain the picture, etc. Historical, social science, and cultural activities.

A great resource for reading comprehension practice in the sciences. Sorted by grade level, K-8 (5-13 years old) and Lexile score, with pre-made question sets, and colorful visual illustrations. Lesson plans include Skills, comprehension, and fiction keyed to the Common Core, but of course, valuable for other standards. You must register to use the site, but it is free. A few sample sets are offered for inspection before you register.

A nice set of lesson plans for middle-school to high-school students using Diigo to explore content areas. You need to sign in through a Purdue University portal to access the lessons. "Diigo is an awesome tool to use in the classroom. Teachers across the globe have used the social bookmarking tool to motivate and engage students in collaborative learning projects. This section will give you the opportunity to explore numerous lesson ideas on how to incorporate Diigo into your subject area. Diigo will help students develop and improve skills in communication, organization, and classification. Feel free to use these resources. We are sure it will make teaching easier and more exciting, while enhancing student academic performance."

"You are teaching a class and want to collect feedback at the beginning of the class to see whether everyone is on the same page. You can do tests, collect them and grade them, or you can use quizsocket. You get instanteneous feedback about problems. As a teacher you learn what was difficult to understand in the last class and can immediately react. And the student is reminded of the topics through the questions." Nice for spur-of-the-moment checks on whether students are paying attention. Mainly for live class lectures, which I don't do much of anymore, but a useful idea that might work if you are doing an online meeting/class.

"Discover, purchase, and share educational apps, books, and videos easily with Google Play for Education - a new online destination just for schools." "Browse content by grade, subject, or standard; purchase with school PO (no credit card required); distribute apps via cloud." "This page also shows how to set up tables to allow use of content and to find approved apps."

This is an online collaboration tool that let's you hangout with up to 10 people, work on a document or drawing together using Google docs. It's Hangout amplified.

" Finally, a presentation tool that incorporates an intuitive user interface, super cool comic graphics, is 200% less frustrating than Prezi, and offers a zillion more options than the free version of GoAnimate. I know we just met, PowToon, but I think I am in love." This from a teacher, A. Gibson, who has used the tool. I hesitate to recommend one more presentation tool, but this looks interesting. "