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This simple, yet powerful project allows students to share a little bit about themselves at the beginning of the year. At the same time it allows students to jump into some simple audio recording and editing using GarageBand.

Teaching Secrets: Communicating With Parents By Gail Tillery Premium article access courtesy of TeacherMagazine.org. You will face many challenging tasks as a new teacher. Dealing with parents is probably among the most intimidating, especially if you are young and in your first career. While communicating with parents can be tricky, a little preparation will help you to treat parents as partners and to be calmer when problems arise. Here's the first rule to live by: Your students' parents are not your enemies. Ultimately, they want the same thing you want, which is the best for their children. By maintaining respectful and productive communication, you can work together to help students succeed. Second, whenever problems arise, remember that parents are probably just as nervous about contacting you as you are about returning the contact-and maybe more so. I'll confess: Even after 26 years of teaching, I still get a little frisson of fear in my belly when I see an e-mail or hear a voicemail from a parent. But I have seen time and again that parents are often more nervous than the teacher is-especially if their child doesn't want them to contact the teacher. Indeed, some parents may even fear that if they raise concerns, their child will face some kind of retaliation. Remember that parents' tones or words may reflect such fears. In your response, try to establish that everyone involved wants to help the child. Here are some practical tips for communicating effectively with parents: Contact every parent at the beginning of the year. Do some "recon." Telephone calls are best for this initial contact, since they are more personal than e-mail. Ask the parent to tell you about his or her child's strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, etc. Make sure to ask, "What is the best thing I can do to help your child succeed?" Remember to take notes! Once you've gathered the information you need, set a boundary with parents by saying, "Well, Ms. Smith, I have 25 more parent

"Picturing the 1930s," a new educational web site created by the Smithsonian American Art Museum in collaboration with the University of Virginia, allows teachers and students to explore the 1930s through paintings, artist memorabilia, historical documents, newsreels, period photographs, music, and video. Using PrimaryAccess, a web-based teaching tool developed at the university's Curry Center for Technology and Teacher Education, visitors can select images, write text, and record narration in the style of a documentary filmmaker. They can then screen their video in a virtual theater. PrimaryAccess is the first online tool that allows students to combine their own text, historical images from primary sources, and audio narration to create short online documentary films linked to social studies standards of learning, said Glen Bull, co-director of the Curry Center. Since the first version was developed in collaboration with U.Va.'s Center for Digital History and piloted in a local elementary school in 2005, more than 9,000 users worldwide have created more than 20,000 short movies. In creating digital documentaries, students embed facts and events in a narrative context that can enhance their retention and understanding of the material, said Curry research scientist Bill Ferster, who developed the application with Bull. Besides increasing their knowledge about the period, "Picturing the 1930s" enhances students' visual literacy skills, Ferster noted, adding that PrimaryAccess "offers teachers another tool to bring history alive."

A wonderful download which allows users to create interactive non-linear stories which allow the reader to make choices about how the plot unfolds.

"This app adds augmented reality mask layers to videos allowing users to wear virtual costumes or masks. Great for character acting or allowing shy students to appear on camera as someone or something else."

Online drawing webtool. Lots of tools and features. Great for drawings that demonstrate content knowledge. Save and download to use in other documents or as a stand alone picture.

Allows for digital art creations similar to (the idea not the tool) KidPix, there are all sorts of brushes, stickers, text etc. No login required allows student to save work

Tool Allows for digital paint, some brush types, a tool for painting. No login required allows the student to download work.

A nice iOS/Android/Windows app for creating stop-motion animation. The basics are free allowing you to record and add sound to your animation and to export it in many formats and places. In-app purchases available to allow you to do more if required.

Video creation tool - allows voiceovers of videos

Wideo is an online animation platform that allows you to create, edit, and share videos for free. The platform allows you to choose (or upload) the images, fonts, animations, and videos you want to use in order to create your own online video and then share.

FlipSnack is a tool that turns PDFs or JPEGs into digital flipbooks, allowing students to create books, magazines or newspapers and share them with parents, peers and the public.

FlipSnack is a tool that turns PDFs or JPEGs into digital flipbooks, allowing students to create books, magazines or newspapers and share them with parents, peers and the public.

Teaching is a professional craft. Thinking that any high-scoring college student could come in and excel demeans it as a profession. No one would consider letting smart English majors perform surgery on low-income patients, or allowing cum laude math majors to do legal work for poor clients.

inklewriter is a free tool designed to allow anyone to write and publish interactive stories. It's perfect for writers who want to try out interactivity, but also for teachers and students looking to mix computer skills and creative writing.

"Inklewriter is a free tool designed to allow anyone to write and publish interactive stories. It's perfect for writers who want to try out interactivity, but also for teachers and students looking to mix computer skills and creative writing."

Hundreds of videos on high school math/science. They also have a YouTube channel.

Tutoriales en Inglés de varios cursos

A site housing more than 3000 educational videos

Create Jeopardy game without using MS PowerPoint!

What an amazing Jeopardy template! It's everything you could want.

JeopardyLabs allows you to create a customized jeopardy template without PowerPoint. The games you make can be played online from anywhere in the world.

Allows you to view all pages in a notebook as though they are laid out on a table top. You can zoom in and out and edit.

I found that none of the three links to the videos on the home page worked. Still, I downloaded and installed, but could not open any of my Notebooks, getting the same extensive error message as others have posted. Seems to me this is a long, long way from being ready for prime time.

View CIA data sets with Google Earth technology. Download data sets, generate kml files, and compare areas of the world easily.

CIA World Factbook visualized interactively with Google Earth. Allows you to download .kml files for the data set of interest, as well as edit the style...wow.

CIA World Factbook visualized interactively with Google Earth. Allows you to download .kml files for the data set of interest, as well as edit the style...wow.