EDIT605

Grades 11 and 12 A great website if you are searching for answers to your Microsoft Office questions. It is has a great knowledgebase.

Search for a tutor

K-12 When approached by parents for the name of a tutor, I am sometimes resistant to recommend. I feel that they ask me because they want to be certain that the tutor is the right one for their child. Beanbag is an online search for tutors. TEnd to your students need for digital literacy and have them explore the page themselves or maybe his enables parents to directly contact tutors and do not have to wait to go through the school. The obvious con to this is that the potential for a inept tutor still exists.

Create your own timeline and publish to your blog or website

7-12 With plot diagrams becoming a thing of the past. Students can now use timelines instead to outline the plot of a story. There is rarely one clear climax or one moment of resolution. Now students can explore plot further using timelines. One drawback is that it seems that these timelines are most popular for factual information. For ELA, this can be done as a pre-reading strategy, but the plot outline would be for fictitious stories.

A digital notepad, scissors, tape, pastels, and more for assembling an animated video.

K-6 This can be used for any subject area for young children. There are resources for teachers as well-including lesson plans. The possibilities are endless. This is another site that would be great for original works or even fan-fiction. One con is that if a student is just emerging in computer literacy, they will need a lot of direction in navigating the page initially.

Online gradebook and more

If you haven't looked at this site in a while, it's worth another look. Appropriate for all grade levels. This is a free online grade book. Recently they have added more sophisticated communication tools, class calendars, the ability to upload files and much more. The discussion feature could double as literature groups or Socratic Circle. The one downside to this is if you do not wish for students to have access, as soon as you print them out a progress report, they have their student code and can get online and check their grades at any time. This could be difficult in the instance that students and/or parents are wondering why this person's project is graded and theirs is not. Check out the new wiki feature.

This is an online resource for lesson preparation.

This site is accessible by all, but if you want to unlock all that it has, you must purchase a subscription. There still is a lot to be accessed for free though. I really like the fonts that they use. Check out their holiday lessons. They teach the history of holidays-such as Valentine's Day. The Valentine's Day activities have been very interesting to my ninth graders over the past few years. You may be surprised to find out all that you don't know. K-12

Grades K-12 A resource for building comprehension questions,math and spelling tests, and puzzles for all subject areas. Teachers can find reading comprehension practice activities,spelling activities and math activities to use as assessment tools. Con- you have to be a member

Take a lengthy URL and make it more manageable.

This is a teacher web-resource for all grade levels. Have you ever found that the URLs for your work can be very lengthy? I know we've all had those days in the computer lab where students are intermittently shouting "it's not working!" Save yourself the aggravation and make it shorter and more manageable. The possible con is that your tiny url may not be representative of the page itself-depending on availability. Enter your URL and see for yourself. 5-12

This website is different than many that I have come across. It allows the user to choose characters, backgrounds, etc. and the dialogue. The website then takes the text and matches it up with the cartoonish characters mouth and creates a movie for you. This could be a great option for classrooms that do have the budget for digital cameras. This could be used in any grade level. however a greater amount of training would be required for younger grade levels.

This website is another resource my students use on a regular basis. It contains many great sound effects, sound bites, etc. that they can use free of charge in their videos. This website could be used in any grade level.

This website is another great example of another high schools video production program. This is also one of the first ones that I came across years ago and have been following ever since. This school is based out of the Seattle area and has won multiple awards for their videos. This site has inspired a number of projects in my classroom. It also contains many good example videos and resources.

Grade level- 9-12 CC- Students can use the site to create a visual slideshow as part of a learning assessment for a unit like the Crusades. Overview- Students can take their own video and pictures and make stunning slideshows. Also they can incoroporate music too. Cons- Might need some time getting used too.

This website is great for the person that would like to make a dynamic video slideshow. Animoto takes your photos and arranges them to the beat, rhythm, etc. of the song of your choice. Great for any student who would like to create a professional looking slideshow in a fraction of the time.

Getting files into the right format is a big deal in video production. Many formats are not accepted in the software we use (adobe premiere , etc.). Before importing some files may need to be converting to an adobe friendly format. Zamzar allows users to upload the file and will send them a copy in their email.

This is a good resource for students to check for quick information when researching actors, films or directors. Con: some of the content is user driven and therefore may not be able to be trusted

This a great resource for schools or classrooms that don't contain video editing software. As far as online video editing goes this is as good of an option as you are going to find. Students and teachers can sign up for an account and be up and editing in no time. The site contains many tutorials for how to use the online software.

Students spend a good deal of time looking for the right audio sound effect to accompany their videos. The right sound effect can greatly enhance any film. This website contains a number of free sound effects the student can download and insert into their videos.

The Phantom cam is a camera that can record at speeds other camera can't even come close to. This website is great for introducing students to the phantom cam and the world of slow motion film.

Before a student is allowed to film they must first complete the planning process of a treatment, script and a storyboard. Storyboard Pro is a great freeware software that helps students with the creation of their storyboards. This website contains a number of tutorials to help students get started with the software. This could be used in grades 6 and up. Con: some schools may not allowed this to be downloaded and installed on student computers

This website is dedicated to help those students that are interested in creating films using a DSLR on a budget. First off, DSLR's are not cheap. After getting over this hump students should then be able to take advantage of all of the great advice 5D film making has to offer. A good place to start with this website is by clicking on tutorials at the top of the site. This website is more geared towards high school students.

HTV magazine is a great resource for students interested in possibly pursuing the video production field. HTV Magazine is made up of 20 junior and senior students that are selected by broadcast advisers each year. These students write the articles as well as create the videos that make up the HTV website.

This website is a collection of videos created by the students of Mariemont High School. Watching these video might spark an idea for another teachers classroom. Videos are broken up by school year and contain a number of different topics.