Purpose of the Website: This informational website is a resource for teachers that help them to develop webquests. All of the components of the webquest are explained to help teachers create their own webquests. There are also links to sample webquests that can be used by students or viewed as samples before you create your own. Grade Level: Professionals Classroom Connection: The resources on this website offer for a variety of different webquests that can be used throughout the year on many different topics. Negatives of this Website: Some of the links have not been updated and are no longer working.

Purpose of the Website: The possibilities that Google provides for teachers is endless! There are so many applications that Google creates for classrooms to be used by students and teachers. Some of the programs include: - Google Earth - Doodle 4 Google - Gmail - Google Reader - Google Docs There are also classroom lesson ideas available for teachers on this website. Grade Level: K-12, Professionals Classroom Connection: One example of how Google can be used in the classroom is by using Google Earth. When teaching your students about communities, you can take your class on a virtual field trip of your town. You can pinpoint different community buildings that are important for your community to run and show students where these buildings are. Negatives of this Website: Some of the Google applications do not run correctly in my district. I have had trouble saving virtual field trips that I have made in Google Earth and there have been times when Google Docs have not opened correctly. So this may be a program that you will have to test ahead of time.

Purpose of the Website: This website is a safe surfing website for children. The website was created by an elementary school teacher who wanted her students to have a safe place to gather information on the Internet. There are over 400 pages of information on various topics that students can explore. The information is easy to read and navigate. Grade Level: K-5 Classroom Connection: This is a great website for students to use when gathering information for homework, or small amounts of information for class activities.

Purpose of the Website: Internet searches can be difficult for young students. This search engine helps students use searching strategies to help them find specific information on topics they are looking for. Websites yielded in search are elementary appropriate. Grade Level: K-12 Classroom Connection: This website is a great introduction to searching for children. It helps students understand how to combine search terms to search for information they are looking for.

This is an older version of the Welcome to the Web website that I listed earlier, but this one is easier for younger children to navigate.

Purpose of the Website: This website lists the ISTE standards for educators and students. Grade Level: K-12 Classroom Connection: Educators should refer to this site when planning technology related lessons, so they can familiarize themselves with the national ISTE standards.

Purpose of the Website: This website is a tutorial created by a librarian at SUNY Albany. The tutorial is an introduction to using the Internet. The readability of the website allows for use by secondary students. The information covers topics such as domain names, programing language, how to search, applications, etc. Make sure you read the "About" section to see what the permissions are for using this website in your classroom. Grade Level: 9-12 Classroom Connection: This website would be great for a library or computer class in high school. Librarians or computer teachers can use this as a reading assignment for students and create an application based activity to go along with it. I am not very comfortable with which kind of activities would be appropriate for a secondary level students since I am an elementary teacher.

Purpose of the Website: This website is a tutorial that students can follow through to learn how to access and navigate the Internet. Each section, or lesson, has worksheets that help students navigate through the information and to assess students understanding of the tutorial. Some topics include The Beginning, Getting Started Online, Staying Safe, Using Your Browser, Searching Online, Trying Top Tricks, and The Welcome to the Web Challenge. Students learn things such as what the Internet is for, what links do, how to use the toolbar, etc. Grade Level: 4-8 Classroom Connection: This a wonderful resource to use with upper elementary and secondary students at the beginning of the year to help them review information they already know and introduce them to new information about the Internet. This can be completed independently in class or as a homework assignment. Negatives of this Website: Some parts of the website have a lot of information and is not extremely easy to navigate, therefore might not be used by younger students independently.

Purpose of the Website: This children-friendly search engine is a wonderful resource in any classroom. Students can type their search subject in the search box. When the search results appear, there are a list of websites that students can access to find more information on the subject. However, the difference between this search engine and others is that there is a space at the top of the webpage that shows words that are connected with the subject that has been searched. For example, if you search for cows, some of the other subjects listed include cattle, mammal, dairy, milking, and many others. These words are generated based on information that appears in the search results. This can help students search with other key words when they cannot find the other information they are looking for. Grade Level: 3-8 Classroom Connection: This search engine can be used when students are performing research on the computer. Negatives of this Website: The websites that are generated by the search are mostly children-friendly. However, teachers should still teach students how to evaluate websites to choose the most appropriate resources.

Purpose of the Website: This wonderful tool helps students to correctly develop a source cited for information taken from books, websites, newspapers, magazines, journals and film. The easy to use forms allow the user to input all of the important components of the sources they used. This information is then generated into a list in the appropriate format for all the sources used. You can also search for resource online and the form will automatically be filled in for you. Grade Level: 2-12 Classroom Connection: When completing research projects, many students have difficulty citing their sources in the correct format. This website helps students to correctly list their sources. This can be introduced to students along with the introduction for research either in the library or in the computer lab.

Purpose of the Website: This is an unbelievable tool for introducing the research process to students. The website is particularly helpful for the visual learner. Students can explore different ways to plan their research, search for information, take notes and use the information they find. Grade Level: 3-8 Classroom Connection: Using this website as a learning tool, students can use guided inquiry to develop a plan for research. Students could also use the information on this website to participate in a webquest in which they need to develop a "research guide" for their district to help new students understand how to perform a research project.

Purpose of the Website: This search engine allows students to search by subject, not only for a picture they are interested in, but also for images that might be relevant to that subject. For example, if you search for cows, you will see images related to farms, cattle, grass, etc. Grade Level: K-12 Classroom Connection: Since April is National Poetry month, poetry would be a great way to incorporate this website into your classroom. Students can choose a subject that interests them. When they search for that topic, students can choose one of the pictures that comes up in the search results and create a poem that is based around that picture. This will help students to take their subject and think outside the box.

Purpose of the Website: Users can access a variety of photographs that can be used various classroom projects and activities. Grade Level: K-12 Classroom Connection: Students can access a variety of photographs for digital storytelling or research projects. These photographs would also be a perfect multimedia addition to presentations that students are creating. Negatives of this Website: There is a limited selection of the photographs available for use.

Purpose of the Website: Users can access a variety of photographs that can be used various classroom projects and activities. Grade Level: K-12 Classroom Connection: Students can access a variety of photographs for digital storytelling or research projects. These photographs would also be a perfect multimedia addition to presentations that students are creating. Negatives of this Website: There is a limited selection of the photographs available for use.

Purpose of the Website: Students can get photographs from their favorite website and creatively edit the photos. This website is free. It does not require any downloads or registration. It is also available for the Android, so that would be a great way to introduce the tool in your classroom if you do not have access for the students to go to the computer lab. Students can upload a photo, apply photo or artist effects, insert frames, perform translations and reflections, etc. Grade Level: K-12 Classroom Connection: This would be a perfect tool for the art teacher that is looking to incorporate technology into their curriculum. Using this resource, art teachers can incorporate art and math by having students select a picture and create an artistic view on that photograph, as well as incorporating translations into the piece as well.

Purpose of the Website: This is a directory of podcasts that are professionally developed and available to the public. Users can search podcasts by subject to find podcasts that would be interesting to them. Grade Level: 5-12 (due to the level of material covered) Classroom Connection: Using podcasts, students can gather information and prepare a short oral presentation to share with a group each week. This can be put together almost like a book club. Students can choose a topics that interests them each week and listen to the podcast. They can provide a short description of the podcast, summarize it, and engage group members in a discussion.

Purpose of the Website: This website offers hundreds of different podcasts that are appropriate for use in classrooms. Using the directory, you can search by grade level and subject to find podcasts that work well for your class's needs. Grade Level: K-12, Professional Classroom Connection: Students can use podcasts on a weekly basis to help develop their listening skills. One way this can be used in a classroom is possibly listening to weekly current events and having the students create a class newspaper sharing events that are happening around the country or around the world. Negatives of this Website: A lot of the podcasts available of the website are created by students and schools. It might be a great idea to include some podcasts that are professional created and approved by teachers.

Purpose of the Website: This website has a directory of fairy tale podcasts available. Students can listen to popular fairy tales read aloud to them. Podcasts can also be downloaded to iPhones and students can take them back to their desks. Grade Level: K-12 Classroom Connection: This is a great resource for any teachers that teach fairy tales during Readers Workshop in their classroom. One great way to use this website is as a listening center. Students can listen to popular fairy tales as an individuals or a small group. Following the listening activity, students can work on reading reflection activities. This would be a great way to prepare students for the listening portion of the New York State tests.

Purpose of the Website: This website has a rubric available for teachers or other professionals to assess various podcasts and determine if they are appropriate for your classroom. There are a variety of questions listed that you can use to determine usefulness. The PDF is also able to be edited on the computer for convenience. Grade Level: K-12, Professional Classroom Connection: This rubric can be used by teachers, students, or other professional to identify how useful and appropriate a particular podcast is for use in the classroom. Negatives of this Website: The only downside to this website is that you are not able to edit the files. Most of the rubrics are perfect but might need a change or two depending on the particular assignment you are working on. It is great that you can fill in the form online, but you cannot edit any of the questions.

Purpose of the Website: Screencastle is an easy tool to create screencasts using the Internet. The user can record animation on their computer and view it back in a video format. All you have to do is select the area of your computer screen that you would like to record and decide if you would like to record from a microphone as well. Grade Level: 7-12 Classroom Connection: Some way that this tool can be used include: - Offering an orientation to a new class - Presenting lessons to the class - Provide feedback for student work - Allow students to share work Negatives of this Website: Java is not working properly on all classroom computers in the district so there is some difficulty with this website since it is Java based.