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It is an advanced Open Source typing tutor and a free download. The 8MB archive is also portable and runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Amphetype is described as being layout agnostic that means it does not come with a virtual keyboard, but gives you lessons you can use to practice any keyboard layout with it. The software supports the learner with speed and performance measuring features and detailed statistics. One of the important metrics is that Amphetype also measures viscosity i.e. it measures the "pauses' one takes in between words. More pauses means higher viscosity. A lower rate of viscosity translates into better typing performance. Features of Note:  You can generate text fragments to type from Project Gutenberg or any other plain text source to practice your typing. Review mistyped words and even generate custom lessons to practice difficult words or problem words. A performance tab gives a snapshot of WPM, accuracy, measures performance by session, and plots a graph to show progress. Another alternative Open Source keyboard and language independent typing tutor you can try out is Klavaro. It has ready to use keyboard layouts like Dvorak, QWERTZ, Colemak, AlphaGrip5, and more. There are many options to practice your touch typing. I have usually found that using software tools like the two mentioned above, and my personal favorite - TIPP10, and supplementing them with typing games to be the best way. You can always come back to these tools and bump up your WPM (Words per Minute) to an acceptable figure. Want more practice? Look into the following sites too 

a free Android app for learning and practicing the pronunciations words and phrases in English, Spanish, and French. With Listen & Speak installed on your Android phone or on your Android tablet you can hear the proper pronunciations of hundreds of words and phrases. After hearing a word or phrase read to you, you can speak it back into your device and have your pronunciations graded for you. If you're not happy with your grade, you can repeat the word or phrase as many times as you like until you get it right. Listen & Speak could be a good, free Android app for students learning English, Spanish, or French to use for independent practice. The feedback feature will help students recognize errors in their pronunciations and correct them before moving on to more difficult words and phrases.

Make Phonics Fun The Word Cub Letters & Sounds app from Learning Cube takes the alphabet blocks that children treasure and gives them new life on an iPhone or iPod Touch. The app helps young children learn letter names and sounds and recognize directionality and blending. Adjust the settings and the blocks display either uppercase or lowercase letters. The words all use short vowels. Select the consonant blends for the initial sounds and the task gets a bit more difficult. With a left-to-right sweep of the finger, children can hear how letter-sounds blend to create a word. The app is available in the Apple iTunes App Store for $1.99. 

Pdf to Word

a game designed for K and 1 students to practice early literacy and phonemic awareness skills. Students drag letters into a sequence to make the word featured on the screen. There are two levels, beginner and advanced. With the beginner level, students have less choices and with the advanced level students have the entire alphabet from which to choose. 

"Tagxedo turns words -- famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes, even your love letters -- into a visually stunning tag cloud, words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of occurrence within the body of text."

word clouds with style! Neat!

Upload pictures, add word balloons, speech bubbles, and thought balloons, then export it. Once you've got a balloon photo done, you can email it to a friend or save to your hard drive as a JPEG. You never have to login or subscribe to anything.

According to the website, it is currently in beta for a limited time. You can use all the features in the product for the time being. After the beta period, they will decide if some free functions will possibly be restricted in its use. So do be prepared for the site to change in the future. Keep an eye on the site for more information. Read more http://www.whiteboardblog.co.uk/2012/12/make-word-clouds-with-typoeffects/

top 3 tips: 1. keep 3-5 min, longer= lose interest; call out students names in videos, allude to class secret or secret word used during next school day 3. Storyboard plan your video 5. Hold students accountable: can't participate in class experiment/activity if haven't watch video. Give quiz at beginning of class. Use unlimited attempt online quiz to complete to 100% after watching quiz. 6. Create forum where kids can discuss video, ask questions...then assign kid to be teacher assistant to answer questions, cont discussion

a neat site for introducing elementary school students to making simple animated video stories. On the Zimmer Twins site students can create a story from scratch or complete one of the "cliff hanger" story starters. Students do not need to have any drawing skills in order to create a story as all elements are added to the video through a simple drag and drop interface. Students select settings, characters, character actions, emotions, and text styles then drag those elements into the storyboard. Students then arrange those elements and type words into the conversation bubbles where appropriate.

In a move that will make primary-source documents more accessible for students, Caroline Kennedy unveiled the nation's first online presidential archive on Jan. 13, a $10 million project to digitize the most important papers, photographs, and recordings of President John F. Kennedy's days in office. Users can browse through the drafts of Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you" speech and see how he tinkered with the words of that most famous line from his inauguration. Or, they can listen to his personal phone calls and read his letters. Archivists digitized more than 200,000 pages, 1,200 recordings, and 300 museum artifacts, as well as reels of film and hundreds of photographs. Library Director Tom Putnam said they started with all of Kennedy's Oval Office files-everything that went across his desk-along with his personal papers, official White House photos, audio of all his public remarks, video of his famous speeches, and home movies. Private partners-including AT&T, EMC Corp., Raytheon Co., and Iron Mountain Corp.-contributed $6.5 million in equipment and technical services to digitize thousands of records. The library will continue digitizing about 100,000 pages a year, along with thousands of photos and recordings. At that rate, it would still take more than 100 years to digitize all records from the Kennedy administration

Included in the roster of graphic organizers are templates for word webs, KWL charts, flow charts, story maps, and idea wheels.

check out some online lessons I have been posting. There are handouts and videos available on these sites. I have  been putting these up online so my students can work on their projects at home if they miss class or fall behind.

Free text to speech voices. --Alternative methods to process written information. --Can be used to assist non-readers/struggling readers. --Helpful in ESL/EFL classrooms