Student+Resources

Student Resources __**Today's Meet**__ **:** Easily create a live streaming chat room just for your class. Students can make comments, ask questions, and discuss topics within your class in a virtual environment. You can also save the transcript of the class discussion for later use.
 * Voki:** Create a speaking avatar that speaks whatever text the student (or you) enters. Students can customize their own individual Voki. Great motivational tool and applicable to many lessons. The kids love this site!


 * Screencast-O-matic:** Free online screen recorder that records up to 15 minutes of screen time with audio. Have students create tutorials and walk-throughs and share them in any video format. Everything created through screencast-o-matic is exportable to youtube. You can also use this to record lessons and/or post info online for absent students.


 * Kidblog:** Give student the ability to have their own unique blog in a safe, secure environment. Site designed specifically for elementary and middle school students. The practical applications of this program are endless!


 * Cluster Map:** Insert a map within a website with student content to show them who around the world is looking at the stuff they created.


 * Primary Pad:** "A web-based word processor designed for schools that allows teachers and pupils to work together in real time." Imagine all of your students having access to a single word document all at the same time - that's Primary Pad!


 * Wordle:** Wordle generates “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like.


 * Collaborize Classroom:** Free discussion platform designed for educators to engage their students. Post topics only YOUR students can see and respond to.


 * Mixed Ink:** Assign students a text to write together. Then they'll create their own versions,edit their peers' work, and weave different versions together into new ones. Students comment on their classmates' submissions and rate different versions to identify the best written, most popular language and ideas. They can explore the strengths and weaknesses of the class's favorite texts together


 * Fridge Magnet Poetry:** Drag and arrange virtual fridge magnets to create original poetry.


 * Read Write Think:** Great classroom resources including comic creator, story mapping, plot diagrams, and many more.


 * Make Beliefs Comix:** Easy, fun way for students to create their own comic strips. Students can print comic strips when finished.


 * Dabble Board:** Online whiteboard that can be worked on collaboratively over multiple computers.


 * Bubbl.us**: Concept mapping made easy! Free program that lets students create bubble concept maps quickly and easily. Save map as a picture file when done.


 * __Webquests__:** Send your kids on a quest...a webquest! Inquiry-based learning tool that teaches a topic through an interactive journey on the web.


 * __Poll Everywhere__:** Create a discussion prompt, question (open ended or multiple choice), or poll that students can respond to via text message or web.

**Corkboard Me:** Awesome tool that allows students to make posts on a virtual corkboard. Posts can be notes, ideas, or even photos (videos will be coming soon). Helps students keep track of ideas individually, or can be used as a classroom corkboard where everyone can post on the same board.


 * __Audacity__:** Have students record sounds, speeches, dialogue, or any other audio in a digital format. Easy to use, and easy to save audio file to add to a different presentation. (Audacity is already loaded on GAMS computers!)


 * __Window's Movie Maker__:** Capture and edit video in a snap! Quick to get started and easy to use. (Movie Maker is already loaded on GAMS computers!)


 * __Photo Story__:** Create video stories by adding effects to pictures along with titles and background music or dialogue. (Photo Story is already loaded on GAMS computers!)


 * [|Study Stack]:** Use pre-created flashcards or make your own. You can also do matching activities, crosswords, hangman, scrambled words, or bug chase to get vocabulary practice. You have the option to print flashcards too!

**[|Learner]:** Interactives provide strategies, content, and activities that enhance and improve students' skills!

**[|MathTrain]:** Teacher-created AND student-created instructional videos for kids!

**[|Brightstorm]:** Online video lessons to help students.

**__[|Fakebook]__:** Create a fake facebook page for a character, historical figure, or anyone else. Add video, friends, posts, profile information, and much more.


 * Museum Box** **:** "This site provides the tools for you to build up an argument or description of an event, person or historical period by placing items in a virtual box. What items, for example, would you put in a box to describe your life; the life of a Victorian Servant or Roman soldier; or to show that slavery was wrong and unnecessary? You can display anything from a text file to a movie. You can also view and comment on the museum boxes submitted by others." Easy sign up for students. They can save their projects directly to "my documents".

__**Quickmaps**__**:** Allows students to easily create a map from Google Maps or Google Earth and add markers, lines, scribbles, and many other features. Map can be saved, downloaded, and shared.


 * __Simplebooklet__:** Students create colorful web booklets that can be saved or shared on the web.


 * Hear Who:** Free text to audio converter. Type or paste in text, and this program converts it to audio in a male or female voice. Save the file as MP-3 to use in other projects, or to use as-is. Great tool for when microphones are unavailable.


 * Wallwisher:** Create an interactive "wall" where student's can interact.


 * 100 iPad Apps**: 100 best iPad apps for middle school!


 * __Easy Bib__:** Easy online bibliography and citation maker.


 * National Archives Experience: Digital Vault:** Students can create digital posters or videos using primary resources they collect from the National Archives site. They can include documents, photographs, and other records in their creation, all without leaving the National Archives site.


 * ArtPad:** Students create their own art with this easy tool. They can then play back the process, or take a picture of it to share.


 * [|Capzles]:** Create amazing multimedia timeline presentations with images, videos, documents, and more! (Requires email to sign up - you can set up a temporary receive-only email for students using mailinator.com or tempinbox.com)


 * American Rhetoric:** Awesome resource for speech/public speaking preparation. Includes over 5,000 full text speeches, many with audio and video for students to experience great rhetorical addresses.


 * Qwiki:** Engaging way to have students search the web. Search results come in the form of customized interactive narrated responses, many with video and photography. Also gives links for further reading or related topics.


 * Print What You Like:** Isolate only the information you want to print from a website. Allows students to choose what pictures, passages, links, or anything else they want to print from any site.


 * [|Sumo Paint]:** Incredible image creation/manipulation software...free! Use it to have students simply create original images, or edit photographs or pictures for a project. Robust features allow simple to advanced usage depending on student skill level.


 * Show Document:** Amazing collaborative tool that allows students to work together or with the teacher on an interactive whiteboard, co-editing a document, sharing a screen, watching a youtube video, and more! Get started in seconds.


 * One Word:** A quick-write tool that gives students a one word prompt and 60 seconds to start writing. Great way to get warmed up writing and gives students a chance to be creative.


 * Paper Rater:** Neat tool that allows students (or teachers) to get an in-depth spelling and grammar report on any text. Simply copy and paste it into the search field. Also has the option to CHECK FOR ORIGINALITY!


 * Edublogs**: FREE student created blogs - very easy to use.


 * ​Forvo:** Audio pronunciations of words in many different languages. Help readers understand words they don't know.


 * [|Meeting Words:]** Real-time text collaboration tool - easy to keep track of who is typing what.


 * [|Odosketch:]** Free, easy sketching tool. Email required to save sketches.


 * [|Popplet]:** Easy mind-mapping site. Email required.


 * [|QR Code Generator]:** Have students create their own QR codes for class projects. Free and easy codes are savable and printable.