ePals Community.......PBL

Epals Global community is a site that offers projects for classroom collaboration.  You can safely connect with other classrooms, collaborate or start your own project based learning OR Teachers can search for classroom ready projects and activities. You can join for free. 
 www.epals.com

There are lesson plan/projects you can find in this community.

Masher Video Creation

Masher is an online tool that lets you create a video by mixing together video clips, music tracks, and photos.  FREE!      http://www.masher.com/

Go Comics

Go Comics http://www.gocomics.com/ 
Follow comics you love; comic strips, editorials and more. If you are looking for popular comic strips to use for comprehension, this would be a good site to visit.  This site has advertisements and therefore I would pre-select comic prior to beginning lesson.  It also has a print feature for comics that you select and an email feature.  Sign up for free.

Loopster.......video editor

Loopster is an online video editing tool.
http://www.loopster.com/

Project Gutenberg.........Free

Project Gutenberg is a public domain of free ebooks and music available for download. You can choose various ways of downloading. The books and music are free because the copyright has expired. There is a search book catalog available for easy search.
Ebooks: http://www.gutenberg.org/
Music: http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Music_(Bookshelf)
Sheet Music: http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:The_Sheet_Music_Project

I thought this site is worth mentioning even though many people know about this great site.

Comic Master

Comic Master is a graphic novel creator.  Like other comic generators, comic master has drag and drop features for students to create their comic pages.  Comic master allows students to save their work so that they have the option to go back to edit their work.  Once they are finished, students can print their short graphic novel.  http://www.comicmaster.org.uk/

HOWTOONS and INSTRUCTABLES......Comics

These are instructional manuals.  These manuals encourage creative problem solving skills.
I thought this site would give many great ideas.

Their mission at Howtoons is "to provide engaging content that teaches kids how to build things, combining instructions with storytelling. Howtoons has a foundation of science and engineering education, inspiring creativity through art and imagination." 


This site offers PDF for downloading comics and the site features a content search.
 http://www.howtoons.com/

The following link will connect you to Instructables from Howtoons.  http://www.instructables.com/group/howtoons/ You can also share what you make with the world.

Project Noah....Connect with the Natural World through Investigation

I love it when I stumble upon sites like this!!!

Project Noah help students experience nature through which they solve real-world problems.  This site is for students to share their experiences with wildlife and they are given oppotunities to make a difference.  Students make observations and investigations on key concepts in the Life Sciences and share their work with the Project Noah community. 

Teachers can sign up and set up their classroom. Resources and teaching materials are available.  Great enquiry based curriculum and critical literacy.

There is an app available as well. 
http://www.projectnoah.org/education

Skype in the Classroom

Connect your classroom with teachers from around the world.  Post a request for someone to visit on a certain topic. Bring the outside world to your class.
https://education.skype.com/

Comic Strip.......Using On line tools

I always use Bitstrips with my class which is a comic creator. I figured there had to be other comic generators on the web that are free or partially free. In October I trawled the net and found other comic online tools. Not all sites below have the ability to allow teachers to create classes but students can sign in independently.  The following sites are Comic Generators that I found.

Artisan Cam http://www.artisancam.org.uk/  has a collection of online activities and has a Super Action Comic Maker too. http://www.artisancam.org.uk/flashapps/superactioncomicmaker/comicmaker.php?PHPSESSID=f5c3b9a9df3b7450ff4dd808674235af This site has a teacher section.

Strip Generator Creates a black and white comic strip. Like other generators, all you need to do is select images from their library and drag and drop. You can save the comic online, print or embed into your own blog. http://stripgenerator.com/  **

Learn English Kids http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/make-your-own/comic-strip-maker  from the British Council.

Make Beliefs http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/ ** Teacher Section available.

Be Funky is an online tool turning digital photos into digital comics. http://www.befunky.com/


Witty comics http://www.wittycomics.com/   **

Toon Doo is a free comic creator if signing up as an individual. There is a fee for educational spaces. http://www.toondoo.com/


Piki Kids http://www.pikikids.com/   Allows you to create comics and t-shirts.

Chogger http://chogger.com/  **

Super Hero Squad…………Free comics to make and read from Marvel for Kids. http://marvelkids.marvel.com/shows/122/the_super_hero_squad_show

Kerpoof movie creation studio ttp://www.kerpoof.com/ Teachers can manage student accounts and lesson plans available.


Creaza http://www.creazaeducation.com/You can create cartoons or personal digital stories.


Comiker http://www.comiker.com/ Create comics to share with online community; therefore not filtered.

Comics Sketch
 http://www.mainada.net/comicssketch

My Story Maker http://www.carnegielibrary.org/kids/storymaker/


Always review to ensure that one of these online tools is what you wish to introduce to students.

The list with ** are also featured on Mario Addesa's blog.

The Opper Project.....Comics in the Classroom

Using Editorial Cartoons.  http://hti.osu.edu/opper

Cartoons for the Classrooms is a service that provides lesson plans based on editorial cartoons created by editorial cartoonist.  http://nieonline.com/aaec/cftc.cfm#  is from Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. 

Students can use these strips to show that they have fully discovered the meaning behind the cartoon.  Students can also capture meaning by using a comic strip generator, to describe their point of view of an issue that is shown on one of the editorial cartoons. 

This last site, AAEC, is also posted on Mario Addesa's blog.  Check out his blog for other comic ideas.

Wallwisher

Wallwisher is paper for the web.  It is a wall (blank page) that you put anything you want from anywhere. This page can be used to make noticeboards, to share ideas, brainstorm, etc.
Teaching idea: pose a question and children would post their feedback.

Click on this page and the wall you see will give you suggestions on how to use this wall............ Lot’s of possibilities.  http://wallwisher.com/
An example of a wall:

Comic Museum

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/

Alan Levine mentions in his blog about the uses of The Digital Comic Museum as a place to find comic artwork to remix magazine covers or to remix and create posters.   

Essay Map

Essay Map is a great interactive tool from Read Write Think a site I mentioned in one of my earlier posts.  Essay map provides step by step guide for constructing an essay. http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/essaymap/

Screenr.......screencast....screen capture

In one of my earlier posts I blogged about Jing the screenshot and screencast software that allows you to capture your desktop. You can download the software for free at http://www.techsmith.com/download/jing/

Another instant screencast tool is Screenr. Unlike Jing, Screenr is a web-based screen recorder tool that captures anything you see on your computer screen or creates short 5 minute videos that you can share instantly. All you need is a Twitter account to get started.  http://www.screenr.com/

A great tool for students to use to record demonstration tutorials on whatever they are doing on the computer.  A perfect example is with the idea I suggested for SketchUp.

Artsonia......Free educational tool

Artsonia is a kids art museum website where kids artwork from around the world is showcased.  Teachers can create a school gallery and submit their students' artwork by uploading image files directly to the website.
There are also art project lesson plans available that have been submitted by teachers as a resource for anyone to use in the classroom.  http://www.artsonia.com/

I would like to thank Theresse Gruber for this resource.

SketchUp.........3D models

SketchUp for Education  http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/industries/education.html
Students from K-12 can create 3D images/models by using this online drawing tool. They have a free download version for educators and kids.
http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/download/gsu.html    (download)

For Educators:
Have students sketch a model. They are to teach other students how to create what they created;  they can create a movie describing step by step on how to make their image. This is a good idea to do collaboratively or as a project based learning assignment.

The Literacy Shed

The Literacy Shed is a site with a wealth of resources collected and published by a teacher. The site provides a variety of resources related to literacy. Short movie clips with teacher lesson ideas go with the movie clips. The Literacy Shed can help you improve your students’ literacy and critical thinking skills.

I feel that the clips and ideas can be applicable for any age. It features Resource of the week which I captured as a sample for you to see.  http://www.literacyshed.com/the-thinking-shed.html

ArtSMart

Some websites have similar names and sometimes when making an error by one stroke, you are presented with a different site than what you expected.
This Art site I came across is an on-line video based tutorial site to help you teach art.
http://199.71.141.249/staff/teachers/ArtSMart/index.html

Movie Clips......Wing Clips.....Learn 360

Movie Clips and Wing Clips are sites that can be used as resources for short 2-3 minute popular movie clips that can support your literacy teaching. There is a contents that organizes the clips into themes.  These two sites are Free.

I used clips from these sites to introduce and discuss virtues (character education), to illustrate a point and to critically analyze the scene.

Wing Clips:  http://www.wingclips.com/themes/virtue
Movie Clips:  http://movieclips.com/Jpa9-virtue-theme-videos/#p=1
It goes without saying, to view and review all clips prior to using with your students.

I use the above sites when I don't use Learn360 (http://www.learn360.com/index.aspx)which which is a multi-media educational resource site that the Ministry has a licensing agreement for publicly funded schools in Ontario.  All other users must subscribe.