SchoolRack - Free Website or Blog

SchoolRack is a site that advertises itself as a place for teachers to create websites and blogs to increase communication with parents and students.  SchoolRack says that it is free of advertisements and that you can upgrade to a Pro account for a small fee.
 
Without creating an account myself, it seems to have a useful and easy to follow user interface.  It also has a simple Teacher Search, making it easy for parents and students to find your site if the URL is not handy.  When looking at one of the websites, there is an option in the top corner that allows you to click and receive an email when the website is updated, kind of like an RSS feed.  SchoolRack looks to me like this site would be a great starting point for teachers hesitate about creating their own website.

Book Glutton

BookGlutton is a website that provides the ability to read books online.  It has eBooks that would be of interest to educators.  I saw "The Scarlet Letter" and "A Tale of Two Cities" on the website for starters.  Several of the books are available for free, others are available for purchase.  In the end it offers a way for students to read books for your class without having to go to the library or purchase a book.  1:1 schools could really benefit from this site when reading books in class.  They do have a search option if you want to try out the site for books in your class.  As they always say, you can't beat free.

Google Earth Help

Came across this from a weekly email I receive.  If you have students, or even teachers, interested in using Google Earth, it can be a daunting task for many of them.  Google Earth has created a quiz/tutorial that has 7 levels plus a bonus level that students/teachers can take to get a better understanding of this great educational tool.  The tutorial does a great job of showing all the features and how to use them.  Google Earth is a great tool for Earth/Space Science, History, Geography, Math, and Current Events.

Pleft - Help you Plan Appointments

An interesting occurrence the other day on Twitter, when I received a Tweet wondering if I would blog about a Web 2.0 software.  Not everyday you get someone asking you to blog about something for them.  So I replied and said that if they could explain how it could be used in education I would think about it.  I got their reply and decided to check out the site.

Pleft is a site that provides a way for you to schedule meetings and let other people respond to see if it is a time that works for them.  It is color coded for easy viewing and Pleft requires no sign up to use.  Invitations are email based, so you would have to know your invitees email address.

Impact on Education:
1.) Would be a great way for principals to schedule a meeting  with teachers after school
2.) Would provide a way for teachers to see what evening might be best to have a mandatory homework assignment (seeing a speech, watching the news, etc.)
3.) Would be a great way for teachers to schedule after school meetings.
4.) Would provide a way for coaches to communicate the best way to schedule a meeting with parents.

Zoom.it

Every once in a while you find a site that really makes you say Ooooh and Ahhhh.  Zoom.it is one of those sites.  All you have to do is copy and paste a URL of an image and it will upload it to the website.  You can then view the picture full screen and zoom into the image getting a better view of certain areas.

I used to teach the Renaissance and we would always examine the art from that time period.  I would always point out certain aspects of the paintings.  Zoom.it would have been a great addition to that curriculum.  If you are ever examining a picture, this site is a must.

You can also embed the utility into a blog or website, as seen below.