DOC Cop

DOC Cop is a Plagiarism detection website.  It can check PDF files as well as any version of Microsoft Word.  DOC Cop is completely free to use and for the first time that I have seen of any of these sites, it does not keep the submissions.  It deletes the document once it completes the submission.  No submission is copied, retained, or passed on to be sold. 

The idea behind DOC COP is really to compare papers over the same topic, not necessarily papers to other books, magazines, or websites.  It is good if you have the resources in PDF form to check against, otherwise you are only able to check a students paper against another paper.

All the files must contain at least 20 words and no more than 100,000.  All checks on web based submissions have a limit of 550 words.  If you want to check a web submission you can do so, and it is powered by a Google Search.  This would be good to check web pages that students created to see if they copied any material.

Sign up is as simple as providing an email and waiting for a Guest ID to be emailed to you.  In the time it took to write this post I had not received a Guest ID though.

Graphic Organizers

I was asked by the Principal at one of the high schools that I work at to provide websites that contain usable and printable Graphic Organizers for the staff to use with their students.  Here is the list of sites that I came up with.

First, a great starting point is Cybraryman's Website for Graphic Organizers.  Many of the below are probably on his website once or twice.

http://cybraryman.com/graphicorganizers.html

Otherwise, I would suggest viewing the following sites for some graphic organizers to use in your classroom

http://freeology.com/graphicorgs/

http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/actbank/torganiz.htm
 
http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/graphic_org/

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/graphic-organizers/printable/6293.html

http://my.hrw.com/nsmedia/intgos/html/igo.htm

http://www.vrml.k12.la.us/graphorgan/

http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/graphic-organizers.html

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.