CurrClick

CurrClick is actually a website for homeschoolers but I use it frequently to help me in my class. There are hundreds of units of study available for download. Another really cool thing about this website is the free units section. There are numerous units that are actually free! You can also sign up for the newsletter which offers a new freebie of the week. Other units also regularly go on sale and available for reasonable prices.

Website: http://www.currclick.com/

Dove- Real Beauty Campaign

Here's a great free program for young teenage and pre-teen girls from Dove. I ordered the print version and just got it in the mail today. The program is geared toward girls self-esteem. There are numerous activities designed for girls to analyze their own self-worth, the media's influence and finding positive role models. You can order individual workbooks for each girl in your class. The program even comes with an accompanying DVD. Really nice free resource from a company that has done a lot of good in changing our views of beauty in the media. It's also available for download from the website. The website also has great videos about beauty (remember that great commercial with the model being retouched).

Website: http://www.dove.ca/en/default.aspx#/cfrb/educators/

Puzzlemaker

Here's a site I return to again and again. Puzzlemaker from Discovery Education is a very easy to use custom puzzlemaking site for teachers. I use the word search most often with my students' spelling words. I have also used the crossword to study definitions for different subjects. It's a great, easy tool to help make studying fun.

Website: http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/

The Virtual Body

Here is a neat site to learn about the different systems of the body. It's especially cool if you have a smart board in your class because there are great games such as building a skeleton or putting the digestive tract back in order. Students can do it individually on their own computer or as a class on the smart board. Great visuals!

Website: http://www.medtropolis.com/VBody.asp

Tomatosphere

Here is a really cool activity for students to be involved in a real-life space experiment. Teachers can register their class on the website and they will receive two envelopes of tomato seeds. One of the packs of seeds have been exposed to a real space environment and the other packet is a control group of regular seeds. The tomatoes are labelled with just letters so that we don't know which seeds are which until we submit our results to the Canadian Space Agency. This is such an amazing way to teach about space, food, plants, nutrition... the list goes on! The website has many resources for the teacher and students as well as some video clips of the astronauts in space.

Website: http://www.tomatosphere.org/

Sexuality and U

Sexuality and U is a fantastic Canadian website about sex and sexuality. For teachers wishing to teach sex ed there are powerpoint presentations, lessons plans and webquests. Many of the tools are available in powerpoint or PDF. Sexuality and U also has sections for teens where they can get honest answers to their questions and even a fun quiz to test their knowledge. A great find for a sex ed. teacher!

Website: http://www.sexualityandu.ca/

Hands on Banking

Hands on Banking is an online course for kids to adults created by Wells Fargo. It's a program to teach students money skills including earning money, spending, investing, credit and more. The teacher section features PDF instructor guides seperate for both kids and teens. It is an American program but can be adapted to Canadian classrooms. There are also online clips that students can use to study independantly. It is also available in Spanish.

Website: http://www.handsonbanking.org/en/

Open Office

Image via Wikipedia

Here's a neat freebie that's not specifically for teachers but something that students and teachers can use to work. From the website: OpenOffice.org 3 is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.
This software from Sun Microsystems can be downloaded by students at home if they don't already have the commercial product on their computer. A great tool!

Website: http://www.openoffice.org/

Free Rice Games

A website that gives students practice with math, vocabulary, geography and helps feed hungry children at the same time! FreeRice is a non-profit website run by the United Nations World Food Program. Our partner is the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. For every right answer a student gets 10 grains of rice are donated to feed hungry children. A great site for multiplication practice and really great for english vocabulary!

Website: http://www.freerice.com/index.php

Water is Life - World Vision

World Vision has created a free program for high school students to learn about water and the environment. This guide introduces controversial debates regarding the planet's fresh water resources. It includes lesson ideas, assessment tools, and activities to accompany the Water is Life Flash animation which is available for download on the site as well. The site also has other programs which you can order for a fee.

Website: World Vision teacher materials