Brainstorm in a Bubble?

http://bubbl.us

Bubbl.us is a great tool for the visual learner! Students can use bubbles as a way of character mapping, brainstorming a topic, creating a flow chart, or even just to remember the order in which something occurred. Background color and font can be changed for each bubble to help with organization or coding. After creation, a link is provided for sharing with others.

Need a Voice?

www.voicethread.com

Use Voicethread to create read alongs for your students, record instructions for an assignment, tell students about exciting upcoming activities, or create a talking scrapbook!

Students can even use this awesome tool to create projects such as book reports, tutorials, or for use on collaborative assignments.

Need a Good Book?

www.ala.org

The Young Adult Library Services Association puts out a list of Top Ten Books for Teens every year. This years books won't disappoint! Consider highlighting a book of the week with your students in a weekly update or on your course announcement page, doing a read aloud, or even hosting a book talk on one of the books for enrichment! Maybe students will find a new favorite author. Click on the link below to see the complete list of books!

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/booklistsawards/bestbooksya/topten2010.cfm

Do you have the next Stephanie Meyer or JK Rowling in your class?

Encourage your budding authors to visit the online writing resource http://www.lightningbug.com.au/. Lightning Bug offers ideas, suggestions and encouragement to students an aesthetically pleasing, safe environment. Who will get published next?

Virtual Library FUN!

www.shelfari.com

Create a virtual bookshelf to show your students what you are reading, what their classmates are reading, or what they should be reading! You can even post reviews of books. Once you create your virtual bookshelf, you will receive a widget to post on your course page or share with your students. Students can click on the image of the book from the virtual shelf to take a sneak peak inside the book and see if it's something they would be interested in reading.

Words in a Cloud??

http://www.wordle.net/

You provide the text and wordle will do the rest! You can have fun with the fonts, color scheme, and layout. Use a wordle to generate interest and excitement about an upcoming lesson, to create an online word wall, or to expose your students to important terms.

Free Dictionary and much, much more!

www.thefreedictionary.com

Add a customized widget to your course announcement page, weebly, or any site for that matter! Your students will be exposed to a "word of the day", "article of the day", and much, much more! You can choose which items you want to include on your widget and you can even customize the layout and color options. Expose your students to new words every day!