FREE online educational games, learning activities

Sheppard Software says, "We make learning fun."

FREE online educational games, learning games, and activities for kids of all ages. Articles, quizzes, and more, all quickly accessed online. There's even some good Canadian content there; for example, Canadian geography tutorials and games.

ALSO from Sheppard Software: Free software for teachers & Schools. "We design educational software and online games with these goals: 

1. To add sound and visual effects to make learning fun and more memorable. 
2. To design games with many difficulty levels so that players will continue to be challenged no matter how far they progress.
3. To provide games that will exercise players' brains."

...........

Kate's little side note: So, this guy calls me on the phone, raves about my site, PinkFlamingo's Resources Lists, then asks me to provide a link to Sheppard Software on the site. In the 10+ years I've had the site, I've had many link-exchange contacts, but never before by phone. But it was really the compliments that worked on me; whether or not they were just a marketing ploy, they worked. Good thing to keep in mind as an approach to take when trying to get anybody on board about anything -- the compliments go a long way, don't they?

TERMIUM is now free!

"Until now, TERMIUM Plus®, one of the largest terminology and linguistic data banks in the world, was available only to employees of the Government of Canada and to subscribers. Those days are over! All Canadians-and all Web surfers, wherever they are-can now consult the Translation Bureau's flagship product free of charge."

Professional Writing Services: Fair Play?

This site was recommended to me by a parent who found her high school son plagiarizing and found this helpful resource to share & discuss with him. Don't be put off by the name of the site or the services offered on the homepage; it seems an unlikely place for good advice on plagiarism, but the page I'm linking you to seems quite instructive and has some good links.

Covers topics like Academic Writing Services; Cheating Goes High-Tech: Online Term Paper Mills; The Web Versus the Honor Code; Paper Mills; How to Avoid Plagiarism and Cheating; Understanding Plagiarism, What it is and how to avoid it; You Wrote It, You Quote It (Interactive tutorial). It also provides links to discussions about Potential Consequences; Facing Penalties; Legal issues of cheating and what happens when students fight colleges.

The page also links to Resources for Teachers and Professors: Cheating Prevention; Anti-Plagiarism Strategies; Glatt Plagiarism Services (software that creates a test for suspected cheaters).

Classpress.net: Headlines for School Subjects

A list of RSS feeds that provide daily postings for subject teachers: today's view shows Art, Design & Technology, English, Geography, History, Maths, Music, Science.

Resource Links You Might Have Missed

This list of Language Arts links is the sixth installment of in the "Links You Might Have Missed" series at the Free Technology for Teachers website. This set of links features Language Arts resources. The previous installments of this series featured links to resources in the areas of

Math

Science

Geography

Digital Presentations

Google Earth.

SAVE THE WORDS!

A site chock full of neglected or abandoned words. Click to see definition; sign up to adopt a word or more. This would be a great site for people studying for a spelling bee contest. For anybody who just loves to see WORDS, words, words.

Twitter for Academia

Dave Parry explains:

"I must admit that when I first heard about Twitter I thought it represented the apex of what concerns me about internet technology: solipsism and sound-bite communication. ...Although I am still beginning to wrap my head around all of its varied uses—I think for the most part Twitter users themselves are still figuring this out—I have been using it for over six months now and come up with some academic uses. ...Some of these ideas are general, and some are specifically from a Twittering assignment I did for a class last semester. When I first added it to the syllabus I had no idea what to expect. It was just sort of an experiment that I had planned for the end of the semester (all of the students signed up for twitter and followed each other). After using it I have to say it was one of the better things I did with that class, for reasons I will explain below."

Free Technology for Teachers

A blog that you might want to subscribe to in your feed reader. "A review of free technology resources and how teachers can use them. Ideas for technology integration in education." Winner of the EduBlog awards in 2008. I was linked to the site for a specific article and ended up staying quite a while because there were so many interesting (and helpful) topics, esp. those in the "top rated posts" column.

Ideas to Inspire (Teacher Resources)

Out of the UK, this is "...a collection of Google Docs presentations, which offer a large number of ideas for engaging lesson activities in a range of curriculum areas.The presentations are a collaboration between lots of fantastic teachers around the world." Resources under headings like Interactive Maths, Incredible Science, Inspired Writing, and many more.

Teachers TV

| Thousands of education programmes on TV and online |

"With over 2000 videos available online, the Teachers TV website is an invaluable resource for any busy education professional. Watch videos when you want and download great resources including lesson plans, worksheets and more. ...Our programmes cover every subject in the curriculum, all key stages and every professional role – from teaching assistant to headteacher. You can watch us on digital cable and satellite and programmes are also available anytime, on-demand and for free on this website. We have 15-minute CPD offerings packed with useful information, exciting pupil programmes for use in class, and a daily education news summary. ...award-winning documentaries on everything from global citizenship to education practice in other countries. Regular specialist hours cater to new teachers, governors and other specialist audiences, and core curriculum hours cover primary and secondary maths, English, science and ICT."

West Coast Screenwriting - Learn to Write For The Movies

"From Blank Page to Big Screen - Learn to Write For The Movies"

Vancouver Island screenwriters Keith Digby and Brian Paisley offer regular, personalized workshops in screenwriting. Link above is to their main website. Also check out their new BLOG here. A recent post: "Ten things to do… or not to do with dialogue." I'd say they are just as applicable to storywriting as they are to screenwriting.

txtng is gd 4 lrng

"Texting does not erode children’s ability to read and write. On the contrary, literacy improves. The latest studies (from a team at Coventry University) have found strong positive links between the use of text language and the skills underlying success in standard English in pre-teenage children. The more abbreviations in their messages, the higher they scored on tests of reading and vocabulary. The children who were better at spelling and writing used the most textisms. And the younger they received their first phone, the higher their scores."

Dictionarist: Online Talking Dictionary

A free online multilingual and talking dictionary service for translations with audio pronunciation in English, Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Italian, Russian, Dutch, Greek, Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages.

Lesson Corner: content creation tools for the K-12 teacher

Check out these:

"We are announcing a new suite of free vocabulary building tools for teachers. LessonCorner's Puzzle Makers allow teachers to find or create their own free custom word search, scramble or crossword puzzles...Teachers and Homeschoolers who want to make engaging handouts for vocabulary building exercises."

Math Worksheet Maker:"Who are these worksheets for? Math teachers whose students need practice solving math problems. Homeschooling parents also find the worksheets useful."

Tip of My Tongue: Dictionary

A unique dictionary that helps you "find that word that you've been thinking about all day but just can't seem to remember." Various ways to find the word: partial word (starts with, contains, ends with), letters (unscramble, must have, can't have), look up by synonyms you know, length of word, or sounds-like.

Websites for word lovers & writers

Wordsmith.org...A.Word.A.Day: "Wordsmith is a worldwide online community of some half-million readers who share a love for words, wordplay, language, and literature." Visit their Scheduled Chats page, where word lovers from all over the world meet to chat with others about words, languages, literature, and ideas.

World Wide Words: An etymologist's delight! "...a fascinating website ... All word buffs should pay the website a visit. They will be well rewarded." [Quote from University of the Third Age (March 2004)] Categories are numerous; to name a few: Articles, Q&As, Reviews, Topical Words, Turns of Phrase, Weird Words, Pronunciation Guide. Weekly newsletter by email subscription or feed.

Please visit the Writers' Resources tab on my WORDS website for a huge, categorized list of resources.

Affixes: the Building Blocks of English

The Dictionary of Affixes: "It is based on Michael Quinion’s book Ologies and Isms: Word Beginnings and Endings, published by Oxford University Press in 2002. This work is now out of print and has been edited and presented here as a free service. These pages contain examples of all four of the types of affixes that appear in English: prefixes, suffixes, combining forms and infixes."

Urban Dictionary

If you can't find the word anywhere else it might be in this one. Look up street lingo: words, images, sounds. Time magazine named it one of the 50 best websites of 2008. Here's their self-definition (on Facebook):

"I am a dictionary with over a million definitions you wrote. I stand for free speech and having a good time. urban dictionary started in 1999 as a parody of dictionary.com, with definitions written by the people. in the last 7 years, people have written more than 2,000,000 definitions...wikipedia says it well: 'urban dictionary allows for many truths, rather than an authoritative guide.'"

Online Etymology Dictionary

"This is a map of the wheel-ruts of modern English. Etymologies are not definitions; they're explanations of what our words meant and how they sounded 600 or 2,000 years ago."

3 ESL Resource Sites for learners and teachers

This group of authors have created three ESL sites.

"All of the content on our websites is 100% free and we update the sites with new exercises regularly."

Learn English Feel Good.com: ESL portal with free English grammar and vocabulary exercises, printable worksheets, video-based exercises, lists of American idioms and phrasal verbs, and much more. "Your one stop site for free ESL resources. Whether you're studying English, or looking to download free worksheets/handouts for class, this website will provide you with the resources that you need. ...Whether your level is Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced, you'll find what you need to help you speak and write better English. Don't miss our video-based exercises - a great way to practice listening comprehension."

ESL-PDF.com: "One-stop source for ESL grammar and vocabulary handouts and worksheets. Our content was created by people with many years of teaching experience - so you know that you'll get handouts that adhere to high-quality standards. ...All of the worksheets are in PDF format and are arranged by category (verb tenses, articles, prepositions, etc.)"

Business English: "One-stop source for Business English. Our content was created by people with many years of corporate experience - people who actually use Business English on an everyday basis, so you know that you'll get the best, most accurate business vocabulary, phrases, expressions, and jargon." Content is divided by topic, including accounting, sales and marketing, project management, interviews, information technology (IT), and more."