“Oldies” but Goodies!

We are always so focused on what is new in technology that we often forget about sites and programs that have been around for awhile but can still be great resources. I was going through some folders that I designated for resources and ran across a few “Oldies but Goodies”. So…without further ado, here are a few sites that can be very useful in the classroom. Don’t forget about them when you are planning!

	If you like to use YouTube videos in your classroom, viewpure.com is a great resource to have handy. YouTube is a great resource for teachers but the ads that are displayed alongside can sometimes be a little suspect. Viewpure takes the video you want to view and shows it on a blank white or black background. It gives you a url that you can save and visit later to watch with your class. Click here to see an example of what the video looks like once you run it through the viewpure site.
	Sign Generator from redkid.net is a site that is great for creating eye-catching images to introduce and/or review a topic. Choose one of the many templates available, type in your message, and then click the button to create your image. You can save the image and then import it into a presentation or activity. Teachers have used this to create a Happy Birthday cake for all of their students. They have it up and ready for them when they get to school! See below for another example…

	Looking for royalty free/copyright free music for projects? Check out freeplaymusic.com. There are thousands of instrumentals available to download. You can choose to search by style (genre) or feel. You can also search for keywords. When you find one you like, download the entire song (mp3 file) or choose to download a snippet depending on what you need. I have downloaded a few files of different genres. When I go into a classroom I have music ready for them to choose from. Saves time and a lot of headaches!
	Pics4learning is a warehouse for copyright free images. This image library has been created for educational use. The images can be downloaded and used for student projects, including videos, presentations and websites. You can choose to search by topic or do an advanced search for keywords, etc.