Darwin Endless Forms

The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England, is hosting an exhibit entitled Darwin Endless Forms. The display merges Darwin's scientific discoveries with art inspired by his works. It's a nice fusion of art, science, and history. Podcasts (also available in iTunes U) feature experts from a variety of fields commenting on the pieces.

Free Audiobooks on Librivox.org

Librivox.org is a website that hosts audio recordings of books in the public domain. These are read by volunteers, so sometimes the quality isn't that great. But they are free and can be reproduced, which is very valuable for students who have trouble reading. This makes it easier to assign longer texts as required reading (like The Red Badge of Courage in a U.S. History class, for example). The catalog is fairly extensive right now and continually growing.

There is also a really cool iPhone app (Audiobooks) that lets download and listen directly on your phone. You need a wifi connection to download the books initially, but after that they are stored on the phone.

The Virtual Museum of Iraq

The Virtual Museum of Iraq is put together by an Italian group, but it has an English language version. Exploring the site is a lot like exploring the Museum of Baghdad. The artifacts are sorted into halls by period--Prehistoric, Babylonian, Assyrian, Islamic, etc. Each artifact has an interactive description and tools to look at it from different angles. Some have video presentations as well. The quality of the site is top notch and definitely classroom-ready.

An Online Rubric Builder

Rubistar is a cool program that helps you construct rubrics for a variety of assignments in all kinds of subjects. I'm sure as I get more experience it'll be easier for me to do these on my own, but this program is helpful. The best feature is how it provides suggested language for your fields, helping you keep your rubrics clear for your students.

Free PowerPoints

Pete's Power Points is a low-budget site that hosts a collection of PowerPoint presentations in almost any subject. Most of these are created by teachers, and some are better quality than others. Its potentially a good starting point if you need to plan a PowerPoint for a class. They're all downloadable, so you can find one you like and make it your own. 

Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators

Kathy Schrock's site is really a collection of links, though there are a few articles she's written herself. There's not a lot of quality control determining what links are used, so you should have something specific in mind when you use this site and be ready to filter through stuff on your own.

World History for Us All

Developed by San Diego State University, World History for Us All offers unit and lesson plans for the entire scope of world history. It divides its content into 9 "Big Eras", though everything is searchable if you need something specific. It operates a lot like a textbook, with most of the lessons in PDF form. The digital media seems under-developed. There are student handouts and activity ideas that can be useful though.