We Choose the Moon

Far and away the best website about space exploration that I've ever seen, The Kennedy Presidential Library's WeChooseTheMoon.org is a stunning interactive recreation of the Apollo 11 moon landing. It seamlessly combines digital recreations of the flight with authentic audio and video and footage to create the complete experience.

A Periodic Table of Visual Elements

VisualLiteracy.org hosts a cleverly designed list of graphic organizers modeled on the Periodic Table of Elements. Mousing over each organizer type brings up an image of the organizer. It's a good starting point if you don't know what you're looking for specifically, but you'll have to look elsewhere for blank templates to customize for classroom use.

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.