Instructional Resources

Open Courseware:

Open courseware is educational material available online which is free and “open” to anyone. Courses are designed to give teachers and students free online access to course materials that are actually used in high school and university classrooms. Open courseware programs do not require registration or charge tuition.
Many participating schools post syllabi, assignments, calendars, lecture notes, readings, and other materials online making it easy for teachers to add the information to their current curriculum. Video and audio of course materials are often available.

Open Educational Resources Commons – OEW Commons is a clearinghouse of links to online learning resources organized by both subject (arts, science) and grade level (K-12, college, post-graduate). Examples of online content include: full courses, course modules, lectures, homework assignments, quizzes, lab and classroom activities, games, simulations, and much more.

MIT OpenCourseWare: Highlights for High School – Offers material for 1,800 high school and college courses so the possibilities are endless. There are online science experiments, labs, etc.  Information is available to help users prepare for AP exams, learn more about the skills and concepts you learned in school, and sample the kind of work they’ll be doing in college.

HippoCampus – Offers free courseware in the following subjects: Algebra, American Government, Biology, Calculus, Environment Science, Physics, Psychology, Religion, and U.S. History.

Online High School – About.com’s Distance Learning site provides comprehensive information for teens and adults considering earning a high school diploma or GED through online instruction.

Visit the following college websites to learn more about the classes they offer as open courseware:

Berklee College of Music
Harvard University – Medical School
Open University (UK)
University of California – Berkeley
University of California – Irvine
University of Massachusetts – Boston
University of Notre Dame
University of Washington
Yale University

Technology Resources

Microsoft Office Online – Microsoft offers free online training tutorials to help you learn how to use the popular suite of Office products, such as Excel (spreadsheets), Access (databases), and Word (word processing).

Adobe Knowledgebase – The Adobe website provides free tutorials that help you learn how to make the most of out the company’s products, such as Photoshop, Flash, Illustrator, and FrameMaker.

Basic Computer Skills Tutorial – This tutorial helps new online users familiarize themselves with the Windows operating system and basic computer tasks.

Other Classroom Resources

4 Teachers
Helps teachers locate and create ready-to-use lessons, quizzes, rubrics, classroom calendars, etc. There are also tools for student use. This site has MANY tools for teachers.

TeAchnology
Has over 150,000 reviews of sites that teachers can use as resources.

Educators Publishing Service (EPS)
Provide researched-based reading intervention resources that serve children in special education programs and those at risk in mainstream classrooms.

The Write! Place
Provides free writing activities, printable graphic organizers, writing prompts, practice lessons, rubrics, etc.

TeacherTube
Provides videos, podcasts, and PowerPoint presentations for teachers to use in the classroom.

Citation Machine
This site will help students cite their sources correctly by answering specific questions.

OWL – Online Writing Lab – Purdue University provides over 200 free online writing resources for students, parents, English as a Second Language learners, and professional writers. Topics of interest include assistance in creating an effective resume and cover letter, and a section on writing for the workplace.

ZamZar
File conversion software which will convert Microsoft Works files to Microsoft Word files.

SlideShare is a free source of PowerPoint presentations from all over the world.

More Sites
This is a listing of multiple websites in case you can’t find what you are looking for from any other site.

Career Research Resources

Virginia Career View can assist you with all of your career and educational choices. This website is designed to demonstrate a clear career pathway to success.

Vocational Information Center – The Vocational Information Center website is a directory that provides links to online resources for career exploration, career and education, work opportunities, trade and technical schools, and career-related references.