General Reference Sites
- The Educator’s Reference Desk – The Educator’s Reference Desk is an extremely valuable online reference site for teachers. Specific features include lesson plans, teaching tips, and information about teaching education and certification.
- RefDesk – This award winning website is one of the largest and most useful reference sites on the web. Ref Desk offers news, fact checkers, reference books, historical information, calculators, converters, and links to other valuable resources.
- Questia – Questia is the world’s largest full-text online library. Not all of the resources on this site are free, but the majority can be accessed at no charge.
- Answers.com – This site provides information on more than four million topics though original articles, community-contributed articles, and leading reference publications.
- Virtual Reference Shelf – This website provides a huge collection of web resources compiled by the Library of Congress.
- INFOMINE – INFOMINE is a virtual library of Internet resources selected by college and university librarians.
- Info Please – This Pearson Education company offers a free encyclopedia, dictionary, thesaurus, atlas, and other reference materials. Teachers will especially like the FactMonster section of the site, which includes kid friendly resources, games, and quizzes.
- Wikipedia – The accuracy of Wikipedia is sometimes questioned, but this free encyclopedia is still a good place to begin researching various subjects.
- Scholarpedia – This site is similar to Wikipedia, but features information that has been reviewed by scholars.
- American FactFinder – This U.S. Census Bureau site is a great place to find economic, housing, population, and geographic data. Other special features include a reference shelf with digital versions of Bureau publications.
Subject-Specific Reference Sites
- OWL – Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab (OWL) is an excellent reference site for teachers who need writing and grammar resources. The site even includes a special section for instructors who teach grades 7-12.
- SparkNotes – Although this site is designed for students, it makes a good English teacher reference too. SparkNotes offers free study guides, literature summaries, grammar help, and other educational materials that can be used in the classroom.
- Language Materials Project – This UCLA site is dedicated to providing teaching resources for less commonly taught languages. Resources are available for a wide range of languages and learning levels.
- Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE) – FREE hosts a large collection of free teaching and learning resources from federal agencies.
- Smithsonian Education – Designed specifically for teachers, the Smithsonian site hosts lesson plans and reference information. Covered subjects include art, science, history, and language arts.
- Kids.gov – Kids.gov is the official government portal for kids. The site provides free lesson plans and classroom activities for teachers in addition to kid friendly information about government, history, social studies, and related subjects.
- Wolfram MathWorld – Thought to be the most extensive math encyclopedia on the web, MathWorld is a fantastic reference site for teachers who need quality information for lesson plans.
- Art Teacher’s Guide to the Internet – This online reference serves as a companion to the book written by Craig Roland. Special features include downloadable classroom materials, links to virtual museums, and a list of valuable web resources.
- John Hopkins Medical Desk Reference – This online reference from John Hopkins is great for health teachers. In addition to an alphabetical list of illnesses and medical problems, the site also provides links to additional resources.
- International Center for Scientific Research – The ICSR is the world’s first science portal. The site is dedicated to guiding scholars, researchers, and teachers to journals, published research, and other science resources.
Almanacs, Dictionaries, and Encyclopedias
- The Farmer’s Almanac – The online version of the Original Farmer’s Almanac has many of the same features as the print version. Teachers can also access a word of the day, puzzle of the day, question of the day, and other daily activities.
- Astronomical Almanac – This interactive almanac from SkyAndTelescope.com provides astronomical data that can be customized by location. Data is available for any date between 1600 and 2400 A.D.
- Merriam-Webster Online – America’s best-selling desk dictionary can be viewed online along with a virtual thesaurus. Other resources on the online version of M-W include a word of the day, word games, spelling bee information, and quizzes.
- Dictionary.com – This site features the largest free dictionary on the web. Entries include audio pronunciation and definitions from trusted sources.
- Encyclopedia.com – Encylcopedia.com provides free access to 49 encyclopedias. Other resources include free dictionaries and thesauruses.
- Children’s Encyclopedia of Women – This online encyclopedia, which was created by third and fourth grade students, includes a wide range of entries, important dates in women’s history, and research sources.
- Encyclopedia of Life – The EOL is an online reference that details each species of organism on Earth. Each entry includes text, images, and links to additional information.
- Artcylcopedia – This free encyclopedia doubles as a search tool to help teachers find images of fine art on the Internet.
- Bartleby – Bartleby is a great reference site for teachers. The site’s published materials include encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, quotation books, and well-known reference guides.
- Bibliomania – The reference section of Bibliomania includes free digital versions of popular encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauruses, and other reference materials.
Virtual Libraries
- Internet Public Library – The IPL is a free online reference and learning environment. Resources that would be of interest to teachers include books, newspapers, magazines, reference materials, subject collections, and a list of trusted research websites.
- Library Spot – The Library Spot offers a comprehensive reading room, a virtual reference desk, and a directory of online and campus-based libraries.
- ERIC – The Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) is an online digital library featuring education research and information. ERIC is a good place to find information about teaching, learning, and education.
- Library of Congress – The Library of Congress provides more than 10 million online resources for teachers, including an online reference service, lesson plans, activities, encyclopedias, and digital collections.
- CIA Library – The CIA’s online library includes a digital copy of The World Fact Book, a directory of foreign leaders, maps, historical documents, and many other reference materials that can be used in the classroom.
New and Current Events
- NY Times – Teachers can check on current events and search for news stories dating back to 1851 on The New York Times website.
- TIME for Kids – This weekly classroom news magazine offers online features, lesson plans, quizzes and other powerful teaching tools.
- Scholastic News Online – Scholastic’s daily news source for kids includes information about current events, lessons, games, quizzes, and downloadable materials for teachers.
- CNN Student News – CNN offers a student news section that includes news stories, videos, kid-friendly quizzes, and other special resources for teachers.
- Teachers TV – This site features more than 2,000 news and education videos made specifically for teachers. Other resources include worksheets and lesson plans.