Admit it, school’s not all bad.  There’s lunch, where you can sit with your friends and talk about whatever.  And there’s study hall, where you can do anything but.  And you don’t have to go for 12 weeks each year.  For the rest of it, like homework, tests, etc., there’s help. 

Look here for things to make the hard school stuff more like study hall. 

• English and Language Arts

• Foreign Languages

• History and Social Studies

• Math and Science

• Preparing for College

• Research

   

English and Language Arts 

• AntiStudy: Free Book Summaries 
  Free study guides and notes (like Cliffs Notes) for over 5,000 books that you have to read for class.
• Bartleby: English Usage, Style & Composition 
  Full-text version of William Strunk's The Elements of Style and other helpful grammar books.
• Book Rags 
  Book summaries and discussion questions on contemporary classics that your teachers may be assigning such as "State of Wonder" by Ann Patchett and "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri.
• Dictionary.com 
  Searchable dictionary, thesaurus, and quotes.
• Guide to Grammar and Writing 
  An exhaustive searchable database with help on grammar and writing.  Includes everything from adverbs to a thesis statement. 
• OWL: Online Writing Lab 
  This is a good place to begin when you have a writing assignment. This site from Purdue University also helps with poetry and citations.  Look here if you are interested in practicing college level writing skills as well. (ooh, scary!)
• OWL: MLA 2009 Formatting and Style Guide
  A trusted place for instruction on how to cite MLA style.
• Poetry 180: A poem a day for American High Schools 
  This site offers poems to read each day of school.  Better yet, it teaches you HOW to read a poem out loud.  This site is from the Library of Congress and your teachers may be interested in sharing a poem from the site each day as part of your classwork.
• Poets.org 
  Information on poets and poetry and includes audio samples of the poetry.
• Shmoop 
  Shmoop is the cool database for teenagers.  Check out what they have to offer in the Literature, Poetry, Shakespeare, or Mythology tabs for everything regarding your English homework, then browse around on the other tabs just for fun (and I mean fun, some articles use a music video posted to reinforce topic ideas).
   

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Foreign Languages

• Babbel: Enjoy Learning Languages 
  
  You must sign in with either your email address and create a password or you can connect with Facebook and share your progress with your friends or classmates.  Includes online courses and message boards to connect with others learning languages.
• BBC: Languages 
  This site is has a good video section for advanced learners.
• iforeignlanguage 
  The author of this site has down-to-earth advice on how to study any language.
• Linguanet Worldwide 
  This site allows you to test your proficiency level in any language.
• YourDictionary 
  This site links to websites for over 260 languages (more advanced than just your basic language dictionary). 

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History and Social Studies

• The African-American Mosaic Exhibition 
  A Library of Congress online exhibit of primary source documents on slavery, include many photos.
• Ben's Guide to the U.S. Government 
  "How a Bill Becomes a Law" and other important functions of our government.
• Biographical Dictionary 
  Need to know a historical figure who was born today?  This database has brief articles (most with pictures) on over 28,000 people and is searchable.
• History on PBS 
  Full videos of episodes on history topics from Public Broadcasting System television stations across the country. 

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Math and Science

• Ask Dr. Math 
  A list of common formulas and other math tips from the Dr. Math series of books.
• Cells Alive! 
  This site includes everything you need to know regarding cells, both plant and animal.  It has great animations of the phases of cell mitosis and meiosis as well as camera images of cancer cells growing.
• FactMonster Homework Center: Mathematics 
  Math homework help includes help with fractions, conversions, formulas and more.
• General Chemistry Online 
  For first year chemistry students, this Frostburg State University site gives a general overview of basic chemistry and allows you to quiz yourself.
• HippoCampus 
  Virtual classroom with videos teaching several subjects including biology, chemistry and other sciences.
• The Physics Classroom Tutorial 
  Included here you will find practice problem sets for solving and other help on physics concepts.
• PLoS Biology 
  This is a peer reviewed, open access journal for science articles, many are full text.
• Science Daily 
  A research news magazine on science.
• WebMath 
  Help with math questions.  

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Preparing for College

• College Navigator
  From the National Center for Education Statistics, you can plug in your college selection criteria into their search engine and it will bring you results of colleges that may be right for you.
• How to Choose a College that is Right For You
  An article from NPR on what is the best criteria for choosing a college.
• Peterson's College Search
  Featured colleges, articles on top colleges, and other information about the college search.

• ACT
  The student site for ACT test takers.
• PSAT
  This test is given at your high school.
• SAT
  Collegeboard's site for the most widely used college admission test.
• Study Guides for TCAP, Gateway and ACT
  Practice test questions.
• TOEFL
  The exam for English as a second language speakers.

• College and Careers @ Your Library
  This site has lots of help on how to pay for college.  It walks you through the loan process and grant application process.
• Financial aid from the government (FAFSA)
  The FAFSA is where to go for government aid for college.
• Grants
  A database for free college grant money.
• Scholarships
  Allows you to plug in search criteria for scholarships that you could be eligible for.
   

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Research

•  Internet Public Library: Research and Writing
  This site walks you through the research paper process, from choosing a topic and gathering information, to everything about writing the paper, including the thesis and citing sources.
• Memphis Public Library Databases
  Check here for the journals, newspapers, genealogy, biography and literature sources, statistics, history and more among our electronic databases.
• RefDesk.com
  A virtual librarian reference desk where you can ask questions and learn about any topic.
• Tennessee Electronic Library
  Free to the residents of Tennessee, this set of electronic databases hosts subjects such as genealogy, journals and help with standardized tests. 
• Virtual Reference Shelf
  Another virtual reference desk where you can ask those questions you might be afraid to in person.

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