World Book Online - This is a great resource for research. For middle school-age reading material, choose the "student" option.
Gale Resources - Gale offers a variety of encyclopedia resources that are the best place to go for research.
PBS News Hour - Student Voices - Current Events with articles and videos if you are interested in learning more about what is happening in the world around us.
PBS Learning Links - Sign in through Google using your district username and password. This site looks "young" at first glance, but choose a topic to see what is offered, many resources are for middle and high school students.
Discovery Education - Use your district email address and password to log into this site. So many cool videos and learning tools!