Table Of Contents
About.com p. 3
ACTDEN p. 4
The Copernicus Education Gateway p. 10
Click on the handy drop down Education Resources menu and quickly go to Current Events, Teachers’ Place, Parents’ Place, School Notes, Research Center, Discovery Adventures, Creative Zone, Collaboration Station, Curriculum Matrix, e-Class or the Athletics Center.
DiscoverySchool.com p. 11
As web companion to the very popular television show Discovery Channel, this website lives up to its slogan “The Thrill of Discovery in Your Classroom!” Resources for grades K-12 are easily available through a search engine which covers major subjects in the curriculum. Eight categories of links offer resources to make classroom teaching easier and fun.
Eduscapes p. 13
A great starting point for any teacher beginning their unit and lesson planning is the 42explore link on this website. This is a marvelous collection of topics for K-12 students. Each week new topics are posted and previous topics are listed alphabetically and according to the date it was posted.
Tapped In p. 26
TAPPED IN is a Teacher Professional Development Institute which goes a long way in helping teachers find the time to participate in high-quality professional development activities. It’s also a way of maintaining support for teachers after an institute or workshop and encouraging sustained interaction among participating teachers.
TeachersFirst p. 27
TeachersFirst is a website designed to meet the needs of K-12 “teachers in the trenches.” It accomplishes this goal by focusing on practical resources that teachers need in the classroom. Each resource is selected and reviewed by one of TeachersFirst’s reviewers, all of whom have classroom teaching experience.These reviewed resources are then grouped by subject and grade level, so that teachers can find what they need quickly.
Teachers.Net p. 28
Teachers.Net is a diverse family of Internet resources committed to providing free mentoring support to every segment of the education profession worldwide. “Family” is a particularly appropriate descriptor to apply in the case of this attractive and bustling niche on the World Wide Web.
Surfing The Net With Kids p. 33
Each week, Barbara writes site reviews for kids and families based on
a theme.
Berit’s Best Sites for Children p. 35
Librarian Berit Erickson has searched far and wide to present the Web’s best 1,000 sites for kids.
Funbrain.com p. 38
Funbrain.com is a great place to have fun for the brain. This site makes it very easy to search for all kinds of great games.
Achieve’s database serves as a national clearinghouse on state and
international standards.
Making Standards Matter 1999 p. 44
Making Standards Matter is an annual report by the American Federation of Teachers. This very informative report analyzes the quality of the academic standards in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
State Standards p. 44
If you need to find your state’s education standard, this is the place. Searchable by subject and grade level. Includes links to the state’s main page.
State Standards Coupled to Lesson Plans and Resources p. 44
Click on a state or choose a state from the drop down menu box
The ERIC Clearinghouse
on Assessment and Evaluation p. 44
This is a very popular and excellent site to find balanced information
concerning educational assessment, evaluation and research methodology
State and Provincial Standards
Illinois
Chicago Public Schools Instructional Intranet p. 45
In Chicago, public school students are taught curriculum based on the Chicago Academic Standards (CAS) which are in turn based on the Illinois Learning Standards.
Make the Link to Illinois Learning Standards p. 45
The St. Clair County Regional Office of Education has designed a Standards Grid which links to sites that support the benchmarks from the Illinois Learning Standards.
Louisiana
Making
Connections p. 46
Louisiana’s learning content standards, benchmarks and supporting resources can be found on this site.
Maryland
Curriculum
Internet Links p. 46
This resource was created by teachers of the Howard County Public School system in Maryland.
Texas
Curriculum Connections Index p. 46
(K-8) http://www.tcet.unt.edu/START/connect.htm
(9-12) http://www.tcet.unt.edu/START/res_912.htm
This index contains connections between the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) and Technology Applications. A chart of an index of weblinks which categorizes resources by grade and subject can be found at: http://www.tcet.unt.edu/START/wwwcode.htm
Utah
UtahLink p. 47
http://www.uen.org/utahlink/
http://www.uen.org/cgi-bin/websql/lessons/curriculum.hts
(Searchable Curriculum Database)
Complete lesson plans with detailed objectives, standards, learning
outcomes, material list, links to rubrics, sample activities and more can
be found and accessed here.
Canada: Ontario p. 47
The Staff Room for Ontario’s Teachers
These three sites are specifically geared for Internet resources by subject, grade and strand for the Ontario elementary curriculum.
Curriculum Matrix p. 48
The Curriculum Matrix is a search engine that allows searching by academic standard, grade level and subject.
ExplorAsource p. 48
Find instructional resource materials cross-referenced to educational standards that meet the needs of your students.
McREL (Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning) p. 48
Click on the McRel Shortcuts link to the McRel Standards Database. Here you’ll find standards and benchmarks for K-12 education.
PBS TeacherSource p. 48
PBS TeacherSource correlates Language Arts, History, Math, and Social Studies lessons to more than 90 sets of national and state curriculum standards.
AskERIC Lesson Plans p. 49
The AskEric Lesson Plan Collection contains more than 1,100 lesson plans written by teachers. Browse the site by subject or search the entire collection.
The Academy Curriculum Exchange p. 49
700 K-12 lesson plans originally from the Columbia Education Center’s Summer Workshops are hosted here.
The Awesome Library K-12 Education Directory p. 49
This is an “awesome” collection. Over 14,000 resources. Searchable.
Blue Web’n Learning Sites Library p. 49
Blue Ribbon learning sites are classified here by web based tutorials, activities, projects, unit and lesson plans, hotlists, other resources and references and tools.
CanTeach Resources for Educators p. 49
A well organized source of searchable elementary lesson plans, resources and links with a Canadian focus.
Classroom Connect’s Connected Teacher p. 50
A very good collection of lesson plans and activities.
Cool Teaching Lessons and Units p. 50
Here’s a resource for K-12 teachers who wish to find quality ready-made units and lessons for all subjects, or who wish to develop their own units.
Core Knowledge p. 50
Pre-K to 8 lesson plans and units developed by teachers in Core Knowledge schools and presented at recent national Core Knowledge conferences.
The Daybook p. 50
A teacher created searchable database of online lesson plans. You can print out new lessons to use right away!
Discovery Channel School Lesson Plans p. 50
An excellent site for finding detailed lesson plans for the classroom. Divided into two divisions, grades K-6 and grades 7-12.
ED’s Oasis K-12 Teacher Resources p. 51
Browse the collection of winning entries in the ED’s Oasis Master Search Contest.
Education Planet p. 51
A well designed search engine returns your queries with resources such as lesson plans, websites, software, videos, maps, supplies, books and news.
Education World Lesson Planning Center p. 51
Browse over 100 original, well written lesson planning articles written by the staff at Education World.
Eduniverse.com p. 51
A collection of over 2,000 K-12 lesson plans from the Intel Applying Computers in Education (ACE) Project.
The Gateway to Educational Materials p. 52
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Library of Education, The Gateway to Educational Materials contains over 10,000 education resources.
Homework Central p. 52
Part of the Big Chalk site, this is a huge section with over 100,000 links and over 10,000 subjects.
Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators p. 52
Well known Internet education expert Kathy Schrock, maintains and updates this well organized list of sites daily.
The Lesson Plans Page p. 52
Over 900 lessons searchable by subject and grade. Very innovative lessons can be found here.
LessonPlanZ.com p. 52-53
Search or browse over 3,500 lesson plans. Lessons are also categorized as Pre-K, K-2, 3-5, 6-9, and 9-12 themes and subjects.
Lesson Stop p. 53
Seven subject area pages, linked to 500 web sites, organized by topic and grade level will give you access to thousands of lesson plans.
Lightspan p. 53
Over 115,000 links to up-to-date resources can be searched here using the Learning Search engine.
Links for K-12 Teachers p. 53
A well thought out collection of wonderful sites for teachers of all grades.
Longfellow Links p. 53
Grade three teacher and technology coordinator Doug DeCamilla at Longfellow Elementary School in Brunswick, Maine, USA has collected, created and maintained more than 1,000 websites for grades K-5. Take a look.
Mountain Brook City Schools Technology Integration p. 54
The Mountain Brook City Schools Integration Pages are an extensive collection of K-6 sites organized by subjects and grade levels.
Mr. K’s Links 2 Learning 4 Educators p. 54
I really enjoy seeing educational sites evaluated by letter grades.
Proteacher p. 54
K-6 lesson plans searchable by subject or by category.
Reach Every Child p. 54
Hall of Fame and award winning teacher Alan Haskvitz has designed this site with over 5,000 free and inexpensive resources he’s collected and used in his classroom over the years.
SMILE Science
and Mathematics Initiative for Learning Enhancement
p. 54
Over 800 lesson plans available grades 3-12 in the areas of Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics.
Teachers@Work p. 55
Kia Ora, Welcome to this searchable database of 3,000 reviewed websites sorted into curriculum areas from New Zealand.
Teachers.net Lesson Bank p. 55
Over 1,500 teacher-submitted lesson plans are available here in a searchable collection for use with students in preschool through secondary school.
Trackstar p. 55
The South Central Regional Technology in Education Consortium TrackStar guides are a set of very complete web based lesson plans for K-12 students.
YES I Can! Science p. 55
A database of Science lessons for K-12 and Science expeditions.
A to Z Teacher Stuff Thematic Units Index p. 56
Great site for building your K-12 curriculum units. Categories are evaluated based on grades and division for easy searching.
Berit’s Sites for Children Holidays & Seasons p. 56
Berit Erickson has assembled a fine list of Holiday and Seasons sites for children under 12.
College of Library and Information Science p. 56
Collaboratively created primary thematic units for a course assignment.
Community Learning Network p. 56
The theme pages here are a combination of curricular links and instructional materials links focused on a K-12 topic. Good information for teachers.
Connecting Students Through Themes and Units p. 56
Detailed themes and units for Language Arts, Science and Social Studies K-12 as well as a Miscellaneous section which includes Pre-K to 2. Great site.
The Educator’s Toolkit p. 56
Very extensive list of resources for Themes, Mini-Themes and Holidays.
Gander Academy p. 57
A list of resources based on themes commonly taught at the primary and elementary levels grades K-6.
Georgia Dept of Ed. Teacher Resource Center p. 57
Click on the Themes and Topics link for a cornucopia of wonderful resources organized by grade cluster K-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12. Excellent first stop.
Instructional Technology Davis School District p. 57
A well laid out chart of predominantly Science and Social Studies topics.
Learning Page.com p. 57
Download theme sheets in Adobe Acrobat PDF file for grades K-2. Themes include Oceans, Zoo Animals, Dinosaurs, Insects/Spiders. Regular updates.
The Learning Space p. 57
Primary themes organized by months of the year. Lots of them.
Surfing the Net with Kids p. 57
Syndicated newspaper columnist, Barb J. Feldman posts a collection of websites dealing with a particular topic. Websites are rated and annotated. Sign up for her free biweekly newsletter.
ADPRIMA: Toward the Best p. 58
The ADPRIMA site contains detailed, practical, straightforward information that new teachers need to know about - planning, curriculum, instruction, students, classroom management, lesson planning, teaching methods, assertive discipline, study skills, thinking skills, and a whole lot more.
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development p. 58
A number of very helpful articles for beginning teachers are found here.
Read what Patricia Wasley has to say about building and using a repertoire
of teaching strategies and techniques, to help all students succeed in
her article “Teaching Worth Celebrating” at:
http://www.ascd.org/readingroom/edlead/9905/extwasley.html
Invaluable tips for experienced and new teachers appear in Karen Rasmussen’s
article “Make It Great: Tips for a Successful, Fulfilling School Year”
at:
http://www.ascd.org/readingroom/edupdate/1999/1aug.html
Advice from three award-winning veteran teachers on how to set a positive
tone for learning that will persist for the rest of the year can be read
in Jamie Sawatzky’s article “Making a Good Start” at:
http://www.ascd.org/readingroom/edupdate/1997/1sep.html
Beginning Teachers’ Handbook p. 58
From the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation in the province of British Columbia Canada, comes this fantastic, practical and very complete resource. Here can be found chapters on classroom management (what works and what doesn’t) establishing a positive environment, communicating with parents/guardians, teaching strategies, teaching tips (homework dos and don’ts), taking care of yourself (perfectionism and surviving). Highly recommended!
Beginning Teachers’ Tool Box p. 59
Click on the TIPS section and read articles on “Getting Ready for the School Year”, “Beginning of the Year Packet”, “Time Saving Tips”, “Classroom Management Tips.” For more resources, head over to Thoughts For New Teachers, or go to the Message Boards and ask a question in the Beginning Teacher Message Board or e-mail a message to Ask Our Mentor.
Elementary School Teachers p. 59
Click on the link to the New Teachers section for links to tips and articles.
Kim’s Korner For Teacher Talk p. 59
Go to the Classroom Management link to get some great ideas on the following topics: Tips for Getting Organized, Ideas for Bulletin Boards, Inexpensive Items--Where to Get Them, Icebreakers and Energizers, Review Games, How to Simplify the Grading Work Load, Activities for the First Days of School.
New-Teacher.com p. 59
Here’s a resource site for first-year teachers, and anyone who thinks they’d like to be an educator someday. There’s information, inspiration, and tools to become an effective teacher.
The New Teachers’ Corner p. 59
The New Teachers’ Corner is a place where first-time teachers can find help for their biggest classroom challenges as well as quick, practical tips they can use from Day One.
Teacher Talk, Volume 1, Issue 2 p. 60
Good short articles for beginning teachers and the first day of school. Take the questionnaire “What is your classroom management profile?” and determine your classroom management profile. You may be surprised!
Teachers Helping Teachers p. 60
A lot of tips from fellow teachers. Check out the Classroom Management link and other resources. Post a question in the very active guest book/forum.
Teachers.Net Beginning Teachers ChatBoard p. 60
Here’s a very popular place for beginning teachers to network with other colleagues, share stories and seek the knowledge needed to teach well.
TeachNet.org p. 60
Head straight over to the New Teacher Helpline and read everything! If you still need more info, go to the message boards and ask any of the number of teacher specialists a question in their message board.
U.S. Department of Education p. 60
“What to Expect Your First Year of Teaching” contains a number of tips on such topics as Tips and Strategies from First-Year Teachers, The Kids, Veteran Teachers Talk, Final Thoughts and Additional Resources, and A Checklist of Tips.
Sites For Substitute Teachers p. 61
Proteacher.net p. 61
Share ideas with fellow substitute teachers on this message board.
The Substitute Teacher Homepage p. 61
One of the best sites on the Internet for substitute teachers. Covers substitute and teacher tips, (yes, tips from the substitute to the teacher to make both jobs run better). Includes an extensive archive of tips, great time killer suggestions, stories, quotes, links, polls and wages. Highly recommended!
Substitute Teaching Institute p. 61
The mission of The Substitute Teaching Institute at Utah State University, Utah, USA is to revolutionize the role of substitute teachers into an opportunity for educational excellence.
Substitute TEACHING -Tricks of the Trade- p. 61
A well written book (available online or by separate order) on what it’s like to be a substitute teacher. Very useful appendix on power tips. Good links to other sources of information.
Works4Me Tips Library p. 61
Tips to help out substitute teachers with lesson, seating plans and little extras.
Primary Sites Grades Pre-K-3 p. 62
Gareth Pitchford’s Primary Resources p. 62
From the United Kingdom comes this invaluable resource of free, ready to use ideas, resources, worksheets and lesson plans. Some of the worksheets are in PDF files which can be read with an Adobe’s Acrobat Reader on your computer.
Kinder Korner p. 62
It’s not hard to see why Kinder Korner for grades Pre-K to 2 is a top rated primary site.
Learning Page.com p. 62
K-2 worksheets available here for the alphabet (print and cursive), calendar (days of the week and months of the year), money, time, measure (in imperial and metric measurment systems) and numbers.
Mrs. Hall’s 1st Grade Class p. 62
Grade 1 was never like this! Read Mrs. Hall’s lesson plans, grade 1 curriculum from previous years, projects ideas and links to other grade 1 classes.
Loogootee Elementary West p. 63
K-3 school Loogootee Elementary West in Loogootee, Indiana, USA has a number of Internet projects, activities, articles and resources developed by staff and students.
Mrs. Gray’s Second Grade Classroom p. 63
This second grade classroom at Spencer Elementary in Geneva, Ohio, U.S.A. showcases their Internet and Classroom Projects.
Perpetual Preschool p. 63
A must visit site for any Kindergarten or grade 1 teacher. A great resource.
Susan Silverman Second Grade p. 63
Grade 2 teacher and Franklin Institute Online Fellow Susan Silverman of Clinton Avenue Elementary Port Jefferson Station, New York, USA shares her many wonderful projects, webfolios, links and resources on this fun website.
Teaching Ideas for Primary Teachers p. 63
Another great site from the United Kingdom. Designed for teachers who teach primary-age children (i.e. age 5 to 11).
Elementary Sites Grades 4-6 p. 64
4th and 5th Grade Student Research Resources p. 64
There’s a section here for students and a link to a teachers’ section containing resources by subjects. Resources for grades 1-3 and 6-8 can also be accessed.
6th Grade Treasure Trove p. 64
Grade 6 teacher and Franklin Institute Online Fellow Karen Walkowiak at Holy Redeemer Catholic School in Kanata, Ontario, Canada has created this 6th Grade Treasure Trove as a cyberhaven for 6th grade teachers.
Mrs. Seagraves’ QUEST Class p. 64
Mrs. Seagraves teaches an elementary gifted program called QUEST in Montgomery, Alabama, USA to students in grades K-6.
W. C. Walker Elementary p. 64
Walker Elementary’s website provides great teacher, parent, and student resources focused on Pre-K through 5th grade.
Middle School Sites Grades 7-8 p. 65
A Cybrary for Middle School and Beyond p. 65
Well organized links for Middle School students and teachers.
Kentucky Migrant Technology Project p. 65
One of the best places on the Internet that has the entire middle school curricula freely accessible to any and all students, parents and teachers. Select from over 29 online courses.
MiddleSchool p. 65
Great resource sections here for teachers and administrators.
MiddleWeb p. 66
Everything you wanted to know about Middle School and more is here on this award winning website. Catch up on the news about middle grades, student and teacher successes, standard based reform. Find curriculum resources including teaching strategies.
Middle School Language Arts Site p. 66
Middle School Mathematics Site p. 66
Wonderful integrated lesson plans using the Internet.
Midlink Magazine p. 66
National Technology Teacher of the Year Caroline McCullen, has developed MidLink Magazine to support educators all over the world as they inspire their students ages 8-18 to write and publish their work.
High School Sites Grades 9-12 p. 68
David Levin’s Learning@Web.Sites p. 68
This site is intended primarily for senior high school educators who would like to enhance their curriculum and instruction using the Internet. Students will also find the site to be a rich online resource guide.
High School Hub p. 68
A noncommercial gateway to free online academic resources for high school students. It features interactive learning activities, an ongoing poetry contest, student artwork, a reference collection, college information, and subject guides.
Kentucky Migrant Technology Project p. 68
One of the best sites around that has the entire high school curricula freely accessible to any and all students, parents and teachers. Highly recommended.
The National Association of Secondary School Principals p. 68
The National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) serves leaders in middle level and high schools, including administrators, teachers, students, and others interested in education and the welfare of today’s youth.
Secondary School Educators p. 68
An extensive list of subject links, articles and resources for high
school teachers brought to you by a “real live” guide. An interactive
chat board is also available to discuss current issues in the secondary
school system.
College and University Sites pp. 69-70
2001 Colleges, College Scholarships, And Financial Aid Page p. 69
This 2001 Colleges, College Scholarships, and Financial Aid page is designed to offer college bound students, parents, and counselors easy access to information on colleges and universities throughout the United States, free college scholarship and financial aid searches, information on SAT, ACT, GRE and GMAT, TOEFL examinations, MBA programs, and more.
The College Board p. 69
The College Board is a national, nonprofit membership association dedicated to preparing, inspiring, and connecting students to college and opportunity. This site will help you get the SAT question of the day, every day, 7 days a week, register for the SAT and get test dates, search and apply for colleges, request CSS/Financial Aid, sign up for workshops and more.
Deliberations on Teaching and Learning p. 69
Deliberations is designed to act as a resource for educational developers, librarians, academic staff and managers in education.
eCollege.com p. 70
http://www.ecollege.com/
Students can search for thousands of courses online from hundreds of colleges and universities by discipline, state and institution. Resources here for educators include help in incorporating the Internet into their courses, teaching online, enhancing course content and keeping up-to-date with an e-newsletter.
Embark.com p. 70
Here’s an online guide for students and educators to learn about and connect with educational and career opportunities. The website has information on nearly 6,000 accredited higher education institutions, profiles on over 1,000 careers and majors, comprehensive financial aid data, and online applications.
Study Guides And Strategies p. 70
Study Guides and Strategies is a website devoted to improving students’ success in learning. Contains over 70 pages of practical suggestions, as for time and stress management; basic skills in reading, writing, and classroom participation; test preparation and test taking from the University of St. Thomas’ Learning Center in Minnesota, USA.
World Lecture Hall p. 70
The World Lecture Hall (WLH) contains links to pages created by faculty worldwide who are using the Web to deliver university-level academic courses in any language. Useful links to other distance education sites.
Writing And Printing Your Thesis Or Dissertation p. 70
This non-commercial practical guide has been created to assist in the
crafting, implementing and defending of a graduate school thesis or dissertation.
It includes a variety of strategies, suggestions and advice covering every
stage of the thesis or dissertation project.
Sites That Motivate, Engage And Stimulate Students
(And Educators)
Challenge Lessons for the K-12 Classroom (gr. K-12) p. 73
A collection of lesson plans, unit plans and collaborative projects developed by Louisiana teachers geared to the use of the Internet in classroom lessons.
Cyberguides: Teacher Guides & Student Activities (gr. K-12) p. 74
The Schools of California Online Resources for Education (SCORE) site
offers
great practical lesson plans, novel studies divided by grade level,
tips and suggestions for teaching Language Arts using the Internet. Click
on the following link: http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/cla.htmlfor
Math, Science, History and Social Science sites.
McGraw-Hill School Division (gr. K-8) p. 74
Web-linked lesson plans available here for Reading and Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies and Music.
TrackStar guides and lesson plans (Early childhood-College) p. 74
The South Central Regional Technology in Education Consortium TrackStar guides are a set of complete web based lesson plans on the World Wide Web.
An extensive list of Art resources by seasoned About.com guide Tracy Pearson.
Art Kids Rule (gr. K-16) p. 75
Great fun activities, resources, tutorials, lesson plans, artist forums. This site will appeal to kids of all ages and abilities. Click on the Art Arcades and create your own play, choose the stars and assign their own lines.
Cards (All) p. 75
This mega card site is one of the largest virtual postcard and greeting card index sites on the Internet with links to over 1,500 card sites. You can browse the sites alphabetically, look at them by special features, special occasions or check out the cool sites.
Daryl Cagle’s Professional
Cartoonists Index p. 75
(gr. 6-12)
An extensive resource of information looking behind the scenes of cartoonists. Includes a teacher’s guide. Mature themes in current events are covered here.
Educational Web Adventures (gr. K-12) p. 76
Adventures and more adventures with wildlife Art, making your own masterpieces, being an Art detective, exploring a painting from the inside out and more. This website is the main gateway to all kinds of great adventures.
Eileen’s
Camp Crafts and Other Fun Things p. 76
(gr. Pre-K-8) (Parents and Teachers)
This is a site that features crafts and links for beadie animals, clay, braiding and many original projects. Includes a guide to supplies and resources plus fun pages for games and educational sites for children.
Joseph Wu’s Origami Page (gr. 4-12) p. 76
Learn origami from this master. A fabulous and top rated origami site with lots of models, illustrations, explanations. Links and other resources.
KinderArt (gr. K-12) (Parents and Teachers) p. 76
The largest collection of free Art lessons and Art education information on the Internet. Your complete all-in-one Art education resource.
The Refrigerator Art Contest (gr. K-12) p. 76
Each week, the producers of The Refrigerator Art Contest pick five pictures to display on their site in The Competition section. Then they’re voted on by you.
World Wide Arts Resources (gr. 4-12) p. 76
This is a gateway to huge resources to artists, museums, Art history and more.
ESL/Foreign Languages pp. 77-79
Core French (Teachers) p. 77
From the Department of Language and Literacy Education, at the University of British Columbia comes this invaluable resource for French teachers.
Dave’s ESL Café (Teachers) p. 77
One of the most popular ESL sites on the Internet.
Learn English (Teachers) p. 77
Solve crossword puzzles online, read silly jokes, take interactive tests, find the hidden word, do a word search and other activities to learn English.
TESL/TEFL/TESOL/ESL/EFL/ESOL Links (Teachers) (Students) p. 77
Over 5,800 links for students and teachers of English as a Second Language. Two very easy to read charts are set up: one for students and one for teachers.
The Language Course Finder (Teachers) p. 77
An online directory of language schools, listing more than 6,000 schools, 80 countries, 70 languages worldwide.
Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab (Teachers) p. 78
An interactive listening lab with easy, medium and difficult exercises.
Really Useful French Teaching Site (Teachers) p. 78
A bilingual site offering exercises for the early teens, interactive exercises, useful teacher programs to create motivating mataterials, French grammar, simple practical ideas to get pupils speaking and writing. It is very useful.
Really Useful German Teaching Site (Teachers) p. 78
The companion site to the Really Useful French Teaching Site, this site is also packed with good practical ideas. You can find useful ideas that work in the classroom, interactive programs, listening practice and more.
Say It In French (Teachers) p. 78
A 30-minute game in French. You will be landing in Roissy-Charles-De-Gaulle airport in Paris. You have 6 hours to reach the Eiffel Tower and meet Mr. Langlois at the Eiffel restaurant for an important and pleasurable meal. Plugin required, but the effort is certainly worth it. Bon appétit!
Surfez le Net (Teachers) p. 78
Surfez le Net is a list of annotated French websites. You can browse by subjects, including tourism, language, news, and entertainment. You can get lists of the most recently added sites, or search by site title or keyword. Surfez le Net’s database contains information about more than 150 francophone websites and is updated twice a week.
Teachers of English
to Speakers of Other Languages p. 79
(Teachers)
Great site for resources and news for TEOSL. Check out the Wandering The Web link. This column is a great source of teaching information.
Travlang (gr. 4-16) (Parents and Teachers) p. 79
Find common expressions in over 70 foreign languages, links to over 7,000 different websites on the Internet relating to both foreign travel and language, a travel library, currency exchange which gives the latest exchange rates for foreign currencies, maps, phone information, calendars showing national holidays and more. Click on words and expressions to hear how they are spoken. This is an ideal source for students doing travel brochures or learning common language expressions of another country.
Vocabulary Training Exercies (Teachers) p. 79
Interactive language tests on all the basics in German, French, Spanish and English. Click your mother tongue link and start practicing.
Step by step lessons to help students write biographies. Very useful.
Book Adventure (gr. K-8) (Parents and Teachers) p. 80
Created by the Sylvan Learning Foundation and sponsored by well known educational associations and corporations, Book Adventure is a free, reading incentive program dedicated to encouraging kids in grades K-8 to read.
Channel One News (gr. 6-12) p. 80
A detailed media literacy curriculum with lesson plans, worksheets and support materials you need to teach the news.
The Children’s Literature Web Guide (Teachers) p. 80
Links to author’s websites, resources for K-12 teachers, book reviews.
CRAYON (gr. 4-14) (Parents and Teachers) p. 80
CRAYON (Create Your Own Newspaper) is a personalized Internet news service. Here’s a way to encourage even the most reluctant reader to read. Easy step by step instructions show students (and adults) how to create their own newspaper with links to news sources from the Internet. E-mail address is required. Younger children may need guidance due to links to tabloids.
Education by Design
(gr. K-6) p. 81
(Parents and Teachers)
A fun site for kids. Play scrambler puzzles, (recommended) practice mathematical skills, publish stories, jokes, riddles, and poems online. Great reading, writing, spelling and special education tips for teachers and parents.
English Zone (gr. 3-6) p. 81
Quick and easy worksheets, handouts, online exercises for interactive
language lessons, exercises and quizzes. Learn about idioms, grammar,
verbs and more.
This site is packed with wonderful useful information and activities.
Kidbibs (gr. Pre-K-7) (Parents and Teachers) p. 81
A resource site for reading. Great tips for parents and teachers on how to encourage reading. Detailed outlines on how to find great books for kids to read by age level.
Kid’s Mysteries (gr. 4-8) p. 81
There are mysteries here to solve, scary stories to read, magic tricks to think about, and contests to enter. A new mystery every week.
Learn Vocabulary Syndicate (gr. 4-8) p. 81
Grade specific puzzles, comic strips, word games and many other ways to sharpen your skills. Use these quizzes to prepare students for the SAT.
Lights, Puppets, Action! (gr. 3-6) p. 82
Turn pretend stories into online puppet shows in a few simple steps. Point and click to menus for your cast, plot, setting, music and animation. Great resources for teachers, including lesson plans, games and links to puppet sites.
Meet Authors and Illustrators (gr. K-10) p. 82
Links to author’s websites, Literature Annual Top Choice List, book reviews.
M-tech Worksheet Generator p. 82
Make free worksheets here. Vocabulary worksheets for scramble, chop, matching, fill in the blanks, mixed up paragraph exercises and more.
MysteryNet’s Learning With Mysteries (Teachers) p. 82
Hook students on the craft of mystery reading and writing with lesson plans and ideas from this site. Includes useful sites, examples and discussions.
National Film Board of Canada (gr. K-5) p. 82
Read a charming story with your primary students. Or have younger students partnered up with older ones. Interactive features encourage students to read.
National Council of Teachers of English (Teachers) p. 82
An invaluable resource for grants, awards and the latest news for teachers of English and Language Arts K-12. Go to the archives and use the search function to get ideas for teaching a specific novel, short stories and poems.
Newslink (gr. 6-12) p. 83
Newslink is a 15-minute news and current affairs teaching tool produced every day by CBC (Canadian Broadcast Corporation) Newsworld in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for Cable-in-the-Classroom.
NoodleBib (gr. 6-12) (Teachers) p. 83
How do you cite a Web page? An online magazine article? This site will create a bibliography for you automatically.
Nursery Rhymes Coloring Pages (gr. Pre-K– 3) p. 83
Dozens of rebus nursery rhymes in alphabetical order. Click on the picture for a coloring page and the rhyme. Then print them out for your class. Or have the class color them online. Also instructions for making a nursery rhyme coloring book, a scavenger hunt and information on teaching rhymes in your class.
The Online Books Page (gr. 3-12) p. 83
Download the classics from this site. Here’s a directory of books that can be freely read right on the Internet. It includes an index of thousands of online books, links to directories and archives of online texts and special exhibits.
Online Writing
Lab from Purdue Univerisity (OWL) p. 83
(gr. 4-12)
Over 130 handouts. Links and resources on every aspect of writing.
Paradigm Online Writing Assistant (gr. 6-12) p. 84
Here’s an interactive writer’s guide and handbook. Great help for story, essay writing and documenting sources.
Personal Educational Press (gr. 1-4) p. 84
This website turns your computer and printer into a printing press for free educational materials such as flashcards and game boards. This online tool runs directly off your browser - there are no plug-ins to install, no software to buy.
The Quotations Page (gr. 5-16) p. 84
Use these quotes for class discussions. Have students research their favorite quotes and include them in their journals. Links to other quotation sites.
Shared Reading In Kindergarten (Teachers) p. 84
A description and step-by-step lesson on shared reading. Includes a sample shared reading lesson, lesson plan template and links to related topics.
Star Wars The Magic of Myth (gr. 5-12) p. 84
See the behind the scenes magic in the making of the movie Star Wars from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Students will quickly appreciate the work that goes into the making of a movie of this magnitude.
TIME for Kids (gr. K-6) p. 84
Weekly magazine for kids available in three editions: TIME For Kids: Big Picture Edition - Grades K-1, TIME For Kids: News Scoop Edition - Grades 2-3 and TIME For Kids: World Report Edition - Grades 4-6. Great site!
Vocabulary University (gr. 5-16) p. 85
Features include grade level interactive word puzzles that help expand one’s vocabulary such as puzzles using Latin & Greek roots, synonyms, antonyms analogies, thematic word puzzles. Quick lesson plans available for teachers.
Wacky World of Words (gr. K-12) p. 85
Includes great activities for the class such as Compound Clues, Words Within Words, Numbletters, Alpha-Spells, Fractured Fractions, Rhyming Buddies, A-Z Lists, Anagrams, Similes, Oxymorons, Mystery Word, and links to other sites.
Weekly Reader
(gr. Pre-K-6) p. 85
(Parents and Teachers)
Site with an elementary student newspaper. Contains separate editions for Pre-kindergarten through grade six. Parent and teacher resources available.
Word-of-the-day (gr. 6-12) p. 85
A detailed definition of a daily word using anecdotes, origins, quotes and current events. Archive of past words and a free subscription are available.
Young Authors Workshop (gr. 4-7) p. 85
This website provides students with links to online resources that will take them step by step through the writing process. The steps in this process are those used in Writer’s Workshop.
Math pp. 86-91
About Today’s Date (gr. K-12) (Teachers)
Find out about the numbers used in today’s date. Based on the book Numbers: Facts, Figures and Fiction published by Cambridge University Press. Here’s a good Math warmup: Go to the board and write the digit(s) of today’s date and have students try and write all the facts associated with it. They’ll be surprised when you write down the facts that you know, now that you’ve read this page!
A+ Math (gr. 2-7) p. 86
Create and print out flashcards, worksheets, interactive Math games.
Absurd Math (gr. 5-8) p. 86
Here’s an interactive mathematical problem solving game series that will challenge and appeal to students. Lots of hidden clues. Students must read carefully and use their mathematical skill and knowledge to solve the adventures. Answers are available to teachers and parents by e-mail.
Calculator Lessons (gr. 2-16) p. 86
Calculator activity lessons with teacher answers from Casio. Activities for elementary, middle school, Algebra I and II, as well as Graphing and Calculus.
Cool Math (gr. 3-12) p. 86
An amusement park of Mathematics! This website certainly is fun and educational. Check out the Lissajous Lab for something cool. Try out the links to Algebra, Tessellations, Geometry, Calculus, Fractal Gallery and Fractal of the Day, Trigonometry, Fun with Numbers, How to Succeed in Math and links to great sites and resources. Highly recommended.
Elementary Problem of the Week (gr. 3-6) p. 87
Problems, problems and solutions. Give students the Math problem and have them work on it during the week. Vote on the best answer and explanation and submit the answer by the weekly deadline.
Escape From Knab (gr. 6-11) p. 87
Escape from Knab is an educational simulation using Math concepts on the fictitious planet of Knab. Visitors soon discover the results of their actions and decisions. Lessons and answers for teachers are available.
Geometry Problem of the Week (gr. 5-8) p. 87
Every week a different Geometry problem for your students to solve. Have your students share these problems and their solutions with you and make sure they can explain the reasoning behind their solutions. If there is no explanation, the solution will be politely refused. (My students quickly found this out!)
Grade
5/6 Finch Math Problem of the Week p. 87
(gr. 3-6)
Math problems with answers for each week of the school year. There is one problem a week for both grades 3 and 4 and for grades 5 and 6.
Interactive
Mathematics Miscellany and Puzzles p. 88
(gr. 5-16)
Intriguing puzzles, information, quotations and problems all about Math.
The Little Math Puzzle Contest (gr. 5-10) p. 88
A weekly Math contest designed for students in grades 5-10. An archive of past problems is available. Includes interactive feature for over 400 problems. Just type in the answer and find out immediately if it’s the correct one.
Mathematics
Problem of the Week Contest Page p. 88
(gr. 4-16)
These sites present six weekly Mathematics problem contests sponsored by the Mathematics Education Programs of the University of Central Florida and the University of Mississippi and the CASIO Classroom.
Math Brain Teasers (gr. 3-7) p. 88
This site from the Houghton Mifflin Company has a wonderful collection of Math brain teasers divided by grades 3-4, 5-6 and 7+. Each week brain teasers are posted and the solutions appear the following week. Strategies are given to help solve the problem in the form of hints. An archive is also available.
Math for Kids (gr. 3-6) p. 89
Designed by two fourth graders for fourth graders who want to sharpen their Math problem-solving skills. Includes word problems and how to solve them.
Math Glossary (gr. 1-8) p. 89
An animated, wonderfully illustrated, very easy to use Math glossary from Harcourt School Publishers. All you have to do is click on the grade and the term, and up comes the definition. A fantastic resource! Highly recommended!
Math Goodies (gr. 4-9) p. 89
Over 400 pages of Math activities. Includes interactive lessons, crossword and search puzzles, chat boards, image library, educational links, articles, newsletter, homework area for students and more. Highly recommended!
Math On Line (gr. 5-12) p. 89
Here you can read tips on Studying Math, and take the interactive quizzes covering major concepts in Math. The quizzes are highly recommended.
Math Puzzle Corner (gr. 3-12) p. 89
This site offers work sheets with monthly puzzles to improve Math skills. These highly motivational puzzles will definitely stimulate student thinking. There is also an archive of puzzles from past years. Highly recommended.
Math Stories (gr. 1-8) p. 89
Download and print over 4,000 Math problems for your students.
Maths Online (gr. 9-16) p. 90
The goal of this website is to create a novel style of interactive learning material for the study of Math. It accomplishes this with multimedia learning units on Mathematical subjects, interactive tests, over 60 online tools and links to Mathematical topics and collections.
Mathsphere (gr. 1-6) p. 90
Download over 100 Math sheets including a printable Mathematics dictionary.
Mathematics Lessons That Are Fun (gr. 2-12) p. 90
From Algebra and Calculus to Fractals and Fractions, this site is fun.
Middle
School Math Class Seasonal Problems p. 90
(gr. 6-9)
Here’s a monthly series of seasonal Math problems. The pages are designed so that there are ready-made problems for each month of the school year.
Middle School Problem of the Week (gr. 6-9) p. 90
Give your grades 6-9 students these problems each week. They can be assigned as an enrichment activity or a whole class exercise. I enjoy this site because they will not accept just the answer. Explanations are needed!
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (Teachers) p. 91
NCTM’s website offers information about publications, professional development opportunities, jobs, awards, grants and scholarships.
Problems of the Week (gr. 5-16) p. 91
Problems in Algebra, Discrete Math, Trig and Calculus including the challenging college-level problems of Macalester College are all brought to you weekly by the educators of the Math Forum. Highly recommended.
Rick’s Math Web (gr. Pre-K-12) p. 91
Over 4,750 math problems here for learners grades Pre-K-12 who need help learning to count, write numbers, place value, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, prime numbers, composite numbers, least common multiples, greatest common factors, factoring whole numbers and add or subtract fractions. Also includes: tips and tricks for learning different Math operations and supporting worksheets for practice. Highly recommended.
Webmath (gr. K-12) p. 91
This is a fantastic site for Math help. It’s designed to give the K-12 student immediate help over the Internet with their Math problems. Highly recommended.
Music pp. 92-93
CBC4Kids (gr. 4-8) p. 92
Great section on Music for kids. Activities include hearing a music selection and voting on the top ten, taking a quiz, young performers making a career in classical music, introduction to classical music, naming a classical tune, instruments, and links to other music sites.
Energy
in the Air: Sounds of the Orchestra p. 92
(gr. 2-12)
Take a detailed tour of the instruments of the orchestra and learn their history and what they sound like. RealPlayer plugin needed to listen to the music.
Essentials of Music (gr. 2-12) p. 92
Basic information about classical music is presented here through almost 200 excerpts from Essential Classics. Overviews of the six main periods in music history.
The Internet Piano Page (gr. 3-12) p. 92
This site contains various piano excerpts from the following composers Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Clementi, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Scarlatti, Schubert and Schumann. Many biographies are also given.
MIDI Karaoke (gr. 5-8) p. 93
Be a star! Have students learn the words to “golden oldies” for school theme days, plays, presentations in class and for school assemblies. Categories here include Television Hits, Songs From The 80’s, Disco Dance and Classic Rock.
The Music Education Launch Site (gr. K-12) p. 93
Links to lesson plan, animated lesson plans featuring Mr. Note, interactive lesson plans and games and more. This site hits all the high notes.
Music Notes (gr. 3-12) p. 93
Music Notes is an interactive online musical. It was developed by three high school students from Lakeland HS in New York, USA for the 1998 ThinkQuest Competition. It is designed to teach people about music using the Internet style of learning.
The Stringstuff Page (gr. 6-8) p. 93
The site engages students as they research selected topics in music. It includes a World Wide Web Music activity and resource page aimed specifically at this age group. Topics include Music History, Instruments, and one miscellaneous category of fun things.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (gr. 6-12) p. 93
This is the website for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland Ohio USA. Tour the museum, see featured exhibits, read the lyrics of the 500 songs that shaped rock and roll, meet the inductees. Rock and roll on this site.
Physical Education and Health p. 94
Games Kids Play (gr. Pre-K-8) p. 94
A list of hundreds of kids games listed by category, alphabetically, and searchable by keyword. Also includes rules for playground games, and verses for jump rope rhymes. I found great versions of old favorites I use in class.
PE Central (gr. Pre-K-12) (Parents and Teachers) p. 94
This site bills itself as the premier website for Health and Physical Education for teachers, parents, and students. And they’re probably right! Extensive lesson plans, assessment ideas, professional information, and links to websites.
Sports
Media (gr. Pre-K-12) p. 94
(Parents and Teachers)
Here’s an excellent tool for Physical Education teachers, coaches, students and anyone interested in Physical Education fitness and sports. This is an interactive site that includes lesson plans, practical links for coaching, discussion forums, mailing lists, and sports pen-pals for kids.
Sports Illustrated for Kids (gr. 3-8) p. 94
A super site for games, sports news, challenges, trivia, polls, fantasy league.
Wall Street Sports (gr. 5-16) p. 94
Here’s a unique simulated sports stock market for your favorite professional athletes from auto racing, football, basketball, baseball, golf and hockey. Students learn how to manage a portfolio of stocks. Registration is free.
Science pp. 95-103
Access Excellence (gr. 6-16) p. 95
The site for Health and Bioscience! Sections for Middle School Science, and High School Biology, lessons, discussions, projects, factoids. Teacher developed mystery experiments and interactive forensic mysteries.
Astronomy
Picture of the Day (gr. 4-12) p. 95
Each day a different picture of the universe with a description. The Astronomy Picture of the Day archive contains the largest collection of annotated astronomical images on the Internet. These photos are out of this world!
Athena Earth and Space Science (gr. K-12) p. 95
Track drifter buoys in the world’s oceans, forecast today’s space weather, investigate tropical storms viewed from space. Athena is a fantastic source of instructional material, well written lesson plans, printable student record sheets, teacher planning guides and more sorted by the following scientific topics: oceans, earth, weather and space. Highly recommended.
Beakman and Jax (gr. 4-8) p. 95
This online website of the popular show and comic strips of the same name invites all to stay, play and experiment. Demos require Shockwave.
Animal Coloring Pages (gr. K– 5) p. 96
Hundreds of animals in alphabetical order and by biome. Click on the animal for a coloring page and detailed description. Then print them out for your class.
Cells Alive (gr. 8-12) p. 96
In this very colorful, visually appealing site, cells come alive. Use a biocam to see cell division in cancer cells, try techniques to enhance the microscope image, look at the creatures that cause allergies and much more.
CERES
(Center for Educational Resources) p. 96
(gr. K-12)
Funded by NASA, this site contains extensive, well written lesson plans and interactive resources for the teaching of space and astronomy.
CIESE Center for Improved Engineering and Science Education (gr. K-12) p. 96
CIESE’s core mission is to help K-12 teachers and administrators realize the benefits of integrating technology into the curriculum in order to more effectively engage students in learning, and improve student achievement, particularly in Science and Mathematics.
Color Landform Atlas Of The United States (All) p. 96
Spectacular landform maps of every state of the United States in an easy to navigate chart. Links to satellite images, black and white maps and resources.
Discovery.com (gr. 4-12) p. 97
Great site for Science resources, daily news. Links to kids and school sections. Check out the extensive list of live cams!
Earthweek A Diary of the Planet (gr. 5-12) p. 97
Earthweek author Steve Newman reports what happened under, over and on the earth every week in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. He includes Floods, Tropical Storms, Poisoning, Volcanic Eruptions, Earthquakes, Extremes and more. This is the companion website to the Earthweek published in newspapers worldwide. If you missed it in your newspaper, catch up on it here.
Educational Web Adventures (gr. 3-12) p. 97
Design a new spacecraft, space station, turn a barren plain into a healthy prairie, manage a watershed and other Science adventures at this website.
The Exploratorium (gr. K-12) p. 97
A museum of science, art, and human perception in San Francisco, California USA., there are over 200 Science experiments and great resources for teachers. Highly recommended.
First Flight (gr. 6-16) p. 98
A virtual flight school providing online flying lessons and information about private pilot training. Flying lessons here show students what it takes to fly an airplane, from pre-flight inspection to the flight itself.
Forensic Files - Case 001! (gr. 6-12) p. 98
Here’s your chance to travel the world and become an Internet Supersleuth. This science adventure is set up like a real investigation. There are dead ends, wild goose chases and other nasty tricks to throw you off the trail of the criminals.
Frank Potter’s Science Gems (gr. K-16) p. 98
This should be your first stop for Science resources: Physical, Earth and Life Sciences, Engineering, Mathematics and Health. Resources are sorted by category, subcategory, and grade level. Highly recommended!
Illusionworks (gr. 4-16) p. 98
A very comprehensive and award winning collection of optical and sensory illusions. Detailed explanations are given. A great Science fair project idea.
Invention Dimension (gr. 4-12) p. 99
Find out how “White-Out” the skateboard, rollerblades and other inventions were invented. Features an inventor a week, archive, links to invention related information and resources. Have students research their favorite inventions. Read the featured inventor to your class.
MAD Labs (gr. K-12) p. 99
See what a network of scientists providing Science information can do for you. Here’s a site where you can ask a Scientist, search through over 15,000 answers to Science questions, locate resources, demos and ideas for Science projects, research inedible and edible experiments and take a trip through digitized images from the Visible Human Project.
NASA (gr. K-16) p. 99
The premier site for resources, links and the latest information on space.
National Earthquake Information Center (gr. 5-12) p. 99
Students can look up the latest information on any earthquake in the world. Print out the maps for your bulletin board and have students predict when and where the next earthquake will occur. List the last 21 earthquakes worldwide.
National Science Foundation (Teachers) p. 99
An invaluable resource for grants, awards and the latest Science information.
Netfrog
The Interactive Frog Dissection p. 100
An On-Line Tutorial (gr. 7-12)
This tutorial comes complete with text, photos and movies of a frog. Just click.
Neuroscience for Kids (gr. K-12) p. 100
Explore the nervous system like you’ve never done before. Do experiments, activities, color pages from the neuroscience coloring book, try and solve innovative puzzles and games that will stimulate your brain. Comes with detailed lesson plans. Great ideas for Science Fair projects and links to other sites. Sign up for a free Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter.
The New Scientist (gr. 8-16) p. 100
Weekly Science magazine with in depth articles on events making the news in Science. Archive of back issues also available. Links to seven new Science sites each week. One innovative feature is the taking of questions from the magazine and putting them in a section called The Last Word. Also found at http://www.last-word.com/ for grades K-12.
Physics Demonstration Book (gr. 11-16) p. 100
A remarkable and wonderful online source book for Physics teachers.
Questacon (gr. K-16) p. 101
Questacon is Australia’s National Science and Technology Centre. Here you can explore the fascinating world of Science and Technology by taking a virtual tour where you can interact with, and get your hands, minds and bodies on more than 200 exhibits, go to the Fun Centre and try some of the 500 puzzles in the Maths Centre (Shockwave plugin required) and explore illusions, Science experiments, dinosaurs and more. Highly recommended.
Science Daily Magazine (gr. 5-12) p. 101
Science Daily brings breaking news about the latest discoveries and hottest research projects in everything from Astrophysics to Zoology. Stories are available in magazine format and by topic and keyword search.
Science
Fair Central (gr. 4-12) p. 101
(Parents and Teachers)
This feature from Discovery Channel’s award-winning educational website, is designed to encourage interest and participation in Science fair competitions across the country. The Science Fair Studio - the ultimate guide to Science fair preparation for students, parents and teachers. Highly recommended.
ScienzFair Project Ideas (gr. 4-12) p. 101
This is a fast growing and popular site for teachers and students grades 4-12 seeking Science fair projects, ideas and web references. Hundreds of ideas for Science fair projects can be found in 21 categories with links to more sites for more ideas. Highly recommended.
Science/Nature for Kids (gr. K-8) p. 102
Gayle Olson is the guide to the Science and Nature for Kids site at About.com. She produces a weekly, well thought out Science resource site with puzzles, projects, articles and links to other Science activities and resources.
The Science Spot (gr. 5-8) p. 102
The Science Spot provides great lessons, activities and ideas for middle school educators and students. Check out the Reference Desk and Kid Zone area.
Science Update and Why Is It? (gr. 4-12) p. 102
Just the facts here about cutting edge Science brought to you three days a week. Your Science questions are answered twice a week in the Why Is It? column. Send your questions by e-mail or call 1-800-WHY-IS-IT. Archive available.
Skywatcher’s Diary (gr. 5-12) p. 102
A monthly calendar of daily descriptions of the night sky brought to
you by
Abrams Planetarium, Department of Physics and Astronomy at Michigan
State
University. Links to pictures and to an archive of past issues.
The Weather Channel (gr. 3-12) p. 102
Find up to the date weather information fast.
The Yuckiest Site on the Internet (gr. K-8) p. 103
Ask questions, play games, find out all about your gross and yucky body! This is a fun and educational place for finding information students want to know, but never ask teachers! There are teaching units (for grades K-2 and 3-8) that correlate with common class Science topics and contain scope and sequence charts, classroom activities, and links to related resources.
The Virtual Cell Web Page (gr. 10-12) p. 103
This website offers a three dimensional view of an interactive journey through a typical cell. It has both a tour in which students can dissect various cell parts and a textbook which allows students to research such topics as active transport and organic chemistry.
Volcano World (gr. K-8) p. 103
The premier site for volcano information! Detailed descriptions, clickable maps of world regions and countries, photos, search engine and many more resources. This site erupts with information and resources!
Social Studies pp. 104-109
50 States & Capitals (gr. 4-8) p. 104
A very complete list of states and state facts.
African Cam (gr. Pre-K-8) p. 104
This is a live site that shows wild animals in their natural habitat in different areas in Africa. Includes a Pic of the Day. Next best thing to being there.
The Age of Exploration (gr. 5-12) p. 104
Click on the Educational Programs link and head off to The Age of Exploration Educational Resource. This well written and very useful curriculum guide covers maritime discovery from ancient times to Captain Cook’s 1768 voyage to the South Pacific. What makes this guide special is the teacher guide and the student activities. Twelve activities provide authentic hands on learning opportunities for students (and teachers!) Create a compass, astrolabe, quadrant and globes. (I hung up the globes in my classroom for a neat effect.) Activities include identifying the parts of a ship, word searches, crossword puzzles and a sea of more wealth. Highly recommended.
CIA World Fact Book (All) p. 104
Maps and statistical data for every country in the world.
Connected Calendar (Teachers) p. 104
Use this site for a daily This Day in History topic or bulletin board. Contains a monthly calendar with links to related sites.
Constitution Finder (gr. 6-16) p. 105
An alphabetical list of constitutions and charters of countries of the world.
Early Canadiana Online (gr. 6-16) p. 105
Early Canadiana Online is a full text online collection of more than 3,000 books and pamphlets documenting Canadian history from the first European contact to the late 19th century. You can view the original pages on the screen.
Education
Calendar & WWW Sites p. 105
(Parents and Teachers)
A monthly calendar integrating websites with themes associated with special days of the month. Information is nicely displayed in a table.
Educational Web Adventures (gr. 4-12) p. 105
Travel back in time to the Renaissance and explore Leonardo da Vinci’s workshop in search of clues; learn about the people and Geography of the Ecuadorian Amazon; go undercover to Asia to expose the illegal trade in tiger parts. They’re all great adventures accessed from this site.
Encyclopedia Mythica (gr. 5-12) p. 105
Over 5,700 definitions of gods and goddesses, mythology, folklore, legends, an image gallery and more. A great source of information for Social Studies and Language Arts projects. Browse or search the site for information.
Excite Travel (gr. 3-16) p. 106
A must site for planning trips and doing research on cities and countries worldwide. Browse or search over 14,000 destinations. Have students take a trip and plan the route to take by listing some of the places that they will see.
GeoNet Game (gr. 4-12) p. 106
How well do your students know the Geography of the United States of America? They’ve got 2 hours to find out! The game questions are organized according to the national geography standards. They’ve been designed to help children think geographically and to help them build a global context for the information they learn.
The History Channel (gr. 4-16) p. 106
Make History come alive with the resources on this site. Have students find out what happened this day in History. Check out the Great Speeches section and hear the great speeches of the world. Search any topic in History.
How Far Is It (gr. 4-16) p. 106
Calculate the distance between two places. Students could find the distance between their home and any other place in the world and see it visually on a map. Answers are returned under the heading “as the crow flies” in miles, kilometers, nautical miles with latitude and longitude of both places.
A Hypertext on American History (gr. 6-12) p. 106
A hypertext on American History from the colonial period to the present.
Lives, The Biography Resource (Teachers) p. 107
Lives is one of the largest guides to biography resources on the Web, with annotated links to thousands of sites including biographies, journals, diaries, oral histories, memoirs, correspondence, biography collections, and more.
Lonely Planet Destinations Guide (Teachers) p. 107
A great place to quickly find detailed facts on any country in the world.
Maps (All) p. 107
An amazing resource that will allow you to make a map of your own address. Have students plan a trip to the local library, mall, school, relatives or to a different city and country. Worldwide maps, travel guides and driving directions in the US, Canada and Europe are all here.
Map Viewer (All) p. 107
This map viewer from Xerox allows the user to zoom in on any part of a world map. Have students zoom in on their own location.
Mr. Donn’s Pages (gr. 4-8) (Teachers) p. 107
One of the best sources of information, lesson plans, units, and simulations for teaching Social Studies on the Internet. Even if you don’t teach Social Studies, there are great links to resources for any K-12 teacher. Highly recommended.
Mr. Dowling’s Electronic Passport (gr. 4-6)(Parents and Teachers) p. 108
A great place to plan your Social Studies units. Includes lesson plans, unit tests, study guides. Well laid out, attractive site. Highly recommended.
Name Search (All) p. 108
How common is your first or last name? Find out here. Just click on the Frequently Occurring First Names and Surnames from the 1990 Census link.
National Geographic.com (All) p. 108
The companion website to the well known magazine. Great educational resources, printable lesson plans, units, blank maps and stunning photographs.
Our TimeLines (Parents and Teachers) p. 108
Create your own personalized timeline for you and your students. You can also create timelines for anyone else you choose and see how they fit into History. It really gives you a different perspective on life.
Terraserver (gr. 4-12) p. 108
An easy to use site to find satellite photos worldwide.
The World Wide Holiday and Festival Page (All) p. 108
Find out holidays and festivals world wide on this site. Great resource for multi-cultural projects. Searchable by country, religion, month.
Those Were The Days (gr. 5-12) p. 109
A very comprehensive listing about the events behind today’s date. One event is highlighted in detail. Contains an archive of past events and a search engine.
United Nations Cyber SchoolBus (gr. 2-12) p. 109
An educational and fun site which teaches students about global issues. Activities include interactive quizzes on flags, Geography and projects.
World Time (All) p. 109
See the view of the earth and find out where the sun is shining. You can also click on a country of the world to see what if it’s still night or day.
Special Education pp. 110-111
The Council For
Exceptional Children (CEC) p. 110
(Parents and Teachers)
The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) is the largest international professional organization dedicated to improving educational outcomes for individuals with exceptionalities, students with disabilities, and/or the gifted.
American Sign Language (gr. 4-16) p. 110
This site is designed to teach basic American Sign Language. Letters and words are represented with pictures of real hands. This site will also convert your words into sign language and quiz you!
EASI Equal Access
to Software and Information p. 110
(Parents and Teachers)
EASI’s mission is to serve as a resource to the education community by providing information and guidance in the area of access-to-information technologies by individuals with disabilities. This website does this and more.
Gifted
Resources Home Page p. 110
(Parents and Teachers)
This site contains links to online gifted resources, enrichment programs, talent searches, summer programs, gifted mailing lists and early acceptance programs. There are also links to 4+ years of TAG-L mailing list archives, and contact information for many local gifted and government associations.
LD Online (Parents and Teachers) p. 111
Expert tips for parents and teachers of children with learning disabilities. Articles on what’s new, in depth reports, bulletin board, chats and a newsletter.
National Association
for Gifted Children p. 111
(Parents and Teachers)
Keep in touch with the latest gifted program standards, legislation, conventions, parent and teacher programs.
Special Education (Parents and Teachers) p. 111
A lot of useful links, articles and information from this About.com guide.
GrafX Design (gr. 5-12) p. 112
Click on the Tutorials link and head off to easy to follow lessons for well known paint programs such as ADOBE's Photoshop, JASC’s Paint Shop Pro and Corel DRAW. There are also general and animated gif tutorials.
GraphicsDEN (gr. 6-16) (Teachers) p. 112
The GraphicsDen has seven step-by-step lessons that will teach you how to use Paint Shop Pro to create unique digital art. Each lesson takes you from start to finish of a digital project. You can follow the step-by-step instructions to complete a similar project. Links to other completed projects.
Technology Coordinators Survival Kit (Teachers) p. 112
For anyone dealing with technology coordination, this site is a great resource. Access information on Tech Support, Staff Development, Communication/ Technology Coordinators, Teacher Resources, Resources for Students to Use, Internet Scavenger Hunts, Online Projects, Acceptable Use Policies, Technology Use Plans Sample Grants, Professional Development Models, Job Descriptions and more. Highly recommended.
Television Production (gr. 9-16) (Teachers) p. 112
Seventy modules, over 500 color illustrations and assigned readings on television production. Includes modules on TV production overview, color video quality, video camera production, composition and graphics, lighting, audio, video recording, editing, producing/directing, news/documentaries, legal, ethical issues and non-broadcast video as well as quizzes for students.
Resources and References pp. 113-123
The Amazing Picture Machine (gr. 3-16) p. 113
From the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory comes this picture search engine. Enter a keyword and up comes a link to the picture. Lessons on using pictures and search tips also available.
American Journalism Newslink AJR (ALL) p. 113
Over 18,000 links to major world, national and local newspapers, magazines, broadcasters and news services worldwide. Also includes top sites, search engines and articles on journalism. Students can find up-to-date (in some cases hourly) information on news stories. Invaluable source for research on local to world stories from different perspectives. Highly recommended!
Ask An Expert (ALL) p. 113
With 14 categories and hundreds of people to choose from, students and teachers are able to find experts to answer their questions from an artificial intelligence expert to facts about zoo keeping. A very kid friendly site.
Bartleby.com (ALL) p. 113
Columbia Encyclopedia, The American Dictionary, Roget’s II:The New Thesaurus, American Heritage Book of English Usage, Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, Oxford Shakespeare and Gray’s Anatomy are all here, online.
The Best Information on the Net (Teachers) p. 113
An information packed source for every librarian and teacher. Sites are searchable and a table visually organizes the many links. Updated regularly.
Britannica.com (ALL) p. 114
Britannica.com includes the complete, updated Encyclopædia Britannica, the oldest and largest general reference in the English language. Selected articles from more than 70 of the world’s top magazines including Newsweek, Discover, and The Economist provide additional feature and current-events coverage. There are links to more than 125,000 sites, and you can also search the text of more than 100 million Web pages to find more information.
Calculator.com (gr. 5-16) p. 114
Find free access to online calculators to help you solve problems and answer questions in the home, office, and school. There are calculators for finance, business, and science. There are ones for cooking, hobbies, and health. Some solve problems, some satisfy curiosity, and some just for fun. All put the answer easily within your reach.
Daily Motivator (Parents and Teachers) p. 114
On those days where you or your students need some motivation, check out this site for daily inspirational sayings. A good way to start the day is to read them out to your students before classes begin. An archive of over 1,000 motivators can also be browsed. Highly recommended.
Digital Librarian (Parents and Teachers) p. 114
An extensive list of sites maintained and regularly updated by librarian Margaret Vail Anderson.
Encarta Lesson Collection (All) p. 115
A gateway to 16,000 articles, multimedia, dictionary, world atlas and other resources for students, parents and teachers. This is the online version of the Encarta encyclopedia. It’s a great place for students to start a research project. Very easy to navigate and read. Highly recommended!
Educational Software (Teachers) p. 115
There are a number of sites that contain large education software sections. Here is a listing of some of the popular ones:
Allen’s WinApps List p. 115
CNET Download.Com p. 115
Educational Software Cooperative p. 115
Freeware32.Com p. 115
M&M Software p. 115
SoftSeek p. 115
TUCOWS p. 115
Winfiles.Com p. 115
ZDNet’s Software Library p. 116
EDSITEment (gr. 6-16) (Parents and Teachers) p. 116
EDSITEment is a gateway for teachers, students, and parents searching for high-quality material on the Internet in the subject areas of Literature and Language Arts, Foreign Languages, Art and Culture, and History and Social Studies. Includes online lesson plans, reference section and teacher lounge.
Education 4 Kids (gr. K-12) p. 116
An interactive flashcard program that will test Math, money, time, facts, alphabet, vocabulary, US presidents, US Geography and table of elements.
Ex Libris (Teachers) p. 116
This weekly e-zine from Marylaine Block (creator of Best Information on the Net), offers 2-3 short articles every Friday on information, search tips, reference, the Internet in libraries, page design, and links to her other sites.
Free Stuff For Teachers p. 116
There are a number of sites that contain descriptions and links to free stuff for teachers. Here is a partial listing of some of them:
Free Stuff For Canadian Teachers p. 116
Freebies p. 116
Teacher Freebies p. 116
Funbrain (gr. K-12) (Parents and Teachers) p. 117
There are separate sections here for kids, parents and teachers. Teachers can create review material for their students and give paperless quizzes to their classes. The Quiz Lab automatically grades the quizzes and e-mails the results to you. This is also a fun site with many, many educational games organized by subject and grade levels to review class material. Registration is required (free) to access the Quiz Lab. Highly recommended.
How Stuff Works (ALL) p. 117
Here’s a great place to come to learn about how things work in the world around you. Have you ever wondered how the engine in your car works or what makes the inside of your refrigerator cold? Then How Stuff Works is the place for you! Never be stumped by your kids again!
Info Zone Research Skills Area (Teachers) p. 117
If you’re wondering about something, seeking information, choosing information, connecting useful information you have found, producing information of your own in a new form and judging the entire process and your product, then click on these links by librarian Margaret Stimson.
Kindergarten Kafe (Teachers) p. 117
A newsletter filled with great ideas for Kindergarten teachers.
KidsConnect (gr. K-12) p. 118
KidsConnect is a question-answering, help and referral service for K-12 students on the Internet. School library media specialists from throughout the world collaborate on KidsConnect to provide direct assistance to any student K-12 who is looking for resources for school or personal interests.
The Library of Congress (ALL) p. 118
Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., the largest library in the world and the nation’s library. Click on America’s Library: New Site for Kids/Families.
Life Magazine Online (gr. 6-12) p. 118
Great daily photos and stories from the past. Back issues of the Picture of the Day and links to This Day in Life and the Century’s Best Pictures.
The Math Forum
(gr. K-16) p. 118
(Parents and Teachers )
One of the longest running Math resource areas on the Internet! This is the first place I go for questions my students ask me about Math! You can search for Math subjects or browse the Internet Mathematics Library or for a specific stumper, Ask Dr. Math. Sections on Discussion Groups, Forum Showcase, Internet Newsletter, Problems of the Week, Teacher2Teacher, Web Units and Lessons, Math Resources by Subject, Math Education, Key Issues in Math, K-12, College and Advanced Math and Innovations and Concerns. Highly recommended.
Measure
4 Measure (gr. 5-16) p. 119
(Parents and Teachers)
A well researched collection of interactive sites on the Web that estimate, calculate, evaluate or translate. In other words, they do the work for you.
The Mental Edge (gr. 3-12) p. 119
The site contains a collection of more than 1,900 interactive review tests for English, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, ACT/SAT and GED exams. The reviews are coordinated with all major textbooks and match day-to-day class activities. They are designed to help students get higher test scores and help them prepare for tests in less time. Great site for reviewing lessons.
Museums on the World Wide Web (ALL) p. 119
A very extensive searchable list of museums, galleries and archives on the World Wide Web. Check and see what is online where you live.
Newspaper Lesson Plans (Teachers) p. 119
There are a number of web companion sites of major newspapers that contain daily lesson plans of the news for teachers. Here are some of them:
The New York Times Learning Network (gr. 3-12) p. 119
Toronto Star Connection (gr. 6-12) p. 119
USA Today Education (gr. 6-12) p. 119
Pics4Learning (gr. 3-12) p. 120
Here’s a copyright-friendly image library for teachers and students. The Pics4Learning collection consists of thousands of images that have been donated by students, teachers, and amateur photographers.
Quia (gr. 1-16) p. 120
Quia is the short form for Quintessential Instructional Archive. This site offers teachers and services a number of great activities. There is a directory of thousands of online games and quizzes in over 40 subject areas. Highly recommended.
Refdesk (gr. 5-12) (Parents and Teachers) p. 120
One of the most comprehensive reference sites around! Covers an extensive list of topics, easy to navigate, and easy to read the wealth of information.
Research-It (gr. 5-16) p. 120
A handy one stop research site for looking up currency conversions, quotations, maps, area codes, stock market quotes, a thesaurus, rhyming words, anagram creator and more. Give students currency problems to solve, quotations to find, rhymes for their poems or French verbs to conjugate.
RHL School (gr. 4-6) p. 121
Weekly updated reading comprehension, reference skills, grammar lessons, computation and problem solving worksheets for teachers and parents to copy. Answer keys can be e-mailed to you or printed from the website.
SafeKids.com (gr. 3-8) SafeTeens.com (gr. 9-12) p. 121
Great resource for keeping kids safe on the Internet. Kids safety rules, parent guidelines, filtering software, safe search engines, links, articles and more.
SchoolGrants (Parents and Teachers) p. 121
SchoolGrants offers K-12 teachers and administrators a one-stop site where they can find a myriad of federal, state, and foundation grant funding opportunities. In addition, the site features grant-writing hints and resources, links to a variety of related websites, grant and contest related news, and a message board. A free monthly e-mail newsletter is also available.
School
House Rock (gr. 3-6) p. 121
(Parents and Teachers)
Use the catchy music and videos from this website to teach multiplication facts (0-9), grammar rules, Science and Computer facts and American History. Rate the song on the site. Print out the words and lyrics for students to read and perform skits, dances to the music. Grammar was never this much fun to learn.
School Library Journal Online (Teachers) p. 121
The Web companion to the School Library Journal. Contains articles, ideas, links to the best library sites and reviews on the best CD-ROMS.
Study Abroad (gr. 12-16) (Teachers) p. 122
Here’s a site that provides an opportunity for teachers to earn college credit when they travel, learn a language, study abroad, do sabbatical research or work-intern-volunteer USA and abroad. During the last 21 years over 15,000 teachers have enrolled.
Teacher Time Saver (Parents and Teachers) p. 122
Teacher Time Saver is a resource for elementary educators and parents. Download shareware, freeware, clipart, and worksheets to use in your classroom. Also find links to other educational sites. Click on the Teacher Idea, Activity, and Lesson Plan Page link for fantastic resources that every gr. 4-6 teacher can use and adapt. Highly recommended.
Teaching Tips (Teachers) p. 122
Whether you’re a new teacher or a veteran, teacher Anna Gregory has lots of tips to share with all teachers K-12. In well written articles, she presents information, ideas and great techniques to use in the classroom. There is an archive of current articles, Ask Anna feature and a free monthly newsletter.
TipWorld (Teachers) p. 122
Each business day, TipWorld’s team of experts will deliver free newsletters to your in-box. Select the tips you want, fill in your e-mail address and click on the subscribe button. Preview sample newsletters before subscribing.
Tutorial World (gr. Pre-K-6) p. 122
Ready to print out worksheets for English, Math and Science for
grades
Pre-K-6 complete with answers.
Video Placement Worldwide (Teachers) p. 123
This site offers a list of educational videos and teaching materials free to educators. Videos are catergorized by grade levels and subject areas.
A Web Resource
for Teachers and Students p. 123
(Teachers)
Bernie Poole has created an indexed set of links to websites that support teaching and learning K-12. The indexes are age and subject-specific and updated almost daily. I really enjoy the Thought for the Day section. It’s different from other similar sites by focusing on motivational quotations for teachers and giving a personal interpretation of them. Highly recommended.
Worksheet Factory (Parents and Teachers) p. 123
This is the best worksheet program I’ve had the opportunity to use. It has saved me countless hours of preparation time in Math and Language Arts. It’s a very simple and easy to use software program that will make custom worksheets. Sheets can also be tailored to individual students, allowing you to meet the needs of all your students, quickly and easily. Highly recommended.
You Can Handle
Them All p. 123
(Parents and Teachers)
Over 100 different classroom behaviors are listed here in the categories of attention, power, revenge and self-confidence. Each behavior is described in detail i.e. effects on teacher, classmates and parents and what actions to take to deal with the misbehavior. Bookmark this site for the Behavior of the Day.
1-On-1 Free Basketball Game (gr. 5-16) p. 124
Take on the world with this unique, free online game. Join thousands of players as they compete each week on the virtual courts. Pick a player according to 12 attributes and decide on a strategy. Innovative way of having students make decisions then seeing the causes and effects.
Bill’s Games (All) p. 124
One of the earliest game sites on the Internet. I really like this site. Every game on this site is free, requires no registration to use, no Java, frames or plugins and should work with almost any web browser. Have fun!
Brainwave (gr. 5-12) p. 124
Find the deviating symbol in the ten brain scrambles and get a brainwave award. Hints are available! See how many puzzles you can solve.
Chess (gr. 3-12) p. 124
Chess is a game for the new millennium that has been around for centuries. This site has something for everyone with sections on how to play, basic and advanced strategies, chess puzzles and preparing for tournament play.
Funster (gr. 5-16) p. 124
A free game site with no special software required. Two word games with 1,500 easier and 1,500 harder words. You need to click on the best definition for a word from the given choices. Continue to choose until you pick the correct definition or run out of time. Great place for fun vocabulary learning.
Puzzlemaker (Parents and Teachers) p. 125
Here’s an easy to use and fast puzzle generator. Create and print customized word search, letter tile, fallen phrase, cryptogram, number blocks, crossword and other Math puzzles. Build your own maze or print out specialty hand-drawn mazes created around holidays and classroom topics. My students really enjoyed the word search puzzles with hidden messages. A great place.
Puzzler (gr. 2-8) p. 125
An archive of puzzles collected over the years by The Franklin Institute.
Riddle du Jour and Mondo Trivia (gr. 3-12) p. 125
Submit the right answer to the daily riddle or to the daily trivia question and have a chance at winning a prize. A wonderful way of stimulating students early in the day or just before dismissal. Great over the Public Address system for school wide end of the week contests. An archive of previous riddles here.
Riddler.com (Parents and Teachers) p. 125
Single player and multi-player concentration, scrambler, crossword puzzles, wordsearch, trivia and solitaire like games can be found on this site. Registration required. Must be at least 18 years old.
Trendy Interactive Magic (ALL) p. 125
An intriguing card trick and other magic tricks. Try the card
trick and see if you and your students can figure it out. It had
me and my students guessing for hours. Extensive links to other magic
sites.
More information on Acceptable Use Policies can be found at:
Yahooligans Teachers Guide http://www.yahooligans.com/tg/index.html
p.
128
K-12 Acceptable Use Policies http://www.erehwon.com/k12aup/
p.
128
From Now On The Educational Technology Journal http://www.fno.org/fnomay95.html
p.
128
The fastest way for busy educators to find suitable projects for themselves and their classes is to access project registries and databases on the Internet. Below are some recommended sites with project databases to take a look at.
Canada’s SchoolNet Grassroots Program p. 130
View over 3,000 GrassRoots projects by schools across Canada. Searchable by subject, grade level, province, title, keyword, postal code and theme.
CIESE Center for Improved Engineering and Science Education p. 130
Collaborative Science classroom projects using real time data from the Internet.
Cool Teaching Lessons and Units p. 130
Teacher Richard Levine has compiled a definitive list of WebQuests and Problem-Based Learning links. In addition he has included very useful links to other forms of lessons, tutorials and projects to help you build your own units. There are also some examples of sources to help students do research.
Education World p. 130
An extensive collection of articles, reviews and user submitted profiles about collaborative projects. Browse by subject and grade, (Pre-K-12) or submit your project to be included within this resource. Also includes helpful information about participating in and creating collaborative projects.
Innovative Teaching p. 131
Walter McKenzie has a detailed list of Collaborative Project Guidelines, and projects categorized according to time sensitivity, ongoing projects, project collections, and completed projects. Great links to virtual field trips, a detailed list of Virtual Field Trips Guidelines and an extensive list of Webquests.
Internet Resources Telecommunication Projects p. 131
Sheila Rhodes, Student Projects Coordinator for the Education Network
of
Ontario, Canada has organized in a very easy to read chart, projects
in 21 categories, 9 subject areas. She also includes links to other
general sites.
KIDPROJ p. 131
KIDPROJ is a part of KIDLINK. Teachers and youth group leaders from around the world plan activities and projects for students and other kids age 5 to 15 (gr. K-10) to take part in. Listed here are current, year round, past and soon to be announced projects.
Lightspan.com/Global SchoolNet Foundation pp. 131-132
Follow the teacher link on the main page to Projects Registry. One of
the premier places on the Internet to find an online project. Over
600 projects are searchable and sorted by age level and by project start
date.
Two projects which my students have enjoyed doing over the years is
the GeoGame and Newsday. GeoGame helps students learn about our world,
its maps, and its people. Great resources, great fun. Newsday
involves your students in international affairs with Newsday newswire.
They’ll create their own newspaper based on articles submitted by
global student correspondents. A very well run project. Ihighly
recommend this site as a first stop.
Loogootee Elementary West p. 132
Tammy Payton lists a number of popular projects with detailed descriptions. There are also links to great tips and resources here.
Susan Silverman Second Grade p. 132
There are many examples of primary (gr. K-3) collaborative projects at this site. Check out her favorites: Bunny Readers, Community of Clocks, Online Autumn, Frosty Readers and Owl Prowl. The gateway to all her work is: http://kids-learn.org/
Teacher Resource Center Georgia Department of Education p. 132
Click on the Fairs and Contests link for a description of fairs, contests, projects, academic and awards competitions, quiz bowls and honors programs categorized under 11 subject areas. Highly recommended.
Virtual Architecture’s WEB HOME p. 132
A website designed to support and extend the book Virtual Architecture: Designing and Directing Curriculum-Based Telecollaboration by Judi Harris.
One of the best ways to keep up to date with the latest project announcements teaching tips, ideas, and resources, is to make use of a listserv or mailing list, electronic newsletters or e-zines. The following sites will help you do just that!
Classroom Connect’s e-mail lists p. 133
Classroom Connect hosts an impressive list of e-mail newsletters for
teachers:
Classroom Today Newsletter: News about Internet-related K-12
education
Indiana Educators: News of interest to Indiana educators
K12 Newsletters: Content from the best of all the online
K-12 newsletters,
Library Hot Five: Updates on the best the Web has to offer, from easy-to-use
lesson plans to ask-an-expert lists to online curriculum
Net-happenings: Distributes announcements about the latest Internet
resources, especially education-related
Network Newsletter: Highlights the Net’s best regularly-published
e-zines
Professional Development: Read posts from educators from around the
world chock full of information about conferences, staff development, and
other training opportunities
Quest Newsletter: Subscribers receive short updates with news and information
about the Quest team and adventure learning projects
Lightspan p. 133
Follow the Communication link off the Teacher page to view and subscribe
to Lightspan’s impressive list of the following newsletters:
CYBERFAIR CyberFair 2000 Discussion List
EXPEDITIONS Online Expeditions Discussion List
HILITES K-12 Collaborative Projects List
K12OPPS The Best Opportunities for K-12 Educators
LOGO-L Discussion forum of the Logo Foundation
NETPBL Networked Project-Based Learning
READRECOV Reading Recovery for 1st graders
VIDEOCONF Classroom Conferencing Discussion List
WWWEDU The World Wide Web in Education List
Ms. LeBeau’s Home Page p. 134
Sue LeBeau has put together a fine list of links to educational newsletters, bulletins, mailing lists and electronic journals.
Teachers.Net Mailring Center p. 134
Over 60 mailrings for the following categories: General Interest, Grade Levels (Pre-K-16), Special Interest, NBPTS Standards Group, Teachers.Net Special Lists, Subject Mailrings (Math, Science, Social Studies/History/Geography, Art/Arts & Crafts, Music, English Center), Project Center Classroom Projects (Pen Pals, Postcard Projects, 100 Days, Classroom Pets, Traveling Buddies),Tech Center, Career Mailrings, Language Center (ASL/Sign Language, ESL/EFL , French Teachers Spanish Teachers) and Regional Mailrings.
Teachnet.com p. 134
In addition to many great tips and resources on this site, Teachnet.com hosts the Teacher-2-Teacher Mailing List. This list focuses on the exchange of ideas relevant to pre-K through grade 12 classrooms. Lesson plans, teaching tips and techniques used in the classroom are the primary focus, but the discussions can be wide-ranging.
Challenge 2000 Multimedia Project (gr. K-12) p. 135
Project based learning supported by multimedia that is practical and easy to use by teachers who are doing multimedia projects with their students. Contains information on assessment, project planning, implementation, training curriculum, project examples and links via a web circle to other similar sites.
Cybersurfari (gr. K-12) p. 135
Over the years, my students (gr. 5-8) have really enjoyed this world wide scavenger hunt. It is a year round project with a number of different starting and ending dates. It gives students an opportunity to use an Internet browser for a clear purpose, practice in using their e-mail address, develops team cooperation and reading and thinking skills. It’s also a way of exploring safe hand-picked destinations throughout the Internet. The object of the game is to find and submit as many treasure codes as possible - 132 in all.
E-Mail Around the World (gr. K-12) p. 135
A well managed, enjoyable project that has been going on for a number of years as 100th Day Activities. The goal is to send and receive a minimum of 100 e-mail messages and to visually demonstrate how far reaching our learning can be outside of our school walls. In this authentic learning activity students are motivated to strengthen Geography skills, compare and contrast similarities and differences of different cultures and environments, and to develop their communication skills. Great ideas and 100 day activity suggestions.
Educational Web Adventures (gr. 1-16) p. 135
Interactive online adventures for teachers and students. Adventures are categorized by grade levels and subjects. In these fun and educational activities, teachers and students will discover all about Art and Art History, Science and Nature, History and Geography. Highly recommended.
ENO Music CyberFest (gr. K-12) p. 136
The Music CyberFest is an on-going project administered by teacher Stephen MacKinnon and the Electronic Network of Ontario. Registrations and entries can be made at any time. Organized in 8 categories, Music teachers send in sound files of music pieces, a digitized photo or graphic, and a short paragraph of program notes describing the piece of music. The pieces are then posted on the website and given feedback.
ePals (gr. K-12)p. 136
Here’s a fantastic resource to finding classes worldwide to e-mail.
Flat Stanley (gr. K-8) p. 136
A wonderful easy to do project managed by teacher Dale Hubert. In the book, Flat Stanley, by Jeff Brown, Stanley is squashed flat by a falling bulletin board. One of the many advantages is that Flat Stanley can now visit his friends by travelling in an envelope. Students make paper Flat Stanleys and begin a journal with him for a few days. Then Flat Stanley and the journal are sent to another school where students there treat Flat Stanley as a guest and complete the journal. Flat Stanley and the journal are then returned to the original sender.
Friends and Flags (gr. 5-12) p. 136
Friends and Flags is a collaborative multi-cultural learning project that combines authentic language learning with cultural understanding. It encourages a strong link between the virtual and real classroom by combining the modern technology of the Internet with the traditional postal service. Partners work in learning circles of 6 countries and exchange Friends Packs, which are rich cultural packages that reflect every partner.
Great American Egg Hunt (gr. K-6) p. 137
Here’s a fun way for students to search for information and giving them practice navigating the Web for a purpose while collecting Easter Eggs.
Journey North (gr. K-8) p. 137
A well known project on the Internet where students track wildlife migration and spring’s journey north of a dozen migratory species. Students share their own field observations with classrooms across the Hemisphere. In addition, students are linked with scientists who provide their expertise directly to the classroom. Several migrations are tracked by satellite telemetry, providing live coverage of individual animals as they migrate. Registration starts in August.
MidLink Magazine (gr. 3-12) p. 137
Ongoing year round projects designed to encourage creativity and writing.
Online Expeditions at Lightspan.com (gr. 4-12) p. 137
Online Expeditions offers opportunities for students to participate in incredible real world adventures in exotic places. Site includes an online monthly newsletter, opportunities to share best practices and participate in Online Expeditions group dialogues. Expeditions offer classroom ideas, online dispatches, video, audio links, photographs, maps, glossaries, and resources.
MindsEye Monster Exchange Project (gr. K-9) p. 137
A student draws an original monster and then communicates that drawing into words using the writing process and the writing skills taught by the teacher. The student from a cooperating school (many times another country) receives the description and uses reading comprehension skills to try to redraw the original monster. The real trick is that the redrawn is done only from reading the description. Hundreds of schools and thousands of kids have participated.
Read In! (gr. 1-10) p. 138
Read In! is a phenomenally successful and huge day long reading project
for children ages 5-18 in grades K-12. Students across North America
and around the globe gather together by modem prior to and during the Day
Of the project.
At predetermined times, all classes meet in a designated chat area
on the Internet to discuss books they are reading, relate classroom activities,
announce special guests on site, trade suggested book titles, and “speak
live” to authors and other guests with whom they discuss their love of
reading.
Past authors have included Robert Munsch, Judy Blume, Avi, Jan and Stan Berenstain, Bruce Coville, Phoebe Gilman and many more. This site includes lesson plans, a chart matching grade levels and authors, registration information and activities to participate in leading up to the special day.
ThinkQuest (gr. 4-12) p. 138
ThinkQuest Contests provide a highly motivating opportunity for students and educators to work collaboratively in teams to learn as they create materials and teach others. The contests encourages them to use the Internet to create information-rich Web-based educational tools and materials.
Travel Buddies (gr. Pre-K-8) p. 139
Travel buddies are a soft plush toy or puppet that travel the world as representatives of your class. Sometimes they’ll travel to many locations or just to one. They have names like Moose on the Loose, Mr. Snapper, Ollie and Oscar Otter, Scully the Skunk, Woodsy Woodchuck, Diamond the Dolphin, Timber Wolf. These travel buddies come into your class, participate in class activities, go home with students, become tourists and travel on field trips. After an agreed time, the partner class returns the travel buddy or sends it off to the next school by mailing the buddy, his or her diary of events, photos, and any other souvenirs of adventures back home. While the buddy is away, you can stay in touch using e-mail. My classes have thoroughly enjoyed the visits of their travelling buddies. Check out this site for more information on how to participate and integrate this project into your classroom. Other recommended sites to see how the travel buddy projects work are: teacher Nora Boekhout has done a lot of work with “travelling stuffies.” Her site CanOz Connection, http://www.teacherwebshelf.com/canozconnection/ contains lots of great teacher resources, guidelines and links for starting up your own project. Great resources here for teachers who bring animals and pets into their classes. I also highly recommend checking out teacher Muriel Burns’ site at http://www.mrsburns.com\home.htm It is a tremendous site with information on the journeys of Otters Ollie, Oscar and Odessa. Copies of their journals, albums and artwork are archived on the site.
WebQuests (gr. K-16) p. 139
A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the
information used by learners is drawn from the Web. WebQuests are
designed to use learners’ time well, to focus on using information
rather than looking for it, and to support learners’ thinking at the levels
of analysis, synthesis and evaluation. The model was developed in early
1995 at San Diego State University by Bernie Dodge with Tom March.
This site contains a matrix of 200 Webquests broken down by grade levels
K - 3rd, 4 - 5th, Middle School, High School and Adult/College,
links to a detailed source of training materials and to the WebQuests
webring and other Internet Projects.
URLs
Ch. 5Askjeeves for Kids p. 142
A search engine for kids ages 7-12.
Kidsclick p. 143
Another search engine for kids.
Berit Erickson’s Berit’s Best Sites for Children (under 12 years of age) site found at: http://www.beritsbest.com is a directory of the best 1,000 high quality, safe, fun and educational sites on the Internet.
Amanda Hill’s LessonPlanz site found at: http://lessonplanz.com is a collection of over 3,500 links to individual lesson plans and resources hand picked and reviewed by her.
Kathy Schrock’s educator’s page, a list of sites on the Internet for
enhancing curriculum and teacher professional growth that is updated daily,
can be found at: http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/
The Awesome Library contains 14,000 carefully reviewed resources, including the top 5 percent in education. Only resources that have been reviewed and found to be of high quality for users are included. It can be found at: http://www.awesomelibrary.org/
The HomeworkCentral section of bigchalk.com has more than 100,000 organized and evaluated links in over 10,000 subjects. It can be found at: http://www.bigchalk.com/
Education World has over 120,000 resources in their database. Many educational
resources are available at this site including teaching tips and ideas:
http://www.education-world.com/
Newsgroup and E-Mail Discussion Search Engines p. 145
Deja.com’s Usenet Discussion Service provides access to approximately 35,000 Usenet newsgroups. It’s a wonderful tool for searching the thousands of newsgroups for a particular subject or person. Just enter the keywords in a box and Deja.com will do the rest at: http://www.deja.com/usenet/
LISZT is a searchable site of the largest directory of e-mail based mailing lists in the world. Over 90,000 mailing lists are catalogued here by topics or by keyword search at: http://www.liszt.com/
The AltaVista search engine will also search newsgroups.
Search Tools and Strategies Resources on the Web: The
following sites offer excellent reviews of the various search, meta search
engines and directories.
p. 149
Search Engine Watch p. 149
Choose the Best Search Engine for Your Information Needs by Debbie Abilock p. 149
Debbie and Damon Abilock’s NoodleQuest search strategy wizard p. 149
Finding Information on the Internet A TUTORIAL by Joe Barker p. 149
Best Search Tools p. 149
A website listing 12 search tools (subject directories, metasearch engines, and search engines) all on one page. Just pick a search tool and enter your keyword.
Kid’s Search Tools p. 149
This website follows the same format as the website above. There
are 17 search tools for teachers and kids. Highly recommended.
Choose The Best Search For Your Purpose pp.
150-155
The following charts are reproduced (with minor modifications)
by permission of Debbie Abilock, Librarian/Curriculum Coordinator at The
Nueva School (San Francisco Bay area) California, USA. The original
information is regularly updated and can be found at:
http://nuevaschool.org/~debbie/library/research/adviceengine.html
| Information need | Search strategy |
| I need a few good hits fast. | Google http://www.google.com/
returns important, relevant hits quickly with old terms; pages cached in case the site’s down and weighs importance and value on others’ links. Ixquick Metasearch http://ixquick.com/submits your search (use phrases, boolean logic, wildcards) to major search engines and displays results that are universally ranked in the top ten. |
| I have a general broad academic subject and need to explore or focus it. | Infomine http://infomine.ucr.edu/Main.html
high-quality
subject tree; librarian-selected
Librarians’ Index to the Internet - http://lii.org/ Northern Lights http://www.northernlight.com/search.html organizes results into folders by concept Encyclopaedia Britannica http://www.britannica.com/ provides a topic article and Web links |
| I have a general popular or commercial topic and need to explore or focus it. | Yahoo http://www.yahoo.com a “tree”
with sites submitted by users
GO http://www.go.com/WebDir/ focuses on entertainment, recreation, leisure and lifestyle |
| I have general keyword(s) and need help refining my search strategy. | HotBot SuperSearch’s http://www.hotbot.com/
template helps you create a Boolean or phrase search, or limit by media
type, date etc.
FAST Search Advance Search template casts a http://www.ussc.alltheweb.com/ fast, wide net. Excite http://www.excite.com/ suggests word lists to refine your first search term. Search for more on-target results based on successful hit. Altavista http://www.altavista.com/ suggests phrase search terms on your results page. |
p. 151
| Information need | Search strategy |
| I bet this search has been done before. | Ask Jeeves! http://www.askjeeves.com/
prepares answers to common questions asked in natural language.
Direct Hit http://www.directhit.com/ a “popularity engine” which ranks your hits based on other searchers’ behaviors. |
| I need quality, evaluated pathfinder guides prepared by a subject expert. | AlphaSearch http://www.calvin.edu/library/as/
and
WWW Virtual Library http://vlib.org/Overview.html
search or browse subject-organized full-text documents, databases
and gateways .
New Athenaeum http://members.spree.com/athenaeum/mguide1.htm guide to guides with reading level estimated. Argus Clearinghouse http://www.clearinghouse.net/index.html librarian/academic evaluated subject guides. About.com http://about.com/ popular commercial evaluated subject guides BUBL LINK http://bubl.ac.uk/link/ddc.html- organized by Dewey number (European focus) |
| I want to search on often-ignored words in a phrase (e.g. “Vitamin A” or “to be or not to be”). | Infoseek http://infoseek.go.com/
includes
little words (such as a, to, be, not) in the search |
| I need a pinpoint search using a unique phrase or word. | AltaVista http://www.altavista.com/
works best for needle-in-the-haystack search for unique word or phrase
(Himalayan cat not cat).
For Canadian searches use AltaVistaCanada http://altavista.ca/ |
p. 152
| Information need | Search strategy |
| I need information on a proper name (a place,
person, or object). |
AltaVista http://www.altavista.com
and Infoseek http://www.infoseek.com/
search with capital letters to force an exact case match on the entire
word (e.g. Claude Monet and NeXT). A person search on HotBot
SuperSearch will retrieve the name in both reversed and normal order http://www.hotbot.com/
(e.g. Picasso, Pablo and Pablo Picasso) |
| I need biographical information. | Biographical Dictionary http://www.s9.com/biography/-
quick identification of a name.
Biography.com http://www.biography.com/search/ - database of 20,000 paragraph-length biographies. Lives http://amillionlives.com links to biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, diaries, letters, narratives, oral histories and collections by profession and region. |
| I need a company’s Web site. | 1Jump http://www.1jump.com/ direct to company’s website using company or brand name, stock ticker symbols, name of an executive or employee, geographic terms (ZIP, postal code, city name) |
| I need US government
information. I need Canadian
|
FedWorld http://www.fedworld.gov/
browse government databases or websites, keyword searches on government
Web pages or reports
Canada Site http://canada.gc.ca/ |
| I need a virtual librarian. | KidsConnect, http://www.ala.org/ICONN/AskKC.html
Internet
Public Library
Reference, http://www.ipl.org/ref/QUE/RefFormQRC.html Debbie, debbie@nuevaschool.org Marilyn, mkimura@nuevaschool.org |
p. 153
| Information need | Search strategy |
| I need hard-to-find or late-breaking
information. |
Inference Find http://www.infind.com/
a “metasearch” which queries multiple engines
simultaneously; likely to pick up rare or recent information not widely indexed. YahooNews http://dailynews.yahoo.com/ updates continuously from newswires; with full coverage of hot topics. Northern Lights Current News http://www.northernlight.com/news.html updates headlines, weather, and sports continuously; can search archives up to two weeks old. |
| I need current information from magazine or
newspaper articles. |
AJR NewsLink http://ajr.newslink.org/
links to newspapers/magazines, mainly US and Canada.
News Directory http://www.newsd.com/ links to online English language media worldwide . TotalNEWS http://www.totalnews.com/_main.html and Northern Light http://www.northernlight.com/news.html search news. UnCover http://uncweb.carl.org/ free search of large current multidisciplinary journal index, but full-text delivery is fee-based. |
| I need accurate, objective information on hot topics. | Social Issues http://www.multnomah.lib.or.us/lib/homework/sochc.html
- Multnomah County Library’s Homework Center.
BIOTN http://www.sau.edu/bestinfo/Hot/hotindex.htm compiled by librarians at a Catholic university about controversial current events issues (e.g. gun control, censorship etc.). |
| I need statistical data. | Statistical Information http://nuevaschool.org/~debbie/library/cur/math/stats.html help page at Nueva. |
| Is there almanac-type information on the
Internet? |
Information Please http://www.infoplease.com/ (almanac facts) CIA World Factbook. http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html (country facts). |
p. 154
| Information need | Search strategy |
| I need primary sources. | Online Digital Library http://www.
digitallibrary.net/resources.asp US focus: American Memory, http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ammemhome.html Ancient Greece: Perseus Project, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/ Early Canadiana http://canadiana.org/ |
| I need images and sounds (photos, art, designs, logos, videos, music,
noises),
media types (Java, VRML) or file extensions (.gif) |
Amazing Picture Machine (NCREL) http://www.ncrtec.org/picture.htm
small,
education-appropriate pictures. American Memory http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/finder.html US historical images and sounds; search by formats (maps, motion pictures, photos and prints, sound recordings). AltaVista Photo Finder http://image.altavista.com/cgi-bin/avncgi searches 17 million images, audio clips, video files from the web and private collections. HotBot: SuperSearch http://www.hotbot.com/ template has options for media type. Columbia University's WebSEEk http://disney.ctr.columbia.edu/webseek/ catalogues 650,000 images and videos on Web Lycos RichMedia http://multimedia.lycos.com/ (sounds, images, videos) FAST powered Jacob Richman has compiled an list of quality picture/art sites. http://jr.co.il/hotsites/pictures.htm |
| I need a map. | TIGER Map Service http://tiger.census.gov/cgi-bin/mapbrowse-tbl maps for Web pages from U.S.Census National Geographic Map Machine http://www.nationalgeographic.com/maps/index.html- printable country, physical and political maps, star charts MapQuest http://www.mapquest.com/ interactive service for driving directions. |
p. 155
| Information need | Search strategy |
| I need a quotation. | The Quotations Page http://www.starlingtech.com/quotes/
Quoteland http://www.quoteland.com/ Quotations Archive, http://www.aphids.com/quotes/index.shtml Search Creative Quotations, Bartlett (1901) http://www.bemorecreative.com/searchall.shtml |
| I want to get advice and opinions from others. | Ask Kids’ Connect http://www.ala.org/ICONN/AskKC.html
question answering and referral by librarians.
AskA+ http://www.vrd.org/locator/subject.html authoritative, non-commercial experts, suitable for K-12. Pitsco’s Ask an Expert http://www.askanexpert.com/ volunteers with varying levels of expertise. Liszt http://www.liszt.com/ catalogs, discussion groups by topics |
| I want notice of new sites as they’re announced. | Scout Report Signpost http://www.signpost.org/signpost/ reviews of new sites not yet listed on expert sites. |
| I’ve got a good search to rerun automatically. | Informant http://informant.dartmouth.edu/ repeats your search, sends e-mail when hits change. Excite’s NewsTracker http://www.excite.com/Info/newstr/quickstart.html tracks your news topic, refining search based on results Northern Light Search Alert Service http://standard.northernlight.com/cgi-bin/cl_alert.pl runs your search on a large database. |
| I want to see sites just for kids. | KidsClick! http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/KidsClick!/
Yahooligans! http://www.yahooligans.com/ |
Amazon.com p. 160
Barnes and Noble p. 160
Chapters.ca p.
160
Beginning HTLM p. 160
One of the Internet’s most popular stops for information on HTML and other mark-up languages. Goodies contains hundreds of unique tutorials for HTML, XML, SGML and DHTML as well as one of the Web’s most comprehensive repositories for JavaScript and other scripting languages. Well written and easy to follow tutorials on all aspects of HTML from the basics to advanced levels. Download section contains a listing of freeware and shareware that both new and experienced programmers can use to write scripts, create web pages, and enhance PC performance. Updated weekly.
Center for Improved Engineering and Science Education CIESE p. 160
Click on the link to Net Tools. This page lists resources for teachers building school webpages. Includes a dozen places to host your website, graphics, online calendars and group management tools, free online bookmarking, free web based e-mail and links to online courses and tutorials.
Hazel’s Homepage p. 161
In Hazel Jobe’s Web Page Design section, she offers suggestions as to what you should do before you make your own webpage. She has information on guidelines, resources, child safety and Acceptable Use Policies, free home pages, HTML editors, code and HTML Tutorials. A good place to start.
Mrs. Seagraves’ QUEST Class p. 161
Teacher Susan Seagraves has written a very useful little section on some of the neat effects found on webpages entitled How Did We Do That. In this section she includes links to dynamic HTML, Java Scripts, Java Applets, graphic links and suggested websites to find more information.
School Web Clubs p. 161
This is one fantastic resource for anyone who would like to help students create or work on their school’s website by creating a club or special technology projects group. It has a very extensive section on Internet Acceptable Use Policies with many references and examples from other schools and districts. Includes great ideas for web club projects with links to examples of what other schools have done. A good listing of sites that give award recognition for school websites. Also has resources on web publishing, and where to find clipart, banners, scripts, maps and other stuff. I like this resource because it’s written with the student in mind. Highly recommended.
webteacher p. 161
webteacher was created by two teachers from Tennessee, Mike and Jo Ann Guidry, and by TECH CORPS WebMaster Wayne Kincaid, who brought together their Internet knowledge and classroom experiences to develop a training tool useful for anyone, but designed specifically for teachers. Through extensive field tests giving teachers hands-on use of the program, the tutorial was refined and enhanced to address those things which would help you to use the Internet in your classroom. A very complete web tutorial for teachers.
