Educational Hotlists from the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Great links to many content sites.

Microsoft Users rejoice. A new piece of software entitled, Scholastic Keys, provides the user with a template for Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The template has large buttons and simple methods for importing pictures and other graphics. Of course, you already have to have the Microsoft Office programs and it's only available for Windows XP.

Read Kimberly Keith's review in Parenting of K-6 Children.

The National Center for Technology Planning provides links to state, district, and building level technology plans.

Tale of Despereaux

Tale of Despereaux
Originally uploaded by ShelleyAistrup.

The Tale of Desperaux is a delightful tale of a mouse, a rat, and a serving girl. Listen to this blurb!!

"Desperaux's brothers and sisters stepped back, away from the new mouse.

'This is the last,' proclaimed Antoinette from her bed. 'I will have no more mice babies. They are such the disappointment. They are hard on my beauty. They ruin for me, my looks. This is the last one. No more.'

'The last one,' said the father. 'And he'll be dead soon. He can't live. Not with his eyes open like that.'

But reader, he did live.

This is his story."

It's a great read aloud and has a powerful message about seeking one's dreams.

Expand your knowledge of how to teach reading. These books have fabulous tips and strategies for stretching your students and finding a myraid of ways to ensure they are comprehending what they read.

Good-bye Round Robin: 25 Effective Oral Reading Strategies by Michael F. Opitz and Timothy Rasinski is a quick read. Opitz and Rasinski provide research based reasons for why teachers should abandon the practice of round robin reading. The strategies included in the book are familiar, but written in a very accessible style.

Janet Allen's book, Tools for Teaching Content Literacy, provides the reader with strategies for building, monitoring, and extending content knowledge. Easy-to-follow descriptions of the strategies explain the nuts and bolts of how to use them successfully in the classroom. The book has great blackline masters as well.

There are always new sites to explore. This one, eMINTS National Center, has thematic topics with links to related websites, lesson plans, assessment ideas, and more. It's definitely worth your time. Be sure to look at the calendar. The eMINTS staff highlights a lesson a day. Have fun!

This is the link to the blog we have created to track the progress of the Northview Technology Committee.

Are your students losing their files?
Teach them to do the following:

• Name the file appropriately.
  
• Watch to see where the file is being saved.
  
• Save every five minutes.
  
• Use Edit Undo.

Would you like to learn more? Please see Technology Pathfinder for Teachers, a publication from the The Master Teacher. A longer version of this was published in September, 2004 (Volume 9, No. 1).

The United States Government maintains a variety of websites that also include materials and information that is appealing to students. Check out FirstGov for Kids. Here's a sample of what you might find under Geography:

• Fact Finder Kids' Corner "Learn about the U.S. Census, get facts about your state, and have fun with quiz questions."
  
• National Atlas.gov "Make interactive maps within your web browser! This program allows you to make your own maps. Select, change, and display map layers. Roam across America and zoom in to reveal more detail. Point at map features to learn more about them. Locate and map more than 2,000,000 geographic names in the United States. New map layers are added each month."
  
• USGS Learning Network "Explore things on, in, around, and about the Earth such as plants and animals, land, water, and maps. Learn how biology, geology, hydrology, and geography can help us understand our changing world."

All of the descriptions came directly from the FirstGov for Kids site. Some of the subject areas include History, Plants and Animals, Money, and State Websites. (There are many more!!!)

I just finished reading the eleventh book from the Series of Unfortunate Events books. The Grim Grotto is just as clever and intriguing as all the rest. If you haven't gotten hooked on this series yet, you are really missing a treat! The author is Lemony Snicket and the first book is called The Bad Beginning. Start today. Don't delay (although Mr. Snicket will implore you to turn the other way).

What search engine are you currently using? I might suggest that you branch out beyond Google and use Vivisimo or Kartoo. Vivisimo searches and then clusters the searches into topic areas. Kartoo searches and then provides the user with a web that shows the results of the search and how the sites are related. Depending on what you are looking for, how you wish to narrow your search, and the types of sites you are looking for will determine which site best meets your needs.

I know we are always seeking ways to make the Microsoft Office products more accessible to our students. This new software from Scholastic entitled Keys does just that. The program provides a template with "kid friendly" icons and an easy-to-use interface. It can currently be downloaded for a 45 day trial. Single copies cost $59.00 and discounts are available for multiple machines/schools. Check it out!!!

The National Council for Teachers of English produces a wonderful electronic newsletter called NCTE Inbox. Issues arrive weekly and contain "news, views, and ideas" for teaching language arts. Don't delay! Sign up today!

This week's issue contains great ideas for teaching vocabulary. The title of the article is called Break out your Dictionaries in honor of Dictionary Day. Dictionary Day celebrates Noah Webster's birthday! Included in this issue are research articles and a lesson plan from the Read Write Think site called An Alternative to Testing: Miss Alaineus: A Vocabulary Disaster.

There are so many wonderful sites for teachers. Check out Sites for Teachers. This portal sites has links to over 1.000 educational sites.

I'm always looking for great clip art. Here's a new site to check out, School Clip Art for Teachers. The clip art is free. If you're interested in purchasing additional clip art, there's always that option!

It's easy to create your own rubric with these resources.

Check out Rubistar. This site has a tutorial, ready made rubrics, and easy to follow directions. You must sign in to use the site, but enrolling allows you to save rubrics for up to a year.

If you want a pre-made rubric, take a look at Teach-nology. You are allowed to choose the type of rubric you want to create, select a graphic for the top of the page, insert your name, and choose a name for the rubric. The rest is done for you. Easy to use, but may not emphasize what you want your students to focus on during the project.

As I find other sites, I'll keep you posted. :)

For those of you interested in the butterfly project:

These three books are extremely helpful for helping your students locate photos of the lifecyles of a butterfly.
The Lifecyle of a Butterfly by Bobbie Kalman, Butterfly (Science Emerget Readers) by Susan Canizares, and The Journey of Butterfly by Carolyn Scrace.

Remember give your students a large enough organizer for them to record their drawings. Don't be afraid to also use posters or the encyclopedia as a resource!

Copyright

It is important to teach our students the copyright rules for multimedia projects. Just as we teach them not to copy verbatim from a book or an encyclopedia, we must also teach them the rules regarding music, pictures, and text from sites on the Internet.

Here's a fabulous link created for elementary and middle school students. Welcome to Copyright Kids!. Some of the site topics include Copyright Basics and FAQs, Definitions, Parent and Teacher Information, and a Quiz. The best part of the site is the interactive yearbook! Here's a description from the site:

"Students can learn about the fundamentals of copyright law in the Copyright Basics section of the site. Teachers should feel free to distribute the Copyright Basics in class. Students can then join the Lincoln Middle School Multimedia Yearbook Club members as they navigate through copyright law along with the help of their knowledgeable guide, "Copyright Cat." By working through the various copyright issues with the members of the Yearbook Club, students will find out how copyright might apply to them and why it is important to learn about it! They will discover how copyright law applies in the areas of music, photography, fine arts, and film" (From the Welcome to Copyright Kids! site.)

If you are interested in teaching your students about trademarks and patents, try the United States Patent and Trademark Office: Kids' Pages.

This site has many interactive components (games and puzzles) as well as sections that are geared for K-6 (Twinkle Lights), 6-12 (Bright Lights) and Parents/Teachers/Coaches (Guiding Lights). The whowhatwhenhowwhy link includes FAQs about patents that might be useful for a unit on Inventions.

Need a site that has readable text about complex health issues for students? Check out Kids Health for Kids. Some of the section headings are Dealing with Feelings, Stay Healthy, Everyday Illnesses and Injuries, My Body, and Kids' Health Problems. There is even a link for articles written in Spanish!

If you enjoy the claymation idea - here's a great site for more step by step directions and an example you may share with your students.

The site is called Clay Animation Made Easy. The site was created by Tonya Witherspoon, an Educational Technology Specialist at Wichita State University. Tonya shares movies, directions, and links to other clay animation sites.

Check it out!!