NetHappenings Newsletter
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NHN: Net Happenings Newsletter #6
NEW THIS WEEK for November 23, 2004
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Welcome to the Net Happenings Newsletter,
Launched by the Educational CyberPlayGround, this newsletter
features a new format with the emphasis on both news and resources.
Karen Ellis* Founder of
the Educational CyberPlayGround will continue to carry the
sponsorship of Net Happenings Newsletter which is published to all
members of the NetHappenings Mailing List. Advertisers are welcomed
as sponsors of the
oldest K-12 educational mailing list in the world. If you have any
comments or would like to sponsor the NetHappenings Newsletter or
mailing list please contact her using this [newsletters] -- [ at ]
-- [edu-cyberpg [dot] com
Written by Classroom Teacher Alan Haskvitz
1994 National Middle Level Teacher of the Year (NCSS)
1997 National Teacher's Hall of Fame Inductee
1999 All USA Today First Team Teacher
[w]
https://edu-cyberpg.com/Ringleaders/al.html
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IN THIS ISSUE
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In the News
Free stuff
Interesting Sites
Student Art Sites
ESL Sites
Grants
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IN THE NEWS
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New Secretary of Education: Nothing new policy wise, but NCLB pushed
to high school
With the removal/retirement/firing/good riddance (take your pick) of
Mr. Paige from Texas comes the next in President Bush's appointments
to carry NCLB forward/sideways/backward (take your pick) of Margaret
Spellings, one of Karl Rove's favorites, to the position. It only
took Bush four days to replace Paige, which probably says a lot
about his performance or her clout.
The new Secretary's qualifications center around her efforts with
Bush as a political advisor. She has a bachelor's degree from the
University of Houston, never taught school, worked as a young
lobbyist for the Texas
school boards association, is perhaps the one most responsible for
NCLB, and dislikes unions. Look for more attitude form the newbie
and less tolerance based on reports of her reluctance to suffer
fools gladly.
Hypertxt vs textbooks Are Books dead?
The use of the Internet to provide less expensive, yet current and
simplier to use in creating individualized lessons may make the
formal and expensive textboks history. At least until the power
outage.
http://www.centerdigitaled.com/
Are Vouchers dead?
For the third time since 1999, Florida's Court of Appeals ruled that
the state's Opportunity Scholarship Program, which allows students
in failing schools to use vouchers to attend a public or private
school of their choice, violates the state constitution's Blaine
Amendment.
http://www.edexcellence.net/foundation/gadfly/issue.cfm?id=159#1942
Does Retaining Students Help?
No real answers here, but an interesting read with a checklist.
Apparently the key to having students do better, according to this
study in the school board journal, is more teacher time and more
funding. The American School Board Journal's number one
recommendation is " Teach teachers how to instruct all students
according to the ways they learn." The recommendation comes from
Darling-Hammond who is long removed from the working classroom.
http://www.asbj.com/current/research.html
And, Why are there a disproportionate number of black children in
special education?
The cause could be the assessment tool,according to a university
study the WISC-III tends to classify a disproportionate number of
Black children when compared to other instruments. Naglieri, J.
& Rohahn, J. 2001. Am. Journal on Mental Retardation.
http://aamr.allenpress.com/aamronline/?request=get-toc&issn=0895-8017&volume
Fulbrights for Japan Study
http://www.iie.org/Template.cfm?&Template=/programs/fmf/default.htm
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SHARING ART SITES
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Another site that displays and shares student art
http://www.papaink.org/gallery/home/index.html
Art Education Websites
Free Clip Art, Sounds and Fonts Galore
https://edu-cyberpg.com/Arts/
KinderArt
KinderArt has been a presence on the web since 1996, when the
organizers placed their first few free art lessons online. Since
then the site's collection of helpful art lessons designed to assist
K-12 educators (and their students) has grown to include over 800
different lessons.
http://www.kinderart.com/
K-12 ARTS CURRICULUM
You have mail.
Are parent conference meetings becoming past tense? Could be as at
least one school is encouraging the use of emails to keep parents
current and able to communicate concerns with teachers. This helps
busy parents and keeps problems from piling up. I use this method
frequently and find it works well, but, as usual, those parents who
care communicate back and those that have the most troubled children
don't respond as well.
http://www.freep.com/news/education/parent11e_20041111.htm
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FREE STUFF
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Can it be true? Will Libraries become obsolete?
Will this shake up Library La La Land?
Educational CyberPlayGround explains
Search this Site page
https://edu-cyberpg.com/NAV_Search.html
Find over 100 more search engines and help that
explains how to work with these tricky monsters.
"The Old way and the Net Way"
https://edu-cyberpg.com/Internet/search.html
What's the deal with Google Scholar?
11/04 Announces Google Scholar allow users "to search specifically
for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses,
books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad
areas of research." This includes results from the Open WorldCat
program, which is particularly important since much of this material
isn't available in electronic format yet. It will be even more
useful after Google has harvested all 57 million WorldCat records,
instead of the 2 million records in the pilot subset.
How to Work with GOOGLE and Google Scholar
access vs.cloaking
https://edu-cyberpg.com/Internet/search2.html
Free computer software for non-profits.
There might be an administrative fee, but you can't beat these
prices. Name brands, too.
http://www.techsoup.org/stock/default.asp?visit=1
Speaking of free Sun is offering its next-generation operating
system without cost.
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2004/11/15/ap1653498.html
More free stuff
This site has teacher related software programs that help with
grading, teaching, and computer usage.
http://online_tools.home.att.net/tools.html
Free Internet Cleaner
MereSurfer installs as a browser extension for Internet Explorer 5.0
(or higher). It is only active when your browser is open. It
prevents annoying pop-up windows and fixes web bugs, clears all
tracks of Internet activity (
cookies
, cache, history and typed URLs) while surfing the web. You can
recover the disk space by deleting all Internet trash acquired just
by one click.
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INTERESTING SITES
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Get Read to Read
This is a preschool site that helps with develop skills they need to
read when they enter school. From The National Center for Learning
Disabilities,
http://getreadytoread.org/sub_educators.php
A great interactive site that shows the growing population over
time. Also has other interactive sections to show the impact of
people on the Earth.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/worldbalance/numbers.html
How to make sure your computer stations are ergonomically correct
for students. An interesting site about a frequently overlooked
area.
http://www.orosha.org/cergos/whatodo1.html
Dumb Laws
http://www.dumblaws.com/
Look for backyard habitats near you.
Motivates students. Also downloadable schoolyard checklists. Some
cost.
http://www.nwf.org/wildlifeuniversity/index.cfm
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ESL SITES
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ESL and Dialect Speakers
Creole, Ebonics, Pidgin, AAVE, Black English Vernacular,
Patois, and Patwa, Dialect
Linguistic
ESL, Dialect Speakers and Learning to Read
DIALECT_READERS_REVISITED
ESL teachers and schools
You can use this website to teach English sounds to your students.
Also, please feel free to publish your sound materials on the
website.
http://www.eslsound.com/index.htm
Speaking of ESL
This site offers job listings around the world.
http://www.eslteachersboard.com/
English Banana is a British ESL site with free games, downloads,
dramas, and more.
http://www.englishbanana.com/
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STATISTICS
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LITERACY STATISTICS
National Center for Statistics Its gotta be here.
http://nces.ed.gov/
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GRANTS
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Office of National Initiatives National Endowment for the Arts
Guidelines have been issued for a new round of Save America's
Treasures grants. They may be found through a link in the "Grants"
section on the NEA Web site, or at this direct link:
http://www2.cr.nps.gov/treasures/application.htm
Thanks for reading,
Al
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