News Sources, Family Resources, and a Video Project Tool

Which sources do teens use to keep current with the news? What's a good source of web sites to share with families? How do you and your students plan your video projects? Check out these web sites for answers to these questions.


http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-09-22-hs-media-usat_x.htm

Online, television, newspapers… which source do high school students access for news? Which do they think is the most accurate? Which do they rate as the easiest-to-use source? Do their high school teachers agree?

Read the interesting results of a survey of more than 14,000 students and almost 900 teachers last spring at this site.


http://www.teachersandfamilies.com/index.html

Check out this site for activities for preschool, K-12, and parents. Younger children can listen to nursery rhymes being read (http://www.teachersandfamilies.com/nursery/index.html) while they view beautiful illustrations. ESL teachers may find these pages useful for their students and primary teachers can print the illustrations to use as manipulatives for teaching sequencing. Additional preschool activities include theme activities, letters and numbers, and a “read with me” section.

Study sites, best books, puzzles, and word wonders make up the K-12 section. The study sites are categorized by topic and grade level.

And parenting features, gifted and talented, special education, and web resources are available for parents. The parenting features include information on safe surfing on the web.


http://www.atomiclearning.com/storyboardpro

If you use or are thinking about using a video project in your class, you may want to consider using StoryBoard Pro, a free tool from AtomicLearning.com. (You do not have to subscribe to Atomic Learning to download this freeware software—for Macs or Windows-based computers --or to view the 16 free movies that are available to learn about the software.) This tool helps you to plan ahead when you or your students create video projects.

The AtomicLearning.com web site lists these features for StoryBoard Pro:
* Enter shot titles and descriptions, complete with planned lengths and edited order.
* Indicate shot types: video, still, audio, music, or titles.
* Enter film tips for your camera person when videotaping the shot and editing tips to be used when editing in iMovie, Movie Maker 2, Final Cut Pro, Premeire, or any other editor of your choice.
* Import existing video clips, still pictures, and sounds to better illustrate each shot.
* Create, save, and import templates for video projects.
* Print copies of your storyboard for use while filming or editing.
* Print blank storyboard worksheets for brainstorming new ideas.

A Few Good Web Sites

This is a collection of a few good web sites. One--recommended by a colleague--provides reinforcement/review material. A set of sites from Alan November help you to check out other web sites. And the third site is for the astronomer or astronaut in each of us.


edHELPER.COM _____________________________________________________

edHelper.com was created by teachers to provide for teachers a single site for many educational resources. Portions of this site may be used for free. Other features require a subscription. You may subscribe to the site as a K-8 teacher, as a grades 9-12 teacher, or as a K-12 teacher. Individuals or schools may subscribe.

A free newsletter is available. It highlights the theme units designed for the current month and it points out the new items which have been added to the site.

edHelper’s Table of Contents lists these areas...

Reading and Writing: Reading Comprehension, Literature Units, Writing
PreK-3: Kindergarten, Phonics, PreK-3 Themes
Language: Language Arts, Spelling, Vocabulary, Enter Word Lists
Special Education: Special Education
Foreign Languages: Foreign Languages, Spanish, French, German, Italian
Mathematics: Mathematics, Middle School Mathematics, Algebra
Social Studies: Social Studies, Geography, United States
Science: Science, Health, Animals
More: High School, Test Prep, Art, Classroom Helpers, Make Puzzles, Monthly Themes, and Daily Skills Review

If you teach K-12, you should check out this site at least once. You will probably find some review or reinforcement activities that you would like to use with your students!


TIPS FROM ALAN NOVEMBER TO LEARN MORE ABOUT SPECIFIC WEB SITES

http://Easywhois.com... find out who owns the web site

http://www.archive.org... select the "way back machine" to see past versions of web sites

Use a search engine to find which web sites link to the web site you're investigating. Type link:URL (e.g., link:http://www.whitehouse.gov) in the search box.

Use a search engine to find the web sites to which the web site you're investigating link. Type host:URL (e.g., host:whitehouse.gov) in the search box.


ASTRONOMY PHOTO OF THE DAY _______________________________________

Here is a link to an interesting web site from NASA featuring a new picture of the universe every day. A scientist provides an explanation of what you are looking at in each picture...
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html

Academic Links for Students

Some outstanding academic web sites for students are listed by David Colker in "Pay Attention, Students: Link, Look and Learn" in the August 2006 LATimes.com (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-technopolis24aug24,1,3751833.column?ctrack=1&cset=true). Check the whole list... It covers many areas!


ACADEMIC ALL STARS

http://www.ipl.org
The Internet Public Library site was begun by the University of Michigan. It provides links in many academic fields. Other schools have since joined Michigan in this well-done project.

http://www.sparknotes.com
This Barnes and Noble site features study guides for novels and nonfiction in addition to free reference guides for biology, mathematics, physics, and other topics.

http://www.howstuffworks.com
Check this site to find out how simple (pencils) and complex (atomic clocks) items work.

http://www.ask.com
Find answers to questions such as "When was Benjamin Franklin born?"

http://www.google.com
You've got to list a good search engine!


ANATOMY

http://www.anatomyatlases.org
The "Atlas of Human Anatomy" has excellent images of various parts of the human body.

http://www.bartleby.com/107
This 1918 version of Gray's "Anatomy of the Human Body" is still helpful.

http://www.innerbody.com
Identify body parts and learn about their functions in this interactive site.


ARCHEOLOGY

http://archnet.asu.edu
Links to museums and other resources from Arizona State University.


ART HISTORY

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's timeline of art history from 20,000 BC to 2001.

http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHLinks.html
Links to art periods, artists, and museums.

http://artchive.com
View images of works by prominent artists. It's a bit challenging to navigate this site, but it's worth the effort.


BIOLOGY

http://www.biology.arizona.edu
Links from University of Arizona.

http://www.mnstate.edu/weibust/internetresbiostu.htm
Links from Minnesota State University.


CENSUS

http://Factfinder.census.gov
Official US population numbers, by ZIP code, from the federal Census Bureau.


CHEMISTRY

http://www.chemicalelements.com
Periodic tables of elements... originally begun as part of a student's science project.

http://www.chemdex.org
Links--more than 7,000--from the University of Sheffield in England.

http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/index.shtml
Quizzes, glossaries and tutorials from Frostburg State University in Maryland.


CONVERSION TOOLS

http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/conversions.html
Metric conversions of distance, area, weight, speed, temperature and more. Also converts fractions to decimals.

http://www.xe.com/ucc/full.shtmlConverts world currencies.


LANGUAGES

http://translation.langenberg.com
Translates words and phrases in 13 languages.

http://www.verbix.com/webverbix/
Conjugates verbs in many languages.

http://www.ethnologue.com
Information on nearly 7,000 languages.


LITERATURE

http://www.gutenberg.net
Collection of 18,000 public-domain books, including all works by Shakespeare, "Moby Dick," and many religious texts. Selections can be downloaded to be read either on the computer or on paper.

http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=3
World literature links from UC Santa Barbara.

http://www.cliffsnotes.com
Cliffs Notes study guides to many books can be read on the website for free. There is a fee to download a PDF version.


MATHEMATICS

http://www.algebrahelp.com
Algebra practice problems.

http://www.mathplayground.com/flashcards.html
An online version of flash cards.


MUSIC

http://www.music.indiana.edu/music_resources
Links from Indiana University.

http://www.carolinaclassical.com/links.html
Links organized by era.

http://www.classical.net/music
Links, CD reviews, and recommendations.


PHILOSOPHY

http://plato.stanford.edu/contents.html
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy contains short essays on nearly 1,000 names and concepts.

http://www.epistemelinks.com/index.aspx
Links organized according to philosophers, eras and topics.

http://www.philosophypages.com/dy
Dictionary of names and terms.


PHYSICS

http://www.aip.org/history
Interactive exhibits from the American Institute of Physics on discoveries in the field.

http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/index.pl
An interactive site from the University of Colorado at Boulder demonstrates physics principles.


POLITICAL SCIENCE

http://thomas.loc.gov
The Library of Congress site includes the daily Congressional Record and updates on pending legislation.

http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/official.htm
Links to government web sites worldwide.


PSYCHOLOGY

http://allpsych.com
A glossary of basic terms.

http://www.psychology.org
Links to publications and resources.


REFERENCE

http://dictionary.reference.com
Enter a word to learn its definition.

http://www.encyclopedia.com
Brief entries from the Columbia Encyclopedia.

http://www.infoplease.com
Almanac of statistics and information on politics, business, sports, weather, and entertainment.


WORLD FACTS

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook
The CIA's public directory of countries which includes information such as population, government type, terrain, agriculture, health systems, languages, and broadcast stations.