May 2003

Cyberscoop May 2003 Free monthly newsletter from TEAMS Distance Learning http://teams.lacoe.edu and MathStar http://mathstar.lacoe.edu

Greetings! I hope this finds you nearly finished with standardized testing, showcase celebrations, and open house. Soon many of you will be into end-of-the-year assessments, final grades and the magical start of summer break. Be sure to check out the resources for the end of the school year in the grade level sections. You may want to use these last few weeks to evaluate what has gone well, and note what could be improved for next year.

For those of you who want to find out about using handheld computers in your classroom next year, here are some resources to check out:

Handhelds in the Classroom 12 Issues to Consider When Thinking About Handheld Computers
Thoughtful considerations if handhelds are a possibility for your school and classroom.
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=2907

Glimpsing the Possibilities- with Handheld Computers
Marcia Torgrude, education technology specialist, offers some insights into handheld use with students.
http://handheld.tie.net/basics/Whyhandhelds.dwt

Handheld ROI Survey
Are you ready to implement handheld computers in your classroom? Take this survey to find out how ready you are to be the pioneer at your school.
http://www.palm.com/education/resourcelibrary/survey/

Idea Bank
Find science, graphing, and software applications as you investigate ways to use handheld computers in the classroom.
http://www.palmgrants.sri.com/ideabank.html

Integration
Why use handhelds in school? How can handheld computers be effectively used in a classroom? Consider these possibilities as you evaluate using them with your students.
http://handheld.tie.net/integration/default.htm

Learning in the Palm of Your Hand
HI-CE Palm Pages include free applications to download for classroom use along with instructions for each.
http://www.handheld.hice-dev.org/

Quick- Tell Me How to Buy ÉHandhelds, Palmtops, PDAs
ESchool News Online article explains the basics when it comes to these little devices.
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=4026

A Report Card on Handheld Computing
Article by Jean Shields and Amy Poftak offers some of the benefits and drawbacks of the use of handhelds in the classroom. Make sure you explore all the linked topics.
http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/TL/2002/02/handheld.html

Research Teams Develops Free Ed Software for Handhelds
University of Michigan professor and a team of researchers have developed educational tools for handheld computers that will be available free of charge.
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=2546

Study Touts Classroom Benefits of Handheld Computers
What are the benefits of using handhelds in the classroom?
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=3693

Success Stories
Read what some K-12 teachers, schools, and districts have to say about implementing handheld computers in their classrooms with students.
http://www.palm.com/education/studies/

Your Best Deals on Handheld and Laptop Computers
Although costs change from time to time, here are the recommendations from a middle school principal in California as to the best items available for educators.
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=2906

Administrators

Block Scheduling Resources
Does your district use or recommend block scheduling? Here are some articles with the pros and cons of block scheduling as well as the experiences of schools across the country.
http://tiger.chuh.cleveland-heights.k12.oh.us/Learning/Block/Contents.html

Critical Issue: Using Technology to Improve Student Achievement
NCREL article explaining how administrators can use recent research to justify expenditures on technology as it helps improve student's higher-level thinking skills.
http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/technlgy/te800.htm

Electronic School
This award-winning technology magazine with issues from 1987 to 2002 is available online for K-12 school leaders. Search the archives for articles and information focusing on technology use in schools.
http://www.electronic-school.com/

Evaluating the Quality of Information on the Internet
Virtual Chase, with experience in legal research on the Internet, provides this guide to help you critically evaluate the resources you find online.
http://www.virtualchase.com/quality/index.html

Gangs
Parents in Crisis offers this informational handbook concerning gangs, their structure, make-up, attire, language, and more.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/4111/nogangs.html

Planning for Emergencies
Resources from TeachersFirst can help you evaluate your school emergency plan and give you some ideas for improving what you already have in place.
http://www.teachersfirst.com/emerg.htm

Publications for Parents
The U.S. Department of Education provides numerous resources for parents in many areas including family involvement in education, the Helping Your Child series, Internet Guides, Reading Involvement, and more.
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/parents/

Resource List for Principals
The Distance Learning Resource Network provides these links especially for principals including articles, professional resources, connections to other principals, and more.
http://www.dlrn.org/library/dl/list_principals.html

Students and Teachers Cope with Misinformation on the Internet
Article from the Cleveland Business News concerning the evaluating of information found on the Internet.
http://www.cleveland.com/business/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/business/1047810803278910.xml

Writing in School is Found Both Dismal and Neglected
Students spend far more time watching TV than spend writing. In fact, writing is considered to be the neglected of the 3 R's
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/26/education/26WRIT.html?ex=1052502212&ei=1&en=7f9d6321a2a904ea

Uh, It's Like Student Writing is Bad
This CNN Report discusses the inadequate writing skills students are likely to achieve with emphasis in other areas due to education reform.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/EDUCATION/04/25/student.writing.ap/index.html

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General

Aaron's Reader's Theater Page
Find information about reader's theater, scripts, tips and more. African Americans in the Sciences African Americans in the sciences are organized by professions including biochemists, engineers, geologists, inventors, physicists, mathematicians, zoologists, and more.
http://www.princeton.edu/~mcbrown/display/faces.html

California Teachers.net
Site geared to the needs of California teachers. Includes project centers, chatrooms, grade level-indexed curricular areas, and more.
http://california.teachers.net/

CD Teacher.com
Computer software for the classroom at educational discounts.
http://www.cd-teacher.com/

Digital History
Contains resource guides, online textbooks, historical encyclopedia, biographies, essays, interactive timeline, primary sources, visual history, especially for teachers, a reference room, and more.
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/

Electronic Fieldtrips of Yellowstone
Choose from a selection of Wonderland Webcast virtual field trips in Yellowstone National Park including Wolves in Yellowstone, Bears in Yellowstone, Influence of Art on Yellowstone, Fire Ecology, and Yellowstone History.
http://www.windowsintowonderland.org/

Fact Monster
An Online Almanac, Atlas, Dictionary, and Encyclopedia for kids. Includes Homework Center, Games and Quizzes, and loads of additional facts.
http://www.factmonster.com/index.html

Froogle
A new service from Google to find products for sale on the Internet.
http://froogle.google.com/froogle

Geographia
Explore the continents with their diverse topographical regions and culturally rich heritages. Lots of interesting facts, photos, and maps for you to explore.
http://www.geographia.com/

GetSmarter
Animated, interactive learning and testing site to compare your students' math and science performance against students worldwide. Includes levels from elementary through high school.
http://www.getsmarter.org/index.cfm

Good Character
Teach students character education using these K-12 resources.
http://www.GoodCharacter.com

Helping your Child Become a Responsible Citizen
Activities and lessons in character education for students from elementary school through high school. Provided from the U.S. Department of Education.
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/parents/citizen/index.html

History Wired
The Smithsonian Institution provides a look at many examples of their vast artifact collection.
http://www.historywired.si.edu/index.html

Homeworkopoly
Fun printable game that will get your students turning in assignments on timeÉ!
http://www.teachnet.com/homeworkopoly/

HTML Code Tutorial
Learn all about HTML by accessing this tutorial to help you.
http://www.HTMLCodeTutorial.com/

National Gallery of Art Classroom
Art lessons for teachers and students indexed by Curriculum, Topic, and Artist.
http://www.nga.gov/education/classroom/

The Pencil Pages
Discover the history behind the no. 2 yellow pencils you use at school.
http://www.pencils.com/

Puppet Resource Center
Available from Puppet Universe, learn how to make puppets, how to use puppets to teach math, English, and history, discover strategies for making puppets come alive, and find ways to write scripts for plays using puppets.
http://www.puppetuniverse.com/puppet-resource.php

Quiz Buddy Lite
Free version of Quiz Buddy to help your students memorize multiplication tables, states and capitals, and more. Learning takes place through a series of multiple choice questions.
http://www.quiz-buddy.com/free.html

Service Learning
GoodCharacter.com provides some useful resources for those of you using service learning to develop good citizenship, responsibility, self-reliance, tolerance, an appreciation of diversity, and kindness to others.
http://www.GoodCharacter.com./SERVICE/service.html

SodaPlay Constructions
Fun to play with and fun to create- Enjoy!!
http://www.sodaplay.com/

Summer Sites for Kids
Issue of the Innovative Teaching Newsletter contains lots of ideas to get students through the summer including reading lists, summer safety, summer activities, and more.
http://surfaquarium.com/newsletter/summer2003.htm

Thinkport
Great resource for classroom teachers, with lessons tied in to Maryland standards
http://www.thinkport.org/classroom/default.tp

Tips for Parents on Keeping Children Drug-Free
Resources from the U.S. Department of Education designed to help parents work with their children to encourage them to stay away from inappropriate drug use.
http://www.ed.gov/offices/OIIA/pfie/drugfree/index.html

Top Ten Ways to Use Venn Diagrams
Here are some innovative ways to use this popular graphic organizer.
http://www.venndiagram.com/toptenvenn.html

The Toxic House
Explore the hazards of indoor pollution, and the dangers of often-used household products. Every room in the house can contain toxic problems.
http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/toxic_flash/toxic_house_flash.html

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Grades K-2

Alphabet, Spelling and Language Arts Activities
Games, puzzles, and skill learning activities especially for students in Kindergarten and First Grade. Choose from a wide assortment to help students learn all year long.
http://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/sbeck/interactive_curriculum_sites.htm#K-1%20Alphabet%20and%20Reading%20%20Activities

End of the School Year
Find great ideas to help you end the school year with memorable fun and learning.
http://teachingheart.net/endoftheyearpage.html

End of the Year Poem
A special poem to give each student at the end of the school year.
http://www.theteacherscorner.net/seasonal/endofyear/poem.htm

Introduction to Measurement for Primary Students
Math Forum presents Varnelle Moore's primary math activities where students measure and describe the attributes of integer bars.
http://mathforum.org/varnelle/krods.html

Introduction to Symmetry for Primary Students
These lessons use tangrams to teach primary students about translation, rotation, and reflection of shapes.
http://mathforum.org/varnelle/ktan.html

The Literacy Center
Young children play and learn letters, shapes, writing, words, numbers, colors, and more.
http://www.literacycenter.net/lessonview_en.htm

Reader's Theater Scripts for K-3
Reader's Theater offers fun and learning at any time of the school year. This collection offers a wide variety of stories.
http://www.teachingheart.net/readerstheater.htm

Summer Reading List, K-2
Indexed by author, here is a list of K-2 appropriate reading books for you to recommend to your students and parents.
http://ncaldwell.advsyscon.com/SummerReadingList-K-2.htm

TLC- Teaching Little Children Art
Download free lesson plans each month including literary resources that tie in to the art project and theme.
http://www.tlcart.com/

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Grades 3-5

Biographies: Creating Timelines of a Life
Lesson plan from Read¥Write¥Think gets students to work in groups to explore biographical information for up to six individuals, researching online resources to create a timeline of interest to others.
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=26

EnviroMysteries
Maryland Public Television and the Maryland Public Television's Learning Works provide these video programs, lesson plans and teacher guides for several environmental mystery shows.
http://enviromysteries.thinkport.org/

Eisenhower Home Virtual Tour
Join your tour guide, Zac, for a journey through President Eisenhower's home in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
http://www.nps.gov/eise/tour1a.htm

FunBrain Spell Check
Students practice spelling and proofreading skills by finding the incorrectly spelled word, then spelling it correctly.
http://www.funbrain.com/spell/index.html

Images of Greatness
This site is the creation of a 4th/5th grade class and includes brief biographies of 12 historical figures.
http://www.kyrene.k12.az.us/schools/brisas/sunda/great/great.htm

Looking Forward by Looking Back: End-of-the-Year Assessment
Dr. Kimberly B. Moore recommends that you plan for next year by first assessing what happened this past school year. She offers seven simple steps for a successful evaluation.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/endyear/end_assessment.htm

Making the Most of the Dreaded End-of-School Days
Education World offers these ideas of ways to keep the learning going as the school year winds down toward the end.
http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson268.shtml

Science-athon
Online investigative project for grades 2-8 from the TERC Center for Educational Partnerships Initiative.
http://scithon.terc.edu/

Spaghetti Book Club
Students read and write book reviews which can be posted at this site.
http://www.spaghettibookclub.org/index.shtml

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Grades 6-8

Ancient Near East
From prehistory to the Muslim conquest of the 7th century CE, explore the amazing world where three continents meet. Discover facts and resources in archeology, ancient history, art, religion, and more.
http://www.ancientneareast.net/

The Bears Of Yellowstone
This electronic field trip for 5th- 8th grade students includes planning and curricular materials for teachers.
http://www.windowsintowonderland.org/bears/index.htm

Creeping Sand
Sand can move and cover farms and cities. How does this work? NASA explains and offers additional resources in this article.
http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2003/news-sand.asp?list22754-149

Earth to Orbit Engineering Design Challenge
Students in grades 5-8 learn to design the next generation of space vehicles. Teachers can download the Classroom Resources Guide to help students design, build, redesign and rebuild vehicles according to certain criteria.
http://eto.nasa.gov/

Exploring Earth Investigations
Thirty chapters of Earth science investigations- a wealth of information for any teacher of science. Each investigation centers around a question which is then carefully explored in search of answers.
http://earthsci.terc.edu/navigation/investigation.cfm

Introduction to Watershed Ecology
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency provides this module covering the major landscape defining processes, the biological setting, the natural systems concept, watershed structure and watershed functions.
http://www.epa.gov/owowwtr1/watershed/wacademy/acad2000/ecology/index.html

Lifelines of Persons of World Historical Interest
100 historical figures are arranged on a timeline spanning 500 years. This site supports the selection of important world figures by older students.
http://users.uniserve.com/~andreasn/chart/chart.html

More Amazing Americans
This WebQuest contains 10 lessons enabling students to investigate what makes an Amazing American, who they are, and what can be discovered about them.
http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=350

PhysLink
Newsletter for the latest Physics and Astronomy resources.
http://www.physlink.com/

Plastic Fork Diaries
Follow the life of six middle school students, see how family life, food and nutrition, and friends affect their health. Discover a new episode each Wednesday.
http://www.plasticforkdiaries.com/index_flash.cfm

Virtual Trade Mission
Interdisciplinary unit for upper middle or high school designed to teach students about
a new product or service; a new company or market; a new strategy or solution for an environmental or workplace challenge.
http://www.virtualtrademission.org/Beta/home.html

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Grades 9-12

Becoming Human
Take a look at the Hominid peoples of Ancient Africa through the documentary videos, explore an archeological dig, learn to look for context clues, find out how archeologists interpret the evidence, reconstruct environments, and more in virtual exhibits presented by the Institute of Human Origins at ASU.
http://www.becominghuman.org/

Characteristics of Chemical and Biological Weapons Agents
The Center for Nonproliferation Studies provides this list of resources for those wanting further information about chemical and biological weapons.
http://cns.miis.edu/research/cbw/tech.htm

The Chinese in California, 1850- 1925
Collection of about 8,000 images and pages of primary source records, photographs, letters, pamphlets, speeches, cartoons, and other items documenting the immigration of the Chinese to California. Comes from the latest American Memory Collection for the Library of Congress.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award99/cubhtml/

Drop Me Off in Harlem
Discover the themes and works that emerged when creative and intellectual voices intersected during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920's.
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/exploring/harlem/

Manassas Battlefield History
Detailed battle description of the first and second Manassas confrontations, the order of battle, casualties, and a virtual tour.
http://www.nps.gov/mana/battlefield_history/bhistory.htm

Mudd Math Fun Facts
Enrichment math facts, problem-solving, and trivia including algebra, geometry, number theory, combinatorics, probability, topology, and more.
http://www.math.hmc.edu/funfacts/

The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing
Learn about different types of writing, style and expression, writing elements, clarity, rhetoric, essay structure, research evidence, and mechanics at this writing site designed for high school and college students.
http://nutsandbolts.washcoll.edu/

Partners of the Heart
The PBS American Experience special brings a prominent white surgeon with a young black genius who together develop a procedure that would save the lives of thousands of blue babies of the 1944 era.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/partners/

The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow
4-Part series from PBS includes segregation from the end of the Civil War through the modern civil rights movement. Site includes background information, Jim Crow stories, interactive maps, tools, and activities for teachers to use with students.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/

Russian Folklore Expedition
Contents of an ongoing project collecting the traditional Russian poetry, mythology, songs, pagan rituals, and fairy tales of the old Slavic communities.
http://www.russianexpedition.net

Teen Ink
Online magazine written by teens for teens. Students are encouraged to submit their original work for possible publication.
http://TeenInk.com/

A Walk Through Time
Historical look at the measurement of time including ancient calendars, early clocks, world time zones and different time scales, and more from NIST Physics Laboratory.
http://physics.nist.gov/GenInt/Time/time.html

What is Jazz?
Recorded live at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Dr. Billy Taylor presented a four-part ARTSEDGE lecture series. Dr. Taylor shares his extensive knowledge of jazz music from its roots in the African American slavery experience through the early years of ragtime, and on to swing, bop, and progressive jazz.
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/whatisjazz/

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Although there are many sites in each Cyberscoop newsletter, please don't get overwhelmed. Recommended resources eventually find their way onto our TEAMS Distance Learning site. You can always check out the archived Cyberscoop issues if you remember the name or topic of a particular site you want to use. Past archived Cyberscoop issues are located at:
/documentation/support/carole/cyberscoop/archive.html

Do you know anyone who might want a copy of this free newsletter? Please forward it to your teaching colleagues. Encourage them to sign up at: /documentation/support/carole/subscribe.html

I always enjoy helping you find the resources you need. I have a file full of thematic resources, so please let me know if need anything in particular. Also, if you have a site to recommend, please feel free to contact me with your suggestion.

Good luck in helping students and colleagues succeed this month. I wish you nothing but the best!

Margie

Margie Burton, Web Cybrarian
burton_margie@lacoe.edu

TEAMS Distance Learning http://teams.lacoe.edu
and MathStar http://mathstar.lacoe.edu
Center for Distributed and Online Learning
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