From: "Education World Reviews Newsletter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] List: Education_World_Reviews_Newsletter Subject: Education World Site Reviews Vol. 7 Issue 39 Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2002 16:01:46 -0700 (PDT)
Education World Reviews ---------------------------------- Volume 7, Issue 40 October 1, 2002 ********************************************** Dear Education Professionals, Welcome to the Site Reviews Newsletter, published weekly as a free service by Education World(R)! You are receiving this message because you are subscribed to Education World's Site Reviews Distribution list. If you enjoy this newsletter, please feel free to forward it to other teachers! If this newsletter has been forwarded to you, you may sign up at http://www.educationworld.com/maillist.shtml ********************************************** Education World's newsletter is brought to you by Jo-Ann Stores Jo-Ann Stores is committed to promoting creativity in the classroom; to support this commitment Jo-Ann Stores unveiled a program to show their appreciation to America's educators. This new program allows teachers to register for the Jo-Ann Stores teacher mailing list and to receive a Jo-Ann Stores Teacher Discount Card. This special discount card is valid for the entire 2002-2003 school year and enables the educator to purchase classroom and project supplies at a 10% discount of sale and non-sale merchandise. Jo-Ann Stores CEO, Alan Rosskamm states, "We are committed to offering teachers a discount on the supplies they need to support curriculum objectives. We recognize that hands-on projects can be used very effectively in the classroom as a teaching method that stimulates retention and academic achievements in core subject areas. We wholeheartedly support creativity in the classroom and believe that creative teachers inspire creative thinkers. For this initiative we hope to connect with thousands of teachers across the country." For more information on this program please click http://www.educationworld.com/go/base?id=JAC ********************************************** Education World's newsletter is brought to you by CEO&I BRING THE WORLD TO YOUR CLASSROOM! TEACH! LEARN! INNOVATE! The best teachers never stop learning about the world around them. The Center for Educational Outreach & Innovation at Teachers College, Columbia University offers a variety of ways for educators to explore new topics and develop professional expertise in areas such as Arts in Education, Technology in Education, Social Sciences, Humanities, Math & Science in Education, Adult Learning and Leadership, and International and Transcultural Education. CEO&I offers you incredible opportunities to study with top scholars and innovators in these fields. Visit http://www.educationworld.com/go/base?id=CEP or call 1-800-209-1245 today to learn more! ********************************************** THIS WEEK'S REVIEWS ********************************************** Kids' Castle http://www.kidscastle.si.edu/ Smithsonian Magazine offers a fun, educational Web site for kids. Making Mathematics http://www2.edc.org/makingmath/ Open-ended mathematics research projects. SFS Kids: Fun with Music http://www.sfskids.org/templates/home.asp?pageid=1 San Francisco Symphony Kids' Site: Listen, learn, and have fun with music. Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching http://www.ex.ac.uk/cimt/ A top British university's math site. Preschool Education http://www.preschooleducation.com/ Ideas for early childhood educators. ****************************** REVIEWS ****************************** OVERALL GRADE: A http://www.kidscastle.si.edu/ GRADE LEVEL: 1-6 CONTENT: A Kids' Castle is the online Smithsonian Magazine for Kids. The home page offers links to the Cool Link of the Day In addition, links to all the channels (subject areas) are available here. Channels include Science, Personalities, Sports, Animals, Worldwide, History, Arts, and Space. Each channel provides questions and answers, pictures, and information about the subject. AESTHETICS: A The Web site has a bright yellow background that could be distracting. Text is black and easy to read. Picture menus make this site more child-friendly. ORGANIZATION: A The home page for Kids' Castle offers links for each subject area. Each page also links to games and the message board through links at the bottom of every page. A Homelink makes it easy to get from any page back to the Kids' Castle. REVIEW: A The Castle Club page offers links to the newsletters and a cartoon -- at this time, there is also a link to coloring pictures featuring animals from the National Zoo. There is also a moderated message board available -- based on the Discus program from Hope College in Holland, Michigan. The message board includes a reminder for students to leave only a first name and last initial and not to give any personal information such as address, phone number, or e-mail address. The main page at Kids' Castle offers picture links to all the channels. Each channel has a What's New section, scrollable links to message topics (questions and answers), facts and photos, and feature articles about that subject. Each channel is "hosted" by a character -- for example, Animals is hosted by a safari-clad character named Jane. Children can find interesting material here on many subjects, and many of the articles have links to outside sources of information on the same subject. RELATED REVIEWS: Parents : General http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/parents.shtml#General Students : General http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/students.shtml#General Teachers : General http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/teachers.shtml#General ------------------------------- OVERALL GRADE: A+ http://www2.edc.org/makingmath/ GRADE LEVEL: 7-12, Professional CONTENT: A+ Making Mathematics offers examples of open-ended math research projects for students in grades seven through 12. Each project lists prerequisites, warm-up problems, hints, resources, teaching notes, extension problems, and results. In addition, there are support sites for students, parents, and teachers and a section with links to other math-related sites. AESTHETICS: A+ This site is quite attractive and professionally presented. White backgrounds and simple graphics make it easy to read and use. ORGANIZATION: A+ A simple organizational bar at the top of each page offers links to each section of the site. There are also textual links at the bottom of each page. REVIEW: A+ The Making Mathematics site was originally developed to report on a project that linked middle and high school students, teachers, and professional mathematicians via the Internet to collaborate on open-ended mathematics research projects. The project lasted from 1999 to 2002. Although the actual project is finished, the research projects are described in detail and could be replicated by teachers and students. Research projects are ranked from 1 -- no algebra yet to 4 -- advanced algebra and beyond. An extensive teacher handbook is available in both .html and .pdf format. The handbook provides advice and activities for teaching mathematical research skills. Mathematical tools are also available on the http://www2.edc.org/makingmath/teacher.asp Teachers page -- including links to other Web resources for subjects such as Pascal's Triangle, Euclid's Algorithm, and the Chinese Remainder Theorem. Reports on the completed student projects are available as are stories describing experiences of students, teachers, a RELATED REVIEWS: Math & Finance : Algebra http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/math.shtml#Algebra Teachers : Grades 6-8 http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/teachers.shtml#6-8 Teachers : Grades 9-12 http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/teachers.shtml#9-12 Teachers : Online Tools http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/teachers.shtml#Online%20Tools ------------------------------- OVERALL GRADE: A+ http://www.sfskids.org/templates/home.asp?pageid=1 GRADE LEVEL: K-8 CONTENT: A+ The San Francisco Symphony Site for Kids is a rich resource for the music teacher or student. It provides kids of all ages the opportunity to "learn, listen and have fun" with music. AESTHETICS: A+ The site is colorful and exciting with child friendly graphics. A great Help section is available for downloading and installing necessary plug-ins. ORGANIZATION: A+ The site is easy to navigate. There is a top and left side navigation menu to the major areas of the site as well as a handy site map and an onsite search tool. REVIEW: A+ The SFS Kids site is a wonderful resource for learning about music. Whether you are interested in starting with a basic introduction to the notes or delving further into tempo, pitch, and harmony, this is the place to go. The Music Lab students can experiment with the sites and sounds by playing a tune with the Performalator or making their own music with the Composerizer. There is a Radio for listening to compositions. Each channel of the radio features a play list on the right with a brief informational piece on the left. The Instruments of the Orchestra section groups the instruments into the four families; strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion. Each of the four categories features information on the different instruments along with sound clips and close up 360 degree pictures. This is a must see site for music teachers and students! RELATED REVIEWS: Fine Arts : Music http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/fine_arts.shtml#Music Internet : Interactive Web sites http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/internet.shtml#Interactive%20We bsites Students : Games & Fun Sites http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/students.shtml#Games%20&%20Fun% 20Sites Parents : Family Fun http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/parents.shtml#Family%20Fun Parents : Home Schooling http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/parents.shtml#Home%20Schooling ------------------------------- OVERALL GRADE: A http://www.ex.ac.uk/cimt/ GRADE LEVEL: All, Professional CONTENT: A+ This site offers mathematical research papers and tools for math instruction at all levels. In addition to information for teachers of math at all levels, information on units of measurement and conversion instruction, raw data (mostly in the area of athletics), many mathematical puzzles, and links to other math sources on the web can be found at this site from the University of Exeter in the UK, a top university there. AESTHETICS: A Light colored backgrounds and black print make this site easy to read. There are no graphics to distract you on the home page. Throughout the site, you can find some shapes, such as on the Tangram pages. These graphics are black on light colored backgrounds and are easy to distinguish. The colors on some pages are easier to read than others. ORGANIZATION: A The home page of this site consists of a little information about the site and a list of links to specific sections. There is a link to a more descriptive index that offers annotations to the various pages available. REVIEW: A The Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching, established in 1986 at University of Exeter, is a "focus for research and curriculum development in Mathematics teaching and learning, with the aim of unifying and enhancing mathematical progress in schools and Colleges". The website was created in 1995. The information available here could be invaluable to math teachers at all levels. The Mathematics Enhancement Programme (MEP) http://www.ex.ac.uk/cimt/mep/index.htm offers teaching material for mathematics for all grade levels - in-service materials for teachers and direct help for students at certain levels. The Kassel Project describes a collaborative project between Exeter and Kassel Universities to assess mathematics and determine "good practice". The site offers links to schools that offer math materials online and other sites with helpful information for math teachers and students. Puzzles, Pastimes, and Competitions offers lots of interesting and intriguing puzzles for higher level thinking. The site RELATED REVIEWS: Math & Finance : General http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/math.shtml#General Math & Finance : Algebra http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/math.shtml#Algebra Math & Finance : Calculus & Trigonometry http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/math.shtml#Calculus%20&%20Trigo nometry Math & Finance : Finance http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/math.shtml#Finance Math & Finance : Geometry http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/math.shtml#Geometry ------------------------------- OVERALL GRADE: A http://www.preschooleducation.com/ GRADE LEVEL: PreK - 1, Professional CONTENT: A This site has a wealth of information and ideas for early childhood educators. The information is available by theme and also by type (e.g., bulletin board, felt board, circle time, etc.). AESTHETICS: B Brightly colored backgrounds and colored text make reading this page somewhat difficult. In addition, the banner ads can be distracting because they aren't as clearly separated from content and navigational elements as they could be. The site also permits pop-up advertising. ORGANIZATION: A This site offers links from the homepage to all its features. It is easy to move from one area to another. The search feature is an easy way to find ideas and information on the site. REVIEW: A The Preschool Education site is designed to give parents and teachers of young children lots of ideas and resources. An online newsletter allows sharing of theme-related ideas, bulletin boards, recipes, articles, and even pages to print -- including notes to parents, file folder games, felt board stories, and much more. This site offers book reviews, arts and craft ideas, and links to other preschool resources available online. Teachers and child-care providers will find many useful ideas here. RELATED REVIEWS: Teachers : Grades PreK-K http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/teachers.shtml#Pre-K-K Parents : Home Schooling http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/parents.shtml#Home%20Schooling Parents : General http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/parents.shtml#General Teachers : General http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/teachers.shtml#General Teachers : Methods & Strategies http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/teachers.shtml#Methods%20&%20St rategies Teachers : Online Tools http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/teachers.shtml#Online%20Tools ********************************************** Sincerely, Lisa Gryskiewicz =================================== Education World (R) http://www.educationworld.com/ [EMAIL PROTECTED] =================================== ************************************************************************* NOTE: Gleason Sackmann is the owner and host of this list. 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