From: Education World Reviews Newsletter [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2002 5:54 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Education World Site Reviews Vol. 7 Issue 41
Education World Reviews ---------------------------------- Volume 7, Issue 41 October 8, 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 InFocus InFocus invites you to win the Building Brighter Classrooms Sweepstakes Meet the next generation in interactive classrooms. Imagine the ability to challenge students to educational computer games right in your own classroom. Just turn on the InFocus LP240 projector, pass out the handheld computers with wireless cards and you're ready to go. Enter to win this complete solution for your wireless, interactive classroom: http://www.educationworld.com/go/base?id=AAB ********************************************** THIS WEEK'S REVIEWS ********************************************** First-School PreSchool Activities and Crafts http://www.educationworld.com/awards/2002/r0902-30.shtml Easy-to-use site for preschool educators and parents. Math Fact Cafe http://www.educationworld.com/awards/2002/r1002-01.shtml Tools and resources for elementary math. UptoTen.com http://www.educationworld.com/awards/2002/r1002-02.shtml Highly interactive site for children. The Best of History Web Sites http://www.educationworld.com/awards/2002/r1002-03.shtml History portal for teachers and students. UN Atlas of the Oceans http://www.educationworld.com/awards/2002/r1002-04.shtml Dive into an ocean of information! ****************************** REVIEWS ****************************** OVERALL GRADE: A http://www.first-school.ws/ Grade Level: PreK - 1, Professional CONTENT: A First-School offers parents, preschool teachers and caregivers ideas, links to printable activities, and theme materials -- including some online activities. Monthly activities are available. A Spanish version of the site is available. AESTHETICS: A Pale yellow and white backgrounds and black or red text make this site easy to read. The simple fonts and large text size also contribute readability. ORGANIZATION: A The main areas of First-School are easily accessible from the homepage. Activities and ideas are organized by themes, alphabet, holidays, animals, coloring pages, and crafts. The site is not extremely deep, but it is easy to find everything. REVIEW: A First-School is an excellent resource for early childhood educators and anyone else working with young children. The First Alphabet (http://www.first-school.ws/theme/alphabet.htm) section offers printable worksheets and activities for each letter. First PreSchool Themes (http://www.first-school.ws/themes.html) offers ideas, links to online resources, and printable coloring pages and other activities to spice up a pre-school curriculum. Information on current book titles and activities to go with these books are available, and direct links to amazon.com make book purchase easy. 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%20Sc hooling 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&%20Strategies Teachers : Online Tools http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/teachers.shtml#Online%2 0Tools ------------------------------- OVERALL GRADE: A http://www.mathfactcafe.com/ Grade Level: K-5 CONTENT: A The home page of this site offers links to pages where you can print flash cards for grades 1-4 - addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Pre-made worksheets are also available. There is also a page available where you can design your own worksheet. AESTHETICS: A Simple graphics on this homepage allow easy access to each section of this site. White backgrounds make reading the pages easy. This site is visually attractive. ORGANIZATION: A This site offers links from the homepage to all its' features. It is easy to move from one area to another. The help feature is an easy way to get information about the site. REVIEW: A+ The home page of this site offers links to all the other features - Pre-Made offers fact sheets for grades 1-4, and Flashcards has printable cards for grades 1-3 with 4th grade coming soon. Build Your Own allows you to choose problem type, font size, division answers with choices such as whole numbers, ranges for the numbers used in the problems, and the amount of space available on the page for working area. Newsletters are available from January 2001. You can sign up to be sent current newsletters as they come out. In addition, you can sign up for notification of new features added to the site. The relax and play a game section allows you to play the peg game made popular at CrackerBarrel restaurants. This site offers a tremendous resource for teachers of grades 1-4 in math. Easy to use and print, the worksheets and flashcards can be valuable for teachers and parents of children at these grade levels. RELATED REVIEWS: Math & Finance : General http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/math.shtml#General Parents : Home Schooling http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/parents.shtml#Home%20Sc hooling Teachers : Grades 1-5 http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/teachers.shtml#1-5 ------------------------------- OVERALL GRADE: A+ http://www.uptoten.com/home.phtml Grade Level: PreK - 5, Parents CONTENT: A+ Up to Ten is available in 6 languages: English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Italian, and Korean). It includes a collection of interactive games, coloring, cards, and animated stories and songs. The animated characters Boowa and Kwala are the children's "hosts" on each page. AESTHETICS: A This colorful and professional site is very child-friendly. Colored icons are organized for parent/teacher information and child-friendly access. For example, all the green icons indicate opportunities for motor skill development and all the blue icons indicate activities that are intended to promote intellectual agility. Interspersed among the pages are numerous ads for products from the site's store, however, and these could be distracting. ORGANIZATION: A When you open UptoTen.com, two windows open, one for parents and the other for children. The parent window explains the site, while the children's window offers balloons that 'explode' when you roll over them to reveal explanations of what content is available if you click there. This presentation is very energetic, if perhaps just a little distracting. Nevertheless, it's easy to find your way around the site. REVIEW: A+ To gain full access to all the features of UptoTen.com, you must register to be a member; membership is free. This membership is required to help build in security for children using the site. Members may send in drawings to post in the gallery or view drawings already posted. The What's New page offers a choice of three games from the site (different each day), and a drawing sent in by a member. There are print-and-paint pages along with pages to color online. Sound effects add to the child-friendly atmosphere. The Boowa and Kwala page offers animated storybooks, songs, games (many created after requests were made by club members). Also featured in this area is The Boowa and Kwala Club, where fans of the site sign up for extras, such as e-mail updates, an area to store favorite games, and personalized birthday cards. Each activity at the site offers additional info for parents and caregivers, available by clicking on the Info button at the top of each page. The Parents section of the site offers a forum for RELATED REVIEWS: Parents : General http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/parents.shtml#General Parents : Family Fun http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/parents.shtml#Family%20 Fun Parents : Home Schooling http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/parents.shtml#Home%20Sc hooling Students : Games & Fun Sites http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/students.shtml#Games%20 &%20Fun%20Sites Teachers : Grades PreK-K http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/teachers.shtml#Pre-K-K Teachers : Grades 1-5 http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/teachers.shtml#1-5 ------------------------------- OVERALL GRADE: A http://www.besthistorysites.net/ Grade Level: 9-12, Advanced, Professional CONTENT: A The Best of History Web Sites portal was developed teacher Thomas Daccord, at the Noble and Greenough School in Dedham, Massachusetts, for history teachers and students. It provides links to some of the best history resources on the Internet, rated and categorized. AESTHETICS: A The pages are attractive and easily read. Text and background colors work well together. The muted color scheme creates a "grown-up" look that should appeal to high school students. ORGANIZATION: A The left-side menu list the ten history categories, as well as lesson plans, multimedia, and research. Clicking on a category name displays a sub-menu for quickly finding information. There is also a drop-down menu at the top of each page. REVIEW: A Resources at this site are well organized into ten categories, including: Prehistory, Ancient/Biblical, Medieval, U.S. History, Early Modern European, 20th Century, World War II, Art History, General Resources, and Maps. All categories are further divided into sub-groups. Each of the annotated Web links is rated for quality using a five star system, five for outstanding. Included are sections for the best lesson plans/activities, multimedia, and research, as well as a free monthly newsletter. There is also a special section on "Teaching with Technology" with a handful of articles and links to current research on using technology in the classroom. The site is still growing, with new sections in the works for publication soon. RELATED REVIEWS: Internet : Internet Directories http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/internet.shtml#director ies History : General http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/history.shtml#General History : American http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/history.shtml#United%20 States History : Ancient & Classical http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/history.shtml#Ancient%2 0&%20Classical History : Biographies http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/history.shtml#Biographi es History : US Presidents http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/history.shtml#United%20 States%20Presidents History : Wars http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/history.shtml#Wars History : World http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/history.shtml#World ------------------------------- OVERALL GRADE: A+ http://www.oceansatlas.com/index.jsp Grade Level: Adult, Professional, 9-12 CONTENT: A+ The UN Atlas of the Oceans is a one-stop source for information pertaining to the "sustainable development of the oceans". It presents maps, images, statistics, and other factual information gathered by such governmental agencies as the United Nations, the Russian Head Department of Navigation and Oceanography (HDNO), and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). AESTHETICS: A+ The site has an appealing format that allows the user to "look before they leap." By rolling the mouse over the pictures, the user obtains a description of the content available via that link. ORGANIZATION: A+ Visitors can choose from a variety of ways to navigate the site. In addition to the graphical links on the main page, there is a left side menu, a site map, and an onsite search tool. REVIEW: A+ Information in the Atlas is divided into four major areas: About, Uses, Geography, and Issues. In addition to the research, statistics, maps, and history, a wide variety of topics on the utilization of the oceans are covered such as energy, recreation and tourism, shipping and mining, and much more. Visitors will also find an exploration of current issues such as economics, food security, governance, and pollution and degradation that affect sustainable development. K-12 teachers will find valuable background information within the seventeen sub-topics in the "About" section (one of the four main links from the homepage). Sub-topics include Biology, Ecology, How the Oceans Were Formed, How the Oceans Are Changing, Physical and Chemical Properties, and Ocean Dynamics. A glossary is available via the top navigation bar, and an image gallery is in the works. RELATED REVIEWS: Science : Earth Science http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/science.shtml#Earth%20S cience Science : Life Science http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/science.shtml#Life%20Sc ience Science : General Science http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/science.shtml#General%2 0Science ********************************************** Sincerely, Lisa Gryskiewicz =================================== Education World (R) http://www.educationworld.com/ [EMAIL PROTECTED] =================================== ************************************************************************* NOTE: Gleason Sackmann is the owner and host of this list. All inquiries regarding this list and its contents should be directed to Gleason Sackmann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. 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