NETHAPPENINGS NEWSLETTER #6 November 23, 2004

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  NHN: Net Happenings Newsletter #6

NEW THIS WEEK for November 23, 2004
<http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Community/NetHappenings.html>
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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 <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
[e] newsletter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[w] http://www.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.
<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6505561/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A2
951-2001Mar27&notFound=true>

Are textbooks 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/converge/?pg=magstory&id=91987

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

A British view of the Election
<http://www.gregpalast.com/columns.cfm?subject_id=1&subject_name=Theft%20of%20Presidency>

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
=106&issue=4

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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Chance to share artwork with the world.
Save and don't go through the slow loading and valueless opening page. The
site has an entry form to get your student's work entered. The theme is
Olympiad links art and sports.
http://www.icaf.org/programs/artsolympiad/ao.html

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
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Arts/websites.html

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/

K12 ARTS CURRICULUM
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Arts/curriculum.html

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
http://www.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"
http://www.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
http://www.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.
http://www.meresoft.com/


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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
<http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Linguistics/Home_Linguistics.html>

ESL, Dialect Speakers and Learning to Read
<http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Linguistics/DIALECT_READERS_REVISITED.html>

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 and links
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Literacy/stats.asp

National Center for Statistics
Its gotta be here.
http://nces.ed.gov/

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GRANTS
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November Grants
Very slow to load,, but the price is right
<http://www.ccs.k12.nc.us/grants/Grants%20Guides/2004-2005/nov04-85.pdf>

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
The deadline for receipt of applications is 5:00PM on February 1, 2005.


Thanks for reading,

Al


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