Volume 1, No. 9
2 August, 2002
[To view this newsletter on line:
http://www.emck.net/eline/02_08_02.htm]
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Look for back-to-school ideas in the
Vol. 2, #1 edition of The Help Desk!
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"What's a 'Dot-Com?'"
Almost all Uniform Resource Locators (URLs - the web address appearing in
the "address" or "Go to" window of your browser) are
constructed alike. For example, the URL for the archives for The Help Desk
is http://www.emck.net/eline
- "http" (HyperText Transfer Protocol) represents the computer
language; "www" refers to the World Wide Web. "pfks" is
the domain - the main address of the site, in this case that of the Partnership
for Kentucky Schools. ".org" is the site extension, and refers
to the type of site. The "/thehelpdesk" part refers to a subfolder
or subweb within the PFKS site. If there is no subfolder reference, you are
at the "top level domain."
Like ".org," Dot-Com (".com") is a site
URL extension. Twenty years ago, when top level domains were not quite so numerous,
there were few commercial sites, and ".com" was the
extension for them all. Non-profit extensions were more numerous,
including ".edu" for
educational institutions, ".org" for other non-profit institutes,
".gov" for government, ".mil" for military, and
".net" - a generic reference to any networked site, often
without any institutional association. Since site extensions are
self-policed, there are exceptions - commercial dot-orgs and dot-nets exist,
and some dot-coms are non-commercial. Recently, several extensions have been
added, including ".biz" and ".name," but, in general,
"dot-com"
is still used as a way to refer to for-profit Internet sites.
Dot-com sites do not need to be avoided, but one must remember that they
often exist to advertise and promote, create need for the products of,
or generate revenue for, a for-profit company. This means they may harvest
email addresses for advertising or track use of their website to help
explore profitability. Many offer useful things for educators, but just
remember that, unlike ".edu" or other non-profit sites, they have
more than one agenda - look at privacy statements and "Who we are"
information pages for hints.
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| On-line Lesson Planning |
 Teacher
Talk Forum Lesson Plans
http://www.indiana.edu/~cafs/ttforum/lesson.html
Maintained by the Center for Adolescent Studies at
Indiana University as a part of the
Teacher
Talk Forum and Teacher Talk electronic magazine, this simple listing
of lesson plans with materials in a variety of subjects and formats may
get you started. There's quite a large number of interdisciplinary units.
[editor's note: link updated 7/1/04]
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| Content Area Resources |
| The Arts |
 Arts
Edge
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/
Arts Edge is a service of the Kennedy Center in
partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the US
Department of Education. Lesson plans are standards-based, full of
related resources and support, and complete with materials. There
are lessons integrating the arts with other disciplines -
mathematics, science, writing, even ESL! A part of the MarcoPolo
family of websites. |
| Mathematics |
 Secondary
Mathematics Assessment and Resource Database (SMARD)
http://smard.cqu.edu.au/ Owned
and managed by the Queensland Association of Mathematics Teachers, Australia,
and
sponsored by Sharp Corporation, SMARD is a clearinghouse for
teacher-submitted lesson resources/worksheets on a variety of mathematics
subjects. Lessons are in Word or Rich Text format, and are contained in a
browse-able or searchable database. Lots of good resource links as well! |
| Reading |
 The
Great Books Foundation
http://www.greatbooks.org/
The non-profit Great Books Foundation predates the
Internet by quite a while, being founded in the 1940's. This site
includes a Junior
Great Books program which is aimed at several K-12 grade
categories of readers. Included on the site are philosophy, reading
lists, and other musings on the world of great books, but the site
mainly exists to promote their packaged Great Books
curriculum resource program which is available for sale, and with
training available for hire. |
| Science |
 Chem4Kids
http://www.chem4kids.com
No downloadable resources here (the
"Download" section just has desktop wallpaper themes) -
these lessons are delivered on line and include a general
introduction, flash-card-style practice, and on-line quizzes.
Sponsored by the residents of The
Kapili Islands in the south Pacific, this is a Dot-Com, but just
barely - there's no advertising, but there is some website-use
tracking (read their Terms
and Conditions for details). The site has parallel sites in
biology, physics, and geometry! (Links are at the bottom.)
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| Social Studies |
 Facing
History and Ourselves
http://www.facinghistory.org/
"Facing History and Ourselves is a national
educational organization whose mission is to engage students of
diverse backgrounds in civic education that encourages the skills,
promotes the values, and fosters the ideals needed to sustain a
democratic society." A private non-profit organization, Facing
History and Ourselves provides a wide range of services, including
complete instructional packages with on-site
professional development. Available free from their website are study guides which can be used with readily-available
public radio and television documentaries. Other materials are
available for loan, with instructions on how to obtain them on the
site. |
| Writing |
 6+1
TraitTM Writing
http://www.nwrel.org/assessment/department.asp?d=1
The private non-profit Northwest Regional Educational
Laboratory is based in Portland, Oregon, and directly serves the states of Alaska,
Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington, though its resources are available
freely to everyone through its website. This link is to a particularly
high quality writing assessment tool. As most teachers know, a good rubric
can drive good lessons and good instructional goals - here's a first-rate
one in PDF format (look for the "Scoring" link on the left),
complete with practice scoring exercises. |
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| Software Sources |
 Graphmaticahttp://www8.pair.com/ksoft/ It's
getting a little long in the tooth, but Graphmatica is still one of the
best equation and function graphing tools out there, and it's still free!
Capable of two- or three-dimensional graphs, it displays equations in
multiple variables and with a variety of mathematical functions, including
trigonometry. It's more than your middle school kids will need, but it can
be a great resource for inquiry-based exploration of equations in a
pre-algebra or algebra setting.
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| Idea Exchange |
We need your help!
Send hints, helps and resources to eline@emck.net
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| Professional Resources |
 Good
Classroom Discipline
http://www.honorlevel.com/techniques.xml
As the school year approaches, are you getting nervous
about the chaos that is middle school teaching? Distilled from an article
by Thomas R. McDaniel in the Phi Delta Kappan, here are 11 good
classroom practice guidelines that help encourage good discipline. Adapted
by Budd Churchward as a part of the website promoting his book The
Honor Level System, this site includes a wide range of ideas relative
to good classroom discipline.
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