Volume 2, No. 4
27 September, 2002
[To view this newsletter on line:
http://www.emck.net/eline/02_09_27.htm.]
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Why
did I get this? If you are
receiving this newsletter for the first time and did not ask for
it, your email address was submitted to us by the KDE
Region Service Centers as a part of their support of the Kentucky
Teacher Academies. Information about who we are, how we can be
reached, and our statement
of privacy, can be found on our Information
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Welcome, Attendees of the 2002 Kentucky Teacher Academies!
(Pardon us, veterans,
while we introduce ourselves to the 300+ new members of The Help
Desk's
family!)
 What's
new! Our archives
now include links grouped by subject!
What's coming! Look for grade reporting
helps and ideas in the next issue of The Help Desk!
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The Help Desk
is a free service funded by the Partnership for Kentucky Schools in
support of the Kentucky Teacher
Academies. We are a simple, independently produced newsletter with reviews of free resources on the Internet which
support your middle school classroom. Included are reviews of subject-specific
resources, general professional sites, Internet-delivered lesson plans, and free
software. Releases of The Help Desk
arrive every other week - some are thematic, some
are general, and some pursue a specific across-the-curriculum idea. All
issues are also available through our archives at the Partnership's site.
If you do not wish this service, or do not feel materials aimed
primarily at middle school instruction will be helpful to you, you may ask
to have your name removed at any time, no questions asked. But we hope you
stay long enough to see what we do! In addition, please feel free to forward
copies of The Help Desk
to your colleagues.
We are excited you're
here, and we'd love to hear from you!
| On-line Lesson Planning |
 TeachNet.Comhttp://www.teachnet.com/
These "Lesson Plans" are more like lesson
ideas...most have no materials, and include only a brief description.
However, the ideas are listed by subject, and some are pretty good! This
resource is by no means middle school exclusive, but almost everything
applies. There's ideas and editorials on everything from newsletters to
classroom organization. There's even a re-printable comic strip for your
class or school newsletter! (Be sure to read the copyright notice on
restrictions.)
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| Content Area Resources |
| The Arts |
 Radio
Drama Resources
http://home.sprynet.com/~palermo/mtr_radi.htm
Drama productions are difficult and expensive to
stage. But if you have a tape recorder, you have all you need to
produce radio dramas! This page, the product of Hollywood radio
dramatist and composer Tony Palermo, has an unbelievably large
number of resources, from script templates to hints and resources
for sound effects! There's even links to scripts from some of the
old radio shows. The web page is not elegant, but it's full of
content! Encourage your students' performance desires on a
shoestring! Attention, Language Arts
teachers: also a very good writing motivator! |
| Mathematics |
 Ed
Helper Math Worksheets
http://www.edhelper.com/math.htm Ed
Helper is a Dot-Com - they offer a line of downloadable lesson plans and
worksheets for math, vocabulary and spelling for a small registration fee
($19.95 per year). However,
they offer many free resources as examples of their pay service. On this page
are simple worksheets on a variety of math subjects which are instantly
printable and usable. There are problem-solving examples as well, though
the examples cover only through 6th grade. |
| Reading |
 Free
Books from Reading A-Z
http://www.readinga-z.com/newfiles/preview.html
Yes, that's right - complete books in full color,
with lesson plans and worksheets, all in PDF format for download and
assembly right in your classroom! These books are offered as free
examples of books which are for sale. A service of The Learning
Page, a Dot-Com, most of the books are aimed at very young readers,
but there are a dozen or so titles appropriate to middle school. |
| Science |
 Pathfinder
Sciencehttp://pathfinderscience.net/
A project of the Kansas Collaborative Research Network
(KanCRN), this resource has managed to continue as the grant which
created it expires. Standards-driven and research-oriented, the
lessons and resources are rich in inquiry-based teaching. There are
links to resources, and an active LISTSERV and on-line forum.
Registration is required, but there are no fees, and the site remains
free of advertising.
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| Social Studies |
 The
Smithsonian
http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/
Everybody knows what the Smithsonian is!
Web-delivered learning experiences, lesson plans, virtual tours,
pictures and descriptions of exhibited artifacts, and lots more! |
| Writing |
 Boggle's
World Creative Writing Prompts
http://www.bogglesworld.com/creativewriting.htm
Boggle's World is a website of free resources for use with
the Scott Foresman ESL series, but this collection of writing prompts are
in printable form, ready to go. Due to their ESL bent, the subjects are
interesting to middle school kids, yet simply worded - a good set of ideas
for those struggling writers! |
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| Software Sources |
 VCW
VicMan Photo Editorhttp://www.vicman.net/vcwphoto/ It's
still in beta (under development), but, yes, it's free! The website, very
graciously, does not require you to enter any personal information before
offering the download (just click on "I don't want to enter personal
information" on the download page). The program gives you a very friendly,
feature-packed picture editing environment with support for the Windows
platform. There are a lot of controls PhotoShop users will recognize, and
it will accept some PhotoShop plug-ins! The free version does not export
GIFs (that would require VCW to pay a fee), but since most digital cameras and Scanners generally use JPG
format, this isn't much of a hardship. If you have to have GIF support, the
pro version is just $29.95! [editor's note: no longer in Beta, but
still free, 7/2/04.] |
| Professional Resources |
 TRIPhttp://trip.mcpss.com/
A product of Mobile County Public School System
(Alabama), TRIP is an incredibly rich set of links arranged by subject,
grade level, and core content. There's also a good collection of
general teacher resource links. Although almost none of the actual content
resides on the TRIP site, the organization of this collection of links
encourages core-content-driven and age-appropriate lesson selection.
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