An American Ballroom Companion

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/dihtml/dihome.html

The Library of Congress's excellent American Memory project includes this extensive resource on ballroom dancing. It includes reproductions of dance instruction manuals from over 400 years of publications, and there are links to videos illustrating the dances in several streaming or downloadable formats. You can find hints on how to integrate this resource  into the U.S. History and Arts/Humanities classrooms in the educational arm of the LOC, The Learning Page. Appropriate for middle or high school students.

MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive

http://turnbull.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/

No, sorry, no math lesson plans here! However, this relatively crude and sparse site from the School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews, Scotland (and named for Mac math tutor software) has a lot of historical, biographical, and other interesting information. Especially nice is its "Mathematicians of the day" section, which includes a list of mathematicians born or died on this day in history, along with a quote and a printable poster of the featured mathematician. An archive with a wealth of other quotes and printable posters makes this a math teacher's classroom decorating dream!

Consumer Jungle

http://www.consumerjungle.org/

This fully interactive website specializes in consumer issues for young adults, and appropriate for high school. There is a section guiding teachers in its use including vocabulary lists, content standards, and strategies. Sponsored by the not-profit Young Adult Consumer Education Trust, which was created as the result of a consumer lawsuit.

The Fifteenth National African American Read-In

http://www.ncte.org/about/over/nty/etc/110805.htm

Sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English and it's Black Caucus, this Read-In is to take place on February 1st in time for Black History Month, with submissions from readers after that. There's a participation packet with rules, and lists of books and literature by African American writers, on the NCTE site linked above. [editor's note: this event has passed. No information was available from NCTE for further events, 7/11/04]

Mars!!!

http://mynasa.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/mer_main.html

What's the biggest thing to hit Mars since the candy bar? The Mars rover Spirit! See the latest videos and stills broadcast from the Mars rover from NASA's own website, together with stories and information. Web stories and videos can also be obtained from CNN and MSNBC.

The American Forum for Global Education

http://www.globaled.org/

The web presence for this New York based non-profit and corporate-staffed and funded international project advertises its summer institutes and professional development programs. For the Internet educational tourist, it's also chock-full of high school, middle school, and English as a Second Language lesson plans with a global perspective. To search, you must register, and some resources are for sale, but there's a lot of good free resources available to the dedicated browser!

Kids' Space

http://www.kids-space.org/

This is a by-kids, for-kids activity center for young writers under the age of 16 (seems to be mostly for Elementary level). The site posts submitted stories, music or art, gives stories to expand or illustrate, and other interactive and kid-originating projects. The submission process screens problems, but the work is really kids' work, and the site is quite simple, icon-rich and kid-friendly. A good motivator for young writers seeking an international audience! It's a true 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, with sponsorship by cell phone company NTC Do Co Mo.