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The Help Desk  
Volume 3, No. 20                                 30 April, 2004

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Partnership for Kentucky SchoolsThe passing of the baton...

I would like to thank Carolyn Witt Jones, and the Partnership for Kentucky Schools, for their two year support of The Partnership Help Desk. Beginning with the next issue, The Partnership Help Desk will become The E-Line, with support from Educational Media and Consulting of Kentucky (EMCK). The next newsletter will be distributed using EMCK's email distribution services, and the newsletter archives will be added to its website. As a recipient of this newsletter, you need do nothing - if you received this edition, you will receive the next. Besides the name, website and email address, nothing in the charter of the newsletter will change...

  • EMCKIt will continue as a free service to past, present, and future attendees of the  Summer Teacher Academies. (Thanks to Sheila Vice, Starr Lewis, and Leslee Hellmann of the Office of Academics and Professional Development, Kentucky Department of Education, for their help in maintaining the lists.)
  • It will remain completely free, with no advertising or other commercial excesses.
  • It will continue to provide reviews and links to freely available general educational materials and professional resources for all disciplines and grade levels.
  • The newsletter's membership list will remain privately controlled, and will never be sold or distributed.

I look forward to continuing this service, and I will hope that you will take a moment to let us know how we're doing, and what we can do to improve.

 - Jeffrey L. Jones, Editor

On-line lesson planning AWESOME LIBRARYThe Awesome Library

http://www.awesomelibrary.org/

The very first Help Desk on May 10, 2002, featured The Awesome Library as its first resource. And so, on this occasion, it seemed appropriate to include it here. Dr. R. Jerry Adams and his Evaluation and Development Institute remain its sole developer, manager, and supporter, and it's still being updated after eight years! One of the most recent additions is the Awesome Talking Library, which uses free software and online books to provide the ability to listen to books online. The site is browseable in a variety of languages (through translation sites), and all resources are dated - a very handy feature, since some of the older ones have gone the way of all things virtual.

Content Area Resources
The Arts and Science The ExploratoriumExploratorium

http://www.exploratorium.edu/

The sports section was featured in our fourth edition, but there's lots more content here. This is the website maintained by the San Fransisco museum, and it's a wonderful melding of art and science. Go to the "Educate" link. Click on Hands-on activities on the right-hand menu for links to activities, teaching resources, and information pages you can use in your classroom.
Mathematics 

MathWorldMathworld

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/

Mathworld has no lesson plans per se, but it is an extensive reference resource  for secondary and above mathematics. Sponsored by Wolfram, and developed and maintained by Erik Weisstein, the sheer volume of content in this resource is astounding. There are explanations of everything from angle bisectors to Diophantine equations.

Health and Practical Living

Healthy ChoicesHealthy Choices for Kids

http://www.healthychoices.org/

Sponsored by Washington apple growers through several of their organizations, this site has a complete set of chapters on health and nutrition activities and lessons for young students. Lesson plans and worksheets in PDF are provided. There are other resources on the site as well!

Reading and Writing

Monster ExchangeThe Monster Exchange

http://www.monsterexchange.org/

The Monster Exchange is now in its ninth year! John Thompson and Brian Maguire started this initiative, a simple exercise designed to get young readers and writers to improve their skills through the description and eventual exchange of pictures of monsters. Classes are paired together for this interactive and collaborative project. There are specific lesson plans on the site, and lists of support resources.

Social Studies DEPWebDEPweb

http://www.worldbank.org/depweb/

Yes, this site has an agenda - as a part of the World Bank Organization's umbrella, the resources on these pages are aimed at "sustainable development" world-wide. But the resources are very good, with excellent information pages and included exercises and teachers guides. The exercises can be used online or in PDF/printable form.
Professional Resources Shaw GuidesShaw Guides

http://www.shawguides.com/

With less than a month left in most Kentucky school calendars, it's time to think about what you might like to do this summer! Shaw Guides have been around since 1988, and are offered completely free online. They provide "...More Than 5,300 Sponsors of Thousands of Learning Vacation & Creative Career Programs Worldwide" in their indexed and searchable database. Want to study French at an 18th Century chateau? Want to improve your golf game in the Swiss Alps? Want to attend seminars on Renaissance art in Tuscany? Here's your first line of research!

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