Volume 4, No. 2
20 August, 2004
[To view this newsletter on line:
http://www.emck.net/eline/04_08_20.htm]
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"Why did I receive this?"
This newsletter is sent to all attendees of
the Kentucky Summer Teacher Academies (and other educators) as a free service of
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Who/What is The E-Line?
 The E-Line welcomes... the attendees
of the following Kentucky Summer Academies:
- Exploring Mammals (Appalachian Rural
Systemic Initiative)
- I'm a Math Master (Knott County)
- Immigration, Migration, and Technology in
American and Kentucky History (Jefferson County)
- Integrated Studies (Logan County)
- Reproduction and Heredity (Appalachian
Rural Systemic Initiative)
- Rock On (Covington)
- Studying Physical and Life Sciences Through
Forest Ecosystems (Campbellsville University)
- Teaching Probability and Statistics in the
Elementary Grades (Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative)
- TEC-I (Green River Regional Educational
Cooperative)
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As the 2004 KDE Summer
Academy attendees join us, we hope some information might help new members a
bit (and remind old ones as well). Our list enrollment is now nearly 2,000
Kentucky teachers!
The E-Line is, quite simply,
an informational newsletter of Internet resources. This, our second
edition of the 2004-05 school year, includes a variety of online informational/instructional
sites. New for this year:
classroom- or school-appropriate grant sources are now a regular feature!
- Who produces The E-Line?
It's produced by Jeffrey
L. Jones, a 17-year
veteran of the classroom, and a certified technology resource teacher
in Fayette County Public Schools, Lexington,
KY. It is a free service to Kentucky educators of
Educational Media and Consulting of Kentucky.
- What is the relationship between
The E-Line and the Kentucky Department
of Education? We began in 2002 as The
Help Desk, a part of
The Partnership for Kentucky Schools'
support of KDE's middle school math and science Summer Academies.
Since then there have been many changes. Funding from The Partnership ended in
May, 2004, and the newsletter continued as The
E-Line, a free service of
Educational Media and Consulting of Kentucky.
The Office of Academic and Professional Development (OAPD) continues to
supply teachers from the summer Academy
roles for inclusion in The E-Line's
mailing lists (thanks to Sheila Vice and Leslee Hellmann of OAPD). There is no
other formal relationship.
- How do we select the newsletter's content? The old
fashioned way - by brute force of research! We have had a few recommendations
from teachers, but most resources are gleaned from discussion forums such as
EDTECH, newsletters such as
MiddleWeb's Of
Particular Interest, links provided by other websites, and open Internet
searches. To be included, a resource must be free and reasonably devoid of
advertising, and be useful to teachers.
- Do I have to receive this newsletter? Of course not.
If you decide you don't want to receive it, just "Reply" and so indicate.
For more information, visit The E-Line's
Information Page.
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| On-line
lesson planning |
 General
lesson plans and resources from Scholastic
http://teacher.scholastic.com/
Produced by Scholastic Publishing, and supported by its
magazines and other advertisers, this site is a deep and broad
collection of instructional resources. There are online activities,
teaching ideas, and weekly features - all arranged by grade level and
fully database-searchable. All of the resources seem to be on site, and
some are in easy printable format. |
| Content Area
Resources |
| The
Arts (and science too!) |
 The
Wyland Ocean Challenge
http://www.wylandoceanchallenge.org/
This amazing little cluster
of printable activities aims to integrate visual arts and science,
with an overall agenda of teaching the importance of water quality.
It's an initiative of the Wyland Fundation and Birch Aquarium, with
support from the University of California, San Diego. The activities
are clustered K-3 and 4-6 (the high school link to UCSD's
EarthGuide is broken).
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| Mathematics
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 Student's
Classroom, from NCSE
http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/
No lesson plans, but this interactive site from the U.S. Department of
Education's National Center for Education
Statistics has fun games and activities on mathematics in general,
and statistics in specific. Their "Find your School" link allows you to
view statistical information on any school in the country! Appropriate
for intermediate and middle grades. |
| Reading |
 The
Favorite Poem Project
http://www.favoritepoem.org/
This wonderful initiative of United States Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky,
and maintained by the Poetry
Society of America, pairs poems with their fans. The poems are
available online, and the person submitting contributes a bit about
themselves and the reason the poem is so important to them. Especially
great are the streamed (Real format) videos produced by submitters -
some simply reading the their poem, others giving extensive background
on how their favorite poem is so important to them. There are a variety
of ages represented, and they continue to accept favorite poem
submissions. |
| Science |
 Cool
Cosmos
http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/
NASA, in conjunction
with California Institute of Technology,
maintain this interactive extension of the
Infrared Processing and Analysis
Center. There are activities, information sheets, printables, and
links to other resource sites having to do with space and infrared
imaging. Definitely a high school-aimed resource. |
| Social
Studies |
 The
Archaeology Channel
http://www.archaeologychannel.org/
An initiative of Oregon's not-for-profit Archaeological Legacy
Institute, this resource has streaming videos, a handful of online
activities, lesson plans, and links to other resources on the web.
The videos are fairly simple information resources, but are free!
Great general resource for middle and high school teachers.
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Writing |
Kids Vid
http://kidsvid.hprtec.org/
This simple resource gives classroom video production
assistance, including guidance on script writing and preproduction.
A product of High Plains Regional
Technology in Education Consortium, Lawrence, Kansas |
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Grants |
 Vernier
Technology Awards
http://www.vernier.com/grants/nsta.html
The deadline is October 15th for each of seven $3,000
awards, with each award divided equally between the teacher, Vernier
hardware for the classroom, and conference attendance costs. The seven
awards are distributed between four grade level competitions. The site
has complete application materials and examples of past winners. |
| Professional
Sources |
 Educational
Technology Action Network
http://www.edtechactionnetwork.org/
A combined initiative of the
International Society for Technology in
Education (ISTE, see our
May 16, 2004
edition) and the Consortium for School
Networking (CoSN), this website is a call to arms. Federal funding
for technology initiatives in support of education has plunged, and is
in danger of dropping lower. As the two premiere educational technology
professional organizations, ISTE and CoSN have produced this collection
of resources to help with the federal and state lobbying effort. Use
ETAN, and make your voice heard! |
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