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I found this listserv to be very informative. There are many people who subscribe to this listserv, so be prepared for at least 50 emails a day if you don't subscribe to the t2t digest. I switched to the digest form after a couple of days and it was much better. They discussed how much substitutes get paid and how they are treated in different areas. The latest discussion was about whether any of the teachers have had to change grades due to pressure from the principal or parents. I responded to that question with my own personal experience. I like hearing what other teachers have gone through and listening to their advice. Some people write in asking for sites that might be helpful in their area or asking for a suggestion on how to incorporate writing into other curricular areas. I believe that if you would like to have a network of teachers that you can talk to that this is a good listserv to join.

This listserv is designed to allow teachers to telecollaborate on different topics. You can write in with what project you would like to do and what the project entails. I guess there is a template that you must fill in that tells who is the author of the project and what their email is, what level it is (i.e., basic), who the audience is (e.g., ages 8 - 13 in the U.S.) , a summary of what the project is about, what technologies are used, how many classrooms can register, and the dates that the project will be begin and end. They send out new projects in a digest form and if you are interested in participating in any of those projects, you can simply email the person who is in charge of that project. I saw one called the Rock Swap that was posted by a third grade teacher in New Hampshire, who wants to exchange rocks with other classes in the country, so the students can learn about different types of rocks. This is a great listserv if you would like to telecollaborate with other classes.

Teachmedia has about 260 members, but I only received 5 messages (all in one day) during the two and a half weeks I have been on the listserv. I looked back in the archives and saw that there was a little more communication during the school year, but overall I didn't find the listserv to be beneficial for me. The messages I did receive were about keyboarding software. People wrote in telling what software they had and how well it worked. When I looked at the archives, they had talked about internet filtering, how to teach and grade students in computer labs, and tips on behavior management.

This search engine is kid-friendly. It was designed by librarians, so it's considered a safe site. It is similar to yahooligans. It has categories that include: Science & Math, Religion & Myth, Literature, The Arts, Facts & References, and Geography & History. For example, when I do a 3rd grade lesson on Pilgrims, I could have the students look under the category Geography & History. Then they should go to the subcategory: American History. Under American History, they can locate the Pilgrims. It brings up five pages on Pilgrims. That is not an overwhelming number of sites for students to view, which is one reason I really like it.

This search engine has categories related to school (i.e., Art & Music, History, Math, Science, Language Arts), as well as other subjects that interest kids (for example, Games, Recreation, Weather, and Sports). It has a clipart index with numerous graphics. It has links to subject themes appropriate for elementary school students. Some of the topics include Space and Presidents. It has a lot of information that is safe for kids to look at on their own. I tried to find information on Earth Materials (one of our 3rd grade FOSS kits) and clicked on Science, then Geology, and it brought up several sites about different types of rocks and minerals and many pictures of them.

This search engine has a column called Daily Features that includes: Famous people celebrating their birthdays, what happened in history on this day, Word Quiz, Analogy, and Poll. It's like a Kid's newspaper. It has an atlas, almanac, dictionary, and encyclopedia in the top corner. It has picture icons for each category, which like many of the search engines for kids is broken down into Math, Science, U.S., Sports, and Cool Stuff. The pictures are helpful especially for visual learners or students who have difficulty reading. I believe this search tool would be helpful for my third grade students when they are doing research on famous women. It brings up numerous sites and the sites are all factual and list where the information came from.

This site has over 1500 lesson plans. It has lesson plans for PreK through 12th grade. First, you choose the subject and then you can select the grade cluster that you are interested in. It has two other useful ways to search, which include most recent additions and seasonal lesson plans by date. The lesson plans are categorized. For example, when I selected science and grades 2-3, it showed these categories: astronomy, atmosphere & weather, biology - human body, biology - animals, ecology, geology, etc. It also provided lesson plans that connected to other curricular areas. You can add lessons to this page. You can even join a mailing list.

This site allows you to choose plans by topic, theme, and grade level. It also has a lot of printable worksheets that come in handy for teachers. The only thing that I don't really like about this site is that when you are searching specifically for lesson plans and you select the grade or subject area, it brings up all the documents on that topic (including articles, reference sheets, lesson plans, and printable worksheets). I like how you can choose a theme and it will returns reference pages, quizzes, connections to other curricular areas related to that topic, and other resources. It would be a good resource if you're trying to teach a cross-curricular theme and it seems geared more towards elementary teachers.

Data Sets or
Online Tools

I found this tool to be very closely related to an activity I teach in my math class about fractions and symmetry. It also teaches the students about how they need to flip, slide, and turn the shapes in order to get them to fit together. This is a great tool if you don't have enough pattern blocks or if you want the students to recognize when they are fliping a block around. I would use this after introducing fractions and having students recognize how much each piece is worth (i.e., the blue diamond is 1/3). I would probably have a worksheet guide them through the activity by suggesting that they make a figure that uses a certain number of pieces or that is symmetrical. I would have them print or draw what their image looked like so that I could verify that they did the correct task.

Virtual Field Trips

The fieldtrip that I found that I thought might be interesting is supposed to begin on November 7th. It says that young history sleuths will work with the curators, historians, and archaeologists of Colonial Williamsburg by looking at artifacts to solve the mystery of who lived in the William Waters House. It sounds like it would tie into my curriculum performance indicators. The major drawback is that it costs $100 to join this field trip. I would recommend this to upper elementary students (3rd through 6th).

There are two permanent team members and several other members who join for different lengths of time. They are attempting the first circumnavigation of Australia on camels. On their trip, they are focusing on cultural awareness and environment to help educate schoolchildren. They have pictures and a newsletter that they update. They also have a link to some internet resources that they feel might be beneficial for the students to use to learn more about Australia. I would recommend this field trip to 3rd through 5th grade because it teaches the students about differences in the way people live, different landforms and climate regions, and how communities are different and similar. This field trip seems very well organized and exciting.

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