December 1999 Newsletter.

Hanukkah/Chanukah December 3 (begins at sunset)
Ramadan December 9 (begins at sunset)
Christmas December 25
Boxing Day (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom) December 26
Kwanzaa December 26
Let me wish all of you Season's Greetings and all the best for your
Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa and Ramadan celebrations.
"Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is a Mystery and Today is a gift:
that's why we call it The Present."

I will be hosting a teachers chat this month at: http://www.teachers.net
chat. The chat is primarily for Canadian teachers, but you're all invited to come
out and chat in real time on Friday December 10, 9:00 pm Eastern Standard
Time.

CONTEST
What's Your Favorite Educational Website?
The Busy Educator's Newsletter wants to know what your favorite educational website is. 100 copies of The Busy Educator's Guide To The World Wide Web are available to be won by sending your favorite educational website, its Internet address and a brief description why it would benefit busy K-12 teachers to marjan@glavac.com

Please put BUSY in the subject line.
Contest ends December 15, 1999.
Include your full name, e-mail address and a mailing address.
Winners will be chosen in a random draw.
Good luck!

To subscribe to The Busy Educator's Newsletter please go to:
http://www.thebusyeducator.com/
To unsubscribe please e-mail me at: marjan@glavac.com with unsubscribe in
the subject line.
Marjan Glavac editor
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In This Issue:
*WEBSITE UPDATES
*MR. TIM'S TEACHER TIPS
*SUBSTITUTE TEACHER HOMEPAGE
*WILTON LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
*INDEPENDENT MEANS
*PROBLEM OF THE WEEK
*VALERIE SIMEONE GRADE 3
*MRS. P’S KIDS GR. 5
*SANDIEGOMOTHER.COM
*TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE (TAPPED IN)
*JAN'S STUDENT NURSING PAGE
*LET'S GO!: AROUND THE WORLD
*TELETEXT CAMELL
*BUSY EDUCATOR'S AWARD
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WEBSITE UPDATES
http://www.thebusyeducator.com/
Find out the ongoing polling results of how teachers use the Internet. Try
out our poll and see how other educators voted! Send me suggestions for
future polls!

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MR. TIM'S TEACHER TIPS
"Does everyone...?"
Have you ever asked your class a question that sounds something like this,
"Does everyone understand?" Or maybe like this, "Is everyone ready?"

Take a second to stop and put yourself in the place of a student who hears this
question. What do you expect the answer to be?

If I am Billy, and you ask me, "Does everyone understand?" how would I know if everyone understands without taking a quick survey. And that's precisely what most teachers' intentions are when they ask that question.

The teacher wants to find out if everyone understands so they ask that question. Try a different method for checking for understanding. Perhaps say, "Raise your hand if YOU understand." In short, there is no appropriate response for a question that begins with, "Does everyone...?" copyright 1999, Tim Bedley

http://www.elementor.com/
bedley@the-word.net

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SUBSTITUTE TEACHER HOMEPAGE
http://my.voyager.net/garmar/default.htm
The Substitute Teacher Homepage is intended for educators who "guest" teach
in schools. On the site, there are classroom management tips, activities
to fill extra time, "Real" teacher tips, and other useful information that
help make the "guest" teaching experience a successful one.

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WILTON LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
http://www.wiltonlibrary.org/
Do you have a question? This library has the answer -- and its website's
doors are never closed. With more than 100 pages of links that are
gathered, organized by topic & age group, and annotated by professionals,
the site will guide research by teachers and students alike. See particularly the pages of Web resources assembled for local school projects on topics from Penguins for first graders to The Crucible & McCarthyism for high school students. Check it out!

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INDEPENDENT MEANS
www.independentmeans.com
Independent Means is the full stop site for parents and educators who want
to learn how to offer who want support coaching young women on personal
finance, entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and investing. All Independent
Means' materials and products are tested and developed with real teenagers
at Camp $tart-Up, the National Business Plan Competition, and An Income of
Her Own Conferences. Training is available to educators, parents, and group
leaders who want to create their own in-house programs.

Want help coaching the next generation of women entrepreneurs? Visit
www.independentmeans.com for programs, events, and materials designed to
raise the "farm league" of women business owners: teenage women.

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PROBLEM OF THE WEEK
http://potw.net/
Join Fred and other cast members as you solve weekly elementary math
problems. Vocabulary and strategy help pages are provided for assistance.
Submit answers and problems and answer problems submitted by others. A fun
interactive math site.

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VALERIE SIMEONE GRADE 3
http://www.geocities.com/enchantedforest/cottage/2674
Here's an example of what grade 3 teacher Valerie Simeone is doing with her
website. This web page is designed to keep parents and students her third
grade class informed of current events. Parents can find pictures and
descriptions of activities in class and links to sites that deal with
parenting issues. Students can find a regularly updated homework page
with many strategies for learning and links to sites to play educational
games when homework is done.

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MRS. P’S KIDS GR. 5
http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Mountain/9112/Inbox.html
Mrs. P’s Kids showcases gr 5 student work and features a homework/special
events page for the students at our school. A page is devoted to links of
interest to students, and a Brain Quest page was developed that highlights
questions the students research throughout the year. Additionally, it
offers 2 original Internet Scavenger Hunts focusing on American history, a
Pioneer Web Center, a Teacher's Inbox with ideas, activities, plans, and
sites of note for teachers, and a Webquest/Hunt links page to enable
teachers to choose quality interactive activities for the students in their
classrooms.

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SANDIEGOMOTHER.COM
http://www.sandiegomother.com
Whether you're from Southern California or Ohio, Washington or Maine,
this site has terrific pregnancy and parenting information for mothers,
moms-to-be and dads, too! From message boards and thrifty tips to special
areas for single parents and military moms, SanDiegoMother.com has
something for everyone, not to mention a weekly e-newsletter to keep you in
touch with the site. Visit today at http://www.sandiegomother.com or
subscribe to our newsletter by sending a blank e-mail to
sandiegomother-subscribe@listbot.com

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TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE (TAPPED IN)
http://www.tappedin.org
Need a place to kick back and relax while discussing current educational
issues with other educators? Want to meet with educators from across the
state....continent...globe? TAPPED IN , funded by the National Science
Foundation, is a place, a community. There IS technology ... and,
although it's pretty amazing stuff, you don't have to be techno wizard to
use it! TAPPED IN is a MUVE (multi-user virtual environment) that combines
the convenience of a chat room with the versatility of a real life
classroom: you can talk in real time, use a
whiteboard, project notes, and even share URLs by projecting them for
all in the virtual room to see. The Math Forum, ICONnect, PALS, and ED's
Oasis (and more) are partner organizations and have offices there.

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JAN'S STUDENT NURSING PAGE
http://www.fortunecity.com/campus/medicine/871
A medical site by a non-traditional nursing student who is over 40...but
young at heart! This site has information for the health professional and
students alike. Covered topics are aids, hospice, suicide, disAbilities,
pharmacy and search engines from all over the world; even a family-friendly
kid's page! Come in and browse awhile and enjoy an innovative site!

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LET'S GO!: AROUND THE WORLD
http://www.ccph.com
Here's a 600+ page language arts-based site which takes students on "Great
Learning Adventures" to various regions of the globe, and provides teachers
with "Curriculum Connections" pages linking site content to the math,
science
and social studies curriculums.

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TELETEXT CAMELL(CIRCUMNAVIGATING AUSTRALIA MOTIVATING
ENVIRONMENTALISTS AT LOCAL LEVELS
http://www.atlas.co.uk/camell/index.html
An exciting IT orientated expedition attempting the first ever circumnavigation of Australia with camels. Incorporated into the physical objective is an on-line educational project for school children, focussing on the environment and cultural awareness of Australia.

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BUSY EDUCATOR'S AWARD
If you have a web site or know of one that you feel merits the Busy
Educator's Award, please feel free to send me your suggestions. The award is given out to web sites that contain excellent content for busy educators.

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Send us those tips, insights or web sites that have helped you with your
class and students. We will share these in future updates. Please send to:
marjan@glavac.com

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Forward this FREE newsletter! Please include my sig file. If this
newsletter was forwarded to you and you would like to receive your own copy, please sign up at: http://www.thebusyeducator.com/ Reciprocal links to the web site are much appreciated!

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