April 2000 Newsletter.

Mothering Sunday (UK) April 2
The First of  Muharram April 6
Ashura April 15
Palm Sunday April 16
Passover Begins April 19
Good Friday April 21
Earth Day April 22
Easter Sunday April 23
Easter Monday (Canada, UK., Austl., NZ) April 24
Anzac Day (Austl., NZ) April 25
Thank you to all who joined me in my teachers chat last month with Dr. Harry Wong
and his wife Rosemary Wong, authors of The First Days Of School.  This was their first
ever online chat!  A transcript of the chat is posted at:
http://teachers.net/archive/wong030600.html
Other information on Harry Wong and his work:
SUMMARY OF MAJOR CONCEPTS COVERED BY HARRY K. WONG

In the good news department, I received a letter from Brodart Books informing me
that my book The Busy Educator's Guide To The World Wide Web has been
accepted for their twenty-second edition of THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
LIBRARY COLLECTION.  It is listed in Phase 1 acquisitions  which are titles
essential to all libraries regardless of size!
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subject line.
Marjan Glavac editor
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In This Issue:
*TIM'S TEACHER TIP
*STUDY GUIDES AND STRATEGIES
*CARE's VIRTUAL FIELD TRIP TO MALI
*DRAMAWEST
*MRS. SILVERMAN' S SECOND GRADE CLASS
*ETYMOLOGIC.COM
*WOODLAND GRANGE PRIMARY SCHOOL
*THE CHESTERFIELD COUNTY ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL
*CASS STREET SCHOOL'S WEB SITE
*CYNTHIA LEITICH SMITH CHILDREN'S LITERATURE RESOURCES
*BUSY EDUCATOR'S AWARD
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TIM'S TEACHER TIP
Tim Bedley
http://www.eleMENTOR.com
Use your read aloud time as an opportunity to improve your students' writing skills and strategies.  When you notice a well written sentence, point it out to your students. Tell them exactly why you feel the sentence is well written.  Give them ideas on how to infuse that same strategy into their own writing.  Require it in your next writing assignment. 

Example:  Do you notice how the author didn't tell us that Omri was nervous but SHOWED us instead.  She showed us by saying that Omri swallowed
real hard.  To say that Omri is nervous is boring.  To show his nervousness by
telling us about his hard swallow is much more exciting.  How else could you show that someone is nervous? (knees knocking, sweating, body shaking, etc.)  The next time you write about how someone feels, show me their feelings instead of telling me. (Obviously, you'll need much more coaching, reminding, teaching than just this one time.)
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STUDY GUIDES AND STRATEGIES
http://www.iss.stthomas.edu/studyguides
"Study Guides and Strategies" is a website devoted to improving students'
success in learning.  Contains over 70 pages of practical suggestions, as
for time and stress management; basic skills in reading, writing, and
classroom participation; test preparation and test taking.  Translated (in
whole or part) in eleven languages from the University of St. Thomas'
(Minnesota) Learning Center.
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CARE's VIRTUAL FIELD TRIP TO MALI
http://www.care.org/virtual_trip/mali/
This is another installment in the Virtual Field Trip series. Visitors to the
site can learn about the unique geography of this developing country and read
first-hand accounts of CARE's work in Mali's ancient cities and villages.
Other trips include Honduras, Bolivia, Kosovo and Madagascar.
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DRAMAWEST
http://members.networx.net.au/~kimbo/Dramawest/
This website is the online face of the Association of Drama Educators of
Western Australia.  It provides resources that will be useful to teachers and students of
Theatre Arts, Drama, Speech and other performing arts.
Services include a chatroom, links directory, newsletter, lesson plans, and
an email list and are open to visitors globally.
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MRS. SILVERMAN' S SECOND GRADE CLASS
http://comsewogue.k12.ny.us/~ssilverman/class99/index.html
Mrs. Silverman's second grade class features a collaborative Internet project for lower primary students.  In additon to having students do language arts activities, teachers are sharing how they assessed student work. There are also online interactive activities, printable worksheets and links. This project is for second graders only so that there is a resource of "leveled reading."  Also included is a class website that has digital webfolios for each of her students, a teacher's journal, links, and collaborative project descriptions that they are involved in.
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ETYMOLOGIC.COM
http://www.intuitive.com/cgi-local/etymologic.cgi
An online learning game where you'll be presented with 10 randomly selected
word origin or word definition puzzles to solve. Choose the correct answer to score a point for that question. Beware: the false answers will often also
seem quite plausible, and some of the true answers are hard to believe, but
there is documentation.
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WOODLAND GRANGE PRIMARY SCHOOL
http://members.aol.com/WGPSOadby
Woodland Grange Primary School is one of the most successful schools in the
UK.  Its web site the 'Woodland Wide Web' has received 10,000 visitors in the
last 12 months. On the web site you can find a wealth of information about
the school and its work plus direct search facilities for children (13
specialist search engines), a library of resources, fun pages and lots of
interactive activities.
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THE CHESTERFIELD COUNTY ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL
http://www.homestead.com/turnaroundprogram/index.html
The Chesterfield County Alternative School is dedicated to providing a
quality education for the at-risk students of Chesterfield County School
District in South Carolina.  Students enrolled in this program are
experiencing behavior problems within the regular school setting;
therefore, they are given an opportunity to attend this school instead of
being expelled for the remainder of the school year.  This site provides
highlights of the program as well as valuable information for all teachers,
parents, and students.
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CASS STREET SCHOOL'S WEB SITE
http://ftp.milwaukee.k12.wi.us/schools/cass/
Cass Street School’s Web Site is for and about students. Students write
most of the content and their work and activities are featured. An
extensive number of links provide good starting points for student
research. Colorful art work, descriptions of activities and classrooms,
student poems and stories make this site an interesting place to visit.
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CYNTHIA LEITICH SMITH CHILDREN'S LITERATURE RESOURCES
http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/welcome.htm
Here's a site that offers articles, bibliographies, curriculum links, and
observations related to children's and young adult books with an emphasis
on multiculturalism, Native American Indians, Asian Americans, interracial families, Texas, middle grade fantasy, young adult horror, authors and illustrators, writing for children, and more. Features include literacy award campaign and quarterly newsletter. Starting place to navigate the online world of books for children and teenagers.
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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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