April 2001 Newsletter

A FREE newsletter edited by teacher, speaker and author Marjan Glavac.   http://www.thebusyeducator.com/

• Passover Begins April 7
• Palm Sunday April 8
• Good Friday April 13
• Easter Sunday April 15
• Easter Monday (Canada, UK., Austl., NZ) April 16
• Earth Day April 22
• Anzac Day (Austl., NZ) April 25
• Greenery Day (Japan) April 29

 
Usually I skim through the various publications I receive in the mail from my
alma maters.  But, last week, the headline "A legacy of learning" from the
Brock University Surgite! publication caught my eye.  The article shared the
more than 30 years of teaching and learning from retiring Biology professor
Don Ursino.  Here are some of his thoughts that he shared for all teachers:

"Teaching gives you the scope for tremendous creativity.  There is a craft
to teaching and it is going to take time if you really want to develop as a
good teacher.  Teaching is about learning.  If learning hasn't taken place
then there has been no teaching; that's the bottom line."

"The primary role of a teacher is to facilitate learning; telling is not
necessarily teaching; listening is not necessarily learning."
"The undervaluing of teaching, regardless of where it occurs, is not an
under funding issue."

"...excellence in teaching has the capacity to truly challenge and to enrich
and empower our students, and to fuel the passion for life-long learning
which we value so highly."

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Mr. Marjan Glavac author "The Busy Educator's Guide To The World Wide
Web" Completely Revised and Updated 2ND Edition LONDON, Ontario Canada   ISBN 0-9683310-1-7 200 pages

speaker, teacher, author   marjan@glavac.com

FREE subscription to The Busy Educator's Newsletter http://www.thebusyeducator.com/

              "There are no boundaries for the journeys of the mind."

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To subscribe (FREE) to The Busy Educator's Newsletter please e-mail me
at: marjan@glavac.com with subscribe in the subject line.

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Forward this FREE newsletter! Please include my sig file. If this newsletter
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much appreciated! Thank you for your support.

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In This Issue:
*CLASSROOM TEACHER'S EMERGENCY LESSON PLANS
*TEACH-NOLOGY.COM
*THE PEN NEWSBLAST
*UNDERSTANDING SLAVERY
*THE IMA HERO COLLECTION
*BIOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
*MIDDLE SCHOOL SCIENCE
*CENTENNIAL SCHOOL
*I LOVE BIOLOGY
*DR. LABUSH'S LINKS TO LEARNING
*DINOSAUR TREKS
*MRS. HEALEY'S CLASS
*THE CHANDRA X-RAY CENTER
*BUSY EDUCATOR'S AWARD
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CLASSROOM TEACHER'S EMERGENCY LESSON PLANS
John Philips
jjohnny@csolve.net
ISBN 0-9686403-0-3

These emergency lesson plans come from John Philips new book "Jivin
Johnny's Classroom Teacher's Emergency Lesson Plans for elementary
and high schools."  The book contains over 90 student centered lessons
and projects to help you survive--while your students learn!

TEEN & CHILDREN'S ORGANIZATIONS
List all the organizations and agencies you know that are there to help
children and teens with their problems.
Tell what each one does.
Use a phone book to find the addresses and phone numbers.
Who else in the community might you approach if you had a problem?
Who else right in your school?
TEACHER: This exercise is intended to make children aware of where
they can go for help if needed.  As each is suggested, list it on the board and have students tell what aid that particular group offers.  Have several students type up the list and post it in the classroom.

TANGENTIAL ASSIGNMENT:
Make a list of 25 groups that are known by their abbreviations.  (For example, SPCA, UNICEF, NAACP).  In each case, tell what the abbreviation stands for.
Now, list 50 other abbreviations common in our world and tell what each stands for,  (C.O.D., P.S., Blvd., ASAP, etc.).
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TEACH-NOLOGY.COM
http://www.teach-nology.com
I'm slowly catching up with my backlog of e-mail.  Here's a site that Busy
Educator Newsletter supporter Nancy Rea from New York University
sent me a while back!  This site is definitely well worth checking out.
Here are just some of the categories and information you can find here.
Under the category of Educator Web Tools, you can find: Classroom
Materials Generators, Crossword Maker, Graphic Organizer Generators,
Movie Of The Day, Online Good News / Bad News Reports,
Word Searches and Worksheet Generators. Under the category of Teacher Resources, you can find Freebies for Teachers, Fundraising,  Methods & Theory, Popular Teacher Sites, Projects For Teachers, Report Card Comments, Special Education, Subject Matter, and Testing.

There are also TeAch-nology Tutorials, MEGA Lesson Plan Searchs, an
Internet Secret Center, Student Search Center, Educational Downloads
and much, much more.  Thank you Nancy.
 
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THE PEN NEWSBLAST
http://www.PublicEducation.org/news/signup.htm
An e-mail newsletter which I'm reading more and more these days is The
PEN NewsBlast edited by Howie Schaffer (HSchaffer@PublicEducation.org.)
This is a free weekly e-mail newsletter featuring school reform and school
fundraising resources. The PEN NewsBlast is the property of the Public
Education Network, a national association of 58 local education funds working
to improve public school quality in low-income communities nationwide.
The following news item was of particular interest:

HOW TO FIX AMERICA’S SCHOOLS
If you take it for more than a political slogan, President Bush's motto for
education reform--"no child left behind"--is a wildly ambitious goal. It is
every bit as audacious as Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty or John F.
Kennedy's race to the moon. This article cites New Visions for Public
Schools in New York City for their leadership of the small schools
movement.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/01_12/b3724001.htm
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UNDERSTANDING SLAVERY
http://school.discovery.com/schooladventures/slavery/
Few human practices have provoked such deep and widespread outrage
as the practice of one human being enslaving another. So why has slavery
survived for thousands of years? Try to stop a slave action and learn how slavery permeated American institutions. Follow the extraordinary life of Olaudah Equiano. And explore the ways in which slavery developed in America and around the world. (6th grade and up)
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THE IMA HERO COLLECTION
http://imahero.com
The IMA Hero Collection is a series of teddy bears designed by StarRise
Creations to introduce children to important people in history (Important
Millennium Achievers).  Children are attracted to teddy bears, and with
the IMA Hero tools they can have fun learning about historical figures at a
very early age. This site is also packed with Educational Material and
Resources.  There are Hero History and Hero Timelines, Activity Books,
Lesson Plans, Hero Essays and a section designed especially for kids and
updated weekly.
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BIOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
http://www.bishops.ntc.nf.ca/science/biology/index.htm
Here's a site for topics relating to biology and environmental science.
For teachers there are about 25 powerpoint presentations that are available
for downloading, (which could be good emergency lessons!) and related
websites. For students, there are web pages, notes, tutorials and lots of
student built sites.
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MIDDLE SCHOOL SCIENCE
http://www.middleschoolscience.com
Liz Belasic, a 6th grade science teacher in New Jersey, USA, initially
created this website as a resource for her students to use, which has grown
exponentially over the years.  In it are lesson plans that she has created and
used in her science classes as well as links to relevant topics.  She posts
student's homework nightly and provides worksheets for them to print out
at home.  Everything she has posted is free for any teacher to use. Also
included for teachers is a middle school science teachers egroup where
science teachers can talk to each other about curriculum or to share ideas
and offer support; and  a Lesson Plan of the week email list where she
mails a lesson that she has created or has found on the web.
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CENTENNIAL SCHOOL
http://www.saintjohnonline.com/centennialschool/
 
This site is highly organized by grade level, theme, right at your finger tips.
It's an easy site to navigate because of its uniformity.  Each grade level tab
shows a teacher's classroom activities which goes from k-5.  The front page
offers many opportunities to get a good glimpse of the school's personality
and commitment to education. Check out the kids, parents, and teachers link
pages for other fun and informative sites to visit; updated continuously.Have
time for some cute fun and games?  Centennial School has a few funny ones
for you to play - try pulling the principal's nose!  Stop by, browse and use
some of their awesome characteristics for your own school site.
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I LOVE BIOLOGY
http://www.austenberg.f2s.com
An educational, interactive website for high school biology students.
Features online quizzes, notes, class guidelines, lab info, journal info,
and a class syllabus. There is even a message board to post and answer
questions. When purchases are made through the marketplace, up to 15%
will be donated to the Edison High School Biology Club.
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DR. LABUSH'S LINKS TO LEARNING
http://www.netrox.net/~labush
Dr. Labush's Links To Learning is a teacher made site for teachers,
students, and parents.  You will find over 900 organized links on the
following pages: TEACHERS, STUDENTS, PARENTS, REFERENCES,
TRAVEL, EARLY LEARNING, ANIMALS, EVERGLADES, and LEARN
A LITTLE MORE, an original enrichment program with ideas and activity
sheets provided. The site is continually updated with NEW LINKS on the
homepage and a section titled "TIMELY" showing links to current holidays
and special events.
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DINOSAUR TREKS
http://library.thinkquest.org/C005824/
 
Dinosaurs have fascinated millions. Now YOU can be fascinated! Learn
about individual dinosaurs, their tracks, and their extinction theories.
Immerse yourself in three interactive dinosaur treks. Also play great games,
chat with fellow dino-enthusiasts, and check out the amazing dinosaur image
gallery. Teachers, remember to view the section just for you and see the
ever-growing list of teacher submitted lesson plans and activities. Be sure
to contribute your own as well. English & Spanish.
Audience: K-12 students with a focus on elementary and middle school
students, K-12 teachers, parents and their respective younger children.
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MRS. HEALEY'S CLASS
http://www.mrshealeysclass.com
mrshealeysclass.com is a site that celebrates first graders and their
accomplishments.  The purpose of this site is to highlight the exciting year
of students and teacher together in first grade, and to share experiences
with families and friends. It is a way of sharing the first grade world with
the whole world! Some of the things you will find at this site are monthly
newsletters, special projects and exciting days spent together, notes for
parents and individual student pages.
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THE CHANDRA X-RAY CENTER
http://chandra.harvard.edu
The Chandra X-Ray Center website contains formal and informal
education sections as well as a collection of images and background
facts for the general public based on science results from NASA's
Chandra X-Ray telescope.

The formal education section contains investigations, activities, and
classroom ready materials primarily suitable for high school students,
aligned with National science, mathematics and technology standards
and performance tasks.

The informal education section contains word and matching games,
puzzles, and a coloring book and other activities suitable for middle
school or younger grades.
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BUSY EDUCATOR'S AWARD
If you have a website 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 websites that contain excellent content for
busy educators.
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Send us those tips, insights or websites 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 website are much
appreciated! Thank you for your support.
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******************************************************************
Mr. Marjan Glavac author "The Busy Educator's Guide To The World Wide
Web" Completely Revised and Updated 2ND Edition
LONDON, Ontario Canada   ISBN 0-9683310-1-7 200 pages
speaker, teacher, author   marjan@glavac.com
FREE subscription to The Busy Educator's Newsletter http://www.thebusyeducator.com/
              "There are no boundaries for the journeys of the mind."
******************************************************************