February 2001 Newsletter

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

Groundhog Day February 2
Waitangi Day (New Zealand) February 6
National Foundation Day (Japan) February 11
Abraham Lincoln's Birthday (USA) February 12
St. Valentine's Day February 14
Presidents Day (USA) February 19
George Washington's Birthday (USA) February 22
Mardi Gras/Shrove Tuesday (UK) February 27
Ash Wednesday February 28

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My backyard skating rink has been through a lot.  It survived one January thaw and just before the second January thaw, I went out for an early morning skate with my two children, Vanessa and Collin.  Although the rink has been a pool of water a number of times now, all the work has been worth it to see my children and their friends laughing, skating and playing hockey on this tiny piece of ice in the backyard. I hope you're enjoying your "tiny piece of ice" in your backyard.

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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
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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:
*WEBSITE UPDATES
*CLASSROOM TEACHER'S EMERGENCY LESSON PLANS
*BLACK HISTORY EXPLORING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ISSUES ON
THE WEB
*EDUCATE THE CHILDREN
*EDUCATIONAL INTERNATIONAL
*PRIMARY GAMES.COM
*JYPSY'S AUTISM AND SPECIAL ED. LINKS
*CHERYL'S PICKS
*SOFTWARE REVIEWS
*MORE SOFTWARE REVIEWS
*WIRED CLASS
*3RD GRADE IS SIMPLY THE BEST
*LEARNING WITH TECHNOLOGY
*SIGHTING THE FIRST SENSE - SEEING IS BELIEVING
*BUSY EDUCATOR'S AWARD
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WEBSITE UPDATES
http://www.thebusyeducator.com/
My own website is now up and running.  Sorry for the inconvenience. Please note that The Crucible website URL has been changed to http://curriculumunits.com/crucible/  It is now part of http://curriculumunits.com/  which contains curriculum websites of interest to teachers. Those sites are The Crucible, The Excellent Adventure, and Galileo's Universe.
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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!

TRAVEL AGENT
The area in which you live has many tourist attractions.
Prepare an eating, lodging and activity schedule for a visitor who plans to
spend a full week (7 days, 7 nights) in your area.
Provide a schedule for each day, with a wide variety of activities that, over
the week, includes 2 'no cost' activities and visits to at least 2 historically
significant sites.
Then, using estimated prices, figure out how much money a tourist would
put into your local economy if he or she spends a week in your area.
(Assume 7 nights accommodation, 3 meals a day, use of taxis and public
transit, and a total of $100 spent on gifts for friends and family.)
An out-of-towner stops you on the street and asks for help.
What response would you give when asked to recommend:
- a moderately priced hotel or motel
- a seafood restaurant
- the best place for pizza
- a place for outdoor swimming
- a good park for children
- an interesting museum or art gallery
- a clothing store for teenagers
- a hospital to look at for an injured arm
- an engine repair shop
- a shopping mall
- a 'no-cost' tourist attraction
- a camera shop
- a  disco
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BLACK HISTORY EXPLORING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ISSUES ON
THE WEB
http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/BHM/AfroAm.html
To celebrate Black History Month, here is a site that highlights six
other websites that have information and resources from a Black History
Hot list, Interactive Treasure Hunt, to the Tuskegee Tragedy of the 1930's.
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EDUCATE THE CHILDREN
http://www.educate.org.uk
Target audiences for this website are Primary Teachers, Parents and
Pupils (5-11 years old). All resources are free and all materials adhere to
the curriculum guidelines set down by the UK government (QCA Schemes
of Work and National Curriculum 2000).  However, most of the materials
are suitable for any other countries' educational system.
The site is split up into zones, the Teacher Zone, Parent Zone, Learning
Zone and Info Zone.  Currently the Teacher Zone is the biggest zone with
over 1000 lesson plans and worksheets, the parent zone is currently in
development but still contains a wide range of articles and activities for
parents .
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EDUCATIONAL INTERNATIONAL
http://www.ei-ie.org/phila.htm
To support the efforts of philatelists in schools around the world and of all
those who believe in the educational value of stamp collecting, Education
International has developed a new section on its website linking education
and philately: http://www.ei-ie.org/phila.htm
This site offers over 100 philatelic links dealing with stamp collecting for
children, educational thematic collections, the development of philately,
postal administrations worldwide, international agencies, and general stamp
sites. Stamp lovers will also find miscellaneous sources of useful information for collectors such as geographical maps, time zones, multilingual dictionaries and glossaries, encyclopedias, foreign newspapers and currency converters.
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JYPSY'S AUTISM AND SPECIAL ED. LINKS
http://www.isn.net/~jypsy/autilink.htm
For a comprehensive list of autism resources and information on Special
Education, click on this site.  It is conceived as a rainbow approach to the
entire spectrum, in every shade. It is an effort dedicated to hope and acceptance, rather than doom and extinction. As in life, the links and possibilities are endless,and mirror at least the vision of cooperation, tolerance, and acceptance. We are free to choose.
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PRIMARY GAMES.COM
http://www.primarygames.com
This site is designed and maintained by a First grade teacher.  It includes
games, coloring pages, stationary and resources elementary teachers can
use in their classrooms.
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CHERYL'S PICKS
Fellow educator, and Busy Educator subscriber Cheryl Sexstella-Wright
sent in these sites with her comments.  Thank you Cheryl.
 
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/newyork/laic/home.html
This site offers a time line of events.  It is put together well. A good way
to teach history.
 
http://www.msnbc.com/local/pencilnews/
This site is done by MSNBC and it is their educational link.  It is newer
and needs some perfecting but it has some good things for educators in
the area of news and current events.
 
 http://www.educast.com/
This site allows you to download it's content.  Many lesson plans well
planned out to be used by grade level.  Lessons include web links within
the lesson plan.  I believe it is very well done.  Hope that they are able to
add to the number of lessons that they have available.
http://www.enature.com/main/home.asp
This site is about animals, fish, plants etc and also about habitats.
Check it out!
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SOFTWARE REVIEWS
INGENUITY WORKS INC
http://www.ingenuityworks.com
Ingenuity Works announces the arrival of two new Language Arts programs,
Word Way and Write Way.

These two programs, developed by the creators of the Mathville series, are
designed for 3rd and 4th grade classrooms, but are ideal for remediation at
any level. Both are keyed to standard language curriculum, enabling easy
integration with classroom instruction. Write Way offers a choice of Easy or Expert level activities (including antonyms, connecting words, past tense, rhymes, spelling, possessives, synonyms, vocabulary and word order), providing opportunities for students to apply newly-acquired language skills.

Way offers endless combinations of randomly-generated words
as well as instruction on plurals, syllables, prefixes, suffixes, abbreviations, compounds, and special terms. Each program is fully networkable and comes with an illustrated manual in PDF format on the cd, complete with teacher hints. Best of all, children are enthusiastic about these programs and can get started and work through them on their own.

Word Way and Write Way come as single copies, lab packs of 5, or
site licenses. More information may be obtained from Susie Youle
at Ingenuity Works. 1-800-665-0667 extension 1205, or
syoule@ingenuityworks.com.
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MORE SOFTWARE REVIEWS
TIME4TEACHERS LANGUAGE ARTS CD-ROM
http://www.time4teachers.com
The Time4teachers Language Arts CD-ROM is a new concept in teacher
resource.  It contains over 400 Language Arts and Time Saving Blackline
Masters which can all be modified by the teacher before printing and using
it - no more white out or cut and paste!  C. Lyn Currie of "Resource Links"
magazine rates the CD as Excellent and concludes her review: "This
CD-ROM provides a convenient, flexible and easy way to produce
resource materials for the busy teacher and is highly recommended."  The
Time4teachers CD has also received an Award of Merit by the
Association of Media and Technology Educators of Canada (AMTEC).
For further information, see the Time4teachers website at
http://www.time4teachers.com.
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WIRED CLASS
http://w134.loten.hull.ac.uk/wiredclass/
Wired Class is a virtual classroom for teaching secondary school students
at a distance. In Wired Class, learning is designed to encourage students
to explore, reflect, interact and construct their own knowledge in a social
context, using various Web-based tools (e.g., e-mail, discussion boards,
presentation boards, page builder and quick message). Currently, only
two math modules are available for research purposes. More modules
and subjects will be added in the future.
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3RD GRADE IS SIMPLY THE BEST
http://members.tripod.com/~dbenson3rdgradeBIS/index.htm
3rd Grade is Simply the Best, is available to teachers, parents, students,
tutors, or even people interested in the teaching profession!  Initially, it was
created for use by students to allow them to visit sites already evaluated as
safe sites.  As word of the page's existence got out around the school, parents
began e-mailing the teacher to let her know how much they appreciated having a
child-safe site for their children to enjoy!  ******************************************************************
LEARNING WITH TECHNOLOGY
http://www.fayette.k12.ky.us/instructtech/trt1
Learning with Technology, a website created by Maggie Wilson, is a
great resource for the integration of the use of technology into the
curriculum. Written for K-12 classroom teachers, the site offers Internet
links of educational sites arranged by curriculum area, activities created
by teachers, and information on creating web quests and on-line web
activities. Also included is a help section on how to use certain
software and answers to technical problems.
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SIGHTING THE FIRST SENSE - SEEING IS BELIEVING
http://library.advanced.org/C001464/
Sighting the First Sense - Seeing is Believing website offers a breadth
of educational tools and resources regarding sight and visual perception.
This site is divided into several sections highlighting many aspects of this
topic; from how we perceive sight to the art of perception and how it
works. In addition to original text and illustrations, visitors also have the
opportunity to engage in visual demonstrations and interact with other
users, thereby taking full advantage of the "Internet style of learning."
All in all, this website is a prime source for information related to sight
and visual perception. Done through collaboration and maintained by
three teenagers spanning the globe for the International ThinkQuest
competition.
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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.
Do You Like The Busy Educator's Newsletter?  Recommend It and You Could
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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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