Recommendations
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Item (linked) |
Rationale |
Listservs or
Forums
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Special Education- Behavior:
http://www.topica.com/lists/spedbehave/ |
Since my first day signing up for this listserve, I have
had communication with this group. It has only been from one member,
but we communicate frequently. We talk about our classrooms (we teach
the same type of children, only his are older) and he asks a lot of questions
about my program. He has only been teaching for one year, so I feel
as though I am acting as a sort of mentor. He has alot of good questions,
and it is cool that I am able to help him out. Our topics range from
the language barrier (because our children have limited communication),
what forms of communication we sue in our rooms (sign language, picture
symbols, augmentitive devices/assistive technology) to bathrooming and
potty training, to the stress and rewards of our jobs.
I looked back into the archives and saw that there were 70 messages
there. There were about 10 to 12 others interacting at this listserve
before the summer began, but since I've signed on, there has been no one
else except my new friend from GA. There were a few articles and
newsletters posted, mostly about ADD and ADHD. Through this listserve,
I've only had comunication with one other person, but I can easily see
how useful and helpful it will be in the future. It is also
really nice to talk with someone else who has the same ideas as I do about
the education of these special children. |
Americans With Disabilities:
http://www.topica.com/lists/AWD@counterpoint.com/
Student Council for Exceptional Children:
http://www.topica.com/lists/unt-scec@unt.edu/ |
Thses two listserves have had no
activity what so ever. I also can not find any archives on either
of them. It appears that these two listserves were created and then
forgotten about and never used. |
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Telecollaborative
Projects
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National
Math Trail |
The National Math Trail is an opportunity for students
to take a look around them in their environment and share the math they
find there. They are supossed to explore the community and create
a math problem from their findings. This web site is great for getting
kids interested in "real world math". Instead of sitting in a classroom
staring at the blackboard, they can be out in the community experienceing
math in everyday life. Their interaction and use of the internet
comes when they post their problems. They do this with photos, drawings,
graphs etc. and share it with others who are engaged in the project in
different areas. They also have the opportunity to see what other
classes are doing in other states.
Again, this is a pretty cool idea, but I think it is better suited
for older children, rather then kindergarten or even first grade.
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| MathMagic |
MathMagic is an interesting idea, although I do not agree
that it is appropriate for kindergarteners, or atleast not the ones in
my district. The regular project is to access the site: http://www.bonus.com,
play the games at that site, and share your results and shortcuts with
your partner team. The games do not seem to have much educational
value to it. They are shooring alien and drivng a car.
The advanced project is to create matrixes and figure out the different
possibilities of patterns with chips that fill the matrixes. This
advanced projects doesn't use any internet resources to complete.
The internet use comes in when you communicate with your partner team,
which is suppossed to be in a different geographical area then your own
which you communicate with through e-mail.
I think the idea on a whole is good, but should be focused on older
children. The older grades could then use the internet to look for
tools to help them with their project. |
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Search Tools
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http://www.altavista.com |
I found Altavista very easy to navigate on the web.
There are 14 different search topics to choose from, as well as a search
bar to start from scratch or with a specific request. The topics
range from arts and entertainment, library and resources, shopping, travel
and health and fitness. It also has a section of tools such as a
link to maps, the yellow pages and to help you with directions. There
is also a link to the New York Times for a news update. I've started
using Altavista as one of my main searh engines b/c it is so easy to use.
I would recomend this to other educators and instruct them to check out
the library and resource section. Under that heading they have a
link specially for education and it covers all aspects and ages, from preK
to adult education. |
| http://www.hotbox.lycros.com |
The Hotbox search engine is powered by InfoStart.com
and has 20 different topics for you to start your search. It also
has a search bar to enter your own topic. Some of the topics to choose
from are travel, shopping, auto, electronics, health, and sports.
What I liked about Hotbox is that there are no ads, no news reels or other
distractions . It is simply a search engine, so you go to the site
and start your search. It is very easy to follow and gets right to
the point. I would recomend it to parents who are using the web to
the first time because it is so straight forward and it is easy to
figure out what to do. |
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Lesson Plan
Sources
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http://askeric.org/Virtual/Lessons/ |
I think this lesson plan site is great because it
has a lot of great links and resources besides the lesson plans themselves,
including a link to the US Department of Education's home page, the ERIC
database, and an archive of questions. In terms of lesson plans,
this site allows you to search for certain lessons by subject. It
also has a place where you can search for something more specific, or by
grade level. I typed in pre-K, science, and water and I got a list
of 10 different lessons plans deaing with both. I liked
the idea of getting lesson plans this way, because you can alternate and
add your own ideas to any foundatoin of a lesson plan. This site
would be useful to teachers as well as other educator and people in this
profession because of the many links that this site holds. |
| http://thegateway.org/ |
In terms of lesson plans, I liked this site better
then
Askeric. First you pick a grade level and specify a topic in the
search bar. I again choose pre-k, water and science. Once you
submit it, it asks you if the areas you choose are what you really want.
Then you submit it and it gives me a list of 9 lesson plans. I could
then click on which ever lesson interested me and it breaks down the information
into grade level, subject, key words, audience, and a description of the
lesson. If I like what I see, then I can click on the title and go
to the lesson. I found this site very thorough and easy to follow.
There are a lot of steps, but I think that would cut out any mistakes you
make through typing. I think it would also save you time from looking
through lessons plans one after another, because if you don't like the
description or key words, then you just go back to a new search instead
of reading the whole lesson and then deciding you don't like it.
I liked this site very much and am planning to link it to my resource page
for teachers on my web site. |
Data Sets or
Online Tools
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| Translate
with BabelFish |
I stumbled upon BabelFish while I was surfing on
Altavista. BabelFish is a translator and has 19 differenf options
for you to choose from, such as translating English to Chinese, Spanish,
French, German, Portuguese or Korean, and vise versa. BabelFish is
very easy to use and can either translate a sentence/pargraph that you
write in, or it can translate a whole web page, if you give it the URL
address. After it has translated something for you, it gives you
the option of searching the web with that translation.
I think this could be a useful tool for many different people.
As a teacher, it could be very valuable in translating my newsletters into
another language if I have a parent who does not speak English well.
Equally, as a parent it could help them translate a word or phrase that
they do not understand from something they recieved from school.
Also, as a student taking another language, it could be useful in helping
them translate something in their textbook that they do not understand.
I plan to include a link to BabelFish onto my web site as a resouce
for both parents and teahcers. |
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