Internet Sites Recommended for Teachersby Peggy Maslow,

Internet Sites Recommended for Teachers

Creating Web sites

Researching using the Internet

Finding help for Lessons Plans

Reading Material

Resources for creating web sites:

att.com/learningnetwork-Here you can find a tutorial for helping you learn Microsoft Front Page Editor.

www.animfactory.com- well-designed animations

www.flamingtext.com- fancy logos and other graphics

http://webquest.sdsu.edu/webquest.html-how to make web quest assignments

http://schoollink.org/twin/- everything you wanted to know about creating web sites

http:/images.google.com- many images that can be used for web sites

http://teachersnetwork.org/teachnet-lab/fklane/pmaslow/simple/ttemplate.html or http://myclasssite.org/maslow/simple/ttemplate.htm -a simple way to create a web page using a template

Research Sites:

http://nuevaschool.org/~debbie/library/research/research.html a school librarian's excellent site on how to use the Internet to do research

http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/index.html- a site filled with different ways to find information on the Internet

http://marcopolo.worldcom.com/designed for teachers of all subject areas

http://google.com- my favorite search engine

http://askjeeves.com- my second favorite search engine- You write a question.

http://queenslibrary.org- or use your own library database

Help with Planning Lessons:

http://sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/actbank/tindex.htm - A California State Education site that has rubrics, graphic organizers and much more for language arts teachers

http://schoollink.org/twin/- featured also in research sites this link has help for anyone planning lessons

http://bigchalk.com/-an excellent and extensive site for lessons

http://webenglishteacher.com/- excellent site for English teachers

http://sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/cy912.html- lessons for English teachers

http://myclasssite.org- the New York City Writing Project's site

http://nicenet.org- a resource for any class - can be used for discusions

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/- one Library of Congress site out of many

http://teachnet.org/teachnet- lessons in all subject areas from teachers all over the country and the world (from teachersnetwork.org)

Reading Material

How to Use the Internet in Your Classroom- You can buy or look at excerpts.

Maine's Laptop Program

Apple a Day Works in Maine

Each 7th-grader gets laptop

By Elizabeth Mehren

LOS ANGELES TIMES. The Los Angeles Times is a Tribune Co. newspaper.

December 2, 2002

Kittery, Maine - In strong, direct terms, many Maine residents let Gov. Angus King know that his plan to provide laptop computers to every seventh-grader in the state was crazy.

"Dear Governor," read one typical e-mail when King floated the proposal almost three years ago: "This is the stupidest idea any politician ever had. What are you smoking?"

Undeterred by correspondence and legislative outcries that ran 10 to 1 against him, King proceeded with what became the signature issue of the two-term, independent governor, who reasoned that by using technology to raise education levels, Maine could build a better work force and thus strengthen its economy.

This fall, as 18,000 seventh-graders added Apple laptops in neat black cases to the school supplies they tote home each night, the missives to King's office took on a new tone.

"Dear Governor," wrote the mother of a child whose seizure disorders kept him from holding a pencil long enough to complete a spelling test: "I want to thank you for saving my son's life."

As school administrators such as Principal Gregory Goodness of the Shapleigh Middle School lauded his state's effort to "level the academic playing field," the $37-million "learning technology initiative" made Maine the first state to offer universal laptop distribution to an entire grade of middle-schoolers.

In a trial run last spring at one school in rural Washington County, absenteeism dropped 50 percent with the arrival of state-issued laptops. Pre-laptops, seventh-graders at Pembroke School received 28 detentions in 96 days. With laptops, the same students numbered just three detentions in 79 days. Using the laptops, 91 percent raised their grades in at least one academic area; 82 percent improved in two subjects; 73 percent in three or more fields.

"I was a skeptic at first," Goodness said. "But this really is changing the face of education."

Educators from around the country - as well as from Scotland, Canada and France - have come to Maine to study the novel plan instituted with funding assistance from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, created by the chairman of Microsoft.

In a recent interview as he prepares to leave office in January, King said, "I had this clear insight that we were trapped at being 37th in per capita income." That same winter of 1999, Maine woke up to a surprise budget surplus of more than $50 million. King decided to use it to help vault the state out of poverty by making it a leader in technology education.

After a year of haggling, the state Legislature approved a $30-million endowment that staggers the initial apportionment of 36,000 laptops over two years. Foundation donations paid the difference for the $37- million contract with Apple Computer Inc.

This year's seventh-graders will use the current batch of machines again next year, in the eighth grade, while the incoming seventh-graders will receive new Apples.

An annual outlay of $15 million to $20 million - out of the state's $1.8-billion school budget - could keep the program going indefinitely, King said. He said that during a recent special session in which lawmakers grappled with a $240-million budget shortfall, no one called for eliminating the laptops.

King said his office worked closely with Apple to ensure that the laptops were learning aids, not entertainment devices. Except for chess - considered a mental discipline - no games were installed, and none can be downloaded, said Jim Doyle, a King aide. Students have limited e-mail access and cannot use instant messaging. Music and pop culture sites also are restricted. Pop-up ads do not appear.

Essentially, the laptops serve as high-tech tools for writing and research, with students and parents promising in writing to adhere to the boundaries. Most districts let students use the laptops at home, after parents complete a short orientation course.

Students say transporting the computers is the closest thing to a problem because they sometimes forget to zip their carrying cases. Still, boasted Shapleigh School seventh-grader John Wright, "I dropped mine three times, and nothing happened."

His friend Nick Bartek remarked, "It's a shock that they actually trust us with these things."

Some of the state's 1.2 million residents label the initiative a waste of time and money. "We're on our backs up here financially, and there are a lot of people who think this just doesn't make a whole lot of sense," said Mary Adams, a longtime tax activist.

The governor compares the critics to naysayers who rose up generations ago when schools talked about sending children home with other learning devices. "They said they could throw them at each other, or dump them in mud puddles and destroy them," King said. "They were talking about books."