BY BILL FERRIS
Just because you don’t know web design doesn’t mean you can’t have a nice-looking website. Wix lets you create a Flash-based website from one of their many templates, or build a site from scratch. Here’s a sample site I made in about five minutes. Wix templates allow you to create sub-pages, upload photos, and incorporate animations into your design.
BY BILL FERRIS
For this month’s random roundup, we’ve selected the Library of Congress, our nation’s storehouse of pretty much everything worth knowing. As you’d expect, a lot of great resources for teachers have been derived from the Library. See your tax dollars at work by reading the articles linked after the jump.
The New York Times, on its own, is a great resource for teachers and students. But when you add a special area just for teachers, it gets even better. The Learning Network helps teachers and students wrangle the information on their site into useful content for the classroom.
The Learning Network caters to three groups: students, teachers, and parents. For students, the daily news is summarized, and there are daily features, like test-prep questions and news quizzes. For parents, there are tips on how to discuss current events with kids, and a family movie guide. The section for teachers is the most robust of the three, offering daily lesson plans throughout the school year, crossword puzzles, and even a guide to publishing a student newspaper. They’ll email the lesson plans directly to you, which might be a good way to encourage a technophobe to try out some new lesson ideas, and the archives are always available and searchable in all content areas for grades 6-12. -GRETCHEN SCHAEFER
New York Times: The Learning Network
The New York Times‘ famous slogan reads, “All the News That’s Fit to Print.” LiveNewsCameras.com’s motto: all the news. LiveNewsCameras.com features live streaming video feeds from TV stations all over the globe, from Scranton to Sri Lanka. It’s also got a clickable map — want to catch up on current events in Ireland? Scroll on over to the Emerald Isle (the map is made with Google Maps, so it should be a familiar interface) and click on one of the arrows to watch the news delivered in a delightful Irish brogue.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the content choices available, LNC allegedly has moderators who will let you know some of the interesting events happening on various streams, but they’ve apparently cut back on that. For juicy leads, you may have some luck with the live chat running on the side of the page, which, to my surprise, hasn’t yet been ruined by trolls and crazy people. LiveNewsCameras.com can help you and your students keep track of current events, as well as see what the rest of the world says about us in America. -BILL FERRIS
The pen is mightier than the tommy gun: G-Men and Journalists
The creative folks at Photojojo have come up with the Super-Secret Photo Projects Just for Kids! which is wittily subtitled, “Back Off, Grownups.” They have three great project/shot suggestions,
These are all great ideas, but the genius of the piece is that it written directly to kids, so assuming Photojojo is unblocked in your district, you can have the kids read it themselves. Each suggestion gives easy-to-understand how-to tips written to kids. They even wrap the pitch around the idea of being like a super hero with secret powers. Brilliant idea, brilliantly pitched. If you’re looking for a foot in the door to introduce students to photography, this is it. Here are a couple of shot ideas of my own:
Super-Secret Photo Projects Just for Kids!
Learn the Rules of Photography Composition
Photo credit: tomasu.co.uk on Flickr
I get asked one million times a day how people can write a better report. I tell them all the same thing: nothing helps a report better than a good, solid number.
You could probably recall one thousand times when you’ve seen a student write “a lot of evidence supports my paper’s claim, but I don’t have a real definitive number to back my writing up.”
Google Insights for Search is a useful tool that can help make your students’ search for web usage statistics one hundred times easier. Users can gather volume patterns based on search terms across different regions, times, and categories. Interested in how many people in China searched for “YouTube” in 2007? You’ll need to sign in to your Google account to view numbers, but that’s no problem since a Google account will cost you zero dollars.
Of course, this does limit the figures a user will get to the realm of just Google’s search engine statistics. It won’t take into account any searches done via Yahoo or other search engines. Nonetheless, Google is a big name in the search engine game and should provide a good indicator on its own. It can be ideal for a student looking to gauge a topic’s popularity on the web. For a clever user performing a well-specified search the possibilities are…well, there’s a lot of them. -NICK YINGLING
Compare Google searches with Thumbshots.com Ranking
Put a whole book on your web page with Google Book Search previews
The future of the newspaper industry might be a little uncertain, but one thing is for sure, good news writers will always be a necessary part of society. That being said, not just any writing can pass as good, quality news writing. It may look easy, but clear, concise news writing takes an enormous amount of skill.
Lucky for us, though, the nice folks at the writing center in Ball State University’s Department of Journalism have compiled the “Hot 100″ News Writing Tips. This list is seriously comprehensive, covering all the trickiest parts of news writing: how to write a good lead, how to effectively edit an article, punctuation, proper vocabulary and lots more. We’re talkin’ much more than just the basic “5 W’s” of good reporting here.
By following these basic tips, the budding journalists in your class will be on their way to becoming expert journalists. -LAUREN FROHNE
The pen is mightier than the tommy gun: G-Men and Journalists
Google plans to digitize newspapers
Grade essays like a pro using traditional editing marks
Photo from sicoactiva on flickr
Its no coincidence that journalism remains the preferred secret identity for superheroes. The correlation between news reporting and crime fighting dates back for decades. You and your students can learn about how that relationship works for non-cape-wearing law enforcement by visiting G-Men and Journalists: Top News Stories of the FBI’s First Century.
G-Men and Journalists, a website based on an exhibit at the Newseum in Washington, DC, explores how the press played a huge part in the FBI’s investigations of gangsters like John Dillinger, terrorists such as the Unabomber, spies, snipers and more. Match famous headlines to the feds and felons who inspired them. Watch videos detailing how two guys terrorized our nation’s capital with a rifle and a Chevy Caprice. Also learn how Bureau Director J. Edgar Hoover courted the press, providing juicy tips to reporters who then wrote laudatory stories highlighting the FBI’s scientific, team-oriented investigations. The FBI’s courtship of the press helped mold the tough, all-seeing, not-to-be-trifled-with Bureau image we know today.
If you happen to live in Washington, DC, or are near enough for a field trip, you can see the G-Men and Journalists exhibit first-hand at the Newseum, billed as the world’s most interactive museum. If you can’t, the Newseum website has a lot of great information, including daily scans of the front pages of the leading newspapers in the United States. If your students crave something more adventurous, G-Men and Journalists shows they can find it not just in superhero comics, but also in the news. -BILL FERRIS
G-Men and Journalists: Top News Stories of the FBI’s First Century
Google plans to digitize newspapers
With so much information available online, the printed newspaper might not have much time left. In the information age, opening the paper today to read about what happened yesterday seems incredibly slow. They’re not searchable, and their size is unwieldy for folks used to reading news on a laptop or iPhone. Plus they generate waste, and your fingers get all inky. That said, I’ve fond memories of reading through the funnies and the sports section on Sunday mornings as a kid. My wife wrote for a daily paper, too. The newspaper was our culture’s medium of record for generations, and it deserves better than to merely vanish into obsolescence.
Leave it to Google to make newspapers searchable. Google will partner with newspaper publishers to digitize archived issues and make more papers available online. You can still read them as they were originally printed — that includes headlines, articles, photos, ads, letters to the editor, maybe even an ink smudge or two. “Over time,” the Google blog says, “as we scan more articles and our index grows, we’ll also start blending these archives into our main search results so that when you search Google.com, you’ll be searching the full text of these newspapers as well.” Cool!
Google’s newspaper digitization project will allow your students to use primary source material to view history through the lens of people experiencing it. It also means they won’t have to head to the library to squint at microfiche editions of old newspapers for that research paper you assigned them.
Sure, the newspaper doesn’t have as many features as today’s online media, but it’s an important part of our heritage as an informed society. Now a lot of that heritage will be available digitally, and easier to access than ever before. I just hope they don’t forget to digitize the funny pages. -BILL FERRIS
Bringing history online, one newspaper at a time via the Official Google Blog
Google Launches Newspaper Digitization Project via Lifehacker
Learn about the lives of runaway slaves with The Geography of Slavery
Get Your History Straight from the Source: Making Sense of Evidence
In 1988, Public Enemy released their single “Don’t Believe the Hype”, which encouraged many of us to check our facts and beware of media spin. So it’s a strange twist of irony that about 18 years later, one of the most recognizable members of Public Enemy, Flavor Flav, began starring in the reality TV dating game show, Flavor of Love. Its difficult to find a better example of media being spun than reality TV… unless you consider politics.
PolitiFact.com, a service of the St. Petersburg Times and CQ, is a fact-checking site that examines the truth—and truthiness—behind many of the political messages that are being made. Not only do they examine major speeches, TV spots, and other high profile comments, they also show that nothing is too minor. Chain emails that are being passed around or comments made during off-the-cuff interviews also get vetted for accuracy.
You can view candidate profiles, look at their analysis of attacks made against candidates, and, my favorite, see who is caught Pants-on-Fire through their Truth-o-Meter breakdown.
Encourage your students to get involved in politics, at every level. Even more importantly, encourage your students to do their fact-checking (and then check the facts they’ve checked). A healthy dose of skepticism is the perfect compliment for youthful political ideals. –NICK YINGLING
Social Networking and Social Studies Collide with iCue
Back in my day we didn’t have that fancy schmancy “track changes” function. Rather, we did, but I hadn’t learned to use it yet. Personally, though, I’d rather edit a hard copy of an essay than an electronic version any day.
If you do your grading on paper rather than via email, may I suggest boning up on traditional editing marks, the kind old school newspaper editors used. Knowing how to mark up a paper lets you clearly suggest improvements to your students, while teaching them the language of the professional editor — useful to students interested in journalism or writing.
I’m a big fan of technology, but sometimes it’s good to look backwards, too. Grading writing assignments by hand is one area that has an advantage over the digital method. And if you’re going to edit hard copy, you may as well do it all the way by learning proper editing edit-iquette. -BILL FERRIS
10 Virtually Instant Ways to Improve Your Life - I’m all for improving my life, but why does it have to take soooo long? Here are ten easy ways to pull yourself up by your boot straps courtesy of Stepcase Lifehack. If you find yourself wanting to change something about your life, then why not start out with the simple stuff like Don’t over-generalize and Don’t take things too personally.
12 Ways to Use Project Censored in Your Classroom - Project Censored is an intiative designed to help aggregate news stories that often go under reported. This guide offers ways teachers can educate their students in fair journalism methods and help them understand the practice and importance of research. There are in-class activities and projects on the list, so if your students are studying media and journalism, this is a good place to start them on the right path.
101 Scholarships Just For Teachers - From TeachingTips.com comes this amazing list of scholarships available for teachers working their way through college. It might be too late for most of us, but if you have some students who are interested in becoming teachers themselves, give them this list to ease college’s financial burdens. Some are region specific, so all 101 might not be completely pertinent. By the way, be sure and check out some of the other amazing lists on TeachingTips, they’ve got some great stuff there.
101 Things to Do When You’re Bored - I don’t know how anybody could possibly get bored when there are hundreds of Instructify posts to read, but if you find yourself with some idle time, then try out a few of these activities to rescue yourself from ennui. Lists Galore recommends flying a kite, starting a blog, or you know, making a list. - JEREMY S. GRIFFIN
Photo credit: Wetsun on Flickr
Welcome to the Carnival of Education Career Fair! We’ve retracted the bleachers and set up the booths on the gymnasium floor so these brave teachers can see what they might be doing if they weren’t teaching (perish the thought).
Motivational Speaker
Mr. D at I Want to Teach Forever agreed to sport a freaking mohawk as long as his students worked hard, which was about three weeks. Sadly, his motivational experiment has concluded. Long live the mohawk.
Camp Counselor
As a kid, my wife got to go to Space Camp and Marine Science Camp. Had Tisha Kulak and American Consumer News been around back then to point out how to save money on tuition to summer research camps, I might’ve been able to go, too.
Productivity Consultant
Instructify-favorite studenthacks.org has some great tips for students who want to learn how to write a research paper.
Pro Athletes
The Jose Vilson uses Derek Jeter as an example of how nurturing students’ talent and leadership ability early on can reap great results.
And over at Jay P. Greene’s Blog, the author talks about the importance of identifying students’ talents, whether they’re a left tackle or potential honor student.
Economist
ESL teacher Larry Ferlazzo knows that money is the international language.
Translator
Melissa B. at The Scholastic Scribe provides a handy-dandy English-to-Eduspeak dictionary.
Director
Mathew Needleman at Creating Lifelong Learners takes a proactive approach to managing disruptive students during a class movie project.
Advice Columnist
Let’s Play Math! has some advice on teaching math to a struggling student.
Detective
OverwhelmedMom gets to the bottom of problems that gifted students face.
Investigative Reporters
The proprietor of a voice from the middle knows the means to discovery is asking the right questions.
In addition, eduwonkette responds to a Wall Street Journal article about the criteria used to evaluate teachers.
Game Developer
Alvaro at SharpBrains shares a few games to stimulate your temporal lobe.
Diplomat
Coach Brown tries to reach an understanding with hostile parents.
Nutritionists
At Homework. Dinner. Life. Angela points out that good nutrition habits ought to be maintained year-round, not just a few days before the test.
Meanwhile, Chanman at Buckhorn Road says all that caffeine students drink can’t be good for them.
Cartographer
Dan Callahan, a.k.a. geek.teacher, harnesses Google Maps for a lesson in community mapping.
Librarian
@EDU takes the work out of student research by pointing them toward Google Alerts.
Politician
Jane Artabasy at Golden Apple Teaching Excellence Network unloads the loaded word of the day, “elitism,” showing it’s nothing to be frightened of - especially in schools.
The folks at Golden Apple also mull over the differences in races and learning styles.
Astronaut
HowDoWhy asks, what is a solar system, anyway? Furthermore, just how big is ours?
Human Resources Specialist
Over at Right on the Left Coast, Darren discusses the sticky situation of a teacher dating an 18-year-old student at a different school.
Mentors
Allison Jones at Entry Level Living wants to revamp the way young people think about leadership.
The folks at the Efficient Leadership Files have some ideas on that as well.
Statistician
Lead from the Start crunches the numbers about the disconnect between teachers and EdSector.
Strategist
Seth Pearce at NYC Students Blog has an intriguing idea on how to overcome schools’ non-stop test preparation.
Lobbyist
PZ Meyers at Pharyngula has some news about a disturbing bill in the Oklahoma legislature regarding religion in schools.
Road Grader
As the great homework debate rages on, Shabam School makes a good case for grading homework.
Kindergarten Teacher (sorry, I couldn’t come up with anything else)
Kiri at Elbows, Knees, Dreams shares her thoughts (and asks for others’ opinions) about early entrance to Kindergarten.
Photo credit: ou_ags on flickr
Do you like water? I know I do! I’m hooked on the stuff, in fact. Unfortunately, a lot of people die each year due to a lack of clean drinking water. That’s why the Quill and Scroll Society is teaming up with ITT Corporation to sponsor the ITT Award for Excellence in Student Water Journalism. The winner gets a $1000 scholarship, plus an expense-paid trip to World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden.
Interested students should submit an article addressing a water-related, environmental issue by May 28 (see the award page for complete entry guidelines). If you have any student journalists in your school with a soft spot for the environment, this is right up their alley.
This award is a good way to introduce a discussion on conserving natural resources (in another, more practical way, the $1000 scholarship is also a good way to introduce a discussion on how to pay for a college education). Fortunately, water is a topic everybody can relate to, so your students shouldn’t have too much trouble coming up with an article. -BILL FERRIS
ITT Award for Excellence in Student Water Journalism
Tangentially Related Stuff:
The C. Montgomery Burns Award For Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence
Photo credit: cobalt123 on flickr
The Library of Congress apparently has a flickr account. They know how to use it, too - they’ve added a few thousand photos onto the interweb for your perusal (they must have shelled out for the pro account). This isn’t a static collection, either. The Library welcomes any tags and comments you have, and you ought to encourage your students to take them up on the offer.
You can find loads of historical photos, including the 1930s-1940s in Color–funny, I’d always thought they couldn’t afford color in those days because of the depression.
The collection will give your students a glimpse of fascinating bits of American history. Check out war photos, news pictures, shots of baseballers, plus lots of images of regular folks living their lives. You can easily lose an hour trolling through the pictures, and will probably keep you busy at least until the Library of Congress sets up its Facebook page. -BILL FERRIS
The Library of Congress on flickr
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