Email+Blurbs

Want a webpage without having to learn any complicated software? Start a blog - It's simple! Go to [|http://edublogs.org] and sign up. Use it to post assignments and stay connected with your students and their parents. Sign up with us if you need help with it!

[|FREE] (**F**ederal **R**esources for **E**ducational **E**xcellence) - More than 1,500 federally supported teaching and learning resources are included from dozens of federal agencies. New sites are added regularly.

Do you have a great idea for your classroom, but don't have the funding to back it? Check out Education Week's [|Grants Section] for regular updates on grants available for educators, administrators, policymakers, and researchers.

[|http://4teachers.org] is one the most helpful websites on the web for teachers. They offer a variety of FREE tools to support your teaching and make life just a bit easier. For example, Rubistar is a rubric generator, Quizstar lets you set up online quizzes, and Trackstar lets you set up links for your students to visit. Take a look.

Looking for high quality educational sites but not sure where to start? Blue Web'n (http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/) is a searchable collection of only the best educational websites out there. We commmonly use it as a jumping off point for finding good resources.

Edutopia is an award-winning magazine for teachers published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation Get it delivered for FREE by [|subscribing]. Edutopia's website ([|http://edutopia.org]) contains helpful resources for project-based learning, an excellent video library of teachers and students in action, and a bunch of professionial development modules - all free to use.

Memorizing URLs for websites is highly impractical! Collect and organize your favorite websites by using [|ikeepbookmarks.com]. Access your bookmarks from home, school, or any Internet-connected computer. It’s like having a virtual filing cabinet!

Want to tear the walls of your classroom down? Engage kids with real-time data and connect them to other students and experts around the world. Project ideas are at your fingertips with the help of [|Stevens Institute for K-12 learning]. Many of these projects are not time consuming and all are linked to National Science and Math Standards.

Teachers are always trying to come up with new, inovative material but the time required to create something orginal often makes the task seem daunting. **No need to watse your time trying to recreate the wheel!** [|Marco Polo] is not only a teachers best friend, but it is easy to use and it costs absolutly nothing. Marco Polo is an extensive database of standards-based lesson plans and reproducible student materials. Many teachers have commented that Marco Polo is a "non-threatening" way to integrate technology into their curriculum! Marco Polo offers curriculum through a varity of educational partners: Math - [|illuminations.nctm.org] Science - [|www.sciencenetlinks.com] Language Arts - [|www.readwritethink.org] Humanities - [|edsitement.neh.gov] Fine Arts - [|artsedge.kennedy-center.org] Economics - [|www.econedlink.org] Geography - [|www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions]

Featured Article Many teachers in Colonial have started blogging. What are blogs? How can you use them in the classroom? This brief article explains. . . [|http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/learning.now/2006/05/what_exactly_is_a_blog_anyway.html]

Use [|TrackStar] to find or create online lessons and activities. Create your own Track or use one of the hundreds of thousands already made by other educators. Search the database by subject, grade, or theme and standard for a quick and easy activity. There is a fun Track already made for each day of the year, too!

Need activites and ideas for Black History Month? Check out [|Patchwork of African American Life]. This site includes everything from a hot list of related links to webquests, treasure hunts, and more.