Spotlight

If you don't have access to create a web page for your classroom, try this site to get started for FREE. In addition to giving teachers space for websites, they provide options for creating tests, quizzes, photo gallery, announcements, a blog, file manager, and a calendar of events for your room.

100 Top Teacher Sites
This includes links to sites from every curricular area including world language activities like learning to speak Turkish. If you like to include cartoons in your publications, view a great collection at MartyBucella.com. These are copyrighted images and you must write for permission. Contact Mary for prices and permission.
Another link provides suggestions for Creating Cheat-Proof English Grammar Test Worksheets. There are links to creating unique awards for your class, and games and activities for all areas. Over 5 pages of links provided for your enjoyment!

Teachers First Newsletter
Every few weeks I get an email newsletter from Teacher'sFirst.com. It is full of activities for the season, month and themed programs. This week, November 15th, there are book lists, debate topics, or Thanksgiving activities. Need a creative science idea, try this site: SDI: The Experience. It is based upon forensic science to teach students concepts in an applied manner.

Education Week
And it is National Education Week, so why not treat your students to some writing in 140 characters? This story from educationweek.com, offers some Twitter ideas for your classroom.

Kerpoof lessons from Scholastic
Looking for some ideas for using comics in your classroom, then fear not! Kerpoof and Scholastic provide a great source for your use of the products. There are .pdf to download and you can adapt them to your curriculum.

Enjoy!! and Happy Thanksgiving

Image by Evan Hamilton via Flickr

Trying to keep up with Internet safety is a daunting task. Daily, there are changes in security, news stories that alarm parents, and more ways in which the thugs are invading our privacy, often illegally. This site: Internet Safety.com has a helpful website and a blog that appeals to parents as well as teachers to stay informed. More information is at this post from the blog "Parents Want to Know". Disclaimer: I write that blog as well and try to add new information about Internet safety or monitoring.

I am an avaid iPhone user and love the device and was quite pleased to see a monitoring program for parents to control. The statistics about availability of porn on the Internet and how easy it is to find it is quite un-nerving to me as a parent of two teenagers. There are explicit podcasts, free downloadable books, images and videos on YouTube.

Don't assume that your child's phone is protected. Make a plan for checking it often, and check text messages, photos as well as any videos or unknown phone numbers in the list.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Internet Safety Tips For Online Video, Blogging & Downloads (parenting-success.com)
• Why You Should Protect Your Cell Phone Number (everyjoe.com)