The Best of the Web for Teachers - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

Instructor, Sept, 2000 by Carol Holzberg

Outstanding education destinations to jump-start lessons and learning

Just as it's best to visit a new city with a road map, teachers and students benefit from Internet road maps to Web addresses to help navigate the World Wide Web safely and efficiently. Below, we provide a list of some of the very best destinations for research assignments, curriculum boosters, and class activities. All are free unless otherwise indicated. Once you've visited, be sure to create Bookmarks (Netscape) or Favorite links (Internet Explorer) to ensure a speedy return!

Gateways to Learning

Education portals are instructional goldmines. As electronic doorways to collections of teaching resources, they channel the Web-surfing experience so that visitors can quickly locate a variety of curriculum materials.

* Family Education Network (www.familyeducation.com) is a timely K-12 Internet community offering an amazing assortment of educational resources, activities, and e-mail newsletter opportunities, all dedicated to children's learning. Be sure to click on the "Teachervision" link for tips and advice, message boards, "What Works" product reviews, and fundraising ideas.

* LightSpan (www.lightspan.com) features a search engine that draws from a database of over 115,000 grade-appropriate, expert-selected lesson plans, encyclopedia articles, and projects. An Internet Projects Registry lists online projects conducted by classroom teachers from all over the world, while the Global Schoolhouse link invites teachers to collaborate and share ideas.

* Scholastic.com (www.scholastic.com) is an education mega-site for teachers, kids, and parents. In addition to a wealth of standards-based lesson plans and reproducibles, you'll find monthly live events with award-winning authors and extensive professional resources including moderated on-line discussions and tips on teaching with technology. A publication archive puts a vast store of articles from Scholastic News, Junior Scholastic, and other Scholastic classroom magazines at your fingertips.

* BigChalk (www. bigchalk com] offers a wide spectrum of services and resources, both free (research and study help, Web site directories, Web publishing tools and templates) and subscription-based (reference databases, on-line courses for professional development, and standards correlators).

* A provider of access rather than content, AOL@school (www.school.aol.com) connects teachers to high-quality sites in six separate areas: grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12, teachers, and administrators. The content comes from such respected educational organizations as Classroom Connect, PBS, and Riverdeep Interactive Learning. Free software providing tools for curriculum management, administration, and communication is also available.

Math

* Mrs. Glosser's Math Goodies (www.mathgoodies.com) are self-described "Interactive Math Lessons with a Problem-Solving Approach"--i.e., lesson plans, activities, bulletin boards, and other resources to help teachers meet national standards for math instruction. Students can visit the site for puzzles, math chats, homework help, and tutoring options.

* Totally Tessellated (http://library.thinkquest.org/16661/) is a visually appealing math site that includes a large gallery of tessellations, or the repeated patterns of interlocking shapes also called "tilings." You'll also find illustrated and animated tutorials, information on the artist M. C. Escher, an interactive gallery of user-submitted art, hands-on activities, and printable templates.

* Visit Enchanted Mind: Tangram Puzzle (http://enchantedmind.com/tangram) for a series of cool hands-on geometry puzzles sure to engage and fascinate middle-school students.

* The PBS-hosted TeacherSource: Math! (http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/math) features more than 1,400 lessons and activities, recommended books, plus links to other fabulous math sites. Resources are organized by grade level for quick retrieval.

* The Math Forum: Teachers' Place (http://forum.swarthmore.edu/teachers) is a Swarthmore College-based site where K-12 math teachers can easily locate lesson plans (grouped by grade level) and activities. Other valuable features include creative math puzzles to challenge kids in grades 3-12; free mailing lists and topical newsgroups; and, should you need expert help with a math problem or concept, a Q&A service called "Ask Dr. Math."

Social Studies

* A great starting point for research, Microsoft's Encarta Online (www.encarto.msn.com/) is a gateway to more than 16,000 easily searchable, extensively cross-referenced articles, multimedia clips, the Encarta World English Dictionary, and a world atlas. An added bonus: you'll find hundreds of lesson plans archived in the "Schoolhouse." A subscription to Encarta Online Deluxe offers all of the above, plus more articles and enhanced multimedia.

* World Book Online (www.worldbookonline.com) provides the full text of the world's best-selling print encyclopedia, plus thousands of additional articles and hundreds of multimedia clips. Links to editor-approved, related sites lead to pop-up windows with World Book's signature blue bar across the top--a nice feature enabling a teacher to tell at a glance whether students have strayed in cyberspace. Although subscription-based, the price is low ($395 or $595 per school per year, depending on school size) and some content is now available free through the Discovery School site (www.discoveryschool.com).