Global Newspapers at Your Fingertips

Want to use newspapers in your classroom without having to purchase a subscription? Try the Newseum, The World's Most Interactive Newspaper.

Just click your mouse on a city anywhere on the map, and the front pages of that city's newspaper will pop up. There are about 580 newspapers from over 80 countries. This site changes everyday to post the most-up-to-date editions of the paper.

Great for teaching students to read nonfiction, evaluate information from multiple sources, compare current events from different parts of the U.S. or the world, and increase confidence in evaluating reliability and credibility of sources.

Novel Recomendation by Guestblogger Erin

In today's world, school shootings are something we hear about all too often. In Jodi Picoult's novel Nineteen Minutes, she tackles this issue with a few twists. The novel is told from various perspectives including victims and their families, but also the shooter and his family. It focuses on what drives a student/child to commit this horrible act. It was one of the best books that I have ever read. I would recommend it to anyone in education, as it gives an insight to issues that teachers may not always see such as bullying and the feelings that adolescents may experience on a daily basis. http://www.amazon.com

Guest Blogger, Carolyn

http://http://pbskids.org/lions/ PBS Kids is a great website for kids who are learning different aspects of the English language. There are games and video clips that focus of the different parts of our language. For example, there is a video clip that looks at Q always going with U. This website could be used as a whole class activity or just as centers or individual exercises. This is also a great way to get the students using technology.

novel recommendation

Main character twelve-year-old Catherine struggles to be a regular kid while dealing with an autistic younger brother in Rules by Cynthia Lord. Treated by her parents as an additional caregiver at times, Catherine creates rules for her brother as a means of hoping he'll appear more "normal" around her friends. While taking her brother to his therapy session, Catherine meets a boy who is in a wheelchair and uses a picture board to communicate. Their relationship moves from friendship to more in this touching story. Many other novels have focused on the special needs child, but Rules provides an excellent depiction of the life of the sibling of a special needs child. My twelve-year-old daughter and I both loved this book. It's a tear-jerker, so be prepared.

Reading Resource

Looking for some resources to provide reading interventions in groups, individually, or as part of classroom centers? Getting Ready to Read by Jo Fitzpatrick contains FIFTY no or low cost phonemic awareness interventions leveled from easiest for children who are not yet reading whole words to most difficult for emergent readers who are mastering reading independently. Masters of all needed game pieces, cards, pictures, and materials are included in this book.

Draft Builder-technology assisted writing tool

Draft Builder is a technology-based writing tool that assists students in grades 2-12 in planning, organizing, and draft building. This software breaks down the writing process into manageable, visual steps. In addition to the outlining, note taking, and drafting tools, the program contains over 50 templates for all types of writing from essays, to book reports, to research papers.

SOLO Writing Coach

The SOLO Writing Coach is a comprehensive writing intervention program that consists of 64 scripted lessons in high-quality writing strategy instruction combined with SOLO technology for maximum results in increasing student achievement in writing. The SOLO Writing Coach is designed around the RTI (Response to Intervention) Model and comes with a comprehensive implementation guide to assist teachers and administrators with creating an RTI writing program that will provide interventions and assessments to monitor student progress. The SOLO Writing Coach program is ideal for individual student tutoring and working with groups who need specific skill instruction and is also a great addition to a summer school curriculum for students who struggle with written expression.

Write: OutLoud Talking Software

Write: OutLoud is a talking word processor and software package designed for grade 3-12 that takes text-to-speech to a whole new level. This program provides auditory feedback to students as they write by reading letters, words, sentences, or a whole document as it is being typed. Other features include oral spelling and homonym checkers and a talking dictionary that provides student-friendly definitions. A neat feature is the bibliography wizard that will assist students who have used multiple sources to create an MLA or APA format bibliography.

Co:Writer Word Prediction Software

Students who struggle with spelling, vocabulary, sentence structure, reading, or language deficits can improve both the quality and quantity of their writing, as well as increase their enjoyment of writing by using Co:Writer Word Prediction Software. Created by Don Johnston, Co:Writer is a word prediction tool that predicts the word a student in trying to type, even if the student spells the word incorrectly. Innovative features include an optional voice to read words aloud to students and a word predictor that offers grammatically correct options to students as they type sentences and paragraphs. I was impressed by the topic dictionaries; these are vocabulary specific lists that can be accessed by students who might otherwise search for words or key terms to include in a piece of writing. For example, a student might enter the topic of Martin Luther King, Jr. and immediately, a topic dictionary with words pertaining to the topic will appear on the side of the screen. It is also possible for students or teachers to create their own topic dictionaries by simply copying a page from a website of choice like Wikipedia and pasting it into a topic dictionary. Co:Writer will automatically pick out the nouns, adjectives, or verbs for a comprehensive vocab list that is content specific.

Smart Board Resources

Teachers already using Smart Boards or those who are interested in how they can be utilized in the classroom are encouraged to visit the Smart Board training center for online sessions, 19 two- minute video tutorials and various printable materials. Topics include general instructions in the use of Smart Boards and other add on technologies like Smart Syn and the Senteo Student Response System.

Soundsnap- Guest Blogger Amanda

Soundsnap.com is a site where you can download different sounds and put them in movies or PowerPoint's. This site is great for allowing students to incorporate sounds into their work. For instance if the students need to do a PowerPoint this is a great tool for incorporating sounds into the presentations. Teachers can also use this to enhance their lessons. Through the site you get 5 free downloads a month, after registering for the site. You can download either an MP3 or a wav. You can pay monthly, tri-monthly, every six months, or annually.

http://www.soundsnap.com/

TechMatrix

TechMatrix is a tool to assist teachers in finding and selecting appropriate educational and assistive technology based on a student's needs. It's possible to search by subject or by needed learning supports; simply enter information about the student needs and TechMatrix will generate a customized list of possible products. Also included is a consumer guide and research studies which show the results these different products have produced in increasing student achievement.

Writeboard-Guest blogger Janessa

Writeboard is a website that you can use to write, edit, share, and compare your work with others. All you have to do is write something in your email program or word processor. Then, using Writeboard, you can share your work with others for editing or collaboration. If, after editing, you decide you want to return to another version of your work, you simply click on the version you want to return to on the side panel. You can also compare two versions of your work by selecting two versions and clicking the "compare" button. This is a great website for students who are collaborating with others on a group paper.

http://www.writeboard.com.