Online useful resources for teachers and learning Part-1

I am writing these few posts about online resources (mostly free) for teachers. This series of posts about useful resources would continue till I gather most links to share with you, so subscribe to the blog to get updated posts, so don't miss the upcoming articles.

* The Really Big List of Classroom Management Resources:
Monmouth University graduate students worked hard for whole one week scouring the entire Internet, and this list is many of the best that cyberspace has to offer.

Link: The Really Big List of Classroom Management Resources

* The Really Useful List of Fill-in-the-Blank Web Tools for Teachers and Students:

If you are looking for ways to make good use of the Internet in your classroom then the treasure trove of mostly fill-in-the-blank tools may be just what you need to get started. It includes tools, forms, templates, checklists, and interactive activities that will enable you generate Web sites, lessons, puzzles, rubrics, projects, games and a whole lot more.

10 valiant members of the Monmouth University online course, ED 554 OL Modern Educational Practices, worked night and day to bring you an impressive list of practical tools and resources you might really use in K-12 classrooms.

Link: The Really Useful List of Fill-in-the-Blank Web Tools for Teachers and Students

* Blogging, Web and Wiki Tools: These tools can be used to create blogs, web pages/sites and wikis as well as provide interactivity, RSS feeds, forms web polls, etc through a range of widgets and plugins
Link: Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies

Quotes about learning and education

These quotes are a  reminder for teachers who want to enhance their teaching all the time.

• The job of an educator is to teach students to see vitality in themselves.-- Joseph Campbell
• Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire.-- W. B. Yeats
• The objective of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.-- Robert Maynard Hutchins
• There is a brilliant child locked inside every student.-- Marva Collins
• A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.-- Henry B. Adams
• Information cannot replace education.-- Earl Kiole
• We all need someone who inspires us to do better than we know how.-- Anonymous
• The kids in our classroom are infinitely more significant than the subject matter we teach.-- Meladee McCarty
• Teaching is not a profession; it's a passion.-- Unknown
• Your heart is slightly bigger than the average human heart, but that's because you're a teacher.-- Aaron Bacall
• Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life. Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism.-- David M. Burns
• A professor can never better distinguish himself in his work than by encouraging a clever pupil, for the true discoverers are among them, as comets amongst the stars.-- Linnaeus
• A teacher effects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.-- Henry Adams
• Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.-- Mark Twain
• An idea can turn to dust or magic, depending on the talent that rubs against it.-- Bill Bernbach
• Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.-- Aristotle
• It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated.-- Alec Bourne
• It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.-- Aristotle
• Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten-- B. F. Skinner
• Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.-- Gail Godwin
• Education is the best provision for old age.-- Aristotle
• Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.-- Confucius
• The mark of a true MBA is that he is often wrong but seldom in doubt.-- Robert Buzzell
• If I were asked ... to what the singular prosperity and growing strength of Americans ought mainly to be attributed, I should reply: To the superiority of their women.-- Alexis de Tocqueville
• Children need models rather than critics.-- Joseph Joubert
• The true teacher defends his pupils against his own personal influence. He inspires self-trust. He guides their eyes from himself to the spirit that quickens him. He will have no disciple.--Amos Bronson Alcott
• It is the responsibility of every adult... to make sure that children hear what we have learned from the lessons of life and to hear over and over that we love them and that they are not alone-- Marian Wright Edelman
• Education is more than filling a child with facts. It starts with posing questions.-- D.T. Max
• If people did not do silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.-- Ludwig Wittgenstein
• Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people may be engaged in.-- Abraham Lincoln
• It's okay to make mistakes. Mistakes are our teachers -- they help us to learn.-- John Bradshaw
• It's not what is poured into a student, but what is planted.--Linda Conway
• It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.-- Albert Einstein
• Instruction begins when you, the teacher, learn from the learner; put yourself in his place so that you may understand… what he learns and the way he understands it.-- Soren Kierkegaard
• If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.-- Thumper's father (Bambi 1942)
• A child cannot be taught by anyone who despises him.-- James Baldwin
• That is the difference between good teachers and great teachers: good teachers make the best of a pupil's means; great teachers foresee a pupil's ends.-- Maria Callas
• A word as to the education of the heart. We don't believe that this can be imparted through books; it can only be imparted through the loving touch of the teacher.-- Cesar Chavez
• The highest result of education is tolerance.-- Helen Keller

More at: The Really Big List of Education Quotes & Links

So you want to be a great teacher?

I love to read and bookmark the teaching or learning blogs and whenever I am succeeded to find a site or blog I am happy to share it with my blog readers. Today's blog review is for teachers who love their profession and want to get useful information or suggestions from other experienced teachers to become great teachers.

'So you want to teach' is a teacher's blog who is trying to become a great teacher. Blog is loaded with useful articles. It includes the useful tips and ideas to manage classrooms, dealing with students, how to enhance your teaching etc.

Joel (the blogger) says: 'This blog is different -I strive to keep a personal atmosphere and writing style, while freely transferring practical information in meaningful and positive ways.'

He further says: 'I began teaching band in 2002. Though I had a lot of information, my classes were out of control. I was tired, frustrated, disrespected by students, lonely, and on the brink of quitting.

I had had enough. I resigned from my school district right before spring break of my second year and made it my personal mission to learn to be a great teacher.

So You Want To Teach? is the ongoing story of my quest for educational excellence.'

Popular post section seems quite interesting and valuable for teachers as it includes:

• Top 5 (Plus 14) Character Traits Of Superior Teachers
• 9 Reasons To Quit Teaching (And 10 Reasons To Stick)
• 5 Habits of Highly Effective Teachers
• Are Classroom Rules Needed?
• How Do I Keep My Students Quiet?
• Fun Back to School Activities
• Habit 2: Classroom Habits
• New Teacher Survival Kit 

You can start browsing the site by going directly to the popular post titles or just click the 'Start' tab to go for 20 classic articles.

Story telling for creative teachig and learning

For creative teaching and learning, storytelling can be an effective tool. It is about enabling children and young people to become good listeners, storytellers and story-makers. Most of us will agree that learning is more fun when stories are part of training. You would realize that story telling is an effective way to strengthen motivation, memory, inclusion and build community.

Storytelling is such a multi-purpose tool that it can be used with children and young people at all levels, from nursery to S6. From the youngest age, babies and toddlers enjoy listening to voices, exploring the sounds and patterns of language and communicating through eye-to-eye contact with parents and carers.

Storytelling is as old as mankind. It comes from man's need to communicate and connect.The oldest recorded storytelling (35,000 years old) was found in paintings on a cave wall in France. Storytellers of old entertained, shaped religions as well as whole cultures, and passed along the wisdom of the time. In short, they were teachers.

Digital storytelling expands on traditional storytelling by combining the art and lessons of story with a wide range of modern multimedia tools. This powerful combination excites the interest of the student and feeds the creativity of their souls.

Mario Rinvolucri explores a range of story telling techniques that he uses in the classroom and gives some insights into why these techniques are effective.
Link to the post: Story telling: the language teacher's oldest technique

* Read the post 'How to Use Story maps When Learning Both Oral and Written Stories' at: 'Creative Keys.net'
If you sign up for their FREE eclectic e-newsletter, "Portfolio Potpourri", you would get the "10 Tips of Ways to Develop Your Personal and Professional STYLE."

- Many free articles at 'Creative Keys'

Useful sites and resources:

* Many tips and ideas from: 'The scottish Story telling centre'

* 'Story telling in the classroom'

* How to Use Digital Storytelling in Your Classroom

Best educational and free sites for K12 students

During my browsing for educational and resources sites, I was amazed to see so many blogs with a lot of useful information which were otherwise difficult to search around the net. 'Learning reviews' is one of those sites which is mainly a free resource site with reviews.

Site author 'Heidi Reina' is a parent, teacher, technology integrator and webmaster. She has more than 20 years of experience as a computer guru and fifteen years experience as a tutor and elementary school teacher.

Her blog 'Best Kids Educational Websites' is a source of free information and reviews for kids, parents and teachers.

Her site "Learning reviews" is a directory of educational web sites. The site helps K-12 students, teachers and parents to find worthwhile educational content appropriate to their grade levels. If offers listing of more than 2,100 mostly free educational sites.

LearningReviews.com provides a forum for reviews and ratings from you. Is the content of the educational website worthwhile? Is it easy to navigate? How did you use it in the classroom or at home?

What you can get at the site?

For Kids - Interactive learning tools in all subjects, including research paper help.
For Parents - Websites for learning support, homeschooling information & parenting skills.
For Teachers - Lesson resources from elementary school math lesson plans to high school writing

Activities and crafts for preschool kids

Art and crafts is always a favourite time pass for me and for my nursery class kids. I usually search for crafts ideas at the net and participate at many parents, teachers or craft, drawing related online communities. I just pick up some ideas or project instructions, just follow it or create similar or different activities for my students. There are many sites around which offer crafts or art activities for toddlers or preschool kids and most of those sites provide free access for that stuff.

"Pre school learning and crafts" is created by former teacher who describes the purpose of creating this site:

'Using toddler and preschool learning activities, crafts, games, and songs in your everyday busy life can help your child (and you) in so many ways. As a former teacher and current stay-at-home mom, I have noticed that many of the activities for preschoolers I find online don't actually work with my kids. I have to modify them to avoid having to do most of the project myself!'

She has explained it in details at 'about me' page.

She is a stay-at-home mom of three young kids ages 1, 3, and 6.

The easy and fun learning activities and crafts on this site have all been tested by her children and friends. These activities on Preschool-Learning-and-Crafts.com are age appropriate (moms won't have to do them for their kids), have easy to follow directions.

Each month you can receive the "Craft Your Kids Smart newsletter" directly to your email. Each issue will be full of learning ideas, games, crafts, and songs around a preschool theme (Valentine's Day, Animals, Dinosaurs, Weather, etc.)
All of the preschool activities will have easy to follow directions and supply lists.

Subscribe for the newsletter at 'this link'

The site owner has account at 'facebook' and if you are interested to get updated news about her crafts then go directly to her account 'here'

How teachers can learn the use of internet effectively?

It seems very easy to say that we are good in surfing the net or know a lot about 'internet' world. But being an internet surfer and user for more than 6 years, I feel that I am still an infant at the world wide web. There is a lot to learn at it and most important thing is that you need to learn the effective use of it. Now internet has opened doors for students and parents as well. Teachers can easily learn the effective use of internet for their schools or classrooms.

'Internet for classrooms' is created to offer free internet resouces to use in classroom. It is used by teachers, parents and students of all ages. internet4classrooms.com has a huge collection of educational links: free worksheet sites, free software, interactive activities and much more. They answer requests for help, concerns, or anything you want to write about.

They also offer online tutorials for teachers to help them integrate technology in classrooms.

Site link: internet4classrooms.com

Keep your kids busy with 'free learning games'

Mainly video games are played to have fun 'either they are played at PCs, hand held or play station type gaming devices. As a parent or teacher we discourage our kids to play offline or online video games as these activities kill a large amount of time and when kids are addict to these games, usually their studies are affected. This post is mainly about useful links and resources about educational or learning games. These links offer free leaning games so you only need to check the links, bookmark your favorite ones and let your child have fun while learning.

* Browser-based, Free Learning Games: '36 Learning Games to Change the World'

* Educational Games at 'Nobel Prize organization' site. These games and simulations, based on Nobel Prize-awarded achievements, will teach and inspire you while you're having FUN!

Top 10 most visited educational games are:

* 1. The Laser Challenge Game
* 2. The Blood Typing Game
* 3. The Pavlov's Dog Game
* 4. The DNA - the Double Helix Game
* 5. The Lord of the Flies Game
* 6. The Electrocardiogram Game
* 7. The Control of the Cell Cycle Game
* 8. The Peace Doves Game
* 9. The Immune System Game
* 10. The Split Brain Experiments Game

* 'Educational Games Research' is a blog which discusses the research based studies concerning instructional video games.

John Rice is an educator, author and speaker specializing in educational technology and instructional gaming. He serves as technology director for a school district in Texas and is a doctoral student in educational computing at University of North Texas. Among the several published articles and conference papers he has written, many have dealt with the subject of educational video games. The topic remains his primary research interest.

Top posts are:
* The Top 10 Most Influential Educational Video Games from the 1980s
* 10 Great Sites for Finding Free Educational Games
* The Top 10 Free Educational Video Games
* Educational Uses for the Nintendo DS
* Latest Nielsen Findings Show Interesting Video Game Statistics


* '88 Free EduGames to Spice Up Your Course!'

'Zaid Learn' - An educational blog

Zaid Learn is a learning blog which is created by 'Zaid Ali Alsagoff' from Malaysia, who is from education field and an 'e-Learning Researcher'.

More about Zaid in his own words:

'I am an e-learning manager and researcher. I have done research in several key e-learning areas, including educational gaming, role-play simulation, virtual classrooms, learning (content) management systems, e-learning standards, instructional design and courseware development. In addition, I have two (2) years experience in courseware development (as an ID), and an educational background in Psychology and IT management. My strengths include creative and critical thinking, content development, instructional design, system analysis (and visualization), analytical thinking, writing e-learning proposals, conducting workshops, giving presentations, interpersonal communication and pro-activeness.'

His career and interests are reflected at his blogs posts. Blog is about 3 years old but quality of articles and research proves that it has got google page rank 5. I personally found many links and resources at his blog. There are many articles about other resources as well.

Helping you learn 'Mission to learn'

Mission to learn is another educational blog. You can read articles on a wide range of learning resources, insights about what it means to be a lifelong learner on the social Web, and news about topics like open education, serious games, brain science, and more.

Blog posts are really informative and valuable

35+ Free Online Business Education Sites
26 Learning Games to Change the World
More Than 100 Free Places to Learn Online - And Counting
More Than 50 Web Widgets for Your Learning Mix

Another post 'Is Your Brain in a Box?' is very unique on 'learning and brain plasticity' topic which might be interesting for the teachers who want to know more about the brain and learning.

* Mission to Learn Blog - Postings 2-3 times per week on new learning resources, news, and insights about learning.

* Radio Free Learning - An occasional (aiming for one to two times per month) podcast in which I interview thinkers and doers in the world of lifelong learning. Subscribe to the Radio Free Learning Podcast via RSS or with iTunes.

You can also explore each of the channels to get a better feel for what they offer. Check our the Free Learning Monitor archives, listen to some of the recent Radio Free Learning podcasts.

Best way to get informed about the updated post is to subscribe to the blog newsletter. You would receive a monthly digest of free and low-cost online courses, tutorials, videos, podcasts, games, and blogs.

Get free subscription of their newsletter: 'free learning monitor'

"Neuroscience for kids" - A learning resource for kids and teachers

This interactive and informative site is designed for kids but teachers can also use the site for teaching purposes. As I have searched the site and noticed that this ad free site is very informative for science students and teachers. Site navigation is also easy for kids. It is basically about brain and brain related information.


More about the site:
'"Neuroscience for Kids" is the perfect combination of neuroscience, education, science outreach, and writing and editing-all rolled into a collaborative and creative atmosphere.'

Few topics discussed are:
• The World of Neuroscience
• Brain Basics
• Higher Functions
• Spinal Cord
• Peripheral Nervous System
• The Neuron
• Sensory Systems
• Methods and Techniques
• Drug Effects
• Neurological and Mental Disorders

Every topic covers many articles which are interesting and informative.

If you are interested to get monthly newsletter from the site click on this page link

- FREE Worksheets, posters or colouring book

Other useful resources:
- 'Brain info' for the brain surface of atlas
- Brain maps from 'BrainMaps.org'

FREE Online English Learning Course For KIds

There are millions of people around the world who learn English as a second language. Being a second language the first steps are always difficult when their children learn English at school or at home. I collected some interactive softwares for my son who was going to school, to make English learning easier and fun for him. I use the same technique for my students and use different software programs which are fun to watch and encourage them to listen, and speak the English langugage. I was really happy to find the site "Mingoville" which offers English learning course absolutely FREE.

Mingoville.com offers the world's most comprehansive English course online for kids of ages 5-12.

Features of the course:

- It is 100% web based and contains hundreds of game like activities to stimulate kids language learning abilities.

Mission (In their own words)
"Our Mission is to educate kids English language by providing high-quality, result-oriented English learning on the Internet. We believe in the power of knowledge and our valuable goal is to deliver the best practices of education, entertainment and information technologies.

Our Vision is to maintain the position of high-quality, result-oriented eLearning solutions and online content provider through continuous value creation."

It includes:

An interactive dictionary with words and images, 10 missions to solve, several different exercises in spelling, lestening and reading.

Regarding innovation in education, Mingoville’s creators understand that children learn English best when learning is fun. This "edutainment" (education + entertainment) model allows children to learn English by clicking, doing, exploring, and interacting – comprehensive virtual language immersion based on advanced technologies and the newest pedagogical knowledge. Through a variety of methods such as direct interaction with the exercises and games, visual learning, and recording and audio elements to perfect English pronunciation, kids are encouraged to explore and learn English in a fun way.
Parents of kids using Mingoville recognized a sharp learning curve after three to four months of commencement of the online courses in English for children.

- Sign up here

There are more Free courses which creator of 'Mingoville'company 'E-learning for kids' offers in subjects like Maths, language art, science, computer skill, health and life skill,

Link: E-learning for kids

Practice Of Blogging In Classroom

Many educational institutions or teachers are aware of the power and affects of "Blogging" for educational purposes but they don't know where to start. I hope that this article would help the students or teachers interested for use of blogging in classroom.

Blogs for Learning, is an online resource about instructional blogging. The site provides students and instructors with information and resources about the technical and pedagogical aspects of blogging in the classroom.

Blogs for Learning was originally conceived by Dr. Ethan Watrall and Dr. Nicole Ellison as a robust online resource designed for students and instructors who are interested in the theory and practice of blogging within an educational setting.

The goal of Blogs for Learning is to provide information and resources as to the technical, legal, and pedagogical aspects of blogging in the classroom. The design of the Blogs for Learning site was carefully conceived to be elegant, highly standards compliant and very forward thinking.

Blogs for Learning was created with the generous support from the College of Communication Arts and Sciences and the Department of Telecommunications, Information Studies, and Media at Michigan State University.

Articles section contains very useful articles which can be downloaded easily either for reading or printing.

Few titles are:

- Student Blogging - What You Should Know

- Blogging for Large Classes

- Using Blogs in a College Classroom: What's Authenticity Got To Do With It?

* There are many tutorials which are in a flash presentation format, so you just have to sit, relax, watch the videos and learn about "Blogging". (Section is not working for the time being, but hope that it would be updated soon)

Read their "blog" for useful and latest articles.

Related links and posts:

- Use second generation web technologies so you can be at the forefront of transforming learning in your school at The Why 2 of Web 2.0

- Benefits of classroom Blogging?

- Classroom Blogging: More than Just Tech Ed

- A blog about career development, technology and learning strategies: The Bamboo Project

- A blog about Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century.
'Learning Blog'

- Links for teachers to start educational blogs

- Effective use of Blogging in education

Guide to Children;s Fun and Learning -"Edutaining Kids"

Edutaining kids is dedicated to providing parents with reviews and recommendations of "edutainment" products and activities for children. The kids' products selected for inclusion on Edutaining Kids are designed to entertain and to educate simultaneously, and include children's software, educational toys, books, audio, video games, and videos.

Divided into age groups and subjects, EdutainingKids.com's feature articles and reviews help make sense out of web sites, activities, and the latest products available to children and their parents.

The reviews provided are based on feed back from kids, parents and caregivers, so you can expect to read impartial and objective reviews.

Most children's "edutainment" products are evaluated and graded (with A+ indicating products that are outstanding, A excellent, A- very good, B+ good, B average, and so forth), while others are evaluated as "Recommended". Often, a ratings bar graph accompanies a review, providing a visual overview of the product's merits, broken down into various categories such as entertainment, educational content, etc., each based on a scale of zero to ten. Articles help to provide comparisons and round-ups of products with a common theme, such as software for first-graders.

I have checked the site to see if software or oter edutainment products are available at reasonable prices or not. At software bargain page This page offers the latest offers, rebates, specials, discounts, and deals in children's software, video, DVD, video games, toys. Many software titles including Dora, Putt Putt were around $4.95.

You can search the guide by age group like 'toddler fun and learning' page provides product reviews and other offers for toddlers.

Join the Social Network For Learning - 'ePals'

ePals is a community of connected classrooms, which is equally beneficial for students and teachers.

It is fastest growing K-12 online community for meaningful learning. More than half a million educators and millions of learners across 200 countries and territories safely connect, collaborate and build community.

It offers classroom e-mail, blogs, online literacy tools and Web-based collaborative projects on subjects like global warming and habitats.

EPals says 125,000 classrooms around the world are using at least some of its free tools, reaching 13 million students, and its ambition is to become a global “learning social network.”

What you can do at ePals:

1- Collaborate with another classroom
2- Find great projects and instructional materials at ePals
3- Chat with other teachers
4- Share your successful lessons and resources
5- Connect Your Families
6- Have a say! Cast a vote in the Polls
7- Connect with Email
8- Protect your students with Monitored Accounts
9- Create a Blog - We want to hear what you have to say
10-Ask an ePals Teacher

There are many forums where teachers or students where you can ask questions, read the other member's opinions and place comments.

I could see many posts which are about learning a foreign language. Especially for the people who learn English as a second language

Click on the "support" link to see what you can get from ePals and how to start discovering what ePal is.

Teachers and schools can now create blog at ePal.

"ePals is now making SchoolBlog available at no cost to schools, districts, and learners globally. ePal wants to partner with the education community to speed the rate of safe and collaborative learning around the world.

My blogging journey with "A Learner's Diary"

It's been a year ago, I was suggesting some links (internet safety sites) to a teacher, when I realized that my son would become teen within few years and I also need to save those links for me.

After few weeks, at holidays from school I planned to create a blog for parents and teachers with useful information and resources. It was October 2007 when I started writing for this blog.

As a teacher I had to search hard disk of my computer for any relevant information, because from the very start of internet access, I loved to search for teaching or learning stuff and saved most of the stuff.

Mainly the purpost behind creating this blog was to collect the stuff about:

- Learning

- Online safety

- Safe sites for kids and teens

- Useful sites for teachers

- Informative stuff for parents

- Learning strategies

- Awareness about health, skill development etc.

- Tips and useful site links for kids, children and students

- Free resources, useful links

While searching the net, there are millions of sites with lot of information. But I selected the sites which were offering FREE stuff and reliable information.

May be I have missed many topics, but as the journey is continued, I have plan to add more stuff which would be equally beneficial for all. Initially I didn't try to submit my site to blog directories or search engines to bring traffic, because I wanted to keep this blog as a reference for myself or fellow teachers. But after some time I realized that this site can offer a lot to parents and teachers and increasing number of visitores and their comments were an encouragement for me.

So come back often to this blog and leave your comments. I appreciate your suggestions in this regard.

Parent Involvement in Education Plays An Important Role To Student Success

Being an educator and a parent I believe that parent's involvement in education, plays an important role in child development or success.

A recent review of the research literature by Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory found that,

"clearly, parent involvement is effective in fostering achievement and affective gains at all levels, and schools are encouraged to engage and maintain this involvement throughout the elementary, middle school and secondary years".

Parents need to be involved throughout the school year reading to their children, helping with assignments, participating in parent events at the school and establishing a working relationship with teachers."

Child Development Institute was founded by Robert Myers, Ph.D. Dr. Myers is a Clinical Child Psychologist with 25 years of experience working with children, adolescents, families and parents.

You can get information on child development, parenting, family life, teenagers, learning, health & safety, child psychology and mental health including ADHD.

What you can get at the site?

* Parents resouces

* Child Development : Information on child development including prenatal, physical, intellectual, language and social development.

* Parenting Parenting information on child development, discipline, family life, teenagers, learning, health & safety and child psychology plus news for parents.

* Psychology page provides information, research & practical guides for parents on various mental disorders found in children and adolescents. Also provides information on promoting health psychosocial development in kids and teens.

* Improving Your Child's Learning Ability: Information related to assisting parents in helping their children and teenagers to improve their learning and study skills. Techniques on how to develop motivation, attention, comprehension, organization and creativity are provided.

* Child & Teen Health and Safety Issues:
Providing information on health & issues for children and adolescents from leading experts and professional organizations.

More links:
- East Renfrewshire council

-

"Ld Online"- A site helping us learn about learning disablities

More than 2.9 million school-age children in the United States – approximately five percent of the student population – are diagnosed with learning disabilities. Many more struggle in school but never receive a formal diagnosis.


LD OnLine is world's leading website on learning disabilities and ADHD. "LD OnLine" provides the parents and teachers of these children with accurate, authoritative information about learning disabilities so they can obtain the help they need.  It is serving more than 200,000 parents, teachers, and other professionals each month.


LD OnLine seeks to help children and adults reach their full potential by providing accurate and up-to-date information and advice about learning disabilities and ADHD. The site features hundreds of helpful articles, multimedia, monthly columns by noted experts, first person essays, children’s writing and artwork, a comprehensive resource guide, very active forums, and a Yellow Pages referral directory of professionals, schools, and products.


LD OnLine also serves adolescents and adults with learning disabilities. The site offers information and resources on the transitions from school to college and from school to the workplace, and on the issues faced by adults with learning disabilities.


It also offers three other comprehensive educational sites:
-ReadingRockets.org,


-ColorinColorado.org
and
-AdLit.org.


* Whether you're a general or special education teacher, principal, specialist or paraprofessional, you play a vitally important role in helping children with learning disabilities achieve their full potential.
LD OnLine has gathered many resources to assist you in your important job!
- educators


* Parenting a child with learning disabilities or ADHD is a challenge. To assist you, LD OnLine has gathered the following information to help you get started in understanding what your child needs, your rights and responsibilities in working with the school, and ways to support your son or daughter at home.
- parents


* KId's section has "art gallery", "your stories", "books" and "e-card" sections:
- kids


* Sign up to receive news and information about key issues in reading, learning disabilities, and other areas of learning. All of our publications are available at no cost.


- sign up link

A "Child and Family Web Guide" about child development sites

There are many search engines, site which help teachers, parents or students in search for learning or learning related web sites. Because searching at a search engines can take hours to search for the specific information.

"Child and family web guide" is a directory of the sites rated by experts from "Tufts University" which is one of the premimier universities in the United States. It is non-profit resource, based on parent and professional feedback.

Child and family web guide evaluates, describes and provides links to hundreds of sites containing child development research and practical advice.

The goal of the WebGuide is to give the public easy access to the best child development information on the Web.

Who is the WebGuide for?
The WebGuide is an online rating and review guide for a broad range of audiences, from those familiar with the topic of child development who are seeking answers to relatively sophisticated questions, to those with minimal background who are seeking a basic understanding of a topic. Audiences that the WebGuide is intended to serve include:

* Parents of children from infancy to adolescence
* Professionals who work with children, such as teachers, pediatricians, counselors, day care providers and others
* Professionals whose work concerns children, such as government officials, social policy experts and journalists
* Students studying child development -- at the high school, undergraduate and graduate level

What you can get from the WebGuide?

There are five main categories of information:
- family/parenting,
- education/learning,
- typical child development,
- health/mental health, and
- resources/recreation.

The first four categories contain sites with research-based information. The fifth category, resources/recreation, contains sites with information about specific programs and things to do. The resources/recreation sites, which were added at the request of parents, do not contain research-based information.
The WebGuide also offers an option of searching for sites that are especially relevant to a particular age group :
topics by age offers several features requested by parents (e.g., ask an expert sites; research news sites).

- Medical pages provides links to child related medical sites.
WebGuide provides search engine boxes for searches.

Internet as a useful tool for learning

Most of the people search the web for the sake of information. Internet has provided lots of help in education sector. It would be interesting to know for teachers that
internet can be used as a source of quick information source helping us in learning and teaching. Students, teens are increasingly using internet for their school or college projects.

Pew Internet and American Life Project an initiative of the Pew Research Center, a nonprofit organization, that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world, explorinh the impact of the internet on children, families, communities, the work place, schools, health care and civic/political life.

"The Pew Research Center" provides a survery and research based report about the use of internet in education.

"The Internet and Education"

The Internet has become an increasingly important feature of the learning environment for teenagers. Research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in November and December 2000 shows that teens use the Internet as an essential study aid outside the classroom and that the Internet increasingly has a place inside the classroom.

The Project surveyed 754 online youth ages 12-17 and their parents. Teens and parents report that Internet is vital to completing school projects and has effectively replaced the library for a large number of online youth. 71% of students report using the Internet at their primary source for their last major project, and they also report accessing online study aids like Sparknotes or CliffNotes. Beyond legitimate assistance with studies via websites, or email or Instant message communication with teachers, students also take advantage of the Internet to cheat, with 18% of students reporting knowing someone who used the Internet to do so.

Source: report