"New Horizons"-- Effective teaching and learning resource!

It is a voluntary service (non-profit network), so access to the information is FREE.
This site deals in learning for all ages and abilities. Students, teachers, parents, professors, school administrators, equally can find useful information on this site.

Achievements:
New Horizons.org was founded in 1980. Since 1995, this website recieves around 8 million hits a month. It has received numerous awards, including the most recent from the International Society for Technology in Education as one of the best education sites on the Internet. More comments on this section

The Mission Statement of New Horizons for Learning:(In their own words)
New Horizons for Learning is an international network of people, programs, and products dedicated to successful, innovative learning. As such, this organization:
• Acts as a catalyst for positive change in education
• Seeks out, synthesizes, and communicates relevant
research and information
• Supports an expanded vision of learning that identifies
and fosters the fullest development of human capabilities
• Works to implement proven strategies for learning at every
age and ability level
• Builds support for comprehensive lifespan learning communities
• Sponsors The New Horizons for Learning website.
Our website has been created to focus on learning from pre-birth throughout life. Many of the areas on our site focus on the school years, but in this area, you will find articles and resources about early childhood and parenting, adolescence, and the adult years, including higher education, learning in the workplace, and the older years.
We believe that providing this context for our discussions about learning point to the fact that learning is a lifelong journey. It gives meaning to our lives and keeps us growing mentally, physically, and emotionally.

Sections of the site:
1- Teaching and Learning Strategies provides information on some of the best researched and the most widely implemented methods of helping all students to learn more successfully. The information includes a description of how the teaching and learning strategies work, where they have been applied, results, and where to find further information from experts in the field, books, websites, and other resources.

2- Transforming Education: Realizing a Vision This area of the website is devoted to the possibilities of creating new kinds of educational systems and learning communities for today's students now in the process of becoming the adults of tomorrow's world. How do we make systemic change in curriculum, teaching and learning strategies that make it possible for every student to be successful; time schedules that allow projects and exploration of a topic to be completed; environments that allow for both group and individual learning and that facilitate the active, participative, and interactive processes that bring learning to life?

3- Lifelong Learning In this area, you will find articles and resources about early childhood and parenting, adolescence, and the adult years, including higher education, learning in the workplace, and the older years.

We believe that providing this context for our discussions about learning point to the fact that learning is a lifelong journey. It gives meaning to our lives and keeps us growing mentally, physically, and emotionally.

4- News from the Neurosciences How would it affect educational systems if everyone truly believed that the human brain could change structurally and functionally as a result of learning and experience--for better or worse? How would it affect how we teach and how students learn if everyone believed that the kinds of environments we create for learning, how we teach, and the learning strategies we offer students could result in better mental equipment they will use throughout life? In News from the Neurosciences, you will find articles that support the validity of this concept, as well as articles of current interest on various other aspects of brain research and its implications for education.

5- Students with Special Needs In this area of our website we offer a comprehensive resource for parents and teachers of those who are challenged physically, emotionally, or cognitively.

We include information about gifted learners, who also have special needs that are not always acknowledged or met. You will find interesting and informative articles by specialists, stories of parents and teachers who have found successful ways of dealing with their children's needs, state and federal guidelines, links to related sites, and many other useful resources.

6- Student Voice in Transforming Education In this area of our website, we ask students to share their insights about what works and what doesn't work for them in school and other environments for learning. We are currently experimenting with different ways of interviewing them through video, as well as involving students themselves as interviewers and film-producers. We also include articles by educators about how to encourage student involvement and how to create more open and participatory environments for learning.

7- Perspectives on the Future How can we best prepare our children and our students, as well as ourselves, for a future that is difficult to imagine? How can we all learn to take an active part in determining a positive course for humanity? Homes, schools, and other places of learning must take these challenges seriously as we head for an evolutionary challenge early in the next century.

Every section has more links for articles, recommended readings and related links.

Few links at the site:

* Early Childhood/Parenting
* Learning in Adolescence
* Higher Education
* Learning in the Workplace
* Learning in the Senior Years
* English Language Learners

Use of philosophy to develop thinking skills in schools

This pictures reminds me the time, when our grandmother used to tell us bed time stories. I was really addicted to those stories and I am not in doubt that that addiction converted in 'love for book reading", which is still have roots in me, although I am a teacher now. In our reception year classes, there is a conversation class, which I mostly utilize to talk with children and many times tell them stories. Their age level is around 4 to 5 years, and my story telling session is most interesting period for them. Involvement in story telling and then conveying them the moral of the stories helps a lot in character build up.

For teachers, using children's literature can be a way to teach philosophy to elementary school children. Children's books raise deep philosophical issues and children love to think about them.

Why we are talking and concerned about philosophy in schools?

Let's have a look at definition of "Philosophy" from "The College of Education and Human Services at Montclair State University":

"philosophy, among other things, is self-conscious inquiry into the meaning of puzzling and contestable concepts. In ancient times philosophy was known as a search for wisdom or meaning, and many of the concepts philosophers have thought about for thousands of years are ones we use to structure our daily experience. “What is justice?” “What is beauty?” “How can I be sure of what I know?” “What is the right thing to do?” “What is real?”

"Philosophy is also known for the cultivation of excellent thinking. One of the most ancient branches of philosophy is logic, which includes informal logic, or “critical thinking.” But philosophy is not only an intellectual pursuit. Philosophers have tried to improve their thinking in order to better explore the philosophical dimensions of experience, such as the ethical, political and aesthetic dimensions, and in order to improve their judgments and actions within these dimensions. Philosophy helps us learn to recognize, for instance, the ethical problems and possibilities in our experience, to think through them carefully, to make sound ethical judgments and to take appropriate action. This is why for thousands of years people have practiced philosophy, not only in universities but also in business offices, reading clubs and coffee houses."

Why ‘Philosophy for Children’?

"The last thirty years’ experience in doing philosophy with children and adolescents has shown us that they are not only capable of doing philosophy but need and appreciate it for the same reasons that adults do. Children think constantly, and reflect on their thoughts. They acquire knowledge and try to use what they know. And they want their experience to be meaningful: to be valuable, interesting, just and beautiful. Philosophy offers children the chance to explore ordinary but puzzling concepts, to improve their thinking, to make more sense of their world and to discover for themselves what is to be valued and cherished in that world.

The advent of Philosophy for Children also coincides with the recognition that emerged in the third quarter of the 20th century that children are capable of thinking critically and creatively, and that a major aim of education should be to help children become more reasonable—the “fourth R”. And as reading and writing are taught to children through the discipline of literature, why not make reasoning and judgment available to them through the discipline of philosophy? However, these benefits don’t come from learning about the history of philosophy or philosophers. Rather, as with reading, writing and arithmetic, the benefits of philosophy come through the doing—through active engagement in rigorous philosophical inquiry."


Read the full report here

* Philosophy in schools

* Philosophy for kids provides materials to use in doing philosophy with children.




* This site "Philosophy for children" (philosophical questions from children's stories) has been created and is maintained by "Professor Thomas Wartenberg" of the Department of Philosophy at "Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts".

* Philosophy for kids-educators page
* Resources and links
* Kids page

Review: "Wise Geek"- where you can get answers of your common questions!

I try to include the links or site at this blog, where you can learn something. I love to search the web and where-ever I find any useful link, I write about that site/blog or link. My intention is to provide as many learning posts, which could be informative for teachers or students, as well as parents and kids.
Today's site is not exactly for kid but teens and adults can use the link to browse for general knowledge.

Wise Geek is one of the sites, which is created by a team of writers and editors (over 50 contributors) to provide clear and concise answers to common questions. Access to the web site is FREE.

Who is behind all this effort, you can check at this link: Who is Wise Geek

Check the FAQ section for more information.

There is a list of questions at the home page, but if you don't get the answers to your questions, then just write your question at a search box and click it. Right now they have more than 19,200 articles.

Link to the site: wiseGEEK: clear answers for common questions

Learn how to create a school web site- FREE at "Wiggle Bits"

Internet provides many free opportunities to build up your own web site or blog, but most of the time, tutorials are short and most of the time you need an easy way to create a web site or blog.

"Wanda Wigglebits" provides this opportunity for teachers and kids atWiggle Bits to learn how to create or build a web site.

It is a 'learn-as-you-go' project, because you are learning to do it yourself. So for teachers it is a must visit site, where you can allow your students to learn and take their assessment on the basis of what they learned from the site.

Acheienements: Site is featured at many places as an online resource in school, education and technology catagory.
More at Awards and comments link.

At many links provided by "Wanda", there are lessons to act. She says:
"If you can follow a recipe, you can build a Web site. And when you're done, you'll be on the Web not only as a surfer but as a CREATOR!"

Lessons are easy to follow, and you can not only use it to learn to create web site for school, but for yourself or small business purpose, this tutorial can help you a lot.
Get Started link

Links for teachers to start educational blogs

Today there is lot of scope for teachers to have their own blogs, and thus make better use of blogging platform. Teachers can stay connected to their students, their parents.

What you can do more with blogs, is explained byBlogger:

"With Blogs you can update parents about their children's progress and keep them posted on upcoming events; publish a class or school newsletter; share photos and student work; post course documents, projects and results; and easily assign collaborative group projects online with an easy way to track students’ progress.

Students can use Blogs to communicate ideas, photos and class notes, improve their writing skills, and even jump right into web publishing without having to learn HTML. Free blogs, accessible from any computer that’s connected to the Internet, can help students easily create hubs for collecting information for both long and short-term projects; store information as unpublished drafts; collect feedback on their work from classmates, teachers and parents; and take on collaborative projects where multiple students can work and comment.

Even school sports teams, dance clubs and other extracurricular school groups can use Blogger to communicate with parents about upcoming events; share group calendars; and offer event highlights and pictures. Blogs give students the opportunity to reflect, to vent and most of all to share their experiences."

1- My ecoach discusses about "Class room Blog and Wikis- How can classroom communication and collaboration be enhanced with the usage of internet blogs?"

Page link

How things work?

I would be reviewing here some sites which may be interesting and useful for children and teachers as well, about "How things work?".


1-This link is for computer lovers:

This site provides you with computer hardware, computer software, internet and lots of other related stuff information. You may get all the necessary information you may require to know how things work?
Site link: How stuff works
You may get explainations about these topics at the site.
. Auto
• Business & Money
• Communication
• Computer
• Electronics
• Entertainment
• Food & Recipes
• Health
• Home & Garden
• People
• Science
• Travel

It's a good idea to sign up for their weekly newsletter, which is an easiest way to keep up with all the stuff going on in the world. You may select the topic you like to know about from a given list.

* Get newsletter
* Reference link takes you to the page, where you can get informations about: Geography, History, Humanities, Industry & Technology, Life Science, Physical Science & Math, Recreation, Social Science.


2- The MadSci Network is a site, where people can ask questions and learn more about the world around them. It has evolved into an interactive science teaching and community outreach tool, staffed and maintained by volunteer scientists and engineers from around the world.

The MadSci Network made its debut in September of 1995 as part of Washington University's, Young Scientist Program, a student-run organization dedicating to improving science literacy among K-12 students in St. Louis.
The MadSci Network fields questions in 26 different subjects, covering topics in astronomy, the biological sciences, chemistry, computer science, earth sciences, engineering, and physics. In 1999 alone, more than 900 scientists volunteered their time to answer more than 25,000 questions from K-12 students and the general public.

Main focus has been their free Ask-An-Expert service, which receives 90-150 questions a day from visitors in the U.S. or as far away as Malaysia, Chile and even Antarctica. The people asking questions are as young as 4 years to as old as 88 years of age. Nearly 800 scientists, also globally distributed, provide answers to your questions. The interactions with K-12 students work advantageously, both for the purposes of science education, and for the purpose of increasing their computer literacy.
More about the site: Introduction
The MadSci site has received notoriety from organizations including the U.S. Department of Education, Science magazine, New Scientist, and the BBC.
If you have an email address, access to the WWW and an interest in telling others about the wonders of science, then join the team.
Information and an online sign-up form live at: Join here

3- Ask Dr. Universe is a site where Dr. Universe tackles all questions, experts in just about everything. From global warming to neural networks. From Jane Austen to soil nematodes. From cow belching to quasars. You can ask questions at any topic, and search the site for many facts of life.

Ask Dr. Universe is brought to you by University Relations at Washington State University and is made possible through generous support from Microsoft Corporation.

4- Stanford University presents "Alliance for Innovative Manufacturing"(AIM) is a continuous learning community of industrial professionals, academics, and students passionate about the making of real things that improve people's lives. It is a cooperative venture among Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, School of Engineering, and member industrial firms.

"(AIM) Alliance for Innovative Manufacturing"has developed an introductory website for kids and adults showing how various items are made. It covers over 40 different products and manufacturing processes, and includes almost 4 hours of manufacturing video. It is targeted towards non-engineers and engineers alike. Think of it as your own private online factory tour, or a virtual factory tour, if you wish."

Includes products like candy, cars, airplanes, or bottles - or if you've been interested in manufacturing processes, like forging, casting, or injection molding, then this is the place to search.

AIM site link

Sign up for AIM e-mail list at the site home page.

5- How products are made? explains and details the manufacturing process of a wide variety of products, from daily household items to complicated electronic equipment and heavy machinery. The site provides step by step descriptions of the assembly and the manufacturing process (complemented with illustrations and diagrams) Each product also has related information such as the background, how the item works, who invented the product, raw materials that were used, product applications, by-products that are generated, possible future developments, quality control procedures, etc.

For example, you can find here descriptions of Air Bag, Air Conditioner, Artificial Snow, Automobile, Battery, Blue Jeans, Chewing Gum, Coin, Compact Disc, Credit Card, DVD Player, Fireworks, Hologram, Jet Engine, Laser Pointer, Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), Nuclear Submarine, Paint, Popcorn, Refrigerator, Telephone, Television, Temporary Tattoo, Vaccine, Vacuum Cleaner or Watch.

This searchable site is suited for a general audience and the descriptive language of this reference material is easy to understand and to follow. So go ahead we invite you to learn about How Products Are Made!
There is a list from A to Z catagory, but if you find it difficult to search for your product, there is a search box at the home page, where you can enter the product name and click "Go" to get the instant results. There are also some inventors biographies which might be interesting to read.

Site link: How products are made?

"About the kids"- A foundation helping nurture the lives of children!

"About The Kids Foundation" operates exclusively for charitable and educational purposes. The organization aims to help nurture the lives of children academically, as well as improve their home life, by providing children and their parents a useful one-stop information resource for:

* Homework Assistance
* Creative Entertainment
* Health Resources
* Family Law Resources
* Parenting Advice

Children and their parents have a safe place to find highly rated and relevant information about educational topics, homework assistance, how to improve parenting skills, family law, legal resources and much more. It is our hope that the website will provide some of the key tools to help children grow up to be happy and successful adults.

Established in January 2003, The Foundation’s website currently contains approximately 7,000 prescreened internet links that provide useful information for parents and kids.

"The Internet has become a tool for our everyday lives, but parents and kids need resources they can trust for quality information," said Joseph Ekman, founder of the Foundation. "Many websites give information on math, reading, science and other subjects, but which ones can parents and kids go to and trust for valuable information - not just slick promotions and pop-up ads? For parents and children that are serious about learning, we’ve done the research and developed a resource you can rely on."

About the Kids.org

* Kids resources pages provides links to many sites, which are safe and useful, covering many topics.

* Parenting sites
*

The world’s largest Internet Safety site “Wired Kids”

It is very difficult to search at the net for safe sites, because even parents and teachers need some guideline, to look for safe and entertaining, educational sites. "Wired Kids.org" can be a great help for parents, educators and children, because it provides links to safe and entertaining sites from all over the net.

Wired Kids, Inc is a U.S. charity dedicated to protecting all Internet users, especially children, from cybercrime and abuse. It operates several programs and Web sites designed to help everyone learn how to protect their privacy and security online and to teach responsible Internet use.

WiredKids: The Ultimate Online Safety Project Dedicated to Kids, Tweens & Teens

The Internet really is presenting parents with the opportunity for "quality time for the new millennium. The Internet is a wondrous tool. It exposes our children to new idea's, cultures and people. But, it also exposes them to dangers.In this section you will learn everything you need to now give your kids "Net Smarts".
Safety Information for Parents

There are six types of risks our children face online:
1. They can access information that might be inappropriate for them. This includes pornography, hate, intolerance, bigotry, gore, violence, hoaxes, and misinformation and hype.
2. They can access information, do things, and purchase products that might be dangerous to them. There are sites that offer bomb-building recipes, sites that sell guns, alcohol, poisons, tobacco products and drugs, and sites that offer gambling online.
3. They can be stalked and harassed by people (often other children) who are rude, insulting, and make threats, or may send them viruses or hack their computers.
4. They can give up important and private information by filling out forms and entering contests online, and, as a result, be targeted by irresponsible marketers using unfair marketing techniques.
5. They can be scammed or defrauded when they buy things online, and risk disclosing our important financial information to others, like credit card and pin numbers and passwords.
6. They can be lured by cyber predators who want to meet them face-to-face.

Parents need to deal with the fact that your children might be intentionally accessing inappropriate sites, doing dangerous things, and putting themselves at risk. That's the nature of children. (It's especially the nature of teenagers!)

To know more and download "parenting online guide book":
Click here

For Teachers:
Educators section

Search engines where you can search for childrens sites, suggested by "Wired KIds.org:
Search engines

Site link:
WiredKids: The Ultimate Online Safety Project Dedicated to Kids, Tweens & Teens