Interactive and infromative sites for students -Part 1

These sites are interactive and informative, so students can learn a lot for their class room or project works, parents can encourage their children, and kids to enjoy and browse these edutainment sites. And remember that these all sites are free to browse.

1- Site about insects "BugBios"

BugBios site aims to help you really see insects for the miniature marvels they represent and to understand how intertwined our cultures have become with these alien creatures. At the home page you can start your search with the link, “entophiles, cedigest, class: insecta.

Click here to enter your search query in the field provided to search the site.

More links to find a collection of insect-related Web sites
Photos used are : by Dexter Sear

2- "The Living Desert"

"Living Desert" tour through The Living Desert and the deserts of the world you are about to embark on will show you how language has misled everyone into thinking of the desert as a surly, outlaw landscape instead of a fragile, interesting ecosystem.

What you can find at the site?

You’ll see remarkable plants, animals, places and natural phenomena associated with deserts and learn how The Living Desert is helping to interpret and protect them.

You will also find out about one of the most unusual institutions in the United States. There isn’t a single word to describe all that The Living Desert is and does. We must string words together, like beads: zoo and endangered species conservation center – botanical gardens – natural history museum – wilderness park – nature preserve – education center. The thread that holds all the beads together is the word “desert.”

More site to come -----------------------------

Food Allergy Website for kids "Fan Kid"

Do you know that "Over 12 million Americans have food allergies; more than 3 million of them are children (that's almost 1 out of every 25 kids)"

This hard fact requires not only parents but kid's attention to learn about "food allergy".

Kids should know what food can cause allergy, what happens inside the body when a reaction occurs? etc.

Fan Kids.org is an interactive site from "The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network -FAAN" which provides information and educational resources about food allergy.
I have collected some information from the site. Kids can get more knowledge at this site and enjoy to learn about food allergies.

More facts:

The most common allergy-causing foods are peanuts, tree nuts (walnuts, pecans, almonds, cashews, etc.), milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, wheat, and soy. Recent studies showed that 3.3 million Americans are allergic to peanuts or tree nuts, and 6.9 million are allergic to seafood.

What are some of the symptoms of food allergy?

The most common symptom of a food-allergy reaction is hives. Other symptoms can include one or more of the following:

- tingling in the mouth
- swelling of the tongue and throat
- difficulty breathing
- stomach cramps
- vomiting
- diarrhea
- eczema

How can you treat these symptoms?
Your doctor will tell you what kind of medicine you need to take.

How can you prevent a reaction from happening?
Strictly avoiding the food that triggers your allergy is the only way to prevent a reaction.

Tips section if you have food allergy.

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

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Now students can get FREE home work help via internet

Often children or students need help in homework, but they don't get help around them. May be they are away from their schools, class mate or tutor, to get timely guidance. What about getting onlline homework help?

This is called One-to-One Online Tutoring.

This free offer is from SWAP Library Network a non-profit project from Government of Australia.

Through this online site, Children and Young Adults can get Free Homework and Exam Help from Qualified Tutors via the Internet.

This free service allows anyone to come to any of the SWAP library branches or log on from home, Monday - Friday, from 4pm to 8pm and receive expert help from real tutors via the Internet.
Online Tutoring is simple to use. Learners just log on from home or from designated computer terminals at their local library, enter their year level and the subject they need help in and are immediately connected to an expert tutor in an Online Classroom for help.

Subjects covered include:
• Mathematics (yrs 4-6, yrs 7-10, yrs 11-12 general, intermediate and specialist/extension)
• Science (yrs 4-6, yrs 7-10, yrs 11-12)
• General biology, chemistry, physics
• English (general English, essay writing, grammar, usage, punctuation)
• Assignment research (humanities and social science subjects)
• Study skills (time management, note taking, exam revision).

Learn from Qualified Tutors in an Online Classroom:

Students and tutors can review specific homework, exam, and assignment questions using features such as controlled chat, an interactive white board and shared Web browsing. Tutors and students can type maths equations using a special equation tool, review educational Web sites using a shared browser tool and much more for a rewarding learning experience. The tutors are certified teachers, professional tutors, post-graduates and advanced undergraduates from top Australian universities. They all have years of tutoring experience, are experts in the subjects they teach and have passed government background checks. They also love to teach and share their knowledge online.
Your tutor is online and waiting to help you Monday to Friday from 4pm -8pm!

Remember: This offer is from Australia, so better to check the timings with your local timings.

Just follow these simple steps to connect to your tutor.

1. Go to the Your Tutor website: salibraries.yourtutor.com.au
2. Enter your library card number and begin!

In order to use Your Tutor all you need is a connection to the Internet and a web browser with the flash plugin installed.

"Jerry Burm" - helping us raise children into happy adults

I din't review "Jerry Burm" in my previous post, because I felt that her sites need a seperate post. Because we all want to raise our children happy adults. There is a lot to learn for parents and teachers who can discover "learning disability" among them or children. I hope that learning can show us a way to recover from any kind of disability symptoms.

Jerry Burm believes that:

"People are born with certain traits which they received form their parents genes. However, the way in which a person develops is partly the responsibility of its environment. The younger the child the more impact the environment has on the child. Those experiences become their “world view” with which they look on all further events happening throughout their life, it becomes their representation of the world. The sooner we provide the right conditions the better. There is always the possibility to reprogram our mind but this is much harder than having a good start in the first place. So it’s up too us the adults to provide as much as possible the right conditions so the child can develop in to a happy person."

"Today was build yesterday; therefore, the young individual is our future and the foundation for tomorrow’s society."

Jerry Burm is Giving Children an Optimal Start in Life. It is a learning expedition on how to most effectively raise children into happy adults.

The goal of the site is to publish clear guidelines for the child’s environment (i.e. parents, teachers, child care takers…) on how to achieve this goal.

At her site Happy dyslexic which helps dyslexics achieve their potential and be happy, she Jerry Burm says about her site and herself:

"I discovered I had dyslexia at the age of 42. It was a positive experience to finally know the explanation for some aspects of my character.

In general, I was not so unhappy with myself, yet I wanted to improve certain skills, like being a better writer, reader, listener, being less confused and express myself more clearly. There were also a few things about myself, which puzzled me and I expected to find some answers after my search for more information about dyslexia. After finding answers to those questions, it was like discovering a part of me that I didn't know before, I had the feeling I could piece it all together.

Life is much easier if you know how you function."

Download millions of e-books at "Wrorld E-Book Fair" -2008

I am always in search of free stuff at the net and the regaular readers of this blog know that I share my free stuff links with them. Today I am here to inform you about an event which is a revolutioanary offer of downlading FREE e-books from the world wide web. For students, kids and teachers of course, this is a good chance to read your favourite e-books online, or you can save the books at your computer as well.

"Word E-Book Fair" is providing golden opportunity for reading lovers to downlad millions of e-books FREE of cost.

More information:

Third Annual World eBook Fair: July 4th to August 4th
Just two years ago The First World eBook Fair came on the scene with about 1/3 million books, doubled to 2/3 million in 2008, and now over one million.


Created by contributions from 100+ eLibraries from around the world, here are the largest collections.

As of midnight Central Daylight Time July 4, 2008 these are the approximate numbers:
100,000+ from Project Gutenberg
500,000+ from The World Public Library
450,000+ from The Internet Archive
160,000+ from eBooks About Everything
17,000+ from IMSLP

Grand Total = 1,227,000+

• Full Text Search of 500,000+ PDF eBook Titles in 100+ Languages.
• Open Access to eBooks from 7/04/08 to 8/04/08.

Which collection they are offering?

Search the collection page.
Start from this link: Browse the collection.

Tips and ideas to learn about behavior management

Behavior manangement is a skill which parents and teachers should learn to deal with children. This article would help you to get many tips and ideas from various sites. I have given links to the sites, which offer behavior manangement tips and ideas for parents and teachers.

Let's learn what is behavior management?

Wikipedia explains:
"Behavior management is similar to behavior modification. It is a less intensive version of behavior modification. In behavior modification the focus is on changing behavior, while in behavior management the focus is on maintaining order. Behavior management skills are particularly of importance to teachers in the educational system.Behavior management is all of the actions and conscious inactions to enhance the probability people, individually and in groups."

* LD Online offers an article on the topic:

When someone mentions behavior management, our first thought may be about controlling students or stopping them from performing inappropriate behaviors. We expend a great deal of energy managing students so that inappropriate behaviors will not occur.
Read the full article: Behavior Management: Getting to the Bottom of Social Skills Deficits
- Behavior Management Ideas

* Ask Dr. Sears is a site from William Sears, MD and Martha Sears, RN, who wrote 40+ pediatric books, articles in parenting magazines, and their appearances on more than 100 television programs such as 20/20, Donahue, Good Morning America, Oprah, CBS This Morning, CNN, NBC's Today Show and Dateline. After raising eight children and practicing pediatric medicine for more than 30 years, they have answered questions from thousands of parents. Their site provides a lot of articles on discipline and behavior
- Descipline and Behavior articles

* FREE e-book "Rules for Unruly Chilren":
This e-book offer is from "Parenting.Org" an online resource for free parenting help.
Rules for Unruly Children, written by Richard L. Munger for use by Boys Town, is meant to change your child's problem behavior as quickly as possible, using simple techniques that will work with most children. This book offers parenting approaches that:

- Can be learned quickly
- Can be used immediately
- Gives quick results
- Work with most problem behaviors

You can download FREE e-book "Rules for Unruly Chilren" from the link below. And please note that to get the e-book you should enter the U.S. A or Cananda address at the available form.
- Sign up page to get the book

* Intervention Central offers free tools and resources to help school staff and parents to promote positive classroom behaviors and foster effective learning for all children and youth. The site was created by Jim Wright, a school psychologist and school administrator from Central New York.

Visit to check out newly posted academic and behavioral intervention strategies, download publications on effective teaching practices, and use tools that streamline classroom assessment and intervention.
- At download section you can get link to many topics like as:

- Curriculum-Based Measurement: A Manual for Teachers. This 106-page manual gives instructions that educators can follow to prepare, administer, and score Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) probes in the classroom. [106 pages/File size: 3.39MBA Manual for Teachers

There are many other manuals and reports which you can download from the download page.

* This article is from "BehaviorAdvisor, which is from Dr. Mac (Tom McIntyre), a former teacher of students with behavior disorders and learning disabilities, is now a Professor of Special Education and Coordinator of the Graduate Program in Behavior Disorders at Hunter College of the City University of New York. An entertaining presenter, and author of 3 books and over 100 articles, he promotes practical, positive, and respectful management of defiant and aggressive behavior.

- Your Child Has A Behavior Disorder”

* This article is a series of training manuals provided by "Project PARA" which conducts research and develops training materials for paraeducators and teachers who supervise them. Based in the College of Education and Human Sciences Department of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The project provides Web-based self study programs that offer school districts resources to provide introductory training for paraeducators and/or the teachers who supervise them. These resources are offered free of charge to schools and teacher training programs.

- "Teacher Vision" provides many printables and articles helping you manage classroom descipline. Behavior Management

*

A family blog from a parent

I usually review the sites which are related to teaching, learning, parenting and so on. Today's blog is from Rozz_Lea Rozie, who is a business Development Executive from Malaysia and a mom blogger. Blog is very colourful and especially I liked it for a personal touch. The topics you can find the posts about are:Random Daily Happenings, Family, Children, Life, Personal, Friends, News, Events, Thoughts, Poems, Foods, Cultures, Nature, Books,Travel and writings.

I spent a lot of time to see the posts and I was amazed to read some very appealing posts. As in her post "Morning thoughts" she says:
"You may not realize this, but it is nevertheless a fact.
If you set out with worry and depression,
of soul toward fate or man, you are giving the key note
to a day of discord and misfortunes.

If you think peace, hope, and happiness,
you are sounding a note of harmony and success.

The result may not be felt at once,
but it will not fail to make itself evident eventually.

Control your morning thoughts.

You can do it! "

She hasn't mentioned that she likes to read self help topics, but from few of her posts I can estimate that she reads about variety of topics. Isn't it Rozie?

One thing I am confused about that blog is only few months old, but she could manage to write many posts in one month. As in April she had 18 posts, then in May 40 and June with 46 posts. It shows her interest in blog that she is very passionate about it.