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Home Subscriptions Netsurfer Digest E-Zine Netsurfer Science E-Zine Netsurfer Books E-Zine |
| Selma to Montgomery 35 Years Later |
| American Memory from the Library of Congress |
| Pearl Harbor Remembered |
| Reading Rants: Out of the Ordinary Teen Booklists |
| Writing through Reading |
| Crayola Familyplay |
| Impressionism |
| A Humble Hubble |
| African American Scientists |
| Voices of Girls in Science, Mathematics, and Technology |
| Math Games |
| Elementary School High Technology |
| Tutorials on Light |
| North American Biomes |
| Tips for Teens About Steroids |
| Netsurfer Recommendations |
| Secure Site For Gay Teens |
| Helplines, As Promised |
| Internet Public Library |
| KNC Software |
| Professional Development for College Educators |
| Principals Report |
| BOOK REVIEWS |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| Contact and Subscription Information |
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| Netsurfer Digest |
SOCIAL SCIENCES
History, geography, political science, sociology, law, anthropology, philosophy, and archeology
Selma to Montgomery 35 Years Later
The first day of spring, 1965. In a centuries old struggle, it still stands as a milestone, the first day of the danger-fraught 50-mile Martin Luther King-led march for voting rights between Selma and the Alabama state capital, Montgomery. This gracefully beautiful site houses some ugly information, though. In Selma, a town of about 30,000 souls in 1965 - "proud", it claimed, "but never unfriendly" - whose numbers were almost precisely equally divided along racial lines, only 1% of registered voters were Black. Here are also markers and icons of the civil rights movement: the symbolic Edmund Pettus Bridge, the not-yet repentant Gov. George Wallace, the state's National Guard placed under federal command, gas masks that echo white hoods, and swinging canes. The site is an excellent resource for high school students, but the complexities of the deal-making and the mix of symbolically politic confrontations and true mortally violent confrontations are almost certainly beyond the ken of younger kids. Employing rhetoric of the day, the site is a surprisingly intense experience for a relatively static presentation. Still evolving, this site marks the 35th anniversary of the march.http://selmatomontgomerymarch.com/
American Memory from the Library of Congress
Another megasite from the LOC, American Memory consists of collections of primary source and archived material relating to American culture and history. Topics include: African American, Civil War, Conservation Movement, Architectural History, Early Motion Pictures, Variety Stage, Woman Suffrage, the papers of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, Portraits of the Presidents and First Ladies, and much, much more (there are currently over 70 collections). To facilitate locating the material you need, the site features a variety of search options. There's a site search engine or a site directory (called the "Collection Finder"). Or you can seek material according to era, media format, geographic location, or library division. This is an ongoing project, so you'll want to check in often. Anyone researching American history almost has to find something useful here.http://memory.loc.gov/
This site is a fine resource for anyone studying or teaching the events at the Hawaiian naval base on December 7, 1941. The site is basically a memorial to those who died in the attack, and features links to the USS Arizona site and a complete list of the fatalities on that ship, as well as other historical items. There's also a map of the base (including ship positions), the Japanese battle order, and a collection of survivors' remembrances. While thorough as far as it goes, the thrust of the site is exclusively naval and neglects the events and victims of the attacks on the various Army, Navy, and Marine airfields, as well as civilian casualties on that fateful day. Still, if you're going to study the "day which will live in infamy", this is a good place to start.
http://www.execpc.com/~dschaaf/mainmenu.html
LANGUAGE ARTS
English studies, grammar, poetry, prose, and second language studies
Reading Rants: Out of the Ordinary Teen Booklists
If a generous dose of cool can turn teenagers on to reading, Jennifer Hubert's lists of recommended reading will be a huge success. Hubert, a young adult librarian at the Queens Borough Public Library in New York City, reviews books in a conversational style that young adults will warm to. Although we do wish Hubert would proofread her text after posting it, her lingo rings true, she never talks down to her audience, and the titles of some of her lists show that she's not afraid to discuss the large life issues that matter to teenagers - Bare Bones: Honest fiction about weight and eating disorders, Closet Club: Gay fiction for teens, and Gods and Monsters: Teen fiction that deals with spiritual issues. Young adults will find something here that speaks to them directly.http://tln.lib.mi.us/~amutch/jen/index.html
Cheryl Anastasio based this curriculum unit, posted on the Yale-New Haven Teacher's Institute Web site, on the writing method Robert Gay presents in his book Writing Through Reading. "Writing through reading is simply a unit of methods and exercises in different kinds of rewriting or retelling another person's thoughts", Anastasio explains. Although Gay originally developed his method for use with high school and college students, Anastasio has here adapted it for "culturally disadvantaged middle school students in an attempt to improve not only the students' writing but their reading as well". There's nothing flashy about this site; in fact, it's downright austere. But teachers interested in exploring this educational approach will find everything they need here, including sample assignments, a list of material for classroom use, a reading list for students, and a bibliography for teachers.
http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1979/4/79.0402.x.html
FINE ARTS
Visual arts, music, theater, and dance
http://www.familyplay.com/
The term impressionism was originally a derisive press term for artists such as Renoir, Monet, Degas, Manet, Matisse, van Gogh, Seurat, Gaughin, painters who vividly captured a new way of seeing, trampling rough shod over traditional conventions. Impressionism is a big subject, however, and this place only scratches the surface, but what a surface! Unfortunately the navigation here is bizarre - many links just seem to circle around the subject without ever getting where you want to be. But, fear not - NSE staff have bravely ventured into the unknown and we've got tips for our readers: click on a picture of the artist of interest on the first page to bring up a short biography and essay and click on any of the pictures embedded in the text to bring up a gallery of pictures which can be clicked for larger sizes. Strange organization - great pictures.
http://www.mcs.csuhayward.edu/~malek/Impression/index.html
MATHEMATICS, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY
Mathematics, chemistry, physics, astrosciences, computing, technology, biology, and botany
http://sol.stsci.edu/~mutchler/HSTmodel.html
The Children's Library and Internet Training Lab of the Detroit Public Library presents four exercises in Internet searching that focus on the contributions of African American scientists. While the searches themselves are dead simple and should be handled successfully by anyone with only a passing familiarity with the Web, the results themselves are less suitable for very young surfers. It's not that there's anything wrong with them; it's just that the information is a tad obscure for younger kids: patent information, Who's Who entries, that sort of thing. Standing as a valuable resource in its own right, one of the search sites that the training lab recommends is The University of Louisiana Libraries' "The Faces of Science". It presents not only the biographies of scores of Black scientists, listed by their fields, but it also shows something of the overall face of Black science, with graphs reflecting the changing percentage of scientific doctorate degrees awarded to African American candidates. These are interesting sites that, without really saying very much on the subject, seem to throw down the gauntlet, challenging kids to fill the ranks of the future.
http://www.detroit.lib.mi.us/is/black_scientists.htm
Voices of Girls in Science, Mathematics, and Technology
The Voices project is a three-year program to help girls gain confidence and do well in science, math, and technology. Voices is also about learning how to help girls do well, and whether there are differences between urban and rural environments. The Web site tries to give a sense of what Voices is about and provides some sample material as well as a contact address. Granny Did What? is an investigative project on folk remedies, for example, while What the Voices Girls Have Taught Us provides abstracts of a few papers written about the project. How Does Your School Rate? provides an interesting survey project for students.http://www.ael.org/nsf/voices/voccurr.htm
Fun and games are all well and good, but when is a Web game a worthwhile teaching tool? It's got to work on many levels, according to California teacher Jennifer Loosli, who, at San Francisco State, worked up a method for evaluating Web math games for educational purposes. To see those levels of value, you've got to think like a teacher, but also like a parent and a student. This site gives a framework for evaluating games from those perspectives, and links lead to some great puzzles, mind-benders and role-player games using numbers and logic.
http://students.itec.sfsu.edu/itec815/loosli/studentpage.html
Elementary School High Technology
When we say "high tech" we mean that literally. The challenge is to have your class, working in groups, compete to build the tallest tower that will support its own weight, plus what engineers factor as "live weight", the additional weight of people, cars and everything else in a building. Forgot to renew your class' worker's comp coverage? Not to worry. Materials are restricted to: string, plastic straws, rubber bands, fasteners, masking tape, balloons, Styrofoam board, glue, construction paper, pipe cleaners, mouse traps, and cardboard. This fabulous project develops many cognitive, creative and social skills. It was devised by Dr. David Boljonis, a professor of Technology and Industry at Ball State University.http://www.cs.bsu.edu/homepages/kirkwood/Talltower.htm
Anyone seeking enlightenment about light will find it here. Nine sections (tutorials) examine the various physical properties of light in a clear, straightforward way. Large, well labeled but uncluttered diagrams supplement the text. The interactive Java applets (the interactive prism and the interactive raindrop) that allow users to manipulate the controls to see how changes affect the beam of light well illustrate the use of an interactive medium as an instructional tool, not merely a gimmick. Within the individual tutorials are links to key terms in the glossary and, when appropriate, to sample problems that explain the mathematics necessary to understand a concept. The brief overview of the complex topic of the wave-particle duality of light is the weakest section in this otherwise solid resource.
http://arts.magnet.fsu.edu/light_optics/tutorials.html
Lois Van Wagner aims this site at teachers of low-ability grade seven life science students, although she suggests it can be adapted easily to suit average students. The biomes discussed include Desert, Grasslands, Tundra, Rainforest, and Temperate Rainforest. There are seven hands-on activities as well as student and teacher bibliographies. With each biome the program includes looking at representative species, developing food chains, studying environmental and geographic factors, and examining contemporary problems that each area faces. The activities include collecting expeditions, use of aquariums and terrariums, and production of a biome book. If Curriculum Unit 92.05.12 sounds uninspired, even forbidding, the material here is anything but.
http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1992/5/92.05.12.x.html
HEALTH AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Sports and Health
http://www.mninter.net/~publish/Ttsteroi.htm
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Items our staff likes and you might too. Click on the cover or title to order the item at a hefty discount from Amazon.com and Beyond.com and send a few pennies our way as well.
Being Your Best: Character Building for Kids 7-10
The Bully Free Classroom 
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SKILLS FOR LIVING
Domestic sciences, study skills and other day-to-day skills for getting through life
http://www.chanton2.com/index.html
Also, in last month's issue, we promised to track down the most accessible suicide hotline for gay, lesbian, and bisexual teens, and we have it now. It's the Trevor Helpline, 1-800-850-8078, staffed 24/7/365 by trained counselors, part of "The Trevor Project", a service for teens and young people to age 25. We're told that teens from all over the world call for support using this number, but when our Canadian editor tested, the standard telephone company recording reported that the number is inaccessible from her region. If anyone aware of similar services outside the States forwards the information to nse-editor@netsurf.com, we'll be happy to post it here. Another excellent resource that we came upon was "Covenant House's Nineline", 1-800-999-9999 nationally. Its services aren't aimed specifically to GLB kids, but to runaway kids, which includes a disproportionate number of GLB teens. We'd like to acknowledge the help of the Nineline's Gil Ortiz, who also provided us with what he believes is a current listing of local helplines. It runs nearly a dozen pages in either Excel or Lotus. Drop a line to nse-editor@netsurf.com and she'll be pleased to forward those files to you immediately for your resource center.
The Trevor Project: http://www.trevorproject.com
Covenant House's Nineline: http://www.covenanthouse.org/who/who_pro/who_pro_03.htm
RESOURCES
Encyclopedia, libraries, reference resources, and other places to which teachers can turn
http://www.ipl.org/
As more educators grapple with the ins and outs of the "wired" classroom, various software firms are filling in the gaps to help these teachers find suitable activities for Internet-based studies. KNC is one of these companies and offers K-12 Internet software and Web sites. The heart of this site is the six Web sites (K-5, middle school, high school, teachers, parents, and contests), whose central aim is to make pupils and teachers comfortable with using the Internet by filling the sites with entertainment (that is to say leisure activities) and color, as well as educational information, all the time laying a great deal of emphasis on "safety". Teachers who are truly dedicated to learning how to use the Internet as a teaching aid should definitely consult the Internet Information section of the Teachers site. There are lesson plans as well. All in all, a good place to begin your journey into educational cyberspace, both as a pupil and teacher.
http://www.kncsoftware.com/
ADMINISTRATION
Education theory, school and board administration, and teaching aids
Professional Development for College Educators
Help to keep staff creative, informed, and personally challenged is something every college or university no doubt would like to provide, but not all have a separate, endowed department with that mandate. London Guildhall University in the U.K. does, and their site, "Deliberations on Teaching and Learning" covers most disciplines and current issues in education. Information ranges from practical tips on how to give a great lecture to philosophical perspectives on the dynamic of teaching and learning. Case study evaluations and journal excerpts are posted, and one of the best assets here is the means to contact other educators around the world who share your interests.http://www.lgu.ac.uk/deliberations/
The National Association of Elementary School Principals wanted to know, "Is There a Shortage of Qualified Candidates for Openings in the Principalship?" Their report has over eight thousand words and concludes that, yep, there is a perceived shortage of acceptable candidates in almost half of the districts surveyed in the U.S. and among all types of schools and all levels of vacancies. Generally this results only in delays in filling vacancies, and almost all locations were able to hire people of adequate quality. The report contains survey methodology, graphs and charts showing the results, and some discussion. No Pulitzer candidate, this, but interesting information for those who must hire principals. >ED>Judith David
http://www.naesp.org/misc/shortage.htm