In the News - Web Pages Worth Pondering

Today we provide our weekly round up of web pages garnering special interest. One site getting a lot of bookmarks these days offers teachers a digital plan book to replace the longstanding paper version that virtually everyone in the profession utilizes. The new software site allows the user to enter lesson plan information and publish those lesson plans directly to the web. In addition, teachers may attach pertinent files, print reports, and even do a search for topics taught. However, the current option sets the user back $30.00 - we wonder if folks out there know of a free option that matches the bells and whistles this site offers (or perhaps even a better one)?

For those teaching anatomy and physiology, biology, or even health, Argosy’s Visible Body professes to be the best human anatomy visualization tool available today. This site is free though users must register.
The material is not available on CD or DVD so teachers will need access to an Internet connection. A real plus is that student’s may sign in as well though any student under 13 will need a parent, guardian, or teacher to sign up for him or her. It should be noted that the Visible Body is anatomically correct but a G-version is currently in development

A rather interesting set of classroom rules has been making its way around the net thanks to Hi-and-Low.

The list is attributed to Sister Corita Kent, a Roman Catholic nun from 1936 to 1968. You gotta’ love numbers one and seven (be sure to real all of #7). Kent served as the art department chair of Immaculate Heart College and is well known for her work during the protests of the Viet Nam War. Her most well known creation was a monumental rainbow painting that was made on a huge gas storage tank on the Boston harbor front. Kent’s use of color led to her artwork appearing on the fourth Love stamp issued by the U.S. Postal Service. Kent passed away in 1986.

Another page to check out with an entire list of education resources is at Lifehacker.com. The web page provides a number of educational links; the art options alone are phenomenal, places like the Yale University Art Gallery, Sweet Briar College’s database of art history resources, the University of Michigan’s database titled the Mother of All Art History, Concordia College’s Art History Research Center, and Texas A & M’s Picasso Project Homepage. Other subject area links are also provided.

And lastly we point users to a web site being developed by PBS that seeks to provide parents critical information about “growing up online” and the changing world brought about by Internet predators, cyber-bullying, and the risks associated with the growing number of social network sites. The new site arrives less than a month after we wrote about the tragic story of Megan Maier and the need for such education. The PBS site features a transcript of an interview with John Halligan whose 13-year-old son, Ryan, committed suicide after being bullied by classmates at school and online.

Photo by inju.