Cassie Holewinski's List: New & Notable March 2009

Technology to the rescue! The website Umbrella Today brings the answer to this daily question of "do I need my umbrella today?" Simply enter your zipcode and it tells you whether you need your umbrella today or not. Even better, type in your zip code, get the answer, and if you have a talking cell phone, sign up to get a text message sent directly to your phone on days when the answer is YES, without having to do anything else. At the office? Maybe you check your email at home before leaving? Not a problem, the site also supports email notification as well.

Readability is a bookmarklet that allows you to quickly remove distracting ads from a Website. Just choose the text and margin size you prefer and drag the bookmarklet up to your bookmarks toolbar. Whenever you're on a site that is cluttered with too many distractions, click on the Readability bookmarklet and you'll be presented with an ad-free environment to read your article.

Google search engine only with a black screen

This site could contain the Ultimate List of software created by Microsoft for Office 2007. Access, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, Power Point, Visio and Word all have software listed.

Type a question into Google search, and it gives you a url for the answer.

Edheads helps students learn through educational games and activities designed to meet state and national standards. Activities include weather, simple machines, virtual knee surgery, virtual hip replacement, the odd machine, and crash scene.

Here's a site, from a consortium of Internet corporations, including Google, Microsoft, Verizon and Yahoo that offers information to promote a safe online experience for families and children. Gentle Subscribers will find helpful resources to assist in protecting those who may be vulnerable to the less trustworthy aspects of the Internet.

"GetNetWise is a public service brought to you by Internet industry corporations and public interest organizations to help insure that Internet users have educational, entertaining, and safe online experiences. The GetNetWise coalition wants everyone to be just "one click away" from the resources they need to make informed decisions about their and their family's use of the Internet."

Operating since 1999, the GetNetWise site provides material on various issues which are of concern to parents as well as to individuals who want to keep their personal information out of unauthorized hands. The Online Safety Guide delineates the kinds of risks which may beset children and notes these by age and type. Practical advice, including tools which can be used to help keep children safe online, as well as a list from the American Library Association of over 700 educational and entertaining sites for children are available. Also covered are tips and tools for reducing unwanted email and outright spam through the use of increasingly sophisticated filtering algorithms.

"With today's students plugged into their MP3 players, this site offers a great way to attract students. It has posted podcasts (visit the "Chop Bard" link) that explains Shakespeare in a way that students will find appealing and more realistic than reading it alone or aloud in class. Several of the podcasts are geared specifically to Romeo and Juliet, a play often read in 9th grade which makes it familiar and an easy listen for students. The site includes a list of the chronology of plays as well as a timeline of Shakespeare's life."
A caution that there is language slightly bawdy in the podcasts, so preview them first. However, listening to the "Chop Bard" either as a class or as individual students, gives students a lift and a laugh, creating a link with Shakespeare that they have never experienced.

The web's bedst student, teacher and parent reference resource. "KID INFO saves valuable time by providing students, teachers, and parents QUALITY links to thematic websites relevant to the Pre K-12 curriculum in ONE website directory. Kid Info also provides a collection of QUALITY fun, interesting, and informative non-educational website links!"

A collection of official sites of interest to kids - toys, games, movies, TV networks, sports,
museums, and organizations.

Want to Play?
Want to Invent?
What’s the Difference?

When asked what inspired them to become inventors, many adults tell stories about playing as children. Among their most frequently cited childhood play experiences are: mechanical tinkering, fiddling with construction toys, reflecting about nature, and drawing or engaging in visual modeling. There is something about the skills fostered by play that inventors value and keep using as part of their working lives. The playful approaches cited by creative adults form an interesting parallel to the four kinds of children’s play that child-development experts identify as more or less universal:

games

Search engine of images

Interactive web resources with links for the Math, Science and Language Arts Content Standards. Comprehensive resources