Thing 5 Libraries and Media Centers

I really enjoyed taking a look at the Minnesota Digital Library which has lots and lots of historical items, searchable by topic as well as lots of geological maps and data. I typed in Chaska and examined a hand-written journal from the farm of "Ezra Peabody" which had lots of interesting charts and data about wages, price of stamps allowing the viewer to see the actual historical item. There was even a digital documentation of the building of the aerial bridge in Duluth which was fun to look at. I need to bookmark this site so that I can place it on my Media Center Webpage.

Quality Rubrics

A great place to research and create rubrics with a variety of formats such as Oral Projects, Art, Science, Math, and more: http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php

A CHRNOLOGY OF US History Documents

Great for all US History Teachers: http://www.law.ou.edu/ushistory/index.shtml

Primary Sources for 15th to Mid 1900s Resource

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/mcchtml/corlst.html

19th Century Advertising Tool

WOW, can our business and marketing classes benefit from this site. A great tool for researching older products - http://advertising.harpweek.com/

BOOKS On-Line Sites

Just this past week I had occasion to look up access for the classic book "Odyssey" by Homer and did find it online after lots of time researching. Today I found in IPL.org, two great sites that I want to remember where books can be accessed online FREE. Here they are:
This site has over 16,000 books online: http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/
AND this site connects to 3 large databases for books, magazines, and newspapers:
http://www.ipl.org/div/reading/
Great treasures on the IPL webpage. It also includes:
The entire collection of William Shakespeare's plays are available online in IPL webpage as well, which can be helpful for students who are working on homework but don't always carry all the books they need with them.

2008 Election Website - A Great Issues on Candidates Site

I was attempting to catch up in my MILI assignments, and while exploring Thing 3...yeah I know that I am behind...I discovered a wonderful tool I may have overlooked because I have gone to this website years ago and felt it was more elementary. BUT, after going to it today, I found a great website for anyone looking at and comparing the issues between the candidates for the election coming up...YEP FactMonster. Here's the site...I have forwarded it to a teacher in our building who has been working with her students on the issues during this election.

http://www.factmonster.com/ I'm going to put this in my favorite websites to come back to from time to time on other research topics.

Just this Friday, I had a teacher come to me for some basic current events reading materials like the Scholastic Weekly Reader type articles...I just found "Basic Current Events" also in "FactMonster" as well as some great "Halloween" stuff just for fun. I'm going to have to place this website on my webpage as well. AND I'm going to share this site with my teachers who work with "Reluctant" Readers...good, basic information that I think will appeal with lots of graphics and not too much detail.

I also found in Google for Educators, some great lesson plans that any teacher's teaching Election 2008 might draw some good ideas to use with their classes: http://www.google.com/educators/6_12.html

Also Great...Can Join Student Mock Election: http://nationalmockelection.org/

Checking on URL's for credibility!

I found an Ah HA which I did not know existed when I prepared to teach and Introduction to Research for an Academic Writing class last week. If you have not discovered www.alexa.com...you need too TAKE A LOOK! Did you know that you can go to this search engine and research the background of a website found on Google or any other database just by clicking on the URL and pasting in the website in their search field. YOU or your students can find out who is hosting, information about the person or organization that created the site giving you an overview...great way for determining whether the site is credible and worth your time.