Read, Write & Think!

Looking for engaging ways to introduce your students to reading more or to encourage them to write outside of the classroom? Here is your answer—all of the materials at this site are created by experts to be fun, educational, and easy to use outside of school. readwritethink is an online literacy learning center. Its mission is to provide educators and parents with access to the best quality practices in reading and language arts instruction by offering the very best in free materials. Every lesson plan on readwritethink has been aligned not only to the IRA / NCTE Standards for the English Language Arts but to individual state standards as well.

You will be able to engage your students in online literacy learning with these interactive tools that help them accomplish a variety of goals. It helps students from organizing their thoughts to learning about language, all while having fun!

Furthermore, it has a complete section devoted to parents and afterschool professionals so learning can continue outside of the classroom.

"What if...? and What should we do?"- Resource for Parents

As a teacher you learn quickly that most parents are wanting to or trying to do what is best for their child. There are an endless number of questions, "What if...? and What should we do?" that they ask of you. Now you have a great resource not only for parents but you as well. Education.com provides parents of school-aged children with free access to information and resources to give them the answers they need from school issues to home issues such as bullying and learning difficulties to child health and divorce.

The site has been developed by experts to bring the best information to parents located in one spot. Here is what it says it offers to parents;

In using Education.com, parents:

• Have free access to thousands of articles. We’ve teamed up with the world’s leading teachers, psychologists, universities, non-profits, and research organizations to offer highly credible parenting, developmental, and educational information that is current, well organized, and easy to understand.
• Can print hundreds of activities — sorted by grade level and topic — to help make learning at home more fun.
• Have the ability to get support from and share advice with Education.com’s community of thousands of parents and experts.
• Can use our SchoolFinder tool to learn more about their current schools or research new ones.
• Have access to “best of breed” academic services including online tutoring services, math programs, educational games, and online early reading programs.

For teachers if offers lesson ideas as well as information.

Stories Read Aloud Online

Early elementary teachers, have you heard some of your students complain that they have no one at home to read to them? Sad to say I have more times than I could have ever imagined. Storyline Online is a free on-line streaming video program featuring Screen Actor Guild members reading books. Using this program students can see and hear books read directly to them via the computer. Also, they can check out the books in the library so that they can read along with the actors.

One of my favorites is A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon. Not only can the books be read to them but each book is accompanied with activities and lessons that they can do by themselves or (hopefully) with parents. It makes a terrific listening center for a classroom too!

Health Resource for Students and Teachers

Over the last few years, I have been working as a long-term substitute primarily in grades K-2. Often, I am looking for online resources to assist students in many areas of learning. Through my searching, I found a terrific site for students and teachers who would like information on health called BAM! Body and Mind. It was developed by the CDC. It is designed to be a health information resource for students and their teacher so sections of the site deal with nutrition, exercise, disease control, and staying safe while enjoying all kinds of sports and activities. Other topics include emotional issues, social issues (bullying) and puberty.

The site also offers a teacher's section with lesson plans, activities, and down-loadable resources available in printer-friendly pdf format.

Everyone knows that time is limited in class so this would make a terrific student and parent resource to use outside of the classroom. This way both student and parent are learning together.