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Our Mission NetSmartz Workshop is an interactive, educational program of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® (NCMEC) that provides age-appropriate resources to help teach children how to be safer on- and offline. The program is designed for children ages 5-17, parents and guardians, educators, and law enforcement. With resources such as videos, games, activity cards, and presentations, NetSmartz entertains while it educates. Our Goals     Educate children on how to recognize potential Internet risks     Engage children and adults in a two-way conversation about on- and offline risks     Empower children to help prevent themselves from being exploited and to report victimization to a trusted adult

The mission of the International Children's Digital Library Foundation (ICDL Foundation) is to support the world's children in becoming effective members of the global community - who exhibit tolerance and respect for diverse cultures, languages and ideas -- by making the best in children's literature available online free of charge. The Foundation pursues its vision by building a digital library of outstanding children's books from around the world and supporting communities of children and adults in exploring and using this literature through innovative technology designed in close partnership with children for children.

This site was so cool. I created my own comic story. I was able to play brain buster games I read stories and had stories read to me, and watched videos about how to create a comic.. This site was created by Jim Davis, creator of the comic strip Garfield, in conjunction with Ball State University and PAWS, Inc. It give kids the opportunity to explore, create and connect safely with kids around the world. Jim Davis created this site because he felt there was a need to provide a high-quality, free, and engaging web site that could motivate children to achieve their full potential. The approach is kid-centric and tries to close the achievement gap between what kids seek to do on the Internet and standards-based educational activities. The mission of Professor Garfield.org is encourage children to explore academically sound literacy activities and provide them with tools to express themselves through creative writing prorams. It's an Internet destination that is safe, free and fun! The Professor Garfield and Sparktop sites (both found on this link) provide all kids of ways for kids to shine and showcase their talents and abilities! Students can record their own "talent" for Sparkstage (our American Idol-like competition), arrange music with the awesome music mixer tool, create their own comic strip in the Comis Lab, learn to sculpt, or be taught to draw by professional artists in the Art-Bot section. On Sparktop.org kids safely connect with other kids who knwow what they are going through. They find information about how their brain works and get tips on how to succeed in school and life. And they get to showcase their creativity and be recognized for their strengths. Millions of children from around the world visit the web site every month.

"Financial literacy is a skill essential to future success and should be given the same weight in school as English or math. High school and middle school educators striving to augment their own financial literacy curriculum will find a wealth of material in these teacher's guides, student activities, and presentations. Log in or register to download the lessons." Grouped by: -Young Children -Children -Teens -College -Special Needs -All Ages

"A research by The National Literacy Trust on 3,001 children from England and Scotland showed that schoolchildren who blog or own social networking profiles on Facebook have higher literacy levels and greater confidence in writing."

"A research by The National Literacy Trust on 3,001 children from England and Scotland showed that schoolchildren who blog or own social networking profiles on Facebook have higher literacy levels and greater confidence in writing."

This is an assembly from CEOPs Thinkuknow education programme that helps children to understand what constitutes personal information. The assembly enables children to understand that they need to be just as protective of their personal information online, as they are in the real world. It also directs where to go and what to do if children are worried about any of the issues covered. For more information please visit: www.thinkuknow.co.uk

"If you're a teacher / administrator / librarian / education professor that somehow 'doesn't even realize [yet] that there's a decision to be made,' should you even be working in a school or university? Don't our children and our school systems need and deserve someone who's in a different place than you are? It's one thing to still be a learner; heck, we're all learners with this technology stuff. It's another to opt out or not even recognize the choice. If we look at what our kids need, shouldn't we replace you with someone else? "

The mission of the International Children's Digital Library Foundation is to excite and inspire the world's children to become members of the global community - children who understand the value of tolerance and respect for diverse cultures, languages and ideas -- by making the best in children's literature available online.

The basic principle of The Flat Stanley Project is to connect your child, student or classroom with other children or classrooms participating in the Project by sending out "flat" visitors, created by the children, through the mail (or digitally, with The Flat Stanley app). Kids then talk about, track, and write about their flat character's journey and adventures. Although similar to a pen-pal activity, Flat Stanley is actually much more enriching-students don't have to wonder where to begin or what to write about. The sender and the recipient already have a mutual friend, Flat Stanley. Writing and learning becomes easier, flows naturally, and tends to be more creative. This is what teachers call an "authentic" literacy project, in that kids are inspired to write of their own passion and excitement about the project, and given the freedom to write about many things through the rubric of the Flat Stanley character.

[Corrected link] "Mr. Kohn talks about his book, The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and "Tougher Standards", published by Houghton Mifflin. The book challenges the current state of education, and proposes multi-age, interdisciplinary classrooms. After his remarks he answered questions from the audience. "

Corrected link. Note that this was recorded in 1999!

"Mr. Kohn talks about his book, The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and "Tougher Standards", published by Houghton Mifflin. The book challenges the current state of education, and proposes multi-age, interdisciplinary classrooms. After his remarks he answered questions from the audience. "

THis was shared on Twitter this AM. It's an 80 minute video but worth a listen if you get a chance.

Note the date of this recording!

" Ready by 21 is the Forum's signature initiative based on decades of experience working with state and local leaders. It is a set of innovative strategies that helps communities and states improve the odds that all children and youth will be ready for college, work and life. Ready by 21 provides clear standards to achieve collective impact, tools and solutions to help leaders make progress, and ways to measure and track success along the way. Specifically, Ready by 21 helps leaders build broader partnerships, set bigger goals, collect and use better data, and take bolder actions. A growing number of communities and states are using these strategies to change the way they do business."

Whole units with loads of materials for using Scratch to teach programming. Suited for older children.

These folks promote a "computer-free" computer science curriculum. Agree or disagree, this is probably useful to keep for times whenever the network gives up the ghost. "Each Unplugged activity is available to download in PDF format, with full instructions and worksheets. Background sections explain the significance of each activity to computer science, and answers are provided for all problems. All you need for most of these activities are curiousity and enthusiasm. There are photos and videos showing some of the activities in action, and we've collected links to other useful resources. The activities are primarily aimed at the five to twelve year-old age group, but they are by no means restricted to this age range: we've used them to teach older children and adults too, with little modification."

The first generation of "Digital Natives" - children who were born into and raised in the digital world - are coming of age, and soon our world will be reshaped in their image. Our economy, our politics, our culture and even the shape of our family life will be forever transformed. But who are these Digital Natives?

Free games for young children

"Education World offers five lessons to help teachers commemorate the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attack on the United States. These lessons will keep alive the spirit of patriotism and tolerance stimulated by the events of 9/11. Included: Students make a huge flag mural for your school or a proverb book for your classroom library, write letters to fire fighters in their community, read aloud books that model tolerance, raise money for Afghan children, more!"

"Laments about our schools are nothing new; everyone is an expert, it seems, when it comes to education. While most critics point to the lack of funding or the shortage of teachers, John Taylor Gatto insists the problem goes deeper; we've turned our schools, he says, into "torture chambers." If that sounds abrasively radical, consider this: Gatto, with almost thirty years' experience as a public-school teacher, has just been named New York City's Teacher of the Year for 1989. Gatto teaches seventh grade at Junior High School 54 on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Something of a local legend, he's a chess player and a songwriter - and he grows garlic. He was once named Citizen of the Week for coming to the aid of a woman who had been robbed. He has lectured on James Joyce's Ulysses at Cornell University and has taught philosophy at California State College. Perhaps it's not surprising that he's been approached by a film company interested in making a movie of his life. Gatto once ran for the New York State Senate on the Conservative Party ticket, and some of his ideas are quite traditional: he stresses "family values" and questions increased funds for education. But he's too much of a maverick to be easily labeled. At a recent hearing in New York, he castigated the school system for "the murder of 1 million black and Latino children," and was met with a standing ovation. What follows is the text of the speech he gave upon being named Teacher of the Year."