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Creative writing website offering information and resources about creative writing. Details on how to pursue a career in creative writing included.

Casey Degabain January 24, 2010 Overview This site is appropriate for ages k-12 there is a sections for kids and teenagers the site is easy to navigate through everything is clearly labeled and easy to follow. The different sections are age appropriate and seems like a useful teaching tool Content In the teenage section there is different links that shows agro world which allows kids to see promising job opportunities in agriculture a science section that gives idea for science projects and help with science issues. There is also an issues links that show current events students opions on issues and facts. The kid's part has sciences projects as well ag-knowledge, farm & fun food, virtual tours and state ag facts. My impression of this site is good it has a lot of useful information that would really help students. The check list shows me that this site is worth book marking for future references. Design This site is designed well the kids section is age appropriate there are farm characters and games along with educational information. The same with the teen sections it has information that would help older kids with school work and projects and doesn't have games and would appeal more to older kids. The site is well designed and easy to use.

Mandy Schumacher 1-24-10 Overview: World Digital Library (www.wdl.org) is a very informational site that can be accessed by anyone. This site could be a very useful tool in the classroom. It is a huge collection of documents that teach about places from all around the world and from all different times in history. All of this information is presented in a well organized easy navigable way. Content: The purpose of this site is purely informational. Historical information from 8000 BC to 2010 AD is available on World Digital Library. The user can also pick anywhere on the globe that he/she wishes to learn more about. The information on this site seems to be legitimate and the sponsor is clearly represented at the bottom of the page. Further information about the site, help, and contact information is all included at links at the bottom of the page as well. This website is extremely useful and educational. Design: World Digital Library loaded very quickly and the homepage has very strong eye appeal. The user is able to choose which era they would like to learn more about. They can then choose any part of the world. Content can also be found by browsing a specific place, time, or topic. The user just has to click on which part of the world they wish to learn more about. This website is extremely easy to use and involves simple navigation.

Mandy Schumacher 1-24-10 Overview: creativewritingprompts.com is a website that is intended to provide teachers and students with hundreds of different writing ideas. There are over 300 prompts on the site and all of them are easily accessible. This site can be a very useful tool for educators, or anyone who enjoys writing. Content: This website is targeted at anyone who is interested in writing. Creativewriting.com provides the user with 346 different writing prompts. The prompts can be used to create poems, stories, or other creative works. The purpose of this site is not purely informational however; this particular website is also a commercial site. Along the side of the page there are ads promoting online courses, a journaling kit, other books, and there is a list of "sister websites" displayed on the bottom. Copyright and information about the author is easily accessible on the bottom of the site as well. Design: The site quickly downloaded to the homepage. The homepage is really easy to navigate. There are numbers assigned to each prompt. All the user has to do is place the cursor over any of the numbers for the prompt to pop up in a text box. The ads along the side and bottom of the page serve as a distraction but overall the site is easy to navigate and well organized. There are also links at the bottom of the page

David May 1/23/11 This site is very educational. Great information with a reliable source. Too much advertising the museums. Overview: The website of the Smithsonian museum with a fun educational spin. The site has a few games with animations that are well put together. The games have good images and great animations that put complex things in simpler terms like comparing a planet size with a beach ball compared to a golf ball. The site overly advertised visiting the actual place too much. Everything that was clicked on encouraged visiting and it got very tiresome very quickly. Content: The site is very easy to navigate and find what one is looking for. There is a constant sidebar with information about where you are and what things are easiest to link to.. They list the curator of the museum who is in charge of the content on the website. The copyright of the website is 2010 which shows recent content on the website. There is an informational theme to the site, but the clear objective of this site is to get visitors to the museum. Design: The website is very well put together. It is impressive with the amount of graphics and page design that they put in effect on the site. The problem is that if users don't have the latest flash player they will have to download it and go through the download process. If this is for students the schools might restrict the ability to download the software. The website other than over advertisement is good for information and reliable for what one is looking for.

Laura Rice 2/5/12 Overview: The purpose of this website is to expand educational knowledge and resources for education. The intended audience ranges from educators, families, and students. This website provides many resources for public use. The educators are provided with resources for field trips, professional development organizations, lesson plans, resource library, and online events. For families the website provides information about what is available at the Smithsonian, time you can spend together as a family, and events families can do together. The students are also provided with information about the Smithsonian, topic they can explore, secrets of the Smithsonian, and events available for kids. This website is a great source to a variety of people. The links to each page provide a lot of information useful to educators, families, and students. Content: The website is extremely useful to all types of people from educator, families, and students. Teachers have access to lesson plans for all subject areas ranging from K-12th grade. Teachers are also provided information about taking a field trip to the Smithsonian and the programs it has to offer students. The tab for educators also has a link to online events that are taking place. For families the website contains different activities the Smithsonian has to offer as well as activity sheets for children. Students are provided with events at the Smithsonian that may interest them, as well as topic they may enjoy to see there. Overall the content is very educational and centered around what the Smithsonian can offer to others, and also provides lesson plans that could help educators in their future career. Design: The overall design is easy to understand and information is extremely easy to access. Tabs clearly identify the intended audience from educators, families, and students. Under each tab there are others that provide information useful to each age group. At the bottom of the page ther

Overview: I did consider this website to be very significant, because it discusses the major problems with cyber-bulling, what it is, why it's a problem, where does it occur, etc.m along with information on other problems teachers encounter such as texting, cheating, and cyber-bashing. Content: Overall, I would consider this site to be very sufficient. At first glance you are able to quickly determine the content of the site, who the intended audience was, as well as the sponsor is. It also provides the latest information, and is well organized. It also appears to have consistent information with similar information I have found about the topic in the past. Website Design: Overall the homepage downloads efficiently, and is easy to navigate through, partially because of of the index that is located on this site, and a search bar. It also is very current and has various links for further information.

Ben's Guide to US Government Overview: The purpose of this site is to either help students k-12 learn about our government and its history or help a teacher use it as a learning tool. The obvious intended audience is parents, teachers or students. The site has links to the government's web pages because it is sponsored by the government itself, those links and pages have thorough information as well. Overall my impression was positive, I think the way it is set up and targeting a more vast audience is efficient. Content: From first glance it is obvious what the site is about and who it is intended for. There isn't a direct author, but a page sponsor who put it together and revised it, the Government printing office themselves. They provide a link to contact them as well. The site was updated in 2009 which is pretty current, not much has changed if at all with the government and its history in the past two years. The quality of all the information is outstanding, providing links to each grade level for information for them as well as teaching tools for teacher and parents. In order to learn a few different things it takes interacting by clicking through pages which enhances the use. Further information outside of the site is shared through links on a separate page. Design: The basic design of this site is directed towards kids with a cartoon image of Ben Franklin displaying the page for viewers. The page is clear and easy to navigate; everything seems to work correctly. This guide to US government is presented in a well organized way with plenty of information making it worth visiting again.

Randi McInerney September 15, 2011 Overview: The purpose of the BBC Learning School Beta website is to promote and provide educational materials for students, parents, and teachers. This website would be great for k-12 education and teachers and parents of those children. The site offers educational games and learning tools, resources for teachers, tips for parents to help improve their children's education, and education related news articles. The content and design are very visually attractive and extensive. Content: There is a lot of content available on this site, but it is easily accessible. There are interactive games, video clips, news articles, and other activities and information. The website has extensive information for all of the intended audiences. There does not seem to be any reliable contact information available besides a "feedback form" to send criticism or praise and "frequently asked questions" are also available. Design: The website downloads correctly and quickly and looks very interesting and organized. The site is easy to navigate, even without directions. The site could be used by a primary aged school child fairly effectively because of the clear labels and ease of navigation.

This is a great site! I'm definitely using it in my WebQuest.

Content: Although at first sight this website doesn't immediately catch your attention due to the lack of color on the page, the information that is given seems to be very valuable. Throughout the site it examines a variety of things that creative writing teachers might consider doing for their class. It suggests an array of things that can perform in an effective and an age appropriate way. It deals with problems and concerns that may arise when teaching this class, while also providing suitable solutions that have the amount of dependable resources that are available to children that are on a wide scale of learning skills/ levels. Design: Overall this site is designed pretty well. Although, it seems only usable for adults and teachers the information that is given is very helpful. The layout ( navigation) of this sight is incredibly self explanatory and does not seem to be displayed in a confusing manner. The author's information is also very accessible to get to, and they also provide other forms of contact information in case users have other questions. Attribution: The purpose of this site is to educate teachers on what the best way to approach creative writing in the classroom. Although this website lacks in the creative side of design the content is very intriguing and guides the educator in teaching the most efficiently. I would feel safe using this site, due to the number of resources they used. Just to make sure they were credible I checked a few and everything panned out, so in the future I would most likely use the site to get some ideas.

This is a great website for any art teacher K-12. Content: This website provides art teachers of any grade level with lesson plans to use in their classrooms. This website will be particularly handy for begging art teachers. It is easy to navigate the site, lessons for everything from drawing to painting to 3D is provided in detailed lesson plans by clicking on the subject. The lessons are step by step and are great for beginnig artists. This website is nice for teachers that need ideas on how to present the information to their students.

Nathan Wonnacott 9/9/11 Overview: The Creative Spotlight is a site providing tutorials to new artists and supplies to continuing artist. It is clear that the site is more commercial than educational. It's a basic site with links to areas such as drawing, painting, and graphic design. Content: It is obvious that this site is directed toward art; however it doesn't provide helpful information. The tutorials focus on very limited instruction, followed by pictures to assist in "learning". The creator of the site only refers to himself by first name, which is an indicator that it's not a trustworthy source. Also, the copyright regulations are harsh, discouraging copying of any kind. I would not suggest this site for these reasons. Design: The design of this site is extremely basic, and links are slow to other sites. The format is cluttered and lacks revision. By the time one navigate through the site, he or she is probably disappointed by what they find.

Posted by Mitchell Clark 9/18/09: Lesson Planet is a search engine designed to save the effort of designing various lesson plans by providing over 150,000 teacher approved lesson plans and over 75,000 worksheets. This site provides material for all subjects in grades K-12 and also includes state standards. Content: This Education World sponsored site has an incredible amount of information that has been provided by many teachers in various fields. It has lesson plans for all grade levels and all subjects including math, science and technology, language arts, education, social studies, health, art and music, and it also includes research resources. Each lesson plan includes the author and date that the lesson plan was posted. Also every lesson plan is rated on a scale of 1-5 by other teachers so you don't waste your time searching through inadequate lessons. Another great feature about this site is that because teachers can post their own lesson plans, there are always new and relevant lesson plans. These plans are easy to access due to multiple links which are designated to different fields of education i.e. science or math. There is also a search bar at the top of the web page that allows the user to search specific lesson plans as well as narrow their search results to grade level and rating (1-5). Overall this is a well organized site that provides a wealth of knowledge. The only thing to keep in mind is that these plans are posted by individual teachers which could contribute to a partial bias in the lesson plan. Another thing to consider is that there is $40 dollar membership fee for this site which is an inconvenience, but this fee also discourages the submission of junk lesson plans and worksheets by other internet users. Design: This site is well designed and very easy to navigate. There are no advertisements or links to unrelated material. The sponsor of the site and contact information is clearly displayed at the bottom of the page as well as t

-Overview: Lesson Planet is an excellent resource for teachers to find ideas and lesson plans for specific topics and grade levels. They are able to type in exactly what they are looking for and it is just like a Google search engine just for lesson plans. There are other links to related articles and blogs for teachers, and there are places where teachers can access the standards. It is a very good place to create lessons from and gain ideas for teaching successfully in the classroom. -Content: The content is easily accessible from exactly what the teacher types in to find. There are specific tabs and easy instructions to help the teacher find what they are looking for. It is a very helpful resource tool that teachers can use to plan activities for specific subjects, for a specific standard and find worksheets and articles that relate to the topic they are teaching. There is a huge amount of content within the website that is easily accessible for anyone who would like to use it. On each page there are tabs to things that relate to the topic as well as a list of subtopics that are easily accessible as well. -Design: The creators are in the process of creating a new design that may be more visually appealing, but currently the design is very simple and professional. It has enough color and visual recognition tools to help you locate specific things quickly and find what you are looking for without creating distractions and taking away from the content. The search portion is big and centered on the top of the homepage so it is easy to type in and find exactly what you need right off the home page.

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Mary Magnuson, Teaching science The website http://www.mii.org/lessons.php has good content. All of the links are current and take you to where you need to go. This would be a great source for teacher if they needed to find a lesson plan for teaching geology. It has a list of lesson plans and it also has activity ideas. It walks you through all of the processes you will have to be accustomed to, and how you can incorporate them into your classroom. The site is not the most beautiful site, but it is easy to navigate. The site also downloads fast. It has pictures that you could use for your classroom, and others that help the teacher understand the specific activity.

The intended purpose of this website is to provide teachers with background information and resources when teaching about energy resources to all different age levels. On the website there are different lesson plans and activities to incorporate into the classroom for all grades. The website overall is easy to navigate and understandable. The purpose of this site is clear: to inform. The author is not clearly identified, but the website is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and the information is consistent with similar information and appears to be accurate based on my prior knowledge. It gives many facts not only just about energy and lesson plans/activities, but information specifically about the federal government energy department. Links to other sites are current and working properly. Overall, the website is friendly. The author and when it was recently updated is not provided, but the information appears to be accurate. It is easy to navigate and offers sufficient information. Also, the links are up to date on the website.

Emily E. KrabbenhoftJanuary 22, 2011Overview: This website, created by Discovery Communications, is an excellent resource for parents, students, and teachers. For parents it provides ways to help motivate their children and ways to help with homework. For students it all gives homework help and other ways for students to further their knowledge or to practice what they already know. For teachers there is interactive projects, lesson plans, and puzzle makers. Content: The content of this website, the information providers, and the quality is well presented to users. While the information is provided by a company to further their products, it offers a lot of free resources for everyone. It also does not push its products on the user, for example no pop-ups or constant nagging to purchase things.Design: This website has a great design. You do not get lost when you are navigating the website because it has great descriptions and titles of the pages. All of the links work properly and direct you to the appropriate websites or links. 

Hannah Clucas. October 10, 2012. Overview: This website is a giant database for schools. It has something for administrators, teachers, students, and even parents. There are a lot of available resources. The website is amazing and helpful for all facets of learning. Content: For administrators, there are curriculum options, helpful assessments of resources schools are currently using, and a host of other useful things. For teachers there are lesson plans, puzzle makers, additional resources, and even information on student travel. For parents there is a section on ways they can motivate their students and give them help in homework. The student section has a homework help section as well as links to contests they can join and clipart. There are also videos that parents, teachers, and administrators can use. The website is probably more helpful to teachers and administrators. Lesson plans are divided into two grade level groups, k-8 and 9-12, making it easy to find lesson plans for intended grade levels. Some of the links on the website are not useful, such as the link to downloading Google Chrome. But none of the links are inappropriate. Design: The design of the website is logical and flows well. There is a section for administrators, teachers, parents, and students at the top and bottom of the home page. It is colorful and fun to get your attention, but not to the point that it is overwhelming. Its use of media is appropriate and helpful.

Lorena Garcia Evaluation date: 10/13/14 The site I chose to evaluate was Discovery Education located at www.dicoveryeducation.com. The purpose of this site is to provide free education resources. The intended audience of this site is teachers, students, and Parents. This site provides some downloadable lessons. It offers lessons plans for the various school grades. I feel this site could be a great resource for new and veteran educators. I found that this page is quickly to determine the content because there are links about who they are, what they offer, also they have links for students, parents, and Teachers who are the intended audience. In fact there is contact information for anybody who has questions or verify information about it. Anybody can contact them by phone, (1 800 ), Twetter, and Face book, and e-mail. It is clear that this page is to provide Educational information with the different options of downloadable lesson plans. It is worth visiting this page, specially Educators. They can find a lot information and great ideas for lessons. The information is clearly labeled and organized school year. These links are very well organized and easy to find. I did have some trouble finding my way back to the original page. However, overall I would most definitely recommend and use this website.