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Cole Baumann January 24, 2010 This website helps teachers understand more about learning disabilities such as dyslexia and aDD. This is helpful in today's society as there is a very high probability that there will be a dyslexic student in their classroom and the teacher needs to help him/her learn in a way that the student can understand what is happening and help them retain the information the best way possible. There are stories of success throughout the website and journals from teachers who found a way to help the student who had a learning disability succeed in the class, all of which could help other teachers do the same. This web site feels like it is a large community of teachers coming together and trying to help each other succeed with the students who have learning disabilities. Suggestions abound for helping those students prevail without having to make them standout from the class, all within budget limitations. This website is a little bit more confusing than what I would like initially. But, after you explore it for a while, you start to understand and notice that it is actually quite easy to navigate. This website will help teachers learn more about learning disabilities and how to cope with them without drastically changing the students' learning. The pictures on the website seem old and outdated which makes the reader feel like maybe some of the information is outdated but that is the only downside I can see in this website. On the whole, is seems this site would be very helpful for any teacher This website is specifically for the teacher to help the students. It is not describing what dyslexia is and how to cope with it or what a learning disability is and how to cope with it. This site is saying that if you have the student with this learning disability these are ways to help them and make them successful in your class without making them feel too strange or too different from all the other students. This is very important as children wit

Mandy Schumacher 1-24-10 Overview: Internet 4 Classrooms is a website with many components. The purpose of this website is to help teachers use the Internet effectively. On the "Home" menu the user can choose to visit any of the seven links posted. Those include: Grade Level Help, Links for K-12, Technology Tutorials, assessment assistance, Daily Dose of the Web, On-Site Training, or about Us. This is a free website that is designed to help teachers find free Internet Sources to use in the classroom setting. Content: This site is full of information and consists of many separate components. This site is mainly visited by teachers who are hoping to find a way to integrate the Internet into their classrooms. From the site the user can choose a specific grade level and subject. Once the user has selected a grade level and subject a list of sites that can be used for classroom instruction appear on the screen. For example, if the user chose Language arts for Elementary Students, sites such as "american Literary Classics" or "Brain Food" would appear and the user would then choose one of those links to instruct their students. These links can take you to anything from a list of good books to read in the classroom, word puzzles to challenge your students, or anything else related to Language arts for Elementary students. Design: The website is somewhat organized, however, it can be a little confusing to navigate since there are so many separate links on the Home page. There are also several ads which can become distracting. Overall this site provides good information for teacher and students about using the internet as a learning tool.

Nathan Hissong 1/23/10 Content: In any good government it is important that students know who represents them. I chose Senator Mike Enzi's site just as an arbitrary example. Like many Congressmen's sites this is an informational site. Yes Mr. Enzi has a campaign site but I did not choose that one for a reason. The site features a featured story, a way to find issues in your county and even get an email newsletter. What really caught my eye though is that he has a separate tab for students. Here you can get valuable bill resources and even sign up for a internship which in my experience was amazing. Design: The design is rather appealing and makes the site easy to navigate. It is nice to Enzi's picture. It would help students identify his name with a face. I like the health care tab and a featured story that affects his constituency. Being that Enzi probably pays someone lots of money to work on his site it has to be designed well and updated frequently. Good design. Overview: as previously stated it is important for students to understand the congressional process and who represents them. It would be a cool assignment to use this site to see how congress works and who the main players are.

Hannah Streeter 2/1/2010 Overview- This website had great potential. Unfortunately, it falls short in my opinion. It's a spelling game, but its content is weak, and It doesn't do a lot to help improve or correct. Content- You open the website and come to an explanation page for the game, which honestly would be hard for anyone but a teacher to read if they were there to use the website. Once you start the game, there are five categories to choose from. when you open the topic, there are a bunch of pictures and a wheel of letters. you pick a word and try to spell it. If you get it right, they congratulate you, and you move on. If you get it wrong, the website only tells you you got it wrong. It doesn't do anything to correct you, or help you learn. I see this as a MaSSIVE flaw. Design- There isn't much going on on the website. It is very simple. The pictures are clip art animation. I like the fact that the word is spoken, as well as the letters as you pick them. The letter wheel does this spin thing that seems cool but takes forever to load the letter you pick or find letters, due to the fact that it stops at the arrow, then doesn't reset so a is at the top, which is frustrating to me as an adult. There are no links to anything else, except the "contact us" button. So its kind of a cool idea, but it could definitely be instituted better.

Katrina Knapic9/4/11 Overview Learning-Theories.com is a website that is a "webliography" of the learning theories used in education. It is a very informative website that includes definitions links to books and other resources. It is a somewhat easy to navigate and holds a lot of information.  Content The content on the website is very in depth. The different links on the webpage lead to more information. a lot of the language is aimed toward professionals and educators. There are directions on how to reach the webmaster on the webpage. There is no real updates on the website that are more recent than 2008. Design The layout and design is a very minimalist design. It has a table of contents and is easy to navigate. The font is easy to read and gives the impression of a scholarly content. The advertisements do not pertain to the content and do not lead to another website with more information about learning theories. 

Danielle Walter 9/5/11 Storyplace: The Chldren's Digital Library Overview: The Storyplace.org website is a great educational website for both English speaking students and Spanish speaking students. Or it also can be used for helping a child learn English or Spanish. The website has activities for pre-school age children and also for elementary age children. It offers an online reading, an activity, a take home activity and also a reading list so children can explore other books. The website is a great resource for teachers and parents to help children be excited about reading. Content: The Storyplace.org website is easy to navigate for children and adults. It is also set up nicely. It has the grade levels on the left side and when you click on one it comes up with a menu of the reading and activities. This is a great website for helping children learn how to read and to become excited about reading, but it is also great for teaching children how to navigate the web and to show them how useful it can be in learning. Design: The Storyplace.org website has very bold colors that are eye catching. It's also easy to navigate. It is a .org website so I would trust it to be a good website for my children or students to be on. It also contains the copyright on the page so it is even more trusted.

Trevor Santy Sept 14 2011 Overview: This site is most a game site for the elementary school level. With many different activities ranging from crosswords to other games this site would probably be used as a second hand activity (like when there is free time). The activities also cover a large variety of topics from science to math to English making it a good learning tool as well as a good place to practice the skills associated with that subject. It even says the grade level the activity was meant for making it a must have for a teacher's resources. Content: as stated in the overview, all of this sites content is varying games for varying levels. The crosswords come in varying difficulties and each activity has an age group suggestion underneath the description making it easier to organize a plan. Most games are straight forward in their descriptions and directions making the content in them easy for kids to understand. Design: This websites design is extremely simple and straightforward. The entire site is essentially just a list of activities/ games and links to play those games. This easy style of site makes it really easy for younger kids (1st - 3rd) able to navigate the site. However, once again I believe this site would be better used as an extra activity.

AAA MAth is A site used for leArning, prActicing, plAying And exploring.

Meghan Snell September 11, 2011 Overview: aaa Math is a very useful site for the learning of children. It's goal is to help children learn any subject in math, give tools to practice with, a few games to play based on the desired subject and some exploring available afterwards. It is definitely a learning based site instead of a site based on playing game after game. Information about the site authors is difficult to find but a section about the site itself and its purposes is easy to find. Every kind of math subject you can think of is given in a table of contents on the side and a header at the top gives options to link to any grade from K-8th. Content: as stated above, the authors and sponsor were not easy to find which is a valuable part of the site itself. although there is that one little problem, the content of the site is very nice for the use of children. I like how it is organized into different subjects as well as grade levels and then does each in order through steps of learn, practice, play, and then explore. The site serves the purpose intended but another faulty is that no information about revisions is available. Design: There is not a lot of design to the website. The home page contains no graphics and just gives information about the site itself. This could make it hard for the website to be appealing to children. Parents and teachers would be able to look past and see the value of the site but children often look of graphics and fun. Everything is clearly labeled and organized though which makes it very nice to navigate.

This website is for K-8 grade level. It is interactive math lessons. You can pick what grade and what subject you want to practice. It is a drill and practice type of website. When you go to a subject it shows you how to work out the problem then allows you to practice. I think this is a good website to allow children to practice when you first introduce a new topic.

Billie Slyman, 9/11/11 Purpose The purpose of this site is to provide resources for teachers for teaching weather. It's part of a larger site that has resources about all kinds of topics. There are websites, print-out activity sheet and Power Points. although there are a lot of links, about half of them don't work, and there isn't any information on the site about how the sites are found and who runs the site. My overall impression is that this site has some good resources that could be helpful to teachers, but the link you want might not work, and there's no guarantee it is a good site. Content There really isn't any information (that I could find, anyway) about who develops or maintains this site, or any indication of when it was made. although there are a lot of links to other sites, there is nothing about this site. There is a link to "Contact Us", but who is "Us"? However, it is nice that the links are divided into separate themes, like Weather, so it is easy to find the topic you are interested in. Design The site looks pretty plain. It's really just a list of links. However, this does serves the purpose of the site. It doesn't really have much reason to look nice because most people won't be spending a lot of time there; they'll be on the other sites. although, even though the site is plain, it still manages to feel cluttered. With the links in the middle, navigation menu on the left and ads on the right it can be a little hard to stay focused. But the site is functional, and it can be helpful to have a large amount of sites about the topic all put together.

Billie Slyman, 9/11/11 Purpose The Kidstorm site is actually a section of a larger site dedicated to storm chasing. The rest of the site is fine, but the kids section has, in my opinion, the best resources and information. However, the information, while good, is pretty basic and could easily be found on other sites. So my overall impression is that while this site is okay for information about severe weather, its real value is in the photographs and resources that can be found there. There are tons of links to other sites, some on the main kids' page for general weather, and then more on each page about a specific weather. These links lead to good sites and would be a valuable resource for a teacher or student looking for information. Content The content on this site is appropriate for students in 4-6 grades and for adults as well. It is set out clearly, but the vocabulary would be difficult for younger students. again, the information is basic, although the extensive safety tips are nice, but the pictures are great. There are high quality photos of every type of weather covered and more. These can be viewed online, and it is stated on the website that students can use them for paper reports in class as long as credit is given. The external links given are useful and would also be a good resource for student research. Design The site is easy to navigate and nice to look at, interesting while not being overwhelming. There is a lot of text on each page, but there are also a lot of relevant photos, so it is interesting to read. It is easy to go from one section to the other without having to go back to the homepage, and the external links are always at the bottom of the page. It's a well put together site.

Overview: Math Goodies is a math website that can be used by both the teacher and the student. This website offers lessons and worksheets for the teacher. Games and homework help are provided for the students, making this website even more effective. This website is geared mostly towards grades 5-8 but can be utilized by anybody needing help in the math subjects offered.  Content: When first navigating to the homepage, you'll find lots of information. a downside to the homepage and the website all together is that there are a lot of advertisements. The author of the website is not clearly stated but there is a link to contact information at the top left of the homepage. at the top of the homepage there is a toolbar with links to all the resources offered through this website. The site is easy to navigate through. There is also a math forum on this website. Students age 13 and older are permitted to use this forum for homework help. This forum is effective when enforcing the importance that the students do the math problem on their own before they get help from the forum.  Design: The design of this website could be a bit livelier but overall, it isn't too bad. The advertisements could be a bit distracting to the viewer. The toolbar is helpful but if the links were a different color it would help the viewer to navigate better. They don't stand out against the rest of the content. after finding the toolbar and the links, they website is easy to navigate. 

Overview: S.O.S Mathematics is a free resource for math help for high school, college and adult math students. The website reviews all different math subjects ranging from algebra to Differential Equations. You can also get help regarding specific topics rather than the subject as a whole. The website has more than 2,500 math pages that are easy- to- understand and helpful. This website also helps with test preparation and offers 'Cyberboard', which is a help forum used to ask specific math questions. Content: The homepage loads quickly but there is an advertisement pop-up along with an advertisement on the top of the homepage. above the advertisement is a toolbar with links to each subject of math. There is a wide variety of subjects that are available to the student for help. There is a current copyright date on the website and the content appears up-to-date. at the bottom of the homepage is the company's contact information. When clicking on a subject, lists of sub-topics are included under that subject, which makes navigation on the webpage easier for the student. Design: The content of this webpage may be very helpful to students, but the design of the website is a bit bland and boring. The design does not look very up to date. The design of this website could potentially turn away a student looking for help at first glance because it's not appealing to the student. 

John Ripley 9/13 Overview: This is a site produced by the Federal Reserve to promote financial literacy. It is aimed at providing information and activities to all age groups from kindergarten to adult. There are only two games/activities for the K-4 level and I didn't think that either one was especially good. There are several more games for kids at older age levels that are a little better. I still can't imagine kids getting excited about playing any of the games that I looked at though. The games/activities are only a small part of the site and I think that the real strength of the site lies in the information that it provides for a high school age audience that might be exposed to the information through a teacher in a classroom that could help interpret it. The educational value is more as an aid to a teacher in planning a lesson or relaying a concept rather than assigning the

Mike Wilson Site review September 18, 2009 Dr. Saul's Biology in Motion Introduction Biology In Motion is a relatively simple website designed to provide engaging animations for basic biology concepts. The site is designed for both teachers and students. Student level is Junior High School but could be easily used for entry level 10th grade Biology. Teachers can use the site for in class presentation. Teacher tips for in class use are provided. There are 9 animated self guided lessons and/or games. These lessons are information correct and convey the material to be learned very well. This is an excellent site targeted at specific biology topics. Google ranking of 6/10 - Excellent with 61 backward links. Content Evaluation First Look The home page clearly in both text and graphics conveys the purpose of the site. all the key information is above the fold. Information Providers Biology In Motion is a creation of Dr. Saul, a university Biology Professor and Web game / site developer. Links to Dr. Saul's credentials and additional websites are top left on the home page Information Currency While the site has not been updated for 4 years, there is not a need to do so. The science content is fundamental concepts that will not change. The graphics are age appropriate and play quickly. Information Quality Site is fully functional. Each interactive lesson through the use of text and animations teaches the subject concisely. There are Google link ads on each page which I do not like from a pure educational standpoint. On the other side, the ads are not obtrusive and what are a few extra bucks in a teacher's pocket. Design Evaluation Speed all pages and graphics load very quickly. animations are well designed but are not speed bulky. Home Page Very appealing and all critical information to keep you on the site is above the fold Ease of Navigation all lessons are linked from the home page and need to know information is top lef

Bryana Wilson September 20, 2009 Website Review http://www.sonnets.org/early.htm "Sonnet Central" is a site dedicated to all different types of sonnets in many different time periods. The author of this site, Eric Blomquist, has done an excellent job of putting the site together in an interesting and organized way. The site serves as an archive of sonnets and does a good job in defining the histories and form of them as well. It is evident that he is passionate about this style of poetry, and in essence, catches the evolution of it quite nicely. CONTENT The content of this website is evident in the title. "Sonnet Central" is full of many different types of sonnets. It covers all different kinds of sonnets from differences in location, time, and style. It includes sonnets from all over the world and has sonnets set apart in different periods- from the 12th century to the early 20th century- most of which are English- but includes quite a few Petrarchan as well. There are also links to sections that you can use to search, view an alphabetical list of authors, listen to sonnets being read, and even read criticisms. It also includes a forum for modern poets to post their own poetry and discuss the information presented on the page. It is clear that Mr. Blomquist's site is aimed toward poets and those wanting to get acquainted with the sonnet- and the material on his site is easy to interpret and understand. There is an email link for contacting Mr. Blomquist if there are any questions or comments regarding his site and it is located on the site's homepage in the opening paragraph. It was last modified in 2007, but given the subject- the sonnet- I would trust the material is far from outdated. It loads quickly and works on several different browsers. DESIGN "Sonnet Central" is put together in an interesting way. The information is fairly easy to find and is set up in a rather organized manner, including a table of contents on the main page.

Evonne Raymond September 16th 2009 Content: This website is made to show new things happening in the science world. The audience is definitely for Elementary school students. The authors are dependent upon the article that you access and choose to read, and the site is Society for Science and the PUblic, its a great interactive community that believes in utilizing educational tools to teach more efficiently. It is revised daily as new events are happening in society everyday.Grammar and spelling is appropriate and suprisingly there is a lack of bias in the articles, as many of the new discoveries are not controversial subjects. The site is appropriate for kids. There are several links to other sites, as many articles are located on other sites, the site is current and has great content for teaching science in todays exciting society. Design:The webpage downloads quickly. It is easy to immediatley understand what the website is for as well as to see what link will direct you to what new scientific findeing. There are tons of grpahics and multimedia that do not deter from the web pages but make the links a little more user freindly and interactive.It is compatable with several different servers, so i would definitely utilize this website in my classroom. It is updated daily for new content, and there are some articles that are from years ago, but most are relevant to a recent scientific finding. This website is excellent for kids and adults to use inorder to teach science. attribution: The purpose of this site is to educate kids about scientific events going on in the world today, real live science in action. This website is interesting in design as wella s in content and I think it is a great way to create some enthusiasm in kids who would be otherwise uninterested in science.

c. Overview: This site was interesting but I felt that for an elementary setting it wasn't the best. It would probably be usable in a fourth grade classroom and up just because there is a lot of reading and if I wanted to read all the article to my second or third grade classroom, it could be fun for them to see the different types of sciences that are out there. There are some really interesting experiments and videos recorded on this site so it could be really useful for students working on projects.

Content: The content for this site consists of science related articles found in magazines as well as made specifically for this site. I chose to look at this site because it could be very useful for students to see that science is not just something that we see in a lab but something that happens all around us. The content is all recent and updated frequently. The authors are those found in the field of science and give detailed accounts of experiments and what scientists are doing in a way that a child could understand. There are a lot of links to sites such as that of NaSa and other recognizable science corporations. Some of these links take a longer time to download but there were few that I found that didn't work. The content of this site is also designed for an older audience so about 3rd grade and up. Large words are used and there is a lot of reading for each page. Design: This site was much different in design than that of the other two that I looked at. This sited has a lot more actual photos compared to drawings and all of them were very intriguing. Each picture brought forth curiosity about what the article might be about and a majority of the articles also had videos to go along with them. The site was also fairly easy to move around on. It did require some prior knowledge about what each main topic category was about, but even if I didn't understand them, I could figure it out from the pictures that went along with it. Everything in each category was related to the other as well and so were the links to other pages. This site is set up more for an older classroom setting though due to the large words as well as some of the photos being of complex experiments. When entering the site it looks a lot like that of a website for a newspaper or magazine, which it more or less is.

Posted by Mitchell Clark 9/18/09: HippoCampus is an interactive homework site that provides homework help in math, science, psychology, history and religion. Content: HippoCampus is a simple but very effective homework help site sponsored by the Monterey Institute of Technology and Education. This site uses a combination of resources to help students understand the basics of nearly any level of math, science, psychology, history or religion class that they might encounter during high school or college. The lessons on this site use images, audio and user interaction to help with the comprehension of the material at hand. In addition to this there are also Spanish options for subjects such as calculus and algebra. There are also links to actual text books, but they are deceiving. It turns out that instead of being able to view the text, the user is presented with a video interview of the textbook's author about a certain subject. This can display a certain bias if the interview is conducted poorly. another potential problem with this site is that it was last updated in 2007. Now for some subjects such as math or language arts this is irrelevant but for subjects such as science and psychology this could result in the absence of new and important information. aside from the "textbook" links, this site is so well organized that the user can easily find the exact chapter or concept that they wish to review with just a few clicks of the mouse. Design: This site is well designed and very easy to navigate. There are four advertisements but they are organized neatly on the right side of the screen and are nothing more than links to scholarship information and additional resource sites. The sponsor of the site is clearly stated at the bottom of the page and there is a link to their contact information. The site is mainly composed of two sections, the first being a list of general subjects that the user might be interested in, i.e. math and the second section is where

Posted by Allie PArrott 09/17/09\nEducAtion World As it sAys on the site is "An educAtor's best friend". On this site there Are ideAs for lesson plAns, educAtion gAmes, And even wAys to incorporAte technology into the clAssroom. Content: This site hAs A ton of informAtion. Although there is informAtion for All Ages, it seems more geAred towArd elementAry school teAchers. There Are links for every subject. MAth prActice, punctuAtion of the dAy, And writing instructions Are All in one spot. However there Are five mAin cAtegories to mAke A teAcher's reseArch quicker. These include: Lesson PlAnning, ProfessionAl Development, Technology IntegrAtion, AdministrAtor's Desk, And School issues. There is even A convenient seArch bAr locAted At the top of the pAge if the previous options do not fit thAt teAcher's needs. The site is updAted dAily. This is extremely beneficiAl for A returning user. There Are A lot of links And buttons to push before the user reAches their destinAtion, but once there the informAtion is cleAr. Most lesson plAns Are completely done for the user. There Are Also educAtionAl gAme instructions reAdy to be printed out. It's very eAsy for teAchers to use. Everything is copyrighted by EducAtion World And they cAn eAsily be contActed by selecting the link At the bottom. I would consider this site very credible And useful tool. Design: The design is fAntAstic. The most importAnt links Are At the top of the pAge in bright colors. Almost every link is in AlphAbeticAl order, mAking it eAsy to come bAck to A pArticulAr one. It is very colorful And flAshy. There Are A lot of Advertisements down the right side of the pAge, but surprisingly they do not drAw Attention AwAy from the informAtion. The links work flAwlessly And quickly. The feAture thAt lets one seArcher on the world wide web, or strictly in Ed World is Also A helpful element of the design. Attributions: I would feel sAve using this site to get ideAs for my clAss. There is contAct informAtion.

Mike Wilson Site review September 18, 2009 NASA EducAtion GrAdes 9-12 Introduction As this is A NASA site, it is An Awesome resource. While my selection is for GrAdes 9-12, the site covers K-12 + higher educAtion. The purpose is to give All students direct Access to NASA spAce And AeronAutics content through educAtionAl progrAms including high school internships. The A-Z Index for Students contAins links to hundreds of NASA progrAms. The mAin NASA EducAtion home pAge hAs A Google rAnk of 8/10, the GrAdes 9-12 hAs A Google rAnk of 6/10. Content EvAluAtion First Look First look is A bit busy And boxy. There Are 7 + informAtion boxes Above the fold Along with A top left menu. InformAtion Providers It is NASA! InformAtion Currency LAst updAted September 15,2009 by Shelly CAnright. Extensive And updAted future, current And pAst NASA progrAm informAtion. InformAtion QuAlity The quAlity of the informAtion is exceptionAl And seemingly endless, presented in A wide vAriety of formAts. ImAges, video, podcAsts, NASA TV, InterActive, 3D, RSS, Blogs. Design EvAluAtion Speed As with most NASA sites, A bit slow on the loAd. Considering the informAtion presented, on eAch pAge, the speed is AcceptAble. Home PAge If you Are A spAce science student, this is the pAge for you. GeAred to the 9-12 viewer with the exciting science you Are looking for. EAse of NAvigAtion Due to the depth of the informAtion, there is some digging to be done to get whAt you wAnt. Use of multimediA Comprehensive use of All multimediA formAts. Browser compAtibility Viewed only on IE7 Content PresentAtion From NASA FAcebook, CAreer Profiles, MyNAsA for homework help, Missions, if it's SpAce Science you will find it here presented world clAss.

The purpose of this article was to encourage teachers in their work and the impact that they have on students, as well as provide a few resources that have held true for the author, sixth grade teacher, Elena aguilar. Mrs. aguilar said that she received an email from a student who had taken her middle school English class and was now going into the same profession. On a personal side, I would like to note that my story is very much the same, so this caught my attention. The teacher recounts what she told her student, that middle school was and still is her favorite level to teach. She then shares a book, websites, and blogs that she has referred to many times throughout her many years of teaching. Visually, the website is appealing. The content is simple and organized. There were no graphics, but there really was no need for any here. The content is formatted in such a way that there are no distractions along the sidebar or even at the bottom of the page. I personally really enjoyed the simplicity of this article. The piece is only a few paragraphs long, but the message being relayed really only needs that much content. There are no spelling or grammar errors here and Mrs. aguilar maintains a professional speaking voice while she relays a very personal story. The resources that she provides at the bottom of her article are also worth a look. Overall, the article is short and sweet, yet helpful.