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This week's newsletter is sponsored by The Lance Armstrong Foundation.

Want Lance Armstrong to Visit Your School?

The Lance Armstrong Foundation is challenging educators to get students involved in the fight against cancer. Participating classes will have the opportunity to win a visit from champion cyclist and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong. 

To enter the LIVESTRONG at School contest, educators must complete a lesson from the LIVESTRONG at School curriculum and answer the question with their students, “What does LIVESTRONG mean to you?”

Through LIVESTRONG at School, the Foundation offers free online lessons to teach your K-12 students about cancer in an age-appropriate, hopeful, inspiring and empowering way.

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This week's newsletter is sponsored by Book Punch.

New Reading and Writing Program: http://BookPunch.com/

Book Punch provides interactive writing prompts about well-know, core literature readings - the books most commonly taught in schools today.

Hundreds of Built-in supports and tips guide students as they think and write about what they have read.

Lesson plan aids and printable vocabulary activities are provided for each book.

Available titles include: Flat Stanley, Because of Winn-Dixie, Trumpet of the Swan, Frindle, and many more.

Try Book Punch today. Sign-up online for our free pilot program.

http://BookPunch.com/

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Volume 12 Issue 14
April 1, 2008

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THIS WEEK'S REVIEWS
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This week, Education World reviewed three Web sites of interest to educators.

Making Learning Fun
For PreK-2, lots of themes and activities.
http://www.educationworld.com/awards/2008/r0308-28.shtml

Center for Civic Education
Civics 101? Here's "Civics WWW."
http://www.educationworld.com/awards/2008/r0308-26.shtml

Electoral Geography 2.0
USA elections not enough for you? See maps of election results worldwide.
http://www.educationworld.com/awards/2008/r0308-24.shtml

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REVIEWS
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Making Learning Fun
For PreK-2, lots of themes and activities.
http://www.educationworld.com/awards/2008/r0308-28.shtml

REVIEW: A+
Making Learning Fun offers an abundance of printable resources and other ideas for the early childhood educator, home school families, speech teachers and parents. All of the materials are completely free. Visitors to the site will find activities for most of the major holidays, many children’s books, such as Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! and If You Give a Moose a Muffin, popular children themes like community helpers, the five senses and colors, and other topics such as nursery rhymes, rainbows, apples, dinosaurs, bats, butterflies, and more. This will be a great time saver for the busy pre-K through grade 2 teacher.

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Center for Civic Education
Civics 101? Here's "Civics WWW."
http://www.educationworld.com/awards/2008/r0308-26.shtml

REVIEW: A+
History and civics teachers and students will find a wealth of information and resources at this site for studying about everything from representative democracy to the Constitution. Although the Center publishes materials for purchase, many of them are available, in limited quantities, as free classroom sets in each Congressional district across the United States. Of particular interest to teachers is the resource section. Free lesson plans, grouped by grade level, are available for download that cover such topics as Constitution Day, Why We Need Government, and What Is Meant by Returning to Fundamental Principles? Included are other online curricular materials from the Center, links to other Internet resources and a multimedia area that offers video clips, slideshows, and podcasts on various civic education topics.

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Electoral Geography 2.0
USA elections not enough for you? See maps of election results worldwide.
http://www.educationworld.com/awards/2008/r0308-24.shtml

REVIEW: A+
Electoral Geography 2.0 studies patterns of election results from around the world. It offers users informative and interesting electoral maps of the world that could be used in the classroom or by anyone doing research on the election process. From the main page visitors to the site can peruse all of the newest additions to the site, including the United States Presidential Primary maps of the various states. There is a wide range of maps available, from a Taiwan Referendum to the Cypress Presidential Election to the Pakistan Legislative Election in 2008. Maps can be browsed alphabetically by country or searched using keywords. There is also an archive available that can be browsed by year or by post. Additionally, an articles section offers essays on such topics as “The New Electoral Geography of Central Europe” and “Remaking Italy? Place and Italian Electoral Politics since 1992.” History and government teachers will be able to ma ke good use of this site, especially during the upcoming Presidential election process.

Each week, Education World spotlights books of interest to educators. This week, read a brief summary of two more of our "top 50 books for educators."

No Contest: The Case Against Competition
One of the most prolific education writers, Alfie Kohn is also one of the most entertaining and thought-provoking. This book makes perhaps the most profound argument Kohn has ever fielded -- that "healthy competition" is an oxymoron, that competition is not an essential or desirable aspect of human nature, but rather a part of our animal nature that we must transcend. Of course our educational system has a love-hate relationship with competition: we don't want kids to feel like losers, but our society demands that schools identify a small number of winners. A truly essential read!
Click to learn more or to purchase this book.

The Absorbent Mind
Maria Montessori's classic underscores her belief that learning is a natural characteristic of the human being, and that the process of education is best conducted as a nuturing of that natural impulse, rather than something that has to be imposed on one's otherwise savage little charges. Along with this is her belief, much more radical in its time than now, that people's personalities are not fixed at birth, but that a child's early years are in fact crucially formative.
Click to learn more or to purchase this book.

Click the icon to the right to see more books and many other products that are available in the Education World MarketPlace.

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The Best of LEARNING GAMES

If you enjoy Education World's weekly LEARNING GAMES feature, you'll love this book! Education World and the National Education Association (NEA) have joined forces to create a handy, pocket-size booklet of more than 30 of our most popular learning games. PLUS an extra bonus -- ten more games for classroom fun!

These classroom games span the grades and the major subject areas -- and inject a healthy dose of fun into the serious business of teaching and learning. Looking to fill the end of a hectic day with something fun and educational? Looking for a great reward for students that will make valuable use of free time? Looking to reinforce basic skills with a fun activity? These games will fill the bill!

Included in this 80-page booklet you'll find these games and more:

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Education World now incorporates www.SchoolNotes.com ~ "everybody on the same page!" The leading school-to-home communications platform, with FREE pages for teachers and automatic notification of parents and students when new homework is posted!

For a modest $24.95 PER YEAR, upgrade to Personal Edition, "Super SchoolNotes," with thousands of resources linked to your state's standards.

Click here for more information.

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MORE FEATURES OF INTEREST!

Professional Development Newsletter Sign up now!
Education World MarketPlace Books, electronics, insurance, travel, more.
Printables Library You're sure to find great resources here.
Meet Our Columnists Experts from many areas of the "education world."
Teaching Themes for Early Childhood Sue LaBella offers holiday ideas, more.
Classroom Organization Tips Ideas (and photos) that you can easily adapt.
Stress Relief Kit Take a deep breath. Then take a look here.
Classroom Management 101 Real teachers share what they are doing to manage real classrooms.
News for Kids News of our world written with kids in mind. Teacher's Guide included.

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