The American Association of School Librarians Top 25 Web sites for Teaching and Learning

AASL Announce Top 25 Web sites for Teaching and Learning The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announces a new resource for school library media specialists and their teacher colleagues. The Best Websites for Teaching and Learning, a list honoring the top twenty-five Internet sites for enhancing learning and curriculum development, is considered the "best of the best" by AASL. The Top 25 Web sites for Teaching and Learning were named so because they foster the qualities of innovation, creativity, active participation and collaboration. All sites are free, web-based sites that are user-friendly and encourage a community of learners to explore and discover. They also provide a foundation to support AASL's Standards for the 21st-Century Learner. Valuable information on each site, including tips for effective classroom use are available at http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/guidelinesandstandards/bestlist/bestwebsites.cfm

The Library of Congress now offers a free resource for educators

• The Library of Congress has designed this new resource to facilitate the process of integrating primary sources into classroom teaching. This online resource includes professional development modules and classroom lessons and primary sources from the Library of Congress arranged thematically. It is designed to teach both content knowledge and critical thinking skills.
  
  Created by teachers for teachers, these ready-to-use materials provide easy ways to incorporate the Library’s unparalleled primary sources into instruction. Teacher-created lesson plans using Library of Congress primary sources.
  
• Themed Resources: One-stop access to the Library’s best exhibitions, activities, primary sources, and lesson plans on popular curricular themes.
• Primary Source Sets: Sets of selected primary sources on specific topics, available as easy-to-print PDFs. Also, background information, teaching ideas, and tools to guide student analysis.
• Presentations & Activities: Presentations and activities offer media-rich historical context or interactive opportunities for exploration to both teachers and students.
• Collection Connections: Historical context and ideas for teaching with specific Library of Congress primary source collections.

Convert Microsoft Office 2007 files for use with version 2003

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats
If you are using Microsoft office 2007 at home and want to open, edit, and save documents, workbooks, and presentations in the 2003 programs Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file formats to use at school you can install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack. You will then be able to save and open your files in the 2003 version at school. Just click on the Office Logo to the left and follow the download instructions

Thanks to Ed Moloney, Technology Education Department at Gelinas JHS