Art

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Three Centuries of Italian Art   http://www.theitalians.com.au/

The three centuries of Italian art covers the 16^th, 17^th and 18^th centuries.  The site contains over 100 master-works from the Renaissance, the Mannerist, the Baroque and the Rococo eras. Each image can be enlarged and comes with an overview of the painting, including information on the artist, the date of the painting and also background information about the paintings’ subject matter.  Ideal for year levels 8-12 RRRRR

Learn to Draw  http://www.geocities.com/~jlhagan/K9-14/introduction.htm

This is a free drawing lesson site for students who need to learn to draw and teachers who require practical lesson notes.  The focus of the site is to improve visual literacy and begins with basic concepts.  There is a wide range of lesson notes here for teachers as well as links to the locations where the complete lesson plans are available. Ideal for year levels 5-10 RRR

"Looking & Learning": Lesson Plans  http://www.albrightknox.org/ArtStart/lessonplans.html

If you are looking for ideas about how to integrate art into your curriculum, then this web site provides an excellent collection of ideas, especially for junior school teachers.  As well as recent lesson plans there is also an archive of previous years’ works.  Topics include everything from “art for remembering”, “how observant are you?”, “meet a creature from ancient China” . . . .  Ideal for teachers RRRRR

The Portfolio Series  http://www.portfolioseries.com/edu/

The portfolio series is a collection of resources for teachers of art.  Teachers can find here a range of new techniques, design information and links to resources and ideas for the classroom.  The information here is appropriate for a wide range of educators, regardless of your skill level and is appropriate for students of any age. Ideal for all year levels RRRR

A Timeline of Art   http://www.sanford-artedventures.com/study/timeline.html

Beginning with cave paintings left behind 15,000 years ago and moving through to contemporary art of today, this timeline introduces a wide variety of new technologies, art styles and dominant art forms within different eras.  This would be an excellent resource to print off and use in order to put artistic development in perspective over time. Ideal for year levels 6-12 RRR

Art History Resources on the Web   http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHLinks.html

This collection of links to art history resources on the Internet is encyclopaedic and is extremely well-organised.  This resource would be invaluable for any teacher or student studying art history.  Almost all the artistic eras are dealt with, beginning with prehistoric and ending up with contemporary styles.  Ideal for year levels 9-12 RRRRR

Visual Understanding in Education  http://www.vue.org/

Visual Understanding in Education conducts educational research focused on aesthetic and cognitive development that results from interaction with art.  Based on its findings, Visual Understanding in Education develops programs for schools and museums - principally visual banking strategies. An interesting organisation and some invaluable research. Ideal for teachers  RRRR

Art, Design & Visual Thinking: An Interactive Textbook  http://char.txa.cornell.edu/first.htm

If you are looking for a text that is well-written and deals with visual literacy in an academic context, then this on-line interactive textbook is a superb resource.  The entire book is available here at no cost, along with assignments to go with with the text.  A tremendous teacher resource. Ideal for teachers RRRRR

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Talking With Kids About The News   http://www.childrennow.org/television/twk-news.htm

Some of the most graphic and appalling images are presented on news programmes and we casually expose our children to them because it is "the news"!  This web site is dedicated to issues associated with using the news in the classroom and the effect that it can have on children.  The site explores topics such as news versus reality, how children differentiate, age appropriateness, exploring the facts etc. Ideal for teachers RRRRR

BMW Films!   http://www.bmwfilms.com/

BMW  sponsored the production of these eight short films on condition that a BMW car must appear somewhere in each film.  These films are excellent and provide students with short, action-intense video clips that can be studied and reviewed.  The films are professionally made and can be analysed for everything from acting skills through to camera angles and screenplay. Ideal for year levels 5-12 month RRRR

Yoga for Cats!   http://www.yogakitty.com/

Critical literacy is imperative in the age of digital cameras and special effects, especially when software for special effects that used to cost tens of thousands of dollars may now be a free download  from the Internet.  Use this picture of snowball  What is snowball?and have friends, students, staff make comments on whether cats should be doing yoga. You can also check out the dehydrated water at http://store.proline.com/dewa.html    Ideal for year levels 2-10 RRR

WordSmith  http://www.wordsmith.org

You can have a word a day  delivered to your e-mail address, everyday! The word of the day can be used to prompt discussion as an anecdotal beginning or end to each lesson. As well as this you can access the wordsmith newsletter which highlights issues to do with good grammar and composition.  From here you can also access the word server and the Internet anagram server.  All of these are excellent tools. Ideal for year levels 5-12 RRR

WordWeb  http://tucows.inspire.net.nz/preview/198316.html

From this location you can download onto your computer a dictionary and a thesaurus.  The dictionary contains over 120,000 words and over 100,000 synonyms.  This would be a perfect accompaniment to any resource on your computer.  It is fully searchable.  Ideal for all year levels RRRR

Plain English Campaign   http://www.plainenglishcampaign.com/

What started off as a small public information web site has now more than 6000 supporters across 70 countries. If you have ever had to fill in local, national or federal government forms to carry out some trivial task you will  realise why so many people are so keen to support this initiative.  "Plain English" is language that the intended audience can understand and act upon from a single reading.  Many governmental and business communication departments have in their minds that they are speaking to a confederation of lawyers when they send out their information packs, agrements or contracts, rather than human beings who wish to carry out a simple task. Ideal for year levels 5-12 RRRR

The English Renaissance in Context   http://oldsite.library.upenn.edu/etext/collections/furness/eric/eric.html

The English Renaissance in context is designed to provide students with access to major texts of the English Renaissance in their original versions.  The site also contains a range of tutorials that deal with topics such as textual issues, Shakespeare in context and the early modern material text.  Excellent resources for senior/advanced students of English language. Ideal for year levels 11-12 RRRRR

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Yahooligans News   http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/content/news/

Creating news stories and presenting them to their class can be a tremendous way for students to practice a range of skills including research, teamwork, technical skills, questioning and oral language.  This new service is dedicated to students and they will also find here collections of news slideshows. Ideal for year levels 5-10 RRRR

The New York Times Learning Network   http://www.nytimes.com/learning/

The New York Times provides a wide range of background stories to the news which have been written for students.  Students will find excellent news stories here along with debates and background information. Teachers will also find here companion lesson plans to each of the stories that are presented. Ideal for year levels 3-10 RRRR

Thinker Tools Research Group  http://thinkertools.soe.berkeley.edu/

The Thinker Tools project is a collaboration of schools and is focused on developing instructional methods and materials aimed at making scientific inquiry accessible to a wide range of students.  This program involves the development of appropriate pedagogy, use of appropriate software, adapting present curriculum and providing appropriate assessment. Ideal for teachers  RRRRR

 RubiStar   http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php

Rubistar is a tool to help the teacher who wants to use rubrics but does not have the time to develop them from scratch.  There are rubric masters here dealing with topics such as mathematics, multimedia, oral language, research and writing, reading, art, work skills, science and music.  You can download the rubrics and they are fully editable and registered users can have their rubrics hosted for one year.  You can also search the database of rubrics that have being created by other teachers.  Ideal for teachers RRRR

Multiple Intelligence Units  http://surfaquarium.com/MI/units/index.htm

If you have been using Gardners concept of multiple intelligences in your classes then the six units of work provided here will come as a welcome addition to your resource library.  With a range of topics based around technology themes, these units of work also provide a framework when using the theory of multiple intelligences when writing your own units of work. Ideal for teachers RRRRR

Hotlist of K12 School Sites   http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Schools/default.asp

If you are looking for additional schools in the United States to contact for project work or developing electronic pen pals then you will find a significant number of them listed here. Ideal for all year levels  RRR

Quia Web  http://www.quia.com/

Quia is a database of interactive activities and quizzes covering a wide range of topics including everything from biology, chemistry, Chinese, English, French, geography, medicine, science, technology, mathematics, languages, health . . . .  There is a small cost to register for ongoing access but this is a cost that is well worth the investment. Ideal for all year levels RRRRR

Ibiblio  http://www.ibiblio.org

Ibiblio is a digital Learning object library containing thousands of items including units of work, questions, animations, video clips, texts . . all available for free download from this location.  If you are building units of work, this site provides quality resources that you can access at no cost. Ideal for all year levels RRRRR

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Youth Link  http://www.youthlink.org

Youth In Action is dedicated to creating support and recognition for the voices, ideas and positive contributions of young people.  Its programs are focused on improving citizenship, civic engagement and communities through youth leadership and positive action.  There is a wide range of both United States based and international groups of youth that are making a positive difference within their communities.  An inspirational resource for the classroom and a great way to motivate our young people. Ideal for year levels 8-12 RRRRR

Rift Valley Fever http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/rift/rift.html - URL correct but links to Korea site???

For decades Rift Valley Fever has caused the illness and death of a large number of livestock in Kenya and much of Southern Saharan Africa.  Increasing evidence linking the disease to human deaths as well, has led epidemiologists to include Rift Valley Fever on the list of emerging viruses that infect thousands of people each year.  Your teams task is to understand the nature and transmission of the Rift Valley Fever virus and how it is spread using the resources that are provided for you at this web site. Ideal for year levels 8-10 RRRRR

Anyone for Tee http://www.anyonefortee.com/

If you are interested in the sport of golf then this web site will provide you with a wide range of news and issues, suggestions, links and tips on how to improve your game. Ideal for year levels 8-12 RRR

Taking IT Global   http://www.takingitglobal.org/

Taking IT Global is an international organisation, led by youth, and powered by technology.  Taking IT Global brings together young people in more than 200 countries within international networks to collaborate on concrete projects addressing global problems and creating positive change.  Ideal for year levels 7-12 RRRR

Ballroom Dancing Resource Site  http://www.ballroomdancers.com/

If you are teaching ballroom dancing as part of your health and well-being curriculum then you will find here a wide range of resources including video clip items highlighting 40 new variations on dances, resources for teachers, technical tips, a dance dictionary, links to dance web sites and much more. Ideal for year levels 6-12 RRRR

Fitness Forever   http://www.fitnessforever.com/

This excellent and well animated fitness web site for children has a wide range of resources available here including ideas for keeping fit, games, on-line resources, recipes to promote good health and levels of fitness, tests to see how well students understand basic fitness knowledge . . . Ideal for year levels 0-6 RRRR

Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids  http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/

Smoking is one of those activities that defies all logic but at the same time reflects the irrational, illogical and passionate nature of being human.  Accepting that this is not a logical and deductive argument but rather one of wanting to fit in, to conform and be accepted, then the focus for encouraging young people not to smoke needs to be changed.  This web site provides a background to American and global initiatives that are looking at reducing the number of a young people that smoke. Ideal for year levels 7-12 RRRRR

Kids Health: Calling all Kids  http://www.kidshealth.org/kid/

This site is dedicated to students looking to stay healthy.  There is information here dealing with recipes for healthy living, everyday illnesses and injury, understanding your body, growing up, kids talk, games, kids health problems, dealing with feelings, staying healthy . . . . . Excellently presented material in a format that will appeal to children of all ages.  Ideal for year levels 0-8 RRRRR

Information & Communication Technology

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The Hypermedia Browser   http://www.integretechpub.com/techexplorer/

You will find here two unique web browsers that have far greater functionality than the one you are using at the moment.  The hypermedia browser allows your browser to display TeX, LaTeX and MathMl markup, either from separate source files, or embedded in an HTML page.  The second browser is the MathML Equation Editor.  This browser allows you to create, edit, and save both content and presentation MathML. Both these browsers are free to download from here. Ideal for year levels 9-12 RRRRR

Free PowerPoint Templates   http://www.soniacoleman.com/templates.htm

These 208 free PowerPoint template for your personal use in the presentations that you create for yourself or others.  Each set contains eight templates.  They are provided for you to use as long as they are not redistributed or sold.  They make a change from the usual standard templates that we see so often at conferences and workshops. Ideal for year levels 5-10 RRRRR

The Web Style Guide (2nd ed)  http://www.webstyleguide.com/

This Web Style Guide has been the standard now for quite a few years and provides an excellent framework for both planning and delivering the web site you always dreamt that you could have.  The entire document is on here and deals with everything from the design process, the interface design, site design, page design, typography, graphics and multimedia.  Brilliant as a guide for any classroom studying web media. Ideal for all year levels RRRRR

Videoconferencing for Learning   http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/vidconf/index.html

Videoconferencing technology allows people at two or more locations to see and hear each other at the same time.  This informative site introduces educators to the applications videoconferencing and the skills that are required along with the technology that needs to be in place, for this to be successful.  The site provides ideas and examples, basic communication skills, information on working with compressed video, technical equipment, multipoint videoconferencing, instructional strategies and resources that enable the videoconference to be evaluated. Ideal for teachers RRRRR

Fusion: Educators Integrating Technology   http://www.willard.k12.mo.us/co/tech/strateg.htm

This web site focuses on strategies for integrating technology into the classroom.  This site provides applications that teachers can use which have proven educational benefits and it covers everything from Web publishing, key pals, Web mentoring, data collection, social action, projects, Webquests, field trips etc.  Ideal for teachers RRRRR

Print Folders Software  http://www.stratopoint.com/products/printfolders.htm

Print Folders is an excellent piece of software that allows you to print off the contents/archive of your file folders in a plain text or HTML file.  You can print off a catalogue of your MP3 music, photos, software, and documents . simply and easily, or save the file is a simple text file which you can upload to your intranet.  Free download. Ideal for all year levels RRRRR

Securing Your Intranet/Extranet Server   http://www.blacksheepnetworks.com/security/info/misc/verisign/intro.html

Security surrounding the development of intranets and extranets is becoming a critical issue and is increasing as more and more data is placed in these on-line environments.  This is an excellent report looking into some of the issues. Ideal for teachers  RRRRR

Foreign Languages (LOTE)

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English-Maori Word Translator   http://kel.otago.ac.nz/translator/

If you are looking to translate English words into Maori or Maori words into English, then this translation service will be of interest to you. Ideal for all year levels RRR

Chinese language & Culture  http://www.philsch.k12.pa.us/offices/imedia/chinese/chinese.htm

Students will find here an excellent collection of lessons with audio support at the beginning followed by personal introductions and moving through more complex sentence structure and discussions.  This would be an excellent support web site to anyone teaching an introductory Chinese language course. Ideal for year levels 5-9 RRR

Study Mandarin Using Voice of America   http://www.ocrat.com/ocrat/voa/

If you are learning Mandarin at intermediate level, then these soundtracks from recent Voice of America newscasts combined with viewing the corresponding Chinese characters, pinyin?? pronunciations and vocabulary lists and definitions, provides an excellent collection of extension exercises for the Mandarin language student.  Ideal for year levels 9-10 RRRR

Free Text Translator   http://www.freetranslation.com/

If you wish to translate some text from one language to another you can visit this web site and enter in the text you wish translated, select the language you wish it to be translated into and it will be translated automatically.  This free service is far from perfect but it does provide a transliteration of the text that you require translated. Ideal for all year levels RRR

Spanish Grammar Exercises  http://www.colby.edu/~bknelson/exercises/index.html

If you are a  student or teacher of Spanish , this excellent collection of grammar exercises for the Spanish language would be an excellent adjunct to your course or your teaching program.  There is full audio support for each of the exercises which are extensive and well presented. Ideal for year levels 5-10 RRRRR

Chinese Character Pronunciations  http://www.ocrat.com/ocrat/reaf/

You can input any Chinese text and obtain the transliterated pronunciations of each Chinese character using the software available here.  This provides students with an excellent way of providing pronunciations of any word they may come across in a chinese language magazine, text, web site, e-mail or book.  Ideal for all year levels RRR

An Anthology of Spanish Poetry   http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/poetry.htm

Permission is provided to use these poems and other materials on this web site for non-commercial purposes.  Most of these poems have been culled from older books.  For students, they make very good material for more advanced translation exercises. Ideal for year levels 9-12 RRR

Tourism France   http://www.tourisme.fr/recherche/saisie.htm

This wonderfully contextual web site deals with tourism throughout France.  You can investigate travel, restaurants, sightseeing, festivals, zoos and game parks . . . . Ideal for year levels 5-10 RRR

The World Radio Network   http://www.wrn.org/

The World Radio Network is a collection of overseas news and radio broadcasts in a wide range of languages across numerous countries throughout the world.  If you are studying a second language, then having this radio broadcast playing in the background while you are learning can only assist in your pronunciation and familiarity of the language you are studying. Ideal for all year levels RRRRR

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How Big is the Ozone Hole?   http://www.studyworksonline.com/cda/content/explorations/0,,NAV2-76_Sep938,00.shtml

Why is ozone important to live on their?  How is it measured?  In this exercise students can use statistical analysis to determine for themselves if the ozone hole is getting larger.  This is an excellent, contemporary, highly contextual mathematical exercise in applied statistics.  Students quite rightly wonder what is the point of some of the mathematics that they do and it is important that teachers provide a logical and reasoned rationale for the teaching of advanced mathematical processes. Ideal for year levels 10-12 RRRRR

Understanding Polls  http://www.studyworksonline.com/cda/content/explorations/0,,NAV2-76_SEP545,00.shtml

It seems impossible these days to go without reading or hearing about polling results in the newspapers and news programmes.  Polls seem to be everywhere but the mathematics behind them is often hidden and is not always obvious.  This web site provide students with the skills to interpret polling information, understand random sampling, develop and design appropriate questions and come to terms with what the terms "margin of error" and "confidence level" actually means. Ideal for year levels 7-11 RRRRR

Functions as Models  http://www.studyworksonline.com/cda/content/explorations/0,,NAV2--9,00.html the

In this exploration, students can see how functions can serve as very simple mathematical models, taking into account the limitations that we impose.  To discover underlying patterns and natural laws, we must find data trends and then model them with familiar functions.  This is the basis of all experimental science.  An excellent highly contextual application of mathematics and science. Ideal for year levels 10-12 RRRRR

Practice your Arithmetic Skills   http://www.studyworksonline.com/cda/content/explorations/0,,NAV2-95_SARI1769,00.shtml

See how many problems you can solve in 60 seconds! This site also deals with operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication or division.  You can set your range of numbers and then test yourself.  You can also practice with negative numbers by following the instructions on the site. Ideal for year levels 2-8 RRRRR

Playing with Symmetry   http://www.studyworksonline.com/cda/content/explorations/0,,NAV2-95_SARI1857,00.shtml

In this excellent Flash animation, students are introduced to "the reflecting pool" where they can experiment with inversions and other forms of symmetry.  The mathematics of symmetry is often confined to two dimensions but then this situation can be extrapolated into three dimensions adding considerable interest. Ideal for year levels 5-10 RRRRR

Math(s) Zapper   http://www.studyworksonline.com/cda/content/explorations/0,,NAV2-95_SARI1867,00.shtml

Let Sayulita the alien demonstrate her cosmic methods that make working with fractions, percentages, and decimals are a real snap.  This is a great way to practice and refine basic mathematical operations which have real applications in everyday life. Ideal for year levels 4-10 RRRRR

Graphing Traffic & Garbage  http://www.studyworksonline.com/cda/content/explorations/0,,NAV2-95_SEP322,00.shtml

Every day we take trips from one point to another and we often get frustrated by traffic signals that endlessly have us stop and start again.  How could we redesign our journey to make it a more efficient trip?  The same principles can be applied to many processes in our daily lives and mathematics provides the solution. Ideal for year levels 5-10 RRRRR

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Music & Mathematics a la Mozart http://www.studyworksonline.com/cda/content/explorations/0,,NAV2-95_SEP1237,00.shtml

Did you know that at 200 -year-old musical dice game uses probability and other mathematical concepts in order to help compose music.  At the site you can find out how you can compose your own music using the flip of a coin or the role of the dice! Ideal for year levels 5-10 RRRRR

Drama Workshop: Ideas For Teaching Drama  http://www.dramateachers.co.uk

Despite the somewhat disorganised homepage, there is actually quite a lot of useful information available here that can be accessed by using the different categories that are on the left-hand side of the page. Ideal for teachers  RR

The MacScouters Big Book of Skits  http://www.macscouter.com/Skits/BBSkits_Contents.html

Teachers and students will find here an excellent collection of skits across a wide range of genre and age group appropriateness.  These vary  from humorous to serious, short to long, single character to multi-character, and no stage setting to complex stage set requirements. All of these are licensed free and ready to use. Ideal for year levels 3-9 RRR

Live Music Archive   http://www.archive.org/audio

Live Music Archive is a community committed to providing the highest quality live concerts in a “lossless” downloadable format.  You can download from here a collection of live music from a wide variety of concerts with an even wider range of genre and music styles. Ideal for year levels 8-12 RR

TheatrePedia   http://www.perspicacity.com/elactheatre/library/

Theatrepedia is an encyclopaedia of theatre available on-line.  Students can find information on playwrights, plays, theatrical terms, famous theatre icons, Greek theatre, stagecraft, acting, directing, writing . . . There's also a range of on-line courses dealing with themes associated with the theatre.  An excellent and free to access on-line resource. Ideal for year levels 4-12 RRRRR

Music Resources   http://www2.siba.fi/Kulttuuripalvelut/music.html

The Sibelius academy in Helsinki provides a list of music sites linking to jazz, blues, rock and pop pages while also covering famous composers, gospel, instruments, research, theory and opera as well.  This is an excellent research base for students to carry out investigations into a wide range of musical issues and themes. Ideal for year levels 10-12 RRRR

Free Audio & Video Software   http://download.com.com/2001-2025-0.html?tag=share.dir

This is a one-stop shop for a wide range of audio and video software which can be downloaded at no cost.  Often some of the best software available is actually free and you can find at this site everything from CD and DVD burners, MP3 search tools, video, movie trailers, audio production, media players . . . . Ideal for all year levels RRRR

World Music Central   http://www.worldmusiccentral.org

World Music Central is a portal web site dealing with a wide range of musical topics and themes.  The two main themes are a focus on world music news and world music resources.  Of particular interest is a range of articles dealing with musical genre, history of music, musicians, musical instruments, musical groups and music itself. Ideal for year levels 6-12 RRRRR

Science

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Science News For Kids   http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/

If you are teaching science in the classroom then this site will provide you with anecdotal, background information which will allow you to introduce science topics into the classroom through the vehicle of "news".  If you are a student, then the stories here will give you much more information behind the 20 second news clip you may have seen on the television last night. The stories here provide excellent scientific background to news events with a scientific theme.  Almost every science theme or topic is dealt with here and there are also considerable resources available for teachers. Ideal for year levels 3-10 RRRRR

The Physics Classroom  http://www.physicsclassroom.com/

In this on-line physics classroom, students can learn the basic physical concepts and then review them in the on-line physics tutorial.  The emphasis here is the link between every day observations and the laws of physics that are learnt in the classroom.  In the multimedia physics studio, students can view these real-life applications and then apply them through the activities and tutorials that are also provided.  Ideal for year levels 10-12 RRRRR

The Balancing Lever Challenge   http://www.studyworksonline.com/cda/content/explorations/0,,NAV2-96_SAP1703,00.shtml

Levers are one of the simple machines that allow us to apply a reduced force over an increased distance in order to carry out a set amount of work.  The see-saw lever is an example that was discovered by Archimedes.  In this interactive site,  students can investigate the three essential parts and experiment with the principles of leverage. Ideal for year levels 5-10 RRRRR

Forensics in the Classroom  http://www.courttv.com/forensics_curriculum/

With the success of several television programs which focus on forensic science and technology, it is not surprising to see web sites  such as this emerge.  This is an excellent technology-based subject and at this site students can find a range "mysteries" that require solving, using both the scientific and technological processes. Ideal for year levels 8-11 RRRR