I wanted to share with you all some cool websites that I thought would be useful. They are listed in the top right corner of this page.
TED is like a youtube for intellectuals that also allows for social networking. There really are some brilliant speakers here. There is also a Podcast and iPod/iPhone Application that you can download for free. Below, I posted a link to Taylor Mali's poem "What Teachers Make". I showed this to my EDF 6237 class last week and it seemed to inspire people. I would highly advise you kill some time browsing TED.
Rethinking Schools website is currently being revamped, and I hope that they make it more interactive. I primarily listed Rethinking Schools, not because the website is so good (because it's not), but because I hope you explore the publications that they put out. I started subscribing to their quarterly magazine last semester and I am very happy with my purchase (it wasn't too expensive and they are a nonprofit group, so that makes it easier too). The articles are very progressive and offer some really great ideas on how to reform the education system, simply by reforming your own classroom. Many of the books they publish are equally progressive.
The Zinn Education Project is a website that Rethinking Schools helped sponsor, and it is based on Howard Zinn's, A People's History (Also a Rethinking Schools publication). This website is geared primarily toward social studies teachers. It offers some really great resources and is incredibly user friendly. If you are a social studies teacher, you should definitely check this out.
Edutopia is George Lucas's education foundation. As you would imagine, this is a well funded project and the website is very interactive. The best thing is that many of the videos are available as Podcasts.
Last, but certainly not least...
Democracy Now! is what I would advocate as the best and possibly last source of legitimate comprehensive world news. SO MUCH of the mainstream media is filled with gossip and biased information, where their goal is to boost ratings. Democracy Now is an independent media outlet that seriously delivers compelling stories, that don't cater to any partisan agenda. If there is one website on this list that you explore, let it be Democracy Now (though TED is a very close second on my list). What I recommend to you iTunes users is Podcast it [if you haven't guessed by now, I am a huge fan of podcasts! (especially because they are free)]. I subscribe to it and it automatically downloads whenever there is an episode (they tend to do one almost every weekday). This is also a good source of information to bring into the classroom if you like doing current events.
I hope that this was helpful. Let me know what you think. Also, if there are any good web resources that you know of, please give me a heads up.
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