Infonews n°211 du 28/03/2004 

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Sommaire
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A la Une this week, Children of conflicts: a site about the fate of
children in war zones and how to use it in class. This month is Nutrition
month, so here are some site about food, nutrition and fitness: don't miss
the excellent Fitness fever! The resources for secondary school offer sites
about advertisement, oil spills, the Pledge, figures about TV watching, and
a collection of ready to use work-sheets. At the end of this newsletter, a
collection of ideas for activities for the younger ones, and examples of
poetry, and two sites about the latest trends in education: anti-bullying
laws, and the new pay for performance project....
Have a nice week!
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Sommaire
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A la Une : Children of conflicts
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The site
My comment
How to use it in class
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Food, nutrition, fitness
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Fitness Fever 2004
Eat it! (from PBS Teacher Previews: March 28 - April 4)
Modern Meat (from [LII New This Week] March 25)
Overweight and Obesity (from [LII New This Week] March 25)
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Resources for secondary school
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Don't buy it!
Ireland (from PBS Teacher Previews: March 28 - April 4)
Frequently-Asked Questions about Oil Spills (from [LII New This Week] March 25)
Pledge of Allegiance: A Short History (from [LII New This Week] March 25)
Seasons (from [LII New This Week] March 25)
U.S. Census Bureau Facts for Features: 50th Anniversary of 'Wonderful World
of Color' TV
Work sheet library from Education World
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Resources for the younger ones
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Ten Games for Classroom Fun from Education World
30 days of Poetry ( from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Friday, March 26th)
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Teaching Practice
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More States Adopt Anti-Bullying Laws ( from EDNEWS Volume 3, Issue 12)
Pay-for-Performance Plan Passes ( from EDNEWS Volume 3, Issue 12)

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A la Une : Children of conflicts
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The site
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[LII New This Week] from March 25 pointed at "a site about children in war
zones--as soldiers, wounded victims, lost, heads of households, and
laborers. Their stories are told in brief articles with letters and
quotations from many children, and in audio files of their own voices, in
many languages. A project of the BBC World Service designed to explore the
effects of the 1990 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people/features/childrensrights/childrenofconflict/

My comment
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This site is very well presented: you choose your theme (child soldiers,
working children, lost children, etc.) and you can hear the children talk
in their native language, and read the transcript in English. You can also
hear some interviews of adults, and explore the links to the convention on
the rights of children, or to more information about a conflict. You can
also access a "how to help" section. The convention for the rights of
children is on the unicef site, where you can also send the students to
find more information:
http://www.unicef.org/crc/crc.htm
http://www.unicef.org/

How to use it in class
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In the computer room, you can form groups of 4 to 6 students, and assign
each group a theme ( There are 6 themes, so you can do it with 16 to 36
students, and you need 6 or 12 computers.You can also download the site to
each computer, so that you will not be dependent on the quality of the
connection on that day.).
Then they will have to report what they read to the class. In each group,
some can write a written report or design a poster, and others can prepare
an oral report, supported by a Power Point presentation if possible. When
one group reports to the class, the others take notes that they will have
to use for the final test you will give them. So all students will pay
attention to what the others have to say or show....

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Food, nutrition, fitness
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Fitness Fever 2004
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An excellent site!!!!!!
A lovely village, and behind each house, discover some useful resources:
- Critter Town Park leads to a list of "outdoor activities" like camping,
in line skating, etc. and for each sport you'll access a description of the
sport and how to practice it. There is even a section about safety.
- Critter's Café offers lots of links to quizzes, questionnaires and
calculators to find out if your eating habits are healthy. Then you will
find a list of suggestions for a healthy breakfast, lunch or dinner, and
how to work your way to fitness....
- the "school" section, teachers will find suggestions for lessons and
activities in class, especially gym games.
- at the arcade, students will find several online educational games,
including puzzles and crosswords (the solutions are in the school section)
and a very exciting game called "Move it" where children can "Create their
own movin' and groovin' action with fun tunes, rhythms and movements." (and
it really works!).
- the "post office" is just a contact address, and the "visitor's center"
is full of official stuff with no direct interest to us...

Eat it! (from PBS Teacher Previews: March 28 - April 4)
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KWBU offers you to view online (streaming video, with no scripts) "Eat
This! The Barbecue Episode" and then read some of the best Central Texas
barbecue recipes, including a Cole Slaw (full of mayonnaise and sugar!).
http://kwbu.org/story.php?id=000455

Nutrition Month (from Teacher Lesson Plans Vol. 6, Issue 12)
---------------------------------------------
http://www.educationworld.com/a_special/march.shtml#nutrition
If you're looking for "fresh" ideas to squeeze into your classroom
nutrition lessons, you'll find a "feast" of ideas on the Internet. This
week, Education World serves up a well-balanced nutrition unit. Among the
lesson ideas you will find…
* Use magazine pictures and clipart to make a food pyramid bulletin board.
* Kids predict the ten best and worst foods; then you share the truth.
* Eat like the astronauts; plan a "space day" menu.
* Shop for one of five "Family Profiles."
* Write a folktale to explain how the tomato got its color, how the peach
got its fuzz…

Modern Meat (from [LII New This Week] March 25)
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Companion to a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Frontline show that "goes
inside the world of the modern American meat industry and shows that this
once simple product, the hamburger, is no
longer so simple." Includes features on industrial meat, foodborne
illnesses and meat safety, the meat inspection process, and politics.
Provides interviews, a program transcript, video clips, and links to
consumer resources.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/meat/
[ mainly for those studying the subject....(cookery, nutrition, food; etc.) ]

Overweight and Obesity (from [LII New This Week] March 25)
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This site provides the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's
definitions of obesity and its guidelines and recommendations for "finding
solutions to the problem of obesity and overweight." Features statistics on
obesity trends, links to state-specific information, and sections on the
health and economic consequences of obesity.
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/
[ The site is very interesting, and studies the contributing factors and
the health consequences. there are also several interesting links in the
"resources" section.
NOTE: of course, this subject is very difficult to deal with in class: if a
student is overweight, or one of his/her parents, it can become difficult.
It's up to you, the teacher, to decide if you can do it or not.]

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Resources for secondary school
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Don't buy it!
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http://www.pbskids.org/dontbuyit/
This site, designed for children, aims at teaching them to resist the ads
by understanding how and why they are made. You will also see how they
change the image of a girl for the cover of a magazine, with before and
after pictures showing the alterations: quite interesting!

Ireland (from PBS Teacher Previews: March 28 - April 4)
---------------------------------------------
Take a virtual tour of Ireland at:
http://www.pbs.org/nature/ireland/index.html

Frequently-Asked Questions about Oil Spills (from [LII New This Week] March 25)
---------------------------------------------
Questions and answers about oil spills, with links to additional
information and sources of data. Topics covered include oil spills in
history, methods of cleanup, and the effects of oil spills on wildlife.
Site also features an image gallery and a section for young people that
includes ideas for science fair projects. From the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
National Ocean Service Office of Response and Restoration.
http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/faqs/faq.html

Pledge of Allegiance: A Short History (from [LII New This Week] March 25)
---------------------------------------------
A brief history of the Pledge of Allegiance. The author of this Web site
notes that in 1954 "Congress after a campaign by the Knights of Columbus,
added the words, 'under God,' to the Pledge.
The Pledge was now both a patriotic oath and a public prayer."
http://history.vineyard.net/pledge.htm

Seasons (from [LII New This Week] March 25)
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Clear and detailed technical discussions of seasons, solstices, and
equinoxes. Includes the exact dates when spring, summer, fall, and winter
arrive. Debunks misconceptions about seasons and the
superstition "that it is possible to stand an egg upright on its end [only]
on the date of the equinoxes (and/or solstices)." Maintained by scientist
Eric Weisstein.
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/astronomy/topics/Seasons.html
[ A very useful site for crosscurricular projects (IDD, TPE). ]

U.S. Census Bureau Facts for Features: 50th Anniversary of 'Wonderful World
of Color' TV
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Facts and statistics to celebrate the 50th anniversary (March 2004) of
color television. Provides data on TV viewing habits, average number of TVs
per household, cable TV rates, television broadcasting networks,
advertising, and related topics. (from (from [LII New This Week] March 25)
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features/001702.html
[ those facts, figures and diagrams from the Census Bureau will be
appreciated by all those who study economics, geography, etc.]

Work sheet library from Education World
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http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/worksheets/TCM/lang_arts_3_5.shtml#featured
lots of worksheets ready to use on several subjects, for example:
- The pledge of allegiance (beginners)
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/worksheets/TCM/pdfs/020621pl.pdf
- Adventure story starters (intermediates)
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/worksheets/TCM/pdfs/020222pl.pdf
- color poems (beginners)
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/worksheets/TCM/pdfs/020531il.pdf
- a text (Panic in Paris) and worksheets for "15 minutes of fame"
(intermediates)
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/worksheets/TCM/pdfs/030411il.pdf

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Resources for the younger ones
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Ten Games for Classroom Fun from Education World
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http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson169.shtml
Find here a list of games including questions to answer or words to guess.
Those games could be used by the teacher to revise in a fun way, or by the
assistant to make the students speak English....

30 days of Poetry ( from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Friday, March 26th)
---------------------------------------------
http://www.msrogers.com/English2/poetry/30_days_of_poetry.htm
This collection provides thirty different lesson plans, each with its own
format for students to experiment with and "discover" that they actually
enjoy this genre of creative writing. Many of the formats contain
templates, making it easy for reluctant writers to commit themselves to the
task.
[ Designed for primary school Americans, this site provides useful links to
different types of poetry, and examples that are so simple and easy that
even the worst ESL student can do something like that...or better! Just
challenge them to try! ]

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Teaching Practice
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More States Adopt Anti-Bullying Laws ( from EDNEWS Volume 3, Issue 12)
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More U.S. states are using the legal system to try to curb bullying in
schools. Seventeen states have passed anti-bullying legislation, and 11
other states considered proposals this year.
Source: Stateline.org
http://www.stateline.org/stateline/?pa=story&sa=showStoryInfo&id=358154
[ the articles remind people that the perpetrators of the Columbine
massacre were bullied kids, so measures should be taken so that no child
will ever be driven to such extremity.]

Pay-for-Performance Plan Passes ( from EDNEWS Volume 3, Issue 12)
---------------------------------------------
The Denver (Colorado) Classroom Teachers Association became the first
teachers' union in the U.S. to approve a pay-for-performance salary system.
Voters still need to approve spending an extra $25 million a year for the
plan to be implemented.
Source: Denver Post
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2031673,00.html
[ Because, as the article says : ""There's been a public attitude toward
teachers that ... they get paid no matter what they do". Read on......]

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Une compilation réalisée par :
Christine Reymond
lycée Blaise Pascal, Rouen, France
E-Mail: Christine.Reymond@ac-rouen.fr
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