Annotated+List

Blogs, Webcasts, Podcasts, Games
@http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/education.html
 * Blog:** The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's "School Zone" blog presents news and discussions of current issues in education. It is important for students to understand and become involved in current issues that could directly affect them. For example, a recent blog discussed President Obama's address Sept. 8, 2009, to the nation's schoolchildren:

@http://www.adlit.org/media/author?bcpid=4020137001&bclid=1659850188&bctid=6687592001
 * Webcast:** AdLit.org is a national multimedia project offering information and resources to the parents and educators of struggling adolescent readers and writers. It is an educational initiative of WETA, the flagship public television and radio station in Washington, D.C. Among its many offerings are video interviews of popular authors, including this episode with Rick Riordan, creator of the Percy Jackson series:

@http://media.readwritethink.org/audio/TextMessages/Episode17.mp3
 * Podcast:** ReadWriteThink.org is the Web site produced by a partnership between the International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English. It provides educators and students with free access to online resources in reading and language arts instruction. Among the many multimedia resources are age-appropriate Podcasts, such as this episode titled "Teens as Writers":


 * Podcast:** www.npr.org has a fine section on books. This section includes author interviews aired on National Public Radio broadcasts available for listening. The books section could serve as an excellent resource for English Language Arts teachers by allowing us to keep up with new releases.

Pearson Education Inc., a major educational publisher whose brands include Prentice Hall and Addison Wesley, produces Funbrain.com, a site filled with educational games for various ages including adolescents. Games can help students relax and have fun while learning. Among the available games are: @http://www.funbrain.com/idioms @http://www.funbrain.com/roots @http://www.funbrain.com/hangman
 * Games:**

Jim Davis, creator of the comic cat Garfield, has teamed up with Ball State University to create ProfessorGarfield.org, an online learning portal where students from kindergarten through eighth grade can safely explore, learn and creatively express themselves. Its Flash-based games include trivia, math, art and other activities. Try it here: @http://www.professorgarfield.org/pgf_Sparktop.html