KITS NEWSLETTER - Volume 1 Number 2

August 1999

INSIDE:

- Breaking news

- Software review

- Links & Resources

Welcome to the second issue of the Kristin (Junior) Information Technology Suite (KITS for short) Newsletter.

This newsletter has been put together with the aim of informing you of hot tips, topics and talk in the area of computers in the classroom. I’ll also be keeping you informed of what we are doing in the lab.

There is a lot happening at the moment in classrooms and institutions around NZ and elsewhere.

You can click on the blue links to be taken directly to the Internet address where these events occur. Some blue links may be email addresses which you may wish to respond to.

BREAKING NEWS
At a recent PD day run by Kristin, I was introduced to the concept of "Study Net". This is a new idea being introduced into Kristin. Information is shared accross the school via computers and the Internet connections we have in place in each classroom and office. It allows teachers and pupils to acces information and add new information. I'm looking forward to introducing you to this resource which could hold huge potential as more is added to it. It is up to us in the Junior School to tailor this to suit our needs. Homework sheets, resources and information can be placed into the site quickly and easily by using a word processor such as Microsoft Word. We will shortly have an example for staff to view and comment on.

SOFTWARE REVIEW

I found a really great bit of software on the Internet the other day. Andre & Liz have found it very useful. It's called "Maths Factory" and it creates customised worksheets. It is extremely flexible. You can create sheets of addition, subtraction, division and multiplication tables with or without answer keys. You can also adjust the number of addends etc. The "deluxe" version also does percent, rounding, fractions and magic squares. I will show you if you are interested. It is very easy to use and prints off lovely looking sheets in seconds. I would say it is one of the most useful programs I've seen for teachers.

KRISTIN JUNIOR SCHOOL INTERNET LINKS PAGE

This page is designed to assist you in your journeys on the Internet.

Click on the Underlined Writing.

Press the "Home" button at the top of your screen to return to this page again.

INDEX - click to jump to the bookmark

http://kristin.school.nz/ - Kristin School Homepage

SEARCH SPOTS - search the Internet for your requests

Altavista http://www.altavista.digital.com

Ask Jeeves http://www.askjeves.com

Hotbot http://www.hotbot.com

Yahoo http://www.yahoo.com

Excite http://www.excite.com

Webcrawler http://webcrawler.com

Lycos http://www.lycos.com

Dogpile http://www.dogpile.com

NEW ZEALAND & AUSTRALIAN SEARCH ENGINES

Anzwers

http://www.anzweres.co.nz

Searchnz

http://www.searchnz.co.nz

Accessnz

http://www.accessnz.co.nz

Yahoo Australia and Nz

http://www.yahoo.co.nz

NZExplorer

http://nzexplorer.co.nz/

CLEAR Net's Searchilator

http://www.clear.net/common/search/index.html

AltaVista Australasia

http://www.altavista.yellowpages.com.au

RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS

English on Line

http://www.english.unitecnology.ac.nz/home.html - - This is an excellent resource for lesson plans and other useful items

Lesson plans

http://www.scholastic.com/inschool/ - There are some here and other information

Microsoft Encarta Schoolhouse

http://www.encarta.msn.com/schoolhouse/default.asp - - Lots of on-line lessons plans and ideas here

Language Arts and Social Studies

http://www.microsoft.com/education/curric/activity/arts.htm - Microsoft's collection of lesson plans

Maths, Economics and Science

http://www.microsoft.com/education/curric/activity/math.htm - Microsoft's lesson plans

Geography and History

http://www.microsoft.com/education/curric/activity/geo.htm - Microsoft's lesson plans

EDUCATION SITES

Education Web.

http://www.cwa.co.nz/eduweb/index.html - Lot of links to places and information regarding education in New Zealand

New Zealand links

http://www.cwa.co.nz/eduweb/edu/nzedchoices.html - taken from the Education Web

New Zealand Schools email addresses

http://www.cwa.co.nz/eduweb/edu/email.html

New Zealand School Web Sites

http://www.cwa.co.nz/eduweb/edu/nzschool.html -

The Ministry of Education

http://www.minedu.govt.nz/ -

"Starters and Strategies"

http://www.teachingonline.org/ - A New Zealand web site for teachers. Put out by the makers of the magazine

A list of educational resources

http://www.pacificnet.net/~mandel/EducationalResources.html

Global School Net Foundation

http://www.gsh.org/site/sitemap.html - - All sorts of information relating to education. USA. Be prepared to explore this one

Teachers @ Work

http://teachers.work.co.nz/teachers/?s=information - - a world renown web site for educators to share ideas

Sunshine On Line

http://www.sunshine.co.nz/

Links for teachers

http://www.worksheetfactory.com/links.html

STUDENT SITES

http://www.ajkids.com/ - This is THE search site for your students. Click this site and then send them to the computer to search. You can be safe in the knowledge that the site is filtered and very easy to use and will ALWAYS provide an answer to their question

Little Explorers

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/dictionary.html

Yahooligans

http://www.yahooligans.com/

KidsClick

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/KidsClick!/

AOL NetFind: for Kids

http://www.aol.com/netfind/kids/

SuperKids

http://www.super-kids.com/

Ask A + Locator

http://www.vrd.org/locator/

EdView

http://www.edview.com/http://www.ajkids.com/CoolSites.asp - This is a good place to send children to start exploring the Internet too

Interesting Places for Children

http://www.starport.com/places/forKids/kids.html#science

Kids Domain

http://www.kidsdomain.com/ - - a place for Children to "hang out"

PuzzleMaker

http://www.puzzlemaker.com/ - If you like puzzles - this is the place for you!

SOME USEFUL EMAIL ADDRESSES - CLICK THEM TO COMPOSE A NEW MESSAGE

mailto:[email protected] - Kindergarten

mailto:[email protected] - Junior School

mailto:[email protected] - Team Leaders

mailto:[email protected] - Specialists

Feel free to mail this to anyone who you think may find it useful.
Please let me know if you found it a help
Any suggestions or comments are more than welcome.

Patrick mail me at: [email protected]