Curriculum
Hot Spots On The Web 2002
Curriculum Administrator's
fourth annual Web list offers the best educational sites online
by: Odvard Egil Dyrli
LESSON PLAN SOURCES
While many of the sites listed in other categories include lesson plans, the
following are extensive collections that are grouped by level and content area,
and can easily be searched by topic.
INFORMATION INDEXES
An information index is a set of topic menus and sub-menus to narrow searches
and find what you need. Yahoo is the most popular, but there are other choices,
including specialized education indexes.
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Yahoo, www.yahoo.com
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About.com, www.about.com
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Education Planet, www.educationplanet.com*
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Education World, www.education-world.com*
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EduPuppy.com, www.edupuppy.com
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Galaxy, www.einet.net/galaxy.html
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HotBot, hotbot.lycos.com
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LinkOpedia, www.linkopedia.com
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Searchopolis, www.searchopolis.com
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StartSpot Network, www.startspot.com
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The WWW Virtual Library, vlib.org
SEARCH ENGINES
Search engines are online tools that find Web pages containing words or phrases
that you specify—put phrases in quotes, such as "global warming." The last three
below are "metasearch engines" that use multiple search tools simultaneously.
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Alltheweb, www.alltheweb.com
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AltaVista, www.altavista.com
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Ask Jeeves, www.aj.com
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Direct Hit, www.directhit.com
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Excite, www.excite.com
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Go.com, go.com
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Google, www.google.com
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Lycos, www.lycos.com
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NBCi, www.nbci.com
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Northern Light, www.northernlight.com
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Search.com, search.com
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SearchEdu, www.searchedu.com
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SearchEngines.com, www.searchengines.com
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WebCrawler, www.webcrawler.com
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Dogpile, www.dogpile.com
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FindThisPage.com, www.findthispage.com
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MetaCrawler, www.metacrawler.com
STUDENT RESEARCH RESOURCES
The following resources include age-appropriate sites to help students complete
homework assignments, answer their own questions, and do focused research.
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Ask Jeeves Kids, ajkids.com
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Bigchalk HomeworkCentral, www.bigchalk.com*
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Britannica, www.britannica.com
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CyberSleuth Kids, cybersleuth-kids.com
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Encarta Learning and Research, encarta.msn.com
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Fact Monster, www.factmonster.com
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HomeworkSpot, www.homeworkspot.com
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Infoplease.com, www.infoplease.com
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Itools, www.itools.com
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KidsClick, www.kidsclick.org*
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The National Student Research Center, youth.net/nsrc
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Refdesk.com, www.refdesk.com
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StudyWeb, www.studyweb.com
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SurfMonkey, www.surfmonkey.com
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Webivore, www.webivore.com
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Yahooligans, the Web Guide for Kids, www.yahooligans.com
WEB PORTALS
Education portals are sites that provide integrated resources, tools and services
through single locations, such as administrative applications and online curriculum
options.
SCHOOL/TEACHER/STUDENT CURRICULUM SITES
Many schools and individuals offer outstanding curriculum sites, many of which
are for the common educational good. The following are selected examples.
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AP Calculus, www.seresc.k12.nh.us/www/alvirne.html
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Joan Berger's Windows to the World, www.concentric.net/~Jberger5
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Busy Teachers' WebSite K12, www.ceismc.gatech.edu/busyt
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The Falcon's Nest, www.northstar.k12.ak.us/schools/upk/upk.home.html
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Keeley Library Assignment and Curriculum Resources, www.massed.net/~constant
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Les Classes de Monsieur Long, www.laconia.k12.nh.us/plong
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North Star Navigators, www.capecod.net/voyage
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B. J. Pinchbeck's Homework Helper, school.discovery.com/homeworkhelp/bjpinchbeck
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Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators, discoveryschool.com/schrockguide
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Mrs. Silverman's Webfolio, kids-learn.org
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Student Web Projects, techcenter.davidson.k12.nc.us/web.htm
COMPANY/ORGANIZATION CURRICULUM COLLECTIONS
Most education companies and organizations offer online curriculum
resources, such as the following examples.
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AOL@School, school.aol.com*
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Apple Education, www.apple.com/education
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AT&T Learning Network, www.att.com/learningnetwork
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Bigchalk.com, www.bigchalk.com*
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Classroom Connect, www.classroom.com*
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Crayola, www.crayola.com
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Disney Edu-Station, disney.go.com/educational
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EBSCO Web4School, www.web4school.com
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EdGate Copernicus Education Gateway, www.edgate.com*
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Harcourt School Publishers, The Learning Site, www.hbschool.com
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Houghton Mifflin Education Place, www.eduplace.com
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JDL K-12World, www.k-12world.com
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Knowledge Adventure, www.knowledgeadventure.com
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The Learning Company School Division, www.learningcompanyschool.com
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Learning Network, www.learningnetwork.com*
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Lightspan.com, www.lightspan.com*
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Macmillan/McGraw-Hill World, www.mmhschool.com
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Mindsurf Networks, www.mindsurfnetworks.com*
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NetSchools, www.netschools.com
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Pearson Education, www.pearsoneducation.com
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Pitsco Innovative Education, www.pitsco.com
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Riverdeep Interactive Learning, www.riverdeep.com*
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Scholastic.com, www.scholastic.com*
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Tom Snyder Productions, www.tomsnyder.com
ONLINE PROJECT SOURCES
The sites below are outstanding places to find free and fee-based online education
projects, and also offer chances to propose your own projects.
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AdventureOnline.com, www.adventureonline.com
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Generation www.Y, genyes.org/genwwwy
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Global Schoolhouse (now at Lightspan), www.lightspan.com
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HighWired, www.highwired.com*
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iEARN—International Education and Resource Network, www.iearn.org
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IECC, Intercultural E-Mail Classroom Connections Projects, www.iecc.org
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JASON Project, www.jason.org
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KIDLINK/KIDPROJ, www.kidlink.org/KIDPROJ
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NASA Classroom of the Future, www.cotf.edu
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NASA Quest, quest.arc.nasa.gov
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NASA SpaceLink, spacelink.nasa.gov
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OnlineClass, www.onlineclass.com
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SharedLearning.net, www.sharedlearning.net
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SitesALIVE, www.sitesalive.com
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Thinkquest/Thinkquest Junior, www.thinkquest.org
LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS
The following sites will link you to libraries, museums and interactive exhibits
throughout the world.
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American Memory Historical Collections, memory.loc.gov
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American Museum of Natural History, www.amnh.org
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Ellis Island/American Family Immigration Center, www.ellisisland.org
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The Exploratorium www.exploratorium.edu
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The Franklin Institute Online, www.fi.edu
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Hands-on Science Centers Worldwide, www.cs.cmu.edu/~mwm/sci.html
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The Internet Public Library, www.ipl.org
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The Library of Congress, lcweb.loc.gov
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MuseumNetwork.com,www.museumnetwork.com
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National Air and Space Museum, www.nasm.edu
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National Archives and Records Administration, www.nara.gov
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Smithsonian Institution, www.si.edu
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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, www.ushmm.org
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WebMuseum Network, metalab.unc.edu/wm/net
COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA
The sites below offer online communications resources including teaching and
learning materials from newspapers, radio and television.
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Annenberg/CPB Exhibits, www.learner.org/exhibits
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ABC News, abcnews.go.com
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Book TV.org, www.booktv.org
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CBS News, www.cbsnews.com
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CNN.com, www.cnn.com
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CNNfyi.com, fyi.cnn.com*
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Sesame Workshop, sesameworkshop.org
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Discovery.com, www.discovery.com
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DiscoverySchool.com, school.discovery.com*
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ESPN.com, espn.go.com
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Fox News, www.foxnews.com
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HBO 4kids.com, www.hbo4kids.com
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History Channel.com, www.thehistorychannel.com
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MSNBC News Education, www.msnbc.com/news/Learning_Front.asp
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The Nando Times, www2.nando.net
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Nationalgeographic.com Education, www.nationalgeographic.com/education
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National Public Radio Online, www.npr.org
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The New York Times Learning Network, www.nytimes.com/learning*
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NewspaperLinks, www.newspaperlinks.com
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Nickelodeon's Site for Educators, teachers.nick.com
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PBS Online, www.pbs.org
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PBS Kids, pbskids.org
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PBS TeacherSource, www.pbs.org/teachersource
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Publishers' Catalogs, www.lights.com/publisher
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Time for Kids.com, www.timeforkids.com/TFK
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USNewsClassroom.com, usnewsclassroom.com
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USA Today Education Online, www.usatoday.com/educate/home.htm
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The Wall Street Journal Classroom Edition, www.wsjclassroom.com
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Weekly Reader Galaxy, www.weeklyreader.com
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The Weather Channel weather.com, weather.com
ESPECIALLY FOR KIDS
The following sites offer creative child-appealing educational and recreational
materials including puzzles, stories, games and interactive activities.
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Berit's Best Sites for Children, www.beritsbest.com
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Cyberkids, www.cyberkids.com
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Fun-Attic, www.funattic.com
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Funbrain, www.funbrain.com
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Global Show-n-Tell, www.telenaut.com/gst
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Headbone Zone, www.headbone.com
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Humongous Entertainment, www.humongous.com
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KidsCom, www.kidscom.com
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The Kids on the Web, www.zen.org/~brendan/kids.html
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Lycos Zone, www.lycoszone.com
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MaMaMedia.com, www.mamamedia.com
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MSN Kidz, kids.msn.com
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WWW.4kids.org, www.4kids.org
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Zeeks.com, Zeeks.com
SCHOOLS ON THE WEB
One of the best ways to see examples of online assignments, activities, projects,
units and courses is to visit school sites throughout the United States and
abroad.
PROFESSIONAL RESOURCES
The following sites offer a variety of resources for technology planning, finding
grants, writing proposals, doing staff development and communicating with colleagues.
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Acceptable Use Policies: A Handbook, www.pen.k12.va.us/go/VDOE/Technology/AUP/home.shtml
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Administrators.Net, administrators.net
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AT&T Learning Network Virtual Academy, www.att.com/learningnetwork/virtualacademy
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Blackboard.com, www.blackboard.com
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Developing Educational Standards, www.PutnamValleySchools.org/Standards.html
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Educational Research Network, www.ernweb.com
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Educators.Net, www.educatorsnet.com
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ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation, www.ericae.net
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Federal Resources for Educational Excellence, www.ed.gov/free
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GrantsWeb, www.srainternational.org/cws/sra/resource.htm
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Library in the Sky, www.nwrel.org/sky
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National Center for Technology Planning, www.nctp.com
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National Center for Education Statistics, nces.ed.gov
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StateStandards.com,www.statestandards.com
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TeachersFirst.com,www.teachersfirst.com
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Teachers.Net, www.teachers.net
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Teachersweb.com,www.teachersweb.com
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TeacherVision, www.teachervision.com
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Teachnet.com, www.teachnet.com
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The U. S. Department of Education, www.ed.gov
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World Class Teacher Training, WCTT.4j.lane.edu
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www4teachers, www.4teachers.org
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HireEd.net, www.hireed.net
NOTE: All of the resources listed in this guide can be accessed
through the new Curriculum Administrator Web site, www.ca-magazine.com.
Odvard Egil Dyrli, dyrli@uconn.edu,
is senior editor and emeritus professor of education at the University
of Connecticut.