Resources: Website of the Month

Evaluating Children's Literature
How can you tell if the books your children are reading are culturally sensitive and relevant? Learn More >>

4 great websites that let kids get creative
These artistic sites are fun, safe and free. Explore them with your students to get their creative juices flowing.

• Draw and Design
• Devise Games
• Craft cartoons
• Program a video

Writing with Writers
Students work with writers, editors, and illustrators in exclusive workshops designed to guide them in developing their skills. Learn More >>

Computer Lab Favorites
Here are all the quick, compelling one-session activities you need to incorporate interactive learning and technology into your curriculum. Each activity requires no prep and can be completed in 15-30 minutes. Learn More >>

Pocantico Hills: Winter Olympics for Kids
The 2001 fourth grade class at Pocantico Hills School in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., created a fabulous Winter Olympics site that was recently updated to include the 2010 Vancouver Games. Learn More >>

The First Thanksgiving
This educational site from Scholastic lets you "discover pilgrim life as if you were there." You can meet the passengers and crew of the Mayflower, see how the Pilgrims and Wampanoag lived, view a picture time line, play the Thanksgiving Cyber-Challenge, and more. Learn More >>

Welcome to BOOK IT!
Our program's goal is to help your students become better readers, and children who receive encouragement for reading are motivated to read more. Together, let's help students learn to love reading and enjoy it for a lifetime. Let the reading fun begin! Learn More >>

Summer Reading Websites
Gov. Christine Gregoire, schools superintendent and state librarian launch summer reading partnership.
Learn More>>

Check with your local libraries and book stores for great summer reading programs.

Yakima County Library System: Every year children of all ages celebrate summer with Summer Reading Program. There are programs and events, crafts and reading fun.
Learn More>>

Whatcom County Library System: Children earn prizes up to once a week for showing progress on Summer Reading.
Learn More>>

Barnes and Noble bookstores sponsor a summer reading program.
Learn More>>

Spellingcity.com
Spellingcity.com is a free spelling tool that can help make teaching spelling more exciting.  With online spelling games, spelling reviews, and spelling quizzes, your students can memorize those weekly spelling words while having fun. The Parents' Choice Foundation, the nation's leading experts on quality children’s' media and toys, recently selected the SpellingCity.com website as a Parents’ Choice Recommended Award.

Education.com
Education.com is an online resource for educators and parents with kids in preschool through grade 12. It features over 4,000 reference articles from the best and most authoritative sources across the web, as well as hundreds of ideas that take learning beyond the classroom and into everyday family life. It also has virtual neighborhoods where parents with similar interests or challenges can connect to trade advice and share their experiences with one another—whether it’s about dyslexia or dioramas.

Berkeley debuts science Web site for kids, teachers
A new Web site, "Understanding Science," dispels myths about science and scientists. The mission of Understanding Science is to provide a fun, accessible, and free resource that accurately communicates what science is and how it really works

Are you looking for advice and tips to help make your job a little easier?
The new section of the Reading is Fundamental site offers practical tips for making reading fun for kids and expert advice on monthly reading topics.

USALearns.org
A great resource for your ESL parents, the U.S. Department of Education has recently launched U.S.A. Learns, a free Web site to help immigrants learn English. The Web site, which is located at www.USALearns.org, provides approximately 11 million adults who have low levels of English proficiency with easily accessible and free English language training.

Autism Speaks
At Autism Speaks, our goal is to change the future for all who struggle with autism spectrum disorders. Autism Speaks aims to bring the autism community together as one strong voice to urge the government and private sector to listen to our concerns and take action to address this urgent global health crisis. It is our firm belief that, working together, we will find the missing pieces of the puzzle.

The National Education Health Information Network
The goal of this site is to help teachers, education support professionals and parents to make public school great for every child by keeping our schools the safest place to be. Beyond the walls of the classroom, we also want every child to feel safe in his or her own community — so that every child has the opportunity to return each day to a supportive educational environment.

Doing What Works
The U.S. Department of Education's newly launched "Doing What Works" Web site added a feature that will empower educators and administrators with research-based strategies to help boost the achievement levels of girls in math and science. The Doing What Works site offers a user-friendly interface to quickly locate teaching practices that are supported by research evidence identified by the Institute of Education Sciences.

Starfall Reading Program
The Starfall reading program is designed to be fun, exciting, and to instill confidence in young children as they learn to read. Primarily designed for first grade students, Starfall is also useful for pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and second grade students. Starfall is recognized and highly rated by experts. The Reading Teacher named Starfall.com one of "Five Internet sites too good to miss" (May 2006, and again in 2008)

Dr. Seuss's Biography
A person's a person, no matter how small," Theodor Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, would say. "Children want the same things we want. To laugh, to be challenged, to be entertained and delighted." Learn More.

dww.ed.gov

The U.S. Department of Education has launched a new web site aimed at giving educators advice about effective teaching practices and examples of ways to implement these practices to improve student achievement.

FreeRice.com

FreeRice has two goals:

1. Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free.
2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

FreeRice has a custom database containing thousands of words at varying degrees of difficulty. There are words appropriate for people just learning English and words that will challenge the most scholarly professors. In between are thousands of words for students, business people, homemakers, doctors, truck drivers, retired people… everyone!

Everyday Mysteries
Did you ever wonder why a camel has a hump? If you can really tell the weather by listening to the chirp of a cricket? Or why our joints make popping sounds? These questions deal with everyday phenomena that we often take for granted, but each can be explained scientifically.
Everyday Mysteries will help you get the answers to these and many other of life's most interesting questions through scientific inquiry. In addition, we will introduce you to the Library of Congress' rich collections in science and technology. All of the questions presented on this Web site were asked by researchers and answered by librarians from the Library's Science Reference Services.

Carolhurst.com
The Carol Hurst’s Children’s Literature site provides reviewed book lists, activities related to the award winning books and professional development readings related to teaching practices.

Teacherplanet.com
A great website with a theme based calendar full of ideas and resources.

School-clip-art.com
A great site for free clip art for educators and students.

Waslinfo.org
The site containing an overview of the WASL and latest testing news from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction for Washington State. Visit the site.

Readwritethink.org
A site for practices and resources in reading and language arts instruction.  Includes: lessons, student materials & web resources. Visit the site

Literacymatters.org
A terrific website to find information about books, series, and authors.  Includes trivia games, word scrambles, and contests.  Check out the character website links. Visit the site

Kidsreads.com
A terrific website to find information about books, series, and authors.  Includes trivia games, word scrambles, and contests.  Check out the character website links. Visit the site

Mathplayground.com
An educational math site for K-6 students that features math games, word problems, logic activities and much more.  Check out ‘Math Millionaire’, use your ‘phone a friend’ and ‘50:50’ options. Visit the site

Ilovethatteachingidea.com
Get inspired with creative, ready-to-use teaching ideas. Visit the site.

Educationworld.com
A website full of great ideas for educators! This site has great resources, ideas, and activities. Visit the site.

Ed.gov
A source for the latest information and updates from the Department of Education. This is a great site to get current information about the No Child Left Behind Act. Visit the site.

Highlights.com
Remember how much fun it was to read “Highlights” and do the activities? Check out this website that includes all your old favorites, such as “What’s Wrong With This Picture?” and Hidden Pictures. Visit the site.

Reading is Fundamental Reading Planet
Have some fun with these reading and writing games. Site also includes an Activity Lab, Book Zone and an area to "Express Yourself." Visit the site.

ReadingRockets.org
The "Questions Parents and Educators Ask" section includes real questions from parents and educators on learning disabilities and reading issues ranging from learning styles to assistive technology.   The answers to these questions include helpful resources and professional advice to support children in reaching their learning potential. Visit the site.

Busyteacherscafe.com
A website that offers free worksheets and reproducibles to educators.  A variety of subject areas are addressed including: reading, language arts, writing, and math. Visit the site.

Library of Congress
Offers a wide range of resources and information for educators, students and families. Check out the "poetry" section that includes a poem a day for High School students and "Today in History", a daily learning opportunity. Visit the site.

Colorín Colorado
Colorín Colorado is a web-based service that provides information, activities, and advice for Spanish-speaking parents and educators of English language learners (ELLs). Visit the site.

The National Resource Center for Paraprofessionals: The NRCP address policy questions and other needs of the field, provide technical assistance and share information about policy questions, management practices, regulatory procedures, and training models that will enable administrators and staff-developers to improve the recruitment, deployment, supervision, and career development of paraprofessionals.

The ESD 189 Autism Out Reach Project: A State-Needs Project through the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction in collaboration with the Department of Social and Health Services and Northwest ESD 189. Look for training opportunities in your area!

Washington Online Virtual Campus is the best place to find online courses from all of the fully accredited community and technical colleges in Washington State. Experienced online faculty who understands the special needs of online learners teaches each of our courses.

Internet Resources: Links to para-related websites.

Community and Technical Colleges with Paraeducator Programs

View Updated Information of Community and Technical Colleges in Washington State that offer paraeducator programs (PDF format).

Paraeducator.com Articles

Paraeducator.com News