Welcome to Five for Friday for January 11, 2008

With the Martin Luther King holiday coming up I thought I’d find a site with resources about this important leader. MLK Online (http://mlkonline.net) contains many resources about Martin Luther King. There is a biography page that includes some quick facts and a longer narrative about his life. There is a collection of resources about his “I Have A Dream” speech. It includes video, text, and five different audio files. The audio files include the complete speech in MP3 and real audio format, and three small clips as well. Unfortunately the picture section does not seem to be working.

A site to avoid would be martinlutherking.org. This site is hosted by a white supremacist group. Unfortunately it will come up as one of the top links when you use google. If you want your students to find out more about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. you would be better off giving them a list of links to use.

If you are looking for lesson plans for Art, head to Artsonia. (http://www.artsonia.com/teachers/lessonplans/) Lesson plans are organized by grade level and include lists of the supplies you will need. Examples of artwork from students are included as well. In addition there is an online store that allows you to upload student art. The artwork can be then used to decorate items from keychains to cutting boards. Schools earn 15% when parents purchase these products.

Another excellent site for Art is the social network “Art Snacks” (http://www.artsnacks.org). Art Snacks is a social network with the goal of promoting art and art education. There are videos that show the artist drawing a wide variety of shapes. There also many members willing to share their techniques and ideas. Just like many social networks you can create a page of your own and post your own artwork and photos.

Here’s a site for pictures students can use in their projects. Pics4Learning (http://www.pics4learning.com/) has established a collection of photographs about a wide variety of topics. All of the pictures are copyright free and the site was developed by tech4learning.com.

Sir Edmund Hillary, the man who was the first to climb Mt. Everest, passed away yesterday at the age of 88. Scholastic has a collection of resources about Sir. Edmund Hillary and his story. There is a large collection of resources including: a photo history, text of an interview with him, a profile of Tenzing Norgay ( his sherpa who climbed Mt. Everest with him and much more. Check out “My Story: I was the first to Conquer Everest” (http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/hillary/index.htm)

Here’s a bonus site for you. Check out the Librarians’ Internet Index The site is a collection of sites collected by librarians. They put out a Thursday newsletter that lists 20-30 sites about wide range of current interest. You can subscribe to that here.