FactCheckED.org , a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, offers teachers and other educators a wide array of resources to help them teach analytical thinking. Here is what they say about themselves:

Here's the thing: Kids today are growing up in a world of ceaseless communication. They - like the rest of us - are on the receiving end of an overwhelming amount of information, transmitted in huge helpings and in a virtual instant.

But not all information is of the same quality or veracity. Much of it, in fact, falls far short of the standards we'd like our students to learn and live by. Our aim is to help them learn to be smart consumers of information, not to accept it at face value; to dig for facts using the Internet, not to stop looking once they get to Wikipedia; and to weigh evidence logically, not to draw conclusions based on their own biases.

This free web site provides lesson plans, a bureaucracy decoding dictionary, a "Tools of the Trade" framework for analyzing info and avoiding deception, and a summary of the questions and answers frequently covering topical issues of the day.

World of Dyslexia: www.dyslexia-program.com  

Neuhaus Education Center:  www.neuhaus.org

The School Bell: www.theschoolbell.com

Help with sight words

Read to me program:  www.storylineonline.net

Ready made games and word cards:  www.carlscorner.us.com  

Pre-school sites:
www.starfall.com
www.pbs.org 
www.enchantedlearning.com/categories/preschool.shtml

INTERACTIVE/MATCHING GAMES
LISTEN TO A STORY
MORE FUN WITH LETTERS
Nick Jr.
Number Train
SESAME STREET
The Early Childhood Education Network

Elementary Sites:
Soft Schools (Math Concepts, Tips, Games, and Worksheets): www.softschools.com
Math Fact Practice: www.playkidsgames.com/games/mathfact/mathFact.htm
The Fact Sheet Factory: www.mathfactcafe.com
Wild Math Computation: www.wildmath.com/playset.htm
Math Baseball: www.funbrain.com/math/index.html
Learn to Read for English Language Leaners: www.starfall.com/
Phonics Reading Practice: www.foniks.org/

Houston's Neuhaus Education Center
Reading site. Videos, lesson plans and research to aid teachers, and even parents. Phonics-based lessons are targeted to beginning and struggling readers.
www.readingteachersnetwork.org

Houston Public Library
The Houston Public Library portal gives free access to Tumble Books online. To access, go to http://www.houstonlibrary.org/
Click "Kids and Teens" on the bar across the top
Click the "Kids" box
Click the orange "Tumble Books" button on the left

Educator Initiatives and Performance
This Texas Education Agency teacher resource has links to important information for professional educators, such as loan deferment and cancellation, master teacher programs, teacher mentoring, and the school leadership pilot program. ritter.tea.state.tx.us/edex

Interesting Things for ESL Students
This site features a collection of word games, puzzles, quizzes, exercises, slang, proverbs, and more for students who study English as a second language. manythings.org

Carol Hurst's Children's Literature
This resource is a list of featured children's books. Each book page includes a review of the book, a listing of things to notice, activities related to the book, related books, and links to other resources. http://www.booksintheclassroom.com/featuredtitles.php

Grammar Girl
Grammar Girl is a podcast that provides quick tips to improve your writing. Covering the grammar rules and word choice guidelines that can confound even the best writers, Grammar Girl makes complex grammar questions simple with memory tricks to help you recall and apply those troublesome grammar rules. Grammar Girl has been featured by The Oprah Winfrey Show, The New York Times, USA Today, and BusinessWeek, to name a few. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/

100 Picture Books Everyone Should Know
The site features a list of 100 picture books recommended by the New York Public Library. kids.nypl.org/reading/recommended2.cfm?ListID=61

Reading Recovery and Guided Reading Leveled Books
Developed by Beaverton School District in Oregon, the Leveled Books Database allows educators to search by English title, Spanish title, publisher, author, subject keyword, reading strand, guided reading level, reading recovery level, or a combination of fields. registration.beavton.k12.or.us/lbdb

Children's Picture Book Database
Developed at Miami University, the Children's Picture Book database allows you to find books using a keyword search from a list of areas of study; an alphabetic keyword search; or a search using a combination of fields-author, publisher, date, abstract provider-to limit your results. www.lib.muohio.edu/pictbks/search

Book Adventure
Find the right books for your classroom using lists of award-winning books and helpful reviews. Lists include Best-Selling Children's Books, Booklists for Young Adults, and links to the Association for Library Service to Children's lists of Caldecott and Newbery Medal winners. bookadventure.com/te/bkt/te_bkt_bar.asp

International Reading Association: Choices Booklists
Each year, thousands of children, young adults, teachers, and librarians across the United States select their favorite recently published books for the Choices Booklists. These lists are used in classrooms, libraries, and homes to find books young readers will enjoy.  http://www.reading.org/Resources/Booklists/ChildrensChoices.aspx

Gamequarium
Navigate through more than 1,500 online, interactive learning games while an octopus swims across your computer screen. Find activities indexed by subject, topic, and theme. The underwater atmosphere encourages students to return for more learning fun.
http://www.gamequarium.org
 

Helicopter History Site
Although fixed-wing aircraft receive more attention by historians, helicopter flight was the first flight envisioned by man. Trace the evolution of rotary wing aircraft back to Leonardo da Vinci. http://helis.com

Visuwords Visual Dictionary
You may not think of a dictionary as state-of-the-art, but with Visuwords, an online graphical resource, users can look up words to find their meanings, as well as relationships to other words and concepts. This results in a diagram similar to a neural network that floats into place before your eyes. Enter words into the search box or click on a node to expand the tree. Hover over nodes to see the definition and drag nodes to move them around to help clarify relations. Visuwords uses Princeton University's open-source database, WordNet. visuwords.com

Have a Seat
Do-it-yourself kids' furniture that combines modern design with recycled materials? Check out Foldschool, a Web site with free, downloadable patterns for child-sized stools, chairs, and rockers, all created from recycled cardboard. A proposed solution to the "superficiality and ecological absurdity" of mass culture, Foldschool was created by Swiss architect Nicola Enrico Stäubli, who offers design templates and instructions on line.

Though designed for kids under six years of age, the eco-friendly furniture can support the weight of an adult. Assembly requires very simple tools: a sharp-bladed knife, household glue, and new or recycled four-millimeter single-layer cardboard. foldschool.com

Good Stuff: Free K-6 Financial Literacy Lessons
ING Direct, a branchless direct bank with operations in nine countries, including the United States, has created a free K-6 educational site called Planet Orange. Teachers can find resources and activities to help explain basic money skills such as earning, spending, saving, and investing. They can also find educational materials including lesson plans and quizzes to help students learn the value and good use of money. Find out more at Planet Orange: http://www.orangekids.com/teacher/ .

Good Stuff: Free Resources for a September 21 Peace Day Observance
Even though summer is just beginning, September is right around the corner, and with it, an opportunity to plan or participate in a community-school Peace Day Observance. Since 2001, the Peace One Day organization has been promoting September 21 as an annual Peace Day observance to advance active learning in the areas of conflict resolution, global citizenship, human rights and the link between sustainability and peace. Their goal is to provide resource materials to every school in the world, inspiring a generation to become the driving force behind the vision of a united and sustainable world. To learn more or to access free lesson plans and resources, go to http://education.peaceoneday.org/ .

JEA Digital Media
The Journalism Education Association is the only independent national scholastic journalism organization for teachers and advisers. The Web site provdes information for high school journalism advisers, including Web sites, podcasts, blogs, broadcasts, and social networks.
http://jeadigitalmedia.org

Create Shakespeare's Globe Theater
This site provides templates to print, cut, and fold a model Globe Theater. Available in black and white, color; PDF, and GIF file formats. Make a larger model by using a photocopier to enlarge the templates.
http://papertoys.com/globe.htm

Get free supplies and books: 
An online charity which provides books and supplies to teachers who enroll in the program and post their classroom needs to the site. Also has information on grants and funding. DonorsChoose.org

Interested in writing book reviews yourself?
Check out Deborah Sloan's Picnic Basket. Sign up to write a review and receive a copy of the book to share with students. Thepicnic-basket.com

Lowe's, International Paper, and National Geographic Launch Outdoor Classroom Grant Program

Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation, International Paper and the International Paper Foundation, and National Geographic Explorer classroom magazine have announced an Outdoor Classroom Grant Program to fund outdoor learning environments for K-12 public schools around the United States.

Outdoor classrooms provide students with the hands-on opportunity to learn about natural resources through science education. Ranging from flower, vegetable, and butterfly gardens to small ponds, nature trails, or bird sanctuaries, outdoor classrooms can vary in complexity based on a school's available resources. More elaborate outdoor learning environments may include a laboratory for testing water and soil quality, a greenhouse, wetlands, an arboretum, or a shelter.

This school year, the Outdoor Classroom Grant Program will award grants up to $2,000 to at least one hundred schools. In some cases, grants for up to $20,000 may be awarded to schools or school districts with major outdoor classroom projects. The grants can be used to build a new outdoor classroom or to enhance a current outdoor classroom at the school.

The program only considers outdoor classroom proposals. All K-12 public schools in the United States (excluding Puerto Rico) are welcome to apply.

Grants will be reviewed three times a year. For complete program information and application procedures, visit the Lowe's Web site.  

Adopt-A-Classroom  
Adopt-A-Classroom is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to helping teachers raise money to purchase critical classroom materials. Every teacher has a vast network that would support his/her classroom, but they probably haven't been asked or don't know how. Adopt-A-Classroom provides you with the tools to harness the support of that network and allows anyone to make a donation to your classroom. Teachers can register at www.adoptaclassroom.org/registration.

Eligibility: All K-12 teachers.
Deadline: Ongoing

Dreyer's Small Grants and Product Donations
The Dreyer's Foundation makes small grants of $3,000 or less and donates ice cream products, gift certificates, and auction items to nonprofit organizations for events. These proposals are reviewed on a monthly basis. The mission of the Dreyer's Foundation is to promote family, school, and community environments that build skills and foster talents in young people.

Eligibility: Nonprofit organizations
Deadline: Ongoing

The Mockingbird Foundation
The Mockingbird Foundation offers grants that support music education for children. The Foundation is mainly focused on funding projects that encourage and foster creative expression in a musical form (including composition, instrumentation, vocalization, or improvisation), but also recognizes broader and more basic needs within conventional instruction. 

Eligibility: Schools and nonprofits
Deadline: Ongoing

Barnes & Noble K-12 Grants
Through its stores, Barnes & Noble provides funds to promote literacy and the arts in K-12 education. Proposals should include a literacy or arts component that fosters student achievement and community growth. Grant recipients must plan to promote the program with Barnes & Noble and be willing to work with a local store on in-store programming. Potential applicants can visit a store in their area to receive more information.

Eligibility: Nonprofits supporting the arts, literacy, or K-12 education
Deadline: Applications reviewed on a continuing basis

Libri Foundation Books for Children
The Libri Foundation is a nonprofit organization that donates new children's books to rural public libraries throughout the United States. Local sponsors can contribute $50-350, which the Foundation will match on a 2-to-1 ratio. A library can receive up to $1,050 worth of quality, hardcover children's books.

Eligibility: Libraries in rural areas, including school libraries that serve as the public library
Deadline: Awarded three times each year, the next deadline is August 15