Puzzlemaker

This is a great site that allows teachers to QUICKLY create puzzles from as simple as mazes to complex crosswords.  I've actually used the crossword creator and the word-find maker to work on students spelling, decoding, and vocabulary abilities.  I was able to create six different puzzles in less than 45 minutes.  I work with students that love word-finds but hate spelling so this was a great way for us to use his spelling list in a way that he enjoyed.  I followed this up with taking a few of the words and discussing what they meant.  It really was the smoothest spelling lesson I've experienced with the student.

Newsweek: Seeking a Moral Compass by Julia Baird

Seeking a Moral Compass: Will the recession change us?
by Julia Baird
February 22, 2010
http://www.newsweek.com/id/233414

I read this article on a comparison of the Great Depression to the recession we are now in. It really made me think about my values and how they have changed in past two years. When the housing market burst I lost my job in a civil engineering firm. I look back and see how selfish I was during my three years at that job. I felt that I earned my money and I should not feel any pull towards giving it away to ANYBODY. This includes family and friends. Now I’m in a job that pays just a little under half of what I was making before and I really see the benefit to lending a hand to people in need. Don’t get me wrong this is not a pity me blog. I greatly appreciate the help family and friends have given to me and the article highlighted that.

Julia Baird sites peoples memories of the Great Depression and they all say how their morals a where sharpened though living in this hard time. Ray Price said, “Everybody helped everybody. No doors were locked. No food was refused to anybody.” Gay Talese said, “Take nothing for granted, to be frugal and above all to be self-sufficient.” I liked the optimism that Julia used when discussing the possibilities of America’s future with a return to, “respect, integrity, caution, decency, fairness, hard work, loyalty, and concern for others.” I feel my moral compass has shifted in the recent past and I really hope that the rest of America’s has also.

On an educational note.  It could be a powerful tool to compare and contrast a students life inside and outside the family with how they feel it would have been during the Great Depression.  What the United States is experiencing now, economically, is a great tool for the study of the Great Depression and other hard times in American history.

CRAAP

The Iroquois of the Northeast

I've included an explanation for the ranking under each of the criteria for evaluating a site reliable. Over all I found this site to be a good source of information. The only glaring thing to me was the lack of any authors name or credentials. However this is sponsored by a museum, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Just click on the image and it will show a more in-depth analysis.
 

Iroquois Indian Tribe History

I've included an explanation for the ranking under each of the criteria for evaluating a site reliable.  I did not like this site as a source for credible information. The first and most obvious reason is it is published by a company whose purpose is to sell you a service. The information is cut and pasted together with no adherence to chronological order. and the only outside reference is from a book published in 1906. While this could be entertaining to read on some level it is not a reliable source for academic purposes.

Just click on the image and it will show a more in-depth analysis.