Weblog: August 2008
Awesome Stories
Awesome Stories (www.awesomestories.com) is a collection of stories on a variety of topics, including topics related to current movies, famous trials, and American and world history. The site exists as a gathering place of primary-source information, and the stories place original materials in context.
Awesome Stories also has a video section, where learners can first read a paragraph about a video and then look at it. There are approximately 400 videos listed: www.awesomestories.com/sampletopics/videoclips.shtml Many of the stories also have an audio component, so adult learners can hear the words as they read them: www.awesomestories.com/sampletopics/audiocollection.shtml
Awesome Stories is free; however, you may need to request a free password in order to access all of the materials. Note that some pages may include advertisements.
Online Math Resources for Teachers
Evidence suggests that many adult education teachers may not have a strong background in teaching math, but math is an increasingly critical skill required for college entry and employment. Teachers can create more engaging math classes this fall using online math lesson plans from the Literacy Information and Communication System (LINCS) to help get basic concepts across to adult education students in fascinating ways.
If you have trouble with the link in the text above, here is the URL for the LINCS page.
http://literacynet.org/sciencelincs/slnum-number.html
The Spoken Alexandria Project: Podcasts and MP3 Files
This free audiobook library offers the humor and wisdom of Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain for free. Listen to the Gettysburg Address and a classic World War I war poem, Dulce Et Decorum Est. Click on The Spoken Alexandria Project to find many audio files for free. You may listen to them as podcasts, or save them to a CD.
IRS Form 990 Changes
The Independent Sector offers nonprofit organizations guidance on what they will need to know about the changes in the 990 form.
What Forms Should You File? Your Organization Must File the New 990 in 2009 (for fiscal years beginning in 2008) if:
If your annual receipts are between $25,000 and $1,000,000, you may file the Form 990-EZ in 2009, although some states in which you are required to file a copy of your federal return may require that you file the full Form 990.
If your annual receipts are under $25,000, you must file the new electronic postcard.
These thresholds will change for 2010. For more information go to the following links provided by Guidestar:
Technology Usage, and 2007 Census Information
The report Sharing Privacy and Trust in Our Networked World is filled with information, graphs, and statistics about online usage and searches. Click on this link to Facts and Statistics to find a short summary of the report, the link to this 280 page PDF document, and some charts you can use to state your case for technology.
In addition, did you know that Virginia is the 15th fastest growing state in the U.S.? Or that our state has experienced one fo the largest numeriacl increases of Hispanics between 1990-2000 of 169,252 or 105.6%? Find more information about current census estimates and survey data from 2006 - 2007 on our Facts and Statistics weblog.
Using Technology as an Educational Tool: Using Clip Art Comics for Writing
In response to the growing interest in photonovels as an empowering educational tool, Barry Barkin has created a new website at www.photonovela.com
The goal of this site is to have a place where user created photonovels can be shared and disseminated more widely...
Barry's students have often benefited from creating single panel "clip art comics" using PowerPoint or Word. The "insert/picture/Autoshapes" menu item gives you a choice of "speech balloons" that can be used in the same way as the photonovela software mentioned. The students create single panel comics of topics of interest to them using language they're learning in class. Interested teachers could also direct the students to create their single panel comic about a particular topic such as health education. You can view a few finished student projects at this link, or http://esl.adultinstruction.org/ClipArtComics.htm
Barry also experimented with creating photo stories using other people's photos at flickr using an application called Bubblr which allows users to add speech balloons to any picture found on flickr, but stopped doing that when flickr was blocked from school district computers. You can experiment with Bubblr at http://www.pimpampum.net/bubblr/
Barry Bakin Pacoima Skills Center Division of Adult and Career Education Los Angeles Unified School District
News for You is Now Online
ProLiteracy is now offering its popular student newsletter News for You online. Click on the link to find a weekly electronic newsletter with this week's read and listen top stories.