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Books stick with you
Ever wondered what your favorite celebrity or author considers his most memorable book? Wonder no more. First Book, a charity that provides new books to children in need, also provides answers to this most pressing of questions at www.firstbook.org. Actor John Krasinski from The Office loves Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach. Morgan Freeman was hooked on reading after finishing Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. And writer R.L. Stine found his spooky muse in Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes.
Educators can also search a list of available books, donate money and find literacy grants on the website. Since 1992, First Book has distributed more than 65 million books to children in the U.S. and Canada.
Movie? Movie? Anyone?
What do Robin Williams, Sean Penn and Jack Black have in common, other than Hollywood addresses? They all starred in one of the best school movies of all time, according to www.edutopia.org. The website, produced by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, released a list of its staff members’ favorite “school movies” for educators who want to keep the classroom experience alive when the school day’s over. (Please note: Many of these films are not appropriate for students.)
- Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)
- Blackboard Jungle (1955)
- Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
- Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
- Stand and Deliver (1989)
- Dead Poets Society (1989)
- Hoop Dreams (1994)
- Mr. Holland’s Opus (1995)
- Election (1999)
- School of Rock (2003)
History through the eyes of a bear
Photos and personal accounts collected by students during Flat Stanley projects give life to geography discussions. Civil War Sallie, the invention of a Pennsylvania middle school student, aims to give life to history as well.
Civil War Sallie is a teddy bear named after the mascot of the Civil War-era 11th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. She travels around battlefields, museums and historical sites, stopping in at schools across the country to teach students about the Civil War and to expand their use of and familiarity with technology such as blogging and Twitter. Students in the classrooms Sallie “visits” are asked to blog about the history lessons they learn while she’s there (at www.civilwarsallie.blogspot.com), post messages on Twitter about her stay (at www.twitter.com/civilwarsallie) and add a little memento of her visit into Sallie’s backpack, which is filled with items from her travels.
Sign up to have Sallie visit your classroom at www.civilwarsallie.com.