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Back issues of Sun Associates news are available online.
Please feel free to email any of the contributors of our newsletter with your comments and suggestions for upcoming issues. We are always looking for submissions and ideas to make Sun Associates News better and more relevant to your work.
I. THIS MONTH'S FEATURE: Focus on the September 11th Crisis
II. INTEGRATION IDEA OF THE MONTH: Science Tools Scavenger Hunt
III. WEB SPOTLIGHT: Educational Resources Related to the September 11 Events
IV. TECH TIP OF THE MONTH - Creating Dropped Caps in Microsoft Word
V. HOW TO SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE
I. THIS MONTH'S FEATURE: Focus on the September 11th Crisis
The extraordinary events of September 11th have clearly impacted all aspects of American life. As with all matters of such tremendous social importance, these events have strong connections to what we experience, say, and do in the classroom. At Sun Associates, we have noted the exemplary ways in which teachers and colleagues across the country have responded to the events of September 11th. For example, colleges across the country are adding courses about Middle Eastern culture. Web sites are springing up daily -- some helping us to find ways of talking with our students about world culture, others asking us to look back into history to find ideas that will help us understand the events of the past month. The best of these resources help us to move beyond simplistic assumptions about the world and to inspire an understanding of our society's role in a complex global culture. In this month's Web Spotlight, we have listed a few of the many sites which can help you and your students understand these difficult issues.
In times such as these, it is worth noting that perhaps the greatest value of instructional technology is in its power as a tool for aiding and increasing communication; and through this communication, we - and our students -- learn. Now more than ever, it seems particularly important to use every available tool to learn, dialog, and increase our understanding of this very complex world.
This lesson plan comes from a recent Sun Associates project that worked with six classroom teachers in St. Thomas, USVI. During the month of September, we worked with these teachers to model, facilitate, and build capacity around the development of integrated technology projects. In the coming months, we will offer complete lesson plans from many of these projects. Visit our website to see a full list of topics and brief descriptions for these lessons,
To get things started, this month we offer a full lesson plan for a Science Tools project, developed for middle school students.
Curriculum Area: Science/Scientific Tools
Grade Level: Middle School
Skills Developed: Using the Internet
Student Grouping: Pairs
Time: 2 class periods
Technology Used: Internet
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has created an interactive distance learning web site where students have the opportunity to see science discoveries happening in real time. This lesson focuses on Expedition 5 which took place between August 5 and September 24, 2001. The expedition explored the undersea volcanic slopes of the Galapagos Islands. The full lesson plan (as well as activity sheets) for this activity, is available online.
This month, we offer you a few sites that can help you and your students make sense of the events of September 11.
IV. TECH TIP OF THE MONTH - Creating Drop Caps in Microsoft Word
Add a bit of flair and fun to your students' stories when you teach them how to create a "drop cap" (or dropped capital) on their first word of their story. A drop cap is that first oversized letter (often beautifully scripted) that first attracts your attention to the page. It's a beautiful invitation to continue reading, and it gives kids a real sense of authorship. Here's how to do it:
1) Have students write their story, saving it as a standard Microsoft Word document.
2) In the Word document, click the paragraph (place your cursor at the start of the paragraph) that you want to begin with a drop cap.
3) Pull-down the FORMAT menu, and select Drop Cap. (Or you may click on the icon for Drop Cap on the tools menu bar if it is shown.)
4) From the resulting dialog box, select either the option for "Dropped" or "In Margin." Each of these options give you a different style of dropped cap. You can also use this dialog box to indicate how many lines to drop your letter.
5) Select OK to close the dialog box. Now, you will have a dropped cap at the beginning of your paragraph (where your cursor was placed in step 2, above).
6) To delete the drop cap, simply place your cursor on the dropped cap itself, and then again select Drop Cap from the FORMAT menu. This time choose "None" from the dialog box, and then OK to close the box.
If you have a tech tip you would like to share with other readers, send it to us via email to newsletter@sun-associates.com. Let us know if we can publish your name and contact information. If we use your tip, we'll send you a gift!
We hope you enjoyed reading the ideas and information in Sun Associates News. If you have received this newsletter forwarded by a friend and would like to receive your own copy, simply send an email -- with the word SUBSCRIBE in the subject -- to us at newsletter@sun-associates.com. If you would prefer not to receive future issues via email please let us know at newsletter@sun-associates.com. Just put the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject of your email message.
Information on this site that has been produced by Sun Associates is Copyright 1997 - 2013 Sun Associates and is available for individual, one-time, use by educators. Duplication is prohibited without permission. All other material is the property of its authors and Sun Associates makes no warranty for its use or accuracy.
Last updated, October 9, 2001