Welcome

to Carol Healy’s Index Page

The following projects were created for Professor Charles Phillips’ Telecommunications & the Internet course at McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland. I hope they are also helpful to new and experienced teachers of English language arts.

Journal Article Reviews – Here are my summaries of and comments on two journal articles about technology and instruction: “What Works for Teachers” from Electronic school.com and “Technology in the Schools: It Does Make a Difference” from Education World.

http://wwwfac.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/healyc/journrev.htm

Web Link Bibliography - This is an annotated list of links to outstanding web sites for English teachers. I have organized them according to their main focus—General Interest, Lessons Plans, Reading, Reference, and Specific Topics. My hope is that both experienced teachers and beginners (like me) can use this as a source of information and inspiration. http://wwwfac.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/healyc/webbib.htm

Kids’ Choice Book Award: A WebQuest – Students work in teams to create a new award for a young adult book. After doing online research about some existing awards, they choose an appropriate name and symbol, develop selection criteria, and plan an award celebration. They announce the details of their new award in a press release and at a press conference of their peers.

http://wwwfac.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/healyc/webquest.htm

Recommended English Language Arts WebQuests – Here is an annotated list of five directed, cooperative Internet-based activities that would be valuable additions to language arts classes.

http://wwwfac.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/healyc/webquestlist.htm

Web Dropins – Here are 5 brief, web-based activities to use in 20- to 30-minute sessions. I have designed them for use in the computer lab, where students will work independently, but teachers may also choose to present them through a data projector as a group activity.

#1 – What Would You Like on That Burger?

Middle-school language arts students visit a web site called Etymologically Speaking to explore the origins of five burger-related words (ketchup, lettuce, mayonnaise, mustard, and tomato). How did so many other languages turn up in ours?

http://wwwfac.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/healyc/dropin1.htm

#2 – Write Like an Egyptian

Sixth-grade students studying Ancient Egypt in Social Studies can try their hands at hieroglyphics in this language arts activity.

http://wwwfac.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/healyc/dropin2.htm

#3 – Where Y’all From?

Students explore a map of regional American dialects, locating and defining their own and identifying others they may have heard. What causes these differences and how do they affect the way people are perceived? (Designed for middle school language arts students.)

http://wwwfac.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/healyc/dropin3.htm

#4 – “The Right to Bear Arms”: What Does It Mean?

In preparation for a class debate on the issue of gun control, high school students analyze position papers on the web sites of the National Rifle Association and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

http://wwwfac.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/healyc/dropin4.htm

#5 – Gods and Goddesses of Olympus

Students visit Mount Olympus and meet each of the 12 members of the celestial family. They read a “biography” of each and create a chart that will help them keep track of the cast of characters in an upcoming mythology unit.

http://wwwfac.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/healyc/dropin5.htm

Kid-Safe Portals – This online course module informs teachers and media specialists about sites designed to be kids’ place of entry to the Internet. After exploring and evaluating some well-known portals such as Yahooligans! and Zeeks.com, they search for others to recommend to students and parents in an annotated, web-linked bibliography.

http://wwwfac.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/healyc/module.htm

Electives:

Copyright Activity – These reactions to two scenarios are based on my study of what does and does not constitute fair use by teachers of intellectual property posted on the Internet.

http://wwwfac.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/healyc/copyrite.htm

Best of the Search Engines – An annotated list of recommended sites for various types of Internet searches.

http://wwwfac.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/healyc/searchengine.htm

Teacher Made Web Sites – Here is a brief description of my Internet search for web sites created by teachers for their students and parents. I offer commendations and constructive criticism of two that I found especially effective.

http://wwwfac.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/healyc/elect3.htm

Citing Internet Sources – Here are my suggestions for guiding students to online information about citing electronic sources in their papers.

http://wwwfac.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/healyc/sources.htm

Teachers’ Timesavers – Recommended Internet sources of worksheets, rubrics, quizzes, puzzles, and games for use in middle school English language arts classes.

http://wwwfac.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/healyc/worksheets.htm

Clip Art Favorites – Here are annotated links to six of my favorite online sources of clip art.

http://wwwfac.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/healyc/clipart.htm

Silicon Snake Oil, or Zooming by Clifford Stoll on the Information Highway – This presents my reactions to Stoll’s 1995 book and general ruminations on the role of the computer in society.

http://wwwfac.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/healyc/snakeoil.htm

Avoiding Plagiarism – Tips for middle school teachers on how to educate students about academic integrity in general and avoiding plagiarism in particular.

http://wwwfac.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/healyc/plagiarism.htm