The Kan-Ed website has more resources for kids than I expected. The ones I especially liked were KidsInfoBits (under 4Kids, which is for younger students), WorldBook Kan Ed (for high school), and Academic OneFile (for anyone doing research). The WorldBook was my favorite because it had information on how to do research (great for introducing younger kids to it), how to cite research, and different way to search. There was also a biography center on the site; it wasn't extremely thorough, but it had a lot of people kids in school would study. It also has fun things like trivia quizzes, featured site links, and a "surf the ages" section - a section that puts history into the format of a newspaper. Kan-Ed also has lots of information on the great state of Kansas, as well as a tutoring page; however, this tutoring page is limited to math, science, social studies, and English.
As a future teacher, I would definitely take advantage of the kids' sites. You could create scavenger hunts to familiarize kids with the websites, so that later on when they use it for real assignments and help, it will be familiar to them. I would definitely take advantage of the research resources on WorldBook, such as the "How to Research" page. I also was very pleased to see that music was the front page subject on Thinkfinity's website. March is music in the schools month, so they had a great compilation of resources and links that had to do with music education. There were numerous resources for lessons (especially cross-curricular lessons), discussions and activities, and getting kids and parents more involved. A couple really good websites that I was lead to from this page was readwritethink.org and illuminations.nctm.org (learning music through music).
The only things I disliked about this website was the fact that some of the resources here and there were a little thin, such as the student tutoring section. You can't expect a computer to do your job though, so it's not really an issue. This website is an incredible resource for teachers, and I'm very glad to have it.
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