A couple of us were talking in the office Wednesday about this article from the Wall Street Journal and I thought I’d share it with the rest of you guys: What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart?

Another article I found interesting was one from The New York Times written by David Pogue: How Safe is the Internet for Children?

I found some interesting podcasts in iTunes from the site Quick & Dirty Tips. You can listen to them from their web site or download (or subscribe to) the podcasts in iTunes. Note: the target audience for these are adults, so as with anything you decide to use in your classroom, please preview them before you use them! Ones I particularly liked are:

Grammar Girl: Quick & Dirty Tips For Better Writing

“Grammar Girl provides short, friendly tips to improve your writing. Covering the grammar rules and word choice guidelines that can confound even the best writers, Grammar Girl makes complex grammar questions simple with memory tricks to help you recall and apply those troublesome grammar rules…”

Mr. Manners: Quick & Dirty Tips for a More Polite Life

“Whatever the occasion, it’s always good to put some effort into your appearance. This can help show your hosts and companions that you were looking forward to spending time with them, and may help you feel a little special.”

The other Quick & Dirty Tips pages/podcasts available are: Money Girl; Mighty Mommy; Legal Lad; and Get it Done Guy.

You might also like to take a look at the Internet Archive. The site lets you watch classic movies (ones fallen into the Public Domain) online. While this may not be the best way to watch movies, you can’t beat the price (FREE). You can also find books/text, audio, and software.

Speaking of books, (and no, I’m not a paid sponsor) did you know that Books-a-Million has teen books on their remainder (bargain) tables? Prices range from $1.97-$2.97 (paperback) to $3.97-4.97 (hardcover) and they are recent copyright dates (2006-2007 releases) as well as some older titles and classics. Great way to add to your classroom collections! They even have a couple of titles I know are on the SC Book Award lists! I was just there this afternoon and they’ve added a slew of new titles since I was there two weeks ago.