CAUGHT ON THE NET

Jigzone Gallery
If you love putting together jigsaw puzzles, you will be eager to take a look at the Jigzone Gallery. Choose from a wide variety of puzzle categories (Animals, Art, Sports, Travel…), then click the drop-down menu to set the difficulty of the puzzle you will build. You can build everything from 6-piece classic puzzles, perfect for pre-kindergartners, to 247-piece triangle puzzles for the master puzzle builder; there are 35 puzzle levels in all. Move the pieces to form the puzzle, then check the time it took you to build the puzzle against the fastest time and the average time for that puzzle. This is a great rainy-day recess resource, but don't underestimate its value for developing students' critical thinking and spatial reasoning skills too.

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FROM THE LIBRARY SHELF

Summer Reading Book Exchange
--> Do you plan to use some of your summer vacation to catch up on recreational reading? Usually we devote this space to new books of interest to students and educators, but this week we share news of a "novel" way to save some money on your summer reading. NovelAction.com is a unique way to recycle books by trading in the titles you've already read for other books you want -- for just the low cost of shipping. Novel Action members select books from the Web site and send in an equal number of their own books in exchange. "Novel Action provides members with an easy, inexpensive way to get used books, and the books they get are theirs to keep," explains founder Diane Denton. "It also allows them to exchange their books for 'book bucks' of equal value, which can be used to receive books at any time during their membership." A one-year membership of $25 covers unlimited transactions. The only other fee is a shipping fee of $4.80 for up to 6 pounds of books (about a dozen paperbacks). Click here to learn more about how Novel Action works.

UPCOMING CONFERENCES

Maybe Monday will be a good day to approach your school or district leaders about attending one of these upcoming conferences put on by well-known national associations.

Embrace the Future
The annual conference of the National Council for Social Studies (NCSS) will be in Houston, Texas, from November 14 - 16, 2008.

NABSE 36th Annual Conference
The annual conference of the National Alliance of Black School Educators (NABSE) will be in Atlanta, Georgia, from November 18 - 23, 2008.

Because Shift Happens: Teaching in the Twenty-First Century
The annual conference of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) will be in San Antonio, Texas, from November 20 - 23, 2008.

For a more complete list of upcoming conferences, see Education World's Conventions and Conferences Center.

If your national non-profit organization's conference should be listed here, send an email to conventions@educationworld.com. We will be happy to include it in our rotation so long as it is open to all educators and/or administrators (not only members).

LEAVE 'EM LAUGHING

Looking at the bright side of low achievement…

College Student: "Hey, Dad! I've got some great news for you!"

Father: "What, son?"

Student: "Remember that $500 you promised me if I made the Dean's list?"

Father: "I certainly do."

Student: "Well, you get to keep it."

Now go and enjoy your weekend!

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