If you know other great sites for student writing and publishing, e-mail them to me.

General Sites for Teachers

EDITORS SEEKING WORKS BY TEACHERS
Creative works by teachers (K-Grad) about teaching.  All genres; poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, drama, visual art; whatever form best reflects your experiences with teaching.  Guidelines: Hardcopy or IBM-formatted disk, all submissions (except poetry and visual art) should be double-spaced, visual art must be slides or jpeg files.  There are no length restrictions.  Deadline: May 1st, 2003.  Info: gbc@csu.edu.  Mail all submissions to: Teachers Anthology, c/o The Gwendolyn Brooks Center of Black Literature and Creative Writing, Chicago State University, 9501 S. King Drive, LIB 210-A, Chicago, IL 60628.
{Webmaster’s note: I realize that this is not an online site, but the opportunity needed to be in a highly visible place.]

www.englishcompanion.com was created and is maintained by Jim Burke who is both a full-time teacher and an author. The site includes abundant resources he creates for his own students, so the materials and general focus of the site is practical and oriented toward classroom teachers.
[Jim is one of my favorite Heinemann authors who has put together an extremely helpful website.]

ReadWriteThink is a partnership between the International Reading
Association (IRA) and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) in
association with the MarcoPolo Education Foundation. NCTE and IRA are
working together to provide educators and students with access to the
highest quality practices and resources in reading and language arts
instruction through free, Internet-based content.

Barry Lane, a nationally known author and speaker, believes writing and its teaching should be fun. His popular seminars and highly acclaimed books on writing provide teachers with quality training which entertains as it inspires and informs. Come to his web site for free writing lesson plans, to register for Barry’s seminars and get detailed information on inservice work, or to submit student work for publication in one of Barry’s books or on his web site.
[Barry is a great writer and human being, whom I have had the pleasure of meeting. Visiting his site is like sitting down with Barry.]

LindaHoyt: Excellence in Literacy Instruction website is one of the places on the Web to start when wanting to enhance your literacy instruction. Linda’s free lessons, tools, and links are to be valued and used. “It Works for Us” is an educator’s discussion forum where teachers talk about writing instruction, children’s books, and reading across the curriculum. Her “Many Ways of Knows”most recent e-newsletter features: “What is Guided Writing?”along with sample guided writing lessons, and a section dealing with critical questions about guided reading.
[Do yourself and your students a favor and examine her latest book: Make It Real: Strategies for Success with Informational Texts. I recommended that specialists at my school seriously considering using her book. Once a reading specialist had her copy, we then ordered copies for the entire staff as part of a book study. Make It Real is a necessary, important addition to every literacy teacher’s working library.]

WriteNet: an unbelievably valuable resource for writers and teachers interested in teaching imaginative writing! Register to join their popular e-mail listserve, where writers and teachers advise each other on methods for teaching writing to students in grades K-12. All WriteNet list-serve messages are automatically routed to your e-mail account. Needless to say, spend some time looking at this web-site -- enjoy our exclusive interview series, learn how real-life artists-in-residence teach imaginative writing, and more!

International Education and Resource Network (iEARN) is a non-profit global network that enables young people to use the Internet and other new technologies to engage in collaborative educational projects that both enhance learning and make a difference in the world.

Community Works On-Line Resource Center is an on-line repository of exemplary teaching strategies, practices, programs and models that support students becoming caring, responsible and active members of their communities. The site contains many downloadable tools and resources that support community based teaching and service-learning. Features include curriculum exemplars, tools and information on technical assistance, including specialized support for documentation and multimedia publication. Community Works associates provide assistance to individual schools and districts, and regional programs and organizations. Their resources and publications-in-print and on-line- have been accessed and used by educators from across the US, Canada, and around the world.

Robbie Fanning, a long-time writer, who used to teach upper-division non-fiction writing at San Jose State University, also works for www.SchwabLearning.org. They help parents of children with learning differences. Her first article for the website, on encouraging kids’ writing, has seven exercises that she's used with all ages, including adults.

Texas poet Hoa Nguyen is back with a new exercises in her ongoing Virtual Poetry Workshop (courtesy of Teachers & Writers Collaborative) for high school students.

Teacher/Student Iraqi Pen Pal Program Their important and timely progam is described in a letter written by Leah Lewis who works with the world-reknowned Nuclear Age Peace Foundation out of Santa Barbara.

“I had the opportunity to visit Iraq in late September to see the consequences of war on the civilian population, especially on the state of education and opportunities for teachers and students in Iraq. I was shocked to find that teachers’ salaries had decreased over the past twelve years from $500/month to $5/month. In a meeting with UNICEF, I learned about the disincentive for teachers to continue teaching as well as the decrease in enrollment for primary school-aged girls. UNICEF reports that 80% of schools (8,000) are in dire need of repair.

As an educator, and as Peace Education Coordinator here at the Nuclear Age
Peace Foundation, I am committed to teaching peace in my classroom and
helping students realize their potential as peacemakers. What could be
more crucial in our time?

I was very happy to be able to deliver pen pal letters from some of my
students to students in Iraq, and they have received responses back. For
the past twelve years under the economic embargo, there has been no
cross-cultural communication between Iraqi and American students. All we
know of Iraqis are the egregious actions of their leader—and all they
know of us is sanctions and No Fly Zone bombings. We must pursue dialogue between our students so that they do not grow up learning to hate each other.

Consequently, I am encouraging teachers and students to send pen pal
letters to primary and secondary school students in Iraq. You may do this
by emailing them to us. You can read letters sent by Iraqi students at our website. Please continue to visit our website for updates about peace education, the war on Iraq, actions you can take as well as important nuclear issues.

Thank you so much for your commitment to education as well as a peaceful
and just world. I look forward to hearing from you and reading your
letters.

In Peace,
Leah C. Wells
Peace Education Coordinator, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

Thai Students Online is the largest non-commercial web site in Thailand. They now have over 3000 pages and are uploading something new every day. It is a model site for any teacher thinking about creating or improving student websites and packed with information about Thailand. In creating PublishingStudents.com, I sought the expertise and help of Richard Barrow, the teacher and webmaster of Thai Students Online.

This web site is designed by teachers and students in the Computer Center at Sriwittayapaknam Primary School, Samut Prakarn, Thailand. Whenever possible, original work from the students isused. All photographs and art work is produced by teachers and students at this school.

Read what others have to say about Thai Students Online:

Bangkok Post: “Easily the best Internet web sites produced by any school in Thailand.”

The Nation: “Sriwittayapaknam, which currently has 400 student-webmasters, is a powerhouse in Thailand when it comes to website content.”

Lonely Planet Guidebook: “More unbiased information on Thailand travel than any site we've seen.”

Time Magazine: “This clever collection of homepages by students (and teachers) from Thailand is not just for kids.”

Teachers & Writers Collaborative was founded in 1967 by a group of writers and educators who believed that writers could make a unique contribution to the teaching of writing. A nonprofit organization, T&W provides workshops for over 30,000 students per year in the New York tri-state region and publishes an impressive catalogue of creative writing titles. T&W also sponsors an educational radio show, Everything Goes, a spoken word program, Youth Speaks, and a literacy initiative for teen mothers, Read to Me.

Publishing Sites for Teachers Who Are or Want to Be Authors

The Midwest Book Review is an organization of volunteers dedicated to the promotion of literacy, library usage, and small press publishing. They publish four library newsletters and five online book review magazines. They maintain a massive website oriented to the needs of writers, publishers, librarians, book retailers, and the general reading public. They are content providers for Amazon.com, and the interactive CD-ROM "Book Review Index" which is distributed to corporate, academic, and community library systems four times a year by the Gale Research Company.
[This site is simply amazing. It is filled with so much solid, practical advice that you will find yourself picking up one great idea and resource after another. Teachers, this is a must view site.]

Book Marketing Update : At this site, you will learn how to sell more books. Lots of free reports and tips on book marketing by John Kremer, author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books.

www.PublishingGame.com
A website by Fern Reiss for teachers interested in publishing their writing.

Publications that Publish Student Writing, Poetry, and Art

Stone Soup: the magazine by young writers and artists is unique among children’s magazines — it’s the only magazine made up entirely of the creative work of children. Young people from all over the world contribute their stories, poems, book reviews, and art work to Stone Soup. At first, it’s hard to believe 8- to 13-year-olds can create such engrossing stories, evocative poems, and gorgeous illustrations. But as regular readers of Stone Soup know — they can!
[I have used Stone Soup and it’s one of the very best. You and your students will be inspired and moved by their published authors and artists.]

Merlyn’s Pen: Fiction, Essays, and Poems by America’s Teens is perhaps the oldest of all publishers devoted exclusively to teens in grades 6-12.
[Merlyn's Pen, Inc. is in the process of reorganizing as a nonprofit foundation: the Merlyn’s Pen Foundation. Their mission is to build a vast and friendly library of the great works by teens written in the last twenty years. The library, open all day and night, and free to teachers, librarians, kids, and anyone interested in the lives of teens, will never close. It is online, which means it’s on every teacher’s desk, on every young writer's laptop.

Works at their library will often be beautifully illustrated, appearing exactly as they did when first printed in Merlyn’s Pen magazine. Even the design and typography of the poems has been reworked for viewing online and printing out at home. But best of all, any teacher anywhere can use the powerful search index to find exactly the right piece for her purposes: teachers in New York can locate in mere seconds 50 poems by top New York student writers. A seventh grade teacher attempting to teach the difficult art of character development in fiction, can locate—in the time it takes to take a sip of coffee—25 stories noted for their exquisite character development, and all written by seventh graders just like her own!]

Skipping Stones is a nonprofit children’s magazine that encourages cooperation, creativity and celebration of cultural and environmental richness. Skipping Stones is an award-winning resource in multicultural education. Skipping Stones publishes bimonthly during the school year, which accepts art and original writings in every language and from all ages. Its staff invites you to participate in this exciting project with your submissions, subscriptions, suggestions and support. Non-English writings are accompanied by English translations to encourage the learning of other languages. Each issue also contains international pen pals, book reviews, news, and a guide for parents and teachers. The guide offers creative activities and resources for making best use of Skipping Stones in your home or classroom.
[This is a truly an essential reader for teachers looking outward and wanting to open their students to the world and its many cultures. The student samples on the site are first-rate, must reads to be shared with students.]

Potluck Children’s Literary Magazine: The Magazine for the Serious Young Writer is intended for writers in ages between 8-16 who fill each issue with their poems, short stories, fables, and book reviews.)

Potato Hill Poetry is a bimonthly magazine, except July and August, for teachers and students K-12. They publish poems written by students along with writing exercises, interviews with poets, book reviews, contests, and other poetry related material. Its staff is also interested in submissions of cartoons, writing exercises, artwork (black ink on plain white paper), essays on the writing process, and black and white photographs.

Teen Voices is the magazine written by, for, and about teenage and young adult women, ages thirteen to nineteen. Regular features include: Family, Health, Arts and Culture (music, web, and book reviews), an advice column, and creative writing. This magazine honors young women’s potential as leaders.)

TeenInk is a national magazine, book, and web site featuring teen writing, information, art, photos, poetry, teen issues, and more. All articles are written by teenage authors.)

The Claremont Review: The Best International Magazine to Showcase Young Adult Writers. The editors are looking to publish exemplary fiction and poetry by young authors between 13 and 19 years of age. They publish those slice-of-life stories that also focus on language and character, not simply plot-driven stories. Prefer free-verse, non rhyming poetry.

The Concord Review
(A quarterly journal of exemplary history essays by high school students. Editors ask that students submit essays approximately 5,000 words in length.)

The Writer’s Slate comes out three times a year and publishes original poetry, exposition, and narration from students enrolled in kindergarten through twelfth grade.)

Writes of Passage: The Literary Journal for Teenagers is a literary journal published twice a year containing the poems and short stories of teens nationwide as well as special features offering insight into writing by established authors.)

YO! Youth Outlook: The World through Young People’s Eyes is a monthly newspaper by and about young people, which also syndicates articles to newspapers across the U.S. YO! Connects young people with each other and gives adults a window into the constantly changing cultures of youth.)

Blue Jean Magazine is an alternative to the glamour and beauty magazines targeting teen girls. It is the only magazine written and edited by young women around the world between the ages of 13 and 19. They publish teen fiction, poetry, art, commentary and nonfiction works. Its mission is to publish what young women are thinking, saying, and doing.

New Moon: The Magazine for Girls and Their Dreams
New Moon is the magazine created by girls for all girls who want their voices heard and their dreams taken seriously. It’s completely edited by a Girls Editorial Board (sixteen girls ages 8 to 14).

Online Student Publication Sites

Kids on the Net. They publish tens of thousands of young writers from all over the world, focus on developing writing (and reading) and have a particular specialism in developing writing specifically for the Internet, with our collaborative projects and hypertext possibilities. They also support teachers and others who work with kids including librarians and children’s writers. [After I visited this site, I wanted to show it to my sons.]

The Poetry Zone is a web site set up primarily to enable children and teenagers to publish their own poetry and reviews. If you are under 18, you must have the permission of your parent or guardian to send poems to The Poetry Zone. When you send a poem or review to The Poetry Zone, you are stating that you are the author of that poem. You are also giving your permission for the poem or review to be published on the site. The copyright of the poem or review remains with you, the author. Claiming ownership of someone else's poem is a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and could mean you will face prosecution in your country. The Poetry Zone will publish the author's name and age (if under 13). The Poetry Zone will publish the name of the author's school (in the "say hello to your school" section) but will not make a direct link between school and author. All other material (addresses, phone numbers etc.) relating to the author will be treated as confidential and will not be divulged, given, leased or sold to any third party for any purpose.

Giggle Poetry is the premier web site for humorous children’s verse on the web. In addition, to being named to numerous educational and children's listings of top sites, Giggle Poetry has won numerous awards.

Educational Organizations

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