Hello everyone. Sorry I missed last Wednesday, but we were swamped with Mini-grant proposals here at the Fund. And then, in the midst of it all, the Public Education Network's Annual Conference was held in D.C. It was a great conference though centering around issues of Race, Gender and Student Achievement. In this spirit, I am going to focus the next few Wednesdays on sites that are being established to support equity on-line. This is the first in a series.

Once again I remind you that this is not an exhaustive list of websites and may not address issues of equity you face in your life and classroom. However these are sites that I found that are explicitly approaching issues of equity and may actually have links to other like-minded sites and/or provide an example of how conversations about equity for all are being approached on-line.

• First, on a timely matter, there are several resources on Thanksgiving written by Native Americans that might be of interest. Here is one - the Fourth World Documentation Project put together this essay called Teaching about Thanksgiving. The Bellingham in Washington schools has put together this list of Thanksgiving Resources which looks pretty interesting and include many resources to support critical thinking about the holiday in the classroom.

Next I'll start with more general diversity resources that I have found. Please let me know if you know of or have worked with others.

• The National Writing Project has a list of Resources to Support Diversity which include links to national organizations which are committed to diversity. The also have listings of Rural Education Resources and Urban Education Resources.
• You can also read how the NWP is supporting teachers in exploring diversity, access issues through this article about "Project Outreach."
• Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies is a local Philadelphia resources which has a nice webpage.
• Diversity Web links Colleges and Universities that are working to engage the diversity of United States society in educational mission, campus climate, curriculum focus and connections with the larger society.
• And check out the University of Maryland's Diversity Database.
• The Multicultural Review is a quarterly journal for teachers at all grade levels, college professors, librarians, administrators, and anyone else who is interested in learning about new developments and trends in the field of cultural diversity.
• Diversity University is a MOO that is dedicated to building both a real and virtual community. What is a MOO, you ask?... Basically it is a a text-based virtual community where you can meet in real-time....For more information, there is also a link here to find out more about MOOs generally.
• KidLink is a site for middle school aged kids. This site is being developed to support global networking and it now published in several languages, currently including English | Norsk | Dansk | Svenska | Español | Japanese | Portuguese (more language sites are being developed).
• The Grassroots webpage has links for Resources on Cultural and Ethnic Diversity.
• The Special Needs Education Network has a comprehensive listing of WWW resources for a variety of student/teacher needs.
• For the activists within us, individuals or classes can sign up for the Youth in Action Network. Also check out The Public Eye, a website committed to "helping you understand threats to democracy and diversity." And the Institute for Global Communications is doing really wonderful electronic networking and activist work all over the globe and you can join them!

For the upcoming Wednesday Websites I was thinking that I would divide the subjects like this (please let me know if you think this is useful or have other suggestions):

1. Gender Issues and Sexual Orientation
2. Racial/Ethnic Identity and Multicultural Understanding
3. Diverse Teaching and Learning in the Classroom

Bye! See you next week. Please write me with suggestions and comments.

- Christina

ps> Don't miss the other parts of this series:

• Race, Gender and Student Achievement!
  • Part II, Gender and Sexual Orientation Resources (11/26)
  • Part III, Racial/Ethnic Identities and Multicultural Understandings (12/3)
  • Part IV, Websites that are interactive and integrate the Internet into the classroom about Diversity and Multicultural Understanding (12/10)