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Canku
Ota
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(Many
Paths)
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An
Online Newsletter Celebrating Native America
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August
1, 2009 - Volume 7 Number 8
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Favorite
Sites
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collected
by Paul and Vicki
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SNEAK
PREVIEW: Check out our new site dedicated to Native American
contemporary art
The
Eiteljorg is thrilled to announce the “soft” launch
of its new dedicated Web site for the Eiteljorg Fellowship
for Native American Fine Art, made possible by a generous
grant from Lilly Endowment.
Visit it at www.fellowship.eiteljorg.org.
You
will find:
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Profiles
of Fellowship artists such as Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
(Flathead), Shelly Niro (Bay of Quinte Mohawk), Hulleah
Tsinhnahjinnie (Dine, Seminole, Muscogee), James Lavadour
(Walla Walla), Will Wilson (Dine) and Edward Poitras (Gordon
First Nation). Profiles include video, audio and spaces
where these artists may communicate with you directly
and share their thoughts and new projects through blogs
and other methods.
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A
gallery of the Eiteljorg Museum’s renowned Native
American contemporary art collection. Simply click to
view images up close and engage the site’s “virtual
curator” (audio of curator of contemporary art Jennifer
Complo McNutt and assistant curator of contemporary art
Ashley Holland sharing their thoughts and stories behind
the art).
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An
art forum where you can not only learn more about the
evolution of Native American contemporary art through
an interactive timeline and a keynote address by Jaune
Quick-to-See Smith, but also engage others in conversations
by posting comments, questions, original art, academic
papers and more in several sub forums.
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A
community art gallery where anyone can share original
art based on the theme of “identity.”
Our
new site is, quite simply, one-of-a-kind. We have found
no other place on the Web that celebrates and informs about
Native American art and artists in this way.
Before
we make the new Fellowship pages accessible at eiteljorg.org
and broadly announce the launch, we wanted to first share
the news with the museum’s closest “friends.”
Please take some time to explore Fellowship’s new digs
and start using our amazing new forum.
Enjoy
and let us know what you think by visiting Contact
Us on our Web site.
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Social
Music
In the old days, radio disc jockeys controlled what music
was heard over the public airways. Nowadays, everyone's a
music critic, and we rely on friends (virtual and otherwise)
to recommend new sounds. This week's crop of sites use the
power of the Internet and social networking to take music
discovery to new heights.
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Blip.fm
Release your inner DJ and create an Internet radio station to
share with friends (and the whole world.) So what exactly is
a blip? It's a single music track accompanied by a short text
message. Blip.fm is a Twitter-like social network that allows
you to follow other DJ's with similar music tastes, and to see
what sounds your friends are listening to. With good integration
between Blip.fm and Twitter, FriendFeed and Ping.fm, Blip.fm
is also a way to integrate music with your existing social media
activities such as Facebook or MySpace.
http://blip.fm/ |
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iLike
iLike is a social network application with over fifty million
members who share music recommendations, playlists, and personalized
concert alerts on networks such as Facebook and MySpace. The
first step is to scan your existing iTunes music library and
install the iTunes sidebar plugin. Next is to add iLike to your
Facebook or other social network profile. Using the wisdom of
crowds, iLike will recommend music you're likely to enjoy, and
let your friends know what you are listening to.
http://www.ilike.com/ |
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iTunes
Genius
New in version 8 of the free Apple music organizer iTunes, is
Genius, a recommendation engine and playlist creator. To get
recommendations of songs not already in your library, add the
Genius Sidebar (select Genius in the View dropdown menu.) To
create custom playlists based on a single song, click the Genius
icon in the lower-right hand corner when that song is selected.
These created playlists are terrific fun, and are based on the
playing habits of millions of users.
http://www.apple.com/itunes/whatson/music.html |
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Last.fm
Last.fm is a personalized streaming radio station, with a playlist
based on any artist or genre you choose, as well as a music
recommendation engine connected to your computer and iPod. "Last.fm
turns what millions of people listen to into the perfect mix
for you." After downloading their Scrobbler software (for
Windows, Mac or Linux), Last.fm will "scrobble" any
song you listen to on your computer or iPod, and automatically
add it to your Last.fm profile. The more music you "scrobble,"
the more accurate your recommendations.
http://www.last.fm/ |
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Pandora
Pandora's recommendation engine is based on their Music Genome
Project, and works a little differently than other Internet
music discovery sites. Built around a collection of hundreds
of musical attributes (or "genes"), they "capture
the unique and magical musical identity of a song - everything
from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration,
arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing
and vocal harmony." You can enjoy the results by creating
a streaming radio station based on an artist or song, or listening
to stations created by others.
http://www.pandora.com/ |
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Book
Exchange
Have
you ever swapped paperbacks with a friend? Then you've participated
in a book exchange, also known as a book swap or trade. Now
imagine a website that gives you access to thousands of book-reading
friends and keeps track of multi-way swaps so that you can
send a book to Thelma, but in return receive a free book from
Louise. Now you've got the ultimate book club for readers
who don't mind spending a few minutes wrapping up their old
books and mailing them out.
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BookMooch
BookMooch gives you one point for every book you send, and
a tenth of a point for every book you enter into your profile.
Most books are priced equally at one point, and subscribers
are responsible for the paying the postage for each book they
ship. One usual feature here is the ability to request books
from other countries, in other languages. When sending a book
overseas you'll earn three points (to compensate for the higher
postage cost) but getting a book from overseas costs only
two points. BookMooch currently has over 500,000 books to
choose from.
http://bookmooch.com/
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Bookins
Bookins (also with an inventory of over half a million books)
uses a variable point system, where hardbacks and popular
books cost (and earn) you more points than paperbacks. What's
different at Bookins is their prepaid postage system. They
will email you a shipping label, so all you need to do is
print it out, put your book in an envelope (or wrap it grocery
bag paper) and slap the label on your book. But this simplicity
comes at a price: $4.49 per item. In addition to books, you
can also swap DVDs.
http://bookins.com/
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LibraryThing
LibraryThing is a community of book lovers, and does not directly
provide book swapping services. Instead, it is an "easy,
library-quality catalog" where you can share what's on
your bookshelf and what you're reading with like-minded folks.
And on each individual book page, in addition to reviews,
ratings, tags, reader recommendations and links to book stores,
you'll find a "Swap this book" link. That link will
take you to a page that shows which of twelve popular book
swapping sites have the book available for trading.
http://www.librarything.com/
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PaperBackSwap
With 3.7 million books available for swapping, PaperBackSwap
is the biggest of the online book swapping sites. And their
point system is pretty simple: earn a credit for sending a
book, use a credit for receiving a book. For shipping, PaperBackSwap
provides a printable two-page wrapper that is a both a do-it-yourself
envelope and an pre-addressed label. Just wrap your book,
add postage, and "pop the book in the mail." You'll
need to weigh your book to determine the correct postage,
but they advise that most books under one pound typically
cost $2.23 to send.
http://www.paperbackswap.com/index.php
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SwapTree
SwapTree is smallish, with 78,000 books currently available,
but they also provide a marketplace for trading music CDs,
DVDs and video games. SwapTree has done away with points,
and simply displays exactly which titles on your want list
that you can get for each trading item you list. Sometimes
the trades might be one-for-one with a single party. Other
times the trades might be three-way, where you are sending
your item to one person, and receiving an item from another
person.
http://www.swaptree.com/
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Healthy
Food
Teaching kids about nutrition happens around the dinner table,
in the grocery store, at the fast food restaurant, in the
classroom, and now also on the Internet with this bunch of
sites that make use of fun, online games, cartoon characters
and printable activity sheets to get the message across.
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CDC:
Fruits and Veggies Matter
Although not specifically for kids, this CDC site has interactive
tools, tips, and information for all ages. How many fruits
and veggies do you need each day? Enter your age, sex, and
level of daily physical activity into the tool on the front
page, and learn the benefits of adding more fruits and vegetables
into your daily diet. Other reasons to visit include Fruit
& Vegetable of the Month (pretty pictures to enjoy with
your little ones) and Analyze My Plate (drag food items to
your virtual plate to get a nutritional analysis of your choices.)
http://www.fruitsandveggiesmatter.gov/
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Dole
5 A Day
With games, cartoon characters, recipes, and advice on eating
right and being fit, Dole has something for everyone. My favorite
sections are the Nutrition Database (where I learned that
apples are a member of the rose family!), the healthy recipes,
and the games. The Superfoods Mighty Gobble & Chomp is
a Pacman style game where fruits and vegetables increase your
strength, and candies, fries and soda pop decrease it.
http://www.dole5aday.com/
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Food
Champs
With bright colors and cartoon mascots, Food Champs has fun
and games for kids as young as two. Choices include coloring
pages, printable stickers, printable recipe cards, interactive
games, printable activity sheets, and a gallery of artwork.
Games are divided into two age groups: two to five, and six
to eight. They include Farm to Fork (learn how food gets from
the field to your table), Fruit & Vegetable Math, and
Fruit & Veggie Pyramid Game.
http://www.foodchamps.org/
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MyPyramid.gov:
For Kids
Although the kids home page at MyPyramid.gov lacks color and
pizzazz, they have great games and content. MyPyramid Blast
Off Game is a flash game for students six to eleven, "where
kids can reach Planet Power by fueling their rocket with food
and physical activity. Fuel tanks for each food group help
students keep track of how their choices fit into MyPyramid."
There are several variations of the healthy food pyramid to
print and color. And for classroom or homeschool, there are
printable lessons and activities for grades one through six.
http://www.mypyramid.gov/kids/
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Nutrition
Explorations: Kids
"How many servings of Milk Group foods do you think you need
every day? Three or more." Explore the world of nutrition
with the National Dairy Council. Play games, learn about the
food guide pyramid, and get recipes for healthy snacks like
a Carrot Cake Smoothie. Games include Arianna's Food Force
One ("Go on a global adventure to find ingredients for combination
foods"), Quintricious (match foods from five food groups as
they fall arcade-style), and Nutrition Mixer (use your knowledge
of serving quantities to "mix" a song for a rock band.)
http://www.nutritionexplorations.org/kids/
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To
Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee published her first and only novel in 1960, at
the age of thirty-four. It won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction
the following year. "To Kill a Mockingbird" tells two stories
at once: one about attorney Atticus Finch's defense of a black
man accused of rape, and the second about his young daughter's
coming of age.
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CliffsNotes:
To Kill a Mockingbird
CliffsNotes does a bang up job with their literature study guides.
Visit for a book summary, Harper Lee biography, character analysis,
a handful of critical essays, famous quotes, and a chapter by
chapter summary. They also include a glossary ("obstreperous:
noisy, boisterous, or unruly, esp. in resisting or opposing"),
a fifteen-question interactive quiz, and five ideas for "To
Kill a Mockingbird" projects. "Select a song that represents
one of the themes in To Kill a Mockingbird. Play the song for
your class and discuss your choice and the theme it represents."
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/To-Kill-a-Mockingbird.id-143.html |
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Harper
Lee
"To Kill a Mockingbird was Lee's first novel. The book is set
in Maycomb, Alabama, in the 1930s. Atticus Finch, a lawyer and
a father, defends a black man, Tom Robinson, who is accused
of raping a poor white girl, Mayella Ewell. The setting and
several of the characters are drawn from life - Finch was the
maiden name of Lee's mother and the character of Dill was drawn
from Capote, Lee's childhood friend." Ms. Lee's official site
is worth a visit for her bio, but unfortunately the links page
is mostly out of date.
http://www.harperlee.com/ |
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NEA
The Big Read: to Kill a Mockingbird
The Big Read is a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) program
addressing the decline of reading for pleasure by bringing together
communities to read and "celebrate books and writers." "To Kill
a Mockingbird" is one of about twenty books already on their
website, with more "coming soon." For readers, the The Big Read
gives us discussion questions, an author biography, and a short
piece about the Jim Crow South for historical context. For teachers,
they provide lesson plans, project ideas, and essay topics.
http://www.neabigread.org/books/mockingbird/ |
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SparkNotes:
To Kill a Mockingbird
SparkNotes covers all the bases with a plot overview, character
analysis, chapter summaries, and a discussion of themes, symbols,
and motifs. "Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or
literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text's
major themes." They also explain five key quotations, suggest
ten questions/essay topics, and provide a reading list of five
books of literary criticism. And for those of you who like quizzes,
their's is a doozy with twenty-five multiple-choice questions.
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/mocking/ |
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To
Kill a Mockingbird: The Student Survival Guide
"This website has been set up to be an annotation to the text
of the novel (annotations are notes that explain things).
As you travel through the site, you'll find more than 400
annotations to help you get more out of your reading. Many
of the annotations contain links to pictures or other websites
to further help you in understanding your reading. Click away,
learn, and have fun!" Created by Belmont High School teacher
Nancy Louise Rutherford, this chapter-by-chapter guide includes
a single-sentence chapter summary, and definitions of vocabulary,
allusions, and idioms.
http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/Belmont_HS/tkm/
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Folklore
Folklore generally refers to stories and traditional beliefs
spread informally, usually by word of mouth. The term was
first coined by British antiquarian William J. Thoms in 1846,
replacing phrases such as "the lore of the people" and "proverbs
of the olden times."
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Aaron's
World of Stories: Folktales
Author and storyteller Aaron Shepard specializes in "retelling
folktales and other traditional literature from around the world."
Each of his tales is annotated with genre, country of origin,
reader age range, and word count. Each also has an Aaron's Extra
which might be a song, a poster, or a deleted passage omitted
from the published picture book because of limited space. For
a complete site map, use Aaron's Indexes, where his stories
are organized by title, age level, genre, theme, ethnicity,
geography, holiday and more.
http://www.aaronshep.com/stories/folk.html |
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American
Folklore
"This folklore site contains retellings of American folktales,
Native American myths and legends, tall tales, weather folklore
and ghost stories from each and every one of the fifty United
States. You can read about all sorts of famous characters like
Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, Daniel Boone, and many more." American
Folkore is my pick of the day because of the variety and number
of stories they offer. The site also has lesson plans, tongue
twisters, and audio versions of many of the ghost stories.
http://www.americanfolklore.net/ |
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Pitara's
Kids Network
From India, China, Burma and Aesop, Pitira offers up nearly
a hundred illustrated folktales and fables. "Some of these tales
will make you think, some of them will make you laugh, some
will make you wonder, but almost all of them have hidden wisdom
for you to discover!" They also have collections of poems, stories,
book reviews, games, coloring pages, and art projects. When
navigating the site, be sure to scroll down the page (past several
ads) because the page navigation is near the bottom of the layout.
http://www.pitara.com/talespin/folktales.asp |
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Scholastic:
Myths, Folktales & Fairy Tales
This Scholastic site is a treasure trove of resources for learning
about myths, folktales and fairy tales. Several authors have
contributed, fielding questions from young writers wanting to
create tales of their own. "When we read these traditional stories
from around the world, we find that the things we value most
highly, fear most deeply, and hope for most ardently are valued,
feared and hoped for by all people. When we read these traditional
stories from around the world, we find that the things we value
most highly, fear most deeply, and hope for most ardently are
valued, feared and hoped for by all people."
http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/mff/ |
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Whootie
Owl's Stories
Whootie Owl stories, folktales from many cultures, show us
" that people all over the world share many of the same concerns."
The collection is searchable by age, country, type of story
or theme. To see them all, simply leave all the selection
criteria at "ALL." The best part of the site is the ability
to submit your own illustrations or comments about the stories.
For each tale, editor Elaine Lindy also includes a Footnote
with the source of the story and a bit of commentary.
http://www.storiestogrowby.com/choose.php
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STAR
Students And Teachers Against Racism
announces their new website that offers insight into the Native
American perspective to teachers and educators.
http://www.racismagainstindians.org/
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Changing
Winds Advocacy Center
Through presentations, classroom sessions, curriculum, fund
raising, charitable works, and multi-media efforts, we seek
to raise public awareness of the stereotyping, discrimination,
racism and other unique situations facing Native Americans.
http://changingwinds.org/
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