You can enhance the following activities from the Instructor's Resource Manual by incorporating the resources available on the World Wide Web.

Television and the Media

The Instructor's Resource Manual suggests:
With input from students, identify television programs that could be considered good influences on the development of K-12 students. Discuss and identify criteria for these selections. Have students identify the TV programs and movies that most influenced them during their K-12 years. How and why were these programs or movies influential? Survey K-12 students during field placements to determine their TV viewing patterns and their favorite use for home computers. Discuss ways that classroom teachers could constructively use television and other media to enhance classroom learning.

You may also want to have students identify web sites that are educationally useful. They might start by visiting:

Kathy Shrock's Guide for Educators
The Kidstuff section of this extremely thorough guide to web sites can provide students with a variety of suggestions for children's web sites they might want to check out.

Berit's Best Sites for Children
A librarian recommends sites made especially for children that are fun, educational, and safe.

Searching With Kids
This is a page with links to and descriptions of several Internet search engines designed for children to use.

Adolescent and Youth Problems

The Instructor's Resource Manual suggests:

• Have representatives from two area high schools come to class to discuss the issues of drugs, drinking, suicide, and teenage pregnancy based on experiences in their schools. Also have them describe any school policies or programs designed to address these issues.
• Invite a representative from a drug prevention agency or youth-serving agency to talk to the class about drug use and alcohol use among teenagers. Draw conclusions about the ways in which a school district or individual teachers could respond to these problems.

In addition, you may want to suggest some web sites where students can start learning about adolescents and education:
Center for Adolescent Studies
This center at Indiana University offers a set of links relevant to adolescent issues, Teacher Talk, a newsletter for teachers of adolescents, and the Teacher Talk forum, an area for teacher discussion.

Middle School.com
This is the site of a private organization called the Middle School Partnership. The teachers' area is open to the public, however, and offers information about teaching and student behavior.

MiddleWeb
This site is all about middle school and young adolescents.

Youth Violence

The Instructor's Resource Manual suggests:
As part of an ongoing journal project, have students survey local newspapers and national magazines for reports of violence in schools. Articles should be copied and used in a class discussion on school violence.

Students can link to newspapers, magazines, and television stations at:

Newslink
This site, associated with the American Journalism Review, provides links to newspapers, magazines, and television stations all over the world.

In addition, you may want to suggest some site where students can learn about efforts to prevent violence:
Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program
This U.S. Department of Education program funds safety programs and provides research on school safety issues.

School Safety
AskERIC has a fairly extensive set of links to information and organizations that deal with violence and school safety.

Violence and Safety
The weekly publication Education Week has created this "hot topic" summary of information and resources on keeping schools safe.