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Highlights for Free Stuff for Educators Everybody knows that teachers work hard for little monetary compensation. Fortunately, there are many fine resources available that allow educators access to free stuff. Who deserves free stuff more than our teachers? If you are a teacher searching for the best of what the web's freebies, here are some places that offer freebies just for educators. Teaching Education Aid Available for Free There are many websites on the World Wide Web that offer totally free educational and teaching aids. If you teach younger students, you can find great coloring pages. You can also find several teaching aids, including alphabetical pages. Why spend money on expensive preprinted alphabets? You can gain easy access to your own free alphabet pages. Print them out, color them and seal them to make them last. This is an easy way to put together very elemental packets and gain access to fun activity pages. There are many fine teacher resources available for free on the World Wide Web. Here are even more resources for finding great and free resources for educators of all stripes. Getting Access to Free DVDS for Educators Did you know that you could get access to free educational DVDs? Izzit.org offers you a free DVD on your birthday (or another day of your choosing). This offer is limited to teachers of grades 6-12. This website also offers educators discounts on educational DVDs as well as coupons for free ice cream. Gaining Free Nutrition Educational Materials If you are an educator seeking out free nutritional materials, you are in luck. The Dole Corporation is currently offering free educational materials to teachers. Their 5 a Day program offers free downloadable teaching materials. You can also request professional teaching materials by using mail and fax. Simply request your free nutritional materials on your school's official letterhead. Free Computer Tools for Educators If you need access to free teacher tools, Microsoft Office has got you covered. Microsoft is currently offering free learning essentials that can help you create handouts, compose tests, and make presentations and other educational content. You will need a registered copy of Microsoft Office 2002 or 2003 that runs on Windows XP and Windows 2000. Need Teaching Aids for Your Classroom? If you are looking for free teaching visual aids, there are many nonprofits that can provide you with such aids. The Human Genome Project offers educators free posters. Although this promotion is directed specifically to educators, anyone can take advantage of this great offer. The National Institute of Drug Abuse also offers free visual teaching aids. These are great to hang in the classroom. You can order multiple copies directly form the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The USEPA is another organization that offers educators a variety of free posters, as well as other teaching materials, including activity books, CD-ROMs, lesson plans and more. Keep Your Classroom Safe With Free Cleaning Aids Keeping the classroom clean is one of the biggest challenges of any educator. The Clorox Company is trying to make it easier on teachers by offering them a free "Clean Up the Classroom" multimedia kit aimed specifically at classroom educators. The free kit comes loaded with a poster, a cleaning guide and DVD. You will also get a free canister of handy Clorox Disinfecting Wipes. Get Free Magazine Subscription Offers Educators have access to many free magazine subscription offers. Yes Magazine is offering educators a free one-year subscription. This is a magazine published by the Positive Futures Network. This is non-profit organization that helps promote social change to a more compassionate and sustainable world. Take advantage by contacting the magazine for your free educator subscription.

US copyright law U.S. Copyright Law Covers Artistic Expression and Creative and Intellectual Works The US Copyright Law grants rights to individuals for the works they create. The US Copyright Act of 1790 has changed over the years. The current basis of US copyright law is based on the Copyright Act of 1976. US copyright law is relatively automatic. Once someone has an idea and produces it in tangible form, the creator is the copyright holder and has the authority to enforce his exclusivity to it. In other words, the person is the owner of the creation. It is not necessary that a person register their work. However, it is recommended and it can serve as evidence if someone ever violates a copyright. It is interesting to note that when an employer hires an employee to produce a work that the copyright is given to the employer. Violations of US Copyright Law are generally enforced in a civil court setting. However, there could also be criminal sanctions brought against someone who violates US copyright law. Someone that is in serious violation of US Copyright Law such as counterfeiting can find themselves on the inside of prison looking out. People need to understand that the copyright symbol is not a requirement. Someone may have a copyright, yet their work may not have a copyright notice or symbol. US Copyright Law covers a wide range of things that are derived from artistic expression, intellectual or creative work. This includes things such as literary works, music, drawings, photographs, software, movies, choreographic works such as ballets and plays, poems, paintings and more. The law covers the form of expression, not the concept, facts or the actual idea of the work. This means that someone can use another person’s idea or concept and produce their own take on it. However, copying another person’s work is a violation. It should be noted that some things may not be copyrighted but they may be protected by a patent or trademark. Individuals who have a copyright on a particular piece of work can do with it what they will. They may choose to copy it and sell it. They may display their work or perform it in public and charge admission, or they can assign or sell the work to someone else. Individuals who have a copyright can also choose to do nothing with their work, if that is their desire. However, if someone comes along and takes the work and tries to use it in some way, that person is still in violation of the owner’s copyright. Copyrights cover published and unpublished work. Anyone who is in the creative arts arena should be very careful that they do not violate US Copyright Law. For that matter, anyone who is a fan of the creative arts should make sure they are not in violation of a copyright. Simple things like uploading, downloading and sharing music or movie files can result in serious charges and fines being brought against them. With the popularity of the Internet and file sharing software there many copyrights are currently being violated. Copyright owners are starting to take a stand against them and are hunting down the perpetrators. Be careful that you are not overstepping your boundaries and violating someone’s copyright law.

The Definition of Writing Styles Depends on Who is Defining Them (writing styles) While researching this topic, you may have found many different answers to what are the different types of writing styles. No two answers were the same. They range anywhere from your personal way of writing that is your writing style to formal and informal. Many people feel the best answer to what writing styles are the those will be outlined below in this article. You can decide for yourself if this definition suits your. The term creative writing covers a range of writing areas. Poetry, fiction books, short stories, and screenplays are considered creative writings. Any writing in which is not strictly non-fiction would be classified as such. Journalism and news reporting are forms of Expository writing. The purpose is to focus on one topic and inform the reader by provided the facts. These writings can be seen in the forms of travel brochures, professional journal, business reports, and new paper articles. Descriptive writing is what gives you the mental pictures of what we have read. It uses a lot of adjective and adverbs to describe things. When descriptive writing is very good you can close your eyes and know exactly what the author is saying. The kind that makes you taste what the characters and see what they are seeing. Analytical Writing is a writing that focuses on a topic and then verifies the purpose of it. It is often taught school age children through out the years because it is something they will use in their life. Book reports, conference papers, thesis, essays, and dissertations are all academic writing. It is created using a third person point of view and deductive reasoning supported by facts. Its purpose is to show a clear understanding of a subject by presenting information. Technical Writing is used in owner manuals, how to guides, magazine articles, and design specs just to name a few. Its purpose is to take complicated technical information and turn it into something the intended audience can understand. Technical writing usually deals with electronics of all sorts, chemistry, robotics, and finance. Any kind of writing that has to do with business matters is considered business writing. It is concise and to the point. Your intended audience wants to know what happen and why, but with minimal detail in between. An active voice is necessary in business writing. It keeps people focused and shows that you are in control of situations. Correspondence is the writing of memos, letters, or emails between people. It is a message that is sent between two people or groups of people. To provide facts and statistic and having the ability to influence your readers with your words is persuasive writing. This is used for products ads, political campaigns, or any kind of promotion. It is not necessary to prove why something is else is wrong or bad you just need to prove why your promoting is better. Narrative writing is use to tell a story or list of events that have already happen, might have happened, or could happen in the future. These writings may include novels, poetry, short stories, or a number of other things. A lot of times many of these styles are meshed together in our writing. Business writing and technical writings are often one in the same as are academic writing and analytical writing. With the overlapping of the styles it hard to define one writing style from another, you can guess it is all a matter of the point of view you are looking at it from and your opinion.