Extra Credit: Goodies for the Teacher and Student

Credit: Bill Duke

The Classroom Performance System

Response-pad kits $1,200-$2,500 (16-40 pads), free with seminar attendance www.pearsonncs.com/cps; 1-800/447-3269

Gone are the embarrassing moments when students, called on to answer a teacher's question, go into panic mode. The Classroom Performance System (CPS) consists of handheld "response pads" that are distributed in class. Students then answer with a clicker that resembles a remote control. Responses are anonymously tallied on a computer or projected onto a screen for the class to view. The CPS also records attendance and grades, administers quizzes quickly, and is compatible with Excel, Word, and other applications. Each kit comes with software to develop lessons and a receiver to plug in to your computer. Now, when you ask your class, "Do you understand?" they won't be scared to respond, "No."

Credit: Bill Duke

Beginner's Guide to Community-Based Arts

By Keith Knight and Mat Schwarzman; $20; New Village Press (171 pages) www.newvillagepress.net

From Seattle to New Orleans to cyberspace, artists and activists are making exciting things happen in their communities. Ten of these projects are profiled in this book featuring graphic stories and an elaborate how-to designed to get educators and activists rolling on their own. It's a sometimes fun and always moving look at the tricky job of getting young minds to think big.

Credit: Bill Duke

Nitro Notebook

$50 www.vtechkids.com

A super-sleek "laptop" for pupils from kindergarten on up, the VTech Nitro Notebook is packed with eighty games (additional cartridges are available) that keep users busy with math, reading, music, and logic-building activities in English and Spanish. The Nitro Notebook can read stories aloud to help students practice phonics, and artificial intelligence technology adjusts the skill level as children advance. Similar to a grown-up laptop PC and complete with a plug-in mouse and pad, the high-tech tool gives little ones the freedom and space to learn and have fun on their own.

Credit: Bill Duke

FitDeck

Playing cards and instructional DVD, $25 ($19 for cards only) www.fitdeck.com

Feeling a little pudgy around the middle after the holiday gorge fest? Not to worry. Just check in with FitDeck, an intriguing deck of playing cards that illustrate simple exercises you won't get bored with and which don't require a trip to the gym. The cards, created by fitness instructor and former US Navy SEAL Phil Black, showcase fifty upper-, middle-, lower-, and full-body exercises. There's even FitDeck Jr., a set of colorful cards for children. Just shuffle the deck and start training -- one card at a time. Working off that extra slice of pie was never so simple.

Credit: Bill Duke

The Story of Movies

www.storyofmovies.org

Kids love movies, but if you ask a middle schooler to define film, chances are you'll draw a blank stare. The Story of Movies, a curriculum created by the Film Foundation in collaboration with IBM and Turner Classic Movies, could change that by schooling students on the language of motion pictures -- think exposition and mise-en-scène. The program's Web site allows teachers to download lessons and materials for To Kill a Mockingbird, the film used to introduce novice eyes to the world of cinema. The 1962 masterpiece, heavy on the theme of racial bigotry, serves as a starting point for history and civil rights discussions and teaches kids that movies shape -- or are shaped -- by society.