Help Me 2 Teach is a subscription-based Web site service. Here’s what it offers: “This educational tool provides over 2,300 prescreened websites categorized by subject and user-type with a brief description of each site’s contents. It can be used to provide a total curriculum or to provide supplemental resources. Sites are marked according to their appropriateness for parents, teachers, or the students themselves. This unique resource provides curriculum from Pre-K through High School. Users can safely click on a link and travel directly to that site.” To try it out, start with a three-day subscription for just $4.95. Like it, but not sure you want to commit to paying for a full year? Try it for one month for $9.95 or for three months for $15.95. One full year’s subscription is only $29.95. The price includes quarterly newsletters and FREE research for anyone with a paid, one year subscription or longer. SPECIAL OFFER: If you purchase a one year subscription, you’ll get another year for free. So that’s two years for $29.95.That means the subscription would only cost $1.25 a month! What a great deal!
Just as the ocean is filled with dangerous jellyfish and sharks, slimy seaweed, and useless garbage, so the internet is filled with dangerous, slimy, and useless sites. Help Me 2 Teach is not only a nice, safe surf board, it’s also a surfing instructor. The site boasts over 2,300 links to pre-screened, relevant Web sites. The subject categories and other categories make it easy to find what you need. The search box is also a useful feature. The best part of this Web site is its owner; she is very responsive to questions and suggestions, so if you don’t see something you need, just shoot off an email.
But what if you’re already a confident surfer, a real California girl? Then you probably would not benefit as much from this service. If you don’t mind sorting through all the broken shells to find an unbroken sand dollar (if you don’t mind sifting through all the irrelevant sites to find what you really need), then pass on this service. But before you turn your kids loose on Google or another public search engine, think about offering it as a safer surfing alternative for them.
Bethany’s bottom line: Help Me 2 Teach is great for people who don’t want to waste time sorting through irrelevant Web sites or who don’t feel confident in their internet searching abilities; however, it probably is not something on which I would personally spend my money.
Bethany LaShell 