A portal or gateway site is the best place to begin research. These sites, which are intended to serve as "jumping off" points, will lead the researcher to a variety of useful sources that have been selected because of their relevance or quality. A portal site may include thousands of links on a wide range of topics, or may be very specific in scope and point to a small number of resources.
Portal sites may allow keyword searching, provide topical, hierarchical browsing (drilling down) or both search and browse capabilities. Another useful starting point for research is the search engine, particularly those that are subject-specific.
Education World
http://www.educationworld.com
A resource for teachers that includes original content such as lesson plans and advice essays, as well as access to news of the field.
Educator's Reference Desk: Lesson Plans
http://www.eduref.org/Virtual/Lessons/index.shtml
Access to "more than 2,000 unique lesson plans which were written and submitted by teachers from all over the United States and the world."
IPL2 - Education Topics
http://ipl2.org/IPLBrowse/GetSubject?vid=13&tid=6686&parent=0
IPL2 is a searchable Web directory. Web sites are organized by subject term or keywords in their annotations. Education topics are arranged both by field (e.g., "early childhood") and by "hot topic" (e.g., "school safety"). Sites have been hand selected by information professionals.
Search Engine Guide
http://www.searchengineguide.com/
This guide indexes over 3,000 directories and search engines. Organized by category and searchable by keyword.
