FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)    Is your material copyrighted or may I use it? Answer: Yes, our material is copyrighted. Nearly all the original material on the web is copyrighted thanks to the new laws that immediately copyright original work loaded to the web. If you copy other people's work - and post it on another site - their work is still copyrighted, and you could be in a lot of trouble even if you're a kid.  There are a couple of companies on the web that track every page posted to the web, along with every change that is made to every page every single time a change is made. (Can you imagine!) They can prove who wrote something first. They can prove who corrected something first. So, if you think nobody will notice if you copy someone else's work - think again. You'll find more information at Copyright Kids: New Copyright & Fair Use Laws But, of course you may use our lesson plans, units, and learning modules in your classrooms, with some restrictions. RESTRICTIONS: Students (and everyone else, including teachers), you may not make a copy of our material, put your name on it, and turn it in as your work. You may not copy our material and post it on your web page or anyone else's webpage. You may not mirror our site. You may not frame our site and/or sell copies of our work without our written permission. To do so is copyright infringement, which is a crime. Please take a few minutes and review these simple rules: Copyright & Fair Use   How do I credit a web page source?   Answer:   If you need our permission to link to our site, you have it.  Links to our site are welcomed and appreciated. If you're wondering how to credit a web page source in a bibliography, this site is very helpful: Citing Electronic Sources (Library of Congress recommended guide) Here's what we tell our students: Include the following information for each source: Author (if known,) Page Title, web address (URL) and the month and year you accessed that web page (not when the page was written.) HERE IS AN EXAMPLE: Once upon a time, in the year 2007, during February, while cruising the web, you stumbled across our daily life sites. "How lucky," you said at the time. "My report on ancient Greece is due tomorrow!"  If you had listed our site in your bibliography, that listing might have read something like this:       Daily Life in Ancient Greece http://greece.mrdonn.org/index.html February 2007 Actually, we wrote a great deal of that site in 1997 and 1998, and updated it in 2002, and again in 2005, and again in 2008. But it doesn't matter when we wrote it.  It only matters when you used it.        My teacher says that is not enough. I need to know your background. Please tell me more about yourself and where you got your information. Answer:  More? Okay.  Besides all the stuff we had to study, we've read thousands of articles and books about history just for the fun of it!  We've learned a lot over the years. Does that mean our material is "right"? Who knows! We try to be accurate. If one of our web pages was checked for accuracy or enriched with information by an expert, that expert will be listed in the credits section, along with any books we used.    Why do you have ads on your site?  I thought teachers hated ads on web pages. Well, yes, we usually do.  But the program we use is a very good program  freely offered by Google.   The money we earn comes in handy  to buy books and to have adventures.   For example ... Phillip Martin has illustrated many of our published books and stories. (We have 15 books and over 40 short stories in print.) Over the years, he has become a very good friend. Last spring, Phillip received an email from a daycare facility for Aids orphans in Africa, asking permission to use Phillip’s art on the walls of their courtyard. Instead of just saying yes, Phillip used his Google AdSense earnings, booked a ticket to Africa, and helped them paint it. To see BeautifulKidz, click here.  To see the huge (huge) mural the team created, click here.   If you have a website, we encourage you to sign up for the FREE AdSense program from Google. You may not earn enough money to travel to Africa, but if you work at it, you can earn a little, and even a little can be put to good use!     Would you recommend teaching as a career choice? Too easy.  Our answer is YES!   Currently, there are eight teachers in our family. And we have two additional family members who volunteer their time as aids in the classroom.  (They don't even get paid! But they know the importance of education.)   Do you answer your e-mail messages? Answer: We receive a great many e-mail messages every day. Between our two websites - mrdonn.org and pppst.com - we enjoy over 4 million hits a month. That's a lot of people. We're glad to hear from people, especially from kids around the world, but we don't have time to read all the mail we receive, let alone respond to it, so our answer is regrettably no.  Even if we received less mail, we still would not have time to answer it all. Besides our jobs, we're also busy with our family. Meet our two youngest additions: SKYLER AND HUNTER Since we don't have time to answer the bulk of our mail, we hope this FAQ section answers all your questions.  If you'd like to write us anyway, we'll do our best to read it. If you don't get a response back, please do not think it's personal. The odds of our answering are very slim. The email address we check most often is: donnclass@mrdonn.org   Wait, wait!  I have one more question! What about Maxie?     If you would like to use Maxie's picture on your web page or include him in your graphics collection - you can!  Simply point your mouse at Maxie's collar, right click & save. Maxie's favorite food is a jelly donut and his favorite toy is his little red ball. We call him "Circus Dog" because he's so full of tricks!   Here's a picture of the real Maxie, playing one of his (and Mr. Donn's) favorite games - baseball. That's me, pitching. And that's Maxie, standing directly in front me, waiting to catch the ball. To make this work, first I throw a ball into the water for Maxie to chase; then, as quickly as possible, I throw another ball towards Mr. Donn's bat. Max scoops his ball up out of the water, then hurries back to scoop up Mr. Donn's ball, wherever he hit it, and races to bring both balls back to me, shoved somehow in his mouth. It's a strange game, but they love it.     Thanks for visiting! Have a great year! Lin & Don Donn     All Rights Reserved    Clip Art Credit: Phillip Martin Have a great year!