TweenTribune

I was alerted to this site by a Massena principal.  I am thrilled with how easy to use and kid-friendly this site is!  I took the description from the site itself because they explain it so well:

 "Engage, inform, and educate your students with TweenTribune. TweenTribune lets students interact with the news, while fulfilling requirements for language arts, computer skills, and other classes.

Customize TweenTribune for your classroom. Register your classroom with TweenTribune using the form at the right [When you click  "For Teachers"].  Then ask your students to sign up. (They’ll need to create a username and password, then select your classroom.) Once your class starts using TweenTribune, the site will automatically generate custom pages showing:

• The stories your class has commented upon
• Individual comments by each student, on his or her own page
• All comments by your students, in one report that can be sorted by students’ names, comments, or dates

And don't worry – you can moderate, edit, or delete your students’ comments before they’re published."

Basically, students can look for stories that are interesting to them or read articles you direct them to.  Then they can leave comments and have forum-like discussions with kids all over the country and even the world.  (Some classes from Australia, Canada, Japan, and Taiwan exist in this online community.)