This website will probably save my life this year. I'm going back to teaching reading, but I haven't read any YA stuff in years. Hopefully this will site will give me an idea on how to direct my stronger readers and help me catch my slackers, unless they've found this website or another one like it.
I look forward to having some time to myself to participate in the discussions, especially since I won't be able to participate in the social studies book studies.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Thing #10: Image Generator
Finally had a minute to sit down and get some more work in. This was another 10 minute deal that turned into an hour. Maybe I'm just not disciplined enough. Like that's news to me...
Anyway, lots of fun with this. I chose to not make fun of a certain head of state (Angela what's-her-face yeah right!), and chose to make Magic cards instead. Loved the trading card maker. The format is from a trading card game I was addicted to back in the early 90's. I can see this being used for characters in books or for satire. It would also be good for kids' personal stats like books read, or GPA, stuff like that. It'd be cute. Here's a link to some Bush administration Magic cards that I didn't create, but they're quite amusing.
Anyway, lots of fun with this. I chose to not make fun of a certain head of state (Angela what's-her-face yeah right!), and chose to make Magic cards instead. Loved the trading card maker. The format is from a trading card game I was addicted to back in the early 90's. I can see this being used for characters in books or for satire. It would also be good for kids' personal stats like books read, or GPA, stuff like that. It'd be cute. Here's a link to some Bush administration Magic cards that I didn't create, but they're quite amusing.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Thing #9: Useful Library Blogs and News Feeds
As it turned out, The RSS's (R.O.U.S.'s?) loaded me up with lots of news.
I was able to narrow it down some with the sites listed. However, some of these places were very confusing. I found the Google one easy to use, as is almost all the Google stuff. I think those guys put much thought into what they do before the put it out there, unlike MS.
The topix site was also pretty easy to use. I guess it used cookies on my computer to figure out I live in Cypress, and it gave me local blogs. I found out a bank was robbed in Cypress and some lady and her family saw 5 bright lights flying across the sky early morning July 5. The people responsible commented and explained how they did it.
I chose to search for blogs on teaching low SES kids and sure enough I found some. I'm looking forward to reading them.
I was able to narrow it down some with the sites listed. However, some of these places were very confusing. I found the Google one easy to use, as is almost all the Google stuff. I think those guys put much thought into what they do before the put it out there, unlike MS.
The topix site was also pretty easy to use. I guess it used cookies on my computer to figure out I live in Cypress, and it gave me local blogs. I found out a bank was robbed in Cypress and some lady and her family saw 5 bright lights flying across the sky early morning July 5. The people responsible commented and explained how they did it.
I chose to search for blogs on teaching low SES kids and sure enough I found some. I'm looking forward to reading them.
Thing #8: RSS
I always wondered what RSS was for. I started seeing it and figured it had something to do with iPods, so I never messed with it since I'm pretty anti-iPod. Now that I know what they're all about, I'll have to be very careful with them. Just putting these five feeds on my reader gave me more than 50 items to pour over. I'm a news junkie to begin with, but this will make it worse now that I don't have to go looking for it.
Now I can keep up with current events and follow my soccer team in England all in one place. Definitely a time saver.
Libraries could teach RSS feeds to students so they could gather information for research. I guess students would need a Google account. I don't know what district policy is about that...
Now I can keep up with current events and follow my soccer team in England all in one place. Definitely a time saver.
Libraries could teach RSS feeds to students so they could gather information for research. I guess students would need a Google account. I don't know what district policy is about that...
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Thing #7: Google Tools
It has been a while since I paid any attention to anything beyond the search box on Google. Fun useful stuff I wish I knew about when I had my Soc. St. kids conducting research on the web. The notebook is incredibly useful. I'm constantly cutting and pasting info from one site to Word or to xcel. Now I can just open my notebook and put it right there. No flipping back and forth anymore. I started looking into next summer's vacations: Tickets to Honolulu 969 Bucks! Ouch!!
Next, I set up alerts. I thought about a calendar, but I didn't want to let the whole world know what were up to, so I decided to keep up with current events and English football, and reading minilessons.
Next, I set up alerts. I thought about a calendar, but I didn't want to let the whole world know what were up to, so I decided to keep up with current events and English football, and reading minilessons.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Thing #6: Mashups
Hey all,
The Mashups are great. This stuff makes me want to teach social studies again, but I can see lots of possiblities with reading as well. The trading cards would be good biography assignments for the kids at the beginning of the year. The Movie posters would make good book report covers.
On Mappr, if the students were reading books that involved traveling or really well written settings, they could map out timelines of travels or use Flickr to get a better idea of what the setting looks like. All sorts of stuff. I'm excited.
The Mashups are great. This stuff makes me want to teach social studies again, but I can see lots of possiblities with reading as well. The trading cards would be good biography assignments for the kids at the beginning of the year. The Movie posters would make good book report covers.
On Mappr, if the students were reading books that involved traveling or really well written settings, they could map out timelines of travels or use Flickr to get a better idea of what the setting looks like. All sorts of stuff. I'm excited.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Thing 5: Flickr
Howdy,
After a long hiatus from 23 things, I've been enjoying my summer of to-do lists and family vacations, I've finally wasted an hour combing through Flickr. Not that I haven't wasted any of my seemingly countless other hours this summer, but I found it slightly agrivating killing an hour looking at photos when I was supposed to be doing school stuff. I did have some ideas for using flickr in the classroom. Students could use it to find theme ideas in their books, or to find groups that might have been created for books. I'll see if any exist before I give that assignment. I enjoyed trying to follow the threads of thinking while I browsed the pictures. A friend is in town for a wedding and so I got wrapped up in the pics from a Jewish wedding. I almost felt like I was invited. Mazeltov!
draft
After a long hiatus from 23 things, I've been enjoying my summer of to-do lists and family vacations, I've finally wasted an hour combing through Flickr. Not that I haven't wasted any of my seemingly countless other hours this summer, but I found it slightly agrivating killing an hour looking at photos when I was supposed to be doing school stuff. I did have some ideas for using flickr in the classroom. Students could use it to find theme ideas in their books, or to find groups that might have been created for books. I'll see if any exist before I give that assignment. I enjoyed trying to follow the threads of thinking while I browsed the pictures. A friend is in town for a wedding and so I got wrapped up in the pics from a Jewish wedding. I almost felt like I was invited. Mazeltov!
draft
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