LOTW February 26th, 2009

 

Abi: For her second appearance on LOTW, Abi brings in yet another opinion on education and how technology should/n't be used in it. It also has suggestions on how teachers can use it effectively.

 

Link: http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EdReformStudies/EdTech/approaches.html

 

The O: O's link (3rd week in a row, 5461 record) hits many aspects of what new teachers are thinking about addressing but might need a little help in the resource department to guide students successfully. Good schtuff.

 

http://teacher2b.com/

 

Sir Center: Radiohead & remixes. Need we say more?

Link: http://www.radioheadremix.com/nude/

 

 

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Links for Thursday, February 19, 2009:

 

Sam:  http://www.abc.net.au/splatt/games/poetry/default.htm

This website is like an electronic version of Magnetic Poetry (come on, you all know you had those tiny magnetic words all over your refrigerators).  Unlike the normal version of magnetic Poetry, the great this about this site is that it allows you to save your work before swiping it all away!  This could be a good jumping-off point to get students to start writing poetry.

 

Erin:  http://www.youthink.com/quiz.cfm?action=go_detail&sub_action=take&obj_id=9827&take_again=yes

This site was a lot of fun to play around with and find out what kind of American accent I (and everyone around me who I could get to take the quiz) had.  This meshed very well with this week's readings.  Answer a few quick questions and find out what region your accent hails from!

 

Rebecca/Kim:  http://www.folger.edu/index_sa.cfm?specaudid=2

The Folger Shakespeare library pretty much rocks my socks off.  Since pretty much all of us will be teaching Shakespeare at one point or another during our careers, this site is a great one to have bookmarked.  It includes a large range of Shakespeare related materials from lesson plans to podcasts to research.  Check it out!

 

Molly:  http://www.hclib.org/teens/

This is the link to the Hennepin County Library's teen section and you even have the option to change the color scheme of the page (check out the top left-hand corner)!  On the website, teens can figure out what to read by checking out staff picks or even what their peers are reading.  The site also includes events that are coming up at the local libraries that students might be interested in checking out.  The Teen Speak section was particularly interesting.  HCLIB is a great resource for our future students.

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Links for Thursday, February 12, 2009, in no particular order:

 

Kristin:  http://www.eatsshootsandleaves.com/ESLquiz.html

 

     "A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.  Why? asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.  I’m a panda, he says, at the door. Look it up.  The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.  Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."   

 

     To be honest, I could not open this link unlike the rest of my bludges (blog+judges=bludges).  However, I have been reassured it is excellent.  I was highly disappointed that I could not play the game.  Here's hoping the U of M will grant us Internet access, and the server is responding.  Fingers crossed.  

 

Center:  http://www.boldspark.com/entertainment/guide-proper-spelling-american-way

 

     This site comments on people who dare to break the coveted grammar laws, specifically non-native English speakers.  Included are fantastic photos of people publically making fools of themselves.  Center says, "This site could be used to show how poor grammar can affect people's perceptions of someone."

 

           http://monster-island.org/tinashumor/humor/writing.html

 

     This site lightheartedly goes over 31 important yet often overlooked English rules.  Grammar humor.  Yes please and thank you.

 

Abi: http://www.pbs.org/speak/education/curriculum/high/perspectives/

 

     This portion of the PBS Teachers website (Do You Speak American?) provides a unit plan that looks at how spoken and written language differs. This unit also looks at norms, and the influence of technology on the English language.

 

Oberrrrrg: http://www.googlelittrips.org/

 

   This site uses Google Earth to recreate a literary geographical journey.  The maps are interactive and user-friendly.  Students can click on locations, visit sites, see pictures, and get information.   There are sections for middle school books, high school books, and higher ed.  There are pre-made "lit trip" maps for plenty of titles, many student-created.  All aboard!

 

Of course in honorable mention:

 

Mr. Rick (Super Bogus) Filipkowski:  http://www.addletters.com/bart-simpson-generator.htm

 

     Any text you want dictated Bart Simpson style.  Because it's fun.

 

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Links for 1/29:

 

Matt K.: http://www.shelfari.com/

 

    Shelfari is a virtual book shelf that allows you to keep track of what you, and others, are reading.  According to Matt, you can even write reviews for the books on your shelf and give them a numeric rating.  Once you have established a network of readers, you can compare notes, check out their taste, and critique at will.   He also notes that Shelfari would be a great application for our future classroom;  "If you can make your class sign up, then there's a discussion feature in which you can set up book talks as in a forum."  Top notch resource.

 

Jamie: http://www.creativewritingprompts.com/

 

     Imagine hundreds and hundreds of numbers displayed on your screen. When you move your cursor over each number, a quick, concise writing prompt magically appears.  Jamie's resource provides just that; "But I don't know what to write about" has never been easier to answer.

 

Josh: http://www.users.muohio.edu/romanots/

 

     Josh's resource is excellent for those of us who would like to know more about multigenre writing and the different ways to incorporate it into our classroom.  At this site, you'll find an enormous annotated bibliography, rubrics for grading multigenre writing, and much more.  Also, if you go the distance, I bet you could convine Mr. Romano to send our cohort an autographed copy of the book.  Woah!

 

Kate: http://thereflectiveteacher.wordpress.com/2006/12/07/the-multi-genre-paper/

 

     First of all, Wordpress.com is simply awesome.  This particular site is filled to the brim with resources, education blogs, and even fun stuff.  For the beginning teacher, this is basically a shrine of assistance.

 

Thanks to all for your resources.. there were many others we thought were helpful, so take a look at what others posted. 

 

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Links for 2/5

Olroit you eager beavers, here are some links - connections, if you will - as voted upon by democratic process in a smoke-filled room:

 

Rick: http://www.wordle.net/

 

     Wordle is an insanely addictive and entertaining tool. It only follows that such a creative tool would have many possible applications. Rick mentions in his entry for this week that this may be used to identify strong themes or potentially overused words. Beyond the more nuts-and-bolts application for this otherwise fun tool, one might use this for any number of projects (multigenre paper, anyone?).

 

Matt K.: http://www.visuwords.com/

 

     Visuwords is a self-described "graphical dictionary and thesaurus." The first application to jump to mind for this innovative tool is as a means for differentiation for spatial learners and visual learners. Visuwords would also be a fantastic tool for a unit that looks into prefixes, roots, and suffixes. Finally, Visuwords has some potential to be a research tool, at least in the nascent idea stage. Consider the following series: booger to bogeyman to monster to imaginary being to a web of names of infamous imaginary creatures.

 

Kristin:  http://www.mcsweeneys.net/

 

     McSweeney's is an online literary magazine that has also published several books.  This site is not only an enjoyable and often hilarious read, but it definitely has potential for classroom use.  They frequently publish "lists" which could prove to be a useful addition to a Multigenre paper;  One recent example is "Reasons you might die of consumption in a 19th-Century Novel, in Order from Least Likely to Most Likely."

 

Emily: http://www.atech.org/faculty/burke/writing/thesisoutlinegenerator.html

 

     This site helps students to take their ideas and organize them into a thesis and outline.  Basically, this site helps to work through the process of developing an argument.  I can imagine that students might even enjoy using this tool which does a pretty good job of breaking down a daunting task into managable pieces.