Outbrain

Many of you who have registered for technology for teachers probably read about this, but I decided to try out Outbrain. It is a rating system, so now I have little stars on my blog so you can rate what I am saying (just what an English teacher needs). However, in the future, Outbrain will allow you to link to other blogs with related material to the one you are currently reading. Since I have become a blog addict, I am excited about that feature.

Wordle Fan

I am a huge fan of Wordle. We have been talking about the power of words and powerful words in class with The Book Thief. I designed a lesson for Thursday just so I can use Wordle.

Thanks for the tip!! I love when people create curriculum for me!!

Thing 4

Thanks to Travis and my friendly blogger buddies, I am ahead of the game on this one!!

Travis taught me how to use igoogle in one of our first sessions, and Blazek had already got me going on a google calendar. I'm not really sure how I managed my life before igoogle. I have my calendar, reader, and blog all in one spot. Plus, I get to read my horoscope every day too!! I almost never go to my blog. Instead, I just blog from igoogle and respond to blogs through my reader. It's just so nice that everything is in one place. Plus, I feel like I am finding google tools and gadgets to add every day. It's one stop shopping, weather included:)

Google Educators Newsletter

In my hunting around, I signed up for a google newsletter for educators. I might regret that decision. I keep finding new blogs to read, and now I'm adding newsletters. I think I'm becoming a technology monster. However, my training today with my table PC shows me that I'm still clueless!!

If the newsletter is any good, I'll pass on the tips.

Thing 3

Well, I am procrastinating with all the other things I need to do, like write recommendations and lesson plan. I thought MILI homework would be more fun.

My students are currently completing some research on war. I used a number of handouts from the RPC. I realized that next time I might want to revise them a little for my specific purpose, but the students seemed to find them useful. It also focused them on the process rather than just priniting pages and calling that research. I also required them to use at least two databases from the media center. They complained at first, but many of them found so much great information that they never even went to google. I am willing to bet that they will use the databases next time they have to do research.

I recommended easy bib as one tool they could use for their bibliographies. However, citation machine seems more user friendly. I will definitely suggest it since they can't easily get to citation maker, on the media center page, from home.,

I thought I had the hang of it.

I am struggling. I tried to comment to a comment Emily made to me. Instead, I ended up commenting to my original post. How does one comment to a comment? Or can one not have a blog dialogue?

WIKIe

I started a WIKI today to get the hang of it. However, I'm not exactly sure what to do with it. I would LOVE ideas for how people have used them.