E-Learning and Online Teaching feature - Young Adult Books Books written with young adults in mind confront issues that are of great importance to teens and their families. Coming of age, dating, fitting in, friendships, sex, drugs, self esteem, school, and relationships with parents and siblings are frequently addressed in young adult fiction. More than entertainment, these books can be a powerful learning and coping tool when a young reader connects with characters and what they are going through. The following sites provide more information about the best young adult reads. TeenReads Offers extensive book, author and general information for teen readers in a snappy newsletter format. New books like "Stone Garden" by Molly Moynahan and "The Distance from Normandy" by Jonathan Hull are reviewed.Amazon.com - Teen Books Page Lists and discusses some of the hottest new books for teens, including "Eragon" by Christopher Paolini.Reading Rants: Out of the Ordinary Teen Book Lists Presents books with a twist, not your average best sellers.
How to Compose a Quality Comment! The fabulous Miss Wyatt, from The Student Blogging Challenge, asked if I would guest post about commenting. I ♥ commenting and am happy to contribute! Blogging has many parts: the post, the comments, and the sidebar. If you do a good job with all of the parts, your blog will be more interesting. Today we will focus on quality comments! Content is key! Here is a video we made with tips to help you take your comments to the next level! How to Compose a Quality Comment! If Vimeo is blocked, here it is on YouTube. We like to open our comments with a greeting and end with a closing. Mrs. -For Advanced Bloggers- Some bloggers like to use HTML code to make their comments better. HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is a language. To write HTML code, use the following symbols: Important: Do not add a space between the HTML tag and the word or sentence. 1. The sentence will look like this when published: Bloggers should always proofread a comment before publishing. 2. 3. The HTML code below: Challenge #4:
2010 7th Grade Blogging Rules Making Paper Blogs to Prepare for the Online Experience I’ve decided to take my students on a fun-filled blogging journey for the last few weeks of school. In some ways I think I might be crazy trying to do this in such little time, but my guts are telling me to, “Just do it!” I’m glad I listened! I decided to start as is suggested by some of my awesome PLN – with paper blogs. I took the lesson outline from Leonard Low and adapted it for my classroom. After going through this process, I really feel that introducing the concept to my fourth graders this way helped them to grasp the idea of what it means to create, interact with and maintain a blog. Introducing Vocabulary – First, I told the class about the blogging project and explained that we would start with paper and then move it online. Get Students Writing – I then assigned a very easy and short writing assignment for the kids to do – write about their favorite food or drink. Get Students Working – The students got busy right away! Then came commenting… Commenting on Paper Blogs
A Great Study Skills Poster for Your Class Learning is a lifelong process. It is also an ongoing experience in which we get to discover new and inspiring things about our world. Some argue that with maturity comes mindful and conscious learning but regardless of age variable, thinking about learning from a metacognitive perspective (thinking about how we learn what we learn) does definitely improve the way we learn. In the visual below created by Create Innovate Explore, Rachel dissected the metathinking levels of studying and provided some of the tips on how to hone in one's study skills. I invite you to have a look and share with your students.
YALSA's Book Awards and Booklists *YALSA has launched the new Teen Book Finder Database, which is a one-stop shop for finding selected lists and award winners. Users can search this free resource by award, list name, year, author, genre and more, as well as print customizable lists. This new resource will replace the individual award and list web pages currently on YALSA’s site that are not searchable and that are organized only by year. Looking for great teen books? While these books have been selected for teens from 12 to 18 years of age, the award-winning titles and the titles on YALSA's selected lists span a broad range of reading and maturity levels. Book Awards Learn more about the Alex Awards, Edwards Award, Morris Award, Odyssey Award, Nonfiction Award, and Printz Award and read speeches from winners Selected Book & Media Lists Teen Book Finder App Find YALSA's award-winning books and media and selected lists wherever you are with this app, funded by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation. Best of the Best
Why Teachers Should Blog I've never been too big on Descartes. That whole sort of essentialist argument has never been for me. I'm a guy who's built furniture out of science fiction novels and travel books and who's played concerts with nothing but a roll of tin foil and a microphone. So I've never been too big on the idea that things exist because they have some fundamental essence. Consider blogs. There is no substantial qualitative definition of a blog. And in my mind what this means is that I blog and what I blog -- and how that message is received by others -- tells me what I think. And it tells me how I think. My own blog confirms my suspicions that I'm not the most polite person in the world. And that's why I think all teachers should blog. A student in my ed class last night -- a young 2nd year teacher in a Baltimore City public school -- said that he didn't feel like he had anything to offer on his blog or on Twitter. It is in a way frustrating that he doesn't realize how obviously wrong he is.
Student Blogging Activity 7 (Beginner): Set up your student blogs Class blogs are an excellent starting point. But the most incredible outcomes are observed when students are progressed onto their own individual blogs. Why? Human nature! As individuals we’re all driven by personal ownership; class blogs have less sense of ownership than an individual blog. In this seventh activity you will: Learn about the recommended approach to setting up individual Student BlogsGain tips for creating student blogsLearn how to create student blogs using the Blog & User Creator – Edublogs Pro/Campus users onlyLearn how to create student blogs using the Edublogs Signup page – free Edublogs users onlyComplete the extension activity (if you have time). Step 1: Recommended Approach to Setting up Student Blogs As highlighted in Student Blogging Activity 5 (Beginner): Add Students To Your Class Blog So They Can Write Posts the best approach to student blogging is to take it slowly. Benefits of this approach include: Write comments on class blogs Write posts on the class blog 1. 2.
The Blogger Name Generator: 9 Easy Ways To Name Your Blog Fashion crisis alert! You want to start a fashion blog but have no clue of what to name it! Help! SOS! Ladies and gentlemen, this is sarcasm. While sarcasm is having this ‘moment,’ I figured I’d push it for its full fifteen minutes. Before we get started, you must always remember, alliteration is always preferred when naming a blog. 1. - Sugar Plums and Saddle Shoes - Cheesecake and Charm Bracelets - Animal Crackers and Couture - Peplums and Pineapples - Manicures and Extra Frosting… Please - Braids and Brownies - Models and Macaroons - Lipstick and Lemon Drops - Celine Bags and Sour Skittles - Kate Moss and Candy - Polka Dots and Popcorn - DIOR AND DUNKAROOS!!!! 2. 3. - Chanelista - Diorista - Anna Dello Russo-ista - Gypsyista - Jet Settista - Manicurista - Audrey Hepburnista - Sparkle-ista - Parisianista - Romancinista - Hippy-ista - Rouge-ista - Lipstickista - Pin Stripe-ista - Karl Lagerfeldista - Choupettista (I went there.) 4. 5. 6. - How Do You Wear That? 7. 8. 9.
Lernen mit IT Die LEARNTEC ist die Internationale Fachmesse und Kongress für Lernen mit IT, vom 27. bis 29. Januar 2015 auf dem Messegelände in Karlsruhe. E-Learning ist nicht mehr nur ein Trend. Mittlerweile hat es sich zu einem festen Bestandteil integrierter Bildungskonzepte entwickelt. Immer mehr Unternehmen setzen auf technikgestütztes Lernen. Die stetig wachsende Zahl an Ausstellern bestätigt diese Richtung und zeigt E-Learning ist stärker als je zuvor. Die LEARNTEC bietet diesem Markt ein Zuhause. How Blogging Transformed my Classes – Mrs. McNally's Mumblings This semester I incorporated blogging into my classes. I decided to use Edublogs and encourage each student to set up their own blog. All the individual blogs link back to mine, and students can see one another’s work on their “Dashboard” when logged in. I was apprehensive about how blogging would impact my classes at first. Obviously I worked with my students on the writing concepts I wanted them to display in their blogs, but the real magic happened when students were reading one another’s posts and interacting in the comments. I also noticed my students working harder to produce quality work. The student blogs allowed each student to show their personality in a safe manner. When I decided to start blogging, I wanted to make sure my kids would learn the same skills as the other 10th graders who were writing one long persuasive essay (for the whole semester) with a fresh and new spin on writing. Stay tuned, because I know you’re going to like what’s to come!
Step 5 – Add Students To Your Class Blog So They Can Write Posts We’ve designed a series of nine steps, with how-to info, to help you with your class blogging. This step is to add your students as users to your class blog so they can write posts on it. Why Add Students As Users To Class Blogs? Normally when a class blog is initially set up you’ll be responsible for writing posts, and the students respond by writing comments. This gives you time to increase your skills while gradually introducing your students to blogging and educating them on appropriate online behaviour. However, ultimately you’ll need to make decisions: Do you want students to write posts on the class blog? Factors you need to consider include student’s age, time and motivation. As student’s age increases you are more likely to want them to write posts on the class blog or their own blog (i.e. as a general rule Kindergarten and Grade 1 students write comments only). Ownership and Motivation Ownership is an important part of blogging; as it’s an important part of life. Time Involved 1. 2. 3.