Week+of+March+30,+2009

toc =Interesting Web Sites= [|EtherPad] : Today, it's more important than ever to have students collaborating on school work, especially writing. EtherPad allows students to type in an online Word document at the same time. It's the best one I've seen. Two or more people can literally type on the same document, in the same space, at the same time. It even has a chat box for students to use so they can talk about their paper as they are writing it. **Application:** have students team together to write a paper outside of the classroom. This site works on any computer so they are not locked to their laptop. You can also have students from a different school working on a paper at the same time. Soon, Microsoft Word will be a fossil of writing.

[|PurposeGames] : Most teachers liked Quia because of the games it offers. This site allows you to use games already created, like this one: [], and you can make games, too. Better yet, have your students make the games.

[|WeTheTeachers] : Teachers have asked me about online pen pals and I thought this site would be good for teachers who want to connect with other teachers.

[|YouTubeEDU] : YouTube employees of YouTube created a new site that contains educational material from colleges and universities.

Here's a lecture from Standford University on evolution: media type="custom" key="3552690"

[|Shmoop] : I've mentioned Shmoop before but they've added new content:
 * New in Shmoop Literature:**
 * All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque
 * Billy Budd, by Herman Melville
 * "Hills Like White Elephants," by Ernest Hemingway
 * Middlemarch, by George Eliot
 * The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde
 * The Taming of the Shrew, by William Shakespeare
 * "Teddy," by J.D. Salinger


 * New in Shmoop Poetry:**
 * "At the round earth's imagined corners" (Holy Sonnet 7), by John Donne
 * "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," by Walt Whitman
 * "The Eagle," by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
 * "Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape," by John Ashbery
 * "How do I love thee?", by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
 * "Leda and the Swan," by W.B. Yeats
 * "Ozymandias," by Percy Shelley
 * Sonnet 2, by William Shakespeare
 * New in Shmoop US History**
 * History of Labor Unions
 * The Gilded Age 1870-1900
 * New in Shmoop Book Club
 * Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer

=Teaching Tips= What does this have to do with your classroom? (use your override if necessary) media type="youtube" key="ivjybzdXVmI" height="344" width="425"

Clue: it's about your students, not you exactly.

=Student Work= Below is a slideshow of pictures that were taken in Mrs. Quash's classes. She had her students engage in Interview Design, a Quality Questioning tool. The students read some "chemistry literature" if you can imagine that and then rotated through the room answering questions from each other. Each picture has a caption that describes the process of Interview Design. The best part of this is that it engaged the students by making them the facilitator, not the teacher. Mrs. Quash was truly the "guide on the side." media type="custom" key="3554792"

This slideshow is provided by [|Bubbleshare].

=General Notes= Earlier this week I sent an April Fool's email about the new laptop we would get. I also sent a follow up email about that, so I'll repeat it here if you didn't read that. Students in India are getting this $100 laptops to learn with. Which means, our students are competing with them for information. Some of these students in India are the poorest of poor. Yet, they will gain the very skills our students need to learn. However, because of technology, they no longer need to move to the United States. They can stay in India and be rich earning $20,000 US dollars taking a $50,000 job from our future students. These are the three questions students need to answer about their future job:
 * 1) Can someone overseas do it cheaper?
 * 2) Can a computer do it faster?
 * 3) Is what I'm offering in demand today?

They better answer no, no, and yes. Hopefully, with the advantages we have with laptops in the classroom, HCPS is helping kids answer this way.

I think we can expect an announcement soon on which laptop we will be using next year and the terms of the agreement.

=School Space= It's probably a good idea now to make sure things you want to keep in School Space for next year are in your LOR, the Learning Object Repository. That way, at the end of the year when Technology wipes School Space, your work is saved. Start now so you're not rushed later.

=Reminders= MP3 grades are to be exported by the end of the day on Thursday, April 16, 2009. The eClass handout will be in School Space.

Soon, our students will be turning in laptops. However, students who are registered for Online Courses will not turn in their laptops as of now. We're not totally sure with the new laptops around the corner. But, be advised that some students may keep their computers. However, they should be keeping their laptop at home.

Sent ideas to Philip Evans in the English Department about how to maintain Quality Questioning techniques for next year.