Sites to See for Sept. 14

HippoCampus
http://www.hippocampus.org/
Free, online resources for students and teachers in a variety of subjects. I played with the Algebra modules and found the explanations to be good and the practice questions helpful—when you get the question wrong, it explains why. Several other subject areas are available. (This coming from someone who can do algebra but can’t explain to you how she got the answer!) If you feel so inclined, you can also create your own HippoCampus resources to share.

Making a Difference - Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/Specials/making-a-difference
If you feel like the news isn’t terribly uplifting, this series about people who make the world a better place should lift your spirits. Might be good stories to share with your students in those moments when you get to just talk.


Museum Blogs - Museum News and Blog Directory
http://museumblogs.org/
As someone who’s insanely curious about things and gets sparked into finding out more very easily, this collection of art, history, and science museum blogs makes me happy. The people writing for these blogs are professional curious people.


Comics in the Classroom - 100 Tips, Tools and Resources for Teachers
http://www.teachingdegree.org/2009/07/05/comics-in-the-classroom-100-tips-tools-and-resources-for-teachers/
Doing a something a little different and getting our kids’ attention is always a good thing. These sites offer lesson plans, recommendations of comics and graphic novels, and other teacher resources.

Zipcode Zoo
http://zipcodezoo.com
Helps you identify animals, plants, birds, butterflies and more in your area. Includes a "Critter ID Forum," slide shows, videos, an Ask a Biologist podcast, and more.


NowPublic.com: Crowd-Powered Media
http://www.nowpublic.com/
Where ordinary citizens can report the news—I’m always curious what other people call “news.”

LOL....too cute!

I SOOOOO want to buy this BOOK....not on Kindle, the BOOK!

It's a Book by Lane Smith

Am I a traitor?

I finally did what I've been holding out on doing for quite some time now.

And I feel like a traitor. It goes against my inner belief that I can't do it. Just can't. Or shouldn't, maybe.

I bought one of these.

And I'm torn. I mean, I'm BEYOND excited. BEYOND EXCITED. Anything that makes it easier for me to always have a book on hand is a win-win situation.

But...it's not a book. It's a device. And while those are lovely, it's not a book. I know you know what I mean.

Censorship

Banned Books Week is fast approaching. I say "fast" because the last 2 months have literally flown by for me, and I can't help but imagine that the next will move just as quickly.

Being in a high school library, in red, "Bible Belt" state, I frequently think about censorship. When my new principal and I talked this summer, it came up. It just does. Not about anything specific, but just my, and his, general thoughts about it. The books you may find in my collection that are "questionable" (at worst) are books that I know there's kid in my school needs to read. I may not make a big deal of having it, it may never make a display or be booktalked to a large group, but it's there.

Is this censorship? Maybe. Probably. Censorship by omission? I'll grant that I am being "actively inactive" about those books. It's my experience that, generally, the books that get challenged are the ones with a lot of hoopla attached before a challenge was filed. That's not to say those books should've been the subject of a challenge. I firmly believe that

Censorship, like charity, should begin in the home, but unlike charity it should end there.

(I don't know who said that, a quick Google search didn't turn up an answer. If you know, feel free to tell me in the comments.)

This morning, while reading about something completely unrelated on LM_Net, I came across this quote.

"Kids are living stories every day that we wouldn't let them read. "--Josh Westbrook

My gosh...isn't that the truth? I can't imagine telling a kid he can't read a book because the subject matter isn't appropriate in our school when he's living it everyday of his life.

The way it is..

I’m writing this from a netbook that’s fully functioning, connected to a network, and set up in a classroom watching 31 kids who have voluntarily given up summer free time to attend summer school. (Okay, I know “voluntarily” may be a bit of a stretch. Some of these kiddos were volunteered by their parents.) Some are making up credits, some are working to get a little ahead.

 

This morning, we’re sitting around staring at each other. Our Internet server is still asleep and we’re waiting on a tech to take care of us. Other than having a couple ask if they have to stay since they can’t work anyway, everyone’s entertaining themselves. We’ve got solitaire and pinball going on some computers. It’s kind of nice in here. Beats being in the summer heat.

 

But it’s bugging me that we’ve basically lost instruction time. In the interest of efficiency and expediency, and well..cost-effectiveness….we’ve eliminated teachers actually teaching credit classes. At least in summer school. I can’t help but think that if we’d put all the kids in similar subjects in a room with a teacher, that some teaching and learning could have been happening for the last 45 minutes, as opposed to honing our solitaire skills. (Which is important for life, you know?) I could come up with some throw-down activity, but I’m monitoring the learning of 31 students taking 11 different subjects. How exactly do I make the telephone game relevant to all of them? Might as well circle up for some duck-duck-goose.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about technology. Love it. I have more technology at my fingers—and know how to use it and implement its use in the classroom—than I ever imagined having. I love using it as a tool when working with my teachers and students. But what happened to just teaching? I still think that more often than the computer gurus would like, the best teaching comes from paper and pencil tasks and chalk on a chalkboard (or the equivalent). We depend on the technology so much we’re hamstrung when it fails us.

 

I’m not any better in my personal life. I mean, I own a regular laptop at home plus this netbook, plus an iPhone. Yesterday, I got a little frantic when I realized my phone was so completely out of juice that I actually had to wait 20 minutes for it to have enough to support my email checking and texting while plugged in to charge. Sigh.