Nerdy Book Club:http://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/ I'll admit it. At heart, I've always been a nerd. I like to read. I like to write. I like to challenge myself and let those neutrons in my brain fire away, making new and exciting connections to the stuff tucked away neatly in my grey matter. In fact, as a child with limited motor skills and a severe aversion to extended hours of glaring sunlight, I spent many summer days curled up with a good book. Specifically, I remember a volume of Greek myths that I read every single summer; I would spend the hottest parts of the day absorbed in stories of Cupid, Psyche, Prometheus, and Hades. These gods and goddesses, lovers and heroes, became something akin to old friends that I revisited each year when it was simply too hot to go outside and play with my sister. Reading was a priceless piece of my oasis. This love for books continued until I was in high school where, sadly, my love of books ceased, suddenly and without warning. I don't know exactly what contributed to this sudden dislike for books, but I would guess it was a combination of many things: Accelerated Reader, lack of choice when it came to choosing books, the over-teaching of interesting books. Suddenly, reading became a chore, rather than an activity that I did for fun. Instead of relishing my private reading time, I actually began thinking up ways to pass classes without doing the required reading. What happened to me?! Recently, however, I have rediscovered the joys of reading for fun. A summer vacation to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter prompted me to go home and begin reading the series. (I mean, they were already on my bookshelf. The least I could do was give them a chance, right?) I devoured the books! Now, I'm like an addict. I just can't stop reading books. I feel that childhood love of literature bubbling back up to the surface as I continue reading. The challenge is that I want to simultaneously burn through as many books as I can, but I also want to savor every bit of the language as I go. As it stands, I am enjoying reading with no other purpose than the ultimate reading purpose--FUN--and my list of "must-reads" is quickly growing as students and peers continue to make recommendations. In short, I'm enjoying the journey of a born-again reader. In my quest to get more information about excellent reads--young adult literature in particular--I have come across some fabulous resources. One that I have found particularly interesting is the Nerdy Book Club blog. I discovered this website from a tweet posted by Donalyn Miller. (Her book, The Book Whisperer, has been very transformational in terms of my approach to teaching novels this school year.) Currently, the Nerdy Book Club is taking nominations for the best books of 2011. I'm really anticipating the results--great book recommendations from people who love to read books! What more could an English teacher ask for? Visit Nerdy Book Club blog to make nominations, or to hear the buzz from fellow bibliophiles! Note: Want to know what I'm reading? Check HERE.
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Draw A Stickman is a fun interactive website that takes you on an adventure where you draw the main character, as well as other items, to help him overcome obstacles. I could see this website being fun for little ones, as well as high school students. In fact, I think that this would work well as a review of conflict and resolution, or the plot pyramid. (Perhaps I will use this with the "plot roller coaster" graphic that I blogged about earlier.) This activity would work great with an Interactive White Board, such as a Smart Board or Promethean. It is also available as a FREE app for the iPhone or iPad. There is no recording feature for later playback, but this can easily be achieved by creating a screencast with a tool such as Screenr. Note: I learned about this website from reading the iLearn Technology blog, to whose RSS feed I subscribe. I highly recommend you check out their website! Zap Reader is a free online speed reading program that boasts "increased reading speed without loss of comprehension." Simply copy and paste text, and Zap Reader will show the text at a rate of 300 words per minute. The rate, as well as number of words shown at a time, is completely adjustable. Zap Reader also offers a bookmarklet for instant zapping. ViewPure is a great tool for any teacher who loves YouTube, but hates all of the annoying ads, user comments, and related videos that pop up online. They can be distracting, bothersome, and (sometimes) inappropriate. Simply copy the URL of the YouTube video that you want to watch, and paste the URL into the bar on the ViewPure website. Or, you can visit ViewPure and simply drag their icon into your browser bookmark toolbar. Once ViewPure is on your toolbar, you simply click on it while viewing a YouTube video and it will automatically "purify." Whether you plan to participate in National Novel Writing Month or not, this website offers some wonderful free resources that can be used all year: http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/node/ After all, why stop writing at the end of November? Print off the free PDF Writer's workbooks (available in elementary, middle school and high school levels) and conduct mini-lessons on a variety of literary elements, including the "plot roller coaster," character development, conflict, setting, mood, dialogue, and using sensory details. These workbooks are incredibly versatile, and would work well with literature circles, classroom novel studies, or student writing assignments. NaNoWriMo also includes exercises for work shopping student writing--peer review and self-review--as well as grammar checklists, and guidelines for writing a letter to an editor. Another feature that I like about the writing workbooks is that they strongly link the acts of reading and writing, asking students to reflect on positive reading experiences that they have had in order to inspire their own writing. NaNoWriMo's plot roller coaster NaNoWriMo even offers "pep talks" from professional young adult literature authors to help keep your students on track and highly motivated. This year, I'm particularly looking forward to the pep talk given by Gayle Foreman; I just recently finished reading If I Stay, and I loved every minute of it! So, what are you waiting for? Start that novel! (Or, at the very least, beef up your writing curriculum with some top-notch resources.) Go To Quiz allows users to create free online polls, quizzes and tests. My favorite feature, however, is the ability to create multi-answer quizzes--for example, which Harry Potter character are you? This turned out to be a big hit with my students, many of which create Time Machine-inspired quizzes for quiz-takers to find out if they are Morlocks or Eloi. The only drawback is that, because the service is free, there are a lot of ads that pop up on their website. I also hope that, in the future, they offer an embed code so that quizzes can be directly embedded into websites. Still, creating a quiz is a creative alternative book project, and the price (did I mention that it's free?) can't be beat! I found out about Sploder completely by accident. For a class assignment, students were asked to collaborate in order to create websites focused on the novel The Time Machine. Many groups decided that they wanted to create games for their websites. I had no experience building online games, so I told students to Google "create video games online" and the standout winner among online video game creators was Sploder. My students loved building their own custom games and playing them. Below, I'm embedding a screencast of myself playing (very poorly, I might add) a student-created game, in which the player plays as the time traveller, fighting the morlocks with a mace. I must say that I really love it when I get to teach my students something new, but it's just as much fun when they teach me something new! SpicyNodes is a dynamic organization tool that is designed to make content easier for your web page visitors to navigate. However, it also has plenty of educational uses; namely, it is a great tool for visually representing information in much the same way as Prezi. It offers features, including the ability to add images, music, and YouTube videos. Essentially, these "nodemaps" are multi-media mind maps. SpicyNodes is simple enough for students to create on their own. In fact, SpicyNodes offers sample lesson plans on their website HERE. SpicyNodes could also be built by teachers as an engaging way of delivering classroom notes, creating webquests, or recording group brainstorming activities. SpicyNodes could also be used for outlining information (such as book chapters), creating character profiles, or prewriting before an essay. SpicyNodes can also be used as a change of pace from standard tools, such as Power Point. In honor of Banned Book Week (September 24-October 1, 2011) I created this sign to "warn" students about books in the classroom library. Posting a bulletin board of commonly banned books always sparks some interesting classroom discussions, particularly when students notice that many frequently challenged and banned books are some of their favorites--even, at times, required reading in junior high! Why not celebrate by making your own caution sign in honor of banned books? This Warning Sign Generator is very easy to use and offers many eye-appealing options. (All for free, of course.) The Warning Sign Generator also offers many more traditional sign options. Just choose your sign layout and your graphic, and then customize your text to create endless possibilities. Below, I'm embedding a handy little "cheat sheet" that I created for use with the Ipevo Document Camera. The chart shows how to navigate the different menu options. It was created using MS Publisher, then published as a PDF using Primo PDF, and published online with Slideshare. Please feel free to copy/alter/distribute. Ipevo Document Camera "Cheat Sheet" View more presentations from jesspilgreen |
AuthorDr. Jessica Pilgreen, Ed.D. Archives
December 2020
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