The following websites have information about Theodor Giesel, or “Dr. Seuss” and “Read Across America.”

Theodor Seuss Giesel, “Dr. Seuss” Biography

Cat in the Hat: Happy Birthday

Read Across America Activities

Dr. Seuss Printables

Literature Resources:

Bookhive

Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County

This site provides book reviews for children from birth to 12.

Carol Hurst Children’s Literature Site

This excellent site, created by Carol Hurst, highlights books, provides book reviews, and literature connections throughout the curriculum.

ReadWriteThink Web Resources

An outstanding collection of literature, literacy, media, and writing resources.

Educators are always interested in engaging and creative ways to review content. Selina Jarvis teaches high school civics, or government, and US history at Currituck County High School.

She had created several of the Jeopardy type games with MS Power Point. She used this type of game to review for unit tests and to help students review for the End of Course exam.

Unfortunately, the PPT game did not always work smoothly with the Mimio equipment in her classroom. It’s a bug she has not been able to work out.

I recently discovered Jeopardy Labs and I told her about it. I asked her to send me the questions and I used them to create a short online civics review.

• Jeopardy Labs is free.
• Games are stored online.
• It’s easy to setup the questions and answers.
• It would be easy to establish a “online repository” of games for a department.

Civics Today Game 1

Civics Today: Bluff Game

After creating the game, a link is provided for the game and another link is provided for editting purposes.  I would suggest bookmarking the link and sending the link in an email to yourself, just as a “backup.”

What is RSS?

RSS (Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) are “feeds” from websites. An aggregator gathers all of the “feeds” into an index of your website subscription. It allows you to quickly scan the “list” of websites and alerts you to new postings.

When I first began following blogs, I chose to use Bloglines. I still use Bloglines because it is web-based and easy to use.  I can access it from any computer with an Internet connection and the feeds “patiently” wait until I am ready to read them.

Through an aggregator and RSS (Rich Site Summary) you can quickly check to see if a blogger has posted a new post.

Getting Started

• Choose an aggregator. I use Bloglines but there are others available.  For other recommendations, ask friends and colleagues.

• Subscribe to a few blogs.

• Check the aggregator once a day for a few days. Some bloggers post every day but some post sporadically.

• Read the new blog posts when it is convenient for you.

For a quick and easy tour of RSS, watch the following Common Craft video “RSS in Plain English” hosted on Teacher Tube:

Setup an Account

• Begin by registering for a Bloglines account.

• Check your email and accept the “registration invitation.”

• Select the feed tab.

• Click “Add.” Type the URL or  copy and paste the URL from the blogsite into the “add” box. Click subscribe.

• If a blog has more than one “subscription,” place a check mark in the box next to the one you want to follow. Click Subscribe.

• Select the “Feed” tab.  All feeds will update as new posts are added.

Astronomy Resources for Teachers (from Edutopia Online)

Children’s Series Binder - Webster (NY) Public Library (from AASL Hotlinks – February 2009):

Google Teacher Newsletter (Winter 2009)

YA Lit 2.0 “The UnQuiet Library’s” Page Cast

Langwitches Web Searching Strategies for Elementary Students

Grant Opportunities

Ezra Jack Keat Foundation Grant

The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation is offering $500. mini-grants to school libraries for special programs.  The deadline for submission is September 15, 2009.  Link to the application:

http://www.ezra-jack-keats.org/programs/minigrantapp.pdf

Student Contests

World Math Day Video Challenge

Doodle 4 Google

Blogs are often defined as online journals. Blogs are designed to allow “give and take” by the reader and the writer. Readers may choose to respond to a blog post by posting or submitting comments. One of the additional advantages of a blog, is the ability of the writer or blogger to link to online content, such as articles, other blogs posts, or other web resources.

For example, I may choose to link to the  Currituck County Schools website or the North Carolina’s 21st Century Schools website.

Just as there are many different kinds of “print” genres, there are many different kinds of blogs, or weblogs.  One of the best ways to learn about blogs is to read a few and then “follow them,” just as you would a comic strip or an favorite columnist, for a few weeks.

How Do I Find Blogs?

Ask friends and colleagues for suggestions. Here is a short list of some of the blogs I follow:

Currituck Teachers and Staff Blogs

Currituck Media and Technology

Lefanim

Lucy and Ethel’s Library Schemes

Other Educational Bloggers

2¢ Worth

Bud the Teacher

Cool Cat Teacher Blog

History is Elementary

Langwitches

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day

A Year of Reading

Blog Search Engines

Or, use one of the following blog search engine to find blogs about topics of interest:

Technorati

Google Blogs

Blogs in the Yahoo Directory

Next Post: RSS Feeds or Keeping It All Together

Sometimes, I am asked, “What do you do?”  I am an instructional technology facilitator for the Currituck County School District.  The person may then inquire….  “So, what does that mean? What do you actually do all day?”  The short answer is I help teachers and students find and use media and technology resources.

I help teachers learn how to use new and old media and technology. I work with large and small groups, or I meet with individual teachers.  Support and outreach are an essential piece of what I do.  So, I assist teachers in a computer lab or the classroom as they begin to try a new tool or resource.  This is similar to what a swim instructor does when she/he teaches beginning swimmers.

This blog is a way for me to reflect on my teaching, learning, and coaching.