I read somewhere about a reading competition in Nebraska where students
are given a list of books to read and divide it up by class and then
compete with other schools to answer questions similar to quiz bowl.  I
can't find my notes, but would like to try and join the "reading bowl"
or whatever it's called next school year.  If this event sounds somewhat
familiar, would you please let me know the real name and some contact
information for a school to join.  It seems like maybe Lexington and
some other nearby schools had "reading bowl" groups.



Thanks in advance for any help you may give me on shedding light on this!

Debby

Happy Spring Language Arts teachers!!!!  I am NOT feeling it... how about you?  Well here are a few links that might bring a little sunshine to your corner of the world!

• Google Tools in Bloom's Revised Taxonomy
• How a Web Search Works
• 10 Resources for Teaching Reading/Literature with Technology
• 5 Simple Things to Help Teachers with Web 2.0
• Video 21 - Are you wondering what 21st Century Skills look like in the classroom?  This is a great list of videos that give examples of different instructional skills.

If you are already using Google at your school or if you are planning to go Google soon, check out these great lesson plans I found.  Use the different Google tools to do these great activities!  These look like a lot of fun and very "21st Century!"  See what you think!

What did you try?  How did it go?
http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/lesson_plans.html 

from Ardith Davenport on March 2, 2011

I am looking for an excellent reading list to provide to my Honors English 10 students to help guide them in personal reading selections.  There are so many books and so many lists on-line that are not really helpful to students.  Does anyone out there have any ideas?

There are all kinds of sites on the web that provide daily writing prompts.  This is just one article about one of those sites.  http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/03/toasted-cheese-daily-writing-prompts.html

What do you use for daily writing prompts?  How do you use them in your classroom?  Please share!!!

I have a browser full of links to share this week.  Hope you can use this smorgasbord of resources!

• 11 Language Arts Resources to Try in 2011 is from Ryan Byrne at Free Technology for Teachers which you can subscribe to using your blog reader or you can get his updates in Facebook!
• Interesting Ways to... is a listing of all the Google Presentations done by Tom Barrett who built a beginning of these slideshows and then crowd-sourced them to fill in more ideas.  These are great ways of using particular tools such as Google Docs, Visualizer, QR Codes, Audio, and more!
• 50 Exciting Ideas for the Classroom Using Google Earth 
• Apps Gone Free is a daily posting of iPod/iPad apps that are free for a day.  don't be distracted by the games that they post, there are some for everyone on this site! 
• You Tube Time Machine for finding You Tube videos based on date!  There are some very old videos on there!
• Fun ideas for putting project based learning in your classroom.  Learn Through Projects from Tony Vincent
• Google eBooks Bookstore

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to read a couple of articles that I thought you might like to read.  These articles talk about changes in education that I think we can no longer ignore hoping they just "work themselves out."

This is the Top 10 Predictions of 2011 from Tech and Learning. Most of them deal with technology.  For you, this may not be a surprise but maybe for some!

This second article is from Connected Principals blog written by David Truss titled, Less is More; Teach Less, Learn More.  This article contains a video that is about 25 minutes long.  This is well worth your time!  I found this most interesting as he spoke of Finland's education system, which is best in the world.  How does it compare to the US?  How does it compare to YOUR district?  This article is not about technology.  This is about instruction.

What did you find most surprising in these links?  Who did you share them with?

Check spelling, grammar, and style with "After the Deadline"
http://www.polishmywriting.com/

Fun site for grammar and capitalization!  Would be great for practice!
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/grammar/capitalization.htm

Are you starting a project that students might need to know more about copyright and creative commons?  Check out this great video on sharing!  It will be a great addition to your lesson!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3rksT1q4eg&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1