Several weeks ago I found the Picnic Basket, a blog that features new kid lit and offers teachers and librarians the opportunity to get complimentary copies of those books in exchange for reviews. I chose Sea Queens: Women Pirates Around the World by Jane Yolen.
On the Picnic-Basket scale, I'd give it a 4. I enjoyed most of the book, but some of the profiles were a bit short.
I loved the sidebars throughout the book that explain pirate terminology or give extra tidbits of history. "The Pirate's Code" and "Pirate or Privateer?" are especially good. My favorite profile was of 16th century Irish pirate Grania O'Malley. Lots of colorful detail and great information about what historians do and do not know about the real Grania. The chapters on Artemisia and Madame Ching give a non-European experience of pirating; this helps make the book more well-rounded. The roundup of Sea Queens that historians don't know much about is a nice touch and the bibliography is excellent.
I'd like to see Yolen expand the chapter on Anne Bonney and Mary Read into a book. It's a fascinating story and one that I can see students getting in to.
12 September 2008
09 September 2008
An Ah-ha! Moment on Reference Materials
Last week my AP World History students were reading an article with difficult vocabulary. When asked which words were unfamiliar, they came up with a list of 30 words as quickly as it took me to write them on the board. We discovered the meaning of most of the words through context clues, but we also talked about using a dictionary when the going got tough. The bell rang and the students filed out to the next class.
Much later that night it occurred to me that if all of them wanted to use a dictionary I was out of luck. I did a mental inventory and realized that I have three collegiate dictionaries that technically belong to the yearbook staff, one hardback so old and used that I'm not even sure what it is, two paperbacks that have some pages missing and a hard back middle school dictionary that I got for free at a conference more than ten years ago. I have no hope of getting more dictionaries unless I buy them or find a dictionary fairy under a portable classroom someplace.
What's a teacher to do? That was when I smacked myself in the forehead and said "DUH." Students should Google their definitions. But wait! I only have ten computers in the classroom (which is a good sight more than most other teachers at my school). Yes, Google will still save me. I quickly planned a demonstration.
The next day, I had three volunteers. One had the middle school dictionary, one had the collegiate dictionary, and the third had her cell phone. The first word was 'ubiquity.' The collegiate dictionary won in three of the four classes. However, when we got to a political term, 'swiftboating,' the dictionaries were dead in the water. Neither volunteer could find the word (because the word is relatively new and the dictionaries are old). Google, however, zipped back the definition lickety-split. The students were in awe. So, how did we do this?
Google allows SMS messaging for some of its services. The dictionary is one of them. So, if a student texts the message 'd swiftboating' to 466453, she will get the definition back as a standard text message. Google offers additional SMS features as well. Visit their 'how to' page to get all the instructions. As Google says, while they don't charge for the services, your cell phone carrier might and standard text messaging rates probably apply.
Of course, we'll have to wait and see how this works out. I wonder if students will want to use "I don't know this word" as an excuse to get out their phones and text their friends. However, it is nice to have freed them from having to have a dictionary at school.
Much later that night it occurred to me that if all of them wanted to use a dictionary I was out of luck. I did a mental inventory and realized that I have three collegiate dictionaries that technically belong to the yearbook staff, one hardback so old and used that I'm not even sure what it is, two paperbacks that have some pages missing and a hard back middle school dictionary that I got for free at a conference more than ten years ago. I have no hope of getting more dictionaries unless I buy them or find a dictionary fairy under a portable classroom someplace.
What's a teacher to do? That was when I smacked myself in the forehead and said "DUH." Students should Google their definitions. But wait! I only have ten computers in the classroom (which is a good sight more than most other teachers at my school). Yes, Google will still save me. I quickly planned a demonstration.
The next day, I had three volunteers. One had the middle school dictionary, one had the collegiate dictionary, and the third had her cell phone. The first word was 'ubiquity.' The collegiate dictionary won in three of the four classes. However, when we got to a political term, 'swiftboating,' the dictionaries were dead in the water. Neither volunteer could find the word (because the word is relatively new and the dictionaries are old). Google, however, zipped back the definition lickety-split. The students were in awe. So, how did we do this?
Google allows SMS messaging for some of its services. The dictionary is one of them. So, if a student texts the message 'd swiftboating' to 466453, she will get the definition back as a standard text message. Google offers additional SMS features as well. Visit their 'how to' page to get all the instructions. As Google says, while they don't charge for the services, your cell phone carrier might and standard text messaging rates probably apply.
Of course, we'll have to wait and see how this works out. I wonder if students will want to use "I don't know this word" as an excuse to get out their phones and text their friends. However, it is nice to have freed them from having to have a dictionary at school.
02 September 2008
What Teachers are Saying about Google Apps
Today, Tom Barrett posted "11 Google Apps Improvements for the Classroom" on his blog ICT In My Classroom.
Even better, I received word today that many of the Google Apps have been unblocked by district filters, so we're finally ready to get started using the tools in several classrooms. I have been using Google Docs in my yearbook class for more than a year. I really got tired of hearing the excuses for leaving work at home. I also got tired of feeling bad about my school only having Microsoft Word, which can't read most of the software that comes installed in today's computers. Google Docs has helped my students to become more successful writers and better collaborators. I am SO excited to roll out Google Apps with my students.
Tom's post is suggesting improvements that will make Google Apps even more user friendly than they already are. My favorites:
Even better, I received word today that many of the Google Apps have been unblocked by district filters, so we're finally ready to get started using the tools in several classrooms. I have been using Google Docs in my yearbook class for more than a year. I really got tired of hearing the excuses for leaving work at home. I also got tired of feeling bad about my school only having Microsoft Word, which can't read most of the software that comes installed in today's computers. Google Docs has helped my students to become more successful writers and better collaborators. I am SO excited to roll out Google Apps with my students.
Tom's post is suggesting improvements that will make Google Apps even more user friendly than they already are. My favorites:
- Add audio comment capability. Can you imagine? I would LOVE to be able to leave my students a comments that were a bit more personal than the comments on the page. If students hear " I really liked the way you___________ in your essay this time," maybe they won't get so discouraged when they have a long way to go!
- Add Notebook into Google Apps. Notebook is a great way to clip and organize online resources. The ability to add notations to your sources is awesome.
- Google Spreadsheet and Presentation already have chat capability, so, as Tom suggests, why not add the same feature to Docs? Makes perfect sense to me. I also love the idea of archiving the conversation much like you can do in gmail chat. It would be great for student teams to go back to their conversation from earlier in their collaboration process.
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