Young Adult Books

At the conference I was at this past week, Dwayne Jeffery held a session about young adult books. WITHOUT NOTES he rattled off plots, characters, suggestions, ideas, etc for over 100 books. I was blown away by his memory! Thanks for the suggestions Dwayne - I look forward to reading many of these titles as well as sharing them with my students.

Dwayne Jeffery - blog

Photo by gibsonselectric

CEATCA Resources

Photo by James Jordan

Handouts, etc:

• CEATCA Handout

• Google Lit Trips Code Tips

ELAC information:

• TNET Login for your no charge membership - needs to be renewed annually however.
• ELAC Membership Application Form (Printable) - if you would prefer a "low tech" version
• Central ELAC's Webpage - RSS capability coming soon!
• Conference 2011 - Celebrating New Heights Registration - Banff, AB

Thank you for attending our session! See you soon!

With Easter on its way...

GOO!

The Other Side of the Bridge

When our school librarian says "try this!" I usually push aside what I'm currently reading to check it out. Yet again, I was not disappointed. The Other Side of the Bridge by Canadian author Mary Lawson, held me captive - I did not want to put it down for even a minute. I agree with our librarian's sentiment - this book will very likely end up on our next "Recommended Books" list.

 From Publishers Weekly (www.amazon.ca)

In this follow-up to her acclaimed Crow Lake, Lawson again explores the moral quandaries of life in the Canadian North. At the story's poles are Arthur Dunn, a stolid, salt-of-the-earth farmer, and his brother, Jake, a handsome, smooth-talking snake in the grass, whose lifelong mutual resentments and betrayals culminate in a battle over the beautiful Laura, with Arthur, it seems, the unlikely winner. Observing, and eventually intervening in their saga, is Ian, a teenager who goes to work on Arthur's farm to get close to Laura, seeing in her the antithesis of the mother who abandoned his father and him. It's a standard romantic dilemma—who to choose: the goodhearted but dull provider or the seductive but unreliable rogue?—but it gains depth by being set in Lawson's epic narrative of the Northern Ontario town of Struan as it weathers Depression, war and the coming of television. It's a world of pristine landscapes and brutal winters, where beauty and harshness are inextricably intertwined, as when Ian brings home a puppy that gambols adorably about—and then playfully kills Ian's even cuter pet bunny. Lawson's evocative writing untangles her characters' confused impulses toward city and country, love and hate, good and evil. 

Google Lit Trips

It was hard for my grade 9s to picture London today, let alone London of the 16th Century. However, I was able to use Google Lit Trips as a springboard for showing them where our character, Richard, in The Playmaker lived and travelled. For many, they had those "ah-ha!" moments or "oh my goodness - are you kidding? HE WALKED ALL THAT WAY?" moments.  The interactivity provided through my Smartboard took it that step further.

Google Lit Trips
Make sure to check out the "Getting Started" tab for some how-to videos.

How to have students create them!

A PDF with some suggestions for how to have students create them for the purpose of a book report.

Magnetic Poetry

One of my favourite past-times has been creating "Magnetic Poetry" - now I can do it online!

Magnetic Poetry Games

Photo by glindsay65

How PowerPoint is Killing Education

I constantly have to remind myself: technology is just a tool.

Educational Leadership published an article last month that highlights this idea as well:

How PowerPoint is Killing Education, Marc Isseks

Photo by michigancommunities

Since it can't be accessed without an account, here are a few highlights:

The Root problem of PowerPoint presentations is not the power or the point, but the presentation. A presentation, but its very nature, is one-sided. The presenter does everything-- gathers information, eliminates extraneous points, and selects the direction and duration of the presentation. The role of the audience is to sit and absorb the information. Yes, they may ask questions, but typically only those queries that directly relate to the slides are deemed worth of responses. What happens to thoughts and ideas that are not part of the presentation? 

The article goes on to discuss this downfall in simply relying upon the dumbed-down, bulleted lists created by teachers for their subject. However, it does present an alternative to the bulleted list:

Remove many bullet points. Class notes should be derived from discovery and discussion, not a predetermined list of facts. Create presentations that are rich with images, videos, political cartoons, diagrams, and maps - presentations that feature questions rather than answers.

Suddenly I'm thinking back to my last PowerPoint presentation, and I'm wondering...how could I make it BETTER? And I don't mean with fancy transitions and sound effects.

No wonder our students want to be spoon-fed, that's what we're doing with PowerPoint. Let's teach our students to think for themselves!

International Children's Digital Library

Children's books in a variety of languages, recommended for ages 3 to 13.  Who says books have to be on the bookshelf? I see this as a fantastic opportunity for smaller schools/smaller programs to be able to access books in a variety of languages and from cultures around the globe.

International Children's Digital Library

Digital Story Telling

Utilizing technology in the classroom is definitely one of the "musts" these days - I often encourage my students to look-up definitions or information using their phones (my computer is always open to the student(s) who don't have that technology). Why do I have to be the fountainhead of knowledge? (I often don't know myself!)

Another exciting idea is "digital story telling" using mobile devices and computers.

Last year I gave my students a poetry project. In groups they composed a poem or a message, then using their phones, they were to take photos of words throughout the school, community, their homes, etc to compose their poem/message. They added music and other transitions that they wanted to. Wow. I was blown away by the work they did! Where they started and where they finished were miles apart. It was one of those moments as a teacher when I was very, very proud of the "learning" going on in my classroom.

iPads are all the rage, especially with Apple releasing the iPad 2. Here are some ideas for the iPads, but often iPhones/iPods and other computer devices are capable of the functionality as well.

Digital Story Telling with the iPad

H/T Free Technology for Teachers