Places to (re)visit

As a memory exercise and a name game, our 7th grade students created an ever-expanding list of places that began with the first letter of their last name. They surprised themselves by keeping in mind almost two dozen place names, including two of the republics that emerged from the fall of the Soviet Union.

Building upon that exercise, we asked each of the students to prepare a 20-30 second oral presentation on their place. We are firm believers that anything we assign to our students we should be willing to do ourselves. Of course, since we teach three different social studies classes and wouldn't think of repeating the same place in each class, we have given ourselves three times the amount of work we assigned.

Two of my "F" places, Frankfurt and France, are places I've visited once only, for less than 24 hours apiece, on the same 6-countries-in-8-days trip in 1980. I'll pass on delivering to you my 30 second anecdote about each, but will at least allow you to see one image from each, courtesy of flickr.com, that may give you some idea as to why those days remain in memory.

Main River, Frankfurt, Germany




Strasbourg Cathedral

Lyddie, Chapters 1 through 6

You've begun the book! What do you think so far? How has Katherine Paterson captured your attention? What do you like or not like about Lyddie as you first get to know her? Comment on any and all of these questions, or simply let us know what's on your mind as you begin your trip to 19th century New England where the Industrial Revolution begins to affect people's lives and choices.

Lyddie

Welcome to our class blog home base for your thoughts on Lyddie.

As usual, you will visit here when you complete a chapter and say what's on your mind. How did this chapter affect the way you feel about our Industrial Revolution Essential Questions? What do you think of Lyddie, and how did this chapter possibly change your mind about her?

If you want to comment on what a classmate has said about the chapter, you may do so. Otherwise, start a new conversation with your comment!

Whether a new comment or a reaction to a classmate, remember to make it meaty (approximately 200 words) and polite. And, don't forget to sign it!

Chapter 1-6

Living Alone

Social Scientist Robert Putnam is known for his book Bowling Alone, which looks at both research and suggestions about the decline of communal civic behavior. His latest research is on a similar but more incendiary topic, namely the idea that diversity in a community leads to the same sorts of communal disconnectedness.

This research will be a focal point of conversations, because Putnam is a popular author and because he is a liberal thinker who is not in sympathy with what he found in his research.

Visit Harvard's press release and the links within it to Putnam's June 2007 article as well as press reactions.

Well, here's a mosaic of CDs among the top 100 in Norman Lebrecht's new book, The Life and Death of Classical Music that I don't already own but have some interest in. I'm using this post to see how a dozen or so images in the same post look. I'm thinking this won't be very aesthetically pleasing.

4 second frenzy

No, I haven't migrated over to the Dark Side of online addicting games. Instead, I've used this post to demonstrate for my 10-year old son how he too can create either a blog or a wiki devoted to games (he liked the way this appeared on the wiki better). Visit his site in its (very) early stages of development! Over on the wiki, what surprised me, but shouldn't have, is that my son's games site took upon itself Google Ads that we can't turn off as far as I can tell. I guess that's why pbwiki is free! When I set my wiki up, I selected "Education" as the purpose. Maybe that will mean no mysterious ads crop up? We'll see!

Here's how it appears as a hyperlink over to the game:

4 Second Frenzy

Here's how it appears embedded in the blog:


Play Games at AddictingGames

I've Been Reading...

I've been reading a number of books recently about blogs. The most recent is one by Biz Stone, but they all make the point that I should spend more time reading other blogs than I spend composing my own, and that linking to the interesting content I encounter during my reading is how I play my part in the blogosphere.

I'm a teacher (at least in training). It's a minor miracle that I'm finding the time to blog, much less read other's blogs. Most of the blogs I link to on the left were recommended by Will Richardson, who's also listed to the left. But do I read them? Alas, rarely. What that means is that this blog features, in descending order of space, my thoughts about teaching, my recent experience, the (random) wonders I encounter on line.

But, here's a thought. If you're a fellow teacher and find your way here, comment with a link to one web site you love. I'll promise to check it out and pass on the word if I love it too.



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