Bloglines

I don't know if I have said this before, but I love bloglines. I think it is great that I can follow so many of my favorite on-line things at the same time. One of my favorite blogs is gadling found at: http://www.gadling.com/. It is a travel blog and I love reading the funny traveling stories as well as it has a lot of great travel tips and since I am now planning my trip to Europe this summer, this blog has been essential reading. Plus, it has amazing pictures from around the world that inspire me to dream of traveling to other places as well.

Another favorite blog I follow is serious eats: http://www.seriouseats.com/. As anyone who knows me would tell you--I never cook. This is not a hyperbole, which is probably why my mom almost always says, "Don't forget to eat" before she hangs up the phone. I heat food in the microwave periodically and I eat cereal (Kashi is my favorite) a lot. I like to cook, don't get me wrong, but I never do. Twice a year I bake: sweet potato pies for Thanksgiving and a rhubarb merengue dessert whenever the rhubarb from the garden is ready. This is the only time the oven is turned on. Now, having said that, I love food (and hardly ever forget to eat). I love going to the grocery store to look at all the options. I love eating out and I love cruises where you can eat all the food that you want whenever you want. Serious eats has great recipes, great food stories, and they often have pictures of delicious looking cupcakes. They even make brussel sprouts sound and look delicious! (Don't believe me? Look at this picture: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2008/05/dinner-tonight-dan-barbers-brussels-sprouts.html). I loved this story too that has ice trays that look like Han Solo has been frozen in them: http://www.seriouseats.com/required_eating/2008/05/the-most-awesome-star-wars-han-solo-ice-cube-tray.html. Sadly, they said they were removed from the website they were originally found on, but it would be great to try to find. The article also had the suggestion of using the tray for chocolate molds.

I do follow BBC World News too, so I am not just dreaming of foreign countries and food. :)

Anyway, RSS feeds are really cool. Love it!

Sadly, not something new...

Grading research papers is always a daunting task for me. I want to make sure that I am assessing them fairly and give them appropriate feedback, but I also want to finish grading them in a timely fashion as well. It becomes completely demoralizing when I find plagiarized papers. Everything that I have done in teaching the research paper process, and yet, two of the papers are plagiarized. I wish I didn't take it so personally, but yet, I do. I am offended and defeated at the same time. WHY do they cheat? Why do they think they can get away with it? Why didn't they learn how to cite their sources? Why didn't they learn the process? Why, why, why?

Post Test

Happily, I am finished with the Post test. I was really worried about getting computer access since we don't really have a working lab at Central, but Leslie Yoder saved the day and loaned me some laptops. My students really seemed to like taking the test online, versus the paper copy we used in the fall. I am looking forward to seeing the results!

My new website

I just "finished" my website on Franz Kafka and the trip I am taking this summer following Kafka's footsteps after reading all his works. I have spent a lot of time on it, which is how I missed my blogging session for last week. I have been slightly monomaniacal about it spending 6 to 8 hours on it each night after work. Every free moment was spent on programming this site. There is a lot more content to add, which is why, I suppose, no website is ever truly finished, but it is complete enough for me to take a step back for a moment and breathe. Check it out if you have time: http://vader.lib.umn.edu/lis753/peifer/ParistoPrague.html (no www). P.S. It doesn't look good in safari (I don't know why) so please use Firefox or Internet Explorer for full effect.

Google Documents

Google documents are so cool! We are in the process of choosing our Link Crew leaders for next year. We have to post the names of our applicants (over a hundred names) so they can sign up for an interview, but we keep all this information for next year as well. Anyway--my colleague Megan and I have to type in the data so we did it at the same time on the same spreadsheet on google docs. We could see what the other person was doing instantly and where we need to fill in information. It was fun and fast. Additionally, our colleague Annette can access the information as well so she can do some last minute tracking of a few students who will then be referred to Megan tomorrow so she can finalize the list to be posted tomorrow. Google documents have allowed us to streamline this process. When we go through the interview process, we will be able to take notes online and be able to see what we all thought even thought the interviews will take place in four different rooms. How great is that! Honestly, I love google docs!

Another new thing

I created a new wiki using wetpaint, which is supposedly more popular with users than pb.wiki. It is not as easy to use, but it is isn't that different from pb.wiki. It has more templates that make it more aesthetically pleasing, but it does use ads which is a negative--although, if it is for educational use, you can ask wetpaint to remove the ads so it is just one additional step. My wiki is to plan my dad's retirement party with my sister and mom so the educational part doesn't apply for this one. It has our to do list, our invite list, invite ideas, and our menu. It also automatically adds the pages to the side table of contents so you don't have to link the pages like one has to on the sidebar with pb.wiki.

It has been great fun using the wiki with my mom and sister. My sister and I were at Paper Source in Uptown buying paper for the invites. I created three different invites that were very different on wetpaint based on preliminary discussions with my mom and sister. Each has a different theme, so I was a little unsure of what paper to buy for our invitations. Courtnay, my twin, and I had pulled out about thirty different color combinations trying to figure out which would go with each idea. We each had our arms filled with beautiful different packages of papers from linen vellum to margarita inspired stationary with ribbons to match. My mom calls me while we were at the store. She had shown the wiki to my dad and they were able to tell me which idea they liked the best for the invites, which really helped in choosing the correct paper. How fun is that!

Google Documents

I taught my students about Google documents this week, sharing my story about the computer not working and having my power point presentation inaccessible then and how Google documents helped me. I also created a few more power point presentations on Google documents and had a lot of fun doing it. I have a presentation for my grad class on Tuesday all ready on Google documents.

Anyway, on Thursday, seemingly out of the blue, one of my students said that she really appreciated all the information about wikis and blogs and google documents. She said it was really helpful and she thought it would really help her in college next year. Other students then chimed in and agreed that they really thought it would help them in college as well. It is pretty amazing to actually have students thank you because they see the value of the lesson--and not only for today, but how it will affect them in the future. Pretty awesome!

Happy Spring Break everyone!

Collaboration

Technology is fun! I worked with another English teacher for an hour this week teaching her how to set up a blog, a wiki, and how to attach a site meter to her blog. We also talked about google documents. She was really excited and it was fun for me to share this information about technology that I have learned.

Also, I brought my projector and laptop with me to our annual Link Crew planning session that occurred on Thursday. It was really great to be able to use this technology instead of writing things out on pieces of paper scattered around the room only to have to type it up later. We could all work together on the same document and the planning session went smoothly and efficiently--and of course, it was fun too! We were able to download the school calendar and attach to the icalendar as well, which made planning next year's events that much easier.

Lastly, does anyone know how to download data from a jvc digital camcorder onto imovies? This has been the latest link crew frustration so if anyone knows anything about this particular camcorder, I would love your advice.

Overdue library book

I love this story by Anna Brones
"If you have a tendency to rack up late fees at your local library, you might want to consider moving to Finland. In the southern town of Vaanta, a library-goer recently returned a book that had been checked out for over 100 years. The person who returned it chose to remain anonymous -- possibly deterred by the note on the book which stated there was a 10 penny per week charge for late returns. The library did not state whether it would have charged a fine or not. The book was a bound copy of a 1902 volume of Vartija, a religious monthly periodical" (http://www.gadling.com/2008/03/12/you-want-to-return-what-finnish-library-book-checked-out-over-1/)

Video Streaming

I thought this was an interesting article about using video streaming in the classroom. The article is called "Streaming Technology Improves Student Achievement." http://thejournal.com/articles/16269

Research Papers

I introduced the research paper process to my ninth graders this week. They really liked the research paper calculator! I hope they use it. It was great to walk them through the different features of the databases using my laptop and projector so they could all ask questions at one time and then could directly use the instruction on their own in the library. I love that when I watched them on their individual computers that they all knew how to access the databases and knew how to start their research. I felt like this is the a victory in itself. I know their information will be so much better because of this. The process of them choosing their topics is also better informed since they all have to find initial articles before they make the decision and their research on the databases have encouraged many of them to choose one topic over another.

On a side note, I got so sick of telling my students over and over that wikipedia is not a reliable source that I wrote it on the board a couple of weeks ago. This has created conversation in all my classes so I know they have all really heard it this time...I am not saying that I'll never see wikipedia on a works cited again, of course; I am not that naive. It even got my advisory students talking and I was really proud of the students that could, and willingly did, explain it to the other students who didn't understand this.

A Wiki World

I live in a wiki world as of late. There is something so appealing in knowing that people can contribute to a shared idea, have a shared voice, but that everyone can choose to work on it in her/his own time and in her/his own space. The feminist literature students seem to use our wiki really well; the Cool Trip wiki paid off big when my friend and I won the travel grant! We are now using it as a planning space for both our research for the trip and our personal thoughts about what to pack.

My latest wiki is for the entire Central staff and I am both excited and apprehensive about it. This wiki is designed as a space for the staff to continue our discussion on the book Courageous Conversations About Race. There is, again, the possibility that no one will find it useful or meaningful to use this wiki. Because this topic is so personal for me, I am more fearful of this reaction, as if it is a direct rejection of me if people choose not to participate--a choice I cannot make when it comes to discussions about race. In any case, I hope that my confession here will allow me to not take the coming reaction personally.

Stumbling Behind...

Somehow I forgot to write on my blog last week. Monitoring so many different wikis and blogs might be catching up with me because I completely forgot to write on this one! I was a little shocked with me when I discovered this. I had to write my resume in xhtml for my Internet class too last week so that took a lot of my attention as well. Anyway, what I discovered last week is StumbleUpon. It is this fun free toolbar you can download that allows you to stumble upon different websites tailored to the interests that you set. It is like browsing through the library stacks! It is really addicting!

Check it out:
http://www.stumbleupon.com/

Web 2.0 New Things

This week I learned about two great Web 2.0 things: WuFoo and PEERtrainer. WuFoo (named because the site founders like WuTang Clan and Foo Fighters) has online resources to create forms like interlibrary loan forms, customer satisfaction forms, even invitations. It seems as easy to use as blogs and wikis and all the forms can be edited to one's needs. You can run statistics and export the information to excel as well. It seems really useful for many different things. http://www.wufoo.com

PEERtrainer is an online site to get in shape and lose weight. You can join a group of 2-4 or an unlimited sized team. You can join chatrooms to get support and read health articles too. You can join groups that have shared common interests. They can see what you are journaling about and offer support, feedback, and/or advice. It won the Web 2.0 award in 2007 in the health category. http://www.peertrainer.com

Wiki fever

I am currently on a ship sailing to Aruba. I have taken a week off of school for this family reunion that I am at, which is exciting, but it also makes me very nervous to be gone from school--especially for the first full week of Semester Two. I started teaching Feminist Literature Quest and the beginning part of the semester is very note-heavy so I was particularly nervous to leave them. I knew I could not expect my sub, wonderful as he is, to figure out how to use the projector and present my power point presentations for the notes the students need. So, to manage my fear of leaving them without correct instruction, I created a blog for them and a wiki. On the wiki, I was able to post their notes in different sections. I showed the students before I left how to use the wiki and assigned them their homework of getting the notes from the wiki and the due dates for doing so. I can then update the wiki while I am gone and check the blog if they have questions on the notes. I can then monitor their questions from this remote access site. Of course, they can also leave questions on the wiki and via email. It sets me at ease to do this and allows me to relax and enjoy this vacation! Technology is so great!

A New Thing: Squidoo

This week I learned about Sguidoo in one of my graduate school classes where you can have your own web page on whatever you want.

* http://www.squidoo.com

There are three levels:
* g--everyone can look at it
* R--restricted
* X--sign in

General facts about Squidoo
* live 2006
* free
* Dec 2007 Google will compete with squidoo
* no spam
* can use different widgets
* can add modules (building blocks) to your lens (lens is what they call a page)
* you add tags on it for people to find it--or not
* can have an RSS feed, email that you can add to the lens
* point people to the correct place
* can track statistics of who visits squidoo site

British teachers voice concerns about plagiarism

I thought this was an interesting article about plagiarism on BBC world news:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7194772.stm

The article opens with this quote:
"The 58% of 278 teachers who identified it as a problem said they thought 25% of work returned by pupils included material copied from internet sites." I wonder what the statistics would be for teachers in St. Paul.

Podcasting

I thought this was a helpful article about podcasting:

http://radio.about.com/od/podcastin1/a/aa030805a.htm

I hope to learn how to podcast soon. I'd love to have a session walking us through it!

Blog update

It is exciting to see that students are now asking me to post certain things to our class blogs. Although the blog isn't used everyday, it is nice to know they do look to it for information, which also reminds me to update it. I post their major assignments on to the blog and it is a nice way to have them ask questions about the assignments on the blog--it is reassuring to know they really are thinking about the homework!

More wikis...

Yes, as you all know already, I am wiki obsessed. I have created two more wikis, one for me personally so I can keep my notes organized and centralized for graduate school and one for my AP Lit and Comp class. For AP Lit and Comp, we are just finishing reading Oedipus the King and were discussing the Oedipus Complex. I have information about Freud on powerpoint, but we ran out of time in class to go through it, so one of my students asked if I could add it to our class blog. I tried to figure this out, but I couldn't find a place to do this--so I created a wiki. I knew I would be able to add it to a wiki, so I set one up quickly while they were working on some questions on a poem related to Oedipus and when they were finished with their questions, I showed them how to use a wiki--on our awesome projector! Only two people in the class had used a wiki before so I walked them through the wiki process and also how to set one up themselves in case they wanted to create their own. It is really basic right now, but they can now view the powerpoint presentation on Freud whenever they have time. Also, it is great to have set up since second semester they have a group project for Crime and Punishment. Since we all know everyone is so busy, I hope they will use this wiki to work online on their projects and hopefully this will enable them to collaborate better. I showed them one of my other wikis as well so they can see the potential of all that the wiki can do. We'll see how it goes.

Another challenge

I don't know if anybody else is having this problem, but I haven't been able to connect to bloglines for a couple of days. I feel like I am behind on reading everyone else's blogs. I don't know why I cannot connect to it. I have tried at school and at home. Any thoughts anybody?

Another Wiki

I created another wiki for a colleague and me who are writing a grant together. It has been a fantastic tool! My colleague and friend is also a part of two of the other wikis I have created, but didn't get interested in them. For this project though, she has become as obessed with the wiki as I was this fall. It is like a shiny new toy on Christmas morning. It has been exciting for me to have actually influenced someone else into using this new technology of their own accord--as well as to be able to collaborate using technology. Third time's the charm. :)

Starting the New Year Out Right

I prepared a keynote presentation for my ninth graders for the Wednesday we returned from break--two actually, one on August Wilson and one on drama. I also found an interesting video to watch on United Streaming, or Discovery Streaming (you know what I mean) on August Wilson that was 22 minutes long. I set up the projector first thing when I got to school and thankfully there were no hidden obstacles to overcome this time; Wednesday's lesson was so smooth! Practice makes perfect.