Online Resources for ELA

I have been looking more thoroughly at the ELA resources in our resource links page. The pickings seem rather slim. I am having my 11th graders research an American poet as part of a multi-pronged poetry unit. They will have to analyze two poems from the author they choose, present to the class, and finally, there will be an opportunity for them to write their own poetry. However, in researching sites for information on American poets, I found six excellent sites that I have included in a document for my students to use. I will copy and paste them here for anyone interested in accessing the same information. These links are very complete, with direct links, in most cases, to complete works by each author.

http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/country/America/American_poets.html

http://www.americanpoems.com/

http://www.americanpoems.com/poets

http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/361

http://www.poetseers.org/the_great_poets/am

http://www.kyrene.org/schools/brisas/sunda/poets/poet.htm

http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets.htm

I hope this helps others. Why recreate the wheel, when we can all share?
b.c.

ENOUGH!!!

I will be out of town until New Years, so if I don't get back to blogging after that I hope others can use what I discovered with the different browsers and dial up connections.
b.c.
Peace

Definitive answer #1

OK kiddies-here we go
In switching to the IE browser, I found page loads to be much quicker, and the pages loaded completely. So here we have the first part of our answer. When connecting using DIAL UP/use the IE browser for quicker and more problem free access to blogspot.

This still does not answer the question about whether or not Firefox was designed to be used with the Mac platform. I shall endeavor to find this out for all those out there who are restricted to dial up access. After all-if we want our students to be able to use this technology, we must be able to tell them how it will work best with dial up access.

The unfortunate thing, is that now, every time I need to access the district network, I have to go into my control panel and change my default browser to Firefox, because no other browser allows us remote access to the Campus server.

b.c.

See how I'm spending my Xmas?

Here I am, trying to figure out something when I should be having Xmas dinner with my family. Never fear-I shall slay this dragon, and have a definitive answer to this conundrum (not the Xmas one). My next attempt at creating a blog will be using the IE browser instead of Firefox. I will let you know which is more dial up friendly in a short while.
b.

Firefox may be a major culprit

I am going to try using internet explorer as a browser instead of Firefox to see if the dial up interface with bloglines is any better. I have had difficulty with Firefox on many other sites that worked smoothly with either the IE browser of the Netscape browser. I have two theories:
1. Firefox is designed for the Mac platform and doesn't interface well with the standadrd PC platform
2. Firefox has many redundant security features that render it all but useless with a dial up connection, using up all of the time to load a page with passing various security tests.

Someone else should already have an answer for this. Why am I trying to do this on my own, when I have more important things to deal with? Oh well.
b.

Poor workability with dial up and firefox

Well, this page finally loaded, so now I'll go back and see if the previous one actually posted. This is a very mickey mouse way of doing things, and for the majority of my students who have dial up connections at home, I think using this way of posting information would be as frustrating and valueless for my students, as it is for me. Not everyone, including myself, can afford $60.00/month for high speed internet access, so blogger will work properly.
bc

Who else is experiencing this?

I don't have the luxery of high speed internet at home. I don't know if you are aware of this-but blogspot doesn't work worth beans with firefox on a dial up connection. I can't even get any of my pages on blogger to completely load. It stops loading before finishing, so I don't know if what i blog is even getting posted.

rubistar

Rubistar rubric generator. Have used this to compare to my own. Don't like it-but now you can create your own rubrics based on their grid template. The big restriction is still that you can only create four rows of rubrics. Mine usually are 8-10 seperate criteria. Check it out. It may work for you.

library book checkout

Today I learned how to check books out through the library system for spps. This should make tracking books easier, and especially collecting for damaged or missing books. Thanks Janet.

Moving forward in English

Last week we counted books, got a list of who has what books in what rooms, and began creating an English folder for the senior high English Dept. for common assessments, lessons, etc. to help create more aligned curriculum. Hopefully, this will make things easier for new teachers like myself.

LA Dept. to put lessons on building server

At last week's LA meeting we decided on a group PDP to formalize the course offerings at each grade level so as to standardize curriculum. The best part about it was that we agreed to put all of the materials on our building server so that any of the English teachers in the building could access lessons, vocabulary, tests, projects, etc. I hope this really takes hold. I think it would be an invaluable tool. It would provide us with multiple approaches to each piece of literature, and a framework from which everyone could work.

web page

does anyone know if there is a way to make more dynamic pages on our web page for school?

also, how can i take my picture on the pc side of this laptop?

Let;s hope this sticks

I have finally been able to reset my password to get back into my account and post new blogs. Let's hope this continues to hold true. Yesterday I met with the Prism staff at Highland to discuss the upcoming literary magazine. I began thinking about how the technology could be used to enhance the magazine submission process and promotons process. I'm hoping that Janet and I can use this to our advantage. Why can't we set up an email account just for submissions to the magazine? Only the staff would have access. We could even do it as a blog, list our guidelines and an email link for the submissions. I could put a link on my school web page for submissions of any work students would like to send. What do you all think?
brad

bulletin boards are far easier

Is it just me-or is this a whole lot more work than creating a bulletin board? On a bulletin board we can all respond to each other's comments without having to log into another account. We can have an ongoing dialogue with as many people as we want as though we were sitting at a table talking. I still don't see the advantage to this if we are trying to make communication easier.

bc

twentytreetings

This blog is designed to allow for easy access to online resources for language arts. I am asking all of my colleagues to submit websites and resources for L.A. that are rich in information, dynamic in design and hopefully include some multimedia elements so we don't bore the kids.
brad