Novelist Plus

Neat tool for finding books appropriate for all age levels in different categories. As a history teacher I spent time looking for books on different events in U.S. history. Must just be the categories I was looking under but they didn't have a very high rating. Then I checked out the view section the assignment had mentioned. Now I was able to find books by popularity. This worked out better. Was  able to read info about different books in both 8-12 and teen. I am still not sure what the purpose of MaineCat is. Does it help locate books around the state? Should I be able to see if these books are at my school or town library? Nothing happened when I clicked on them.   Not sure yet what I would do next if I wanted to use the book for a student. Typed in David Baldacci and saw the list of other authors who wrote similar styles I have to be honest here. Don't know when I would use this in my history class. I don't do book reports or assign extra reading. Nice to know there are a number of books about historical events on the 8-12 and teenage reading level.  The last thing I looked at was book talk. I got confused. I haven't figured out exactly what that is supposed to do. Add it to my check back some other time list..

Crafty I'm not but...

So...crafts not really my area of concern. Did locate some interesting information. Started with the food area (definitely an area of concern). Ran into problems though because I didn't realize the difference between html and pdf. Got frustrated looking at recipes on html-too confusing and NO PICTURES! You can't have a recipe without a picture. How do you know if the cake is supposed to tilt?  Anyway when I went and checked out the kids crafts section I suddenly discovered pdf. PICTURES and text written so I can understand. Looked specifically at the Halloween costumes and crafts. Wish now that I still had small children. Really liked that there were many articles from the magazine Highlights. Loved that magazine as a child-still look at them at the dentist's office.  Now I will have to return to the area with recipes and try again. Especially since I just read another blog about how many recipes got saved in a folder since they sounded so good.

When I saw that the I could go back to 1992 with the Lewiston Sun Journal I was excited. I remembered reading an article concerning Zachary Taylor's remains being exhumed to check to see if he had been poisoned. I tell that story to my students every year but do not have a copy of it. I thought that it must have been in the 1990s somewhere so figured I could easily track it down. Well, noting comes up in any of those newspapers about that event so I guess it was either 1991 or 90. I would like to access the other papers mentioned outside of Maine but have not investigated that at this time. That's on my to do list. Since I wasn't having any luck with that story I decided to look up my kid's names and see what articles appeared. That I did have good luck with since they both participated in sports (and actually got on honor roll a few times!) while in high school. I actually found their names mentioned a couple of times in articles from other newspapers that I did not subscribe to so that was kind of cool. Of course with the good also comes the bad of any foolish court news but...at least neither of them is in jail at this time!

Did check out the tutorial. May have to watch again to see if it says anything about getting on newspapers outside of Maine.

I have read a number of blogs from fellow participants. I cannot seem to reply using safari but our computer guru did get me hooked up correctly on firefox. Now the issue is remembering how he did that. All I have done so far is send one participant a "this is a test message". Sorry Nance!

second week part 2

Finishing week two assignment. First I investigated a bit farther with the middle school level of Britannica. Discovered the time line section! That looks very interesting! Started to set one up on the Civil War. I like the ease of setting it up and finding pictures to go along with it. If I used it as a class assignment I would be specific about what information was needed so students wouldn't just cut and paste but it does make a neat presentation.  Also began to check out the videos that are available. Both long and short in length. Will be studying the one that discusses Lewis and Clark from the viewpoint of Sacajawea.
Did go onto the high school section and looked up Jamaica. Lots of info given in different forms. Couldn't get any info on the Jamaican bobsled team and Calgary. The response kept telling me that nothing could be found. I was beginning to think the team was only real in the movies until I googled it and got the info I was looking for. So I guess there are some limits. Have used the workspace section to set up information on aardvarks, civil war and Jamaica. Seems easy enough but do I have to login every time I set up a new title of info? So far that's what I have done. It is nice to have one location to put everything instead of all over the screen.

week two

Going to have to do this assignment in two parts. First comparing elementary and middle school differences in Britannica. First I misread the assignment and spent quite a bit of time on the Learning Zone for K-2. I was really getting annoyed on why I couldn't look up aardvark when I finally reread the directions and discovered that wasn't where I was supposed to be. However, let me just say that playing on the Learning Zone was fun...
Anyway...Obviously there was more detailed information on the middle school information but still the same pictures. I do like the fact that once I made an account to save information on the workspace it transferred to either site. So the information I saved on the elementary one showed up as well on the middle school. I assume that would work with the high school as well. I also liked the dictionary that is available to use if a word shows up that one is unfamiliar with. However, I wish it would read the entire definition aloud. It will say the word but not the definition. I would think that would be very helpful with lower level readers. Actually if the entire article could be read that would make it easier for many students.
Lastly, the bibliographies are already sited! I had noticed that with other online encyclopedias. Does this mean that the frustration of teaching proper bibliography procedure to students will disappear as well? One can only hope!

feeling better

Reading my first post I sounded negative. I'm really looking forward to checking Marvel out and using it. I'm just old and it's frustrating to do something so out of the box. Haven't seen my first post yet so I went back and checked the directions and I think I did things correctly. Then I read that it could take some time for the posts to show up so I'm hopeful that I have set this up correctly. In the meantime...I did the three tutorials-helpful explanations. I have registered at Marvel and am beginning to explore the options. I hope the assignments get a bit more specific because I do so much better when I am focused on looking at one option rather than explore many on my own. I tend to get lost exploring...or I finally find what I was looking for and then can't remember how I got there! Age! it's all age. I don't feel lost anymore. Anyone know how to get rid of my Already lost title?

okay. now what? I just type my thoughts? It took me a half hour to get an address that was available! Is this such a popular form of communicating that all the cool addresses are already taken? Almost turned to something inappropriate but  expected they were off the market as well. Since this is a blog about Marvel guess I better say something about it. I know nothing! I suppose that means I won't be bored going over stuff I already am familiar with. I teach 7&8 grade U.S. history so I am hoping to use this for research. Of course I just finished research with my seventh graders on Revolutionary War and this would have been nice to know then but there is always next year right? (as a Red Sox fan I'm fond of that line) Actually that's a line I only have a few more years to utilize-closing in on retirement- but I'm still willing to find new ways to use in my class. Is there a space limit or time limit on a blog? Or do I keep it long enough to cover the subject and short enough to keep it interesting. I need to credit that line but I'm not sure who said it first. Okay. blog written now see if I can get it published and finish the first assignment!