Hello all! It's Wednesday. I'm feeling the stress. Yesterday, I finished my work on RSS, Podcasts, and Open Source Software. I don't know about you, but finding RSS math topics was difficult, and podcasts without a visual seem worthless in mathematics. I did find a site where students created and sang math songs. Fun for them!

I really loved one of the OSS sites I found:GeoGebra! It's like Geometer's Sketchpad! I cannot wait to explore this site further.


I am beginning to work on my final project. I hope to finish it today or tomorrow because my annual parade picnic is Saturday! March on!

It has been a really pleasure working with all of you. Thanks for the advice, resources, and dialogues! Have a safe and happy school year!

The Blog Days of Summer

The song "Hot in the City" comes to mind tonight.

This week has been a busy week so far. Monday, I logged on with great intentions, but the three day span was actually a deterrent. I opted to go rollerblading and do home repairs instead. Anyway, I have actually been avoiding the computer or the room the computer is in for the past few days. Central air will be put on the wish list.

Well, I have to go. . . behind on reading about web feeds and atoms.

By the way. . . John, thank you so much for not assigning textbooks. I forgot to mention in my past two blogs.

Scavenger Hunts and Webquests

Hi all!

Well, I am not certain what to post this week, but . . .

I finished reading the supplemental material regarding Scavenger Hunts and Webquests. I enjoyed the All About Me (3-12) Scavenger Hunt. Coincidentally,
on the day I was born, Twiggy (6th grade nickname) has the same birthday, and I sing a mean Karaoke version of Edith from All in the Family. My son's height at age 18 is predicted to be 6'4". (I hope he's got game.)

I like the Scavenger Hunt idea. I would like to assign a scavenger hunt outside of class and have the students email me their results. I feel that if they were conducted in a lab scene, students would be more prone to copy.

Webquests are wonderful inventions. They definitely permit teachers to integrate curriculums and generate enthusiasm for a topic. Again, though, I am perplexed on how to handle only one classroom computer. Either Bernie Dodge or Tom March attempted to address this problem, but I cannot afford to give a week or more of classroom content time to explore a webquest in pairs.

Blog's for Professional Purposes

Blogging can be beneficial to the educator in in two main areas: communicating with other professionals and interacting with students.

Blogging allows for the sharing of ideas, strategies, and information among a group of educators. Teachers can pose questions, submit responses, and discuss notions in a group format. In a sense, it's brainstorming beyond your locality.

Both students and teachers can benefit from a classroom or course blog. Again, students can post questions. Educators can benefit from this means of communication --especially if it's on a daily basis. Teacher's can see where weaknesses in presentations may lie and they can also assist students online. Students can also assist other students by responding to a classroom blog.