Final Post

I am glad to learn how to set up a website because I think it's something I will use.  I can really see how creating websites for specific classes could be helpful; however, right now it takes a lot of time for me to do.  I feel like I'm constantly figuring things out--it's not intuitive for me.  The site I created for class is a hodge-podge of stuff, but I did start to put a site together for the debate unit I teach.  In addition to the handouts I'd use,  I'd like to embed a video clip of former students and a youtube example.  But, again, I can't remember how to do it and it will take a lot of time to figure it out.  Hopefully I'll someday get it done!

I'm not a big blogger, so this will probably be my final blog.  I still don't like the idea of people reading what I write, so I don't think I'll continue writing in this was.  But it was fun to learn, and maybe someday I'll change my mind.

HippoCampus

I really liked this site.  At first I was discouraged because I couldn't find what I wanted, as there is no link for English or Language Arts.  Then I thought I'd look up the historical contexts of books I teach, and I didn't immediately find what I wanted.  I was searching alphabetically for the rise of American Communism before WWII, and didn't find anything; but once I found "Un-American Activities" I found  some interesting information about the Red Scare of the late 1940s and 1950s.  I like the video footage that is there, and I like how short the videos are.  They are something you could use in class without taking up the entire class period, or something you could post on a website like schoolloop and have students watch at home.

After looking at several videos on the Roaring 20s, the Great Depression, and other historical events, I swtiched over to the Algebra link.  Since my son is in pre-algebra, I thought I'd see what was there.  I don't know how useful this program would be for teachers in the classroom, but it is great for students (and parents!) at home.  I was looking specifically at factoring and the site took me through the steps so easily that I was able to re-learn how to do it quite easily.  It then gave practice problems and solutions.  It was fun, and I spent a little too much time fooling around doing problems.

Although there wasn't information for my subject area, it was a fun site to explore.

Thinkfinity

When I started for searching for lessons for some of the novels I was teaching, I hit the Language Arts link instead of the literature link (which I didn't originally notice) and was disappointed to find nothing.  Once I saw my mistake and hit the right link, I found tons of useful information.  I started by searching lessons for the Great Gatsby and found several lessons that would be great for my junior CP English class.  There were ideas for both fun activities and writing assisnments, and they were aligned with state standards.  The writing assignments also came with grading rubrics, which I like to use but hate to write.

After searching The Great Gatsby, I searched for lesson for Streetcar Named Desire which I will be teaching next.  I'm looking forward to using some of the introductory information to start the play.  This is a very useful resource, and I definitely will be using it in the future.

Readers

When I searched for the "California English Standards" I saw a bunch of articles about online dating and gay marriage which was kinda weird; I didn't find anything that I expected to find.  However, once I searched for "English Lesson Plans" several useful sites popped up.  While most of them were directed toward elementary educators, there were a few that would be useful to me such as a unit about teaching Whitman.  When I searched for AP Language lessons I was directed to some forums instead of sites with lessons.  But as I searched further I did find some links to lessons that might be helpful.