Attention Social Studies Teachers!

Even if you missed this year's Geography Awareness Week, you can still check out the great information available to you at "Geography in Action!"hosted by National Geographic. This year the focus was on Asia, last year Africa. So if your lesson plans include these continents, or you would like to add this to your repertoire, check it out.


On a personal note...My youngest son hates to read. At his school he is required (7th grade) to read a book a month and it is grueling to find something he is interested in reading. Over the course of his school career we have tried every basketball title on the AR list, he never finishes them. Recently, we found a 6th grade book that has only 36 pages...it was a hit. That was the criteria - the number of pages. So, the other day while doing research for one of the teachers in my school I came across an interview with Christopher Paul Curtis about his book, "Bud, not Buddy". My son watched the whole interview and asked me to take him to the library to get the book. Score one for technology!


So if you are having trouble engaging students about a book...or if you would like to further interest them in authors, please direct your attention to the Author presentation list at the Library of Congress', National Book Festival

Web 2.0 Directory

Go2Web20.net - The complete Web 2.0 directory
www.go2web20.net/

According to their AboutUs page, the Go2Web20.net is a directory of web 2.0 applications and services that was born around mid 2006. In June of 2007 there were 1308 logos and 1635 logos as of Saturday, September 29, 2007.

There are thousands of visitors every day and it converges Flash and AJAX technologies.

Visit the site and try some of the logos...it is almost as fun as My StumbleUpon Page.



Speaking of which, if you have never tried to StumbleUpon you should give it a whirl. I have found some very interesting things on the web simply by sitting and stumbling about - not that I get to do that very often.

Gilda Radner used to do a bit on SNL where she would play "Roseanna Rosannadanna". The bit always started the same..."What's all this talk about.." one night it went like this:

"What's all this talk about eagle rights. I don't think eagles should be allowed to do stuff like sit on the bus next to me." "Roseanna", Chevy Chase would interrupt, "it's equal rights, not eagle rights!" She would abruptly reply, "Never mind".

I'd like to say, "What's all this talk about Web 2.0?"

Well, I think it is simply the best news to come to Educational Technology in a long time. Social Networks, blogs, wikis, podcasts... the methods of communication seem limitless. This year I am trying to focus on adding as much web 2.0 into my classes as possible. I have started by inviting several teachers at my school to participate in a "practice wiki"...check it out I call it Mrs. Fusco's WikiBoard