From PC Mag's Top 101 Web Sites 2005

This looks like a great web site: BugMeNot.com
It has a database of passwords for other sites so you don't have to register for them!

This is cool - photo sets of film found in old cameras that was never developed. Here is one:

ETTC Teaching Testing & Tech in Language Arts Workshop

Expressing opinion as "good citizenship"
HSPA 63% writing
messy writing may affect grade because of people only getting $12/hr reading hundreds of papers. (Neatness should not count because it is not on the rubric~! are you saying there is a subjective component?...)
AYP % is going up yearly...see chart - benchmark for 2013-2014 is 100%.....

Six features of instruction that make a difference in student performance <- read this!!!

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Activity - Story Map Picture Prompt

This is the photo we were given, from Southern Regional ETTC ...

• Setting - In a trailer park, waiting for a hurricane to hit. Present day.
• Characters - Lower socio-economic situation; kids without much supervision. Let's call them John, Judy and Allison.
• Plot - 1) Where are the parents? Develop idea that the kids are upset but industrious. 2) How close is the Hurricane? They can see it approaching out the window. The power is out. 3) Parents return.
• Outcome - Saved by parents who had left them home after some destruction.
• Opening sentence - The trailer shook....
• Similies - "The trailer shook like bad dancer doing the mashed potato." "John felt as scared as a penned rabbit." "John looked like a fly on the window." "Allison watched the hurricaine approach with the attention of a movie critic watching a long-anticipated new release."

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Activity - Strengthening Vocabulary

Visual Thesaurus

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Activity - Four Square Writing
Planning an Essay

1. I disagree with the proposal to extend the school day for all students. Students that perform poorly on standardized tests should have the school day lengthened, however.

2. Students and teachers would experience fatigue and loss of focus. There would be diminishing returns as the hours went on.

3. Sports team practice would be limited. Participation in sports has been shown to increase academic achievement and the ability for a child to work as a team. Team sports improves the overall motivation and atmosphere in a school, hence the academic achievement is positively affected.

4. Money to pay the teachers and staff may not be in place. School budgets are already stretched. Teacher contracts would continue to not attract the best people if money to pay teachers was not present.

5. This proposal is unrealistic if applied to all students. However, extra instruction and individualized tutoring should be offered for students that are at risk of failure on tests or in subject areas.

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Web Resources

Roz Auerbach's Class Materials - lots of links for HSPA writing

Read Write Think.org - lots of good resources

Web English Teacher.com

Marco Polo Search.org

WritingFix.com

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Picture Prompts

(great picture prompt photo from Time pic of the day)

another from Time

another from Time

My son just doesn't get it yet. He gets phone calls from this nice girl in his class (6th grade math). She asks questions about the homework. He has the power and doesn't even know it yet. It's cute. Last night she wanted to know what paper to use and what the difference between a horizontal graph and a vertical graph was. Not very hard stuff to figure out.

I know now what it feels like to have intellectual property taken and used on the internet without one's permission. Cruising the Belleayre web site last night I discovered they are using one of my photos in their press picture section. This flatters me, yes, but it makes me mad that they did not ask my permission. I did give them permission to use my photos for the pic-of-the-day, but I sent them an email saying it was not an ongoing permission. This really pissed me off for some reason. I fired off an email to the webmaster and asked to be asked for permission for photos and given credit, or at least some Belleayre perks. I also volunteered to be an official Belleayre photographer in exchange for some perks. I wonder if I will get a response. To be continued?...

I am jonsing for some snow. Belleayre is supposed to open on November 5th, and have a Sam Adams sponsored party all afternoon. Last year they missed their projected opening date. Hopefully they will really have a run or two open on November 5th. A morning of skiing would be enough for the available terrain and rock skis, followed by some beer with Andy in the bar or on the deck. No kids on the 5th, because of conflicting activities - that would be so cool!

And we are in such an uproar about Katrina. We people in the USA just have not got a clue about what it means to suffer loss.

I can't even use my imagination about how the people in this country would react to such an earthquake with widespread death and devastation. I am hoping that our modern construction codes have anticipated how to handle earthquakes in places prone to them here in the United
States. I try to have my students and my own kids understand that level of loss, and they are more concerned about such mundane things. We are so short-sighted. We are so selfish. We are so without empathy. I am just as guilty. Damn.

BBC NEWS | South Asia | At a glance: Quake impact: "Toll: A large proportion of the 33,000 deaths officially reported in Pakistan were those who perished in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. In Muzaffarabad 11,000 have been confirmed dead."

South Asia Earthquake Full Coverage on Yahoo! News: "Officials estimated that the death toll would surpass 35,000."