My new best friend....Kindle

Isn't she lovely?

I received a Kindle for my graduation present from college and for a a book nerd like me...this is the best gift someone could give. It's nice and sleek and it holds 1,500 books! That's right, let me just repeat that. 1,500 books. Even big ol' fatty fatties like War and Peace can fit into that slim, sleek, little machine. Not only that but you can jump right onto the Kindle Store and get new books downloaded to your Kindle in 3 minutes or less. The best part, of course, is that the books are way cheaper than you could ever get them in print.

Not only can you get books on your kindle but you can also subscribe to get blogs, magazines, and newspapers. This is just a really amazing piece of technology that very few people know about. When I'm reading on my Kindle out in public it's amazing to me that many haven't ever heard of or seen a Kindle before. Soon enough these little machine's will be in the hand of every college student. Think of the money you could save on textbooks!!! Not to mention the room you could save in your backpack.

As any good consumer, there are a few things that do throw me off with the Kindle. For starters, why wouldn't you give a backlight option?! I love to read in the car but the big problem is reading in the car after the sun goes down. I was shocked when I got the Kindle into the car the first time and realized that it didn't have a backlight. I also tried to use the Text to Speech function, but the voice is so digitized and automated with absolutely no inflection. As a reader, I lasted about 2 seconds before I had to turn off the little man trying to read The Scarlet Letter.

Even with the room for improvement, I still get googly eyed when I look at my Kindle. It's like the perfect machine for the book nerd and technology nerd that lives inside of me. To see more information about Kindles and to get one of your own, head on over to Amazon.com!

The challenge of summer reading...

Summer. I welcome you with open arms.

Yet, here I stand at the Rod Library on the UNI campus trying to figure out what books I want to checkout. Of course, like any other good student I cannot stand someone telling me what books I should read. So shouldn't I be relishing this freedom?! This complete and utter liberation from professors shoving over-priced copies of Norton Anothologies into my hands and sending me out the door with assignments to read pages 131-287.

Suddenly I find that I'm unable to think for myself about what I truly want to read...deep down. At night I find myself paging through the anthologies checking out a poem here, a short story there. Where do I start?!?!

I've already read a couple of novels I had laying around the house and never got around to.
Here's my summer reading list as of today. It is an eclectic mix of authors and content but I'd like to believe its a good start and I've enjoyed it so far (the novels I've already finished are in red):

Animal Farm by George Orwell
Birthright by Nora Roberts
The Lovely Bones by Jane
Second Glance by Jodi Picoult*
Sula by Toni Morrison*
Paradise by Toni Morrison
Love by Toni Morrison
American Pastoral by Phillip Roth


*Denotes a highly recommended choice

Geocaching-Not so much fun if you lack a sense of direction

Okay...so it wasn't THAT bad. It did get me out of the classroom! A few days ago we went geocaching. My cohort Mande and I, being English minded, struggle with numbers. So, we were less than successful in finding our caches....which our pictures make blatantly obvious. For those of you who don't know what geocaching is, let me catch you up. Check out this video, made for us by our fellow classmates, its a riot. As stated previously, Mande and I had quite a few issues with our geocaching adventure. For starters, we didn't find anything....which is the whole point.

I think there could be some really fun ways to use this in an English classroom. One obvious way is to use it with the book Treasure Island, or any other treasure seeking book!

Video Games-Friend or Foe?

I'm here to tell you, don't believe everything you hear about video games. As non-gamers, we only see the surface level content of what students are doing these days. They are sitting for hours in front of computer and TV screens, wasting away perfectly good time, rotting their brains with violent images. Not sounding too positive, huh? I'm here to tell you that gaming is NOT ruining today's youth. In fact, it is most likely helping them to take a step above their peers. This past semester I have been doing some really in-depth research on how gaming effects learning and what I've come to learn from all of this reading is that gaming is a positive thing! It's not something we as educators or parents should be scared of. Gaming can teach students some really great skills like social interaction, problem-solving, thinking in terms of cause and effect, and gaming can also help students become more aware and empathetic of various cultures, ethnicities and ideologies.

One author that has been really influential in changing my mind about video games is Marc Prensky. His website provides tons of really great information to parents and teachers about gaming and how it is changing today's youth for the better. Check it out and be ready to open your mind up to the world of video games.

Zotero: For all of you who are reference impaired

I really enjoyed learning about Zotero. As a future English teacher, this is such a great tool to keep your sources organized and to make sure you have all the information to create a work cited page. I also really liked the note taking tool. This can save a ton of time AND paper! Go Green!

My Prezi about Delicious

Here's my very weak attempt at making a Prezi about Delicious. Prezi is a breath of fresh air when it comes to presentation aids!

My Prezi about Delicious

The Great Standards Struggle

As a future educator, there is one thing that is really plaguing me right now. STANDARDS! I've most certainly got a love-hate relationship with them. Let me start by saying that standards are completely necessary and really important for both educators and students. But, let me combat this statement by asking, WHY ARE THERE SOOO MANY?! Would it kill us to have on set of national standards? No wonder all of are high school graduates are at different ability levels. As I am working on a unit for one of my methods courses I am told to align my objectives and lessons to standards. Then the great debate is which ones to choose?! I need to look at the new Iowa Core Curriculum and the NCTE standards and then its probably my duty as well to look at the NETS-S standards as well since I'm an instructional technology minor. What a mess! I'm not really sure that at this point I feel comfortable giving advice to the standard writers across the nation, but I am just venting. I'll end by saying that I'm certainly glad that this many people are concerned about the future of our students and our current education practices. This probably isn't such a bad problem to have. Just a messy one.