Making Things Work

I've been using Delicious, FriendFeed, Twitter, and the like and wasn't quite sure how it would all work. I wasn't really fond of the idea of Social Networking.

By exploring the different tools and exploring friend social network tools I now see it differently. Mostly on the academic side. I am now following people I would not have heard about if not for these tools.

I don't know that I will socially social network but the professional social networking is a good idea.

B

Rethinking Approaches to classes

A colleague and I were discussing the classes we teach and both decided that we need to rethink how we approach the course.

Do I really need my students to write a compare and contrast essay? Is there a better approach? We were discussing introducing the final project at the very beginning and using the text to guide students to topics for the final paper.

I'm also struggling with ways to improve my Developmental English course. I keep plugging away.

B

Relearning Old Stuff

I attended a workshop on Lessonbuilder yeasterday. I have used Lessonbuilder in the past but haven't used it recently. It has been improved. I'm not sure if or how I will use it but did see some neat features.

To Blog or Not to Blog....

I realized I'm not a blogger. I don't read blogs with any regularity and I'm not actually likely to return to a blog. This is my first blog and I forget I have it.

I signed up for Twitter, Yammer, and Facebook. I like following twitter because I'm following Lance Armstrong. I like to watch the Tour de France. I post very little.

Yammer is different, sort of. I read Yammer but don't post much, but I am more likely to read than post. I do see usefulness for Yammer because it is a corporate IM type program. Easy way to ask questions.

Facebook, about the same. it's fun to see what everyone is doing but I post very little.

So I keep asking myself, why blog.

Good moments in the classroom

Yesterday was a fun day in the classroom.

My 110 students were at the editing stage of their essays. They worked to find sentence fragments and other sentence errors.

The fun part occurred when showing them how to write introductions and conclusions. These are hard for many people let along students who are new to college writing or weak writers.

We had fun creating an introduction then turned that into a conclusion. They got the concept of an introduction appropriate for a personal narrative and how that, as well as what they wrote in the essay, forms a conclusion. They realized that conclusions are both a restatement of the introduction but not a restatement of the introduction.

I am really working on my instruction in this class. So far I like the changes I am making.

Second Entry

I'm still trying to figure all this out. I have to admit, I'm also working on learning Blackboard so it's all mixed up. I'll get it eventually.

B

First Blog

I've read a few blogs but never really ventured into the arena. So I'm putting my big toe in the water now.

I'n not sure where this blog will go but it is a start.