Outlander

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon has been in the spotlight recently, with a TV show on Starz, it seems like this series of books is just getting attention. I tried to read this book last summer, which resulted in me falling asleep. So, because this book is sitting on my Kindle, and I have yet to finish it, I thought I would try to start reading it again. It's still a slow process, and I'm not sure why I cannot seem to achieve a tiny spark of interest in this book, but I am trying! With the semester drawing to a close, I will have more time to read for pleasure, and while I am trudging through Outlander, I plan on being on the look-out for my next amazing book.

Creating a Web Quest

My Web Quest

I created my webquest on zunal.com. Zunal is fairly user friendly, and it is easy to add videos, links, pictures, ect. The only thing that I was disappointed with is that I could not find a way to edit the color of the text boxes and text. Besides that, I think webquests are a great way to incorporate technology in the classroom and keep students engaged. Today's students are technology savvy, so participating and completing a webquest should be very appealing to students!



Creating a Book Trailer

Book Trailer for The Book Thief!!

I am horrible at spoiling endings to books or movies, so with this book trailer I limited myself with words and events in the book! Check out my book trailer for this awesome book and check out the movie!

Book Trailer

I created this trailer on stupeflix.com which is absolutely free and very easy to use!

Book Lists

Something I really wish blogger had as an interactive button is book lists on goodreads. I use these book lists very often when trying to find something similar to a book I have previously read. For my classroom, I would recommend the following booklist Goodreads Young Adult Realistic Novels
While there are other websites that have booklists, I think goodreads.com has the most diverse selection of genres.

The next novel on my list of things to read is The Book Thief. I am already half-way through, and I like how the novel is narrated by Death. I have to complete a book trailer for this novel, and I already have the music picked out. I think the hardest part with be organizing my ideas and sorting through what I want included!

Bulletin Boards to Accompany Literature

To accompany our presentation over The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, our group had to make a bulletin board. I think bulletin boards are a great way for teachers to highlight ideas and concepts that they want students to remember; however, I feel that students are not usually allow to be involved in the creation of the bulletin board. I think a good idea for the classroom would be to have a poll. This makes students feel like they have a voice in how their classroom looks. As teachers, we always want to give students choices, so including them in your bulletin board is a great way to do this! We used selections our classmates found and included those selection into our bulletin board. It was a way to give our class a voice in our representation of the novel!

Notable Book!

For my library services class, we were required to read Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell, which I have read and am not a big fan. Because I did not like Eleanor and Park much, I marked Rainbow Rowell off my author list, but I am so happy that I changed my mind and read Attachments. I was in an upper level English class last semester, and a girl had a presentation on language used in this very book. Attachments explores the lives of Jennifer, Beth, and Lincoln. Part of the novel is just e-mails between Beth and Jennifer, and the other half is Lincoln's point of view. This difference in writing style makes this novel fun and easy to read.
I was up until 1 AM finishing this because it was that good. I couldn't stop reading, and I was so curious about what happened next. I also loved the setting of this book which is circa 1999! I'm not going to go into detail about what happens in this book, but Lincoln is hired to monitor employees at a newspaper to make sure they are not sending personal e-mails during work hours. Beth and Jennifer are sending personal e-mails, and their e-mails always get flagged, so Lincoln reads them; it's his job. One thing leads to another which finally ends in a great way.
I may have shed a few tears at the hopelessly romantic and sentimental exchanges in this book.
Bottom line: read it!