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!