Week 9 #21

I finally bought a new computer. The downside to the new computer is that I didn't have access to Quick Time. I did an online purchase but I don't appear to have success with the download because I wasn't able to open any podcasts until I finally had success with the podcast on Book Reviews. I know it is an older post from 2001 but I still found it interesting how newspapers are dealing with all of the online publications.

I think the podcasts could be very beneficial to class discussions. The podcast was not very long and yet it provides food for thought. Podcasts combined with a wiki could really open up a chance for students to comment and share feedback on anything from music, books or political events.

In the podcast I viewed the moderator was Terrance Smith and he interviewed Matthew Storin from the Boston Globe, Jason Epstein an author and book editor and Deidre Donahue from USA Today. Interestly, USA Today is the only newspaper not cutting their book review section. I thought that Jason Epstein brought up an interesting point that all of the book review chat rooms, Library Thing website and posting by the everyday reader will not replace the in-depth review a professional book review provides. I do believe we need both and I hope he is correct in his thinking as I do believe we need the professional book reviewers.

The following is the podcast I previewed Online News Hour with Jim Lehrer:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/jan-june01/book_6-20.html#

Week 9 #20 Take two

I believe that now everyone will be able to view the video I chose last night. It is titled An Incredible Horse and features Stacy Westfall. Yesterday, I spoke about why I liked this video. First, the horsemanship Stacy exhibits is amazing. Second, the communication and trust between horse and rider is a beautiful example of how animals and people can rely upon one another. Last, I love the music Tim McGraw composes and sings. I realize he may not write every song, but the message in this song is inspirational. I like that Stacy chose this song to honor her father.

Week 9 #20

I haven't spent much time on YouTube before tonight. I find that one can become hooked with watching videos. Seems to me each video and other related videos are endless on what people will post online. I did enjoy seeing the videos and I'm thrilled that the students who show me what they are watching have very innocent videos of basketball shots and sports related topics.
One of my favorite YouTube videos is featured below. I like it for the rider's skill, the free rein competition and of course one of my favorite country singers. I am a rider who has enjoyed the experience of owning, riding and competeing. Watching the video brings back all the wonderful experiences of interacting with horses. People and horses can build a special bond and trust. Stacy demonstrates this in the video.
I think that finding the right video to work with various lessons, history, or books can be very beneficial to students. The medium is certainly interactive for the students who enjoy the short, entertaining videos they view. I also believe the videos can enhance how to focus on a topic and capture in one to three minutes the point being made. I also think that point of view can be demonstrated with the use of YouTube. I am having trouble getting the video to upload onto my page. I will have to explore this option and post my favorite video tomorrow.

Week 8 #20

I was successful in posting an entry that links to LibraryThing, with my five book selections.

Week 8 #19

I am determined to get my book list to post in this blog. However, I'm not going to have success tonight. Does anyone understand where we are supposed to enter the HTML that the widget creates at Library Thing? I am unable to figure this out and the help area doesn't appear to address this issue. Why am I being so stupid? I am going to have to go back to the first lesson and remember my lesson to becoming a life long learner. I will speak to my tech people tomorrow and get some help. I'm too confused tonight to continue. :)

Week 8 #18

I wish I had paid attention to this assignment earlier. The grant the high school librarian and I are trying to write could have been posted in Zoho Writer and we could have worked on it together. Instead we e-mailed the document back and forth and my school e-mail doesn't always open at home. I did post an old article on my blog. I've added little blurbs in the article, but did not post this article. I also tried to add a table on another version but I hadn't planned out the entire table and when I tried to get the table to delete I wasn't successful. I also looked to add more to the table and haven't figured out how to do this either. I am still playing but I think that some of the features of Zoho Writer are not as user friendly as a regular table in Word.

I believe this Zoho Writer would be very useful for curriculum planning between teachers and librarians. I already see benefits for summer work. We could post documents and work together on them without having to necessarily be all in the same room. I could even be visiting my family and still be participating on the work that needs to be accomplished.

I do believe from my experience so far that it would take careful planning and set up of tables and extras. I say this because I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I'm unable to change a table I added to my document which I haven't posted. Did anyone else have the same trouble? What did you do?

Article one Promoting Reading

Promoting Reading among Mexican American Children

 

              Reading is best promoted when the text speaks to the reader’s world.  Books that enable minorities to take pride in their ethnic identity, provide positive role models, develop knowledge about their cultural history and build self-esteem can help promote literacy among minority readers.

 

              This article enables the reader to identify challenges, recommends classroom strategies and provides both literature selection guidelines and suggestions of literature appropriate for various grade levels for Mexican Americans.

 

              Today, only one tenth of one percent of the five thousand books published yearly are about or written by Mexican Americans.  In the past, only the major publishers of children’s literature published four to five books a year.  Most of the literature published through the 1990’s was limited to folklore, legends and protest pieces.  Since the early 1990’s, with a growing awareness of this issue, an increase in small publishing houses such as, Arte Publico, Pinata Books, and Bilingual Review Press have aided in launching Mexican American authors to national recognition.

 

              This article also offers ten suggestions for effective classroom strategies in how to better understand and prepare for cultural identity.  Nine guidelines for selecting appropriate literature are also recommended.  Finally, an extensive list of authors and works that have been reviewed and offer authentic cultural perspectives on Mexican Americans are presented by grade levels PreK-3, 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12.

 

              I found this article useful.  The suggestions for effective classroom strategies offer some excellent suggestions on how to incorporate many methods for exploring the Mexican American culture.  I found the nine guidelines for selecting appropriate literature to be true to how I was trained in library science.  Interestingly, I found that Gary Soto was included in the literature selections on many levels as a good author of Mexican American literature.  This is in direct conflict with a second article I read.