This past week at the NCTE conference in San Antonio, I was humbled by the fact that I was asked to present with Linda Rainer (my department head), Linda Gaydosh, and Nikki Townsend about shifts in the American dream as presented in literature. During Nikki’s part of the presentation she showed us MAHALO.COM.

This is a search engine that categorizes your search engine choices for you. For example, here is a Mahalo search for George Bush Pardons. As you can see, it categorizes it into Possible Pardons, Confirmed Pardons, Mahalo Top 7, and News Stories, and CITATIONS(!).

This might become my new favorite search engine! After all, if you search for something via Mahalo and decide you want to switch, you can just click the tabs across the screen to change.

Ramsey Brothers Productions has some serious short films and most of them have a lesson to teach. However, I’m really not sure if this video is more appropriate for a film studies class or for an English class. Whichever way you want to look at it, students having an appreciation for older movie styles will find this clip far more enjoyable. As you watch it, pay close attention to the dialogue and improve your grammar as you go.

I found the following news HERE at Lifehacker.com
Today Google starts rolling out voice and video chat inside Gmail—which requires a free browser plug-in download, and, obviously, a webcam or microphone. Googler Justin Uberti explains:

Once you install the plug-in, to start a video chat, just click on the “Video & more” menu at the bottom of your Gmail chat window, and choose “Start video chat.” You’ll have a few seconds to make sure you look presentable while it’s ringing, and then you’ll see and hear your friend live, right from within Gmail. You can click the “pop-out” icon to make the video larger, or click the fullscreen icon in the upper left-hand corner for a fully immersive experience.

Check out the new video chat in action in the video below.

Screen grabs are AWESOME because they allow you to take a snapshot of a specified area of your screen. That is how I made the thumbnails for my post about using Wordle with Gatsby. Below are some options for both Mac and Windows users (I have divided them accordingly).

For Mac Users:

To select the whole screen:

You probably already know about this, but mac users can hold COMMAND + SHIFT +3 to take a picture of your whole screen. This picture will be saved to your desktop as a .png file. If you are sending it to someone, you may want to save it as a .jpeg.

To do this on a mac simply

1. double-click the picture on your desktop (that will open it in preview)
2. click file
3. save as
4. then select the file type as a jpeg

If you want to use preview to mark on it and add notations, save that .png file as a pdf and use the tool menu to mark away.

To select a specific area on the screen (like a menu):

Hold down COMMAND + SHIFT + 4 and follow the steps above if you want to change its format or manipulate it.

Here are some more options showcased by lifehacker in a post about screen grabs with leopard:

While you hold down Cmd+Shift+4, you can also hit the:

• Spacebar to drag the selected capture region around the screen.
• Shift key to vertically or horizontally lock the capture region.
• Option key to expand or reduce the size of the region proportionately.

To see the new keys in action, hit up the QuickTime video over at Macworld that demonstrates.

Use new screen region capture options in 10.5 [Macworld via MacUser]

For Windows Users:

There are a number of options for windows users. Since I am a mac guy, I went to LIFEHACKER, which happens to be my homepage, for some ideas. Therefore, I will showcase some of their posts for you to explore.

Take and Edit Screenshots with Flatstone Capture

See the rest of this post here.

Windows Only: Reader-recommended application FastStone Capture is lightweight and feature-rich screen capture tool. In addition to saving its captures in a multitude of formats (BMP, GIF, JPEG, PCX, PNG, TGA, TIFF and PDF), FastStone Capture can send any screenshot to your image editor of choice, printer, email client, open it in a Word or Powerpoint doc, or upload it to an FTP site. There’s no need to send the capture to an image editor for simple tasks however, since FastStone Capture’s built-in editor can easily handle simple annotations and editing tasks such as cropping, adding text, arrows, highlighting, watermarking or enhancements like drop shadows or frames. FastStone Capture is freeware, Windows only. Sharp eyed readers noticed that the new versions of FastStone Capture are no longer freeware, updated to link accurately to the handily portable freeware version. Thanks guys!

You could also use this Firefox extension discussed by Lifehacker:

Firefox extension ScreenGrab lets you save screenshots of web pages by what is visible in your browser window or, more importantly, by scrolling and stitching together the elusive whole page.

ScreenGrab joins the ranks of great, free screen grabbing tools like Snippy that are really nice to have around in a pinch. Of course, if you’re looking for a more full-featured screen grabbing app, nothing beats good ol’ SnagIt. ScreenGrab works wherever Firefox does, requires Java. — Adam Pash

Click here to download this Firefox ScreenGrab

Using SnagIt to capture a whole page on a website (which is pretty awesome!):

(Taken from this post on Lifehacker)
Not-free SnagIt captures screen shots of scrolling windows from top to bottom.
In Windows, the Alt-PrintScreen key combination copies a screen shot of the visible bit of an open application to your clipboard. But that’s just not enough. SnagIt will grab an image of an entire scrolling document from top to bottom - very useful for web pages that change often or might disappear at any moment. SnagIt can record videos of application usage and save them as AVI files (for you time-strapped and good-hearted computer tutors). It will even copy text to the clipboard when the usual Copy and Paste doesn’t work (like a list of files in Explorer.)

SnagIt’s free to try, and a license costs a steep 40 bucks. Handy for the oft-screen-capturing set. IE integration and Firefox extension available.

SnagIt Screen Capture [TechSmith]

I hope this is helpful. Let me know if you have any questions or have other ideas for screen shots.

This morning I stumbled across an interesting site that showcased a fun little study guide that anyone can build in about an hour. The plus side to this is that you get to teach/learn a little about circuitry in the process. For students who are a little more interested in science, this might be a way to get them to become interested in vocabulary, math or history.

You could even do this with:
grammar rules
vocabulary
chronology in stories
character traits
chemistry: elements
formulas
science vocabulary
science facts
math equations
math formulas
history time lines
history definitions
historic figures

Check it out:

This week’s project combines some rudimentary circuitry and any subject your child needs a little extra practice in. I would file this with my “Better Than Worksheets” instructional series on drill and practice had I ever created such a series.

The word circuit is obviously historically related to the word circle. Webster’s 1828 defines it thus:

The act of moving or passing round; as the periodical circuit of the earth round the sun, or of the moon round the earth.

Modern technology may have brought some more specific application to the world, but the meaning has not changed much. Circuitry allows electricity to travel around in a circle to do work. Here, we are going to make a simple circuit board that can serve to allow your child to practice any skill that can be answered in a yes/no or multiple choice format. In this case, it will be multiplying by four.

Materials:

file folder (with the open edge trimmed so both sides are th same size and shape)
hole punch
marker
masking tape
aluminum foil
circuit tester

1. Punch holes. You will need two rows of holes. One for each question and one for each answer.

2. Write the problems along one side and the possible answers on the other.

3. Open the folder. On the back side of the side you wrote the problems and solutions, lay a strip of foil between a problem and the correct answer. This is the basis of your circuit board. Fold the ends over the hole and make sure the hole is completely covered by the foil. Insulate with masking tape. Make sure none of the foil is showing on the back side.

4. Continue until all the answers are connected to their problems by a strip of aluminum foil insulated by masking tape. The back will look kind of messy, but that is ok. No one will see it, anyway.

5. Close the file folder. We do a set of problems on each flap, make the circuit board and then tape the folder closed. This helps protect the work.

6. Use the circuit tester to work the problems:

Oops. The circuit was not completed, so the tester did not light up. Try again!

Yeah! She got the problem right, the circuit was completed and the tester lit up.

Caution: When you look for a circuit tester, some contain lead. These are not intended as children’s toys. We searched and found one without lead, but still require our daughter to wash her hands after using it.

THIS POST WAS TAKEN FROM PRINCIPLEDDISCOVERY.COM, A SITE ABOUT HOMESCHOOLING.

I discovered a useful website for students reading “The Waste Land.” On the left side of the screen you have the text of the poem. On the right side you have the detailed notes for each line. I really like the fact that it goes into all of the allusions and symbolism that create a foundation for this piece.

The author of this website explains:

Eliot’s original notes have been supplemented by additional notations, which appear in green like so. I have taken several notes directly from M. H. Abrams et al., eds., The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 6th ed., vol. 2 (NY: Norton, 1993). I have also drawn heavily on A Guide to the Selected Poems of T.S. Eliot by B. C. Southam.

(To read posts about teaching “The Waste Land”, click HERE.)

Because we are so used to the internet for research purposes, we can spot a cheesy website instantly. MIDDLESPOT.COM gives the option of seeing 50 pages at the same time. In addition to seeing the picture of the site, the site also allows you to see the chunk of text that contains the word(s) you are searching.

My favorite option is that you can add your research to a “wordpad” at the bottom of the page, that way you can pick what you want out of the set of 50 at first, then go back and do a more thorough review to see which ones will make the final cut.

I found this to be an interesting tool for those suffering from writer’s block.  On the right side of the page you can see what each of the numbers, when dialed, will give you.  One number is for setting, one is for characters, one is for dramatic entrances, etc.

Therefore, if you are doing a short story unit or even just giving a journal prompt,  cure those , “I don’t know what to write” students.  Their idea is just a few numbers away.

As a side note, this tool is part of a website that is an ongoing writing contest with the prize of being a published author.

Enjoy.