¡Feliz Navidad!

Due 7-12-10

Vamos a celebrar Navidad y necesitamos ornamentos. Puedes (you can) traer (bring) de uno a dos ornamentos para ponerle (put) a nuestro arbolito (our tree) de Navidad. Los ornamentos deben (should) ser mexicanos o españoles.  Para recibir los 10 puntos de credito addicional tienes que etregar(to hand in) informacion acerca (about) de tu ornamento y por que lo escojiste (choose it). El ornamento lo tienes que hacer (make) tú.

Piñatas

¿Qué hacemos (we do) con las piñatas? (bono hasta -until- 11-11-10)

Unidad 3 - tarea

¿Cómo vamos (are we going) a calificar (grade) unidad 3? post in your blog por favor.

Descripciones

Describe your favourite actor/actress include how tall, colour of hair, eyes and name.

Hola chavos

Primero terminen (finish) su diccionario de unidad 2. Segundo escriban en su blog como (how) vamos a (going to) calificar (grade) unidad 2 ideas por favor. Tercero si mencionan la contraseña (password) *un patito rojo* van a tener (going to have) credito extra (vale 3 puntos) mañana miercoles.

Library challenge -- Lesson 10 It's a wrap not a rap or even a haiku

Antes que nada (before anything) ¡Muchas gracias a Jane Heitman Healy y Julie Erickson! (thank you very much) for putting together a great course.

Discovery Exercise -- What was your biggest discovery?

1. For me from lesson 2 on I had no idea we had access to such superb resources, not only for teachers but for students to use (as well as library patrons). I knew of World Book since we have a link in our home page for easy access but I think all the other resources deserve to be linked there as well. I really enjoyed discovering all of them particularly CAMIO.

2. One thing I am glad about is I used my class blog to go through all the lessons, this way I have all the information about the different resources and can point my students to it on my blog and also it will serve as a refresher for me when I need to remember what resource does what this way I will not need to store the information in my long term memory or in student lingo my hard drive. I plan on using several of the resources with different lessons throughout the year.

Library challenge -- Lesson 9 History and Genealogy Resources

Discovery Exercise -- History and Genealogy Resources -- AncestryLibrary, Heritage Quest and Sanborn Maps

1. AncestryLibrary -- After inputting my name in the search box it came up with my address and phone number, though the number no longer exists. Did not have too much information on me other than that.

2. Search for a grandparent -- I looked for my fraternal grandmother but did not find anything on her, am I correct in supposing the site only gives hits for the US? I did find my mother who lives in Illinois but any other searches on my family gave me no results. It could be that I do not know how to use the site and perhaps that is why I did not have much success.

3. Photos and Maps -- This search gave a total of 176,456 pictures ranging from general photos of the bureau of ships to family and yearbook photos. I saw a picture of the Corn Palace from 1909 "..the Corn Palace, built from 3500 bushels of corn..." Also a picture from Deadwood and of a poster offering free homes and cheap deeded land in South Dakota. This was interesting.

4. HeritageQuest -- I browsed a few of the options in HeritageQuest, but not really knowing what or who I am looking for I was at a bit of a loss. While I can see that it would be a great tool for research I think you really need to know what you are looking for. I ended looking at a book on the history of Fresno, California since I have a cousin that lives in Fresno. I think since it appears to be that it is more related to the U.S. I would say that HeritageQuest lends itself more to history, social studies, research of genealogy or geography as it relates to human movement since it does have a section on the Census.

5. Sanborn Maps -- I chose Rapid City and started on Oct 1885, in that date the one building that existed and that is still in use was the bank on the corner of 7th street and Main. I then changed the date to Nov 1915 the year the Firehouse was built, that building is now a micro-brewery and restaurant and it's located on Main st and 6th street. In 1885 there was a building there but it was not a firehouse and it was much smaller, also I noticed the Elks theater existed by 1915 these are two of my favourite places downtown. I find it fascinating to be able to "go-back" in time with maps. I could probably spend hours looking at old maps and in my opinion it would be a very usable resource for students in the classroom for research or just to create more authenticity to any report or essay.

Library challenge -- Lesson 8 LearningExpressLibrary

Discovery Exercise -- LearningExpressLibrary

1. The set up was painless and it was not difficult to find the resources

2. I chose a reading comprehension test, I like that it can be taken untimed as this gives you more time to process and learn. I had no idea this resource existed at all and it would have been really handy to have when I was in college to help with my English grammar and punctuation; I do still struggle with them. I thought the diagnostic page was good and the fact that you can go back and look at your answers and see where you went wrong a very good tool for improvement.

3. I chose a course on Job Search and Networking Skills. I found the information very thorough and relevant to today's job market and the skills our youth uses the most. If you are a paper pencil type of person you do not necessarily think of all the resources online like tweeter, not being a tweeterator I would not have thought of using that site for a job search.

4. I chose a book titled "Read Between the Lines" this title caught my attention. The book is about how to better answer DBQ's or Data-Based Questions. While I find the title and the information intriguing I have never been one to read eBooks I can see that this resource can be a great asset to any student or adult who has access to a computer. One thing I did not see was if you were able to check them out on like an eReader so you can take it with you.

Lesson challenge 7 -- ArchiveGrid and CAMIO

Discovery exercise part 1 -- ArchiveGrid/Sitting Bull's autograph card.

1. Sitting Bull was the original freedom fighter for his people. He opposed the white man's take over of the west and fought to resist the loss of his traditions and his religion by continuing with the Ghost Dance which caused his death.

2. I did a search on Emiliano Zapata mexican revolutionary leader. Most of the documents on the first page are in the University of Berkeley, some are in the University of Texas. There were 47 results, I did not look at all of them but the ones on the first page of the search varied from a letter from Zapata to Manuel Palafox for services rendered in the use of accomodations at Amecameca to Oral interview with Mexican political leaders by James Wallace Wilkie, which incidentally his wife's last name is Monzon (same as my maiden name and I discovered this thru a previous search of my maiden name).

Discovery exercise part 2 -- Camio

1. Items made by Paul Revere were: teaspoon, sugar bowl, creampot, saver, sons of liberty bowl, several teapots, coffee urn, two handle covered bowl, sugar urn, sugar basket, tankard, Cann wine quart, goblet and a sauceboat. There were a few items made by Paul Revere Jr and I was not sure if it is the same person or his son.

2. The items this search brought some were utilitarian from blanket strip to fancier bead work on shirts and tabacco and pipe pouches, also the pipe bowls were intricately carved and I did not realized the bowl and the stem were two different pieces. There were several books of pictographs some were religious (sun dance, praying and dreams) and others were war related (attacking and Custer's war) to advice (preparing for marriage) and possibly a children's book about "witches playing with their baby" though this one was a single drawing and not a book. The search offered also several prints and photographs of life of the sioux.

3. Frida Kahlo: self portrait with a monkey. I was fortunate enough to see this portrait during an exibit or Frida Kahlo's work in the Walker Art Centre in Minneapolis Mn about 3-4 years ago. My search only yielded one example of this great Mexican artist. I have linked the picture if anyone is interested in seeing it.

4. This resource could be used by art students who wish to study different examples of one artist, also there can be a virtual show where you would have several computers on with different images on them about a theme for example the Revolutionary War of the US, or Mexican artists and their chicano counterparts. This way you could view several images at once and try and make observations of the pieces and the unifying theme.

5. This by far has to be the best feature of this site. It offers an unending array of possibilities for use with students. I really really like this feature. I created a webpage with images from Mexico containing small pottery statues and a mask which gives a good sampling of pre-columbian art, I suppose you need to have a webpage space to upload it to but still it has good possibilities. The slice show was great as well =)

Lesson challenge -- 6 WorldCat

Discovery exercise part 1.

1. Worldcat gives you 14 other ways you could find a text, this is particularly helpful when you do not know the title of a book but happen to know some phrase related to this book it would at least give you a chance of finding the text. After two failed attempts at searching for a book I finally found a third title that gave me one entry. The two other previous attempts were for
The house on mango street," and "Plato and a Platypus go into a bar..." The book that gave me one entry was "the festival of bones," this title as you may or may not have guessed it's related to the day of the deah (all souls day 2 of nov) in México and it's one I use in my class during that time.

2.Only one library worldwide has this text and it's the San Benito county library in California.


3. Other information available in the full record is: Citing this page which sends you on a page that helps you cite the work and I particularly find this helpful for students. Many times they forget to give credit to the author and not only will you lose points but plagiarism is a very dirty word; with the link however a student no longer has the excuse of saying: "I didn't know how to cite the book so I just used it, what's the big deal..." It also has a geographic entry with links to related information on México and the celebration.

Discovery Exercise part 2

The result I chose was "cabin, flag and woman with seven boys." This is a photograph the information on this item is at the bottom and has several links to most of the keywords in the title and where the original photograph is located as well as information how to reach the museum that owns the photograph for copyright in case you wish to use the item. I also noticed at the top of the page is a bottom for citing this resource. Since this tool does not only give you text resources but also offers a variety of resources such as the photograph I looked at I can see where it would add to the richness of a research for a student. I think that you are only limited by your desire and effort. I do like this tool. Here is a link to the photograph in case anyone would like to see it: Cabin, flag and woman with seven boys.

Lesson challenge -- 5 netLibrary

Lesson 5 -- netLibrary

1. I chose to do a search on crafts and came up with 12 different texts that i could review. They vary from crafts for the different seasons to sell your crafts online. Only one text was culturally related it was the one for native American arts of north America, with this one I was disappointed that the description did not include the native American population of México since we are in north America as well a fact I find strangely missing from the geography classes that our students receive in school. However the variety was good even for 12 texts.

2. Constitution day -- Some of the 15 titles the search suggested when I typed "constitution" as a key word were:

A Companion to the United States Constitution and Its Amendments
by Vile, John R.
Our Elusive Constitution: Silences, Paradoxes, Priorities
SUNY Series in American Constitutionalism
by Hoffman, Daniel N.
The Bill of Rights
Magill's Choice
by Lewis, Thomas T.

The search also suggested books on the constitution of Japan the empire and Japan after 1946 (end of WWII). In order to use this resource I would suggest to students they should refine their searches as much as possible, still 15 searches only 2 of them were not relevant to the U.S. constitution.

3.Nebraska -- this search brought titles such as "O Pioneers! by Cather, Willa." A s well as stories of the plains "indians," it also brought books on settling the west and the reshaping of modern Omaha. I feel this option would be more beneficial than just using the first search. I am confident students will be able to access a good variety of information. This search came up with 4+ pages of titles the student would be able to create a well rounded research or essay.

Library challenge -- Lesson 4 Gale Virtual Reference Library

Lesson 4 -- GVRL

1. The title I chose was "Scholarships, Fellowships and Loans." The reason I chose this title is because I have been thinking I would like to get my masters in Spanish Language through Concordia College's masters program and I wanted to see what was available in the way of grants and scholarships. I do not want to get a loan if I can avoid it. Through this volume I found several scholarships related to foreign language studies which is very encouraging. I can also see a potential for my students to use this volume when they are ready to apply for scholarships in their chosen field.

2. For the second part of this lesson I went back to the manatee. I found six articles related to that topic. The one I chose to look at was "Habitat Loss and Species Extinction" by Brian Hoyle. This article was very interesting and informative. The read aloud feature allows the student to listen to the article while doing more research and I can see it would help students who are slow readers but also who are ELL learners because it helps in their pronunciation and the student can read aloud at the same time as the computer is reading to them to practice and listen for cognates to help them decipher the text.

Library challenge -- Lesson 3 Proquest

Lesson 3 -- Proquest

1. Basic search -- I chose to do a search on World of Warcraft (WoW) for my basic search (being an avid fan of the game and one who has played WoW for five years now), I was skeptical that I would find any information related to WoW in Proquest. Once the search ended I had 232 articles related to WoW, from anthropological studies (these interest me the most) to internet addiction and on line MMO's (massive multiplayer online games), to another about how cost effective a hobby WoW happens to be and how much enjoyment you can gain out of this hobby.
From the article "WoW Factor" by Jennifer Demski in the T.H.E. Journal i found the following quote interesting: "Demski features the online role-playing game World of Warcraft. Set in the northwestern part of Terokkar Forest, the capital city of Shattrath contains portals to every other major city in Outland: Darnassus, Exodar, even Ironforge. It is a gaming environment that provides a social activity and what students could learn from gaming and the gaming industry may apply to learning engagement in schools."
Frankly after the search gleaned 232 articles I expected all of them to be more of in the WoW bashing lines, instead I was surprised and found some of the articles interesting and if I found information on this subject I can see how useful Proquest can be for students doing research papers or just essay writing. (I know I will be mentioning this site to them when I hear them complain that they can not find any information on the topic given to them.) ~.o


2. Publications tab -- I did several searches related to the subject I teach. I was only able to find publications under tourism (3) and Spain (1). However I did not have the name of a publication to search for and perhaps I need to refine my searches. I admit using search engines has always boggled my mind, English is not my native language and some things I still am not able to "work" out one of them is search engines. I will say I was disappointed I did not find any information when I typed maya, aztec, Mexico or Mexico City and only one article related to Spain.

Library challenge -- Lesson 2 SIRS

SIRS Discoverer

1. Sirs Discoverer -- I decided to continue with my manatee research. The reading levels on the 103 articles I found were from young kids (Ranger Rick) to high school and adult level (National Geographic World). I like that you can look at all the articles at once or at the tabs which divided the search into newspaper articles, magazines, reference, web-finds and a tab for pictures. This is particularly helpful when you have to have several different sources in an essay you might be writing for school where you are not allowed to only use one book or one website. I am assuming that pictures have permission to be printed or used for educational purposes which would make illustrating a PowerPoint or word document easier than trying to find copyright or public domain pictures.

2. SIRS Discoverer Database Features.

• Country Facts -- The database offers information on population, geography and weather, history and resources for you to be able to find additional information. It also has a summary you can click on the top if all you need are simple facts. I do like that it offers teacher resources such as 3 levels of graphic organizers and you are able to have the article emailed to you.
  
• Maps of the World -- The advantage of being able to print these maps allow you to have a scavenger hunt for facts with your class, weather you want to use it for finding cities locations, historical facts or a collection of several different "hunts." I particularly love the outline maps and I know will be using them with my class at the beginning of term. No more looking for a suitable map now that I know this resource exists =)
• Photo Essays -- I chose this topic in thinking about an ELL learner pictures always help with trying to figure out a text. This section had several different topics including one about endangered species which the manatee is on that list. This section has short articles with a picture. The length of the articles i looked at seems appropriate for use with ELL learners or for a student who does not need much information just a sampling of facts or an idea to incorporate into a longer text the student has been working .

SIRS Issues Researcher

1. I chose racial profiling in the leading issues. The topic overview can be expanded and it gives the student a sampling of the information related to the topic chosen. Your search has information from several sources from newspaper articles to web references as well as political cartoons. I thought the pro/con issues where both sides are given is a good idea and can be used for further discussion in the classroom as well as used for debating the chosen topic allowing students to see issue from all sides and being better informed of their choices.

2. Curriculum Pathfinders -- I really like this feature of SIRS, it has a wide range of coverage on the subjects covered in school. I chose Spanish under language arts. I was impressed with the variety of help found in this area, it even had one of the sites i used frequently in my classes the BBC Spanish website. It also had a link for a website which I plan on using in the coming term, I have been looking for a phonetic alphabet site with sound bites for students to practice the alphabet. It also had a variety of other sources to choose from and it included a suggestion for Spanglish.

Timelin and citation builder in worlbooks

Hi and thank you for suggesting i check out those two features. Citation builder seems to be a good source for students in helping them develop the know-how when writing for college or beyond. The timeline I can use in class when we are looking at different events in the cultural history of the Spanish-speaking countries we study. Two very helpful features.

Library challenge -- At last!

Lesson 1a and 1b

1. Worldbooks for kids -- I chose the manatee, after not finding information about the possum. The information provided was short and to the point, no clutter to get lost in and it even offered a video of a manatee, one thing i found disappointing in the video was it had no sound, which in my opinion was a bit of a loss for kids, it is always interesting to hear how animals sound to create a more vivid picture in our minds. (The picture at right is from the US geological survey and it is in the public domain for that reason.)

2. Worldbooks for students -- This section had more information about the mammal, it provided a pronunciation sound of its name, a very nice picture and the same video. While it provided more information I feel that it is still geared to lower primary grades. I find both posts very similar with the only difference being the article is slightly longer for the student version. I did like the option to translate the text. The translation however was fairly poor at least in the Spanish translation I read, however it would help a ELL.

3.Worldbooks Advanced -- The country I chose was Brazil, since this is a place where manatees live. The information given on this country was very varied and it offered different aspects of the life in Brazil. It also had several pictures of interesting sites related to the country. In my opinion the information available on the country will be good for a variety of subjects, from art to social sciences.

4. Worldbooks Discover -- The article i read had several options from being read aloud to you to also having it translated in a number of languages to assist you in understanding it. I like that the site has a dictionary and the read aloud feature. The features mention before would help a poor reader of English or an ELL learner.

One feature I found particularly found useful was that you are able to save your research in a folder, this would help if you are unable to finish your research but also in proving your work.

Lesson 1c

1.Worldbooks enciclopedia estudiantil -- I chose the Spanish version since I am a Spanish High School teacher. The visual dictionary is very easy to use and it offers the additional bonus of the pictures for students just learning the language they would be able to find information but it could also be used by ELL students to help them with reports or gaining information on the subjects they are learning in school.

2. The read aloud feature would help students of the Spanish language in listening to the language, while the article is not read by a native speaker this feature still has merit in listening and pronouncing the words they are learning, for an ELL student who has difficulty reading or is a slow reader the read aloud option is excellent in being able to gain information for school.