Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/laikolosse/2712207735/

What is the world coming to?  Here’s an interesting article about a bill that is making its way through the California legislation.  What is your opinion?  Which is more important–child safety or privacy?  I mean, I wouldn’t want my mother reading my private journal/diary, but then again, I don’t treat Facebook like my private journal/diary…

Let me know what you think about this article–leave a comment.  Bonus points if you get your parents to write in!

First, we are asked to track the number and locations of visitors to our blog.  I have a ClustrMap in our sidebar that does just that.  Right now, it shows that we have had:

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/athomeinscottsdale/4659168595/

1,262 visits from the United States

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/imuttoo/2628589070/sizes/m/

103 visits from Canada

Photo Credit: freeaussiestock.com

62 visits from Australia

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/digitalwallpapers/2695521868/sizes/m/

and 46 visits from the U.K.

as well as many more countries around the world.

Some other recommended trackers are FlagCounter, Feedjit,  and Revolver Maps.  Take a look at each of these and then come back and tell me if you think we should try one of these other trackers instead.

I just love that there is a new automatic pop-up in my web browser (Chrome) that asks me if I want a page that is not in English translated so I can read it.  This means I can interact with people of various languages, whether I know their language or not.  Of course, if I leave a comment in English, I hope their browser will translate it into their language so they can know what I’ve said.

Notice a new addition in our left sidebar?  Yup, that’s right, I was inspired by the challenge to add a translator widget so other people who visit our blog but don’t speak English can now have it translated into their home language.  This means even more people can join our circle of blogging buddies!

Parlez-vous une autre langue que l’anglais?  If you speak a second (or third, etc.) language in addition to English, why not try writing a post in your other language(s)?  That could expand your audience to other people who also speak that language.  (Can you guess what language that question was in?  That is my second language, although I’m a bit rusty….)

Okay class, there is much more to this challenge (investigate Earth Hour, tally languages spoken by the class, visit ten blogs from different countries) than I have time for.  So, I will leave it up to you to tackle those parts of the challenge on Thursday morning.  Good luck, or should I say, bonne chance, and don’t forget to tell me:

• What kind of tracking widget should we use on our class blog?
• What is Miss Nichols’ second language?
• What other language(s) do you speak?
• What are you doing for Earth Hour?
• What other blogs have you visited?

P.S.  Here is the lantern I made for Earth Hour!

I really enjoyed staying indoors all day grading your research reports with the steady rain as a backdrop!  I don’t think we get nearly enough rain here in sunny southern California.

What about you?

• Do you like the rain?
• What do you like to do on a rainy day?

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/robbie73/4244846566/

Fortunately for me, my phones and computers change time all by themselves–otherwise, I probably would have been off by an hour all day.

Ever wonder why we have those two weird times a year when we “spring forward” and “fall back” an hour?  Here is the scoop on Daylight Saving Time.  Read the article, then come back and tell me how you felt about the time change this weekend.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shutterhacks/4474421855/

It was pointed out to me on our Shelfari page that the LA Times Festival of Books is speedily drawing near.  Many students are already excited about going.  Have a look around the website and see which authors are going to be there on which days, and we can talk about arranging rides when I get back after Spring Break.

Also, we have a book shop over in the left sidebar under “Web Resources” that can give you some ideas for great reads!  Have a look–anything you buy there will help our class receive credits with Amazon.com!

So, tell me:

• What books have you been excited about lately?
• How are your group books going?
• Have you found any powerful themes or lessons about life in the stories you’ve been reading?
• What about electronic reading devices like the Kindle?  Do you use them or do you prefer holding the actual book in your hand?

In the meantime, though, here are your Blogging Challenges for Week One:

INDIVIDUAL STUDENT BLOGGERS

When last I checked the registered students list, these were the people from our class that I saw there: Arnold, Kobe, Michael, William, Janis, Daphnie, Esmeralda, and Tyler.  You should follow the directions on the challenge page where it says “Students:“.

If you thought you had signed up to be an individual student blogger and your name isn’t above, check the registered students list, and if your name is not there, register again here.  Then go ahead and do the student suggestions on your own blog.  (They give you lots of choices–you don’t have to do them all!)

CLASS BLOGGERS

Everyone else will be responding in a comment to this post here on our class blog.  The topic this week is “Who Are We?” Follow the steps below:

1. Why should other students / classes visit our blog? What will they learn from reading our posts? Are there any skills our class has that we could pass on to other classes and students? Perhaps highlight and link to some great posts our class has already written that newer blogging classes would find useful or interesting.

2. What should our Class “About” page have on it? Check out these below. Each page is so different. What do you think should be included in a class ‘About’ page?

• Mrs Partlow in Washington State, USA
• Mr Mac in South Australia
• Mr Toft in Ontario, Canada
• C-O Connections in Texas, USA

Check out at least ten other class blogs from the list. Write a comment sharing some similarities and differences you found while reading their ‘About’ pages. Remember to include links back to those class blogs (or at least copy / paste their http://).

3. Write a comment introducing the world to our classroom or school.

4. Visit our buddy classes!

Our buddy classes are:

Catherine Barnard from Canada

and

Erika Fosgreen from the U.S.

Go visit their blogs, introduce yourself in a comment and get a conversation started!

5.  Visit other blogs from the class list. Visit a different class blog and check it out. What did you like about it? What caught your eye? Did you find an interesting post?  Be sure to include a link (or the http://) of the blogs you mention.

I can’t wait to see all your comments on here!  Is there anything else you’d like to tell me about your week?

But really, I can’t wait until I’m feeling like this again

so I can be back there with you guys.

Click PLAY to hear the message!

Write me back by leaving a comment under this post:

• Did you catch up on all your blogging today?
• Did you remember to sign up for the Student Blogging Challenge?
• What new things should I come see on your blog?

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/78703942@N00/72024097/

So, we are one movie away from the end of Harry Potter.  It has been interesting to me to see how the books were interpreted for the big screen, and how my idea of what it would look like matched up or did not match up with the directors’ visions.

I loved the first three books, but the movies did not seem to fit the feelings I had about them.  The fourth book was my favorite, that is until book #6 came along, but those movies were actually the most disappointing to me.  The books that I didn’t really like as much, #5 and #7 were actually the movies I liked the best, because they were able to cut a lot of the boring description parts and keep the plot moving.

But the best thing about the movies and books are the characters.  I have enjoyed watching the characters and actors who play them grow throughout the years.  My favorite characters are the Weasley twins, Fred and George.  There’s something about twins that lead to mischief and humor….

Photo Credit: yami-katori.blogspot.com

So, write-in to tell us your opinons about Harry Potter?

• Which book or movie in the series was your favorite?  Why?
• What was your favorite moment?
• Who is your favorite character?  Why?