What have I spent my spring break doing? Besides being ill, that is? (Typical for me.) Getting into my technology. It's the least you can do when it's beautiful outdoors and you're huffing and wheezing inside.
So here's what I've been getting into lately:
1. Netvibes. I've had an account for months, but never done much with it. But now I've added all my RSS feeds and have started using it as my way of checking the news, the local weather, writing webnotes and to-do lists for myself, updating my calendar, and the like. I'm totally addicted. And it's FREEEEEEEE!
2. Podcasts. Again, I've had my iPod forever and always known about podcasts. But they never particulary interested me. Who wants to listen to someone's home-spun radio show? That is, UNTIL NPR started offering podcasts of Garrison Keillor's "News From Lake Wobegone." What a wonderful way to wile away a sickie afternoon.
3. Audio Language Books. Another use for my iPod. I'm always looking for a listenable French program for the long drive to school. There are tons out there--mostly boring as all get-out. But now I've found one, offered by Earworms, that I love. It's language set to rhythm and a jazzy music background--almost like rap. It's catchy, a bit sexy, and it WORKS: the phrases stick in your brain. Revolutionary idea, really...I'm trying to think of how to integrate this teaching technique into my own classes.
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3 comments:
Oh, goodness... I just sent an email to the address listed on your work webpage because I thought your blog was gone, when really, I was - without benefit of my link list which died - checking critbritlit.LIVEJOURNAL.com rather than here. *sigh*
Do you think that there is any way I could trade coffee or webwork or somesuch for advice on scholastic matters? Decisions are looming and I have been made neurotically incapable of making them due to years and years of olympic level self-deprecation.
By the way, both Project Gutenberg and Librivox are great sources for free (if not professionally-done) audiobooks. I am finding a lot of good stuff on LearnOutLoud as well.
I also got an e-book reader (Sony) and have been feeding it stuff from Project Gutenberg and elsewhere via manybooks.net which will convert them into any format you might ever want or need.
May I suggest the BBC's (channel four) "In Our Time," found at the itunes podcast directory. Never blather, always bliss
Richard S
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