Your Beliefs And Who Said?

In a stack of papers called Connections.

  • Mar
  • 07
  • 2006

After about 50 essays graded in the span of 4 hours, my mind is a bit shot. I’ve still got around 20 more essays to get through before I sleep tonight. But I want to point out a few Web sites to you. Oh! And if you’re interested in that Teacher Comment Database I mentioned yesterday, please do let me know and head on over to Teacher Says to see what I’ve thrown together in the last 24.

And now, a few sites of interest.

$200 For Your Beliefs

Deciding what you believe is much harder than you might think. This I Believe is based on a 1950s radio program. I’m not sure of the history, but it seems that Edward R. Murrow was involved in the original. That’s as good a credential as one can come by.

That the site provides “Essay-Writing Tips” and archives of the original broadcasts makes This I Believe a model Web site for such an ongoing call for papers.

So now the question is a This I Believe segment or record a documentary for the final project? My list of options is growing and it’s only March.

Sounds Like Something I’ve Always Wanted To Do

Not a contest or an option for students submitting papers, Who Said is so cool. I knew #91, but just had to go double check myself with a Google search, so I disqualified myself. This woman has put together a great idea where she reads passages from books and listeners have to guess what book it’s from. Next week, she’ll give the answer, with a few nods to the folk who got last week’s correct, and go on to read yet another passage.

I’ve been thinking of having my students do a book review podcast for their favorite books that come from their Enrichment Reading assignment. That would include picking a section from the book and reading it along with a thumbs-up or thumbs-down vote for the novel. Who Said has taken that idea and turned it into a game. I like it very much.

It’s late and those papers aren’t going to correct themselves. See you tomorrow.

3 comments

1. Laurie says:

[3/7/2006 - 8:31 pm]

The comments in your link are very personal and specific. I can’t quite picture how these will be the beginning of a database of comments. What am I missing?

2. Todd says:

[3/7/2006 - 8:36 pm]

Well, they don’t have to be specific to the paper. I just get the feeling that I write the same things over and over again, using different words each time. I point out the same problems, it’s just that the examples from the paper I use vary. Maybe there’s a way to edit the comments, once they are in there, to be more general so that they could apply to more than a single paper.

3. Laurie says:

[3/7/2006 - 9:47 pm]

I think your very personal comments, specific to the paper, are exactly what makes them effective.