2008 FCTE PDI Orlando

What an institute! I hope you enjoyed the sessions, speakers, and camaraderie. If you have suggestions, ideas, comments, or concerns about this year's PDI or even PDI 2009, do not hesitate to contact any FCTE board member. You may visit/join FCTE-SLATE's Google Group or use the comment feature on FCTE's Blog to leave your message. There are other websites for teachers to preview as well as a spot for Florida English teachers' blogs and class websites.

In the column at the right under 'Favorite Websites' there are other sites that may be of interest to you. Here are the links to websites and documents discussed, demonstrated or alluded to during either of the sessions I participated (and even some I attended). You can find copies of PowerPoint presentations and other information regarding the conference on my Google Site .

Voki Allows you to create avatars

Schooltube Provides students and educators a safe media sharing website

Youtube Media sharing website (public)

Teachertube Provides students and educators a safe media sharing website

Playlist Social Music Site

Voicethreads A collaborative, multimedia slide show that allows people to leave comments

Moviemaker Found on all Windows operated systems. May need to use 'search' feature to locate.

Instant Messenger This is AOL's creation. However, every email provider has a version.

Flash Appointments 30-day free trial

Appointment schedulers This one is "free for small businesses." There's a small fee for most.

Wordle 'Toy' that generates word clouds

Google Lit Trips Uses Google Earth to plot the course of great literature

Online Meetings There are several. Most have a free trial period. Google: online meetings

Google docs Allows multiple people to share documents in 'real time'

Google calendar Calendars can be private or public and others can make changes or add events

Google Wiki/sites Allows for one or multiple users to access, create, edit, and post information

Google Reader Lets you subscribe to web sites so that new content comes to you when posted

Jing Always-ready program that instantly captures and shares images and video… anywhere

Presenters' emails/website:

Jeff Anderson jander231@earthlink.net http://www.writeguy.net/

Carol Jago jago@gseis.ucla.edu http://www.caroljago.com/

Michael Meyer michael.meyer@uconn.edu

Alan Sitomer AlanLawrenceSitomer@yahoo.com

Sharon Draper http://www.sharondraper.com/

Elizabeth Thomas upwordspoetry@earthlink.net http://www.upwordspoetry.com/

Tammy Hinson Thinson@flvs.net

Oya Mwanza Omwanza@flvs.net

Clarissa West-White clarissa.westwhite@famu.edu englishteacherswelcomed.blogspot.com

Janeen Larson jflarson@fsu.edu - Balloons, Pies and Other Vocabulary Matters

Kathy Froelich froelich@coe.fsu.edu Talking the Talk!

Enrique Puig epuig@mail.ucf.edu Talking the Talk!

Lucas Rodesiler fcte2008vt.pbwiki.com Symbolic Analysis: Literature, album art, and Voice Thread


Newsletters, books, documents, other information

NCTE's Inbox NCTE's newsletter - You can sign up to receive the newsletter at the site.

Writers on Wheels Emails may be sent to Kristin Pitts at writersonwheels@aol.com

The Early Catastrophe: The 30 Million Word Gap by Age 3 Referenced by J. Larson

Nickel and Dimed Book referenced by Sitomer

Maryanne Wolf's Proust and the Squid Book referenced by Anderson

Graham & Perin's Writing Next(2007) - PDF of the report - Referenced by Anderson

Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian Referenced by Anderson

Official Web page Sherman Alexie's Official Web page

The Silent Epidemic PDF of report http://www.silentepidemic.org/ Report's website-Sitomer

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Referenced by Sitomer

The Pew Center Referenced by Sitomer

Urban Institute Referenced by Sitomer

National Endowment for the Arts-Readers at Risk Report PDF of report-Referenced by Meyers

Commissions & Contact Information

If you would like to become involved with any of the following commissions, please contact the FCTE Liaison** or Commission Chair*:

Development of Diversity in Educational Leaders

**Susan Houser (susan_15ym@yahoo.com)

Intellectual Freedom

*ReLeah Lent (rlent@phonl.com)

Continuation of Professional Development

**Pamela Craig (pamelasue5@tampabay.rr.com)

Standards & State Requirements Affecting Classroom Instruction

**Tamara Doehring (tamaradoe@aol.com)

Community and Educational Partnerships

**Donna Garcia (dkgarcia@mail.ucf.edu)

Media and 21st Century Literacy

*Barbara Pace (bgpace@coe.ufl.edu)

NCTE Advocacy Day! April 23, 2009

The following video (made with movie maker) provides a glimpse into the annual event. Members of FCTE are in the planning stages of a Florida Advocacy Day! If interested, contact Susan Houser - susan_15ym@yahoo.com or Clarissa West-White - clarissa.westwhite@famu.edu.

October 2008 - Featured Site

This month's featured website is the creation of Taalam Acey who is "widely considered to be the central figure in this generation of Spoken Word Poetry." Although there are a few typos here and there, do not hold that against the talented poet. Explore his website and listen to sample works. Even if you decide this his creative taunts are not your "cup o' tea" research the work of other prominent artists that he showcases http://cdbaby.com/style/220. Whether this genre is new to you or you are an experienced member of its ever growing community, this site is a great place to start. It features, for example, the work of Alixa and Naima http://cdbaby.com/cd/alixanaima who were featured guests at Amiri Baraka's lecture at Florida State University a few years ago. As the saying goes, 'you ain't seen nothing yet' if you have not seen spoken poetry performed by raw, talented individuals with a message to speak or sermon to preach. Even in Tallahassee, there are frequent displays of spoken word events thanks in part to Black on Black Rhyme.

September 2008 - Site of the Month

VG: Voices from the Gaps Women Artists and Writers of Color, An International Website

VG/Voices from the Gaps is a web-based trans-national academic community including students, teachers, artists, and scholars. VG provides resources about artists and writers. VG forges a collective effort of scholars who digitally interract with each other. VG contains biographical and critical analysis, pedagogical information, and histories of translation. VG archives recorded sound, film, and image collections, interviews, and online conversations with web logs (blogs).

Google Wiki Site Created

Click the title above (or here) to explore a new site I created for students enrolled in ENC 3320, LIT 3333 and LAE 4360. Even if you're not enrolled, click the link to explore and think about creating your own!



And while you're at it (no, I am not getting paid to do so) check out other cool things Google offers. One thing that appeals to me is that I can do so much with only once username and password. We all are aware of Google's web searching ability, but did you know that you can:

create blogs
create sites/wikis
create and share calendars
create and share documents (& photos) with others across the room or the world
create an email account which holds massive amounts of data (gmail)
create maps
use Google lit maps in your class
explore earth (earth.google.com)
create groups
explore Google videos, images, world news, shopping bargains
search for books (books.google.com)
research topics (scholar.google.com)
search for patents
check, plan and seek financial advice

Don't believe me? Click and explore all that Google has to offer!

Related Links

Click on the title above, or on FCTE to view the blog and check out other links of importance to English professionals.