Foot: Web gave ‘Twilight’ fresh blood

I really enjoyed reading this article. I had no idea that the Twilight fan base started from Stephenie Meyer’s own website. The Twilight series has an enormous fan base. I think the fan base is so big because a lot of people can relate to the character’s emotions in the book. Personally, I don’t like to read books that are extremely popular. I didn’t start reading the Twilight series until my sophomore year in college. When I started reading the books, the first movie had already been released on DVD. I never really gave any thought to how the books became so popular. I really liked that Meyer’s used the internet as a way to connect with her readers. I think people become more interested in something when there is some type of personal connection. As I was reading this article, I kept thinking that the beginning of Meyer’s online presence really wasn’t that long ago, yet she was one of the first authors to use the internet in that way. Since the internet has become so entwined in my daily life, I forgot how relatively new the internet is.

Foot: School Topics in the News

I like to read the news online. Lately I've noticed that a lot of things that we've talked about with schools have appeared in the news. On the View the day after the superbowl, there was an episode that dealt with a boy who was bullied at school. A few NFL players stopped by to show their support for the young boy. I thought it was great that these big guys were speaking out against school bullying. I also just read an article about a high school English teacher in PA who is suspended without pay because she made comments on her blog about her "whiny" students. I just thought it was a great reminder of why you should not put certain information online. I'm sure as teachers we will all have students that will annoy us and test our patience; however, I think as teachers it is important to maintain a level of professionalism and that includes NOT posting negative comments on the internet.

Foot: Just For Fun

When I have spare time, I love to read young adult literature. It is one of my favorite genres to read. Over winter break, I read the Percy Jackson & The Olypians series. I fell in love with the characters in the book after the first few pages. After reading all five books, I had to watch the movie, which is based on the first book Percy Jackson & The Olypians: The Lightning Thief. The movie is completely different than the book, but it was still pretty good. The book was much better though. I would highly recommend this series. Whenver I get a few minutes, I try to read a few pages just for fun.

Foot: The Socially Networked Classroom

As I was reading Dr. Kist’s The Socially Networked Classroom one of the first things that caught my attention was the multigenre autobiography. A lot of the information was repetitive from what we’ve heard in class, but I liked that the book gave more of an explanation as to why this assignment is beneficial to us. Another activity that grabbed my attention was the “This Is An Apple” Activity. I think that that’s a clever way of getting students to think about the way they multitask. I liked this activity because it reminded of how much I multitask throughout the day. With so much technology around me, like my phone, computer, television, and Facebook, I can hardly concentrate on one item alone. The third activity that stood out to me was the online literature circles. I am familiar with literature circles from Teaching Reading with Literature. I liked that this book offered suggestions on how to grade literature circles. I think it’s important not to just give points to students because they participate, but to reward them because they are actually thinking critically about what they are reading. My question about using literature circles online, like through Facebook, is what do you do if you have a parent of a student in your class who refuses to allow their child to have a Facebook account. Overall, I found Dr. Kist’s book very interesting and helpful. I think it offers a lot of good suggestions that I can use in a classroom.