Blackboard, I love you!

So I'll admit it, I once knocked it, once turned my nose up to it, but now I am head over heels in love with blackboard. I have got my site going and let me tell you, its really something. Check it out when you have some time: visit blackboard.columbia.k12.mo.us and sign in as guessaccess, password: guest. You can see some of my student's work by clicking on the button "Post Overview Here" (I simplified this function because it was getting to be a constant question of the kiddies').

My big project this weekend has been preparing for my upcoming book groups. We're looking at the theme of oppression and social injustice in history- sounds uplifting, right? I've found fiction books covering south African apartheid, the Holocaust, the Civil Rights Movement, Migrant Farmers, and Japanese Internment Camps. covering so many conflicts= major need for background knowledge, which I myself have little of. So I secured some computer lab time to help students get familiar with the issues in thier novels.

Knowing now that you can't just send kids loose in a computer lab to "research" (Otherwise you end up with 250 pages on J Lo streaming out of the library printer while the librarian gives dirty looks as she tries desperately to stop the madness your student has caused). I wanted to create a webquest, which esentially would be a webpage linked to other websites that have information that I felt could be useful to my students. Well, a webquest was a bit more than I bargained for when I realized I needed to know code writing to create one. Then it dawned on me, why not just link these sites to my Blackboard? I spent this morning searching resources and linking them to my site. I have to admit that when I click on the hypertext and it links me right to the National Holocaut Museum site I get giddy. Technology, you are something else! It might have been one small step for you but it was a giant leap for me.

Today, I feel accomplished!