Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Google Surprises

Every once in awhile I google my name along with Teaching the Story. I found some sites that I expected, and some surprises:

Not Surprised by:

My "interview" with Joyce Hostetter on her blog. Not only do Joyce and I teach together, but I also consider her to be my writing mentor. When she invited guest bloggers, I thought I'd include musings I have in my head about writing historical fiction. Here we are at NWRESA.



There were several references to our newsletter Talking Story.



I saw Elysabeth Elderling's, author of the Junior Geography Detective Squad series, postings on how she is skyping with a teacher in Utah and using my book. Very cool!

There was an announcement about my upcoming library event (listed under "If You're Bored..." I guess that's a good thing!)

I found a review that I had read before, one which was fairly recent, one that I hadn't seen, and one from Orton Gillingham.

Surprised by:

I read a great blog about how social media is here to stay in the classroom written by Steve Johnson. Steve wrote the technology lessons for my book and is now completing his own book for Maupin House. Here he is teaching some students in Rockingham, NC:



I found an internet bookshop advertising my book in Spanish (the ad, not my book!); an Italian website offering English language arts materials; and a listing in an Australian bookstore.

I found several sites that had uploaded handouts from the book. Here are some from creating a Genre Setting; handouts from Making the Red Pencil Your Best Friend; and one of my favorites, my Build-a-Plot.

I discovered an excerpt about using technology to teach revisions that was on Literacy Connections and a blog from a teacher who attended one of workshops at the SC Middle School conference.

These were other surprises: an article in Better Teaching on "Show, Don't Tell" writing. (p. 3); and an article just posted 7 hours ago which shows my video on teaching creative writing in the classroom!

I found out that my blog was on a list of 150 useful, educational, and inspirational blogs.

Finally, I discovered a website about wikis in the classroom which showed my video about wikis. Here it is:


It goes to show. You never know where a Google search might take you.

Technorati Tags:

4 comments:

Joyce Moyer Hostetter said...

Very very cool! Love that you're on the useful, educational blog list.

elysabeth said...

Cool I got mentioned on your blog. You really should just set up google alerts for your name and your book and Joyce's name, et cetera. You will get notifications every time someone mentions any number of things you mention. I have mine set for daily updates and have my name, my series, my books, my publisher, et cetera - lol. Tomorrow I'll get the google alert for my name and my series - thank you - lol. I'm glad we are able to use your book in the class. Mr. Hughes is adapting and things are going more smoothly. See you soon - E :)

Faith K said...

Isn't it exciting to see people benefiting from your teaching? I linked to the handouts to boost our free writes and also watched your wiki presentation.

Carol Baldwin said...

Thanks, friends, for visiting and enjoying the blog. Isn't the internet an amazing place? Even if it captures our precious time. There's a lot out there!

PUSH-PULL MORNING: Dog Powered Poems About Matter and Energy

I wouldn't have believed that a book about matter and energy would be read by the picture book crowd, except that my third-grade and kin...