more on twitter

Everyone's a-twitter:

Sounds like a lot of people are like me...create an account, tweet a bit and then that's it:
Quitters clipping Twitter's wings (CBC Online)

But Twitter keeps popping up as an educational tool--with thanks to Prof. Camille Rutherford for this one:
Professors experiment with Twitter as teaching tool (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

And a laugh for the middle of the week:
To Tweet or Not to Tweet (NY Times)

Earth Day Resources

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." – Dr. Seuss.

Today is Earth Day--celebrate Earth Day in your classroom today and every day. Take a look at some of these resources:

Earth Day Canada Official Website

EcoKids (Earth Day Canada)

Some great resources here: from colouring pages to activities.

Also, check out Celebrating Earth Day with EcoKids for some more background on Earth Day and links to activity ideas.

Free Educational Resources for Educators (Environment Canada)

Lesson plans and teacher resources for ages 5 through 18 on topics such as nature and wildlife, water conservation, climate change and more.

Ready, Set, Green! Tips, Techniques and Resources from Ontario's Educators (PDF)

Prepared by the Ontario Ministry of Education to support effective environmental education and environmentally sound practices in Ontario schools.

For great books, e-books and other resources in our libary, try searching using keywords like sustainable, environmental education, environment, conservation, etc.

Some to try:

Character and environment : a virtue-oriented approach to environmental ethics / Ronald L. Sandler.

9TH FLOOR OF LIBRARY
GE 42 S26 2007

Understanding sustainable development / John Blewitt

9TH FLOOR OF LIBRARY
HC 79 E5 B58 2008

The David Suzuki reader / David Suzuki

9TH FLOOR OF LIBRARY
GF 50 S89 2003

Go green, live rich : 50 simple ways to save the Earth and get rich trying / David Bach
POPULAR READING 2ND FLOOR
Shelved alphabetically by author

50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice

From The Chronicle of Higher Education, Geoffrey K. Pullum writes, "April 16 is the 50th anniversary of the publication of a little book that is loved and admired throughout American academe. Celebrations, readings, and toasts are being held, and a commemorative edition has been released.

I won't be celebrating.

The Elements of Style does not deserve the enormous esteem in which it is held by American college graduates. Its advice ranges from limp platitudes to inconsistent nonsense. Its enormous influence has not improved American students' grasp of English grammar; it has significantly degraded it."

Read more

do you twitter?

I first read about Twitter in a discarded newspaper I was reading on a shuttle bus to the Baltimore airport after a conference. I remember turning to my colleague and saying "Have you heard about this twitter thing? I can't imagine how this could be of any use to me!" And well, I'm still not sure, but it seems I hear about twitter almost every day.

Briefly put, twitter is a social messaging service that lets others see your short updates in real-time. The Brock Library has at twitter account, and you can follow along here: http://twitter.com/brock_library.

Twitter is even being used in education circles--some links that explore this:

See this post on using twitter in academia.

50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Education

Twitter Tweets for Higher Education

I just signed up for my twitter account today (jen_thiessen), so I will hopefully learn something and continue sharing with you my twitter discoveries.