Weekly Diigo Posts (weekly)

Posted on October 27, 2013 by thereadingzone

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Get Students Involved in Science Writing! #write2connect

Posted on October 21, 2013 by thereadingzone

Stories connect us to each other.  Stories matter.  Stories can help enhance science communication.  And science communication is a passion of mine.  I even co-wrote an article about it last year!

curiousYOUNGwriters is a blog that publishes high school student writing.  It’s a perfect example of #write2connect.

If you are curious about the role of unusual animal models in advancing understanding of human disease….

If you are curious about engaging ways to educate the public about the biomedical research process…

If you are curious about a student-run creative initiative to advance the art of science communication…

Follow curiousYOUNGwriters (cYw), and read compelling stories that tell the tale of nontraditional animal models helping researchers find answers to age-old medical mysteries.

All blog posts are written by high school students who research an unusual animal model of their choice and compose a creative nonfiction blog post to share what they learn.

The latest post is entitled: “Unraveling The Mystery of Alzheimer’s Disease: Could Camels Carry The Cure?”

Everyone loves a good story, and I encourage you to share these fascinating stories that are all researched & written by curious high school students.

cYw is hosted by States United for Biomedical Research (SUBR) and endorsed by The New Jersey Biology Teachers Association (BTANJ).

I am a member of the faculty board for cYw and I can not sing its praises enough!  Be sure to check it out!  New posts go up every month.  

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Are You Ready to #write2connect?

Posted on October 19, 2013 by thereadingzone

*this post was originally shared on engchat.org*

I sound like a broken record in my classroom, always reminding my students that writing will play a vital role in their lives regardless of the field the end up pursuing.  People in every field, from science to business to advertising to technology to finance, have to write.  They write to share their ideas, their evidence, and their products.  They write professionally and personally.  They write concisely and in long form.  They compose Tweets and Facebook statuses, jingles and taglines, memos and reports.  They write emails and letters.  They compose persuasive presentations and informative articles.  They write to connect ideas, people, and much more.  I’ve surveyed friends who work in non-education fields and the amount of writing they do on a daily basis is astounding! I always try to share that information with my students (who seem to think writing is a torture device developed by twisted English teachers).
How does writing today facilitate connections among ideas? People? Disciplines? We’ll consider these questions and many others as part of a special #engchat focused on the National Day on Writing Twitter campaign: #write2connect.  Invite your colleagues in all content areas to participate in this chat so that everyone share ideas for #write2connect.

The National Day on Writing is an annual event to celebrate the power of writing. Celebrated on October 20th, it emphasizes the way that writing plays a part in the lives of people.  This year’s theme is #writetoconnect and it is one that is especially close to my teaching heart.   NCTE joins the New York Times Learning Network, the National Writing Project and NWP’s Educator Innovator, Mozilla Hive, Graphite by Common Sense Media, Edutopia, Mozilla Webmaker, and National Novel Writing Month this year to encourage everyone who writes to talk about the ways they use writing to connect.

Because October 20th is a Sunday, many teachers will be celebrating the National Day on Writing on Monday, October 21st. I will be tweeting with my students who will attempt to get the hashtag trending that morning.  Later that night, #engchat will focus on #write2connect as we wrap up the celebration.

Special thanks to the National Writing Project (#nwp) for sponsoring this edition of #engchat! Be sure to check the hashtag for Connected Educator Month (#ce13) for more great ideas to connect educators!

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Guest Post on Kirby Larson’s Blog

Posted on October 18, 2013 by thereadingzone

Be sure to check out my guest post on author Kirby Larson’s blog. I share some of the ways I encourage my high schoolers and my colleagues to be lifelong readers.

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Weekly Diigo Posts (weekly)

Posted on October 6, 2013 by thereadingzone

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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