Great resource for teaching history.

A free plagiarism and writing checker

a diigo competitor...has support for PDFs....

another note taking tool

a post about storify

@stephanie mccabe I'm just getting started with Storify so I don't know much about it. I love the work you did with it and I find the concept really interesting-- the ease of mixing different media to answer a question. The only concern I have is about how to get students to turn it into a cohesive written narrative (which I find is what students seem to have a harder time with). Writing seems so difficult for students these days.... What do you think?

a new service for custom textbooks

title says it all- distraction free writing tools

made me laugh so I wanted to share...

have been struggling with whether or not to go this route...what do others think?

great guide to college writing- print out and give out to students.

lots of mostly academic open access books from University of Amsterdam

I've been waiting for this tor ages! So much better!!!!

Thomas Friedman commenting on new PISA study that shows parental involvement in early years impacts student performance.

Good article illustrating the fluid definitions of race.

Many thanks for your comments. As far as I can tell, there's been a lot of debate about rescinding parts of the bill and there's certainly been support to change parts of it, but I haven't found anything that says that's definitely happening. At any rate, I was planning to use the article as an example of how racial categories tend to change based on circumstances rather than set in stone. Again, thanks for reminding me to double check details.

@Elaine, for some reason your message hasn't shown up and I wanted to make sure I responded. I absolutely agree with you that the there are plenty of wonderful Alabamans who are embarrassed by the fringe parts of the law and I certainly don't mean any disrespect by posting this article. In fact, I think this article actually points to the generosity of spirit and kindness I remember most about growing up in the south. I'm also glad to see that there's quite a bit of protest about the worst parts of this law and agree that the protests should also be part of the conversation so I'm including the links you sent me here: http://blog.al.com/breaking/2011/09/federal_judge_throws_out_xxxx.html and http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/11/immigration_law_amendments_in.html The articles do report that quite a few legislators and many immigrant rights activists are advocating revisions to the law and I look forward to seeing the repeals. That said, the articles also note that the bulk "of the new law is in effect despite a federal court challenge to it brought by the U.S. Justice Department, church groups and state and national civil liberties groups " and a "federal judge [Blackburn] this afternoon again upheld most sections of Alabama's tough new immigration law." In short, the fight for repeals is just beginning. Once more, I stress that I do NOT mean to offend anyone; rather, I think it's important to discuss the circumstances under which such a restrictive law could be passed as well as the reactions that have mobilized in response to it. I think it's a wonderful "teaching moment" about politics, economics, civic engagement, global economy, etc. Sincerest regards.