English Companion Ning Group

Create historical twitter character then tweet based on history research  Quote from Mark Rounds Web-Ed Tools Paper.li, "Participants choose a historical event, create Twitter accounts for individual characters, pore over primary source documents and think critically about the times, dates, and durations of events to create hundreds of Tweets as they might have been broadcast had Twitter existed before the 21st century. They then submit all those Tweets to the engineers at TwHistory, specifying a start date for their event, and then watch it unfold - over a day, a week, a month or more - reflecting the event's actual duration."

Questions how is the most important thing in speaking English. As most of the time your conversation begins with a question if it is necessary to improve it. Here are some tips to learn the techniques of interrogation:

Might help create a blended classroom, even when you have to share the blender.  Common sense advise for the real world of underequipped classrooms and stretched thin teachers.

support for the continued teaching of penmanship and handwriting in schools.

if we aren't doing this, we are missing a great opportunity. Robin Bates writes one of the best teaching blogs I read. 

Interesting correlation between leadership styles of Mother Teresa and Lady Gaga.

Welcome to the Guys Read Virtual Vault of Good Books. This is the place to come if you're looking for something to get a guy reading. We've collected recommendations from teachers, librarians, booksellers, publishers, parents, and guys themselves. These are the books that guys have said they like. We've gathered and grouped them to make them easier to find. So check out the categories below or type something-a title, an author, or a subject you're interested in-over there on the left.

Brief definitions of 130 figures of speech and other rhetorical terms with links to expanded discussions and examples.

Get a short story every week in your email inbox, thanks to Library of America.

pros and cons are done

great article for you (and your students) from Altucher on how to succeed

Interview bloom: his 5 fave litcrit books. At the end: nice bit about why we must read

A great introduction activity for Greek or Latin root words. I mean, what kid doesn't like Pokemon?

When is it cheating? When is it collaboration? This thoughtful article from Common Sense Media provides fine advice for parents (or teachers) on how to talk to kids about digital media and ethics.  

What will my students say about their use of pronouns? Good awareness check.

great way to get started with twitter. For my English teachers friends, Monday nights at 700 is #engchat