Hi Everyone!

Visit my group and request an invitation: http://groups.diigo.com/group/current-event-s603

The group is for a high school social studies class that has current events each week. I have a teacher whose students are always in on Friday morning printing off articles to turn in. The students do not put much thought into these articles and I thought this would be a good way to get the students more engaged in the assignment.

The assignment is to find a current event (not celebrity, entertainment, or sports) and annotate the article. Share that article with the group and add questions that help the class relate to the article.

Here is my profile: http://www.diigo.com/user/mshogan
I added six websites that I use everyday. I find that Diigo is very similar to Delicious and I have an account over there that I use at work. I tried to import my Delicious bookmarks but I cannot remember my username or password. I have them saved in my computer at work and it automatically signs me in. I have a Diigo account so that I can receive information from AISLE daily. It is nice because then I could just save those same sites to my account or go look at all of them because I am a member of that group.

I think that sites like these are valuable because you are able to access them anywhere, from any computer. I do a lot of bookmarking at work and sometimes wish that I had put them into my delicious account so that I would be able to go to them at home. (not that I could remember my password anyway :) )

I was able to add the Diigolet to my toolbar and I really enjoyed the ease at which I was able to bookmark my sites and add notes to them. That is a cool feature. I love the annotation it provides as well. Makes it easy to remember why I added that site when I go back to it, especially if it has information on it that is near the bottom, I can highlight it to find it easier.

I have never really understood poetry. I always think there is so much more to it than what I am getting from it. The first time I understood that poetry doesn't have to be something that rhymes or is so metaphorical that it takes an entire semester to analyze it was when I read "Love That Dog" by Sharon Creech. I found this poem by her from a different book that I haven't read yet, "Heartbeat." The poem is called "Footfalls"

Here is the link to my annotations and notes: http://diigo.com/0lbcd

I think that it perfectly captures the feeling of being young and running barefoot on a summer day. I love the way you can't tell if the Thump-Thump-Thump is the heart beating or if it is the bare feet pounding the grass. It makes me long for warm weather and endless days of doing whatever you want.

The other thing this poem makes me think of is the way that running makes me feel. I love to run just for the sheer pleasure I get from doing it. It helps me to calm myself, relax, and quiet my mind. If I have had a rough day, week or just am generally not feeling myself, a run will bring me back.

I find that freeform books are often more fun to read because they tell an entire story in far less words than a normal novel, but those words are so powerful and in the end you find that you didn't need all the other words. Sharon Creech is a genius at doing just that.