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Blog About Books Presented by National Geographic for Kids, DogEared is a blog about books-good books, funny books, adventure books; books about animals, friendship, pirates, faraway places . . . every kind of book that kids enjoy. Why is the site called "DogEared"? You know when you read a book and you turn the top edge of a page over to mark your place? That's called a "dog-ear"! Students mark ("dog-ear") the Web page so they can return to it often in order to read real kids' reviews and recommendations. They also share their own opinions and create their own reading wish list-as if it were their own online book club.

Meet Candy Carter I'm an AP Language and Comp teacher at McQueen HS in Reno, NV. My students lead very busy lives: they're in sports, band, choir, journalism, debate...and on and on. They also do not necessarily live close to one another. In past years, I had had nonfiction book groups in which students chose books from a list and completed projects and presentations on their reading. Over the years, it seems to have become increasingly difficult to find time for them to confer, and the presentations in class took too long. I needed to come up with a way for them to share their ideas in a different way, and I needed to have a way to hold them accountable for their work. I also was aware of the increasing importance of social networking sites in my students' lives. Candy's Perspective I had been introduced to Tapped In at a teacher workshop two or three years ago but had never made the time to really explore it. I was also a bit concerned that some their parents would object to them being online so I wanted to come up with an anonymous way for them to participate so that parents would not worry that their children's names were "out there" online. I hit on the idea of using Class ID numbers (which my students already use for peer reviews to ensure writers' anonymity). I was able to get all three of my classes into the system. I set up a calendar so groups could discuss online without bumping into other groups. Overall, this turned out to be a successful way for kids to share ideas about books. They enjoyed the novelty and talked about their reading in kid-speak, not just so they could impress their English teacher. Except for some technical snags (some kids are not as computer-savvy as others; they also needed to have Java on their computers, which turned out to be a problem for a few of them), this was relatively easy to monitor and manage. I loved reading what they said online--very authentic.

"The Folger's Digital Image Collection offers online access to over 39,000 images from the Folger Shakespeare Library collection, including books, theater memorabilia, manuscripts, art, and more. Images are available in high resolution and users can show multiple images side-by-side, zoom in and out to see fine detail, view cataloging information when available, export thumbnails, and construct permanent URLs linking back to their favorite items or searches. Through the Digital Image Collection, you can: * Compare 19th-century productions of Shakespeare with today's through historic photographs and promptbooks * Look at letters written by Queen Elizabeth I * Examine rare paintings in "up close and personal" detail * Read diary entries from over 200 years ago"