Today we will be creating the first section of your student websites.  Please follow Mr. Swedberg's instructions in order to complete the following three tasks in this order:
1) Sign in to your new website and follow the setup directions
2) Create a new "Reading Blog" page
3) Fill out the form below with the address of your Reading Blog page so Mr. Swedberg can know where to find the Reading Blog page.

If you finish all these tasks, you may use any extra time you have to play around with the design of your website, or you can work on your "I Am" Hand back in the classroom.

Check out Dropbox.  The 2 GB service is free and allows you to share files very quickly and easily between two or more computers.  It automatically backs up, syncs files between computers, and allows you to go back in time to view previous versions.  It's a very cool and very efficient system.

You can find a link to it in the Helpful Tools page.

Lauren - Abortion
Emma B. - Christianity is the Faith for You
Kyle - Hippo1254
Jake - Citizen Disarmament
Zac - Clean Water
Riley - Why You Should Stop Puppy Mills
Will J. - Atheism vs. Christianity
Andrey - Evolution vs. What is True
Mackenzie - We Need to Adopt Animals
Bunji - The Importance of Water Filters
Will N. - The Falseness of Evolution
Caleb R. - Video Games are Good for You
Connor - Child Abuse
Austin - Why We Should Help Animal Shelters
Caleb S. - Global Warming is Not Man-Made
Marley - So You Want to Own a Horse...
Laura - Pro-Life Saves Life - Abortion is Wrong
Andrew - Marijuana Should Remain Illegal
Josh - Under-Age Drinking
Emi W. - K-9 Units
Kaitlyn - Assisted Suicide

Since EtherPad is no longer allowing new pads to be created, here are a couple alternatives (clones) we might try as a class:

http://ietherpad.com/
http://typewith.me/

In the past, we've tried these two with no success:

http://titanpad.com/
http://primarypad.com/

The following sites contain a number of free and legal images to use in school projects. Since free and legal images are more scarce than just searching Google Images, you may have to do more hunting than you are used to, but I guess that's the price of respecting other people's art!

http://www.morguefile.com/
This is a pretty good site, with a lot of images.  After doing a search make sure not to go into the "Dreamstime" section.  Images in that section cost money.

http://www.stockvault.net/
This is another a pretty good site, with a lot of images.  Just like with Morguefile.com, make sure not to go into the "Dreamstime" section.  Images in that section cost money.

http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/
Make sure that you stay in the "Creative Commons" section of Flickr.  Those are the only images that are legal to use on your projects.  Also, pay attention to if you need to give credit to the photographer.

Google Reader is a simple and free service that will allow the posts on this blog to come to you, so that you don't have to keep checking back all the time to see if you've missed something.  If you already have a Google account set up this would be a great option for you.  The video below shows very simply how Google Reader works.

Head Magnet is a very simple flash card web application that allows you to study anything from facts about the American Revolution to spelling vocabulary words.  

Head Magnet automatically figures out which questions you need more help with and focuses on those.  You can also save and share your flashcards with friends.

It does require an email address and password to sign up.  There will be a link to it from now on in the Helpful Tools section.

Emi's Anything Project today was created in part using Jam Studio.  It is a free service on the internet that allows you to create your own song using a number of different instruments.  Have fun!

This is an interesting way to search the internet.  It might be helpful in finding out the important ideas surrounding your subject.

Basically, after your initial search on SortFix, you can then simply add and subtract elements of your search and see quickly the changes in the results.

Probably the most powerful part of SortFix is the "Power Words" box.  According to the site, "these words, retrieved by SortFix algorithms will advance your search in the most significant way." 

Give it a try.  It's simple and might help you see an important topic you've missed.