Tara E. Van Geons

Whole Language Umbrella Summer Institute Official Website

"WLU is an NCTE Conference made up of whole language support groups and individual professionals interested in developing and implementing whole language in educational institutions. WLU is based on a view of whole language as a dynamic philosophy of education."

 "All reaction is limited by, and dependent on, what it is reacting against." — Gloria Anzaldua

Articles:

• LEONARD PITTS: A story for women and girls, not just in Afghanistan
• "Resilience of Kandahar"- Photography slideshow of the girls mentioned in Leonard Pitt's article
• Social Justice in the Classroom (Teacher Inquiry/Action Research)
• Is Teaching Social Justice Undemocratic?
  
• Connecting Brian Cambourne's Conditions of Learning Theory to Brain/Mind Principles: Implications for Early Childhood Educators 
• Teaching for social justice: exploring the development of student agency through participation in the literacy practices of a mathematics classroom
• Modes of Symbolic Representations and Cognitive Styles
•  "Transmediation as a Metaphor for New Literacies in Multimedia Classrooms"
• "Arts Integration: Semiotic Transmediation in the Classroom"
• "Transmediation in the Classroom: A Semiotics-Based Media Literacy Framework"- resources
•  Radical Pedagogy- Sharing Power with Students:The Critical Language Classroom

Books:

• Why War is Never a Good Idea by Alice Walker
• The Hating Book by Charlotte Zolotow 
• Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis
• James W. Loewen Lies My Teacher told Me
• The Power of Protocols- Joseph MacDonald
• Kidwatching: Documenting Children’s Literacy Development

Many resources are from the WLU Conference with some additional resources for teachers.

"Do work that matters. Vale la pena." —  Gloria Anzaldua

Resources

•  Lorraine Wilson
•  Center for Inquiry: Where Questions Matter
• Sketch to Stretch Strategy
• 5 Aspects of Power in the Classroom
• Scholastic News
• Culture and Conflict (Culture and Conflict Text Set Bibliography)
• Visualizing Oral History Presentation
• Paideia Institute
• Literature Circles Resource Center
• Inquiry-Based Education
  

• Having Effective Discussions in Class
• Teacher 4 Social Justice
• Society for the study of Gloria Anzald'ua

Technology in the Classroom:

• NiceNet  - Internet Classroom Assistant (ICA)
• PhotoStory
• Prezi
• Media Bridges- Cincinnati
• BlogSpot
• EduBlog
  

"What's Right, Not Wong: What Teachers Really Need to Know for the First Day of School" - J. Newton and T. Van Geons

Catawba College's BookRevue Panel Discussion 

North Carolina English Teachers' Association Presentation- November 2007-Conceptualizing a Social Vision and Social Justice in the English Language Arts Classroom

Taking Technology to the Classroom: Pedagogy-Based Training for Educators by David P. Diaz 

Classroom Blogging: The Pedagogy and The TechnologyThoughts on Pedagogy: Does Technology in The Classroom Help or Hurt?

Technology Integration: Secondary Language Arts by Robert Mayben 

Useful Information:

•  Ideas for Technology Integration!

• BBC

• National Council of Teachers of EnglishNorth Carolina English Teachers' Association

• Grammar Rules!

• Important Links for Media Literacy and Teachers of English

• NC Wise Owl

• Learn NC

• MLA Citation (from the Newton Homestead)

• Novels Online (from the Newton Homestead)

• How to Take Notes (from the Newton Homestead)

• Acoustical Liberation of Books at LibriVox (from the Newton Homestead)

• United Streaming

• YouTube

• PBS in the Classroom

Helpful Sites for Students and Teachers:

• Literary Terms and Definitions 

• Wikipedia's Literary Terms

• Grammar PowerPoints

• More Grammar PowerPoints

• Writing Skills  PowerPoints

• Grammar Websites

• Grammar Rules!

Weird, fun, possibly helpful stuff:

• Conjunction Junction- School House Rock on YouTube
•  Interjections!-School House Rock on YouTube
• I'm Just a Bill- School House Rock on YouTube
• Nouns- School House Rock on YouTube
•  Get Your Adverbs Here-School House Rock on YouTube
• Mrs. V's class anthem

What's New in Technology 'n Stuff?

Many of this comes from the profoundly technologically saavy MR. NEWTON.  I "borrowed" some (actually many) of his resources.

• Teacher Tube is awesome!  
• Build your own site using freewebs
• Mr. Newton's Info on How to Blog 
• Digital Storytelling in the Language Arts Classroom
• Creating Websites Using GeoCities
• CyberGuides
• About.Com- How to Podcast
• MyPodCast- free hosting
• PodCasting with CastWiki.com
• iLearn Technology-  An edublog about integrating technology into the classroom.
• NiceNet- Internet Classroom Assistant

Odd and Intriguing Info

• Publish your work online at Scribd
• The Stanly News and Press (SNAP)
• Salisbury Post
• News of the Weird 
• The Green Goat Gallery
•  J.K. Rowling Office Site
• The Naked Archaeologist
• Useless Information
• Works of the Bard
• 301 Useless Facts
• The Pulizer Prize
• Rate My Teacher
• This is JEOPARDY!
• Stanly County Visitors' Bureau
• Rowan County Arts Council
• Stanly Arts Council
• Poets and Writers, Inc.
• Enclyclopedia Mythica
• This I Believe
• Bollywood
• The ECHO Foundation
• Playbill (Broadway online)
•  Creative Loafing of Charlotte
•  NoDa-Charlotte's Historic Arts