Delicious Denial

Theresa McGee — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 01:46:08 +0000

I was once in Delicious denial; I had heard of Delicious as a social bookmarking site but really didn’t see the need to use it. Sure, sharing bookmarks with everyone else is a nice concept, but I already had spent hours organizing my own bookmarks in Safari and was just fine with my own little system. What I wasn’t willing to admit at the time was that my little system of organized bookmark folders was not very effective.

The chart below describes my reasons for finally making the switch to Delicious:

So what about your organized websites neatly tucked into a bookmark folder? When uploading to Delicious, the folders and sub-folders that you created on your computer will turn into tags – no need to redo anything! See how easy it is to use Delicious in the Tutorial below:

Can’t view video above? Click here.

So here’s where the “social” part of Delicious comes in: If you think a website is useful to others who also read The Teaching Palette, add the tag “teachingpalette” (one word). See the hundreds of art education resources we’ve already tagged here.

Useful Tips:

When using compound words such as “art history” do not leave spaces in between each word as they will separate into two different tags. Instead write “arthistory” or “art_history”. (I learned this one the hard way)
Use “tag options” to change or rename a tag.
Bulk edit is useful for adding additional tags to large groups of bookmarks or making selected tags on bookmarks private.
Keep in mind that although your bookmarked website will show up instantly in your Delicious account, sometimes it takes longer for the tags to register.
Use Delicious as your search engine – type in a tag on the Delicious homepage to see what websites others have bookmarked.
It never hurts to create a backup of your Delicious bookmarks from time to time. (Backup directions can be accessed when logged in)

Website of the Week

Theresa McGee — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:19:10 +0000

Positive reinforcement is a classroom management strategy that I use as often as possible. Recent research solidifies my reasons for using these techniques.

I have one particularly challenging class this year and all my tricks of the trade have not been working. As a result of my frustration, I developed the “Website of the Week” positive reinforcement program to motivate students to behave appropriately.

I started by gathering a list of fun websites appropriate for students to access independently. I created a slip of paper for each site that included a compliment on their excellent behavior, the web address and an image from the site. Since the “website of the week” is only given to students who demonstrate good classroom behavior, I needed to create a system that was easy to track, but also respectful to all students.

My tracking system involves keeping a sheet of paper with the homeroom teacher name on it on my desk. If a student acts innaproiately (talks while I am talking, runs in the room, etc.) I quietly ask the student to write their name on the sheet of paper. At the end of class, I only give the “website of the week” to students whose name did not appear on the list at my desk.

Additionally, I have a built-in consequence (loss of recess) if a student’s name appears more than once on the paper during a class period.

Also at the beginning of each class, to generate excitement, I ask the students what they thought of the site from the previous week – knowing very well their answer would be positive. (Any child without computer access I allowed to come in for a few minutes during lunch to try it out.)

I went from about 10 students a month ago who did not receive the “website of the week” down to one last week. This once challenging class has transformed into one of my easiest to manage while also using technology to learn and reinforce art content!

Here is a list of fun websites you might like to use for “Website of the Week.”

Learn how to shrink or customize any of these URL addresses with Tiny URL.

The Teaching Palette » website

Delicious Denial

Website of the Week