Thanksgiving is a time to be with family and stay off the computer. And we all know this, but I think you may end up looking for a few activities after the feast. So here are some things to do that will keep your brain working too.
Thanksgiving Quiz - Do you know what really happened? Take the quiz and find out.
Virtual Mayflower - Why not visit the ship and see how it all began. Very well done tour by Scholastic.
You Are the Historian - Can’t get enough? Now follow the real ancestors as they recreate through a mystery what really happened there at the First Thanksgiving. Graphics here are too cool.
Macy’s Parade - My personal favorite. You can interact with all the floats. For the younger crowd, these games are cute.
Talk Like Pilgrim - these even have the audio file so you get the accent right. Impress everyone at the dinner table.
Jamestown Adventure – for those that like a game that makes you think, this one really is worth a try.
How to Draw a Cartoon Turkey - instructions so you can make the best turkey in the class.
Play Football - and what would Turkey Day be without the sport of football. In this game you play against the computer.
Find the Difference - My kids can’t get enough of these even if they are easy. Try these three.
Game Ideas - for you and your cousins, and aunts, and uncles, and all the neighbors – you know what I mean around this time of year.
Basic Online Coloring Page - simple but turns out nice.
Turkey Dressing - I’m not talking about the bready kind. Dress this guy with a huge array of outfits.

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We begin in school learning to copy word for word what is in the text book. Remember how we wrote out dictionary definitions? What about rewriting a Shakespeare soliloquy. And of course these days, learning to copy and paste something from the Internet is just survival.

If you want to know what plagiarism is, just imagine that you are the victim. How would you feel if someone read something that was your writing, or idea and then claimed it as their own, after you worked hard? Usually, the victim test is the best test to determine if something is plagiarism.

I recommend two tutorials that are produced by universities. It is at the college level that a violation can get you kicked out of school, so the schools are doing their best to educate the students before the big mistake.Vaughn Memorial Library Tutorial on Plagiarism
Rutgers University Video on Plagiarism


So when is it OK to copy and when is it not? I think the question “when” refers to your age. It is fine to copy words up until you are old enough to understand that someone else wrote them. When that age is seems to vary from school to school. But certainly by the middle school years, you can see that a book has an author and it wasn’t YOU.

Crediting the source suddenly becomes this enormous burden using the proper formatting like commas, semicolons, and alphabetizing that would make any one’s head spin. And there are so many styles too: MLA, APA, Chicago and many more. No wonder students still opt to cut and paste – it is just easier. But that doesn’t make it right.

MS Word 2007 makes the whole process easier. Students can create a database of all their sources by simply

filling in a form for each book, magazine or electronic source. MS Word then stores the data. From that point, it is easy to create footnotes, citations within the body of the document and even a Works Cited page without placing a single comma.

If you don’t have the latest MS Office Suite, have no fear. Many websites offer citations ready made. Just look for a button that says CITE. Or, use a citation generator online. There are many. Most are free, some require a registration like NoodleTools (I recommend this one.) Either way, the dread of placing the page number before the title is just not there. Before entering high school, a student should become familiar with whatever tools they plan to use for citations. No one wants to learn this the night the term paper is due. Believe me!
NoodleTools
Son of Citation Machine
EasyBib

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This is the newest, hippest buzz word that you can throw out in conversation. Web 2.0 (pronounced web two point ooah.) If you don’t know what it means, that doesn’t matter. All that really matters is that you have experienced what it is on the internet.
Nutshell: Any online collaboration. In other words, creating and talking with others to make something new. We are talking about wikis, blogs like this one, social bookmarks like Diigo, photo sharing like Flikr, and a whole lot more.
Phase one was the Facebook stuff and it is still probably the leader.  However, Facebook suffers because it is not safe. There are far too many backdoors to get personal data even though the user tries to eliminate them by making their page private. Therefore, what Facebook has is a great system but open to misuse.
Wikis are the best of a democratic society. Everyone contributes equally. Please check out last year’s six grades WeatherWiki. All of these pages were created as a group effort. And many edits were made before the final version.
But what else is there that is Web 2.0?   This is my list of the latest, and coolest stuff I’ve found.  Play around with it. But always remember SAFETY.  If it asks for you to sign up, please do not use your real name but instead a user name. If it requires an email address, ask your parents first. If you need a password, it is not good to use words from a dictionary. Mix numbers and letter to form a password.
www.voicethread.com
www.sketchcast.com

http://www.glogster.com/
http://www.blabberize.com/
http://www.ipopetz.tv/
http://www.kerpoof.com/
If these don’t give you enough to play around with, well there are some more advanced sites but maybe we will have to wait until class time.  See you then.

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