A student actually approached me about the side-tracked conversation on the side because he couldn't figure out what he was suppose to say since the board lit up with Twilight talk. Oh yeah! That reminded me that I needed to talk to the one class that contained the main culprits of the hijacking.
"You know, class, this was suppose to be a conversation about the environment. If I wanted you to talk about books, I would have posted something about books. Don't get me wrong. I really appreciate how you love to talk about books, but I was hoping to, you know, expand your horizons a bit. Let's talk about the environment!"
And then I little bell dinged in my head.
"Besides, we have a place we can talk about books. Online. At Shelfari."
As pure luck would have it, one of the two students who actually joined the online book club this summer was in the class to confirm that such a place actually exists. We are months into school, and I failed to mention this very special online place. Duh!
Technology has been on the back burner of my mind this year because my students still don't have their laptops, and I've been doing the best I can as our technology bits are slowly being installed. (I'm stilled blessed with technology, I know Mrs. T would be mad if I didn't say otherwise.) Shelfari was pretty much erased from my mind when I came back this year and found that this site, which was recommended by our educational computer specialist, is now blocked in the district. It's now officially classified as a social networking site. Isn't that the story of my life? My wiki is now open, and this blog is, too, but should I happen to want to use something for educational purposes, I will surely find it blocked.
Who cares, though? If students want to talk about books, we have a place we can meet on our free time. In just that one class, I had eight students who wanted to join the group, and I am sure they will recruit a few friends. Students talking about books online. It's going to be wild and crazy!
Now maybe we can talk about the environment on the side, too.
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