HELP!!!

I have read about how teachers are using blogs and how they can be used in the classroom. I'm not the most technologically proficient (God, I am beginning to hate that word) individual so I thought I would try this out on my fellow peers and see what uses I can derive from my experiences. If you have something to add let me know through comments, etc...

Tips for New Teachers

*Borrow a copy of the previous year's yearbook and make a copy of the teacher and staff pages before school starts. This will alleviate some of the stress from remembering everyone's name and committing the faux pas of calling someone the wrong name. (Thanks Sue F.)

*Keep plants in your classroom. You can buy little hooks to attach to the ceiling tiles. Kids love to take care of them.

Humor

How ironic that this site has a font type called "trebuchet". Anyone want to sling words around? How far do you think they fly? Sorry. This is what happens when you've been teaching a unit on the Middle Ages.

I usually try to get to work by about 7:00 am-7:15 am. You'd be amazed how much there is too do. One morning on my desk was a scrawled note stating, "someone lost their marbles" and an arrow pointing to a dish on my desk. In a little blue flowered clay dish that I had picked up in Mexico, amidst my paperclips, were two marbles. I had a good laugh. As of yet, those marbles are unclaimed.

Literature for the World History Classroom

Middle Ages
Henry IV -Shakespeare
Canterbury Tales-Geoffrey Chaucer
Adventures of Don Quiote-Miguel Cervantes
Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings-Amy Kelly
Three Musketeers-Alexandr Dumais
A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court-Mark Twain
Ivanhoe-Sir Walter Scott

Renaissance
The Inferno-Dante (example of vernacular literature)
Romeo and Juliet-Shakespeare (example of arranged marriages, etc.)
The Prince-Machiavelli*
The Book of the Courtier-Baldassare Castiglione

Reformation
Here I Stand:Life of Martin Luther-Roland Bainton

French Revolution
A Tale of Two Cities-Charles Dickens
Les Miserables-Victor Hugo
Queen of France-Andre Castelot

Enlightenment
Candide-Voltaire

Scientific Revolution
Madame Curie-Eve Curie
Men in Mathematics-Eric Bell (emphasis on mathematicians who lived from the 1600s-1800s)

Industrial Revolution
Hard Times-Charles Dickens
Queen Victoria-Lytton Strachey

Russian Revolution
Animal Farm-George Orwell
Dr. Zhivago-Boris Pasternak

WWI
A Farewell to Arms-Ernest Hemingway
All Quiet in the Western Front