Returning From Holidays

Returning from a holiday weekend can be a bit of a--hmmm, what is the word?--chore. Takes a little extra effort to get out of bed. After the over-eating of a gluttonous weekend (I rarely have any other kind), the hunger builds a little bit more during the day then usual.

I end up stalking the halls and corridors looking for snack food.

Alas, there was none to be found yesterday! Probably for the best.

The other problem is all the catching up to do on work. Meetings and emails and looking over the to-do list from last week for any stragglers.

The second day back from a holiday is a little more productive.

So what am I working on today?

Specs for the updated Bio-Cube interactive on ReadWriteThink. We've been updating several interactives, giving them a new look, making some user-requested changes, and adding the new work-saver functionality.

So far, we have updated these interactives:

1. Acrostic Poems
2. Letter Generator
3. Compare & Contrast Map
4. Diamante Poems
5. Essay Map
6. Persuasion Map

If you look at the preview images, you might notice a couple things. First and most important is the little Save and Open tabs on the top right side of the interactive--that is the really cool save function.

Second, if you check through a few of them, you will also see that I like steak, that I also enjoy salads, and that I've read The Hunger Games (and in case you were wondering, I really enjoyed the book).

But back to the Bio-Cube. We will be updating the look to match our current design theme. We'll be adding the work saver. We'll be altering a couple of the questions on the cube.

One of the most requested features is for teachers to ask their own questions on the Bio-Cube. We plan on adding that functionality. Teachers can fill in the questions, use the work saver to save the cube, and then distribute to their classes for the students to fill in.

Now I just need to figure out how to implement all of that.

So let me toss a question or two to you, the readers. Have you every used an interactive from ReadWriteThink with your class? If so, which one(s)? Which would you like to see the work saver added to next, or do you have any other suggestions for improvements? Drop a comment on the blog or email me.

OK, so that's the scoop from inside IRA!

Time to get on those specs.

Wes