Bloglines Potluck “Carnival”

One last, long weekend before we dive full-speed into school and co-op classes and swim lessons and karate and art lessons and…well, this may be my last chance to catch up on the backlog in my Bloglines folders.

With over 100 feeds, there is no way I will keep up with all of you during the school year. So here is my end-of-summer fling, a sort of unofficial “Best of (my) Bloglines” carnival, in which I share my personal favorites from the last few weeks of RSS.

I hope you enjoy these posts as much as I have.

Sometimes the Title Says It All

If you give a writer an online connection…
Hmmm. Maybe this explains the time-stamp on my post?

The only 12 1/2 writing rules you’ll ever need

How to Bring Poetry to Life in Your Classroom

And Sometimes It Doesn’t

What Kind of Cat Are You? Um…I think he missed my CAT-egory. I would say I am a CAT-alog: Invites readers to browse my pages and choose whatever fits them best.

Are You Ready for Back to School?

Joanne Jacobs spreads around some wisdom from wizened veterans and more tips for new teachers.

Maureen shows us how to identify a homeschooling family on vacation.

Homeschool Stuff is already studying for chemistry class. (With my dial-up connection, YouTube is impossible. My students learn the periodic table here instead.)

And for homeschoolers who are ready to put their nose to the grindstone, Matthew presents a College Application Overview for Homeschoolers: The Official Transcript (first in a series).

Math

Which do you think is the biggest category on my Bloglines list? Big surprise, huh? Here are a few treats from my math folder.

Elementary Math and Logic

Math Homework Help offers a 3-D visualization puzzle.

Text Savvy takes us on a stroll through some double-digit multiplication problems.

Middle school/junior high

Maria has been playing around with percent of change.

Brent shares a Space Invaders-like game for prime factoring.

Dave gives us an activity that crosses the Sieve of Eratosthenes with combinatorics. I have to try this one with my MathCounts kids.

High school and beyond

Math Mom presents a first-day-of-school puzzle.

Ms. Cookie shows us how to find the surface area of a sphere.

Dan experiments with writing in math class and treats us to some ~~9th grade math autobiographies~~ [now deleted].

ConcernedCTparent tackles the question of “Why do we have to memorize this theorem/definition/formula/you-fill-in-the-blank?”

Jonathan wonders how to generate a random triangle.

Rudbeckia Hirta reminds us that success in calculus requires a little competence in following directions.

MarkCC explains how the Julia Set Fractals are related to the Mandelbrot Set.

The “real world”

Who said math books were hard to read? My daughter’s calculus book is a breeze compared to this! Casting Out Nines lets the world know that Jocks aren’t dumb.

Politics meets math at the proof is out there.

Reading

Do librarians get tired of us making so much work for them? I have been adding to my library loan list again.

Nick lists 100 Recommended Science Fiction and Fantasy Books for Junior High Students, which includes many of my old favorites as well as some I have never read.

Tricia reviews Do the Math: Secrets, Lies, and Algebra.

Tony stirs up my curiosity about How Mathematics Happened.

And here is just the gadget I need to help me read all those books while ~~playing homemaker~~ multitasking.

Talking About Taboo Topics

I avoid talking about politics and religion on this blog. I have strong opinions but no expertise—and there is more than enough opinionated blathering on the Internet. But here are some people who (in my opinion) get it right.

La Shawn Barber on abortion.

Desiring God Blog on the problem of evil.