Sunday's Simple Subject: LinkBacks

Silver Links by Jimby K
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License

Are you using linkbacks, also known as trackbacks, to help track your blog posts?

Last year, I discussed an issue of concern among our professional learning network It's the issue of people not referencing someone else's work and calling it their own.

Many of you commented on this topic, so I've investigated some processes that can help the author minimize these problems.

While I discovered many blog authors who have trackback urls, I learned that Blogger doesn't. They do have a linkback procedure. Google Help refers to backlinks that you can set by going to the Settings on your Blogger dashboard, under Comments. There are many caveats, so I would recommend that you read the help reference thoroughly before you try to set up your back links in Blogger hosted blog posts.

If you are looking for linkbacks or trackbacks on other blogs, they may also be called pingbacks or, rarely, refbacks. I also look for these at the end of a blog post. I use these urls when I link the blogs in my post, so the author can actually see how their blog post was referenced.

What is your procedure for trackbacks?

Get to the Point....PLEASE!

Inside the Monument - London by nick.garrod
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License

Today's post is an editorial statement that professional blogs should be written in a professional manner!

Have you ever had a teacher who took half the class time for their lesson introduction, aka anticipatory set? Well, it seems that can also happen online. Today, I read an author's post that rambled across the topic throughout half the blog, and the introduction still didn't INTRODUCE the main focus of the article.

I am wondering if I should have higher expectations for a university official with a doctorate than a high school student?

What could the author do to more effectively get to the point? I think the wandering blogger should eliminate the top part of the post, it wouldn't have been missed. Minimally, the author could let the post rest and look at it again later. Maximally, a university official could enlist an editor.

This experience taught me a good lesson today. Every story should have a beginning, a middle and an end, and the author should not make you wander in the desert before they get to the point. It takes time to read or even scan recommended articles, and TIME is a fixed parameter, even in the virtual world.

Be a Book Wizard!

Embed this new widget, Teacher Book Wizard, in your website or blog and anyone can use it to find children's books by author, keyword or title.

Scholastic has used Google gadgets to create an excellent teacher resource, a children's literature search engine. When you find the book you listed, you will receive information about the reading and interest levels, as well as purchasing information.

You can search for your favorite book or new titles to help you develop an instructional unit. I selected a variety of keywords to use in the Teacher Book Wizard Widget and a representative list of available books on the topic were found and listed by this search engine.

I embedded this widget in mymindtoyourmind widget wiki. It will make a nice addition to the variety of other widgets that I previously recommended for use by teachers.

Many of the titles are published by Scholastic, yet the search engine results do include book titles from other publishers in this search engine. This search engine is not perfect by any means, so I would encourage you to also use other search engines like Xoost for hard-to-find titles.


When readers at your blog, wiki, or website use the Teacher Book Wizard Widget, they will be taken away from your site to the Scholastic site. I would like to see this widget open in another tab or window. While this is an inconvenience, it is not a major hindrance.

clipped from www.scholastic.com What is the Teacher Book Wizard Widget and how do I use it? FREE ultimate children's book search engine The widget will help teachers find: Book and author information Reading levels Book-based lesson plans, booktalks and discussion guides Series lists embed the Teacher Book Wizard Widget onto your Web site or blog.

Ally Carter, Ag Economist to Full-Time Author

Every high school and college librarian, Reading and English teacher should discover Ally Carter, if you are looking for good YA and adult novels for pleasurable reading.

This is excerpted from the comments that I made to the NY Times bestselling author, Ally Carter (yes, I DO know her real name and occupation....) on her blog ally's diary.

Last Spring, I had the pleasure of listening to your presentation for the Spring 2007 FCE Recognition Banquet in Girard, KS. I was very impressed, even though my preferred genre is Science Fiction, [your] story lines sounded interesting enough to read.

Fast forward[ing] to the beginning of the school year in Erie,...my daughter brought home your first book, Cheating at Solitaire....[H]er 10th grade English teacher, Miss Olivia S., suggested that Dena would enjoy your writing. Hold on to your copy Miss S,'cause it's out of stock at B&N.

She brought the book home, and I told her that I had heard you talk about your books, writing and other topics. She acted interested at least. LOL!

Well, a few days went by, and I thought...another one bites the dust....she is sooooo picky! Trying to put a positive spin on the situation(and using my best motherly psychological weapons LOL)I asked her if she was finished reading Cheating at Solitaire. She shocked me by saying, "Almost, I've read about 2/3 it!"

Before she took it back to school, I read Cheating at Solitaire, and I laughed quite a bit. It was a good read. So you have 2 new fans.

My daughter read two of your books this fall. She says she likes Cheating at Solitaire best, but she enjoyed reading I'd tell you I love you, but then I'd have to kill you of The Gallagher Girl books.

Keep up the good work. Have lots of fun working as a full-time author! WooHoo!

Just heard Thursday, 11/1/07, at our Fall SEK FCE area meeting that you would be leaving your economist position. I guess you CAN keep a secret in SEK. LOL

Congratulations!

Cover image .jpg file taken from ebook3000.com

Jan Brett and Dena

What a weekend! What a week! Lots of stories to tell...good stories. Caught up with many old friends, mentors and acquaintances.
Just returned from a whirlwind trip to Wichita, KS to see Jan Brett with Dena. Oh yes, also to shop! LOL
More to follow, but I wanted to post at least one picture of our fantastic weekend.