B. Rock
Living in Edison, NJ
Total page views: 127,675
Published Content: 81
Fans: 2
On AC since: 12.30.06
Bio:
I'm a recent graduate, a newly wed, and a (no longer first year) teacher.
I teach HS Social Studies in a New Jersey city. I graduated from the Rutgers Grad School of Ed in May of 2007.
In July '07, I finally got married after two years of planning.
I'm a recent graduate, a newly wed, and a (no longer first year) teacher.
I teach HS Social Studies in a New Jersey city. I graduated from the Rutgers Grad School of Ed in May of 2007.
In July '07, I finally got married after two years of planning.
Education/Experience:
Rutgers College (BA) and Rutgers, Grad. School of Education (M Ed)
Rutgers College (BA) and Rutgers, Grad. School of Education (M Ed)
Affiliations:
B. Rock's Favorites
None yet.
None yet.
B. Rock's Fans
Showing Results 1 - 81 of 81
Netbooks seem to be all the rage in computers these days, but are they suitable computers for use by educators? I recently had the chance to test out a netbook - an Acer Aspire One - and I loved it.
By B. Rock | Published 3/31/2009 | Read more »
The go-to store for tech products may seem to be Best Buy - but more often than not you're getting ripped off. Check out these online alternatives.
By B. Rock | Published 3/12/2009 | Read more »
So you're paying tuition for college, but you don't know a lot about the education tax credits? Here are three places to look to help clear things up.
By B. Rock | Published 2/23/2009 | Read more »
If you pay for college, you've got a handful of tax credit/deduction opportunities. The choices can be dizzying - but the deduction can sometimes be worth it.
By B. Rock | Published 2/14/2009 | Read more »
If the clanking in your steam radiators is keeping you up at night, it's probably time to do something about it! There are a handful of possible diagnoses for the problem, but one simple solution may silence that ruckus. Read this article to find out how.
By B. Rock | Published 2/9/2009 | Read more »
If your radiator is old and unmaintained, you may notice steam and water leaking out of the intake valve. That's no good! You can easily repair the valve to eliminate leaks and increase the efficiency of your system!
By B. Rock | Published 2/9/2009 | Read more »
Brand new house. Old steam boiler. You do know how to maintain it, right? The most important piece of regular maintenance that you should be doing is flushing the sediment out of your boiler. Read the article to find out how.
By B. Rock | Published 2/9/2009 | Read more »
If your steam radiators aren't working properly, it's time for maintenance. There are a few things that could be wrong, but one area to check is the steam vent. This article will tell you how to change a steam vent on your radiator.
By B. Rock | Published 2/9/2009 | Read more »
Web sites used to take money, time, and skill to create - but with the right tools you can create your own, quickly, for free! Here are some tips to get you started creating a class website.
By B. Rock | Published 1/31/2009 | Read more »
The stock hub caps that came with my Chevrolet Cavalier are gone. The plastic lug nuts broke, and two of the hub caps flew off while I was driving. Here's how I replaced them with some simple, inexpensive wheel covers.
By B. Rock | Published 1/8/2009 | Read more »
The Tranquility Lane quest line presents you with a few moral conundrums. If you're traveling the Bad Karma path, then life is pretty simple - and read on to see how to find your way out.
By B. Rock | Published 1/7/2009 | Read more »
Blogrolls are on sites everywhere. Did you know that they can drain your site's SEO and make it less visible to search engines? You might want to consider an alternative.
By B. Rock | Published 1/3/2009 | Read more »
Betty wants you to become the Pint Sized Slasher! What do you do? This quick walkthrough will help you escape Tranquility Lane without becoming a mass murderer.
By B. Rock | Published 1/3/2009 | Read more »
The easy way to complete Chapter 6 involves losing a lot of karma. Here's an alternative method that will grant you karma.
By B. Rock | Published 1/3/2009 | Read more »
Google AdSense is a great program, but it isn't consistantly profitable for every site. Here are some alternatives ways to earn a profit.
By B. Rock | Published 1/1/2009 | Read more »
With New Years right around the corner, do you have a resolution yet? Maybe you should commit to blogging.
By B. Rock | Published 12/28/2008 | Read more »
Here are two tips for how you can use a .htaccess file to improve your website.
By B. Rock | Published 12/28/2008 | Read more »
Kids today have short attention spans and nothing grabs their attention as well as a well produced movie clip. Here are a couple options to use with your kids.
By B. Rock | Published 12/10/2008 | Read more »
Got a web site? Then you better be shamelessly self-promoting it at every change you get. That's the only way to increase back links, search engine visibility, and traffic. A tip: head to NaBloPoMo, and enjoy a little extra publicity.
By B. Rock | Published 12/6/2008 | Read more »
One day my wife told me, "I think my brakes need replaced." I hopped into the car, heard that tell-tale sign, and said, "Oh yeah." Learn the signs, and fix them before you cause extra damage.
By B. Rock | Published 11/27/2008 | Read more »
YouTube is great, but don't you wish you could download the videos and store them on your hard drive or flash drive? Now you can, and it's easier than you think.
By B. Rock | Published 11/19/2008 | Read more »
One day, I noticed that the brake lights and turn signals on my Chevvy Cavalier stopped working entirely. At first I panicked, thinking it would mean an expensive trip to the auto shop. However, I managed to find a simple, easy, and free solution to the problem.
By B. Rock | Published 9/7/2008 | Read more »
If you're tanking in WoW, you need stamina food. Too bad it can be god awful expensive... unless you know how to find the good, cheap stuff on the Auction House.
By B. Rock | Published 8/30/2008 | Read more »
Do you want to buy a mount from another race besides yours? Well get ready to grind some rep. If you spend time in Alterac Valley for honor points, you can do double duty and easily grind Horde rep at the same time.
By B. Rock | Published 8/30/2008 | Read more »
Do you want to buy a mount from another race besides yours? Well get ready to grind some rep. If you spend time in Alterac Valley for honor points, you can do double duty and easily grind Alliance rep at the same time.
By B. Rock | Published 8/30/2008 | Read more »
Before you can install a drop ceiling, there's one important thing to do: plan! Here are some tips to help you develop a layout and estimate the materials you'll need to get the job done.
By B. Rock | Published 7/29/2008 | Read more »
The Moroes fight is more forgiving than the Huntsman in terms of gear, but more demanding in terms of coordination and execution. Come prepared, and you'll do fine. Read on to find out everything you need to know.
By B. Rock | Published 7/24/2008 | Read more »
Attumen is the first boss you'll meet in Karazhan. With decent gear and a bit of know-how, he's pretty easy to bring down. Find out everything you need to know.
By B. Rock | Published 7/23/2008 | Read more »
When Burn Notice premiered, it seemed like an interesting novelty. I never sat down to watch it, though, until I found the entire first season on the website. I watched all eleven episodes, and the action, story, and characters reeled me in hook, line, and sinker.
By B. Rock | Published 7/21/2008 | Read more »
I was originally skeptical of Wall-E, considering the scarcity of dialogue in the movie. I quickly realized that dialogue is unnecessary, and the movie deftly weaves together elements of science fiction, romance, and social commentary into a terrific product.
By B. Rock | Published 7/21/2008 | Read more »
A sandwich is a simple meal, but it doesn't need to be bland and boring! Spice up any sandwich with a simple toasting. It'll only take about 10 minutes, it won't dirty any dishes, and it'll taste great!
By B. Rock | Published 7/11/2008 | Read more »
A friend of mine suggested that I try the Perfect Push-up. I'm typically skeptical of infomercial-like gadgets, but this one really works. After several weeks, it's produced measurable results.
By B. Rock | Published 6/30/2008 | Read more »
Most Tankadins opt to use the Libram of Repentance while performing their tanking duties. You may be surprised to find out that, at times, this is a subpar choice and that you'd be better served with something else!
By B. Rock | Published 6/27/2008 | Read more »
Your gear determines what you can and can't do in WoW. You'll want to wear different gear for different situations, and sometimes it can be a hassle to keep it all organized. The Outfitter add on is a must have for hybrid classes, and a useful tool for any player.
By B. Rock | Published 6/27/2008 | Read more »
It may seem odd, but a tankadin's weapon doesn't have normal tanking stats on it. Weapons like the King's Defender, desired highly by warriors, should be eschewed by Paladin tanks. Avoid looking newbish, and follow this advice the pick out the best tankadin weapon for you.
By B. Rock | Published 6/25/2008 | Read more »
Fishing and cooking both offer great end-game bonuses. Fishing offers some of the greatest food buffs available, and you'll need to be able to cook the fish in order to use them. Here's a quick overview of how to level these professions in tandem, quickly and efficiently.
By B. Rock | Published 6/18/2008 | Read more »
Time is money, they say, or in the World of Warcraft - time is gold. Here are a few tips to help you maximize your time and earn the most gold in the limited time that you have to play.
By B. Rock | Published 4/27/2008 | Read more »
Until PHP 5, you had to write your own XML parser to work with XML. Now, it's built in - and it couldn't be easier. Here's the inside scoop on using SimpleXML.
By B. Rock | Published 2/22/2008 | Read more »
Javascript's DOM functions give you powerful control over the display of a website. Some clever scripting can allow you to build an interactive browser-based game - like Tic Tac Toe.
By B. Rock | Published 2/21/2008 | Read more »
Many people display the 'Digg This' badge on all of their blog posts. This is a great widget for popular articles - but there's nothing impressive about an article with one digg. Hold out on the 'Digg This' badge until you're article deserves to be dugg.
By B. Rock | Published 2/18/2008 | Read more »
Digg recently released an API for developers that lets you access all kinds of cool information. This is a brief glimpse into how that API works and what you can do with it.
By B. Rock | Published 2/16/2008 | Read more »
PHP and XML are powerful tools to make your website dynamic. What can you do by combining the two - and how can you do that?
By B. Rock | Published 2/16/2008 | Read more »
RSS feeds are a great way for you to keep up to date on your favorite websites. But they can be an even greater tool for a webmaster. You can syndicate RSS feeds on your own site, adding continuously updating content without any work of your own
By B. Rock | Published 2/9/2008 | Read more »
If you want to build a user-management system - or work on someone else's - you should know a few basics about how passwords are encrypted or hashed. In other words, how are they made safe for storage?
By B. Rock | Published 2/2/2008 | Read more »
CSS is a powerful way to style your website. Here are three quick tips and tricks you can use in CSS and links to more in depth articles to help you understand how to use them.
By B. Rock | Published 1/29/2008 | Read more »
Many students thrive on visual aids - including graphic organizers that help them think about content knowledge. This article gives an overview of three types of graphic organizers that you might find useful to use with your students.
By B. Rock | Published 1/19/2008 | Read more »
If you want to display some sample HTML, you've got a tiny problem. The browser thinks that it should render the code. This guide suggests three ways that you can force the browser to display the markup un-rendered.
By B. Rock | Published 1/16/2008 | Read more »
The Democratic Debate wasn't a civil matter. Clinton came out with guns blazing, and Edwards responded with his own attacks. Barack made a few pokes but stayed out of the mess as best he could.
By B. Rock | Published 1/6/2008 | Read more »
Early in the second half, Jacksonville led Pittsburgh 21-7. The Steelers came out strong in the second half, and Ben Roethlisberger led his team in a comeback to take a 29-28 lead. With 40 seconds left, Jacksonville kicked the playoff game-winning field goal.
By B. Rock | Published 1/5/2008 | Read more »
The Democratic Debate was an interesting spectacle - John Edwards and Barack Obama sat next to each other, piggy backing off each other all night. Clinton remained defensive throughout the debate, while Richardson simply repeated his resume.
By B. Rock | Published 1/5/2008 | Read more »
Students can only pay attention for 10-15 minutes at a time. In order to keep students at their peak attention level, you should break up the class into smaller portions. In between larger chunks of instruction, include some of these transitional activities.
By B. Rock | Published 12/31/2007 | Read more »
Web Quests are lessons on the internet. They involve internet research, and the Web Quest serves as an assignment sheet and a stepping stone for research. They're great tools, but require technical savvy, unless you let someone else do the work for you.
By B. Rock | Published 12/30/2007 | Read more »
I recently purchased a hosting account and every time I tried to change a php_flag setting in htaccess I got an Internal Server Error 500! If you've got this problem, there's a simple solution. Create your own php.ini file - in about a minute.
By B. Rock | Published 12/28/2007 | Read more »
Twenty five ranked teams. Four months of football. And one game decides the national champion. Sound fair? Hardly. Here's how the NCAA can easily fit a 8-team playoff into next year's bowl schedule.
By B. Rock | Published 12/28/2007 | Read more »
Open Office and Microsoft Office are pretty similar in a lot of ways. What would tip the scales in favor of one office suite? What if one created documents files that were bloated - five times as big as they need to be?
By B. Rock | Published 12/28/2007 | Read more »
Frustrated with boring tooltips that you can't style? You could customize them with Javascript â€" but that's complicated and unreliable. Here's a simple method to create your own tooltips using just HTML and CSS.
By B. Rock | Published 12/24/2007 | Read more »
So you're thinking about picking up a Linux distro. It's got a fancy graphic interface to use - but what happens when you need to use a terminal command? This guide will get you started and help you understand what other people are telling you to do.
By B. Rock | Published 12/21/2007 | Read more »
Hotel Rwanda is a memorable and moving story. It also has plenty of lessons to teach us for the future - and it raises provocative questions that Social Studies classes and citizens alike should ponder.
By B. Rock | Published 12/21/2007 | Read more »
Recently, I looked at my old pc and thought, "What should I do with you?" Soon, it was wiped clean of the Windows Virus and it was sporting Ubuntu Linux. I've been satisfied since then, and there's nothing I could do on Windows that I can't do with Linux.
By B. Rock | Published 12/20/2007 | Read more »
So you've learned a little bit of HTML and you want to share that knowledge with the world. But that pesky browser keeps rendering all the markup you want to display for your users! Well, here are a couple of easy solutions to your problem.
By B. Rock | Published 12/13/2007 | Read more »
Students can display content mastery in many ways. Your more active and creative students will appreciate an opportunity to perform a skit in front of the class. It is a great assessment tool and a fun activity rolled into one.
By B. Rock | Published 11/7/2007 | Read more »
Your students know a lot. If you want then to know more, you need to build on this prior knowledge. A KWL (Know-Want-Learn) activity is great for activating this prior knowledge and building on a foundation.
By B. Rock | Published 11/5/2007 | Read more »
Every good lesson needs a great introduction. A Think-Pair-Share activity is the perfect way to get students thinking and introduce or transition to a new topic.
By B. Rock | Published 11/3/2007 | Read more »
Teachers always strive for thought provoking class discussions. A lack of student participation can shatter that pipe dream. Use silent discussions to help more students participate.
By B. Rock | Published 11/2/2007 | Read more »
Students learn in many ways - reading or listening alone won't do the trick. Use the jigsaw technique to engage your students in reading a text, discussing that text, and then serving as an expert to re-teach it to his or her fellow students.
By B. Rock | Published 11/2/2007 | Read more »
Can't get your students to discuss things in class? Give them an A/B writing exercise. Forcing them to justify a position in writing will give them plenty of material to talk about during the discussion.
By B. Rock | Published 10/29/2007 | Read more »
Foldables are three dimensional versions of graphic organizers. They help students take notes and make comparisons - and students find them fun!
By B. Rock | Published 10/29/2007 | Read more »
Struggling to find a way to make the Boston Massacre interesting? Try making a direct comparison to a similar event that is less well known, equally bloody, and far more shocking - the Kent State shootings.
By B. Rock | Published 10/26/2007 | Read more »
So you've got some brand new gear and you're looking for gems. This expensive investment can be the difference between a good piece of gear and a great one. Read up on the most important stats for a tankadin and the gems to choose.
By B. Rock | Published 10/24/2007 | Read more »
Every August, the sports writers gather to predict the Top 25 teams in NCAA Football. That's a large order to fill. Can they do it? Read on to find out...
By B. Rock | Published 10/22/2007 | Read more »
Dynamic websites need user generated input - and this comes from forms. This tutorial will show you the basics of how to use a php script to handle forms, process some input, and create some dynamic html.
By B. Rock | Published 10/21/2007 | Read more »
You never know when you'll need to pass all of the elements of one form along to a second one. You could do this manually, but this tutorial will show you how to create a function to do automate and abstract the process.
By B. Rock | Published 10/19/2007 | Read more »
Easy Grade Pro is a powerful electronic gradebook program. It is a compact database program with all of the functionality a teacher could want to track students' grades and attendance.
By B. Rock | Published 10/18/2007 | Read more »
Once you hit 70, you'll want to get all of your heroic keys. This guide will show you the quickest way to get the key for Lower City and Keepers of Time. Plan ahead - you'll be happy you did.
By B. Rock | Published 10/10/2007 | Read more »
Many media websites that offer streaming audio are blocked by school's web filters. Using iTunes or RealPlayer, you can skirt around these filters and choose from hundreds of online radio stations.
By B. Rock | Published 10/9/2007 | Read more »
16th century Europe was torn apart by religious violence and warfare. This lesson gives students visuals to make this violence more concrete. It asks them to write a story about what they have seen.
By B. Rock | Published 10/9/2007 | Read more »
As a raider, you should be looking to maximize your damage or healing. Check out this guide to find out what food you should hunt and cook to be prepared to help your raid.
By B. Rock | Published 10/5/2007 | Read more »
Cooking is an essential skill at the end game. Simple food will grant big bonuses - like + 20 Stamina. This guide will show you what to kill or fish to get the best buffs.
By B. Rock | Published 10/5/2007 | Read more »
As parents scramble to find a way to pay for their child's college education, some scholarships can be overlooked. In New Jersey, the NJ Stars program makes it possible for 20% of New Jersey's students to attend college completely free.
By B. Rock | Published 10/3/2007 | Read more »
Newspaper articles make great discussion starters in a classroom. However, sometimes you just can't find the article you want! This guide will show you how you to take an article that you've written and make it look indistinguishable from a real New York Times article.
By B. Rock | Published 9/24/2007 | Read more »
Ever think of making a course website but thought it would be too hard or too expensive? Well it's neither. This guide will take you through the quick and easy steps of creating a simple and effective website that won't cost you a penny.
By B. Rock | Published 9/19/2007 | Read more »
Filter B. Rock's Published Content:
Search B. Rock's Published Content:
Permalink:
|
|