Link-up: From Baghdad, With Love

http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews/from-baghdad-with-love-a-marine-the-war-and-a-dog-named-lava
This link gives a summary of my second quarter blog book: From Baghad, With Love by Lieutenant Colonel Jay Kopelman. Gives reader an idea of what book is about and shortly discusses symbols and themes of the book. Additionally this link gives helpful publishing information.

http://bfgb.wordpress.com/2009/09/10/from-baghdad-with-love-by-lieutenant-colonel-jay-kopelman-with-melinda-roth/
This is an incredible link giving a very short summary of the novel. It gives a high recommendation for the book. Also, it informs the reader that there is a follow-up book of this novel: From Baghdad to America: Life Lessons From a Dog Named Lava by Lieutenant Colonol Jay Kopelman. This is so exciting!

http://catalog.wrl.org/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1H5250D06H640.8438&menu=search&aspect=subtab63&npp=12&ipp=20&spp=20&profile=dial&ri=1&source=~!horizon&index=BIB&term=580316&x=0&y=0&aspect=subtab63#focus
A quick link to a site summarizing the follow-up book. It summarizes as well as gives publishing information. It also lets you use a website set up like SILNET to borrow book.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLIzyAM5qrQ
This is a fantastic YouTube video of Jay Kopelman talking about Lava and his story. Viewer is able to see actual footage of Jay and Lava's life currrently. This video talks less about what the book is about and more about what happened AFTER the book, after Lava arrived safely in the United States. Must watch if you have read the book!

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001923/
Lava potentially saved Kopelman from this common disorder. It's very common with veterans. This link discusses symptoms and causes.

http://www.ptsd.va.gov/
This is the official website for Veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It offers help and informs public of disorder. It also includes numerous, true stories of veterans dealing with this condition.

http://www.militarymascots.org/
This is one of the two groups that helped Kopelman get Lava to the U.S. "Military Mascots" helps deployed service members and the pets they love. It contains a few similar stories to that of Kopelman and Lava.

http://www.animalcenter.org/
This is the website for the second organization that helped Kopelman and Lava.  The Helen Woodward Animal Center is dedicated to saving animals lives and enriching people's lives--which happens to be exactly what they did for Kopelman and Lava. This website provides information on the oraganization.

http://www.spcai.org/baghdad-pups.html
This is a really awesome site that pretty much reminds me of Kopelman and Lava's entire story. Operation Baghdad Pups is a mission for soldiers who find dogs in the warzone and become attached, as Kopelman did. It is their mission to save these dogs to keep soldier's hearts from hardening from the influence of war, again, exactly what happened with Kopelman.

http://kennedycanine.net/warzone.htm
This is a nonprofit center that raises money and collects supplies for stray dogs in Afganistan. In the future, any wars in another country where needy dogs reside would benefit as well. It crossed my mind that if Kopelman knew about this project, that he may have been less attached to Lava because he may have had more hope. Then as soon as I thought that, no way. Kopelman and Lava were meant to be.

http://www.wctv.tv/wswg/headlines/Florida_Soldier_Reunited_with_Dog_132514528.html
This is an article of a story about a soldier who was reunited with his warzone dog that fought alongside him in the war. It's so sweet, the soldier got emotional and the dog was so excited. This dog helped this soldier cope.

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/dogs-rescued-war-zone-safe-fairbanks
This is another story about a soldier being "saved" by a dog, two dogs in this case. They are puppies actually. They were rescued by a soldier through a Puppy Saving Mission and he adopted them when he was back from his service.

http://community-2.webtv.net/Hahn-50thAP-K9/K9History18/
This is a really great website providing information on war dog training. It gives an extensive history of war dogs. It also provides many pictures to go along with the information.

http://www.robinsondogtraining.com/historyofwardogs.html
This is the website for an actual war dog trainer. It gives information on the training dogs would go through. It also provides quite the history of wardogs.

http://www.vet.utk.edu/wardog/background.shtml
This is a really nice website that is a War Dog Memorial. You always hear about soldier memorials and it's nice that dog's involved in war are recognized and remembered as well. It gives history, information on ceremonies, and pictures.

http://www.marines.com/?WT.srch=1&WT.mc_id=AXW101AXXABX0607#default
This is the Marine website. It gives historical information as well as information on training. This website gives you a good idea of how Kopelman was trained and why he has the attitude he does.

http://usmilitary.about.com/od/marinejoin/a/marinebasic.htm
This is a very informational site on Marines. It gives general information and takes you through what to expect if wanting to become a Marine. It also starts to get into some of the strict rules of basic training as well as being a Marine.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/feb2005/mari-f25.shtml
This is an interesting article about how a man died in Marine training. It gives you a really good idea how tough it is to be and become a Marine. This explains Kopelman's hard attitude towards life.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/33585208/ns/today-today_pets_and_animals/t/marine-bends-rules-save-dog-found-iraq/
This is yet another similar story to Kopelman and Lava's. A Marine bends the rules in order to get his furry new friend home with him. There is also a video in this article of an actual interview with the Marine with his dog.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/2005/050315-bdu_standards.pdf
This is a excerpt from the long list of conduct rules Marine's have. Kopelman stressed many times throughout the novel that having a pet was against the code General Order 1-A. This is a list that includes a brief part on having pets as a Marine.

The New Age: 21st Century English Classrooms

Nowadays, teachers, classrooms and schools are trying to utilize the new technology that is available to many schools. They do this by incorporating social networks such as Facebook and Twitter that many students already have outside of school and using blogging such as this. This is completely understandable and it works for many students and it does for me to an extent. I give teachers a lot of respect for trying hard to make lessons relatable to their students. I enjoy blogging. I didn't at first but I really have learned to get into it and use it to enhance my understanding of the current book that I'm reading. So, in this aspect I truly believe the attempts at using 21st century technology in the classroom. However, I do not use my Facebook or create a Twitter account educationally. I don't see how this would benefit me because I purely use my Facebook for social things. I keep in touch with my friends and family members from across the country. Facebook is almost something to get away from school. I like school, and I always have, but I don't think I could ever want to use Facebook educationally. So, blogging, yes. Facebook and Twitter, no. I do think the contact across the state to another school is really cool and can really be fun and enhance understanding of texts, but as far as I have seen, the school we are communicating with isn't doing the same kind of assignment as our school. I don't think they are reading Read for a Lifetime books and blogging about them. So, therefore it makes it hard to really have something to talk about most times. But, this idea has a ton of potential. It is a way to connect with people you don't know and learn more about the book than you yourself could come up with. I think by the time I get into college, colleges will be incorporating the same kind of educating techniques as the ones mentioned above. So this is great practice!! Blogging really helps your understanding of the text because it tests your creativty and makes you think more about things, and differently about things. The student across state communication introduces the oppurtunity for other students to mention or discuss something about the book that maybe you missed or didn't think about. This also happened in group discussions in our class and the idea is the same and would work the same. Reading aloud in class gets boring and long. People read at different paces and understand at different paces and reading in class as a class can mess those things up for some people. Books should be read at your own pace and own skill level. Plus, no one looks forward to just sitting in class for an hour listening to a fellow student read a paragraph of a novel, and just passing it on, and on, and on.

Animoto- From Baghdad, With Love

http://animoto.com/play/FZM32NFNPF18XXMBUnjH8g
This is a short trailer to my second quarter book: From Baghdad, With Love by Lieutenant Colonel Jay Kopelman with Melinda Roth. It's a very inspiring true story, I hope you enjoy!