@cktechtl: I have been an elem teacher-librarian for 6 yrs. @librarianmissk: This is my 4th yr as a TL, but it’s my 1st year in elem. @cktechtl: Sometimes I feel that I can’t keep up with new ideas @librarianmissk: Sometimes I feel like I am on a island by myself. I’ve kinda immersed my grad [...]
Google Drive’s new very appy Create menu
By on February 12, 2013
It’s just a little easier to find your apps these days and to discover and connect to new ones. On Friday Google announced a new feature in its Drive interface. The Create menu now expands to list a lovely variety of third-party Drive-connected apps. These apps may now be conveniently added to your Create menu [...]
Globalizing and Googlizing Science Fair
By on February 11, 2013
It’s your turn to change the world. It’s about time we remixed science fair for a networked, flattened, participatory world. Think of all those experiments year after year that lived for a few fleeting moments on a gym or cafeteria table, summarized on a cardboard tri-fold, only to be trashed days later. Think of all [...]
What’s Izik? Introducing a swipier, slashier search
By on February 9, 2013
I’ve been searching for a search tool that makes me want to search on my iPad. I think I’ve found one that will work for me and for my students. Specially for tablets, Izik by Blekko is a new, free search app for iPad and android. Results are organized by contextual categories in an image-rich [...]
Resources for Black History Month
By on February 4, 2013
I’ve been gathering a few Black History Month resources to share with teachers here at our high school and thought I’d share them here as well. African American History Month, a collaborative government-sponsored site, provides links to primary source-driven lessons from the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the National Gallery, the National Park Service [...]
Why hair salons need to curate
By on February 1, 2013
Please forgive this little journey about curation and life outside of school. I’ve been doing some thinking about curation and hair. Here’s my sad story and my proposed solution. I hadn’t had a hot shower for a week after Hurricane Sandy. I was beat. And my hair was full of knots. When I got to [...]
Getting ready for Super Bowl and teaching with the “text” of life
By on January 28, 2013
If you are a teacher, getting ready for next weekend might involve more than picking up a bucket of wings. While the kids cheer their teams on with their friends and family, they could be thinking a little more critically, by reading the text of commercials. Really. Annually, Frank Baker’s Media Literacy Clearinghouse offers an [...]
Educon: When a conference works
By on January 28, 2013
. . . If it’s part of a movement. If every day is a building block on the way to something important, and if the attendees are part of a tribe that goes beyond demographics or professional affiliation. Seth’s Blog: When a Conference Works (and Doesn’t) I spent the weekend downtown at Educon. This January [...]
Looking closely at inaugural addresses
By on January 21, 2013
This week many of us will take the timely opportunity to study an important primary source–the Inaugural Address. The New York Times offers a fascinating interactive timeline of word clouds, summaries, and full-text documents. (I suspect today’s address will be posted shortly.) The timeline takes a look at the language of presidential inaugural addresses. The [...]
How would you fill an Edcanvas?
By on January 20, 2013
I am adding Edcanvas to my toolkit for curating, flipping, and presenting. The flexible platform allows teachers and students to organize and share teaching and learning materials, or their research products, in the form of a attractive visual grids composed of tiles. Pick a topic, choose a theme (tile layout) and create a canvas by [...]
Wikivoyage launches
By on January 16, 2013
The mission of Wikivoyage is to create a free, complete, up-to-date and reliable worldwide travel guide. Wikivoyage, the new collaborative travel guide project, launched yesterday with around 25,000 articles. According to the project’s Welcome Page, the goals and the audience for this multilingual space built on user-generated content are different from those of the its [...]
Advanced Power Searching with Google
By on January 15, 2013
Serious about search? Wanna put your tactical talents to test? If so, register now for the Advanced Power Searching with Google Course, hosted by Google senior research scientist, Dan Russell. The course begins on January 23rd and runs through February 8th. Course materials will be released in two batches: Challenges 1-6 and Assignment 1: Wednesday, January [...]
#tlchat was even more live last night
By on January 15, 2013
I’ve said it before, but last night was further proof of the power of our growing TL network. The live Monday night twitter chat (#tlchat) we began back in September, ran on both Twitter and Google+ Hangouts last night. And our intrepid team managed and archived both platforms. The topic was: Get Those Books Moving: [...]
WLMA: The library should be the heart of the school
By on January 12, 2013
The wonderful teacher librarians of the Washington Library Media Association (WLMA) recently released the five-minute video, Teacher Librarians at the Heart of Student Learning. The video, partially funded by Mackin, is designed to present school libraries and teacher librarians as a vital resource for student learning and to highlight the essential role teacher librarians play [...]
Popcorn Maker: Will it pop a great video conversation?
By on January 11, 2013
So, imagine if every video we that watched on the Web worked like the Web–completely remixable, linked to its source content, interactive for everyone who used it. I think Popcorn could change the way we tell stories on the Web and the way we understand the world we live in. Ryan Merkley, Mozilla’s Chief [...]
Pew offers new Libraries page
By on January 9, 2013
I was about to write an alert about several of the interesting new Pew Internet & American Life Project studies, when I discovered that it is now easier to discover those studies. The Pew Project recently added a Libraries page to their site, gathering research especially relevant to our community, as well as updates from [...]
Zeen for digital magazine creation
By on January 5, 2013
In shopping around for a meaningful new way for students to publish their discoveries around Hamlet quotes and themes, I came upon Zeen. A free, new platform, still in beta, Zeen allows users to curate text, video, images, and links into beautiful digital magazines, using a lovely variety of themes, fonts, colors Developed by YouTube [...]
Model Library Curriculum shared on our PA DOE portal
By on December 31, 2012
In times like these it’s even more meaningful when your state department of education endorses and validates your contribution to the learning culture of your school. This past fall, New York State recognized the specific contributions of its school librarians by approving a new School Librarian Evaluation Rubric. (AASL lists a variety of others as [...]
Small Demons: Welcome to the storyverse!
By on December 28, 2012
Because these are the details we obsess over. The authors who write them and the readers who read them. They connect us with our stories and connect our stories with each other. And with these connections comes a whole new world of discovery. Valla Vakili’s talk at the Tools of Change Conference. 2/14/12 In his [...]
Kathy’s updated assessments
By on December 27, 2012
Over the last few years, student products have changed. The Common Core State Standards force us to focus specifically on new sets of criteria. And so we find ourselves independently developing new rubrics and assessments. Happily, my/our dear friend Kathy Schrock stepped up to address the wheel-reinvention issue. Her updated assessment Guide covers assessment options for [...]
