September 18, 2013

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Fusenews: Berries of new, cots of Cal.

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Today I shall begin by ripping out your heart and stomping it into tiny shreds upon the floor.  You may be aware that for years I have worked with the real Winnie-the-Pooh toys at NYPL.  You may also know that the real Christopher Robin had a serious falling out with his father about the books.  [...]

New York’s Folly: A Lack of Vision at the City’s Dept. of Education | Editorial

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As students around the country return to school, those in New York City are facing a future without certified school librarians, as the NYC Department of Education (DOE) has asked to be excused from a decades-old state mandate on minimum staffing requirements.

Trouble: Learning from the New York State Common Core Assessments | Consider the Source

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The first round of Common Core assessment results are in. What do they tell us, and what should librarians be asking? Marc Aronson weighs in.

Capstone’s Interactive “Super” Ebooks; Gamers Wanted for the Innovation Math Challenge | News Bites

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Thirty-two titles from the “DC Super-Pets,” “DC Super Heroes: The Man of Steel,” “Superman,” and “Batman” series are now available as interactive ebooks from Capstone. Educators, student teams, gamers, or programmers can submit entries of games, math videos, infographics, or manipulatives to the WGBH Educational Foundation’s Innovation Math Challenge for prizes of $1,000.

Informational Text: Recommended Books, Suggested Strategies

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It’s all too easy to dismiss colorful, fun books of this sort, with their brief chunks of text and apparently oversized photos, as merely motivational in nature.

Ways to Welcome Fanfiction in Schools

When it comes to fanfiction and academics, there is a long history of non-fans writing and doing things that fans don’t particularly like, so you should be extraordinarily careful when you introduce fanfiction-based exercises to wary young fans.

Fusenews: More rubbish, please!

Fusenews: More rubbish, please!

You know what’s hot these days, topic-wise?  Diversity!  Or maybe just the lack thereof.  Seems its all anyone can talk about this week.  First the First Book blog reported that “at the 2013 Clinton Global Initiative America (CGI America) meeting, hosted by President Bill Clinton, [they] announced First Book’s commitment to create a sustainable solution [...]

Fusenews: C is for Calligraphy. That’s Good Enough for Me.

Allo!  BEA is now in full swing and always assuming I wasn’t crushed to death by today’s Family Feud game (it’s librarians vs. authors and I’m on Family Librarian) I’ll hopefully be seeing at least some of you on the conference floor in the next day or so.  In the meantime, take a look at [...]

Book Giveaway: Informational Text Par Excellence… ‘American Comic Book Chronicles’

So does this sound like something that could get the teen and tween comics fans you know into nonfiction? Sure it does.

Book Giveaway: Informational Text Par Excellence… ‘American Comic Book Chronicles’

So does this sound like something that could get the teen and tween comics fans you know into nonfiction? Sure it does.

College Readiness: Librarians Can Help the Transition | On Common Core

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Education buzzwords—whole language, multiple intelligences—come and go, but 45 states chose to adopt the Common Core Learning Standards. The questions educators now face are what types of instruction help students develop these skills? And how do librarians insert themselves into these critical discussions?

Be the Change: Take the Lead on Standards: Common Core and More

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Tuesday, June 4, 2013, 3:00 – 4:00 PM ETWhether your district is Common Core or not, its arrival and collision with the broad digital transition create unmatched opportunity for librarians to take leadership on meeting standards using their collection development and technology skills–mixing up materials and tools, stepping up the professional development role with teachers, innovating on the collection level, informing curriculum, and integrating digital tools.Archive now available!

Free Math Kits; National Geographic and CCSS; S.E. Hinton Ebooks | New Bites

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In this week’s News Bites: As an incentive to get children in the library during the summer, Bedtime Math is offering two free math-focused program kits. National Geographic Kids content is being added to Cengage Learning’s National Geographic Virtual Library product line. Four S. E. Hinton novels are now available in ebook format for the first time. Capstone partners with Save the Children.

Childproofed: When Your School Has Inflexible Filters | Scales on Censorship

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Pat Scales, chair of the American Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee, answers readers’ questions about censorship. This month, Scales addresses what to do when your school has inflexible or strict Internet filters, including strategies for aiding students in completing research assignments and advice on instituting new policies for challenged materials.

Fact and Fiction: Pairing Stories and Informational Audiobooks | Listen In

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When stories and informational audiobooks are paired together, they create a winning combination that can help students establish a foundation of knowledge about certain topics.

National History Day—A Perfect Support for Common Core | Consider the Source

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With its emphasis on research, learning, investigating, and arriving at one’s own conclusions, History Day is a perfect complement to the new education guidelines.

Fusenews: This is what a librarian looks like

Fusenews: This is what a librarian looks like

Oh me, oh my, where does the time go?  Here we are, it’s Monday yet again, and I’m running about like a chicken with my head cut off.  This Friday I head off to Barcelona for a full week (weep for me), then back I come to promote my picture book (Giant Dance Party, or [...]

Speak Up | Consider the Source

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How are New York’s librarians doing when it comes to Common Core? Find out as SLJ columnist Marc Aronson talks to educators who are in the trenches.

Fusenews: Inordinately pleased that I got to work in the term “manky” today

If you’ve received your latest edition of Horn Book Magazine then you may see that Roger and Co. had the clever notion to ask a bunch of folks what their favorite weirdo children’s books were.  And as luck would have it, I was asked too.  You can see my choice here if you like.   If [...]

Scriptwriting, the ‘Languages of Film,’ and Media Literacy: Teaching the Oscars with Frank Baker

Scriptwriting, the ‘Languages of Film,’ and Media Literacy: Teaching the Oscars with Frank Baker

“I think it’s a tragedy that most of today’s textbooks completely ignore media and the important process of scriptwriting.”