September 18, 2013

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E. It’s Complicated. How Two Schools are Riding the Transition to Ebooks

E. It’s Complicated. How Two Schools are Riding the Transition to Ebooks

For this close-up report on going digital, SLJ talked to academic experts, librarians, teachers, and students at two Illinois high schools. Big questions: What are the best ebook providers? How many student iPads get damaged? Do students read more in ebook or print? And more.

Design to Learn By: Dynamic Early Learning Spaces in Public Libraries

Roger Mastroianni Photography

A design revolution is reinventing the children’s room in public libraries and changing the way young children learn. This new breed of literacy-packed play spaces in libraries is inspired by children’s museums and the developmental theories that drive them.

The Early Bird: How Sesame Workshop is adapting its revolutionary educational content for devices

A young tester puts an app through its paces at the offices of Sesame Workshop.

A peek behind the scenes of Sesame Workshop, which is negotiating the digital shift with care. The venerable brand has conducted more than 76 tests over two and a half years to understand how children, ages three to five, adopt and adapt to touch devices in their learning.

World Builder: Edwards Winner Tamora Pierce

Photo by Michael J. Okoniewski /Getty Images for SLJ.

The creator of elaborate, fiery fantasies with“kick-butt” female protagonists talks with SLJ about her award-winning work.

Architects of Dreams: Anythink’s Pam Sandlian Smith on the Power of Children’s Librarians

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Anythink’s dynamic director explores how children’s services librarians will shape the future of libraries, libraries as places of discovery and experience, and the shift toward participatory librarianship.

Flipping the Classroom: A revolutionary approach to learning presents some pros and cons

Flipped

Flipping the classroom or library encourages students to learn at home through teacher-made videos, and frees up valuable class time to devote to discussions and exploring topics more deeply.

Meet the Latest Newbery Winner: How Katherine Applegate created a modern-day classic

Photograph by David Paul Morris
(Getty Images for SLJ)

Newbery Medalist Katherine Applegate offers a behind-the-scenes look at how she created The One and Only Ivan, a modern-day classic.

Making the Principal Connection

Illustration by Jean Tuttle

Mark Ray asserts that principals and librarians have a lot more in common than you might think—and he should know. After 20 years as a teacher librarian, the 2012 Washington Teacher of the Year has become a district IT administrator. From his new perch, he shares insights into the the pivotal alliance possible between two key solo players in the school: librarian and principal.

Partners in Success: When school and public librarians join forces, kids win

SLJ January 2013 Cover

School library and public library collaborations are making a huge difference in kids’ lives.

The League of Extraordinary Librarians: SLJ’s latest tech survey shows that media specialists are leading the way

The League of Extraordinary Librarians: SLJ’s latest tech survey shows that media specialists are leading the way

Meet the latest tech superheroes: school librarians. According to School Library Journal’s 2012 School Technology Survey, media specialists are leading the charge to bring new media, mobile devices, social apps, and web-based technologies into our nation’s classrooms.

Are Dewey’s Days Numbered?: Libraries Nationwide Are Ditching the Old Classification System

School Library Journal October Cover

Pushing between snack time and reading group, Zack, a third-grade boy, ducks into our school library while another class is beginning to check out books.

Travis’s Excellent (Ereader) Adventure

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In this month’s cover story for School Library Journal, Jonker, an elementary school librarian, documents the launch of an ereader lending program in words and pictures. This article is adapted from a series of posts at Jonker’s blog 100 Scope Notes, which is moving to SLJ.com.

The Other America: Giving Our Poorest Children the Same Opportunities as Our Richest

SLJ August 2012 Cover image

Over the past five years, I’ve returned to the New York neighborhood in which I met the children whom I first described in Savage Inequalities, Amazing Grace, and other books I published in the 1990s. The neighborhood is called Mott Haven. It’s the poorest section in all of the South Bronx, which is the poorest Congressional district in America.

Want to Work with Kids in a Public Library? Here’s the Inside Scoop

Illustration by Giselle Potter

It was 2001 and I was a year out of college, my dream of becoming a photographer neatly scrapped due to the slightly sobering fact that my photography skills, not to put too fine a point on it, stunk.

Staying Power: The Magic of Susan Cooper

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I’m on my way to visit Susan Cooper on an unseasonably warm day in mid-February. As my car cruises along, about 45 minutes south of Boston, low tide reveals miles of untouched marshland. I drive across a short causeway, creep down an unpaved lane, and suddenly I’m staring at the exquisite home that Cooper built a couple of years ago. My first thought is that I’ve stumbled upon the Grey House, the setting of Cooper’s first children’s book, Over Sea, Under Stone. With its soaring cathedral ceilings and wraparound windows that frame the wetlands, the space is filled with warmth and light even on a winter’s day. It seems like the perfect place for the 77-year-old writer to conjure up some more of her magic.