This year offered another impressive display of collaborative projects, demonstrated by the substantial increase in applications, as media specialists and educators looked for new ways to incorporate library resources into classroom learning and teach critical thinking skills,” says Marlene Woo-Lun, publisher of Library Media Connection. “We are excited to honor the efforts of all of the winners and participants this year.”

The TEAMS Award was created to recognize the critical collaboration between teachers and media specialists in promoting learning and increasing student achievement.

Nominations were evaluated based on:
• Demonstrated collaboration between media specialists and teachers during the school year
• Effective techniques that positively impact student learning and achievement
• Support received from school leadership
• Ability for others to replicate this best practice

“Twenty-first century skills such as information literacy and critical thinking are crucial to the success of today’s students both in the classroom and beyond,” says Nader Qaimari, senior vice president, sales and marketing for Gale. “The collaborative projects we’re honoring with this year’s TEAMS Award, clearly demonstrate and instill these important skills in students around North America.”

Each winning school receives $2,500 in cash, Gale products, a one-year subscription to Library Media Connection, and the Educator’s Professional Bookshelffrom Linworth Publishing/Libraries Unlimited. The winners will also be honored at a reception at the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) conference in Hartford, CT, in November.

The winning projects
At Draper Elementary School, media specialist Bronte Tatum teamed up with fourth-grade teacher Kirsten Reid to develop a research project on endangered animals that provided opportunities to collaborate with the art, physical education, and music departments. The students created a digital book, “We Are Endangered. Can You Help Us?”

At Constable Neil Bruce Middle School, teacher librarian Dayna Hart and seventh-grade social studies teacher Jenn Craig worked together on a project that asked students to create their own civilizations as they simultaneously learned about ancient civilizations in history.

At Branford High School, library media specialist Jessica Mularski and history teacher Jennifer Kordek collaborated on a project that asked students to create an interactive etextbook on the First World War. The textbook will be put on the iBooks market for other students and educators to enjoy.

Honorable mentions
In addition to the winners noted above, Gale and Library Media Connection also recognized several schools, awarding them Honorable Mentions, for their submissions:

• Sunnyland Elementary School in Bellingham, WA
• Myron J. Francis Elementary School in East Providence, RI
• Centennial Junior High School in Casper, WY
• Driscoll Middle School in San Antonio, TX
• Elkton High School in Elkton, MD
• Liverpool High School Annex in Liverpool, NY

Calling All Media Specialists

Media specialists, teachers, and principals in public and private K–12 schools are invited to submit their collaboration success stories for an opportunity to win the 2013 Gale/LMC TEAMS Award which recognizes the critical collaboration of teachers and librarians to “promote learning and achievement.” The award is sponsored by Gale and Library Media Connection magazine. The collaboration could have taken place in the 2011–12 or 2012–13 school year. The judging, done by a panel of education professionals and Gale staff, will evaluate the entries based on demonstrated collaboration, effective techniques that positively impact student learning and achievement, support from school leadership, and replicability. Be sure to check out the award’s website for complete information.

Three winners will receive $2,500, Gale products, a one-year subscription to Library Media Connection, and Educator’s Professional Bookshelf from Linworth Publishing.

All entries must be submitted by July 1. Winners will be announced in November 2013 at the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) annual conference in Hartford, CT.

And the Award Goes to…

The Capstone Young Readers website recently received the 2013 Internet Advertising Competition Award for “Best Publishing Site” for excellence in online advertising from the Web Marketing Association. The competition was judged by professionals from the Internet advertising community on criteria such as creativity, innovation, impact, design, and copywriting. Capstone launched their new Capstone Young Readers website in February 2013. It features nearly 3,000 titles in a variety of formats for toddlers through teenagers.

“Capstone Young Readers had a tremendous first year. We’re thrilled to celebrate our growth with the launch of a fresh new website that integrates seamlessly with our social media efforts. To be recognized by advertising design and technology experts with this award is an honor and another wonderful reason to celebrate. Our new site delivers up-to-the-minute information for readers about our titles, promotions, events, authors, media and more,” said Ashley Andersen Zantop, Capstone Group Publisher and General Manager.

SPONSORED BY:

Archive now available!

Engage students and broaden their horizons with reputable, authoritative, and child-focused content that will bring them the world in a way they’ve never seen it before. Fun and substantive, National Geographic Kids will take them on amazing adventures in science, nature, culture, archaeology, and space. National Geographic Kids includes:

• 500 kid-friendly images
• 200 National Geographic Kids books
• National Geographic Kids magazine
• Popular themes of animals, environment, people, cultures, history, geography, science, and technology
• Authoritative, nonfiction content in support of the Common Core State Standards

The National Geographic Virtual Library includes National Geographic Magazine Archive, 1888-1994, National Geographic Magazine Archive, 1995-Current, National Geographic: People, Animals, and the World, and the new National Geographic Kids.

Presenter:

Sara Tarpley- Manager of Research Product Training & Sales Support, Gale, Cengage Learning

Moderator:

Rocco Staino- Contributing Editor, School Library Journal

Didn’t make it on April 24th? No problem!  The archive is now available for on-demand viewing at your convenience!

Follow us on Twitter! @SLJEvent  #SLJnatgeokids

By registering for this webcast, you are agreeing that School Library Journal may share your registration information with sponsors currently shown and future sponsors of this event. Click here to review the entire School Library Journal Privacy Policy. 

Kid lit awards:

There were also four Honor recipients—fiction: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (Hyperion); nonfiction: We’ve Got a Job by Cynthia Levinson (Peachtree); picture book text: A Leaf Can Be by Laura Purdie Salas; picture book illustration: Electric Ben (Dial) by Robert Byrd.

Additionally, the Sid Fleischman Award for Humor, named for the late-Newbery winner, went to Mo Willems for Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs (HarperCollins). A list of previous Golden Kite Award winners and honor books is also available. The Golden Kite and the Sid Fleischman Awards will be presented August 4 in Los Angeles, CA, at a luncheon during SCBWI’s 42nd Annual Conference on Writing and Illustrating for Children.

More Awards

Horror: The Horror Writers of America (HWA) have announced the Final Ballot for the 2012 Bram Stoker Award. The nominees in the young adult novel category are: Libba Bray’s The Diviners (Little, Brown), I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga (Little, Brown), Flesh & Bone (S & S) by Jonathan Maberry; Michael McCarty’s I Kissed a Ghoul (Noble Romance), The Raven Boys (Scholastic) by Maggie Stiefvater, and Jeff Strand’s A Bad Day for Voodoo (Sourcebooks).

The Bram Stoker Award is named for the author of Dracula. Since its inception in 1987, the Award has been given for “superior achievement” for books published in the previous year. HWA’s active and lifetime members will vote on these Final Ballot titles, with voting closing on March 31. The awards will be presented during the World Horror Convention, June 13–16 in New Orleans, LA.

Going Digital

Online databases: Gale, part of Cengage Learning, and the Smithsonian Institution have announced a partnership to digitize Smithsonian assets and make them available in online databases for libraries. Cengage will have access to the archives of Smithsonian Magazine and Air and Space magazine as well as collections covering American history, science, world cultures, and more. “We’re elated to be working with the Smithsonian Institution,” said Frank Menchaca, executive vice president, research solutions for Cengage Learning. “This agreement puts us closer to our goal of becoming the largest humanities research experience for the academic library. Through our extensive distribution channels throughout the world, in classrooms as well as in libraries, we’ll put into the hands of students, teachers and researchers, a universe of materials that is structured for research in a way never before possible.”

Video Challenge

Make a difference: Students in middle and high school are urged to take part in the IWitness Video Challenge sponsored by USC Shoah Foundation–The Institute for Visual History and Education, founded by Steven Spielberg after his work on the film Schindler’s List, and “dedicated to making audiovisual interviews with survivors and other witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides.” The IWitness Video Challenge asks students to do something positive in their community that reflects the movie’s message: that one person can make a difference.

Students can’t enter the challenge on their own—teachers must sign up groups of students or an entire class. After teachers register, kids will have to complete the “IWitness Video Challenge” activity on the IWitness website. The activity asks them to “listen to testimonies of survivors and other witnesses on IWitness, develop insight into the opportunities for change in their community, get motivated to make a difference, and build a video essay telling their story of how they made their community and our world a better place.” Students participating in the Challenge must create a one to four minute video essay using a video editing tool on the IWitness website that allows them to link their voices to those in the archive who inspired their actions.

The teacher of each participating group of students or class must select one winning video that will be entered into a regional competition. Regional winners will then be entered into a national competition. Teachers must sign up their students by June 30, and video essays must be submitted by October 31. The winning student’s video will be screened as part of the Institute’s 20th anniversary activities in Los Angeles in March 2014.

The challenge was announced in conjunction with the Schindler’s List 20th Anniversary Limited Edition Blu-ray version released March 5. The film includes the USC Shoah Foundation story with Steven Spielberg, as well as the documentary Voices from the List, featuring testimonies from Holocaust survivors.

Check Connect the Pop blogger Peter Gutierrez’s interview with Stephen D. Smith, Executive Director of the Shoah Foundation, and Dr. Kori Street, its Director of Education.

You Have to Be in It…

Win a document camera: K–12 educators in the U.S. and the District of Columbia have the chance to win one of four Epson DC-20 document cameras. All they have to do is enter the Epson Document Camera in the Classroom Contest by sharing their top five benefits of using document cameras in the classroom. Entries will be judged on creative use of document cameras, practicality of implementing the idea, and how using the camera impacts student learning. The top four entries will be selected by Epson and they will be highlighted on the Epson document camera website. Educators can submit their entries online between March 15 and May 10. Winners will be announced in June.

The DC-20 document camera is a visual presentation tool that offers a variety of features: PC-free annotation, built-in microphone to record audio with video lessons, application software, microscope adapter, image storage, split-screen function, and camera flexibility.