I’ve had these in my files for a couple of years doing nobody no good. So, I thought it was time to crowd-source, update and improve a series of checklists I’ve planning to work on and share. The checklists are meant to be a handy list of things to plan, do, and celebrate month-by-month in the life [...]
A new Follett Challenge & a couple of inspiring stories
By on September 6, 2013
I’ve come to the conclusion that there are probably a thousand different ways to do library great. Sure there are handbooks on how to put together a traditional library program–how to create a budget, weed a collection, host an author event, collaborate with teachers. But no textbook shows you what it looks like when the [...]
Where in the world? GeoGuessr as a literacy tool
By on September 5, 2013
Thanks to my good buddy, Shannon, I getting a little hooked on GeoGuessr and I can’t wait to share it with our Social Studies Department. Released last May, the web-based geographic discovery game places players on five randomly-determine Google Street View locations, asking them to guess where they are. Once a player is ready to guess the location, [...]
50 ways to leave your paper (revised a bit more and crowd-sourced)
By on September 4, 2013
I just updated and distributed my September teacher newsletter. Along with all the Spartan-specific content was an update of 50 Ways to Leave Your Research Paper and Tell Your Story, a document I’ve been trying to crowd-source and improve for years. I am sharing this most recent update, though I readily admit its short-comings, one of [...]
QR Codes for (y)our Apps
By on August 31, 2013
I am on a serious mission to push our library out onto the platforms my kiddos love most–their phones, and to a lesser extent, their tablets. I so want our library to be in the pockets. As I finished preparing our QR code handout, it occurred to me that most of the codes, in fact [...]
FlipYour Classroom Day
By on August 31, 2013
You’ll want to share this event and its resources with the classroom teachers you are helping to flip. On September 6, the Flipped Learning Network will host the first global Flip Your Classroom Day. To celebrate, the network encourages teachers everywhere to pledge to flip one lesson in the hope that the flipping experience will be a sticky one. [...]
Fall decorating: a round-up of smart (and free) posters
By on August 26, 2013
Every year, as we move back into our libraries and classrooms, we search for meaningful, inspiring, attractive visuals to fill our display cases, to grace our bulletin boards, to embed on our websites. Many of you have already experienced this, but if not, I must warn you of the dangers of searching Pinterest boards for [...]
The emerging scribe
By on August 2, 2013
A new age of scribe is emerging, notes Joyce Valenza, who, in her latest blog post, considers the craft of sketchnoting and its role in enhancing the conference – and classroom – experience.
Meet Club Academia, uncommon kids (who, BTW, love their library)
By on July 27, 2013
Shilpa, Roya, Ahran, and Karan Mission: Club Academia strives to organize existing knowledge in ways that make learning easily accessible while simultaneously inspiring people to discover and innovate. Sometimes you meet a group of kids for whom being college and career ready is simple not enough. As a high school librarian, I am often honored to work with [...]
Shopping for online courses and other educational content
By on July 16, 2013
For the growing numbers of us searching for online courses, as well as online educational resources, the portals are quickly growing in both number and size. Finding the best or most relevant content may be a challenge. Sites like Kayak take care of of the would-be traveler with a cross-portal search, but what’s the would-be [...]
ALA’s Launches “Liberty” and the Privacy Toolkit
By on July 12, 2013
In a powerful, proactive reminder of the principles for which our profession stands, yesterday ALA announced the launch of ALA Liberty, a new website that contains tools libraries can use to host educational sessions and public forums that help Americans understand their First and Fourth Amendment rights. ALA Liberty offers guides and tip sheets for libraries as [...]
Graphite: the new educator/consumer guide for ed tech tools
By on July 8, 2013
One of my favorite discoveries at ISTE was Graphite. Launched by Common Sense Media, the nonprofit known by parents, teachers and librarians for its high quality, nonpartisan reviews and its popular Digital Literacy and Citizenship Curriculum, Graphite promises to be the go-to platform for helping teachers make sense of an exponentially evolving number of digital [...]
What did your edtech year look like? (The results)
By on June 25, 2013
A couple of weeks back I shared a survey that asked the following: As this school year comes to a close, I’d like to call on you to share your discoveries and your wisdom and to help me reflect. Which edtech goodies, tools, apps, platforms, and strategies worked so well for you in 2012/2013 that [...]
Recording kids’ history as readers
By on June 20, 2013
I had to share this wonderful idea from Sarah Mulhern Gross’s recent Infotopia post: Beyond the Book: Infographics of Students’ Reading History! Sarah, a high school English teacher, was excited about sharing her lesson with the school library community. Sarah describes herself as a book evangelist. She shared her interest in having students think about some of the books that have affected [...]
What did your edtech year look like?
By on June 12, 2013
Dearest readers, What did your edtech year look like? Let’s create a snapshot. As this school year comes to a close, I’d like to call on you to share your discoveries and your wisdom and to help me reflect. Which edtech goodies, tools, apps, platforms, and strategies worked so well for you in 2012/2013 that [...]
PowToon + Katie = even more awesomeness
By on June 5, 2013
I am a big fan of the talented, adorable and slightly wacky author/illustrator/kidlit blogger/podcaster Katie Davis. I am also a big fan of the slightly wacky, digital animation tool PowToon with its cool themes, props, animated characters and transitions. So what happens to the equation when a popular picture book author/illustrator partners with digital, comic-based presentation/video maker platform? [...]
Voice your comments
By on May 26, 2013
Share this with you favorite essay and paper-grading teachers: So much of our students’ work– collaborative or independent, so many of our professional documents, are created using Google Docs. And so many times it’s a strain to express in the margin, or in text notes, the personal/enthusiastic/caring/connected feedback we’d really like to share. When we [...]
New from PBS Learning Media
By on May 25, 2013
PBS recently announced that its PBS LearningMedia, the media-on-demand service for PreK-12 educators, now offers more than 30,000 free, carefully cataloged, standards-aligned, digital resources. Honored with two 2013 SIIA CODiE Awards in the Education Technology category, these resources were specifically designed to address national curricular gaps for high-quality digital media. The new content features interactive games, images, videos, [...]
Help me share best practice with connectedlearningtv & YALSA
By on May 23, 2013
All this month, YALSA and ConnectedLearningTV has hosted a series of conversations around teens and the future of school & public libraries, part of the year-long National Forum on Libraries and Teens. The background: YALSA President H. Jack Martin and Crystle Martin, Postdoctoral Researcher for the Connected Learning Research Network, have been moderators the free virtual chats, which will look at the [...]
Networking and the incoming class of 2017
By on May 17, 2013
The deposit checks are in the mail but the college buzz is buzzier than ever. Having survived the arduous college admissions process, our seniors are now taking full advantage of their opportunities to negotiate the social landcape of their newly selected school well before they land on campus in late August. They are so much [...]
