School Libraries

Found this video and it has the best description of what teacher librarians do on a regular basis. It's from the Palm Beach County and Broward County School Library Programs. Share it with your principals and teachers!

LIBRARY MEDIA SPECIALISTS - THE NEXT CHAPTER from kenny mikey on Vimeo.

Scoop.it

So a friend of mine just introduced me to Scoop.it.  This is the coolest website!  The site describes itself as a online magazine that you can create.  I see it as a visual storehouse of blog postings or other articles from the web.  I found this great Scoop.it page about Information Powerhouses.  The author curates the page by adding new content pertinent to the topic.  And Scoop.it will suggest articles for you based on key words you add when you set up your page.

I can see lots of uses for this.  One school uses pages for research notes--"scooping" the articles and saving them for note-taking later on.  Or a teacher librarian could display use tips or sites for a particular assignment.

Of course, I couldn't see a new toy without playing around with it myself.  Here's the link to my Scoop.it page.  And you might have noticed the link on the right of this page.  I put a button that 's a direct link to it.  Take a look and let me know what you think.  I see it as an extension of this blog-- a place where I might store articles that I'm referencing in this blog.  Check it out and let me know what you think. I'm especially interested in ideas using Scoop.it for research!

The Power of Story

I have recently found two diffent messages about the power of story. The first is a blog article from Dan Blank, founder of WeGrowMedia. He is also a teacher with Writer's Digest. His article talks about the power of story in terms of writing to get your message out there or to make an action happen.

The second is a video from the author of Tell to Win, a book on marketing and sales.

Both the video and the blog have some of the same themes running through them--the power of stories. If your students need a boost in their writing, have them look around for a story idea. Stories are everywhere.

Who ya gonna' call??

A great promotional video from the New York Public Library--enjoy! 

21st century educator/ 21st century students

Courtesy of Fablevisionlearning.com--Are you teaching 21st century kids?  Are you a 21st century educator?  Look at these and see if you agree....





Book reviews

Normally I try to keep this blog more professional and post topics of interest to language teachers and librarians. But today I have to blow my own horn. This month SLJ published not one but two of my reviews! I get exited when I see one in there but two of them was awesome!

They published my review of Spy School--very cute story about a math geek who gets invited to the CIA training school. Only it turns out to be a little more than advertised. My other review was a book called Perfected by Girls, a story of a female wrestler and the trouble she has at her school due to her choice of sport. Both are good books, ones I think would appeal to teens.

I'm just excited to see both in print at once! Now if I could just find a way to make some money as a reviewer.....I would be ecstatic........

Switch

A good book for your professional collection --Switch --How to change when change is hard.  Here is an  article with some exerpts from the book.

And here's a video summary.