Library Links

"Content that might be of interest to Teacher-Librarians..."


12.9.12

2012 Veterans' Week Learning Resources

Veterans' Week November 5 to 11. (How will you prepare?)

Teaching ideas, resources to order, video clips to watch.

"Each year, from November 5 to 11, Canadians join together to celebrate Veterans' Week - this year is no different. During this week, hundreds of commemorative ceremonies and events will take place across the country to recognize the achievements of our Veterans and honour those who made the ultimate sacrifice. This Veterans' Week, take the remembrance challenge. There are many ways to show that you remember and honour our Veterans. (See site for ideas)"

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Consumer Health Complete - EBSCO

CHC - Articles, Videos, Animations and more

Use the link above or you can also find CHC by clicking on the EBSCO icon under the Visual Tab of your school library.

"Consumer Health Complete (CHC) is EBSCO's interface designed for the everyday consumer of health care information. CHC provides convenient access to easily understandable health and medical information. Consumers can search and browse within medical encyclopedias, popular reference books, and magazine articles."

Great for Science classes (videos and animations) as well as fitness and PE class projects. Here's a sample search that looks for fitness video clips.
LINK to search results. (Select the "Video and Animations" tab.)

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Literacy Professional Resource - Preview Online

Journey to Literacy - No Worksheets Required
by Krista Flemington, Linda Hewins and Una Villiers

Get a host of practical templates, games, and activities for infusing literacy into traditional kindergarten centers.

"Journey to Literacy argues that teachers need to engage children in their own learning and give them opportunities to pursue their own interests and investigations. Through individual and small-group gatherings, conferences, and personal interactions, this resource offers teachers simple and effective ways to engage young learners and provide positive feedback and support."

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Flipping your classroom?

Flip Any Youtube Video

You may have heard discussion around the idea of "flipping the classroom", a strategy that askes students to review content outside of class for "homework" and then leading the discussion, supervising extension activities or "homework" in the following class.

"You can transform any YouTube video into a lesson worth sharing. Search YouTube via the link below to select a video, and using TedEd, you can add your own supplementary materials and share your lesson with your students."


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Orca Digital Teacher Resources

Connecting to the text - Discussion, summary, Integration ideas

"Each guide provides age-appropriate discussion questions, and some may also curriculum connections, lists of and lessons about relevant vocabulary, literary devices and grammar points, and more."

The Digital reading bundle that we have at the Elementary schools from Orca is aimed at an Intermediate (Middle School) interest level, but the books are still written mostly at a grade 3-4 level. (Some are even lower)

Take a look at the teacher resources on the Orca main page. The summary for each title gives the actual reading level for each story as well as a rich set of activities to extend the use of each title.

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Shakespeare on iTunes

Read and Listen to Classics on iTunes - the Tempest

Using content in iTunesU, access the downloadable text and audio read-aloud of this play (Most of Shakespeare's plays are represented.)

Here are 2 links for the Tempest

ePub version (epubs work on most ereaders, phones, ipods, ipads etc. I think there is also an ereader app for laptops) http://itunes.apple.com/ca/itunes-u/the-tempest./id400639473?i=88544635

A LibriVox recording of the play (almong others) that can be downloaded to any mp3 player, or listened to on-line. http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/tempest-by-shakespeare-william/id382976072

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11.9.12

Sierra Magazine

A magazine for people who care deeply about nature

"Featuring strong reporting, engaging writing, and stunningly beautiful photographs, Sierra magazine is an indispensable guide for people who care deeply about nature. Published bimonthly by the Sierra Club, the magazine reaches more than a million people across North America."

Sierra Magazine via EBSCO
(School ID and password needed from home)

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Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network

Digital resources about climate science and energy awareness

"Welcome to the Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network. Explore our reviewed collection of educational resources. Learn how you can build your students' understanding of the core ideas in climate and energy science. Digital resources for teaching about climate science, climate change and energy awareness – resources are reviewed by educators and scientists, and annotated and aligned with standards and benchmarks"

Educational Resources

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10.9.12

Oliver Twist - Audiobook on iTunes

Lit2Go collection - Oliver Twist Audio

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
(To listen to this audio podcast in the browser or launch iTunes, to download and/or subscribe.)

This work is a part of the Lit2Go collection, a collaboration between the Florida Department of Education and the University of South Florida College of Education. Lit2Go is dedicated to supporting literacy teaching and learning by providing access to historically and culturally significant literature in K-12 schools.

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9.9.12

Download Free Interactive Periodic Table of Elements

The classic science resource with a QR twist

"Walls 360 is making the classic science resource free to download in various sizes and formats. The colorful chart comes with QR codes that link to each element's Wikipedia page, making learning about chemistry interactive, easy and fun! (Versions minus the QR codes are also available.)"

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SFS Kids - Fun with music

The San Francisco Symphony (SFS) Kids' Site.

This website provides a great way for people of all ages to hear, learn, and have fun with music. Sections: Instruments of the Orchestra, The Music Lab, What's up with the Symphony, & The Radio. (Uses Flash)

The Music lab includes the following elements:
  • Overview
  • Basics
  • Tempo
  • Rhythm
  • Pitch
  • Harmony
  • Symbols
  • Instrumentation
  • Performalator
  • Composerizer
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G'docs help with citing

Tammy's Tech Tip of the Week -  Google Research Tool

Tammy gives a step-by-step explanation of the "Research Tool" in Google Docs. If your students are already using Gdocs, this is a great tip!

"Google snuck a new tool into Google Documents that is totally awesome. It allows students (or anyone) to perform searches for web resources, images, quotes, and scholarly articles from within the document -- and then it cites the sources with a click of a button!"

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10 Ideas for Creating Literacy Centers With Technology

Put technology in the hands of students

Here are some more ideas for using iPads (if you only have a handful of them.)

"Elementary teachers ask what they can do with only a handful of devices in their classrooms.   By taking [a] center approach, teachers can put the technology in the hands of their students, differentiate their instruction, and create multiple opportunities for learning."

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Vocabulogic: Infer: Make Bricks WITH Straw! (video)

Inference is essential to comprehension

A ten minute video "slideshow" that illustrates why inferring is essential to good reading comprehension

Topic knowledge is essential to inference and inference is essential to comprehension. Readers are almost always required to draw an inference, connecting what they know with what was written to make sense of what was NOT written. Authors omit information, assuming the reader will "get it" but if we have frail or faulty knowledge of the topic we cannot easily infer. We cannot make bricks without straw! (To fully understand that figurative expression prior knowledge was required.)

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DEAR 2012 posters for download

DEAR 2012 - Drop Everything and Read

You can download posters for this year's DEAR challenge. Make it a day (Oct 22) or a week (22nd to 26th) or a whole month! Time with a colour printer or a trip to Staples will really heighten your school's awareness. (Use a thumbnail in your emails, or print them small for bookmarks or buttons.)

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Peter Spier - video interview

Meet the illustrator behind the books

Some of Peter Spier's Books include:

  • Circus:
  • People:
  • Noah's Ark:
  • The Star-Spangled Banner:
  • The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night:

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What is the "Invisible" Web?

"The Cloaked Web"- hidden from regular search engines.

Ever wonder if Google finds everything? Read this article by Paul Gil for a primer on what percent of the internet's 300+ billion webpages show up in a search.

"Many untrained users have the naive expectation that they can locate anything on the world wide web by using Google or Yahoo or Ask.com. No, as powerful as these search engines are, they do not index everything on the world wide web. In fact, search engines index less than 10% of the entire web! That remaining 90% is called the "Invisible Web", or in other words, "The Cloaked Web" or "The Deep Web". This is the massive content that is publicly available, but hidden from regular search engines."

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