Library Links

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

19.11.12

EBSCO Host - Curricular Connections

Books and Ideas to Share with Children, Grades PreK-6, Fall, 2012

Judy Freeman suggests some marvelous picture books that can be used at any age to get students reminiscing and writing about "the carefree days of summer, wishes and wants coming true, overcoming fears, and making something special out of the ordinary."

You might save some titles to use closer to school year-end as anticipation activities, or use them now as the days get shorter and we'd all like a trip to the beach.

For each of the 5 titles Judy lists, she provides a summary and then a series of "small, pithy, useful, do-able ideas to integrate into your own story hours or lesson plans." (ie worksheets, writing prompts, songs, creative drama activities, craft suggestions, or ways to use the book across the school curriculum.)

She also provides a list of related titles, arranged thematically, that you can pull together for units, read-alouds, read-alones, or book discussion sessions, or to hand out to children.

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Diving Deep into Canadian Literature: What Is It? | NoveList Blog

What makes a book Canadian?

To answer this question, NoveList staffers recently compiled a set of resources including these helpful articles/books:

  • What is CanLit? (New York Times, August 22, 2006)
  • Canadian Fiction: A Guide to Reading Interests (Libraries Unlimited, 2005)
  • Canadian Literature (Edinburgh University Press, 2007)
Armed with those resources, they explored titles ranging from Kamouraska by Anne Hebert to How to be a Canadian by Will and Ian Ferguson. They discussed what makes a book Canadian and how the individual titles fit into the common themes of Canadian literature.

(Perhaps book club members, high school students and English teachers might want to delve further into this topic.)

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Challenge Based Learning

A new twist on Inquiry Based learning
Rather than imagining a final project that "might" be doable, or contriving a scenario that seems "almost" like the real thing, why not put all the energy, research and collaboration into helping students solve a real-world problem.

"Challenge Based Learning is an engaging multidisciplinary approach to teaching and learning that encourages learners to leverage the technology they use in their daily lives to solve real-world problems. Challenge Based Learning is collaborative and hands-on, asking students to work with peers, teachers, and experts in their communities and around the world to ask good questions, develop deep subject area knowledge, identify and solve challenges, take action, and share their experience."

You'll find a number of tools on the site, as well as examples of challenges other students are tackling and solutions they have developed.
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Book Creator for iPad

An easy way to create ebooks for the iBook app

Let your students get into publishing their own works using an iPad. This app (Book Creator) costs $4.99, which may seem pricey compared to some of the 99 ¢ offerings out there, but you will be impressed by the results.

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Create and Print Special Occasion Cards

Quick and Easy Card Creation

"While ecards may be viewed instantly and forgotten over time, printed cards can be saved, cherished and shared for years."

Your students can design and create their own card and print it out to send home. Use the templates provided or upload a unique image. (Get the kids to create their own and personalize the card.) Students can choose from among the many message options and also add their own personal note. Print it out and voila!

Makes for a fun design project.


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41 Free Resources for Teaching the 12 Bar Blues

Get your "Blues on" with these resources

Articles, apps, videos and more.

"The 12 bar blues has long been a favourite amongst music educators for teaching form, triads, the blues scale, cyclical chord progressions and music history. Here are some of my favourite online music resources."

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Converting YouTube to iPad Video - with iCab Mobile

How to save that Youtube clip on an iPad

Sometimes you need a clip to embed in a slide show, or to show when the wifi is acting up, but streaming capture apps don't play nicely with iOS. One solution might be to try it with a different browser. Here's an idea from TechinMusicEd:

"If you need to convert a YouTube file to an iPad Video you can embed in Keynote, one of the best options is the app iCab Mobile, which is an alternative browser to Safari. By pressing and holding while a YouTube video is playing, you can download it, and the you can later save it to your photo roll."

You will probably want to rename it (hold on the download arrow in the menu bar to access this) and save it in an album so it appears in your photo roll. Very slick.
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16.11.12

Reeling in Reluctant Readers - Booklist Webinar

Reaching struggling readers ages 10 and up
[LINK to webinar] 50 minutes


"Teachers and librarians are always looking for new ways to connect with children and teens categorized as "reluctant readers." In this free, hour-long webinar a reading specialist and literacy coach—along with representatives from Orca Book Publishers and Saddleback Educational Publishing—will discuss strategies and resources effective in reaching struggling readers ages 10 and up, as well as present books that combine high-interest topics with accessible writing. Also hear about new releases and best-selling series from Saddleback Educational Publishing and Orca Book Publishers. Moderated by Books for Youth associate editor Ann Kelley."

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American Libraries Live - Video Livecasts

New free streaming video broadcasts, AL Live

The audio of this first broadcast is a little jumpy in parts; hopefully this will be cleared up in future episodes.

"AL Live, is the new free streaming video broadcast from American Libraries. In the first episode, author and ALA TechSource columnist Jason Griffey moderates a discussion on libraries in the near future, with an expert panel including Marshall Breeding (independent consultant, speaker, and author), Nina McHale (Web Developer at the Arapahoe Library District, Englewood, CO), and Rebecca K. Miller (College Librarian for Science, Life Sciences, and Engineering at Virginia Tech)."

The programs are easy to view; Future broadcasts include:
• Nov. 16: Library 2017: Tech at Warp Speed
• Jan. 10: Landing Your Ideal Library Job• Feb. 14: Mobile Services: The Library in Your Pocket• March 14: Library Safety and Security• April 11: The Present and Future of Ebooks
• May 9: Library Learning Goes Online
• June 6: New Technologies in Library Equipment• July 30: Discovery Services: The Future of Library Systems• Sept. 12: Digging into New Databases

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Online reading vs Offline reading - What is literacy?

What Is New about the New Literacies of Online Reading Comprehension?

"It is clear that the Internet is this generation's defining technology for literacy and learning. It is also clear that classrooms have yet to take up Internet integration systematically, let alone instruction in the new literacies the Internet requires. In fact, those pioneering teachers who have led the way with Internet integration focus on the technology aspects of use, not seeing this as an instructional issue for literacy at all (Karchmer, 2001)."

This chapter (from NCTE's Secondary School LIteracy) prompts educators to think about the nature of "online literacy" and reflect on what we could be doing in the classroom to help students be more literate as they are reading and researching online.

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Open Dyslexic - Dyslexia Fonts

A font that increases readability

"OpenDyslexic is a new open sourced font created to increase readability for readers with dyslexia. The typeface includes regular, bold, italic and bold-italic styles. It is being updated continually and improved based on input from dyslexic users. There are no restrictions on using OpenDyslexic outside of attribution."

Listen to an interview about this font on CBC's "Spark" Episode 194.

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It’s Elemental | Chemical Heritage Foundation

Student-Created Videos and the Periodic Table

"It's Elemental"  is composed of nearly 700 videos submitted by over 1,000 student contributors from 36 states. (This site won the 2012 Best of the Web Award for Best Small Museum Website.) Students were challenged to submit a video that explained the origins, disovery and/or uses of one of the elements. You can view the results on the site.

This would be a great activity for students to try informally - create your own school based table of videos!

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14.11.12

Searching within a specific publication (magazine) in EBSCO

Finding that article in a magazine in EBSCO
(for a video version, click here.)

1) Browse to the landing page of the specific magazine you want to search. (You can use the choices available at this link, or search for your own title.)
The link is also available in your library catalog, under the visual tab with this icon:

2) On the upper right hand corner of the magazine landing page, you'll see a link to "Search within this publication"

3) Don't erase the existing search string in the search box, (this specifies the journal/magazine you wish to search)

After a space, add the following:  TX "wordyouwanttosearch"
(Note: there is a space after TX, and quotes around the word you are searching for.)

You could alternatively use  SU "subjectterm" if you know what existing subject term you want to find. (ie SU "space station")  The TX command searches for words as they appear anywhere in the text of the article (title and article contents.)

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Urban Legends Reference Pages

A reference source for myths, rumors, and misinformation

As teacher-librarians, we point students towards definitive sources of information, and teach them about the weaknesses in crowd-sourced reference works. But how do you check the veracity of a rumour? Snopes tracks the stories that flourish and lets you know which ones are based on facts and which are fiction. Many of your students may know about this site, but it will be new to some.

From the website: "Welcome to snopes.com, the definitive Internet reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation. Use the search box to locate your item of interest, or click one of the icons to browse the site by category."

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7.11.12

Read-Aloud Handbook - Jim Trelease

Selected Web content from "The Read-Aloud Handbook"

What's in the web-version of the Handbook?
Each web chapter consists of several excerpts from the print chapter but the excerpt represents only about 15 percent of the actual chapter. (The actual book contains 400 pages, - posted here is a representative sample of the book's contents, excerpts from the research and anecdotes in its chapters, and a listing of books from the Treasury of Read-Alouds.)

What's in the print Handbook?
The book divided into two parts: the first half contains the "ways" and "whys" of raising readers; and the last half consists of an annotated bibliography of almost 1000 children's books for reading aloud, from picture books to novels and anthologies, with synopses and guides to the age of the audience for which it was written.
[Google Books preview]

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Quebec French - Wikipedia article

An exploration of the roots and realities of French spoken in Québec

Much has been said (and misunderstood) about the origins and current state of French in Canada, and specifically in Quebec. This Wikipedia article gives a good overview of the antecedents of our uniquely Canadian way of speaking French, and explores the differences between the regions, the perceptions of "québécois" as well as variations in formal and informal registers, distinctive features and phonological realities.

This article is useful for teachers of French as well as senior students wanting to deepen their understanding.

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6.11.12

Book Café interview with Anthony Horowitz

Interviews and Book talks
Tue, 9 Oct 12
Duration:44 mins | File Size:21MB

If you are a fan of Horowitz, either for his YA writing or his adult titles, you will enjoy this interview with him on BBC-Radio Scotland about his upcoming title.

"Anthony Horowitz talks about his latest in the Power of 5 series, Oblivion which took him as far as Antactica on a research mission. Iain M Banks takes us into his Sci-Fi world discussing inspiration for his latest in that genre, The Hydrogen Sonata. We hear about a revival of the Brothers Grimm fairytales as well."

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5.11.12

Stop Motion Short Made Completely with Moleskine Notebooks

Moleskine Notebooks Featured in a New Stop Motion Short
by Rogier Wieland

I love the stop motion genre, especially when they involve books. Take a look at this new creation by Netherlands-based designer Rogier Wieland. This impressive stop motion ad for Moleskin relies on the notebooks themselves to create nearly every aspect of the animation including the precisely cut typography. (The making-of video is pretty great too - see second clip.)

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Inquiry-based Learning: Concept to Classroom series

Pro-D workshop - Inquiry-based Learning.

"Concept to Classroom is an online series of FREE, self-paced, professional development workshops covering important and timely topics in education. The workshops are intended for teachers, administrators, librarians, or anyone interested in education -- and there's no technical expertise required."

In this workshop:

  • What is inquiry-based learning?
  • How does it differ from the traditional approach?
  • What does it have to do with my classroom?
  • What are the benefits of inquiry-based learning?
  • How has inquiry-based learning developed since it first became popular?
  • Another perspective
  • What are some critical perspectives?
  • How can I use inquiry-based learning in conjunction with other educational techniques?
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It's a Jungle Out there - Infotopia

Eight ways to tell good web sites from bad ones

Youtube Clip
As a Slideshow
"It's a Jungle Out There" is a video-slideshow that shares indicators of good web sites vs bad web ones when they are doing research on the Internet. There are eight critical ways to tell the good, authoritative web sites from the bad. This may be a useful video for librarians to use with students.

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