Library Links

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

4.5.15

"My Mother is so Smart" - We Give Books

Here are two Mother's Day reads to share.
(Thanks Phyllis)
My Mother is So Smart
by Tomie dePaola @ the We Give Books site
(it's free to sign up):

Love You Forever
read by author, Robert Munsch on YouTube and on his website:


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E.O. Wilson’s eText - Life on Earth

41 chapters in 7 separate units
"Life on Earth is an iBooks Textbook consisting of 41 chapters in 7 separate units and can be downloaded for free from the iBooks Store. The text provides a complete, original, standards-based, media-rich curriculum to give high school students a deep understanding of all of the central topics of introductory biology."

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Lit2Go - audiobooks and more

Collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format
More suitable for high school.

"Lit2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format. An abstract, citation, playing time, and word count are given for each of the passages. Many of the passages also have a related reading strategy identified. Each reading passage can also be downloaded as a PDF and printed for use as a read-along or as supplemental reading material for your classroom."

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30.4.15

The Secret Book Society

Read, and then talk about books!
Cathlin Shahriary, a fourth grade dual language teacher in Lewisville, Texas, created a "secret book society" to generate some excitement around reading at her school:

"I decided to make my book club a secret book club (like fight club but instead of fighting, we read and talk about books). First, I set up guidelines for the secret book club. Ideally, I wanted to use books that I had already read so I could discuss them with the students. ...I started by drafting a letter ... stating that I had selected the student to be a member of the Secret Book Society and to participate all they had to do was read the book and write me a letter with their thoughts about the book. ...."

Mike Murray is trying a similar activity at his school. Click here for the letter he is planning to use. (You could use it with students or staff, or both!) Here's another version to use.
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Batman Returns (his books to the library) Poster

Holy Batbook!

A fun reminder for your tardy types!

Here's another:


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ASCD Webinar - Engage Your Students with Real-World Projects

Plan more authentic, relevant learning experiences with PBL
"With careful planning, teachers can design more relevant learning experiences and also address key content. In this webinar, author Suzie Boss will outline strategies to help you plan for more authentic, relevant learning experiences. She'll discuss how to design academically rigorous projects that are ripped from the headlines; why relevance doesn't mean "all about me;" and how to use the 3 A's to guide students toward meaningful action."

Includes webinar transcript and handouts.
See other archived webinars here.

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How To Use Infotopia in Just Two Minutes

A quick kid-friendly refresher
"Students will learn how to use the free custom search engine Infotopia.info, to find quality research results in just two minutes. Covered: how to do a keyword search, search for exact words or a phrase, and how to browse through the Infotopia topics."

Infotopia, a Google Custom Search Engine, is can be found in each library catalog under the "Visual Tab".

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MediaSmarts: Workshop about teens girls & online image

Half Girl, Half Face: A workshop about online image for girls in Grades 7-9
The workshop, which includes peer-led discussions and activities, revolves around the story of a teenage girl whose image has gone viral. As the video's protagonist tries to explain how this experience has affected her, she questions many aspects of social networking that are relevant to teens.




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Teacher Read-Aloud That Models Reading for Deep Understanding

Demonstrate the power of stories
Some strategies and grade specific lesson plans to bump up read-alouds to think-alouds.

"Teacher read-alouds demonstrate the power of stories. By showing students the ways that involvement with text engages us, we give them energy for learning how reading works. By showing them how to search for meaning, we introduce strategies of understanding we can reinforce in shared, guided, and independent reading."

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25.4.15

10 libraries to visit with Google Street View

Helping you feel the magic of the library
Scroll down the page to view tours.

"We've picked 10 libraries for your convenience. Start the tours in the embedded windows shown below. Click in the upper right corner to switch to full screen view. Being inside a library with Google Street View is something totally different from seeing a picture. You can look around, move along the shelves, reach the section with your favorite category. And, yes, you can even read the book! Google Street View is an unexpectedly good companion in helping you feel the magic of the library. Any library."

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24.4.15

Children's literature - video presentation

Develop literary consciousness in students
"Children's literature - Dr Alyson Simpson (University of Sydney) - To develop literary consciousness as well as good spelling, fluency and comprehension, Simpson believes that strategies like modelled, shared and silent reading allow time to for students to engage with books for pleasure as well as learning. She sees that teaching reading is important through all grades and that, to achieve all literacy goals, teachers need to actively lead children to read a wide range of texts and respond in different ways. (19 mins)"

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Authentic First Peoples Resources For Use in K-7 Classrooms

An educationally useful list of authentic texts
A reminder that this resource is available as a download from FNESC.

"This guide (updated 2012) has been created to help the BC elementary school teacher make decisions about which of these resources might be appropriate for use with [his/her] students."

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23.4.15

"Scales on Censorship" - blogging about selection, etc.

Reading Freedon, Censorship and Labeling
Pat Scales is the former chair of the American Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee. She blogs about censorship and selection issues for School Library Journal. Her advice is sure to provoke some thinking on these issues. Check back for a new post every couple of months.

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Interview with an Elem TL

100scopesnotes Blogger shares
Travis Jonker is interviewed about his work as an Elementary School Librarian.

"Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan. He writes reviews (and the occasional article or two) for School Library Journal and is a member of the 2014 Caldecott committee."

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Eat your favourite book

Edible book contest


Joe Hardenbrook walks readers through the steps he uses to run an Edible Book Festival.

For additional ideas, take a look at the LibraryThing contestant page:

"Our FOURTH Annual Edible Books Contest featured some truly impressive and delicious treats. Contestants submitted dishes inspired by works spanning decades and genres, sometimes even in one submission!"

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Finding a good book blend

Mix your genres and find a new title!
Blender mixes up genres in adult titles to help readers discover new combinations. (Not all results will be appropriate for Gr 8-12, so this may be more for the TL than the student!)

"The Blender is a tool meant to help readers find books that include more than one genre. Using the Blender is easy -- simply pick two or three genres you are interested in and click the "BLEND" button. [...] The database, currently numbering over 500 titles, is not meant to be a definitive list of every blended genre title. [...]  Instead, it gives readers a starting point in exploring the blend. Some are personal favorites, some are popular titles."

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22.4.15

The inconvenient Indian : a curious account of native people in North America

Looking for a Study Group title?
Do you want to learn more about First Nations issues?  DRC has 7 copies of "The inconvenient Indian : a curious account of native people in North America" by Thomas King. This title is a required read for teacher candidates in the PDP program at SFU and a recommended title for UBC students.

The book comes with a reader's guide and print interview with the author to deepen your discussion. Borrow a single copy to read on your own, or borrow them all to discuss with colleagues. It has received rave reviews!

Discussion guide:
Interview with the author:

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First Nations Pedagogy Online - Storytelling

Resources to teach about storytelling

"This site is the culmination of a project funded by BC Campus that allowed two education experts, Sylvia Currie and June Kaminski (Anishinaabe), representing Nicola Valley Institute of Technology and Kwantlen Polytechnic University to create an online resource that builds on research, consultation, and community-based activities. This site provides best practices and support for online learning initiatives that are intended for aboriginal students, elders, educators, curriculum developers, and educational leaders.

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"Music in a Lifetime" inquiry project

Collaboration between the music teacher & the teacher-librarian
"The Wellington Winds has a story to share with you; a story that might help you answer these big questions. We invite you to use the ideas and resources on this website to connect your musical life at school with the world of possibilities that music opens up to you in life."

There is a write-up about this program by Anita Brooks Kirkland:

"The resource uses an inquiry approach that puts students' questions at the centre of learning. Students exploring the website are invited to develop questions, explore the resources, and formulate their own ideas. Teachers may use the curriculum connections we suggest to guide student inquiry."


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Free Gaming Platform to Teach Digital Citizenship

Play to learn digital literacy and citizenship skills
"Common Sense Education has released Digital Compass, a free, interactive gaming platform created to help sixth- through ninth-graders learn digital literacy and citizenship skills.[...] Digital Compass addresses cyberbullying, privacy and security, creative credit and copyright, information literacy, Internet safety, digital footprint and reputation, self-image and identity, relationships and communication in an animated choose-your-own-adventure game."

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