Explore links to Poetry resources
Infotopia has new page of resources for poetry. You'll find links to famous poets, texts from a range of poetry as well as voice recordings of poem read-alouds (courtesy HarperAudio)
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1.2.13
Feliciter - Vol59, #1 - Digital Rights Management
The February issue of the Feliciter
The Feliciter, Volume 59, Issue 1: "Digital Rights Management" is now ready to be viewed online in one of 3 formats on the CLA website.
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"Free at Last" interactive Timeline - BBC
A troubled period in American history. (1918 - 1968)
In this BBC history site, you'll examine the images, hear the voices and look into the faces that changed a nation.
"Ordinary men, women and children were drawn into a fierce struggle for equal rights regardless of the colour of their skin, while other ordinary people were determined to resist them. Across the American South, issues such as segregation, equal schooling and the chance to vote cost many people their jobs, their freedom and even their lives.
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31.1.13
Google Doodles
Celebrate holidays, anniversaries with Doodles
View current doodles, or talk a walk down memory lane. You might even ask students to create their own to celebrate a local event, or use the ideas to "doodle-ify" their own name.
"Doodles are the fun, surprising, and sometimes spontaneous changes that are made to the Google logo to celebrate holidays, anniversaries, and the lives of famous artists, pioneers, and scientists.
"Over time, the demand for doodles has risen in the U.S. and internationally. Creating doodles is now the responsibility of a team of talented illlustrators (we call them doodlers) and engineers. For them, creating doodles has become a group effort to enliven the Google homepage and bring smiles to the faces of Google users around the world.
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NPR's Backseat Book Club
An audio book club aimed at 9-14 year-olds
"National Public Radio's "Backseat Bookclub" is an audio book club aimed at 9-14 year-olds. Kids read a book selected by club members and send in their questions. These are presented to the book's author during the "All Things Considered", NPR's afternoon radio program. (December's selection was Rick Riordan's The Red Pyramid.) Listen to interviews with authors.
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30.1.13
Helping Students Discover the Value of a Good Set of Notes
Students benefit from having good notes
"Students benefit from taking and having a good set of notes, even though many of them don't see the value, don't take good notes, and like it best when they can copy word-for-word what the teacher says or has on the PowerPoint slides. ... We can tell them in class, on the syllabus and the course website that they need to take notes, but I think less telling and more showing is the better way to go. This post offers a range of activities teachers can use to help students discover what a good set of notes enables them to do."
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YALSA Book Awards | Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)
Hot Reading for Teens - YALSA - 2013
YALSA honors the best teen literature each year with its six literary awards, announced each year at the ALA Midwinter Meeting.
"The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) is a national association of librarians, library workers and advocates whose mission is to expand and strengthen library services for teens, aged 12-18. YALSA builds the capacity of libraries and librarians to engage, serve and empower teens.
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Get More Out of Google (print-friendly) Poster
Make Google sing and dance
Share this great poster. If you have a colour printer, even better! This is a nicely laid out infographic listing step by step instructions for making Google find what you're really looking for. (Oh, and don't forget to ask a librarian too)
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Upcoming BCTLA February advocacy events
February Events for your Library
The BCTLA invites you, your school, and your school library to join us to celebrate twice this month...
February 14th: Love Your School Library Day
Join the Ning and connect with our LYSLD Group to share the 'advocacy' ideas you are planning for the 14th. Lots of great, creative ideas were posted last year. Visit the Ning and search for the 'Love Your School Library Day' group. We will also be tweeting at #lysld2013. (see attached our official poster for LYSLD.
February 25 - March 1: Freedom to Read Week.
Visit http://www.freedomtoread.ca to get more details, posters, and ideas on how to celebrate the fight against censorship in Canada. Again, visit our Ning as we will be adding a FTRW group to share ideas later next week.
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BC Heritage Fairs - a great research opportunity for kids and teachers
"Heritage Fairs are coming!"
"Engage your students in innovative project-based learning on Canadian history. Have them present their research to historians and the broader public at a regional Heritage Fair."
The location and dates of the 12 BC regional fairs, plus guidelines and contact information are on-line.There are also ideas and resources for inquiry learning on the Forgotten Wars, stories of invasion and resistance in the history or B.C. and Canada. (Contact a regional coordinator soon to register your school.)
This is a great opportunity for teacher-librarians to offer enrichment to students who aren't already studying Canadian history as part of the SS curriculum.
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Ban the Book Report - Preview Book online
Go beyond narrow and analytical book reports
"Wise teachers assign reading responses that are interesting, relevant, and encourage further reading. "Ban the Book Report" presents 20 classroom-tested assignments for personal response to independent reading, each with a reproducible rubric, response form, and two exemplars. (Preview the entire book online!)
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29.1.13
Marketing Books to Teens
Connecting Teens to Titles (archived webinar)
Listen to an English teacher and a School Teacher-Librarian talk about how they connect teens to titles. Listen how they use a thematic approach, incorporating booktalks and new arrivals to pique student interest. (The system will prompt you to download a PPT of the presentation right at the start.) Part of the "Library 2.012" conference online offerings.
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''Why Won't You Just Tell Us the Answer?'' - rethinking history class
Investigate the past - the way professional historians do
Rethink how you teach history with this book (Preview online):
"Students may think they want to be given the answer. Yet, when they are actively engaged in investigating the past - the way professional historians do - they find that history class is not about the boring memorization of names, dates, and facts. Instead, it's challenging fun. Historical study that centers on a question, where students gather a variety of historical sources and then develop and defend their answers to that question, allows students to become actual historians immersed in an interpretive study of the past."
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24.1.13
Wikipedia: Friend or Foe (Webinar archive)
The sum of all human knowledge: learning from Wikipedia
As part of the "Library 2.012 Worldwide virtual conference", Anne Bingham presents her session: Wikipedia: Friend or Foe? Her presentation is available as a webarchive from Collaborate/Blackboard. (Click on the recording link, download the applet and once the session window opens, click the play button at the bottom of the window.) It may take a few moments before Blackboard launches.
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DIgital Books - read online
We Give Books
I've mentioned this site before, but it's worth revisiting as there are new books being added all the time. The books load in a Flash viewer which is fine for PCs but iPads don't like it, so try the browser Puffin or Rover, to see content. (Slow bandwidth might make them run sluggishly.) You will find a mix of fiction and non-fiction materials. A nice addition is an "Educator Resources" section that offers a range of activities and lesson plan ideas. Note: You will need to create a free account to read online.
"We Give Books" is a new digital initiative that enables anyone with access to the Internet to put books in the hands of children who don't have them, simply by reading online. (WBG was created by the Penguin Group and the Pearson Foundation.)
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Wacky Web Tales
Create funny, strange or wacky stories
This site is geared for students in grades 3 and up. They create "wacky tales" by entering random words into the Wacky Web Tales template. Users are prompted to input verbs, nouns, adjectives which are then combined into a funny, strange or wacky story. Fun to do on a Smartboard or in teams on an iPad and then send to the screen with AppleTV. It's a good way to review parts of speech.
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The Cheap | Kids ebooks
Finding ebooks on "the cheap"
"The Cheap" is another source of free or low cost offerings from Amazon, Nook (Kobo) and Apple. The titles change frequently so be sure to check in often. Always double-check the price on the seller site before downloading as some offers are time limited. You'll find a range of "official" and self-published works here. (Note: While the link above brings up kids' books, there are also other categories available by browsing the site, so I would suggest sharing the availability of a particular title with kids, but not the whole site!)
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No Twiddle Twaddle: free kindle books for kids
Free? Really? Great!
Amazon occasionally has free-to-download Kindle titles for kids. But you have to remember to keep checking! Fortunately, Bethany Winston has created a children's lit blog called "No Twiddle Twaddle" where each day, she posts a list of the newest best free eBooks available for kids. All you need is a kindle app and account and you can read these great suggestions. (Your students can read them on any device that will run a kindle app, but they'll have to do individual downloads.)
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"Children's Books Forever" - some French titles
Picture books by Hans Wilhelm
A small selection of picture books available in PDF format. Some titles are in a range of languages. Each title can be viewed online in Safari, or downloaded and viewed with Adobe or Preview. Great for projecting on a screen or SMARTboard and used as a "big book."
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Increasing your "reading footprint"
Maximizing your impact.
How can we remind teachers and admin of the amazing potential school libraries can unlock in a school? Think about how you can support the creation a culture of reading in your building. The links below offer some ideas (some old, some new). Increasing cirulation in your library is one way to raise your profile. (We have thousands of books on our shelves; let's put them to work!) While circ stats don't tell the whole story, check Destiny to see what your numbers look like, and think about what you could do.
- Creating a Culture of Reading (2 blog posts)
- Book Clubs in High School (BCTLA member paper)
- The secret cultural institution in your school: The school library
- The National Reading Campaign (Canadian initiative)
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