Library Links

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

30.5.13

Canadian Points of View Webinar

Using POV and CPOV


Pamela Erickson from EBSCOHost gives an overview of the Points of View layout. She also gives some tips for how to get the most out of this database. (She begins with the American version, but also talks about the Canadian version.) Some good searching strategies are covered as well.

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Tools for Teaching: Developing Active Readers

Prepare students to read deeply and critically

"The message is clear: Children, regardless if they are in the stage of reading to learn or learning to read, need structured opportunities to engage with text in deep and meaningful ways. Whether your students are seven or seventeen years old, here are a handful of really great strategies to support active reading...

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HarperCollins Fall Kids - Preview Peek

Titles and Authors coming in the Fall!

School Library Journal offers some previews of upcoming Fall titles from HarperCollins Kids.

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A poetry recitation contest for high schools in Canada.

Poetry in Voice registration open

"Poetry In Voice is a poetry recitation contest for high school students in Canada. At this year's National Finals, students and teachers from across Canada came to Toronto for two days of poetry recitation, poetry workshops, a question-and-answer session with Margaret Atwood, and a tour of the Art Gallery of Ontario. Sign up your school for the 2014 competition and have your students compete for $75,000 in awards, school stipends, and travel to the National Finals in Vancouver.

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Libraries as Content Creators

Some examples of public library content creation

Read this article to see what some public libraries are up to. (There might be some ideas here for TLs who are thinking about beginning some content creation of their own!)

"Content creation may seem like a novel function for libraries, but it's nothing new. If you think back to the traditional library of yesteryear (or even traditional services in today's library), you will notice plenty of examples of content being created."

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Beautiful background wallpaper images for your PC

Stunning images to project

Browse these lists of stunning background images from National Geographic. Change them frequently to generate discussion in you class, or create springboards for discussion or writing. Projected on a wall or whiteboard, these pictures will capture students' imaginations. People&Culture and Science&Space are perfect categories tp explore!

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Elephants Communicate While at Play

Hundreds of distinct elephant signals and gestures

"Researchers have found that elephants have hundreds of distinct signals and gestures. Elephant biologist and conservationist Joyce Poole and her husband, Petter Granli, founders of ElephantVoices, developed an online database of those signals, as described in an article on National Geographic's A Voice for Elephants blog. Among the categories of signals and gestures is "play." Watch a video of elephants at play as Joyce Poole narrates and explains their behavior.

See a number of additional elephant video clips here:

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SYNC » YA Literature into Your Earphones

Free Young Adult & Classic audiobooks

"SYNC offers free Young Adult & Classic audiobook downloads in the summer months to introduce the listening experience to students. VIsit the site to find out more. Teens and other readers of Young Adult Literature will have the opportunity to listen to bestselling titles and required reading classics this summer.   Each week  from now until August 15, 2013, SYNC will offer two free audiobook downloads.

You can sign up for email notifications as each title becomes available.

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Listen to Stories | StorySave

Recordings of voices of elders from the Canadian community

Some interesting First Nations stories (along with other traditions.)
CDs are available for purchase. (http://storysave.wordpress.com/)

"StorySave is a program of Storytellers of Canada / Conteurs du Canada recording the voices of elders from the Canadian storytelling community.  Those voices are then made available to listeners world-wide as part of a living legacy through this web site and through the production of CDs.

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Coastal Art Beat

First Nations Art in BC - newsletter

"The Beat is a project Ann Cameron began in 2007, having observed that the information flow in the area of First Nations art could be improved. The Beat newsletter provides information and context for current and upcoming events and accomplishments. We are promoting west coast First Nations art in the context of the communities and cultures of origin."

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29.5.13

Digital Public Library of America

The Screencast Tour
Founded in 2010 at Harvard, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) officially launched on April 18, 2013.  It is intended to be a national digital portal, providing access to millions of items - photographs, books, manuscripts, and sound and moving images. Linda W. Braun (library consultant and educator) leads a screencast orientation for users. She reviews DPLA's features, how it works, and comments on both the good and the "needs improvement".

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Career Videos: Next Vista for Learning

Career ideas for middle and high school students

"We have a large collection of careers videos to help middle and high school students better understand and connect to their future possibilities."

"Next Vista for Learning" also has a number of clips created by students on a wide variety of topics. Browse the sidebar to see what's in the collection.

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Where to find "open" textbooks

Open textbook repositories

The following links point to existing texts and other teaching resources that are openly-licensed and free for educators to use and adapt to their own needs. (Most of the content is more appropriate for post-secondary, although some titles could be adapted or used in part.)

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Students creating content

Using library time to create an eBook

With help from Ruth Ingulsrud, a class of grade 4 students have written a digital book entitled "The History of Books and Libraries; From Cave to Computer" using iBooks Author. The work is full of embedded links, images and student writing. For a free download, follow the links below:


PDF version: (read on PC or other eReader)

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28.5.13

Bibme added to the Visual Tab

Bibliographies made easy

To help students build their bibilographies and make citing sources as easy as possible, we've added Bibme to the icons available under the Visual Tab of your Destiny library catalog

BibMe is an automatic bibliography creator that supports MLA, APA, Chicago, and Turabian formatting. It accesses multiple databases to add the citation information for you. No need to fill out numerous fields or agonize over periods and commas.

Students can change the format of their citation information with the click of a mouse. Done? Simply copy and paste the resulting list into Word. (Although not necessary, students can create their own account on Bibme which allows them to save and edit their bibliographies as they do their research.)

Here's a short video that reviews how to add sources

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Summer as a great time to catch up

Help students enjoy the extra reading time!

Ideas for encouraging students to make reading part of their summer.

"As a reading teacher, I want to prepare my students for these times in life that invite extra reading time and the ways in which these times impact their reading lives. I have learned that summer is the perfect time to learn to enjoy the extra time. I am opposed to "summer reading lists" and required summer reading. Students usually see summer reading as an assignment, and often put off the reading until the week before school starts. I have found that my upper elementary students and my own children respond more positively when they see summer as a great time to catch up on the reading they haven't had time to get to during the school year..."

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Kids Summer Reading in Libraries

A Pinterest board for summer library and book-themed activities

This collaborative board is full of great ideas for summer reading programs, crafts, great books, displays, etc.

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Cell Biology Animation site

"See" cellular processes at work

John Kyrk has created a number of animations designed to give students insight into how cellular processes function.

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Three Big Questions to Change the World

Ask the right questions

"These questions can be worded differently, depending on the audience, but they focus on the heart of all complex adaptive systems:

  • Who are we and what are we about?
  • What differences make the biggest difference to our work?
  • How do we do that work together?
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Not All Reading Has to be Assessed

Focus more on making reading fun

"We need to get away from the idea that we have to constantly assess reading, and we should focus more on making reading fun. All of this assessing is sucking the fun out of reading. Find a balance between preparing students for their future and getting them to read for understanding. Encourage them to find books that they can read for fun without the fear of an adult standing over them with a clipboard."

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Science Channels on Youtube

Smarter Every Day
Explore the world using science!

SciShow
SciShow discusses science news and history and concepts.

Bad Astronomy
This site is all about astronomy, space, and science. Science is the best tool humans have to understand the Universe.

ASAP Science
Understand the science in your own life! Our weekly videos cover all sorts of quirky and mind blowing science. (Not all clips are appropriate for school.)

Crash Course
High School clips - on history, physics, chemistry.

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4th Grade Reading Net

Reviews of Titles for 4th Graders

"The GradeReading.NET suite of sites provides recommendations for contemporary books appropriate for each grade level – it's an online, constantly updated grade level reading list"

It's important for students to be able to find books that are both at an appropriate reading level and interest level. (While I am opposed to leveling books per se, we don't want to swamp a beginning reader either.) This list may give you some good suggestions for the following materials:  Contemporary Fiction, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, History, Humor, Mystery, Science Fiction, Sports and more.

The site also offers reading lists for other grades too!

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27.5.13

What Do Teens Actually Share On Social Media

Pew Research Center Study - latest results

"Ever wondered how students really act online? What they're actually sharing with their friends? Heck, if they're even using their real name and other information? Chances are good about 1 of every 4 teens seem to have a 'fake' social media account with false information. There's a lot more to this new privacy study on what teens actually share by the Pew Research Center that you should check out too. Here are some highlights from the Pew folks..."

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