Library Links

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

29.1.15

WInter 2015 issue of School Libraries in Canada available

Canadian Library Publication

Contents:
  • Alphabet Soup - Derrick Grose
  • Fun ways to promote healthy eating - Health Canada
  • Seeing food as a whole - Wayne Roberts
  • Tom Jackson: Ballads Not Bullets - SLiC Media Focus
  • Real room for creativity in writing for children - Dustin Milligan
  • #slicfood4thought - SLiC's Twitter Feed
  • Kids are the best audience - Kevin Sylvester
  • Flip Your Library Orientation! - Anita Brooks Kirkland
  • Food - Where it comes from, how we nurture plants and animals, and what we eat to be healthy and strong - Elisa Amado
  • Year of the Learning Commons Proposal - Carol Koechlin
  • New jewels and neglected gems. Publishers highlight new works by Canadian authors and illustrators
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27.1.15

Musopen - Classical Music Resources

Classical music resources and educational materials online
"Musopen is a non-profit focused on increasing access to music by creating free resources and educational materials. We provide recordings, sheet music, and textbooks to the public for free, without copyright restrictions. Put simply, our mission is to set music free."

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▶ TLNewsNight: Made in BC: A visit with BCTLA - archived video

Teacher-Librarians in BC
The TLNewsNight gang interviewed BCTLA prez Heather Daly, who gave the BC teacher-librarian context and highlighted a few of BCTLA initiatives. (Later in the video, Val Martineau: 2014 BC Teacher-Librarian of the Year discussed advocacy at the local school district level and the local relationship with BCTLA.)

Heather's presentation runs from 7m to 25m22.

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Easel.ly: a template-based infographics creator

Create and share visual ideas online
"Easel.ly is a website that features thousands of free infographic templates and design objects which users can customize to create and share their visual ideas online. Using the site is as easy as dragging and dropping design elements, and users can either choose a template from our extensive library, or they can upload their own background image and start from scratch. Over 300,000 users have already registered with Easel.ly, and thousands of infographics are produced using the site every month."

(Thanks for the tip, Nancy!)
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MAKE Magazine 

Celebrate your right to tweak, hack, and bend!
The website, associated with the print magazine, is a wealth of DIY projects for students and adults alike.

"Maker Media (producer of Maker Magazine) serves a growing community of makers who bring a DIY mindset to technology. Whether as hobbyists or professionals, makers are creative, resourceful and curious, developing projects that demonstrate how they can interact with the world around them. The launch of MAKE Magazine in 2005, jumpstarted a worldwide Maker Movement, which is transforming innovation, culture and education."

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Diverse Approaches for Diverse Readers

The value of diversity in literature for children and teens

Writing for EBSCO NoveList, Heidi Estrin explores the value of diversity in literature for children and teens. She offers suggestions, titles, links and NoveList tips for more information.
"There is a loud, clear call for more books portraying people of color and other minorities, including both stories that celebrate difference and stories that "normalize" diversity. [...] there is wide agreement that children of all backgrounds will benefit from bonding with characters of diverse races, ethnicities, religions, physical and cognitive abilities, and family formations."

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Ditch the home readers – real books are better for your child

Selecting own reading material leads to greater success
Ryan Spencer, from the University of Canberra, writes about the important role of "real books" in helping build reading fluency:

"Recent research highlights that when children are provided with the opportunity to select their own reading material, they achieve greater levels of success. Sometimes, these choices may be harder, but the interest level creates the opportunity for the child to stay motivated to solve their normal reading problems."

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26.1.15

School Libraries in Canada - valuable resources

Get the latest publications

Get copies of "Leading Learning", "Achieving Information Literacy" and the latest issue of "School Libraries in Canada"

Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada, 2014 offers a vision and provides practical approaches for all those engaged in creating successful 21st century school libraries in Canada. Its framework presents five standards supported by a set of themes and growth stages that lead to the transformation from traditional library facility to vibrant library learning commons. The standards represent guideposts along a journey of continuous growth. Because Canadian schools are at different points on this journey, this publication includes a range of markers of progress, sets of implementation strategies, and rich examples of innovation and success. Leading Learning also contains key resources to provide educators, individual schools, and school districts with helpful direction and support.

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Love Your School Library Day poster and bookmarks

I <heart> reading
Looking to create some visibility for your February activities in the library? Consider running a LYSLD event. Pick one day, one week or go for the whole month. There are English and French posters and bookmarks on the BCTLA resource page.

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50 most popular images about books, reading, and libraries

Book images most often shared in social media networks.


"Anyone who devotes time to promoting books, reading, and libraries, sooner or later will realize images are the best tool to share the love of words. Images have a huge stopping power. It's not a secret that a book quote visualized as an image catches the attention a couple of times better than the same quote in a text update. We've prepared the list of pictures and illustrations that throughout a few years of our social media activity proved most successful on Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter, and Google+."

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CommonLit - Thematic Discussion Questions Paired With Texts

Themes and Questions for Reflection

"Here's how Commonlit works. As a teacher I select a theme such as love, social change & revolution, or friendship & loyalty. Then within my chosen theme I select a discussion question. The choice of a discussion question will lead me to a set of passages for my students to read to support classroom discussion. For example, when I selected the question, "what drives a person to betray?" in the friendship & loyalty theme I was then able to choose the text of The Donkey, the Fox, and the Lion from Aesop's Fables. Commonlit provided me with a PDF of the text to download for free."


Even if you don't use the texts suggested, I think this site might help jumpstart thinking about themes for lit circles.

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21.1.15

Re-using a VHS video case

Repurposing discarded VHS video cases:

I was out visiting a school recently, and in the course of the conversation remarked that maybe we need a way of pointing kids to our e-resources as they browse the physical shelves. And then I thought of the VHS tapes & cases that are being discarded in many of our libraries...
So...I played around with making Video case covers as stand-ins for books. Below are links to a template that can be formatted to go around an empty VHS case. You can put the case on the shelf or work it into a display.
(PDF link to see what it looks like, docx link to download and modify - it looks wonky, but downloads fine.)

I used goo.gl to create the shortened URLs and the QR codes. I hunted around on Google Image search to find a sharp enough cover image. Students can scan the QR and go, or make a note of the "goo" and use it with laptop etc. (These are cap-sensitive!)

You can also use this idea to create "stand-ins" for really popular titles - print the cover up and put it on the video case to use in displays so you can still circulate the real thing! (and, here are some other ideas to explore.)

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19.1.15

Supporting Writing (Reading) Skills

Some resources for parents to consult.


Reading Aloud to Your Children (brochure)

Trelease Brochures on Reading
(He also gives instructions on how to obtain print permissions if you are using a commercial printing company.)

What Is Family Literacy? Getting Involved in Your Child's Literacy Learning (3p)

Handout: Put it to Paper: Tips for Parents to Improve a Child's Writing Skills

Reading and Writing with Your Child, Kindergarten to Grade 6  (21p PDF)

Strategies For Improving Reading, Writing, and Mathematics Skills (8p PDF)

Building Your Child's Listening, Talking, Reading and Writing Skills (ASHA)

Bookworm Reading Log Bookmark

Word Strategy Bookmark

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First Nations Studies - Teaching Tools

Use these resources to enhance BC First Nations Studies
B.C. First Nations Studies
Digital version of the course textbook jointly published by the Ministry of Education and Pacific Educational Press.

  • Teacher's Guide (including blackline masters and other extras)

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Survive Math 5 - OpenSchool Resources

Open School BC is a part of the Business, Technology and Online Services Division within the Ministry of Education, and provides a number of resources to assist teachers, parents and students.

Survive Math 5
10 different packages on a variety of subjects.
Click on the link below to open the section that you want. You can view it from here, save it to your computer, copy it onto your tablet or print it off.


Web Crush: Genrify

Celebrate great literary mash-ups

The BookListReader features Genrify:
"Genrify is a useful blog that celebrates great literary mash-ups that may have tricky genre labels, and helps readers and librarians find more of the same. [...] one of the best things about this blog is a tool called "The Blender." Their website explains: "The Blender is a tool meant to help readers find books that include more than one genre. [...] simply pick two or three genres you are interested in and click the "BLEND" button. Your results will include any title from the database that has the genres you selected.

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Mars for Educators - NASA

Explore Mars, plan missions, be a robot...and more

If you are curious about Mars exploration, this website can help your students learn more about Mars and how we explore worlds beyond our own. You'll find project-based lessons, and other links of interest to Marsophiles!

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BC TLs on TL News Night - Monday, Jan. 19

TL News Night hosts the BCTLA

The BCTLA is the "school library association guest" on "TL News Night" on Monday, January 19 from 5-6 p.m. PST. 
 

Watch the live broadcast at
(You can also watch previous episodes here: http://tlvirtualcafe.wikispaces.com/TL+News+Night )

Here's a note from the BCTLA prez:
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The hashtag to ask questions, comment, etc. will be #tlchat.  Please encourage any BCTLA members/subscribers who are on Twitter to help us out on #tlchat!
Thanks, -Heather
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14.1.15

Me Read? No Way! A practical guide to improving boys’ literacy skills

Create a stimulating and engaging learning environment for boys (and girls)

"This guide offers a rich source of practices and strategies that are being used in successful literacy programs for boys around the world and that educators in Ontario can draw on to create a stimulating and engaging learning environment for both boys and girls. In this guide, you will find:

• supports, information, tips, and ideas conveniently organized into distinct categories;
• a wide variety of sources that you can refer to for more in-depth exploration of particular concepts or topics.

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13.1.15

SLC Library Technology Teachers - Short audio reflections

Listen to TLs talk about their work
Twenty-eight teacher-librarians talk about his/her facility and program in a series of short audio vignettes. Open the podcast series in iTunes and browse the offerings.

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