Tell Time is a free and simple iPad app designed to help children learn to tell time. The app uses a matching game format. When children opens the app they will see a digital clock and an analog clock displaying various times. The children then have to drag the matching times together. Tapping on one of the clocks will result in the time being read aloud.

You can customize the Tell Time iPad app to display up to eight matching exercises on one screen. You can also customize the app to display any time interval that you choose.

Kathy's 5th graders created beautiful art work.  They all created an unique dot and their art teacher framed them in gold frames just like in Peter Reynold's book The Dot. I love that idea and you could tell that the students were so proud of their art work.
Our 4th graders have been working on Dot Day Haiku Deck photography projects so they were really excited to show their Georgia friends..

You can read about the project here....The 4th Graders Are Making Their Mark For Dot Day With Photography Haiku Deck Projects.
The photographs they have been taking are amazing.....They have really learned a lot about photography, iPhoto, editing, and Haiku Deck throughout this project.  This is one of the first projects they have created using their iPads so that has been great fun too.
Thank you to Mrs. Schmidt and your awesome 5th graders!  We loved having an Art and Technology Dot Day Show with all of you.

Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) released a post online pertaining to a recent study exploring the various interactions librarians have with students.  The article discusses what specific skills, knowledge and experience the librarian used to assist each individual student. This study evaluated the effectiveness of working with a librarian from the student’s perspective. General areas discussed included;

• Understanding resources and procedures
• Knowledge about subjects and terminology
• Ability to development topics
• Personal experience with research
• Subject expert referrals
• Synthesis of questions
• Interview and active listening skills

A summary of the findings can be found online: http://tinyurl.com/okxowtn

“What students need from reference librarians: Exploring the complexity of the individual consultation,” College & Research Libraries, 74, no 6 (June 2013): 288-29;  full text article.

Over the last couple of years I have shared quite a few resources about teaching copyright. Three of my favorite resources can be found here, here, and here. Over the weekend Larry Ferlazzo and Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano shared one of the most concise explanation of the basics of copyright that I've seen. That explanation comes in the form of the infographic posted below.

Whenever I talk to students or teachers about slide design, digital portfolio design, or any other visual project one of the things that I talk about is color choice. Using the right combination of colors can make your project stand out. On the other hand, the wrong combination can make your project stand out for the wrong reasons. Dustin Stout recently published a handy guide to colors and what they communicate. The guide was created for blog designers, but the concepts can be applied to lots of other formats. The guide is posted below. I encourage you to visit Dustin's blog post for more information about colors and visual design.

Click image for full size.

Applications for Education
Before your students start designing their next sets of slides, have them take a look at this guide and consider the impact of their color choices. If you have access to a color printer, you might make a couple of copies to hang in your classroom.

H/T to Randy Krum at Cool Infographics. 

The teenage rebel has become a treasured image in American culture.  In fact, phrases like “pushing boundaries” and “classic teenage rebellion” frequently worm their way into conversations about adolescents.  Now, I generally don’t put any stock in the accuracy of stereotypes, especially about stereotypes about teenagers.  However, every nostalgic conversation among my colleagues or friends includes confessions from each individual’s brief past as a teenage rebel.  Whether it’s skipping school, sneaking out to a party, or simply dressing as bizarrely as possible, practically everyone has a memory of teenage rule-breaking–or at least rule-bending.  Even I clearly recall my version of  teenage rebellion–perhaps because the experience helped shape my current career.

Like many strange and wonderful stories, this one begins in eighth grade English class.  The curriculum included To Kill A Mockingbird and Fahrenheit 451–two novels that frequently feature in school assignments and lists of American classics.  Both titles also regularly appear on the Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books list compiled by the American Library Association.  I can’t recall if we discussed book banning and challenges during our study of To Kill A Mockingbird, but the subject obviously came up during of our reading of Fahrenheit 451.  Being a passionate reader, the situation described in Fahrenheit 451–a future where books have become illegal and book burning is the specialty of firemen–was my worst nightmare.  Books were my escape, my dearest companions and my guides.  The thought of outlawing books was unthinkably horrific–especially when I learned that book banning was still a reality here in the U.S.

I recall becoming particularly obsessed with a portion of Ray Bradbury’s “Coda” to the novel; the page in the back of my skinny paperback is creased from re-reading.  He succinctly summarizes the events leading up the novel’s reality: “books were burned first by minorities, each ripping a page or a paragraph from this book, then that, until the day came when the books were empty and the minds shuts and the libraries closed forever” (177).  While I learned a great deal in U.S. History class that year, it was Ray Bradbury’s image of empty and abandoned libraries that pushed me to think about the First Amendment on a more concrete level.  How does the protection of free speech play out in real life?  How slippery is the slope separating a small group’s objection and removal of a book to the book-burning police state imagined in Bradbury’s novel?  I didn’t necessarily have answers yet but the questions stuck with me, simmering in the back of my mind. 

During my sophomore year,  a new librarian arrived, promptly formed our first student library advisory board, and introduced Banned Books Week.   Banned Books Week quickly became one of my favorite annual events.  Over the next few years, we ran activities ranging from the creation of posters focused on banned or challenged books to an all-night readathon to a showing of the film Pleasantville.    

But through our discussions and event planning, my interest in intellectual freedom issues expanded beyond the personal outrage of a bibliophile.  Reading through the book challenge lists during our early September meetings, I was shocked to see not only controversial classics like To Kill A Mockingbird or Fahrenheit 451 but also some of my recent favorites, like 2013 Margaret A. Edwards Award winner Tamora Pierce’s Song of the Lioness quartet and the Harry Potter series.  I learned about the history of book banning and read the rationales behind contemporary challenges.  I began to notice trends among the books challenged or banned.  For example, the yearly frequently challenged books list compiled by the ALA regularly includes an overwhelming number of children’s and young adult books and a large number of the challenges recorded take place at schools or in the youth services’ departments of public libraries.  People seemed particularly interested in controlling which books I, as a teenager, could read.  And while I might be willing to go along with curfews, homework requirements, and the school dress code, I was definitely not willing to follow rules dictating my choice of reading material.

Moreover, our celebrations of Banned Books Week demonstrated the power, value, and impact of literature in ways that neither my book obsession nor beloved English classes could.   I had known that books were valuable to me as an individual for years, but it was through Banned Books Week that I came to understand the power books could wield in the larger world.  Books are banned or challenged because they are powerful.  The right novel can allow the voiceless of our society to be heard.  Stories give each of us the ability to, in the words of Atticus Finch, walk around in someone else’s skin for a while.  Books challenge stereotypes & systems; they force us to confront our blind spots & prejudices.  They can save lives and spark revolutions. Books can honestly change the world–but only if they remain available to the readers who need them.

While my teenage rebellion might appear a bit tame, my small role in the fight to defend intellectual freedom set a fire in me that hasn’t gone out.  Planning Banned Books Week events, I felt empowered by the opportunity to work alongside my peers and librarians to promote our equal rights to read freely.  I experienced the excitement of involvement with a cause and gained a fuller understanding of literature’s complex power.  So as I entered my final year of college and tried to sort out a career path, my high school library experiences–especially our thrilling Banned Book Weeks–drifted to the front of my mind.  It seemed too good to be true that I might be able to recapture that joy and sense of purpose in a job.  But I decided to give it a shot anyway–and happily, the rest is history.

How has Banned Books Week affected you?  What memories or experiences have shaped your ideas about censorship and intellectual freedom?

-Kelly Dickinson, currently reading The Bitter Kingdom by Rae Carson

Seeing as how today is the beginning of Banned Books Week and all, take a moment to explore ALAs Banned and Challenged Books website, where you can learn things like…

…what was the most challenged book of the 00s?

…what was the most challenged book of the 1990s?

…and ways to advocate for freedom of speech and choice.

Click here to visit.

 

 

The Poetry Foundation offers some helpful resources for teachers and students. One of the resources that immediately jumped out at me when I visited the Poetry Foundation's Learning Lab was the glossary of poetry terms. Students can search the glossary alphabetically, by form & type of poem, by rhyme & meter, by schools & projects, by technique, and by theory or criticism.

The Poetry Foundation offers a free mobile app for iOS and Android. The app allows users to search for poems, save poems, and share favorite poems with their friends. You can search for poems by poet, by title, or by entering a line or two of a favorite poem.

Applications for Education
The Poetry Foundation's glossary and mobile apps could be helpful study and review resources for high school and college students. You could design a lesson around the glossary in which you ask students to find poems that exemplify various terms from the glossary.

I love searching Twitter.

And I love sharing how a Twitter search can dramatically impact student research, by connecting them with experts, encouraging them to develop current awareness, allowing them to listen in on the dialog of a particular field or niche, and, in some cases, enabling them to contribute to the conversation.

Learning to search social media is the new learning to search. (See my earlier post on curation as the new search.)

I regularly use Twitter’s own search as well as TweetDeck and Kred (once I am logged in) to scan and search the hashtags and keywords.

But, Topsy is a game changer.

The free comprehensive index and social analysis tool, searches keywords, hashtags and @ signs from minutes ago or from across a span of years, retrieving your social needles from millions of haystacks of billions of tweets.

Topsy is a way to instantly discover breaking news and just released press-releases and track current conversations and just posted media.

Topsy also presents proof that what you tweet is not ephemeral.  Recently, the San Francisco start-up announced that it has indexed every little message, with every little link, since the very first tweet was tweeted back in 2006.  So I may just use this in my e-reputation talk during our  Juniors’ college search lesson.

The opening screen allows search by

A pull-down menu allows users to sort results by relevance or by most or least recent.  Filters on the left panel allow searchers to select time frames, media, links, and to search tweets in ten languages.  Searchers may also choose to add the influencers filter to a search, perhaps as they attempt to assess credibility.

 

Topsy’s relevance algorithm consider retweets and the past influence of the tweeter.

Clicking on the little graph sharing the volume of tweets over the past 30 days, reveals a larger interactive graphic with more granular analytics and links to specific tweets.

And, if you are logged on, you can retweet, reply and favorite without leaving the Topsy interface.

Premium tools, aimed at folks in business, marketing, politics, journalism, and deeper research are available.

But for K12, the basic search alone is a search game changer.

Topsy can be used to discuss data with kids.

The folks at Topsy powered the Twitter Political Index that tracked 2012 voter sentiment and the Twitter Oscars Index, that tried to predict the 2012 Academy Award winners based on tweets.

The Topsy Blog features interesting data-rich stories like a this one on whether social sentiment might predict the success of the new iPhone and this recent Fashion Week post, pointing to the breaking importance of white, red, nail art, crop tops, rocker chic, and beading.

 

 

I’ve had these in my files for a couple of years doing nobody no good.

So, I thought it was time to crowd-source, update and improve a series of checklists I’ve planning to work on and share.

The checklists are meant to be a handy list of things to plan, do, and celebrate month-by-month in the life of a practicing teacher librarian.

Here’s my take on this month.  (I combined the August list with this one because it’s a slightly delayed post.)

September

• Prepare for the grand opening!
• Prepare the OPAC for circulation with the school district calendar.
• Get bulletin boards in order and ready for a fall theme
• Create or update forms and passes. Review any changes in policies or procedures and inform staff.
• Greet custodians and ask (gently) about any critical cleaning or furniture/equipment moving issues. Follow up with e-mail.  If your facility looks fabulous, send a polite note or email to maintenance to thank them.  Consider CCing an administrator.
• Order materials for Banned Books Week
• Update pathfinders for fall projects
• Examine scores on standardized tests and look for skills that might be supported by your own instruction.
• Distribute curriculum-mapping documents in classroom teachers’ mailboxes.
• Prepare or update your list of online databases with remote access passwords for faculty and students. Check vendor invoices and correspondence for any changes since last year’s list. Make sure your own IP has not changed.
• Distribute information about new and useful apps for learning
• Schedule appropriate student orientations with faculty.
• Distribute an upbeat and welcoming newsletter for teachers with updated media and database lists and any forms they will need to get started. Invite collaboration!  Your newsletter may take the form of a blog, an online poster, a LibGuide, etc. If your newsletter begins as a print tool, remember to save a copy in document or PDF form to post on your website.
• Stop by the local public library with appropriate resource materials.
• Check the public library schedule of events to promote with students and teachers.
• Prepare or update policies for circulation, computer use, etc.
• Get class sign-up (on- and offline) sheets ready for early bird teachers.
• Recruit new and veteran student aides.
• Orient and train new volunteers and aides
• Catalog and process new materials.
• Submit annual goals to principal.
• Approach principal (in-person or by memo or e-mail) with initial plans for any major events—book fairs, author visits, etc.—and include associated costs.
• Join any building/district committee that seems relevant to your mission or interesting to you personally.
• Solicit new members for Advisory Committee (parents, students, faculty, admins)
• Submit forms to ensure permission to attend state and national professional conferences.
• Prepare a list of professional magazines for faculty use—distribute Current Awareness Program reminder form.
• Greet the art teachers. Ask sweetly for any emergency supplies you may need. Solicit and welcome any displays of student work. Your facility will be much enhanced by any such exhibits!

Bulletin Board Themes/Celebrations: Welcome back, Labor Day, Autumn, Leaves, Constitution Day/Week, National POW/MIA Recognition Day, Deaf Awareness Week, Hispanic Heritage Month, Banned Books Week, Study skills, Teachers’ or students’ favorite summer reads, Library Card Sign-up Month, International Literacy Day, National Literacy Month, Fruit and Vegetable Month, National Hispanic Heritage Month, Ramadan, Grandparents’ Day, Paralympics, Google’s Birthday, National No Bully Week, Rosh Hashanah, 9/11 Remembrance, Talk Like a Pirate Day,

Literary Birthdays: Bernard Most (2), Aliki (3), Richard Wright (4), Sid Hoff (4), Paul Fleischman (5), Gloria Jean Pinkney (5), Jack Prelutsky (8), Jon Scieszka (8), Valerie Tripp (12), Mildred Taylor (13), Roald Dahl (13), John Steptoe (14), Diane Goode (14), Agatha Christie (15), Tomie DePaola (15), Robert McCloskey (15), H.A. Rey (16), Paul Goble (17), Ken Kesey (17), H. G. Wells (21), Stephen King (22), Bruce Brooks (23), F. Scott Fitzgerald (24), William Faulkner (25), Shel Silverstein (25), T.S. Eliot (26), Bernard Waber (27), Stan Berenstain (29), Marissa Moss (29), Edgar Parin d’Aulaire (30), Alvin Tresselt (30), Elie Wiesel (30)

Please feel free to add to and update the full year of checklists on this Google Doc.

You can read all about this project in the post A Kindergarten Little Bird Tale...."Just Me and Little Critter".  

In January, I heard from Mercer.  What a honor....The kindergarteners Little Bird Tale meant a lot to him and he was very excited to connect with our students and teachers.

In February, Mercer visited Van Meter Elementary and Amana Elementary through Skype.
                    
You can watch what a fun and special day it was to have Mercer in our schools.  You can also read Mercer Mayer and Little Critter Visits Van Meter and Amana Elementary...What a Special Day It Was!
and to let Mercer Mayer influence our students in a very special way as they drew their very own.
It was really neat seeing this little friend look at our original Little Critter while she learned how to draw him....
                                       
I scanned their Little Critter illustrations and saved them as PDF's.  After the other kindergarten class comes on Friday, I will upload all of them into SlideSnack.
This is the digital tool we are going to use to create our Just Me and Little Critter eBook.  I like SlideSnack because we can also record their voices over the illustrations each child created.
It is very easy for them to find this website and others we are using at school and home.
The Little Critter World-Wide Network has a lot of special places to go.  There are videos of Mercer reading; the sing-a-long; Little Monster Activities; interactive play; apps and more apps; and much more.
It was a FUN day with Little Critter and Mercer Mayer.

I can't wait to share our Just Me and Little Critter eBook next week too.  And I hope we can have Mercer Mayer and Little Critter back to our library very soon.

I just updated and distributed my September teacher newsletter.

Along with all the Spartan-specific content was an update of 50 Ways to Leave Your Research Paper and Tell Your Story, a document I’ve been trying to crowd-source and improve for years.

I am sharing this most recent update, though I readily admit its short-comings, one of which is connected to my limited knowledge of apps for creativity.  I’d also like to add more authentic products in which student voice is clearly meaningful, heard beyond the school, and makes a difference in the world.  

Please feel free to use and edit and improve on these ideas, both in Comments and on the Google Doc.

Fifty Ways to Leave Your . . .Term Paper or Book Report and Tell Your Story

Although we believe that students need to develop the skills necessary to prepare a thoughtful, well-written, formal, inquiry-driven research paper, our students have many other engaging product options.

They can acquire subject knowledge and develop transferable information literacy and technology skills through a variety of creative activities. The following is a list of some alternative assessments for your class.

For any research product or response to literature, consider how we might offer video, digital storytelling and publishing, art, drama, or presentation as an option for students to creatively communicate/share/publish/broadcast the knowledge they have gained.  To provide authentic opportunities for learners to think, create, share and grow.

Stop by the library and together we can plan and discuss project ideas, available resources, and product options to meet your goals for student learning.  And as we make choices, consider the importance of student choice and audience.  

Note: Some of these ideas work best as formative expressions and others work better as summative assessments.

Infographic: Infographics are packed with opportunities for exploring all types of literacies and students can create them to display their knowledge and analysis of a topic, issue, piece of literature, event, system, person’s life.  Students collect and synthesize content on any topic with an eye toward presenting patterns using charts, timelines, maps, and other graphics to illustrate conclusions. For example, the topic of Italian Renaissance artists could be presented through charts to compare style, training, support of patrons, colors used, and subjects of paintings. Check out this Guide for models, as well as resources and inspiration on using Infographics as a creative assessment.

Annotated works cited: Students search for the best materials relating to their question or thesis and evaluate them for relevance, scope, point of view, and credentials of the author. Posted on the Web, these selective lists may be especially useful for future researchers.  Check this Guide for a model.

App: create a mobile site or an app to solve a problem you are investigating or to retell a story.

Curated pages: Assess learners’ skills in identifying quality, appropriate sources by having them curate and share content using such online tools as: Livebinders, Google Sites, MentorMob, Diigo, Scoop.it, LibGuides, Storify, Blendspace, EduClipper.

Web Petition/Activism: Students investigate a relevant issue and lobby for change based on their research. Using a plan of action, students engage in Web activism–possibly incorporating a blog, sharable digital posters, web petition, emails, tweets and hashtags, etc.

Newsletter/digital poster: Using a desktop publishing program or a blog and ask students to set their newsletters in another time or place or culture. They create classified ads, theater and book reviews, sports stories, and business information. This is a perfect collaborative project. Consider using Microsoft Publisher, a Google Docs Templates, orSmore, Zeen, or FlipBoard.

Debate: Choosing two historic (or modern) figures and an issue, students duke it out. The rest of the class is responsible for asking questions and judging the debate. Videotape the debate for later discussion or for sharing with another class.  Consider using Skype or Google+ Hangouts to involve a class from another school.

Brochure: Using a desktop publishing program, like Publisher, Google Doc templates, MyBrochureMaker, or SimpleBooklet  students create flyers to advertise a product they’ve developed, a place they’ve researched, a period of time, a solution to a problem, or to offer health advice.

Résumé: Using a desktop publishing program like Pages or Publishers or web-based tools like Google Docs, students create professional-looking (print, online or multimedia) résumés for a famous person and attach cover letters in the individual’s voice. They might simulate interviews of the historical figure applying for a job at a university or business. Students present the résumés and “sell” their character’s qualifications.  For the interviews, consider involving an expert or administrator, possibly using Skype.

Family/relationship tree: Students design a tree for a character in a novel. They can make the boxes large enough for illustrations and descriptions of characters and their relationships. You will also find a number of free online forms and charts.

Press conference (with famous people of a time period): Select a group of famous people to be interviewed and have the bulk of the class prepare questions. Students being interviewed should prepare well enough to imagine how their famous person would respond to provocative questions. Consider recording these interviews to post on class and library websites as learning resources.

Web Conference/Webinar/Virtual Visit: Have students invite a guest to visit via Skype or Google+ Hangouts relating to a book read or a subject studied. Student can select the speaker, develop questions and protocols for participation.  Following the visit, student can share takeaways and reflect on the success of the event.

Trip itinerary: Students studying countries, cultures, states, or time periods, and literary journeys prepare a detailed itinerary listing sites of importance, what to pack, costs considering exchange rates, temperature for the season, where to stay, how to get from place to place, special events, advice, etc.  Consider using Google Lit Trips as a model or use any of a variety of interactive mapping tools.

Detailed journal entries or blog:  For a fictional or historical character, students imagine what a real week would be like and create a series of entries in the life of a person present at a historical event or that a book character might have kept during a specific period. Include interaction and quotes from family and friends. Reveal deep feelings, thoughts about others, and respond to big events.

Mock trial for a controversial historical figure, contemporary dictator, or fictional character: Bring Napoleon, Gaddafi, Hitler, Socrates, Lee Harvey Oswald, Saddam Hussein, Galileo, or Richard Nixon in front of a well-prepared class made up of jurors, attorneys, witnesses, and a judge. Or hold a court simulation with students deciding a major issue, such as affirmative action, assisted suicide, or major constitutional controversies.

Board or video game: Let an event in history or a novel inspire a truly playable game. Host an hour of game playing in the classroom as your evaluation.

Website: Websites can advertise fictitious businesses, invented products, or present electronic résumés for historical or fictional characters. Consider Google Sites, Weebly, Wix, etc.)

Visit to school by a person in history or science or art (à la Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure): Students plan an entire visiting day and record the visitor’s reactions to gym, lunch, your classes, the mall, etc. Get cameras ready. Present as a skit, video, web page, or monologue.

Day in the life of a plant/machine/disease/person: Students prepare an essay or speech in first person to give the class a better idea of the history and daily life of the AIDS virus, for instance.

Awards event: Students plan a science fair for famous scientists; Grammy awards for classical musicians; or Latino culture awards for a Spanish class. Students present rationale and argue for their selected person to win; they write detailed acceptance speeches, and plan the entertainment.

Dinner party: Students invite individuals from a particular period and plan what to serve and who will sit next to whom. Design the invitations and describe the entertainment. Re-create the conversation. Or host live, and teachers may evaluate the interaction among characters. Videotape and reflect on the highlights.

Historic experience simulation: Try a Civil War battle or a day at Ellis Island. Assign each student a role. The teacher should assume the role of a critical player to ensure the continuation of the action.

Skit: Students represent a typical day at a job for a career project or a major historical event. Consider videotaping the activity for discussion.

Online threaded discussion: Teacher poses questions among a group of related historical figures or characters in a play or novel, perhaps in an Edmodo or Moodle environment. Students maintain assigned roles as they respond to each others’ posts in threaded discussion.  Break classes into smaller communities to encourage more active discussion.

Recipe: What ingredients, in what measure, and what conditions would students need to create the French Revolution? How would they prepare and cook their recipes? What changes would a slight alteration in the ingredients cause? Could you curate a digital cookbook of these recipes?

Film treatment: For a historical event, scientific discovery, or a novel, have a critical character or the author plan the film version. Address a letter to a producer suggesting and defending choice of actors based on knowledge of characters, select locations, and describe how you would stage specific scenes. Design the movie poster. Plan, perhaps film, the trailer. Avoid books that have already been made into movies. BigHugeLabs offers a movie poster template.

News article or newsletter: Write a newspaper-style article about a historic event or event from a novel. Include quotes from the major players. (Use primary sources and artifacts.)

Dear Abby letter: Have a novel protagonist or historical, or current figure write to an advice columnist. Present the character’s problems and create a sincere, researched response from the columnist. Expect the advice columnist to use historic or book evidence and furnish serious insights.

Letter or email or text stream from one character or historical figure or scientist to another: Characters can share deep thoughts and reveal their personalities and rationale for their actions in personal letters. The letter should reveal something about the recipient’s character, as well.

Twitter stream: Students can communicate and interact in a series of Tweets, using the voices of historical figures or characters, in period language and style. Use hashtags(#) to gather tweets together. Also consider Twiducate.

Facebook page: Who is the character in your book or the individual you are studying? Who would they friend? What would their updates look like? What issues would they support? What groups would they join?  What links and photos would they share?  Use a tool like: Fakebook

Short story: Write a short story about people who lived during a particular period or event or in a particular place: For instance, describe the last few minutes of the Space Shuttle disaster from the perspectives of three of the astronauts.

You are the author, playwright, filmmaker: Respond thoughtfully to newspaper and magazine reviews 
of your work.

What if? The alternate history: If you could change one aspect of an event or book, would you choose to change the setting—place or time? Would you alter a character’s personality or one of his choices? What if Richard III was the protagonist in Macbeth and Macbeth was the protagonist in Richard III? What if the Pilgrims met more hostile Native Americans? How would one change affect the big picture?

You are the president, the general, the inventor, the senator: Explore speculative histories or more what ifs. Create reasonable alternate scenarios for a historic event or decision. How else might Lee have responded at Gettysburg? After the student presents the three possible scenarios, have the class determine the most reasonable choice, or the choice actually made.

Lesson plan: Have students creatively present the results of their research in a lesson of their own that they implement and assess. The lesson should not be a lecture; it should actively engage the class.

Original song, song parody, rap: Ask students to describe an event, a person, a concept, or a character musically. Encourage a catchy refrain or chorus to get the class involved.  Flocabulary may provide inspiration.

Oversized baseball card or wanted poster: Can you capture the essence of the person you’ve studied or met through a novel? Express those qualities economically in the form of a large baseball card (with quotes, stats, image) or wanted poster. The baseball card should include statistics and quotes, and use the border effectively.  Use a tool like BigHugeLabs for a template.

Alternate book jacket with blurb: Ask students to create new art to advertise a book—fiction or nonfiction.  Create a compelling blurb to draw readers in. NCTE offers a template for book covers.

Postage stamp celebrating a person or event in history: Students attach a desktop-published stamp design to a three-paragraph essay defending why the subject was worthy of a commemorative stamp.  Post the students stamps online, on an image sharing site or a wiki. Advertising campaign: Ask students to examine and deconstruct existing effective media campaigns and to inform the construction their own full-blown campaign for an invention or industry or a book. Or choose an important person and run his or her campaign for a major political office. Use any digital film or storytelling tool to film commercials.

Picture book or comic book: Students explain a concept or event through artistic illustration and economic language.  Consider using an online book making tools—cartoon or photo, scrapbooking tools, or scan print work and use a digital publishing tool like ePubBud, Page Flip Flap, FlipSnack, Issuu, or scrapbooking tool.

Phone message or telegram: Students write a lengthy message from one historic character to his or her spouse or other contemporary about an important event.  Consider using a talking avatar like Voki or Tellagami (mobile)

CD or album cover with inside background pages: Students design a cover to represent an event and plan the songs with descriptions. They decide on the producer and musicians and perhaps even record a song parody. Consider using BigHugeLabs for templates.

Crossword puzzle or word search: Students use related vocabulary, names, phrases to create a puzzle for the class to attempt.

“This Is Your Life” television show: Students videotape or enact the biographical show complete with guests, illustrations, and special surprises.

“Survivor” television show: Place teams of your students in a historic time or far off place. Provide challenges to solve to see who knows enough to “outwit, outplay, outlast.”

Epitaph and obituary or eulogy: Focusing on a person in history, students write epitaphs for tombstones, write newspaper obituaries, and deliver well-researched eulogies.

Photograph album or scrapbook: Students seek authentic historical photographs and label all the pictures in their albums, sharing “personal anecdotes” with the class, and including journal entries and letters. This assignment could be creatively extended to be the album of a character, a teen of a period in history, a disease, animal, or invention. Consider using an online scrapbooking tool.

Political cartoon: Students satirize a political or historic person or event or issue. (Use Web-based tools like ToonDoo or any of the others listed here.) And discover models of professional cartoons here.

Monologue: More-dramatic students may opt to create a scene from the life of a famous person or a fictional person caught up in a real event.

Want ad: Students compose an ad requesting personnel to solve a problem in history or a major issue.

Timeline: Students create a wall-sized, annotated, and multimedia time line, including important quotes. Consider parallel timelines—perhaps, one of actual history, another of book events—to enhance the reading of historical fiction. Consider also using Web-based timelining tools like MIT’s Timeline, Mnemograph, or Xtimeline

Soap opera based on a historical event: Students can add lots of drama and over-the-top characters.  After storyboarding, students may use a variety of digital storytelling tools to produce scenes.

Survey: Students use a tool like Google Forms to design a survey instrument, collect and analyze authentic data relating to a selected topic or issue. Additional polling tools.

So, what about that traditional paper? How about taking the most excellent of those papers, validating the student effort, and creating audience by publishing them digitally?  Share them on your websites and encourage learners to add them to their own portfolios of work. Use digital publishing tools, like ePubBud, PageFlipFlap, FlipSnack or Issuu, and embed and celebrate!

Creative Commons NonCommercial

Attribution (Joyce Kasman Valenza)

Source

OK, the statistics in the graphic above may be questionable (Robert Brewer is a pastor at a Texas church and the Jenkins Group (a "custom" book publisher) study is from 2003, but the trend seems to be that people are reading fewer books. 

I have to say that with the availability of streaming video (Netflix), easy free access to magazines (Zinio), and social media (countless blogs, Twitter, and Facebook), even this life-long reader finds himself finishing fewer books. Given the availability of these online resources plus the huge attractions of video games, I see younger kids reading less as well.

So is reading a good novel, a biography, or a classic becoming the acquired taste of a small percentage of our population? Will book lovers become a smallish cult like opera affectionados? (See also Libraries for a Post Literate Society.) Should I even worry about this shift from print to other means of gaining information and being entertained?

I can't help but think that schools are pushing kids away from reading for pleasure. Given the emphasis on reading as an "assessable" skill, rather than a human, personal endeavor, we are very concerned that kids can read, but not that they actually do. Dull textbooks and primers and programmed reading instruction (read the paragraph and answer the questions, repeat ad nauseum) are traditional, support the publishers' bottom line, and make schools feel they are serious about improving reading scores. Now if they only created actual readers. 

Librarians, keep putting books in kids' hands that they want to read. We may be readings last, best hope.

(After I posted this, I received a tweet recommending Readicide. It's on my list!)

Topsy now lets search all the tweets ever sent!

You can read more about it at The New York Times (If Google Could Search Twitter, It Would Find Topsy) and at NBC News (You can now view (almost) every tweet ever).

I’m adding this info to The Best Resources For Beginning To Learn What Twitter Is All About.

Snapstouch is a “free online tool to covert your photo to sketch, photo to painting, photo to drawing, photo to outline…”

I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Online Photo-Editing & Photo Effects.

Wolfram, the producers of the popular Wolfram Alpha computational search tool and Wolfram Mathmatica, is hosting a free virtual conference on September 17th. The event is focused on using Wolfram Mathmatica, Alpha, and CDF to support STEM teachers. The conference has two strands. One strand is focused on the how-to for your classroom. The other strand is focused on changing STEM curriculum.

The conference runs from 2pm to 6:30pm EDT on September 17th. You can get the complete details and register here.

Before the conference begins you might want to take a look at Wolfram Alpha for Educators. Wolfram Alpha for Educators is a collection of free lesson plans, examples of, and ideas for using Wolfram Alpha in the classroom. The lesson plans are currently arranged in three categories; mathematics, science, and social studies. All of the lesson plans are available as free pdf downloads. The lesson plans are labeled according to grade level, but you cannot see the grade level label until you download the lesson plan. In addition to the free lesson plans, Wolfram Alpha has a small collection of videos featuring teachers explaining how they are using Wolfram Alpha in their classrooms.

The Atlantic's new series Economics In Plain English is a good resource for social studies teachers to bookmark and share with their students. One of the new additions to the series is What Is Money? What Is Money? uses the fun scenario of trying to deposit a banana into a bank to explain the basic purpose and function of money. The video is embedded below.

A few weeks ago I created a Google Custom Search Engine for videos that are not hosted on YouTube. You can find the search engine on this page. This evening I updated that search engine to include four more resources. The alternatives to YouTube that I added to the search engine were the National Film Board of Canada, the Economist videos, The Atlantic videos, and National Geographic Kids videos.

You can test the updated search engine below. It is permanently hosted here.

Web Rangers offers seven categories of games about different subjects related to the National Parks. The game categories are people, animals, parks, science, history, nature, and puzzles. Each category contains games of varying difficulty rated from easy to difficult. Some of the game topics include dendrochronology, animal tracking, animal identification, fire fighting, and map reading.

Students can play Web Rangers games as visitors or as registered users. Registered users can track their progress and earn virtual rewards. Registered users can also create their own customized virtual ranger stations.

Applications for Education
Web Rangers could be a great way for students to learn about all of the things that National Parks contain. The games also introduce players to the job functions of Park Rangers. In that regard, the game could be a "career exploration" activity of sorts. You might also use the games in conjunction with some of the National Parks system's lesson plans.

Today, in Grande Prairie, Alberta I wrapped-up the second day of a Google Apps workshop. Creating image-based quizzes in Google Forms was one of the things that was a hit with a good portion of the participants. Earlier this year I created a short tutorial on the process. That tutorial is embedded below.

I spent the last two days working with teachers in Grande Prairie, Alberta. One of the activities that we did yesterday was develop our own Google Search challenge activities. We used the basic model of the Google a Day Challenges combined with some of the obfuscation methods that Daniel Russell uses in his weekly search challenges. I've outlined the basic process below.

1. Locate three public domain or Creative Commons licensed pictures to use as search prompts. If you have pictures of your own that you want to use, that’s okay too.
2. In Google Slides create a list of questions that your students might ask about the image. Put one question on each slide.
3. Arrange the slides in order of difficulty. On each slide give a search hint in the speaker notes.
4. Publish your search challenge activity and share the link in this form.

I explained the rationale for using images as prompts in this post back in June. The short version is that putting an interesting picture in front of kids prompts them to ask a lot of interesting questions that often force them to use a variety of search strategies and tools including Google Earth, Google Books, Google Images, and Google Scholar.

If you want to try this for yourself feel free to use the picture in this post or the picture in this post (please link to FreeTech4Teachers.com)  if you post it online) as a search prompt in your classroom. There is a big clue at the beginning of this post as to what is featured in the picture and what it does. 

Just a few minutes after I published my post about writing blog posts while offline I received an email from someone needing assistance using Google Drive offline. Below you will find written directions along with screenshots for enabling offline use of Google Documents on your laptop.

To enable Google Docs for offline use, sign into your account and click the sprocket icon in the upper-right corner. Then select "set up docs offline." Google Docs will then launch a dialogue box asking you to confirm that you want to enable docs offline. If already have Google Drive installed, you're finished with the set up. If you don't have Google Drive installed, you will be prompted to do so. If you need help setting up Google Drive on your Mac or on your PC, please see the directions that I have included in my guide to Google Drive and Docs for Teachers (page 7 has directions for Mac users, page 14 has directions for Windows users). 

Step 1: In your Google Drive account open the "more" menu.

Click for full size image.

Step 2: Select "enable offline docs." If you don't have the Google Drive Chrome app already installed, you'll be prompted to do that too. Installing the Chrome app takes just one click.

Click for full size image.

A Note for Google Apps for Education Users
If you are using Google Docs within a Google Apps for Education domain your domain administrator will have to enable the option for users to use Google Docs offline. Google's directions for domain administrators can be found here. A screen capture of the Apps Domain settings is included below.

Click for full size image.

 

Cross-posted from iPadApps4School.com

One of the things that I love about the start of the new school year is that so many students have goals for making “this year the year they…” For many students that blank is filled in with “stay organized” or “take better notes.” If your students are going to be using iPads in your classroom this year, here are five free iPad apps they can try for taking notes and keeping those notes organized.

Penultimate provides a place for you to hand-write notes on your iPad. The app allows you to create multiple notebooks with multiple pages in each. You can change the color and size of the pen strokes that are created when you write in your notebooks. Each page in your notebook can include pictures that you have stored on your iPad or pictures that you take through the Penultimate app. The app provides the option to change the look of the virtual paper on which you write. You can copy and paste content from one page to another and from one notebook to another. This is my go-to app for writing notes. 

inClass is a fantastic free iPad app that students can use to take and keep track of the notes they record in all of their courses. inClass allows students to organize notebooks for each of their courses. Within each notebook students can include typed notes, audio notes, video notes, and pictures. The ability to store those four types of notes makes inClass a great app for students to use in a science lab where they might want to have a little video clip of an experiment along with their own typed notes about the lab experiment.

Evernote is the Swiss Army knife of iPad apps. Students can use Evernote for a little bit of everything from bookmarking websites to dictating notes to themselves. The app will automatically sync with students online Evernote accounts so that they can access my notes, bookmarks, and saved files from any computer or device that is connected to the web.

Fetchnotes is a service for creating and organizing notes for yourself. Organizing your notes on Fetchnotes is quite simple. When you write a note, just use a hashtag to label your note. Then whenever you want to search for a note just enter a hashtag. For example, if I was a student taking notes in a history course I might use the hashtag “#revolution” for all notes related to revolutions. Then I could go back and read all of my notes about revolution by just searching for that hashtag. Fetchnotes lets you create groups of people with whom you share notes. When you want to share a note with someone else in your group just add @ before that person’s name to have the task appear on your list and his or her list. In addition to being available through the free iPad app, Fetchnotes can be used in your web browser. Fetchnotes also offers a free Android app.

Last but not least is Google Drive for iPad. While not nearly as robust as the browser-based version of Google Drive, Google Drive for iPad can be used by students to create notes documents. If your school is using Google Apps for Education, your students are probably already familiar with how to use Google Drive. Of course, their notes will sync to their Google Drive accounts so that they can access their notes through any Internet-connected device. Click here for a short (13 page PDF) guide to using Google Drive for iPad.

This morning on Twitter I was asked for a suggestion for a primer on Creative Commons. My first thought was this resource from Common Craft that I shared last year. Then I went to CreativeCommons.org to see what they had for materials to use to introduce people to the concepts of Creative Commons.

On CreativeCommons.org there is a gallery of sixteen videos and slideshows that explain what Creative Commons licensing is, how to use it, and practical examples of Creative Commons licensing in use. I've embedded one of the videos below.

Since eduClipper launched back in May I have shared it in many of my workshops and presentations. I know that some people will be introducing it to their colleagues and students for the new school year too. If you plan to introduce eduClipper to your students or colleagues, Adam Bellow (founder of eduClipper) has put together a helpful set of slides for you to use. The slidedeck includes step-by-step directions for using eduClipper. The presentation also includes a slide to help you transition from "showing" to "coaching."




Thanks to Lee Kolbert for sharing this on Facebook.

You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.

And so, each year I find myself  searching for orientation inspiration.

Whether it’s your incoming kindergartners, sixth graders, ninth graders or those returning students you already know and love, you’re going to want to welcome them back in a special way.  And you are likely to have made a few fabulous summer discoveries that will rock their information and communications worlds.

I searched “library orientation” and “school library orientation” on Pinterest and discovered some very promising and replicable ideas for all levels–posters, scavenger hunts, videos, games–designed to engage and introduce skills and behaviors that will be developed through the school year.

And then I crowd-sourced the exploration using the #tlchat, #tlelem and our Google+ TLChat Community.

Here are a few of my discoveries, thank to the generous sharing of our colleagues.

No real blood or brains were used in Kathy Kaldenberg’s (@scsdmedia) orientation presentation for Solon High School.

Kathy shared her goals for the incoming 9th grade class:

Over my last ten years at Solon High School, I’ve tried a variety of ways to keep our orientation fresh and interesting, including a this/not this video with faculty playing the roles of students and an interactive jeopardy game. But with the popularity of The Walking Dead television series and high interest in our zombie genre fiction, last year I decided to build my message around how the undead should use the media center. It was a fun way to get the message across.

Things are different at the high school, so we like to let 9th graders know what to expect. It is pretty dry stuff and we don’t like to harp on rules. I’ve tried to change it up a bit by having zombies deliver the message. I pair it up with a display of our zombie books and a few posters.

If only we had a real zombie. Sleepy students don’t count.

Like me, Shannon McClintock Miller is exploring strategies for ensuring that library can be in every kiddo’s pocket.  I’ll be rolling out our kid-developed app next month, ensuring that the kids have instant access to the tools we’ll be using regularly, including our new discovery service.  (More on that in a future post.)

I want them to have this information and access at their fingertips from the very first day.

At South Orange Middle School, Elissa Malespina (@SOMSlibrary) is planning aurasma tours for her 6th graders.

My 8th grade students from last year produced videos of different important areas of the school–like library, office, cafeteria etc.  I am going to make auras out of the videos and, instead of a the normal [physical] tour of the school.  We also have a aurasma tour for library.  It has been a really cool way to introduce augmented reality to students.

Elissa shared screen shots of the Aurasma app from her phone, including shots of  her fiction, nonfiction, and  biography tours.

 

-creating Destiny login information and playing
-self check out
-physical library map fill In
-and my favorite was Meet & Greet (I took a pic of the group and we got to know each other)

The next meeting we talk about our virtual space. Sometimes a scavenger hunt, but I think it’s better  to have  groups of 2 or 3 analyze a page and then explain to the whole group what they learned. (Analyzing info text, speaking skills)

Middle School Librarian at the Detroit Country Day School, Cheri Dobbs hopes to

record a variety of 7th and 8th graders giving advice/information about the library to our 6th graders. I’d compile the short clips into a movie that would show to the 6th graders as part if their orientation. Either that, or, towards the end of this year I’ll have the 6th graders make short videos about different aspects of the library, and I’ll use those videos with next year’s group.

Sarah Worden, librarian at Ft. Sam Houston Elementary is opening with interactive storytelling:

I wrote a “choose your own ending” story using inklestudios.com‘s inklewriter program.  I was the student and made bad choices, got corrected, and had to go back and make a better choice.  I wrote simple stories for entering and leaving the library. 

Via LM_NET, Susan Grigsby, librarain at Elkins Pointe Middle School shared an interactive approach:

I am setting up an orientation in Socrative.com [student response system] where the students will all have iPads in their hands and can answer questions in the “Space Race” function of the program. So, instead of just coming in to “sit-and-get” they are going to get some basic information then they’ll have to move through the library in groups to locate specific items, answer a question about that item and try to get their group’s space ship to the finish line first.

I’m actually working on that right now! For my 3rd-4th we’ll be doing a QR code orientation throughout the library.

Lisa Castellano, Library Media Specialist, at Larkspur Middle School, Virginia Beach, VA, also plans to use a QR code approach for her incoming 6th grade:

We got the idea from a presentation at our state conference. Students scan a QR code that is a question. Students will then go to the section of the library that will have the answer, find the correct resource and find the next question. For example students might need to find out another word for wonderful – they group would go to reference and find a QR code by the thesauruses.

They have to answer the question and then scan the QR Code by the thesauruses. That code might ask them to list a book by Gary Paulsen, which brings them to fiction. The orientation is designed to have them physically tour the library, work as a group, and enjoy some technology. I attached the lesson plan and one of the paths.  We use iPads for students to scan the QR codes and we have about six different paths for students to follow.  The groups number no more than five students.

Lisa shared her lesson and a couple of handouts.

Cheryl Youse, Media Specialist at Colquitt County High School shared her Jeopardy game, a get-to-know-you scavenger hunt, and an Xtranormal video, and noted:

I get bored (with 40 or so orientations), so this year I am doing different things with different classes.  I usually show the video New Spice Study Like a Scholar to get their attention and/or the Dewey Decimal Rap and/or Gotta Keep Reading.

Monica Dennler, from the K-8 Eastamptom Community School and President of the Burlington County Association of School Librarians (NJ), shares:

The best thing that I do for orientation for the first two weeks, besides covering house-keeping issues, is to have each of my classes design their own set of classroom rules. I appoint a scribe to write out the list; each class dictates their own set of library guidelines. I then post the rules in a highly visible area.

Once that is done, we do a library  treasure hunt designed for each grade level to find resources and books in the library and on the computer. It helps break the ice and establish a fun tone for the year. This also helps work as a pre-assessment or bench mark to help focus on areas that students may need to be reminded about during the first month (or first four classes) of school.

Arlene Laverde. Librarian at John Bowne High School, shares her bingo-based orientation:

For our high school freshmen I combined a picture PowerPoint and bingo game. I took pictures of various parts of the library and put them in a PowerPoint. I used an online bingo card generator to create various bingo cards of library terms. I explained to the students that they mark the terms as I go though the presentation BUT as soon as the game became more important the presentation the game was over. There are two types of bingo regular and full card. Prizes are candy or other little things. It goes well with good classroom management.

And finally, one of my favorite orientation videos is this one from Michelle Luhtala, New Canaan High School, focusing on the very positive message encouraged by the library and the school, We Trust You.

 

Today was the first day of school for our students at Van Meter.

I just love when they come into the library for the very first time each year.

We always find time during the first days to bring them into the library for a fun little gathering to talk about what we have available in the library, online, and how I can support their learning in many different ways.

One thing I wanted to tell them all about was Remind101!

A few weeks ago I wrote Connecting and Staying In Touch With Remind101 and Our School Community.  It covers what my plan for using Remind101 with our school would be this year.

I came prepared today for the visits from all of the secondary classes and it was super easy.  I went to the Remind101 site to the "Van Meter Secondary Library Voice" and printed the information the students would need from the right hand side.

It gives you this nice phone print out with the simple directions of "Enter this number" and "Text this message."

Next, I saved this image to make posters, bookmarks and little cards.  I open the image I saved, clicked copy, and selected that I wanted to copy four per page.  By making them smaller, the students can grab one while they are in the library or from the teacher (I gave all of them a short stack too).
I am very excited about getting so many signed up with Remind101 today....students and teachers. I can't wait to see what happens over the next few weeks.

Remind101 will definitely be a simple yet powerful digital tool to add to the way we connect within our school community.

Receiving student book requests is kind of like when someone tells you what they want for Christmas. You don’t quite get the fleeting pleasure of feeling like a creative gift-giving wizard, but you get the deep satisfaction of knowing they’ll love it. That’s the part that counts most. It’s common for books we purchase based on student requests become permanent residents on the hold shelf.

In the past we’ve kept track of requests on paper, but this year I’m adding something new to make it easier for students and staff to request books – a Google form. I’m in the mood to get all screenshot-y, so let’s look at how to create a book request form for your library website.

Step 1: Head to Google Drive

At this point, lots of people have a Google account. If you have one, head on over to Google Drive. If you don’t have an account, I’d say it’s worth setting one up. To set up an account, go to the Google homepage, click “Drive” at the top, then click the “Sign Up” button on the right.

Step 2: Create a Form

This is where we get down to business. Click on the “Compose” button and then click “Form”.

From here you’ll make the request form, adding the title, text and questions. Feel free to copy. I could really dive into details about creating the questions, but it’s probably going to be best to play around with it to see how it works. I’d advise keeping it simple at all costs. One question asking book title, and one asking author (if known). I work at four schools, so that’s why I made students choose their school on my form – you won’t need that if you’re only at one school.

Step 3: Put the Form Where Eyeballs Can See It

Form finished? Time to make the magic happen by getting it posted on your library website. Click the “Send Form” button in the right corner, then the “Embed” button.

Copy the html code and paste it onto your library website.

If you don’t have a website you can modify, you’ll have to contact your tech folks to get the ball rolling. Here’s what the form looks like on our library website:

Here’s where things get cool. Once the requests start coming in (be sure to let kids know the form is there), you get something like this in your Google Drive:

When you click on it, all the requests are time stamped and listed in a spreadsheet. This will continuously update as more requests are made.

A good way to keep the requests rolling in.

TechCHAT: Susan Wells

The TechCHAT series invites teachers, media specialists and other educators from across the country and around the world to share how they’re using technology to enhance instruction and student learning. Contact us about sharing your classroom tech ideas and lessons learned.

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