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"Something that bothers me so much is when I read articles that talk about how libraries are becoming makerspaces.  Our makerspace is one component of the participatory culture that runs through our space.  Anyone who knows my story knows that my point of entry into the Maker Movement was through literacy, so for me, literacy and making have always gone hand in hand.   When I began as the Library Media Specialist at New Milford High School, I walked into a library that was similar to many school libraries in older schools.  It was very traditional looking, with tall stacks and lots and lots of books that students simply did not check out, nor have an interest in.  The collection was out of date and had not been weeded in decades.  One of the tasks for me was to weed the books.  During that weeding process, I decided that traditional nonfiction that made it through the weeding process would be sent to classrooms to build up their classroom research libraries.  I decided to keep any memoirs or narrative nonfiction that we had in our collection, since those were the kinds of books I discovered so many of our students did enjoy reading and would check out.  Amongst the vast fiction collection, we did find a few gems, but mostly we either discarded books that were no longer relevant to our students, gave them to classrooms who wanted them, or to individual students who showed an interest.  In the end, I was able to preserve just a few shelves of books.  As a result, I was tasked with rebuilding our collection."

"By now, you know that YouTube isn't only for watching cat videos and smartphone voyeurism. If you're smart, it can be your go-to place for learning new skills and finding gems for research. But one of the best uses for YouTube is as a source of free music that you can legally download for free and use for all kinds of projects and endeavors. "

"With more than 7 billion videos on YouTube, it can be challenging to curate what's best for your classroom. But amid all of the frivolous, silly, or even obnoxious content, there are gems to be found. On top of this, some truly unique genres and types of videos have sprung from the platform. One of these -- the video essay -- can be a great tool for media-literacy education. Here's why: Video essays model for students how YouTube can be a platform for critical communication."

"Welcome to the weekly edition of The Edtech Smackdown-a collection of digital resources containing a few of my most favorite activities, tools and articles curated from various social media spaces throughout the past week. Check out some super cool edtech gems right here, right now and get ready to use these ideas to support learning and to engage students in your classroom!"