Group items tagged

"We are intermediate grade teachers who have learned over the years that there are practices that get kids excited about reading.   We tried to rank them but decided they were all equally important.  We can't imagine eliminating any of them, so these are not in any particular order."

"Before becoming a librarian two Septembers ago I was a fourth grade teacher for seventeen years.  My favorite part of the day, the non-negotiable, the very best way to build classroom culture, was read aloud time.  My kids knew that no matter what our day looked like we would carve out 20 minutes every day for this sacred time of day.  Read aloud time gave everyone a level playing field to access text.  It gave us inside jokes. It gave us a shared experience we could refer to and I could use to model reading and writing strategies."

Over 75 different webcam feeds to support classroom instruction

"Kikin has made a iPad browser that turns traditional search on its head. An iPhone version is due out later this month. But it doesn't want to be a search engine. And it doesn't want to be a browser. The company's goal is to propagate the search technology it's been developing since 2008. The technology looks at a user's behavior and analyzes other words on the page to understand what search results are relevant. (See a more nerdy version of this explanation here). "

From Making Teachers Nerdy blog

"Find repose by exciting the mind. Some of the world's leading thinkers offer the books that inspired them and their work. Skim the list for your favorite speakers, or get nerdy on a topic you've always wanted to know more about. Below find 52 books, recommended by TED speakers."

"Since last year, I've been diving into the world of Making. It has been exciting and it has also been a large amount of extra work, but it matters. I just wanted to share a few stories as to why it matters so much. Quick Background: My librarian and I have worked together to create an open Makerspace for students to use in the library. It is available to students to use before school, during lunch, during study halls, and after school whenever the library is open. The idea is to give students access to tools on their own to see what they will create. It is meant to be student driven with some nudging from teachers to encourage students to explore different things. We have a 3D printer, Makey Makey kits, Chromebooks, and are stocking the space with more goodies based on student requests. To use the space, the students have to attend and orientation that covers the different tools available and the use of the space."

"Zip! Zap! Zoom! My library is anything BUT quiet during our recess time. Of course students are visiting and sharing about books they love. But they've also had a great time exploring iPads this year. Students read picture book apps, explore nonfiction book apps, and play math games to practice basic math facts."