Group items tagged

Time Search is a good general resource for history teachers and students. Simply enter a year, press "go" and you're shown a list of significant events that happened in that year. Scroll up or down the list to see events that happened early or late in that year. Time Search offers options for refining event lists by theme or region in addition to the obvious date refinement option.

Stunning time-lapse video of Portland, OR

Adopt-A-Shelf is something I've been considering for my library for some time now. A few weeks ago, several librarians were discussing it on my state's listserv, so I thought I would start it in my library for the upcoming school year.

Great way to organize and cut down time on QRcodes use!

It's time for school librarians to step out and enlighten their communities about 
all the ways their libraries impact students' education.  

  The fact of the matter is that, now and then, we need a bit of a reignition, a kick start, a battery jump.  So, the next time you find yourself in that slump, try a few of these tactics (and they work well with our students, too).

Dipity is a free digital timeline website. Our mission is to organize the web's content by date and time. Users can create, share, embed and collaborate on interactive, visually engaging timelines that integrate video, audio, images, text, links, social media, location and timestamps.

Oodles of free printables for kids Early learning resources for preschool and beyond, kids parties and fun games for holidays ... it's about having creative fun times with kids and learning together!

Let's put our hands together for SLJ blogger Betsy Bird who spent the last six weeks sorting through 200 titles to bring you the Top 100 Picture Books and Chapter Books of all time. Dying to know who topped the lists? Maurice Sendak's classic Where the Wild Things Are made best picture book, while E. B. White's Charlotte's Web ranked the best chapter book.

"We use task cards all the time. Students would rather do those than a worksheet. Plus, it's great for a quick mini-assessment. I usually use them after teaching the skill for a couple of days. We play Scoot a lot; students will do them in small groups, and sometimes in groups of three they will work on the activity cards."

"Extreme Speed Booking" The idea behind the site is to introduce students to a variety of books and form classroom book groups. How does Extreme Speed Booking work? A whole lot like speed dating. :) Students spend a little time with each book and then rate them accordingly with "I want to read more", "Interesting", "Not for me", or "I've already read". Students can also make a note of how interested they are in reading the book (maybe a 1-10 scale)? This process introduces students to a variety of books, genres and authors. Students may come across titles and authors they wouldn't otherwise find. It also helps teachers form classroom book groups that are of high-interest and investment to students because they had input.

ALSC (ALA's Association for Library Service to Children) announced the redesign of the Great Web Sites for Kids site. Newly evaluated and accepted sites are added to the database three times a year. The committee also reviews all sites within the database twice a year to guarantee sites are still relevant, appropriate and accessible.

Having completed four years worth of "Best of" lists for picture books, I was finally inspired to compile a list of the  best middle-grade and chapter books I have read in the last year. Maybe I didn't want to be forced to pick any favorites, or maybe this was the first year that I felt like I had actually read enough newly published books in a given year to compile a fair list. Either way, although I remain dedicated to working through that massive pile of older books that I want to share with my readers, I am very excited about this list and passionate about all of the books that made it on to this list. If you were to encounter me in my workplace and ask me about any of these titles, I would gush, most likely somewhat embarrassingly, about any or all of them, if you gave me enough time. 

The Battle Commander and the Commentator read furiously throughout 2011, reread, looked at what others were admiring, read more, argued, reread, agreed, disagreed, read some more, and by early December (in order to give time for our SLJ man-behind-the-curtain to begin recruiting judges) came up with our contenders. Then we had to keep it a secret from all of you for weeks and weeks!  So here we are mighty chuffed (using last year's winner's lovely term) at last to be announcing this year's list. (The brackets can be viewed here with a downloadable version available here.)

Though Twitter's contribution to the world of social media and progressive society was at one time a strongly argued point, there is no doubt today that the popular social media platform has become a valuable tool for various aspects of education. Sure, Twitter can be the perfect place to waste hours on mundane details about people's lives or worthless celebrity gossip. But, the microblogging platform also enables us to create and participate in meaningful conversations concerning education, technology, and society.

Right now is a time of change, and as such, a great opportunity for teacher librarians to take a leadership role in their schools.

"Publishers have spent a lot of time and money building their own company Web sites with fresh information on their books and authors. The trouble is, very few book buyers visit them. In search of an alternative, three major publishers said on Friday that they would create a new venture, called Bookish.com, which is expected to make its debut late this summer. The site intends to provide information for all things literary: suggestions on what books to buy, reviews of books, excerpts from books and news about authors. Visitors will also be able to buy books directly from the site or from other retailers and write recommendations and reviews for other readers." As of early August 16 2011, the site is not ready. However, you can enter your email address to be notified when it goes live. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/07/books/publishers-plan-a-joint-one-stop-book-site.html?_r=1&src=recg

From the website's About page: "Read It Later lets you save what you find on the web to watch and read on any device, at anytime. It's been called 'a DVR for the web' by the New York Times, Business Week, Time, TechCrunch and more." You can access saved items online or offline, mark them as "read," and more. Use it with smart phones like iPhone and Android versions, with Internet browsers like Firefox and Safari, and applications like Flipboard and TweetBot.

WOW, terrific site with games, online books, appropriate tv shows- one on reference source use (Once upon a rat) and numerous other worth your time activities! From Flying Rhino/Ray Nelson. Even online classes you can join in on- writing, illustrating, etc.

Tag, you're it! It's a game we all loved to play as kids. This book makes poetry fun and interesting by inviting poets to play a game of tag. It all starts off with Jack Prelutsky writing about the moon and what would happen if it was a balloon or cheese or a sun. And then Joyce Sidman's tagged!