OASL Libraries Resources

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.

If you missed this year's International Society of Technology Educator's (ISTE) conference, that doesn't mean you missed out on all the fun. You can still catch much of the excitement via ISTE's YouTube channel which features conference keynotes and highlights.

Evernote is a great web service and software application that we can use in education. A lot of ink has been shed on this topic and just one click in a search engine is enough to get hundreds of links to guides and tutorials about Evernote. I have been going through so many of these resources and have collected ideas, videos, notes and many more. If you are a loyal reader to my blog ( I am glad most of you are ) you would clearly notice that guides I write here are different in that they are simple. to the point, address teachers and students direct  need, and most of all written in an easy and simple language. In this regard, I am working on an ebook that will contain all the guides I have posted here so far but will be available for free only to my subscribers. Without any further ado, let us get back to our guide.

Infographics work in the classroom because they grab students and allow an entry point to learning - and because they sum up pages and pages, even chapters, of information that would take a reader hours to process. Interactive infographics make kids want to immediately start clicking around to see what's what. For a teacher who prioritizes an inquiry-driven classroom, that's a great starting point. Infographics and Data visualization are not just for consumption though, teachers and students can also challenge the learning process by creating original graphics for themselves.

TriCider allows you to make a poll but then allow others to offers pros & cons & influence the decision

Kathy Schrock's fabulous resources on various literacies

Bibliographies for over 30,000 authors. Use the browse menu on the left to find an author by surname, or use the search boxes on the right to search for an author or book

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.

Libraries are increasingly getting hip to using Twitter as a tool, with many offering the service as a point of contact with librarians. But Twitter is an excellent tool for librarian learning as well, offering lots of great opportunities for discussion. Many Twitter chats exist for the literary and library world, and we've discovered 20 of the absolute best for librarians to check out.

Here we will meet the writers whose words are presenting nonfiction in a whole new way. Discover books that show how nonfiction writers are some of the best storytellers around

One of the things that has surprised me lately is the number of emails I get with questions about Pinterest. I thought it might be handy to put some tips together. I know I am not the first librarian to write about Pinterest, by any means! I hope this helps someone out there though.

Text-dependent questions do not require information or evidence from outside the text or texts; they establish what follows and what does not follow from the text itself. Eighty to ninety percent of the Reading Standards in each grade require text-dependent analysis; accordingly, aligned curriculum materials should have a similar percentage of text dependent questions. When examining a complex text in depth, tasks should require careful scrutiny of the text and specific references to evidence from the text itself to support responses.

Apps for Kids is a source for top kid-friendly, kid-safe Android apps. -- interesting.

Fantastic citation and infographic instructions Lesson plans and rubric for infographic as well.

The library is an important resource for English language learners and their families. While serving a diverse, bilingual population presents a number of challenges, the library can be a lifeline for students and families who are new to this country or who speak multiple languages.

Great ideas here for information and professional development

QR Code Scavenger Hunts - how to set up and use plus other creations.

Level Up book club - one topic brought up on TLChat

This information applies to 2012. I'm not sure if this will be an annual event. Connected Educator Month is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, and several organizations are sponsoring programs and activities, including AASL and SETDA, the State Educational Technology Directors Association. So what is CEM, anyway? "Online communities and learning networks are helping hundreds of thousands of educators learn, reducing isolation and providing 'just in time' access to knowledge and opportunities for collaboration. However, many educators are not yet participating and others aren't realizing the full benefits. In many cases, schools, districts, and states also are not recognizing and rewarding this essential professional learning. For these reasons, the U.S. Department of Education's Connected Educators initiative has made August 2012 Connected Educator Month. Throughout the month, there will be coordinated opportunities to participate in events and activities in dozens of online locations to develop skills and enhance one's personal learning network." As one ad for the program proclaims, it's "all of August, all for free, all online - shape the future of the profession." Explore activities in the starter kit at your own pace: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/38904447/starter-kit-final.pdf

"Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States." 50 State Salute (Want your library to participate to represent Oregon?): http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/calendarofevents#50statesalute Virtual Read-Out: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/calendarofevents#virtualreadout Ideas and Resources (listed in the column on the left): http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/ideasandresources BBW Promotional Items from ALA Store: http://www.alastore.ala.org/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=269