OASL Libraries Resources

TVO Kids- loads of videos and games- educational? Mostly...

Hi, welcome to robertmunsch.com. I hope you enjoy this selection of my work, as well as the creative art and short stories donated by kids and teachers.

Create your own comic strips starring YOU and your friends!

Summer vacation is just around the corner and teachers and librarians are freaking out. It has nothing to do with lost books or late report cards. It has everything to do with reading. After spending months working to get students into the habit of reading, myself and many of my colleagues are concerned that much of that hard work (on both sides) will be undone by two months of (much needed) summer distractions. To help students keep reading in the summer, I've been showcasing several websites with my K-6 students to encourage to keep those reading skills sharp. Below is a list of five of the best websites to help kids keep up their reading this summer.

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

I am web geek, and not just because I own a Foursquare t-shirt that I bought at a discount after my 1000th check in.  The real reason I know I am a web geek is because I LOVE discovering cool web 2.0 tools that can enhance my classroom!  I am about to share with you my not so secret sources for teacher Web 2.0 excitment! ...and that's not all!  Actually, it is, but I think you will enjoy discovering all of the new tools that these web sources will present.  I guarantee that you will find something new that will amaze you as you explore.  So get ready to dive into these web 2.0 treasure troves!

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

Using Criteria to make decisions Youtube Video

Create a video educating people about staying safe and secure online and using the Internet responsibly. The prize? $10,000 for the best overall video, and cash prizes to each best-in-category video for individual and school entries. Meet our winners (as selected by viewers and our panel of judges) and watch their stories from three categories: Being a good online citizen Using a mobile phone wisely Maintaining your privacy online

Really interesting to see a school library report like this...

Leveraging the Discourse of Common Core Standards to Spur Conversations for Student Learning and School Libraries by Buffy Hamilton June 2012

Fascinating organization tool.