Resources and More ...

TL Studio 1 at Kerrisdale
=
Digitally Yours at Gladstone

New things are bubbling on the tech integration front. These last sessions have featured administrator Richard with Prezi (powerpoint on steroids), TL Kam doing Weebly (easy websites, good for school libraries), and adult educator Bruno doing Moodle (online classroom). Check out the demo videos. Great mix of administrators, teacher-librarians, and teachers of all levels had a chance to check out the demos and then move to follow up with one Web 2.0 tool.

Check these out:

"Non-enrolling Teachers: Endangered Species" in Teacher magazine (April 2010, p.12) by Cheriee Weichel (Dickens), based on personal research conducted at the recent BCTF AGM. Way to go, Cheriee. It's beautifully written and ever so painful to read. Read about Cheriee's receiving the Ken Haycock Professional Development Grant, to pursue learning with world-renowned fairy tale specialist Dr Jack Zipes in Minnesota this summer, in BCTLA President Heather Daly's In Circulation blog. Zipes was the recent guest of the Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable breakfast here at the annual VCLR breakfast out at UBC's Golf Club. Congratulations, Cheriee. Love your work for TLs and schools.

"Why do We Still Need Libraries and Librarians?" from Jamie McKenzie (FNO.org, March 2010)

Google Maps now has the Google Earth feature, no downloading required. Check inset video.

BC Book Prize Winners have just been announced.

Cybersafety, from LearnNowBC

Films for Change, from NFB on education for sustainability (secondary, French and English)

Think Green: Tips and Resources for Earth-Friendly Learning Projects, from Edutopia (downloadable pdf with ideas, resources, and green projects)

RESGI / Resources for Earth Science and Geography Instructions, from Central Michigan U (great lists of links and media resources suited for senior secondary, organized by topic)

Science News and Science News for Kids, from the Society for Science and the Public (check out book reviews, news targetting a general audience, video and slideshow links, with RSS feed option)

Teaching History with Technology, from EdTechTeacher.org (for a start, see Getting Started and Virtual Tours in the right-hand sidebar)

The Digital Vaults, from The National Archives (American primary sources with Flash-based support)

BC Historical News Online, from UBC (publications fully scanned from 1937 to 2007; articles are great sources of historical information but would require teacher-mediated strategies to make them accessible to students)

Twelve Essentials for Technology Integration, from Richard Byrne using YuDu (Web 2.0 tools that workwell with teaching and learning)

ReadWriteThink's Thinkfinity, from the IRA and NCTE: enter keyword and search for resources from professional development to classroom to home and community. Lesson plans, games, tools, and interactivities. Great tool! Share with colleagues and parents. (Thanks for this one, Meredyth).

KhanAcademy, from Sal Khan, nice sharing guy: This is perfect for sharing with your secondary Science teachers. While there are youtube features, the list of topics for his teaching videos is phenomenal, if somewhat foreign to me!

Hippocampus, from MITE: Aimed at senior courses, this has lots to offer teachers of Math and the Sciences as well.

TLs, DO NOT MISS THIS ONE:

Eduscapes, from Drs Annette Lamb and Larry Johnson, whose academic work is in putting the technology integration piece into teacher-librarianship but also into classrooms. I recently attended 6 hours of workshops (2) at the Seattle NCCE Regional Conference and was blown away with Annette's staccato-style presentation of resource after tool after resource to support students' reading and thinking about non-fiction text and their engagement in the research/inquiry processes. Amazing stuff! There were only two TLs in the room that was full to overflowing. Look for the Activate icon to find the links and ideas in the workshops I attended, entitled "Digital Dog Ate My Notes" and "Straight from the Horse's Mouth: Non-fiction ..."

PSSSSTTTT: Here is one more "resource" just for you. This was shared with Chapter Councillors at the recent BCTLA weekend meeting:

What is a flashmob? Where might you have seen one? It was flash-mob behaviour at the opening of the Olympics and the paralympics, or how would an entire audience have been able to perform in unison. Here's the best one, featuring the Black Eyed Peas (with Oprah) doing "I Gotta Feeling":

So how does this flashmob thing look when it's done with teens and reading? Try this on for fun: Gotta Keep Reading!