Evernote for Teachers

(hat tip to Educational Technology Guy for this one!)

I've read about Evernote and it's been on my list of things to try for some time now.  For someone like me who is constantly bookmarking sites, clipping articles and just randomly storing bits of knowledge, this FREE service is a God-send!  Evernote allows you to save workspaces from your PC, Smartphone or through their website.  You can access these notes from the same items as well.  So if I'm on a field trip with students and want to take notes, I can do so on my cell phone and then access them from the computer back at school to make quizzes or such.  I've also used the site to bookmark favorite crafts that I'd like to try with my son someday.  I am also trying to explore using this for lesson planning to keep resources together.  I'm still playing around with it, but know that its worth a look at for you too!

Black History Month Resources

February is Black History Month and many schools have various celebrations to honor the achievements and contributions of African Americans.  One of my goals is to broaden students' perspectives when it comes to Black History Month.  Many students default to certain well known figures.  I encourage them to study lesser known figures to widen their knowledge base.  How about Elijah McCoy (from whom we get the term "the real McCoy)?  There are a number of great resources out there, here are just a few of them:

(image from africaontheblog.com)

Biography.com has a section devoted to biographies of historic African Americans here.

Library of Congress' website is geared more towards advanced readers.

Garden of Praise has many biographies for kids, including many African Americans.

History.com's Black History Month page is here.

Infoplease has many resources that I have used and modified for different ages.

Be a Beam, not a wall...

If you don't know who Shelly Terrell is, you SHOULD!  She is the queen of Twitter and quite the inspiration!  She is the creator of the 30 Goals, a program that aims to achieve 30 small goals over the course of February and March.  I love this idea simply because small steps can truly lead to great change.  You don't need to move the mountain in one day; take it one bucket at a time...
Today's goal was to be a beam: support someone in a hidden way.  Just as a beam supports a structure internally and is not "out there" for all to see, we as teachers, librarians and education professionals need to be that beam for each other.  Let's face it, education right now is a hot topic and fingers are constantly being pointed (many times at us!).  If we are just isolating ourselves, we are adding to that conflict.  By working together, we can prove to the outsiders (politicians, talking heads, etc.) that we are a community that is about building up, not tearing down.  We strive to build up our students, communities and each other.
So my offer as a beam is to share with you the resources I've found and some of my thoughts on this blog.  With that in mind, I decided to share a "therapeutic" website with you today.  For those moments that you just need to clear your head, try this.  It will help relieve some stress and hopefully give you that moment you need to organize your thoughts....

Collaboration with Teachers

I'm starting the last of my classes for my MLS (Masters of Library Science) degree (graduate in 5 months!) and one of the first discussion boards I posted to is about collaboration.  This post made me reflect on how I've collaborated with teachers in my building and some tips regarding it:
1.) Put yourself out there!  Teachers are not going to come running to you -- they have enough on their plate and sometimes don't realize that you are there as a resource.  Send emails, chat at lunch, put notes in mailboxes.  Then start with the teachers that are interested.
2.) Familiarize yourself with the curriculum.  I know this sounds like a given, but many librarians can get caught up in the day-to-day tasks of running a library.  Start small – get pacing guides or overviews from the various departments/grades.  I find that working with the content areas (Social Studies and Science) or other specialists (Art, Music, Gym) is an easy way to start.  Many districts are pushing for reading across the curriculum and you can be a HUGE asset in that regard.  Suggest book titles to them or collaborate on a project (see #3).
3.) Project based learning – Learn it and Love it!  I will be doing a blog post on this in the future.  But I have found that collaborating on a project divides the work equally and then a rubric that both parties agree to can be devised.  Then grading can be shared (a common concern).
4.) WebQuests (see previous post).


As closing thought, think of collaboration as your way OUT of the library.  You can extend yourself beyond the walls of the library to the school at large.  Remember, you are an asset to your building and have much to share with your colleagues, you just have to make the connections!

Aesop's Fables online

This collection of Aesop's Fables is courtesy of students at UMass Amherst.  They contain digital illustrations of the fables done by college students.  This would be a nice introduction to a unit on fables for students to peruse at their leisure.

Online Jigsaw Puzzles!

Jigsaw Planet is a site that allows you to upload pictures to create puzzles to complete online.  You can also use a variety of the existing puzzles that are already uploaded for public use.  I found a six piece Australia one (see screen shot, took me 30 seconds and I'm not good at puzzles!) all the way up to 100 + piece puzzles to complete.  I really like puzzles to help students view things differently and to look at different possible solutions to problems.  With non-virutal puzzles (or even with these) you can use them as team building activities to help students learn how to work together in a non-academic way.  In the library and classroom, I've even done puzzle relays.  I set up teams of 3-4 students to work together.  They then complete a puzzle and write down the time it took them to complete.  They do this with a series of 5-6 floor puzzles, but any type could work (adjust # of puzzles based on age and size of puzzle).  We then added up the total times for each team to find our puzzle champs!  Students loved this - especially working on the floor!

Getty Games -- Art

(hat tip to Richard Byrne for this one!)

I recently was reading the Free Technology for Teachers blog by Richard Byrne (subscribe here, his original post here) and forwarded this to the art teacher in my building.  She replied that she was addicted within minutes and spent time on this site instead of other things she had planned to do!  That sounds like a recipe for fun for me!

I like the game for the obvious links to art, but working in a library, I like to have a "stash" of online educational activities to have students use (as opposed to the latest car parking game).   

Getty Games