#Eddies12 Nominations

Open Here to Make your Nominations
It is nearing the end of another year, and so the time has arrived to make nominations for the annual Edublog Awards. I love these awards, not because I like getting nominated (who doesn't like to get recognized), but because I always find some new electronic tool or new person to follow. I guess that I like these awards because I can count on all the nominations to be quality sources, and I love enlarging my professional learning network.

Here are some of my favs of the moment:
EdTech Blog: I know that he will get lots of nominations, but my favorite go to EdTech site is Richard Byrne's Free Technology for Teachers. I know that if I am looking for a tool for a particular purpose that Richard will have several for me to choose. I am a faithful reader of his column in School Library Journal.

Twitter Hashtag: I am a school librarian, and though I am interested in a lot of issues, my first interest is in what other librarians have to say. So I am nominating #tlchat for this award. You can find the best of #tlchat on the Tlchat Daily.

Individual Tweeter: There are a few teachers in my district (Jefferson Parish in Louisiana) who are doing some amazing things with technology. Paula Naugle who teaches 4th grade was thinking about retirement when she found that using technology energized her interest in teaching. She has been able to bring the world to her students in Metairie, LA.

Group Blog: As I said earlier, being a school librarian means that I have a bias for all things that have to do with the library. For this award, I am going to nominate a blog from one of the professional organizations in which I belong, the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). There are several blogs run by YALSA, but my favorite one is all about young adult literature, The Hub.

Free Web Tool: There are many tools on the web that I love. I couldn't blog without blogger; I couldn't have created a website without Weebly; but I couldn't be a good librarian without having all the curation tools at my fingertips. I use a number of them, but right now I am a big fan of Livebinders. It is not known for its beauty, but it functions like a dream. I can embed it on the library website. When I give the students the link, I can update the binder, and the students will see the updated version.

Best Social Network: I am going to nominate this with reservations. I am a big fan of Twitter. I would like to use it more than I do now, but there is a huge problem. Twitter is blocked at my school. So I am limited to tweeting by phone during the school day. I really wish that I could get to the site more often, but I have been trying to get it open at school without any luck.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Happy Holidays from BRiMS and Bookmarked

I run two book groups at Patrick Taylor. My high school book group, Bookmarked , was created in the fall of 2007 which was my second year as librarian at the school. The students really wanted a library club, but the square footage of the library was so small that I could not imagine how any students could do any actual library work. Instead I created a book discussion group. Not only did we meet to talk books, but I tapped these students to help me with fundraisers and special programming like Teen Read Week. Helping me with these special activities seemed to appease the members. I waited until February of 2009 to institute a book discussion group for my middle school students called BRiMS, or Books Rule in Middle School . Both of the groups meet during lunch, and this year, the school added a third lunch. Now BRiMS is made up of only 6th and 7th graders. Bookmarked has 8th-12th grade students. This has actually worked well because in 2014 and 2015, Bookmarked lost a lot of members w...
Read more

Banned Book Week: Students Make Comments Pro & Con Censorship

Image
This blog post is being designed as a lesson for the English I students at PFTSTA. The teachers and I have collaborated on an activity to celebrate Banned Book Week (BBW). Many times in the past during BBW, I have invited the 8th graders into the library to discuss the banning and challenging of books in schools and libraries. I usually show some videos and share books owned by our library that have been banned or challenged somewhere in the US. This activity always spurs great discussion among the students and teachers. This year we wanted the students to create a written response to the presentation. We thought there was a real world connection if we had the students post their opinion online as a comment to someone writing about censorship in schools. The teachers and I want the students to learn how to compose a well thought out comment that is supported by evidence and concrete details. How more real world could it be than having the students comment directly on their librar...
Read more

Students Weigh in on Banned Books and the Freedom to Read

Image
Every year, for Banned Book Week, I prepare a lesson for our 8th graders. It was always teacher directed with discussion until last year . The English I teachers and I created a lesson for the students that included research and writing. I pulled the materials that I wanted them to read, and the students would write a very short essay declaring their belief in the need for teens to be able to exercise their freedom to read what they want to or the need for certain books to be taken off the shelves of the library or pulled from the English curriculum.  Above is the slide presentation that I have made for the students. Included in the slides are several videos that I thought would get the students thinking. There are slides with links to specific articles that we want the students to read and use for the concrete evidence to support their stance. A rubric is included at the end so the students know exactly what is expected. The teachers and I want the writing to have a...
Read more