WatchKnow

WatchKnow is an organised collection of videos for children.

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As the site explains

Imagine hundreds of thousands of great short videos, and other media, explaining every topic taught to school kids. Imagine them rated and sorted into a giant Directory, making them simple to find. WatchKnow–as in, “You watch, you know”–is a non-profit online community devoted to this goal.

This video explains exactly how the site works. So if you are looking for videos to support learning and teaching, WatchKnow is certainly worth checking out. Thanks to @joycevalenza for the link.

Supporting learning through reading lists

Librarian extraordinaire Dr Joyce Valenza has (yet another) great idea for supporting and encouraging reading in her school.

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By developing this wiki with reading lists, information on texts, study guides, rubrics, book trailers, book reviews, directions and general requirements, students in years 9-12 (and their parents) have a head start on the year’s required reading for English classes.

What a terrific way for students to be prepared for the year ahead. As always, Dr Valenza’s wiki is an example that we can use as a basis to develop our own ideas for supporting our students’ learning.

Manifesto for 21st Century School Librarians

School library guru Dr Joyce Valenza has written an inspiring post entitled A Manifesto for 21st Century School Librarians. Covering our responsibilities to students regarding:

  • reading
  • information landscape
  • communication and publishing and storytelling
  • collection development
  • facilities, your physical space
  • access, equity, advocacy
  • audience and collaboration
  • copyright, copyleft and information ethics
  • new technology tools
  • professional development and professionalism
  • teaching and learning and reference
  • into the future (acknowledging the best of the past)

this is a must read, must react, must reflect post. Thanks to Helen Boelens for directing me to this post.

Book Video Trailer Awards

Have you and/or your students created a book trailer? If so, you could be in line for an award. A couple of days ago, Joyce Valenza blogged about the New Book Video Trailer Awards to be held by the School Library Journal.

The competition is global and the categories are:

  • Publisher/author created for Elementary readers (PreK-6)
  • Publisher/author created for Secondary readers (7-12)
  • Student created for Elementary readers (PreK-6)
  • Student created for Secondary readers (7-12)
  • Adult (anyone over 18) created for Elementary readers (PreK-6)
  • Adult created for Secondary readers (7-12)

The deadline is 17th September. For more information go to Joyce’s brilliant blog Never Ending Search.

Reading 2.0 by Dr Joyce Valenza

The second of Dr Joyce Valenza’s sessions at the  School Library Association of Victoria Make, Share, Do conference held on Friday 30th July focused on the use of social media to promote reading.

Library20

View more presentations from joycevalenza.
With so many options and ideas for library staff to use to promote reading, as well as ways to have students create presentations, there is at least one brilliant idea here for every school library to use.
Thanks again to Tania Sheko for her notes from the session. My notes are also available.

Dr Joyce Valenza @ SLAV

On Friday 30th July, hundreds of educators packed the School Library Association of Victoria Make, Share, Do conference held at the Olympic Room at the Melbourne Cricket Ground to hear groundbreaking teacher librarian Dr Joyce Valenza speak about Library 2.0.

Wizard of Apps revised

View more presentations from joycevalenza.
As well as speaking energetically and passionately to two amazing keynote presentations, one of which is above, Dr Valenza was revealed to be a kind, thoughtful and inclusive presenter who made an instant connection with her audience. This conference will not be forgotten quickly and the slideshare above gives us a vast amount of material to pursue for our own school libraries.
Thank you to Tania Sheko who kindly shared her notes from this session. My notes are also available here.

New tools workshop wiki

Joyce Valenza has done it again. This time she and David Warlick have created a vibrant and informative wiki that showcases new social media tools for learning.

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With pages covering topics such as:

  • WallWisherIdeas
  • Backchannel
  • PlayaroundPage
  • What is 2.0?
  • Learning more
  • Fair Use and InfoEthics
  • Curriculum and Standards
  • Playing with images
  • Wikis
  • Blogs
  • Digital storytelling
  • Avatar Making
  • Podcasting
  • Video Tools
  • Writing Tools
  • Twitter
  • Nings, Social Networking, PLNs
  • Book Publishing
  • Social Bookmarking
  • Polling Quizzing tools
  • Interactive calendars
  • Personal information portals
  • Skype & Webinar Stuff
  • Search Tools
  • Assorted Widgets
  • Cartoon Generators
  • BackChannel and Chat
  • Map Apps
  • URL Shorteners
  • Media Literacy
  • On evaluating information
  • Game Generators
  • PowerPoint Reform Tools
  • Media parking lots
  • Feeds and aggregators
  • Miscellaneous other goodies
  • Mind Mapping, timelining, outlining, graphing, visualizing
  • Reading
  • ebook pathfinder
  • Screen Capture Apps
  • Interactive Whiteboards
  • iphoneapps
  • iPad
  • Privacy safety identity
  • To get you organized
  • Springfield Township High School Library
  • Teacher Tools

there is something for everyone interested in educational technology. As with any wiki, the New Tools Workshop wiki is a work in progress that will grow and evolve over time. Congratulations to Joyce and David on a wonderful site.

Pathfinder swap

We’ve all done pathfinders for our students. They take quite a bit of time, but they are so useful to point students (and teachers) in the right direction when researching a topic. Now teacher librarian Dr Joyce Valenza has come up with the brilliant idea of hosting a wiki where anyone can upload their pathfinders and in return, find completed pathfinders by other educators. Pathfinder Swap is the result.

Pathfinder swap

Encompassing the topics of

  • Art
  • Books and Reading
  • Business
  • Current Events
  • ESL
  • Geography
  • Health
  • Language Arts
  • Literature
  • Math
  • Media
  • Music
  • Science
  • Social Issues
  • Social Studies
  • US History
  • World History
  • World Languages
  • Interdisciplinary
  • Professional Development

as well as tools to use to build online pathfinders, this wiki is a sensational idea. What a great way to save time and to share and collaborate with others. Please consider sharing your pathfinders via this great initiative.

Dr Joyce Valenza @ SLAV!

The School Library Association of Victoria is proud and pleased to announce that renowned international and online presenter, Dr. Joyce Valenza is coming to Melbourne. Joyce will be speaking at the Make, Share, Do professional learning day to be held at the Olympic Room, Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday 30th July. Places are limited, so please contact the SLAV office as soon as possible to ensure your place at this very special event.

Joyce Valenza is the teacher librarian at Springfield Township High School in Philadelphia. She says;

This is the best time in history to be a teacher librarian. Major shifts in our information and communication landscapes present new opportunities for librarians to teach and lead in areas that were always considered part of their role, helping learners of all ages effectively use, manage, evaluate, organize and communicate information, and to love reading in its glorious new variety.

Dr Valenza’s innovative and practical advice to guide learners in new and emerging information and communications landscapes has received global attention and acclaim across the international education community.

Cooperative Library Instruction Project resources

The Cooperative Library Instruction Project resources is a fantastic website with tutorials for students on internet use, searching, citations and more. The website explains it origins:

CLIP is a partnership between Western Oregon University, Oregon State University, Willamette University, and Chemeketa Community College whose mission is to design and develop sharable, web-based tutorials to assist in library instruction and information literacy.

The following tutorials may be of use to your students and you are able to embed them into your own website.

Evaluating Internet Sources:

Developing a topic:

Incorporating Sources into your Research Assignment:

What is a Library Database?

Generating Search Terms:

Why You Need to Cite Sources:

Internet Searching Tips:

Popular and Scholarly Sources:

Primary and Secondary Sources:

Also included are guides to compiling both APA and MLA style bibliographies.

Librarians can also request access to the CLIP quiz page as well as apply to become a writer for the site (you must join the site before you can apply.

Thanks to Joyce Valenza for blogging about this useful resource.