The Daring Librarian

News@School - Live! 4 Tips to Terrific School TV It's Newsworthy Learning! MHTV is a quality daily live news show BY kids FOR kids! Students can be powerful producers, script writing geniuses, tech stars behind the scenes, and superstars in front of the screen!  Placing an importance on showcasing our brilliant diversity - our goal is to have every kid "see themselves" in our daily live news show. 1. Delight in Diversity Being in the DC Metro area my kiddos are like a gorgeous Benetton ad or like a United Nations picnic!  Hire kids that reflect the diversity in your school...kids should be able to "see themselves" on the TV. That includes gender, language, orientation, and ability diversity, too! Don't have all the girls in front of the camera & all the guys behind the scenes doing all the tech jobs. Hire young and raise them in the studio so that by the time they are at the top of the grades (for me, 8th grade or 13 year olds) they can mentor the...

Have you experimented and played with the new Twitter look yet? It was rolled out last month and it allows a greater (and fun!) branding customization. Much like the Google+ and the Facebook header, this allows you to upload a background with your profile pic and description overlaid. By the way, I started this blog post about three weeks ago -- didn't post because I was *still* playing with my header! Yes...it's compulsive! Some people have had a lot of fun with it creating neat optical illusions (it's a bit difficult and it gets whacked with different resolutions and with mobile versions) and others have made slick, graphically delicious statements. Here's How to Do it!    Decide on a header image that is somewhat dark on the bottom as that's where your profile description will be printed, as well as your URL and your location. Here's a full size example . Original image size cannot exceed 1252×626 pixels (with a max file size of 5MB).  Twitter do...

I updated & improved my QR Code Quest Scavenger Hunt lesson I previously blogged about this year & used it again with my AWEsome ESOL kids & 6th graders. I wanted to share those changes with you because it seems as if you like QR codes! Of my top 5 most viewed blog posts 3 have to do with QR codes (and yes, you know I'm barmy for 'em!) In fact, the first posting about this lesson has had, as of today, 17+K hits! WOWIE! Improved worksheet and graphic clues! I found that I needed to make the scavenger hunt questions simpler & the clues more graphic. (click photo at left to see a larger size) In doing so, I also had the chance to (finally!) make an avatar for my long time (20 years!) long suffering angel of an assistant Mrs. Black! After I created it on Go!Animate Character Creator (Comic World) I then Photoshopped it adding the University of Maryland Terps logo onto her cute red t-shirt because she's a U of M alum & a super fan! This lesson I'...