The Daring Librarian

This is a story about Sister Libraries, Twitter, Google+ Hangout, and connecting kids! It all started with a Tweet by my dear friend & Tweep  Tiffany Whitehead aka The Mighty Little Librarian and her awesome BFF EL teacher Alaina Laperouse both of Central Middle School in Baton Rouge Louisiana! She had been inspired by a Tweet she had seen about sister classrooms started between @ heisereads and @ brianwyzlic - you know, like sister cities? She said she wanted a sister library & I was like I'm willing!! After a few Tweets back and forth a bit to establish time zones (because I'm an idiot when it comes to time zones!) we finally got our kiddos to meet and chat using Google+ Hangout! I've connected with classrooms before using Google Hangout before & blogged about it - but this was different, this was establishing a steady partnership! Our first chat happened in Kristin Cullison's classroom with her 6th grade research seminar class (and...

The Task: "You've moved to the upscale neighborhood of Mt. Olympus, rubbing elbows with the big shots, the wealthy, the divine - yes the Greek Gods. To fit in you better know who your neighbors are! This playlist will help you find out all about their habits, attitudes, and yes...their powers!" During testing season we have a challenge to support student research with limited access to our computer labs and mobile labs. So, teaming with my 7th grade English teachers, we've re-worked our usual Greek Mythology research unit & adding a Reality TV hook for engagement. (Confession: 2 of my 3 seventh grade English teachers & I are also all huge Bravo fans & and our shared guilty pleasure is the Real Housewives franchise) Since we didn't want to do "Real Housewives of Mt. Olympus" for fear that our guy students would be turned off by that, we thought Big Rich would do the trick! PS. This lesson also would work for our good friends in the S...

Yes, we did it. Inspired by Tim Gwynn's TV studio kids doing the Internet MEME dance sensation The Harlem Shake, Winecoff Style (embedded at the end!) you know we had to make our own! What is a MEME, you may ask? Well, I've blogged about this before but here's a quick primer graphic below in case you missed it. Oh and for those of you going to #SCASL13 and #MACUL13 - come see me present QR Codes, I'll be talkin more about them there! So, why has this one Meme sprouted like a gajillion versions in the last two weeks? I think because it's fun & easy to film and most importantly easy to edit! Basically, it's shot in 2 scenes, the first being one person masked dancing with people around assiduously ignoring them for the first 15 seconds of the song, then when the song s ays "Harlem Shake" you cut to everyone going wild dancing usually with costumes & props for a total of 30-40 seconds. Now, schools, universities, companies, & groups ...