The Daring Librarian

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...

Ain't it grand? Freedom of speech, blogs... opinions? The ability to mouth off & share? Buckle up dear readers, this is a wordy one...I'm gonna opine! Whether one person or one thousand reads it - I think very fact that we can publish to the WORLD freely our thoughts & ideas without license or permission... THAT my dear friends is a true definition of Web 2.0h,  the read write web. And I reckon, THIS is what we should be celebrating not hating on the nomination & voting process of Edublog Awards OR #Eddies12 ! I've gotta say being recognized for what ya do feels grand. It would be a load of BS to say otherwise, right? And though being included as a finalist after being nominated by your peers is heady stuff - it's the very fact that WE CAN EFFIN WRITE whatever the hell heck we want to write is the real winner. For a matter of fact the Edublogs is quite democratic & anyone, anywhere in the world can nominate any blog! It's not an American aw...

A few weeks ago I blogged about t he AMAZING Fakebook Powerpoint Nicholas Provanzano created in PPT & shared on Slideshare. I even purchased the Discovery Teacher set of Farcebook blank posters & fictional characters examples that I mentioned in the blog - SWEET! We laminated the blank posters so that kids could write on them with dry-erase markers or yes, overhead pens [gasp!]... There are times in our school (like right now) where getting into the iMacLab or using the MacBook mobile labs is difficult due to standardized & computerized testing. These high engagement low tech alternatives are GREAT! But I wanted MORE! So, I re-imagined and re-worked the framework, changed the name to Fakebook, changed some of the text & wording. Created in ComicLife in I exported the image as a .jpeg and inserted into a MS Word doc. You'll need LEGAL SIZE paper to print it but I think it looks real cool! I showed it around to my super cool teachers & they liked it! In a few ...

So we have a spankin new iMac computer lab in our building and I'm really chuffed ! (British for freakin excited!) 30 brilliant new iMacs all lined up & shiny...ready to do some cool stuff with the kids! (and yes, throughout this post I'll be showing off the pics - your hard-earned tax money at work - please notice the Think Different Apple posters laminated & stapled to the wall - don't hate! Thanks RiptideF for the link) Facebook, Farcebook, and Fakebook Templates Miss Wallen - one of our coolest teachers is using the iMac lab with her kids to do a mock Facebook page for Latin American Historical figures like Pizarro, Cortes, Bolivar, and Hidalgo with her 7th grade Social Studies kids! Facebook Template Using the downloadable template I shared from our favourite NerdyTeacher none other than Nick Provenzano the kids are using our databases and links Miss Wallen found to do their research and then become the character filling in the Facebook template...