The Daring Librarian

I admit to having a total geeky girl crush on Meme Molly of Rocketboom . What is Rocketboom? It's a "three minute daily videoblog or Vlog based in New York City. We cover and create a wide range of information and commentary from top news stories to quirky internet culture. Instead of costing millions of dollars to produce, Rocketboom is created with a consumer-level video camera, a laptop, two lights and a map with no additional overhead or costs.” This adorable English Internet Vlogging phenom & her perky gorgeousness explains in amusing & snarky pattois what's the lastest Meme and above...what Google Plus is all about & how it's different than The Twitters or The Facebooks. Fascinating history this Miss Molly Meme has...From the Wikipedias : " Molly started secretly making Youtube videos in her bedroom when she was 16 and eventually her parents found out about it. After a few years working independently in web video and a stint in Canada study...

"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are far more than our abilities" - Dumbledore pg. 333 Chamber of Secrets   It's kinda silly that I'm blinking back hot tears writing this. But I'm sorta sentimental about the Harry Potter Series.  Back in 1999 I joined the Unofficial Harry Potter Fan Club started by interweb fan fiction pioneer "Jenna" (never found out her last name) and created a special bulletin board display with pages I printed (in colour!) from the website!  It was the first book I became a fangrrl for! I made sure to put the URL at the bottom of each page to teach my kids attribution. I loved Fan Fiction and even before I knew what a Mary Sue was.  It was the first book I waited, with baited breath, for even the title to be revealed, I read every "leak" and speculation online, I pre-ordered it from Amazon and when, the day that book arrived in the summer (thank you JK, for always summer!) I had a sign printe...

On the interwebs a star can rise overnight! And no... I'm not talking my old beloved friend & early Internet Meme Trogdor ....I'm talking about a cool guy from Denmark. With the advent of the new social network by the Googles called Google Plus or G+ Denmark denizen Simon Laustsen has created some of the BEST & coolest infographics for this exciting new community of learners & early adopters! They became an instant hit & according to his blog (scan the QR code, too!) " It turned out to be very popular, and so it has now been shared over 1000 times on Google+. It has been translated into several languages and the number of people following me has literally exploded from 0 to 600 and counting." Now with over 1800 followers Simon's Google+ cheat sheet has been translated into 11 different languages! (link to all at bottom) He has also graciously given me permission to post them here on this blog and he added a QR code to his profile pic after a...

So....even though I'm very transparent about my practice and profession here and on the Twitters I kept pretty mum about the fact that I was applying to the Google Teacher Academy cause I guess I didn't want to jinx it, humiliation, you know...the usual! You see, I missed my opportunity to go the Washington, DC 2009 GTA in my own backyeard with my mentor Joyce Valenza and my former student teacher the awesome Danielle Du Puis. The next one was in Australia - I didn't even try for that one...Cha Ching...Why? As one of my FB peeps said "Kathy Kaldenberg I assumed you were already a GCT! I think you'll be teaching them a thing or two."  (Yeah, right!LOL) Don't Miss It!  Ha, ha..me teach Google? One can only hope! But that's how I missed the GTA in my backyard of Wash DC -everyone assumed I was in & I missed the narrow application window! DOH! (Srsly, I can't keep up w/everything!) But I *have* been preaching the Google message since...

I was asked recently for a quote by a N.Y. Times editor for their opinion page : Here's the question: "School librarians are on the chopping block as states and cities seek to cut their education budgets. Do superintendents and principals see librarians as more expendable than other school employees? If so, why?" Here's my response: "From the Daring Librarian to Teacher Librarians everywhere with love, albeit tough love - but full on love! Times are tough all over for education. Superintendents and administrators are making some hard financial decisions. Any position that does not have constant student interaction, testing expectations, and direct grading is vulnerable. Librarians and school libraries are at a crossroads. This is one of the most exciting times to be a teacher-librarian in our country and is also the scariest. A revolution is at hand, and we need to be nimble, daring, digital and shift both our practice and the way the world thinks of schoo...

Every year I look forward to going to ISTE Island and taking a snap for my Virtual Worlds Name Tag! Yes, I blogged about this last year..but it deserves a fresh mention! It's important that those of us who learn and teach on the grid show our SIGVE allegiance! It's also important to represent my Steampunk aesthetic by wearing my most fetching Steamy Victorian tophat by famed milliner Miss Reghan Straaf of Hatpins ! I'm also wearing Miss Punktuality gown by Cutea of Grimm Bros. with out of control grid breaking metal overskirt & matching rusty clock bedecked collar. Go big or go home, folks. I also gotta admit I photoshopped my Avatar...which frankly is just a bit odd. Get your own ISTE SIGVE Nametag! "If you're heading to Philly next week for ISTE 2011, don't be left without your avatar name badge. Come on over to ISTE HQ's and follow the directions at the photo booth. Thanks and see you soon! -Louise" Here's the SLURL to the Photobooth! ...

It's that time of year again! Time to beg, cajole, tease, torture (audibly), and plead to get our Library Media materials back. With 27% of our students on free & reduced lunch I know that we have a large group of kids that probably can't pay for their lost books...and I've made peace with the fact that I'm never gonna get ALL my books, digital playaways , & CD's back. I shoot for a loss of 30 a year. Sometimes it's more - sometimes it's less. And, That's OK! That's the cost of doing business. Some of my kids might not return a book because they LOVE it and they can't buy it to keep for their personal libraries. So, if that could possibly EVER be the case I only push so far. BUT... I do everything I can to get those materials back because though I'm understanding, I'm still trying to teach responsibility, respect for property, and accountability! That's why I have lots of creative ways to get our books back. And yes, I...