The Daring Librarian

Using The Magic Words "Pilot Test!"   Last year I mentioned at the bottom of my Amazon Echo blog post that I was trying something NEW in our library, a BYOD Charging station.  It consisted of a tall AV cart with 2 USB charging hubs and I bought a bunch of multi-ended charging cords. It was on the honor system - come into the Media Center, plug in your device, check out a book or read, and charge while you were here. Still had my disclaimer, though! Your device, Your Responsibility It worked like a dream for months! Until one kid had a beef with another and a tablet, left on it's own over many class periods, went missing. Le sigh. Unbowed, undeterred, and stubborn as all get out, I went back to the drawing board!  Three years ago, while still on the ISTE Board of Directors, I was touring the fabulous Hillwood High School Library   in Nashville, and I saw this amazing bank of lockers in a school library that had electrical outlets in them! WOW! It blew...

Google has quietly unveiled a super handy new way to search...and Save Google Images! I just stumbled across this and was like, Whaaat? It's super cool, but it's going to make my job trying to teach students (and teachers) NOT to just always use (and give sloppy attribution) Google Image Search instead of my beloved Flikr Creative Commons ! Gah!!! LOL When you're logged into your Gmail or Google and you go to Google Image Search, click on any image and you now see two little new buttons that say Save? and View Save? Try it! Voila!  But it's quirky! I just checked this morning when I got into school, logged in with my other Gmail account (you know we all have more than one, amirite?) and it didn't work! But when I logged into the one that I was on yesterday at home, all my saves were there! So, quirky!  Same computer, Firefox, maybe it's because it's NEW?   So, with anything new by Google - your mileage may vary.   Click for the full size exa...

Is it shocking that I would use such an obvious click-bait blog post title? Shameless! But this post is all about the difference between sharing what is personal versus private on social media. Why do people TMI share on Social Media?  Maybe because it's titillating! It's shocking! It's attention-seeking and it's usually a bad idea!  Don't get me wrong, I love gossip, tea, shade, and scandal as much as the next squirrelfriend! Heck, I watch most every Bravo show out there, and all but 2 of the Real Housewives franchise.  Even so, I think it's important to keep your interactions on Social Media authentic, real, but always professional. Being positive, passionate, & upbeat is a good thing, too! I try my best at this. I made the above graphic mostly as a reminder for myself.  I admit I delete a few snarky Tweets now and then after posting [hangs head in shame], usually about the Kardashians, Bieber, Grande, you know, annoying TV people, that Tr...

I've blogged about Speed Dating With Books before - but I really fell in LOVE with this activity - it was a new take on it! I don't let just anyone guest blog here - they have to be someone I know, admire, & like! (So stop asking me start-ups & companies!)  But Mary Reilley-Clark aka @SEMSLibraryLady is indeed a personal friend of mine, and her latest activity was something that I wanted join in on and to share with you! I'm going to post the graphics I created, with her text, and at the very end of this post you will find links to Make a Copy and take the Google Docs, an Exit Ticket, and the Kahoot game, too! Stay tuned, my friends - this is going to be fun! From Mary's original Scoopit share: "We're speed dating this week. Several 6th grade teachers want their students to explore different fiction genres. I decided to make some personal ads ( larger picture & at the end of the post) for different genres or subgenres. I alr...