The Daring Librarian

Gratitude means thankfulness, counting your blessings, noticing simple pleasures, and acknowledging everything that you receive. Because this is the time of the year when I reflect on being thankful, I'd like to share a simple thing you can do that will help you get through the hard times in teaching. As with any profession, there are awesome days and there are difficult days. During those down days, it's good to have something to remind you why we do this thing called teaching, librarianship, & education.  It's Handy to Keep The Thanks Handy I still love a manila folder!  I keep the thank you notes from kiddos in a folder in my desk and it's labeled, Stuff from KIDS . But I also found it helpful to take a digital picture of the Thank you notes. too! Just in case of age, fire, zombies, you know....the usual. And to be able to look at them anytime I needed an emotional pick-me-up. That folder, on my Flickr gallery is called...Happy !  And Then BuzzFeed ...

It hurts when something you love dearly goes away. Remember, how I said you didn't have to MARRY New Technology - you can just date it and drop it if you don't get along? Well,  sometimes your favorite new technology that you've developed strong feelings for, gone steady with, and kinda loved - just up and LEAVES you! Goes poof, outta the blue! Leaving you to pick up the digital pieces and find a new love & replacement.  Dying on the Vine & Instagram Invention For example, I just heard last week that Vine is going away - and I was all like what the heck!? Which then leaves me to wail plaintively, "Now what!?"   I wasn't an avid Viner, but I LOVED the app for easy Vine Video Book Trailers , Persuasive ELA Reading Projects , Science Experiments, and snazzy, musically enhanced, Library and school culture promotion.     They're saying that Vine is going away because Instagram added Video a while back and because of the growing pop...

I've been Tweeting about this idea for a few weeks now, promising to post about it,  but I've been just a wee bit busy with the start of school this year. (This year? Every year! LOL)  Oh, and this is NOT an apology for not posting!  I've always said about blogging, and went into greater detail in 11 Reflective Blogging Tips & Ideas - post when you can and never apologize. Real life and family is important, blogs can wait. But you're important, too - so let's get going! Aww, aren't my students adorable? OK!  I wanted to engage my kiddos with a new kind of QR Code scavenger hunt involving, of course, PokémonGo! First, I took pictures of 10 different locations around our Library Media Center, then using a Photoshop template I super-imposed 10  Pokémon (some VERY RARE!) as if they were crouching, hiding, or sleeping there, and then created a QR code using Google URL Shortener that linked to that photo on Flickr that they would scan and "captu...

(A version of this post was published in NEA Today Magazine - 5 Super Geeky Tips -So honored to have been invited to write again for them! But here you get one tip extra!) Booya! As I mentioned in my last blog post 5 Ways to Reflect, & Not Regret, Teaching OR... Summer Thoughts for Fall Success , one of the BEST things about being a teacher is that every year is a do-over! This post will provide some easy tips and examples of how up your ed tech game and get ready for a super new school year. Don’t feel pressured to do all 6 - just pick one for this year! If that works out for you, try another and go on from there.  1. Get Cloudy    Goodbye flash drives and external drives - the future of data storage and hosting is in the cloud. At first, I was skeptical of the cloud (and a little scared) but 5 years later and using it every day - I’m convinced! Most school systems have some version of Google Apps for Education (GAfE), available for teachers; I recomm...