Friday, October 30, 2009
MakeBeliefsComix
Click here to go to an awesome website to create your very own comic strips! When you are finished creating one, you have the option to share it with friends through an email or print it off.
Sherman Alexie author of The Diary of a Part Time Indian
Sherman Alexie wrote one of the best books I have ever read. It is called Diary of a Part Time Indian. It is about a Indian teen who wants to leave his reservation and be what he describe as a "normal kid." The humor, honesty, and voice heard throughout this book is inspiring. Everyone who has read this book always comes back to the library telling me how much they loved it! Try it out too!
Sherman Alexie author of The Diary of a Part Time Indian
Sherman Alexie
Sherman Alexie wrote one of the best books I have ever read. It is called Diary of a Part Time Indian. It is about a Indian teen who wants to leave his reservation and be what he describe as a "normal kid." The humor, honesty, and voice heard throughout this book is inspiring.
Everyone who has read this book always comes back to the library telling me how much they loved it! Try it out too!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Glogster – Poster Yourself | Text, Images, Music and Video
via glogster.com
WOW! Everyone has to check out Glogster! I am making an interactive poster tonight and will post it tomorrow. SO COOL!
School chooses Kindle; are libraries for the history 'books'?
via usatoday.com
I cannot imagine a library without books. The introduction of Kindles would be wonderful, but to stop purchasing actual books. Now I would love the $12,000 coffee maker in the library! :)
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Point of View Books by Penguin
My all time favorite book Looking for Alaska is on this list. I knew when I saw After, the book I am currently reading and loving, it had to be a great book too! The Point of View books have been some of the most popular books in our library. I need to get to the book store and buy Hold Still. I cannot wait to read that too!
Digital Citizenship
Welcome to the Digital Citizenship blog. The work on Digital Citizenship has been going on for years but now that there is an overwhelming amount of technology out there we are beginning to see issues. Whenever there is a change in technology as we have seen in the last 20 years there was bound to be some backlash.What is Digital Citizenship? It focuses on using technology in an appropriate way, but it does go further than that. It begins to look at how we are going to work and play in the years to come. It begins to look at how technology has become a part of our lives to an extent that sometimes it seems hard to separate. The issue at hand is how we handle the use of technology in our daily lives.
The other part of this issue is that we have an entire generation that has grown up with technology. By its design the technology community has not imposed many rules or regulations on its users. Now we are having issues in homes, schools, and in society with how technology is being used.
This blog will begin to explore some of these issues through the nine themes of Digital Citizenship. If you are interested in this topic go to the site www.digitalcitizenship.net and explore some if the concepts on those pages. Enjoy the technology, but don't let it become who you are.
House of Night Series - Tempted
I am so excited to go and pick up Tempted tonight. It is the 6th book in the House of Night Series. We have the other five in our library. If you like books about vampires, you will love these!
Monday, October 26, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
50 Intelligent Video Sites | Open Culture | Diigo
Karen Vitek"50 Intelligent Video Sites
in Video - Arts & Culture | October 21st, 2009 1 Comment
Back in June, we first posted a handy list of web sites where you will find free intelligent videos — documentaries, classic films, public television programs, university courses & lectures, interviews with big thinkers, etc. The collection has now grown to 50 sites. Below, you can find the first ten sites on the list, and you can check out the complete collection here. Feel free to share it with friends and, of course, tell us if we’re missing something valuable by using the comments section below."
via diigo.com
Cool Twitter Backgrounds!
Here is a great website to create your own Twitter backgrounds or choose from TONS that they have! Very cool! :) http://www.welovebackgrounds.com/
Friday, October 23, 2009
Cool New Tools I Learned About this Week!
One of the best parts of my job as a teacher librarian is finding new tools and media for our teachers and students to use. This week I found a few new ones and here they are:
Google Sites is an incredible resource! It is very easy to use and has a lot to offer. I created one for our library and you can see it at http://sites.google.com/site/vanmeterschoolsecondarylibrary/ I am going to use Google Sites to create an electronic portfolio for my graduate work at the University of Northern Iowa.
Posterous...in which I created one for Our Library VOICE at http://vmlibraryvoice.posterous.com/
Storybird are short, visual stories that you can make with family and friends to share and (soon) print.
I subscribe to the Google Blog. This morning they had a great new resource listed called Freedom of Expression Google This is what the blog said: To commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, we're launching a YouTube channel — youtube.com/GoogleFreeExpression — to highlight and celebrate free expression around the world, and we want to hear from you. What a great new website....We like that we can hear others with a VOICE too using this resource!
My First Posterous Post
Today I went to the Iowa Library Association Convention in Des Moines. I learned about Posterous. I have linked the Van Meter Library Voice Facebook, Blogger, Twitter, and YouTube to my new Posterous blog page. I really like how I can use my email to post something to my blog.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Another GREAT Vampire Series: House of the Night
Everyone loves the Twilight series and other vampire books. P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast has written an incredible series called The House of the Night. In our library we have Marked, Betrayed, Chosen, Untamed, and Hunted. The next book Tempted comes out October 27, 2009.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Dog Days-Book 4 By Jeff Kinney
I was excited last week to pick up book 4 of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. These books have been so popular at Van Meter and I just knew that this one would be as funny as the first three. Dog Days will be available at the Scholastic Book Fair in November.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Fall Scholastic Book Fair Coming November 5-12
Once again the Scholastic Book Fair will be coming to our school during parent/teacher conferences November 5th through the 12th. Our goal is to sell over $5000.00 worth of books to bring tons of new resources into our libraries! Please come to our book and help support the reading, thinking, and learning that is taking place at Van Meter Community School.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Darren Shan, author of the Demonata and Cirque Du Freak Series
I am also getting ready to add three more books from the Demonata series to the library. The books from these two series have been very popular in our library.
Did you know that The Vampires Assistant the first book from the Cirque Du Freak series is a movie that comes out October 23, 2009. Check out the official movie website and trailer.
My Trip to Barnes and Noble
This weekend I went to Barnes and Noble and picked up some new books for the elementary library. I know how much everyone loves to read the Sister's Grimm by Michael Buckley, so I found 4 more of those. Check out the Sister's Grimm website
I also bought the new book by Kate DiCamillo called The Magician's Elephant. I am so excited to read this new book! Brady and I are going to read it this week...I will let you know how it is! :)
And here is Kate DiCamillo's website
Mrs. Miller's Favorite Author of the Week....Amy Efaw!
This weekend I went to Barnes and Noble to pick up some new books for the library. After by Amy Efaw was one of them. It is a about a 15 year old who has a baby and abandons the baby in a trash can alive. The book then follows Devon through the legal, physical, and emotional issues this decision costs her. I cannot put this book down and can't wait to read more by this author.
Check out Amy Efaw's website at http://amyefaw.com/