Let's Celebrate "Dot Day" Together and Make Our Mark On The World!

As we get ready for school to start again, we also start planning for special library and school events that happen throughout the year. 

One of the best days of the entire year happens on September 15th.  It is called International Dot Day! This is a day that we can all make our mark on the world through friendship, love, art, technology, play, reading, and fun! 

 

We have been celebrating Dot Day with students, teachers, and our community for four years now.   Instead of containing Dot Day to one day, we celebrate all week long....throughout the library, school, and community.   

How exciting that there are only 52 days left!  You can find this globe and information on the Dot Day website. 

You can join others around the world on the Google Document that we have started for another amazing year of Dot Day collaboration. 

Once you are at the International Dot Day Connections 2014 Google Document, please add your information....name, school, location, Twitter, Skype, and anything else you want to share.  

Now start connecting!  By adding your schedule, ideas, and plans for Dot Day, you will start to build a wonderful day or week that your students won't forget. 

And just as my dear friend Peter says....

Make Your Mark....And See Where It Takes You. 

Let's make this the BEST Dot Day ever!  

You Will Not Want To Miss "The Digital Shift...Libraries @ The Center" On October 1st....Sign Up Today!

This week, Library Journal, School Library Journal, and several amazing sponsors announced the 5th year for The Digital Shift!

With a theme of Libraries @ The Center, The Digital Shift will be a virtual all day event on October 1, 2014 focusing on our shared digital future.

This year I have the honor of presenting.  My presentation Bringing A New "Voice" To Our Library and School With 3D Printing will be at 1:00-1:15pm EST. 

You can register for The Digital Shift here and also follow along on Twitter by using #TDS14  and @ShiftTheDigital.

It is going to be a wonderful day.....One you definitely won't want to miss!

Today My 10-Year-Old Friend Shae Starting Blogging & Sharing Her Voice With The World

This morning my friend Shae came over to my house for a little blogging session.

This all started about a month ago when Shae called me on my cell phone one Saturday night and asked me if I would help her start a blog.  You can read all about it here.

You see....she wanted a place to share her news and voice with the world.

I couldn't wait to help her and we set off to plan this new adventure for Shae.

After learning the basics about Blogger, Shae and I brainstormed themes and titles for her blog. I love what she came up with...

News from the Heartland!  It fits perfect!  And her blog byline, "A place to learn the news from an Iowa girl" says it all.

Shae took right off on her blog, sharing the story of how this all started and what she wanted to share by blogging.  I loved seeing how she put the first post, Check It Out! My First Post On My Very First Blog! together.

When she was finished with the first post, we shared it on Twitter and Facebook.

She was really excited to see who was reading and commenting on her post.  It is so easy to use Revolvermaps to get a quick glimpse.

As Shae watched people visit her blog and responded to comments they were making, she got more and more excited about this new avenue she had created to share her voice.

She continued to write and over the next two hours wrote three more posts.  This truly shows how important and exciting it is to have platforms and forums such as this for our young people.

I hope you follow News From The Heartland and Shae's adventures as a blogger, learner, teacher, and someone with an amazing voice that will make a difference in our world.

I know she has made a difference in mine.

Tell Me What You Are Doing, Learning, and Creating With Makerspaces!

This week I have the honor of being part of November Learning's BLC Conference in Boston.  It is always my favorite event with friends, learning, and so much fun each year.

On Wednesday, I am sharing a new presentation at the conference.

It is called Bringing A New "Voice" To Libraries and Schools Through Makerspaces.

I am very excited to share what I have learned about Makerspaces.   But most importantly, I can't wait for the conversation that takes place within the room during my presentation about Makerspaces.  There is so much for all of us to learn from each other about this topic.

I would love to hear from all of you too!  I created the Google Doc that is shown at the top.  You can get to it here and add anything you wish with all of us.  The more we share ideas, materials, photographs, etc... the more we will all be able to take back to our own spaces and schools.

So Much Fun Announcing The 2014 AASL Best Websites for Teaching and Learning at ALA in Las Vegas!

One of the best moments at the American Library Association Conference in Las Vegas last week was being part of the AASL Best Websites for Teaching and Learning committee.  

I have been on this committee for 2014 and enjoyed all of the work we did as a committee choosing the very best new websites for the year. 

Our amazing chairperson, Heather Moorefield-Lang put together this beautiful HaikuDeck with the information, examples, and advice we gave her about each of the 25 websites we selected.  

It was really exciting and fun to announce each of the websites.  I cannot wait to see how everyone uses these digital tools with their students and schools throughout the year.  There is definitely something for everyone on this list!  

For more information on the AASL Best Websites for Teaching and Learning 2014 check out the webpage.  You will find the websites, promotional tools, and even the lists from the past five years.

I look forward to our work in 2015 and can't wait to find lots of new websites to test out again!  Please share any new websites and ideas with us too.