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ETech Ohio 2013: Information Literacy-Crucial Skills for Students Right in Your Classroom Information Literacy Resources: Basic Steps in the Research Process from Cambridge Rindge and Latin School: http://www.crlsresearchguide.org/ How Teens Do Research in the Digital World from the PEW Internet & Family Life Project: http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Student-Research.aspx Scoping the Search from Webhound: http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/webhound/scope.html Google Search Education: http://www.google.com/insidesearch/searcheducation/index.html Larry Ferlazzo's Best Online Resources to Teach About Plagiarism: http://bit.ly/2dD1Zv Noodle Tools-The Ethical Researcher: http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/ethical/ Info Lit Resources from the American Library Association: http://www.ala.org/acrl/issues/infolit The Copyright Genie: http://librarycopyright.net/resources/genie/ Guide To Web Search from Finding Dulcinea: http://bit.ly/c4L4FJ All the Information in the Known Universe: A Kid-Friendly... Continue reading

Blogs to Peruse The Mommy Blog: http://main.melindaroberts.net/ Tracy Porter Blog: http://blog.tracyporter.com/ Tongue In Cheek: http://willows95988.typepad.com/ Heather Bullard: http://heatherbullard.typepad.com/ Bizzie Living: http://www.bizzieliving.com/ Urban Bliss: http://urbanblissdesign.com/life/ 100 Days of Real Food: http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/ Bored Mommy Blog: http://boredmommyblog.com/ The Everywhereist: http://www.everywhereist.com/ The Big Picture: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/ The Pioneer Woman: http://thepioneerwoman.com/ Lip-Sticking: http://www.lipsticking.com/ Garden Rant: http://www.gardenrant.com/ Not Martha: http://www.notmartha.org/ Everyday Trash: http://everydaytrash.com/ A Year of Reading: http://readingyear.blogspot.com/ While you’re there, explore the blogrolls on these sites. You never know where the links will lead you! Blogging Resources Books: Blogging for Bliss by Tara Frey The IT Girls Guide to Blogging With Moxie by Joelle Reeder and... Continue reading

Helping Students Create and Maintain a Positive Digital Footprint Stacy Nockowitz Head Librarian Reinberger Middle School Library The Columbus Academy Gahanna, Ohio 43230 (614) 509-2266 [email protected] http://somenovelideas.typepad.com @snockowitz Video: Think Before You Post Electronic Resources ThinkB4U http://www.thinkb4u.com/ KidSMART: Digital Footprint http://www.kidsmart.org.uk/digitalfootprints/ Digital Citizenship : Using Technology Appropriately http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/ Nine Themes of Digital Citizenship http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/Nine_Elements.html “Digital Citizenship : Addressing Appropriate Technology Behavior” (Article by Mike Ribble, Gerard Bailey, and Tweed Ross from Learning & Leading with Technology http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/uploads/1stLL.pdf Common Sense Media : Media and Technology Resources for Educators http://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators Digital Citizenship : Rights, Roles, and Responsibilities in a Digital Society (Northside... Continue reading

I feel like I've just begun to conquer Web 2.0. I'm collaborating, creating, gathering, and using information like a madwoman. That's why I'm more than just a little aggravated that Web 3.0 is starting to shoulder its way into our consciousness. For a long time, I told myself that I didn't care what Web 3.0 is, that I'd be long gone before Web 3.0 became a reality. Then, when I realized Web 3.0 is actualy on its way- NOW- I decided I just couldn't understand what it is. The semantic web? What the heck? Well, now I, and you, have... Continue reading

I have never done a Best Books list, mainly because although I absolutely love to read these types of lists, I generally have a hard time choosing ten favorites from a given year. I read so much, but for me to put a book on a BEST list, it had better be damn good. And some years, as much as I read, I don't read ten great books. Let's see if I make it to ten for 2011. My favorites, in no particular order: Marie Lu's smart, fast-paced addition to the dystopia coterie begs for a sequel. Violent and bloody,... Continue reading

Kevin Brooks's new novel iBoy is built on a completely preposterous premise. That's why I didn't want to read the book at first. Well, that and the silly title as well as the laughable line just below the title: Search. Shock. Destroy. Really? Really? Well, I'm glad I got over all of that and started reading because iBoy was, in the end, a totally unexpected, very powerful book. I still think the title is goofy and that "Search-Shock-Destroy" thing is ridiculous, but I hope other readers will overlook these details just enough to give iBoy a try. Tom Harvey lives... Continue reading

Helping Students Create and Maintain a Positive Digital Footprint Stacy Nockowitz Head Librarian Reinberger Middle School Library The Columbus Academy Gahanna, Ohio 43230 (614) 509-2266 [email protected] http://somenovelideas.typepad.com Electronic Resources KidSMART: Digital Footprint http://www.kidsmart.org.uk/digitalfootprints/ Digital Citizenship : Using Technology Appropriately http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/ Nine Themes of Digital Citizenship – Page from previous website http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/Nine_Elements.html “Digital Citizenship : Addressing Appropriate Technology Behavior” (Article by Mike Ribble, Gerard Bailey, and Tweed Ross from Learning & Leading with Technology http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/uploads/1stLL.pdf Common Sense Media : Media and Technology Resources for Educators http://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators Digital Citizenship : Rights, Roles, and Responsibilities in a Digital Society (Northside Independent School District... Continue reading

I just received an email from Overdrive, a huge ebook distributor, for an ebook webinar that they're holding. The text in the email says this: "How do you engage students who spend more time reading from a screen—on their cell phones or computers—than they do from the printed page? With eBook and audiobook downloads. OverDrive, the leading distributor of eBooks and more for libraries and schools, invites you to learn how to make reading cool with the devices students use every day." Reading this made me squint pensively at the screen of my laptop. Are ebooks the only way we... Continue reading

Scott Westerfeld is going to have to start writing another gargantuan book series pretty soon. I just finished Goliath, the third book in the Leviathan series, and I am going to go into Westerfeld withdrawal by November. Also, between this series and Cassandra Clare's Infernal Devices series, I've become a tad crazy for the steampunk stuff. Someone pointed out to me that the Leviathan books are not technically steampunk, as the engines described in the book don't run on steam. I don't care. So, don't tell me again that I'm mislabeling the series. At Powell's Books, they put Behemoth on... Continue reading

Absolutely everyone has noticed the rash of dystopian YA novels kicking around the bookstore these days. I was recently in the wonderland that is Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon, and their YA room had a great "I'm Dystopian!" display. Author Philip Reeve wrote about the phenomenon in this month's School Library Journal. And you can't escape the promotions for the upcoming movie version of The Hunger Games. I'm guilty of being quietly obsessed with the genre ever since I started teaching Lois Lowry's classic The Giver twenty or so years ago. Well, in the past few years, I've read: The... Continue reading

The title of this post presents you with a sort of impossibility when it comes to actual books. Sure, when you're talking about people, you're not supposed to judge someone just based on his or her looks, but the cover is the first thing you judge a book by, isn't it? I know in these days of ereaders and ebooks, we don't linger over the covers of books the way we would in a book store. And I'm saying that as a person who reads almost everything on my iPad at this point. But I still tend to be attracted... Continue reading

As I write this, I am watching "The Matrix" on AMC. This is my absolute favorite movie of all time. They just "woke" Neo from the dreamworld of the Matrix, and he's about to find out what the real world actually is. This movie is visually stunning in so many ways. I've used it to teach about viewing movies with a critical eye. It's just a delight for a film junkie like me to watch, even if this is the fiftieth time I've seen it (at least). In addition to its visual appeal, "The Matrix" is a wonderful story about... Continue reading

Let's play Guess the Book. I'll tell you some plot tidbits from the book I just read, and you tell me what book it is. No peeking at the book cover to the left. It's just there for show, anyway. A teenage girl moves to a new city and enters a new school. She is immediately fascinated with one of her classmates. He's pale and beautiful, and all of her new friends tell her to forget about him. Apparently, he doesn't pay much attention to anyone at school, and he keeps to himself. But, of course, their attraction is supernatural.... Continue reading

This summer, my son and I are taking a trip to Oregon. He and I spent a ton of time online looking at hotel reviews and maps and room rates, and we finally narrowed it down to this one great looking hotel. We browsed the hotel's website for a while, and we ended up booking our stay on one of the travel aggregator sites. The next day, and for quite a while beyond that, I noticed that in my Google Reader feeds, the advertisements at the bottom of each entry were ALL FOR THAT HOTEL. In other words, the internet,... Continue reading

Below you will find the various resources presented at OFLA 2011 by Dr. Franz Gruber and me in our session, Latin Projects Via Voicethread. Dr. Gruber and I completed two projects with Voicethread this year, an ancient architecture project with 8th grade Latin students, and an Ohio city project with 7th grade Latin students. Here you will find Dr. Gruber's slides, my slides, several student project examples, and a several other relevant links. If you have any questions regarding these or other Voicethread projects, please contect Dr. Gruber or me at: [email protected] [email protected]. Latin Projects via Voicethread View more presentations... Continue reading

A few weeks ago, Ben Mikaelsen came to our school as this year's visiting author. Ben was a delight, and I'll write more about his visit in another post, but for now, I want to concentrate on his philosophy about writing. "Writing," he said, "is storytelling." Of all of the things that I got out of Ben's visit, and there were many, this simple sentence resonated with me in a way that I never would have expected. It stuck in my brain and kept tap, tap, tapping through my thoughts. You see, in some fantasy world of mine, I consider... Continue reading

Thought I'd share a video that I learned about from Jeffrey Thomas' blog, Tech the Plunge. It moves fast, so get your reading glasses on! I am clearly the lone holdout on this "Facebook" thing. I don't know...I just don't think it'll last. Yes, that's a joke. But I'm still not going on Facebook. Continue reading

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Maybe this is what my blog is for... just posting stuff I think is cool. Here's a wicked cool slideshow of amazing libraries around the world. The library pictured above is at Yale, in New Haven, Connecticut, but most of the pictures are from other continents. Here at my school, we're in the process of talking about building a new Middle School building. I don't think the new library will look like any of the ones in the slideshow, but a girl can dream, can't she?! Continue reading

Sqworl for this presentation, with thumbnails and links to all tools discussed. Using the Tools Continue reading

The hideous attempt at a PicassoHead of myself is at left. In the past, my students have absolutely loved this kooky web tool, so when it was suggested to make an avatar using it, I thought I'd have fun. Well, sure, it's fun when you want to make something weird and wild, but making an avatar for oneself? More like humiliating. Just to clarify, I don't look like that. But in creating this (Teacher Challenge Activity #4), I started thinking about how I identify myself on the web. Sometimes, my avatar is a stack of books. Other times, I use... Continue reading

Wow, I sound like my 13 year-old. Before I get into the activity, I want to say a big thanks to all the wonderful people who have left thoughtful and supportive comments on my blog. You're awesome, and I'm truly grateful for this community of which I have become a part. So, the third activity for the Teachers Challenge involves doing a little blog cleaning. The activity says "spring cleaning" but considering the weather here in Ohio (35 degrees and raining; no sun for days...), I'm just going to call it a blog cleaning. This is gonna be a short... Continue reading