Edublog Awards 2009

And the winners are http://edublogawards.com/

The Edublog Awards via kwout

BBC Most Popular Stories Now

Live World Map shows the most popular news stories now. The site is updated every hour. Click on the map to find regional stories.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/live_stats/html/map.stm

NHEC | Wordle

I previously posted about Wordle. Here are some ideas for classroom uses for Wordle.


NHEC Wordle

NHEC | Thanksgiving Dinner in 1943

Take the quiz

NHEC Thanksgiving Dinner in 1943

Now, that's a late fee

Browse Harper Collins Publisher

Here is a cool feature to Harper Collins Publisher's books. You can browse before you purchase the book.

Life and other sweet news/history archives

Life and other sweet news/history archives: "

This week, Google Books announced that they were hosting Life Magazine's online archive, nearly 1900 scanned issues of rich print and photographi...

"

Voicethread gets even cooler! NYPL, Creative Commons, and more

Voicethread gets even cooler! NYPL, Creative Commons, and more: "

In time for the new school year, it just keeps getting better! Steve Muth of my beloved Voicethread shared an exciting press release this mor...

"

Welcome Back.

Welcome back to a new school year.

My Summer Vacation

In July, I went to Italy for 11 days with my family. It was the most wonderful vacation we ever went on. Italy is an amazing country. We went to Rome, Assisi, Venice, Pisa, Florence, Sorrento, Capri, and Pompeii. Some people have asked me which was my favorite city and I cannot answer that question. Each city was beautiful and had something unique and special about it. I am already planning my next visit to this incredible country. I've posted a few picture on the sidebar of this blog.

Webinar: Should we be social media specialists?

Webinar: Should we be social media specialists?: "

It was sparked by a Twitter conversation I blogged about back in April, also recorded by Darren Draper as The Ideal School Library.  It's not ...

"

Senior Plans

Here is our "Senior Plans" display wall. Thanks to fellow librarians who like to share their great ideas.

The Twitter Experiment

A US History teacher from the Univ of Texas at Dallas uses Twitter with her students.



The conclusions to the Twitter experiment:

http://www.utdallas.edu/~mrankin/usweb/twitterconclusions.htm

Google New Search Options Feature

Google has just launched a new "search options" feature. After you do a search, click on the "Show Options" link. You can filter your results by type (videos, forums, reviews) You can also filter by time. A Wonder Wheel view visually maps related topics. This video explains how it works.

VocabGrabber

Another tool similiar to WordSift is VocabGrabber which is a Visual Thesarus that will generate interactive vocabulary list from text. Grab the text from a speech, poem or story. VocabGrabber will sort the vocabulary words by subject. Hover over the vocab words to find the definition of the word. Click on the link and give it a try.

Another new tool - WordSift

WordSift is a visualization tool that helps you sift easily through text. It identifies important words that appear in the text.

WordSift's description page lists the following features:

1. Tag Cloud. A Tag Cloud of the 50 most frequent words in the text, excluding function words (such as is, of, at, the).
2.Visual Thesaurus®. The most frequent word is entered into the Visual Thesaurus® and the result is displayed as a word web.
3.Google Image and Video Searches. The results of Google searches are also displayed, using the two most frequent words as the search terms.
4. Sample Sentences. Examples from the source text containing the most frequent word in the text is displayed under the Visual Thesaurus word web.
5. Tailoring the Results. The WordSift display can be tailored by clicking on any of the words in the Tag Cloud. That word will be entered into the Visual Thesaurus, the Google Images and Video searches, and also the sample sentences.

Networked Students

We need to start teaching these tools to our students.

New Gale Widget

Read a new book during Spring Break

The media center just got its last shipment of books for the 2008-2009 school year. Stop by and check out a new book.

Check out theses authors:

Piccoult

Anderson

Fitzgerald

Sebold

Mortenson

Cabot

or these titles:

Three Cups of Tea

World Almanac 2009

Dewey: The Small Town Library Cat

Night

Lucky

Ana's StoryLucky

Wintergirls

Chains

Keeping Faith

YouTube launches EDU site

YouTube lauched a new YouTubeEDU yesterday. It highlights great educational content. See the article below.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/26/youtube-edu-launches/
Check out some of the videos.
http://www.youtube.com/edu

A sample video: First Classes at Penn State

New Release from the author of Speak

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson goes on sale March 19, 2009. Coming soon to the CHS Media Center.




Description from the You Tube website.

Dead girl walking, the boys say in the halls.
Tell us your secret, the girls whisper, one toilet to another.
I am that girl.I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through.
I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame.

Lia and Cassie are best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies, competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the skinniest. But what comes after size zero and size double-zero?
When Cassie succumbs to the demons within, Lia feels she is being haunted by her friends restless spirit.

In her most emotionally wrenching, lyrically written book since the multiple-award-winning Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson explores Lias descent into the powerful vortex of anorexia, and her painful path toward recovery.

BookSwim - Online Book Rental Club

BookSwim is the first online book rental club. You can rent books from bookswim just like you would rent movies from Netflix. You can rent anywhere from 3 - 11 books at a time. No late fees and free shipping.

Rent Books and Textbooks Netflix-style with Online Book Rental - BookSwim.com via kwout

We are never too old for Dr. Seuss!!

Today is the 105th anniversary of Dr. Seuss. Here is an article about one of his most beloved characters.

On Dr. Seuss' Birthday, Remember the Lorax March 02, 2009 11:20 AM ET

"Google changed its nameplate this morning to honor Theodore Geisel, or Dr. Seuss, who would have been 105 today. The search engine's name is spelled out by some of his most beloved characters, but one of his best is not among them. The tale of the Lorax was Seuss' environmental fable published in 1971. In it, he speaks out against the destruction of the environment through the Lorax, a sage figure who speaks for the trees, only to watch his habitat destroyed by an unsustainable business. After the plants are killed and the animals leave the barren wasteland behind, the polluting Once-ler realizes the terrible mistake he's made, and urges a young boy to plant the last-ever Truffula seed to restore the beauty of the land. "

Source: US News & World Report

Google via kwout

You might also enjoy this video!

MLA Update 2009

New MLA changes go into effect April 2009 with the new edition (7th) of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. The OWL at Perdue has a summary of the changes.

MLA Formatting and Style Guide: MLA Update 2009 - The OWL at Purdue via kwout

Here's another tool

Create maps, puzzles, magazine covers, badges, posters and much more with this tool from bighugelabs.com.

The states that I've visited.

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/map.php

Check out Harper Teen's new look. Look for your favorite books, authors, contests and features at Harperteen.com

HarperTeen.com via kwout

From the Barnes and Noble Studio

The Book Files: "an original web series that uncovers the extraordinary back stories of books old and new, famous and obscure. Barnes & Noble "

Another Great New Tool

This is a great way to get a screen shot of a website that you want to use as an image on your own website, wiki or blog.

kwout | A brilliant way to quote via kwout