Flickr Photo Download: Library visitor

via flickr.com

Back to school. Two weeks to go. Or, any excuse to play with posterous.com some more. :)

Posted via web from Lesley's posterous

Using Word in the Research Process

Download now or preview on posterous

Using Microsoft Word for the Research Process.pdf (78 KB)

Mastering a few simple tricks in Microsoft Word can greatly add to a student's research experience.

Posted via email from Lesley's posterous

Exploring the many fabulous features of posterous

A friend put me on to posterous.com today.  It's a ridiculously simple way to get content online fast.  First, I can post anything by sending an email to posterous with text, pictures, video, or files.  The 'sharing' picture is from flickr using a cc licence from ryancr.
Or let's say I see something on flickr or youtube or slideshare that I want to share with others.  I simply hit the bookmarklet in my toolbar and it automatically saves it to posterous for me.
Cool beans!
This is the tool for all those people who don't have the time, skill or courage to start their own blog or wiki.  They can simply email posterous.  I will definitely be showing my staff how easy it is to post class notes or homework assignments.

Posted via email from Lesley's posterous

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Everything above the line was created in a email I sent to posterous.com. Not sure why the picture posted twice so I guess I have a glitch or two to work out. Otherwise it could not have been simpler. This is a tool I see myself using often.
Oh! Now I get it. The picture posted twice because I included the URL from flickr as part of my image credit. It used the URL to upload the photo itself. To see the photo source simply click on the image.

Once more into the fray

In two short weeks I will be heading back for what might may very well be my final year in the teaching profession. It's a odd feeling. Here are some random things I've been stockpiling in delicious.

Last week Slate Magazine published an article titled "How the brain hard-wires us to love Google, Twitter, and texting. And why that's dangerous." I tweeted about it saying that I had always thought I loved the thrill of the search because I was a librarian. The quick-witted Nancy Alibrandi replied, "Yes! What we thought was a mad search for information all these years turns out to be a mad search for dopamine! : )"

Maybe we can turn that to our advantage with students. If searching is such as addiction they should lap up the search challenges we give them to hone their skills for finding good information. There are some useful search tools and ideas posted on the Web in the Classroom wiki.

If you are helping teachers with blogs or wikis this year, here's a useful post from Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age:
Blogging?? Wiki?? What?? It includes rubrics for assessing student blogs, sample permission documents, and addresses copyright issues. This post is a veritable gold mine of ideas for using blogs and wikis in the classroom and includes many links to useful resources.

Another tool your teachers may want to learn more about is Skype. in her Teacher Et cetera blog, Ms. Ward has assembled a stellar collection of resources with links to ideas for using Skype in the classroom, getting started, resources, and ways to find other teachers and projects using Skype. Be sure to read the comments for more good resources.

Learn-gasm provides a list of 100 Incredibly Inspiring Blog Posts for Educators. There's bound to be something here to inspire your colleagues as they head back into the classroom.

makeuseof.com offers 4 Great Ways To Keep Track Of Your Expanding Book Collection. I've have been trying out Shelfari and have found it to be very useful. These tools could be used to highlight books in a your library collection or as a tool for book clubs. School Library Journal has an article on YALSA's Best Books for Young Adults teen session with some great recommedations and feedback from teens.

There you go. If you have resources to recommend as we head back into our libraries and classrooms please leave a comment below. Thanks for reading!

Blogging in the School Library World

This list caught my eye this morning and started me thinking about my own favorites.
100 Best Blogs for Library Science Students

Some of my favorites:
TLC= Tech + Library + Classroom This is an elementary school library blog but there are many fabulous ideas that are easily transferable to secondary libraries.
Joyce Valenza's NeverEndingSearch
School Library Monthly
The T/L Weekly Special Report by Vancouver School District's T/L Consultant, Moira Ekdahl. This blog is brimful of current activities and links to great resources.
Dear Librarian author Ann Krembs works as an International School librarian. She is currently moving from India to China and hopefully will resume blogging once she and her family are installed in Beijing.
Eternal Learning of the Open Mind from a middle school librarian who integrates web 2.0 tools to promote libraries and learning.

Some of these blogs have gone quiet during the summer but I'm hoping will spring back to life when school resumes. Check the sidebar for a full list of library blogs I subscribe to.

I have also added a feed from my reader that features blog posts from a variety of authors that I think are worth sharing. It's in the sidebar too.

For those of you who have your own blog or are thinking about starting one here are 100 Terrific Tips and Tools for Blogging Librarians.