Jean Darnell: Awaken Librarian

We are living in an age where teenagers are no longer just rebels without a cause, but down-right dismissive with their faces stuck to a screen...j/k...lol...sorry, not sorry! For my inaugural month at high school campus, I'm sticking with tradition and teaching digital citzenship, by way of detox! What did we use to do with our hands before the invention of cell phones? Lol! Please check my Padlet for excellent resource articles:

Today's my first day back after the tragedies of Hurricane Harvey. I've the fortunate pleasure of teaching a digital media course to further advance my platform of the "Social Media Librarian." Please check out our class workspace: GLEC-PVA Digital Media Class . To begin this year off on the right foot, I've included these jewels from my EdPuzzle account! Enjoy! Please join this Edupuzzle using the PIN: viovpin. Here's AASL's 2017 Best Technology Apps for Learning : For my DIGITAL MEDIA STUDENTS ONLY, please complete this survey for one of your daily grades: Create your survey with SurveyMonkey

Happy New Year! To welcome my kiddos back to the library, I brought MY Christmas present to myself: Star Wars: The Force Awakens BB-8 Robot! Needless to say, it was a hit! I did it as a wonderful segway into coding. I began by making the connection to this blog, as I've had to learn a plethora of codes to get this "digital baby" of mine looking cute! :) Lol! Along with my Digital Learning Specialist and for the remainder of this month, I will be teaching my kids coding. We will use the app Scratch Jr . Check out their video here: Scratch Overview Video from ScratchEd on Vimeo . Be sure to check back for additions to the post, but more importantly, check out BLACK GIRLS CODE ! and please say a prayer for me because I would love to have a local chapter here in Houston open up...hire me! :) Watch how Kimberly's desire to open doors for her daughter led to her #PassionProject of developing the next generation of tech innovators: http://amex.c...

So in tribute to T exas Library Association's Snap-Shot Day 2015 , I created a "Library of Gloom" video for Halloween: AND, to be more professional, I've show-cased what I do during my conference period: RUN THE MORNING BROADCAST! I've embraced the role of Broadcast Media Team (BMT) Leader in efforts to better promote library initiatives and coach the students that truly want to go into the field. We have a team of 4th graders (Tuesday/Thursday) and 5th graders (Monday, Wednesday & Friday). We're teaching them skills like how to angle the camera, switching viewing inputs from PC to camera to out in the classrooms, and of course, the major skill-set: SPEAKING ON LIVE TV ! My district has an excellent layout for creating a broadcast team. Check out these helpful tips ! The students enjoy it so much so that they argue, rationally , over who gets to anchor the broadcast and why. I love their constructive criticism and feedback! I call them my ...

So I've come across the book Emily's Blue Period by Cathleen Daly with illustrations by Lisa Brown. It's a clever combination of my favorites: art, family, heart-felt emotions and perseverance. Without giving away too much Emily goes through a "blue" period to mimic her temporary obsession with Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and to counteract the upheaval in her family. On a personal aside, I LOVE Picasso. Who else but he could divide his work into these distinct periods: The Blue Period (1901-1904), which were sad looking paintings using blue and blue-green colours. The Rose Period (1905-1907), which was a more happy style with orange and pink colours. The African- influenced Period (1908-1909) and The Cubism Period (1909- 1919). In my 30 seconds Book Talk : Emily's a young artist. She's impressionable in ways that make her uniqueness shine bright. However, she begins to mimic famed artist Pablo Picasso's "blue period" just when...

Today, I'm attending the Fort Bend ISD Digital Learning Conference and I'm super excited to share the new tool to me EdPuzzle ! You can record audio, trim/edit the video and see which users have answered what questions and export data into an Excel spreadsheet! It's a wonderful classroom tool. I absolutely can't wait to share it at the next professional development inservice! So those that know me, when I get excited about a new thing, I blog it, tweet it and USE it! So here's my "work in progress" EdPuzzle using the #WeNeedDiverseBooks Campaign that I hope takes over the world! Please take at look at it below and use the class code: e09Nmy --that's a zero before the 9 and it IS case sensitive--to leave your comments to the questions embedded in the video!

So my co-worker/friend, Michael Davenport , have this on-going collaborative nature between us! We're constantly bouncing ideas off of each other. Our latest initiative was the idea to record our PDAS observations. This way well intentioned principals can catch all the AWESOMENESS that educators do, that they might not have noticed while in the classroom observing and/or conducting a walk-through. Here's my tweet to bring the Texas Education Agency's attention to our grand idea: @teainfo @txeduchat Why not video PDAS observ. so Ts/Admin can view at their leisure all domain levels? Add peer evaluation too! #txlchat — awakenlibrarian (@awakenlibrarian) May 28, 2015 I mentioned this to @teainfo @txeduchat yesterday! Well intentioned leaders miss measurable moments! May I help out? https://t.co/r9Um6hwRcw — awakenlibrarian (@awakenlibrarian) May 29, 2015 Well, being the overachiever, nutty blossom that I am, I wanted to research what resources were already out there...

This is what happens when you unleash a new technology tool on urban 5th grade dynamite iPad users... cOnFuSiOn, RaPtUre, FrUsTrAtIoN and 100% ENGAGED LEARNING! I showed them a few steps, and then stood back. I wanted them to do as they do at home when they download a new app, and just figure it out! Or better yet, teach each other. I thought of this activity as critical thinking in it's rawest form. It was part self-directed learning (SDL) and definitely independent discovery through technology. After all, they were discovering the wonder of Tumble Books (e-books) ! ENJOY! Essentially, the notion of SDL advocated here reflects Malcolm Knowles definition of SDL: “In its broadest meaning, ’self-directed learning’ describes a process by which individuals take the initiative, with our without the assistance of others, in diagnosing their learning needs, formulating learning goals, identify human and material resources for learning, choosing and implement appropriate learn...

Here's what we're doing this week in the library... Make Belief Comix Strips!! The students are having a blast and it's a wonderfully engaging app! @DigitalFBISD @GoodmanOwls Students mastering the app, Make Belief Comix, in the library all week! #edtech #edchat pic.twitter.com/bxe8c8kJWK — awakenlibrarian (@awakenlibrarian) September 22, 2014 LESSON PLAN: The basic premise of the lesson was as follows: 1. Create a 3 panel comic strip. 2. The strip must have a BME. (beginning, middle and end) 3. Include a SSS. ( Someone talking somewhere in someplace . Also known as character, dialogue and setting)

Thank you Nelsoney's Adventure Blog! Due to him, YOU now have wonderful access to fantastic web apps to use in the classroom. Take a moment and read his 7 Great Tech Tools ! IT IS WORTH YOUR TIME!