Jean Darnell: Awaken Librarian

Welcome to the amazing app of ColAR ! This a FREE app that allows children to color pages, take a picture of the the coloring page with ColAR's app and watch their coloring page COME A LIVE! How awesome is that? Take a look at their demo video below. This is a FANTASTIC way to incorporate technology and creativity in one. You can even have students characterize their drawings with their own voices, creating a story line and presenting it before class. Furthermore, you can have them brainstorm how this app can be beneficial to other grade levels. Sometimes, feedback from students can be more effective than any "grown-up" counsel/council! :)

Joyce Valenza has a wonderful example of Lib Guides for all to use. Please check it out! As an extra bonus, check out these poetry slams ! Finally, check out some NEW WEB TOOLS to use in the library!

"A good children's book is a young person's earliest exposure to art and design, a conduit for parental bonding, a means to teach individual and social lessons..." Not only does this ring true, but think about how early you need to expose children to books. Is 3 months too young? No. Is before birth too soon?? Never. When you build those bonds before entry into life, I believe the baby will recall the tone in your voice. I believe the 18 month old will mimic the manner in which you held his favorite book. Your 4 year old little boy will ask a thousand times over for his favorite "night-night" story. The following response came from "The Goddess of YA Literature" Blog. "So to the list of reasons why children's books matter, add the way that they reflect the times they were created in. 'They are the message-in-a-bottle that each generation tosses out to the next generation," Marcus says, "the record of one generation...

I learned and implemented a QR code for this blog. You should be able to see it below. Take a look at this website to create your own FREE QR code:

Whether it's YouTube or TeacherTube , children learn with videos NOW more than they ever did before. Since I've just landed my librarian job, I thought it important to watch a library orientation video to help me learn what to say and how to present the library to my students. I love this video, simply because of it's ease and directness. The students know how to check out books, where to socialize while in the library, how to use the databases and contacting their librarian. Please spend a minute and look at my findings.

This is a lesson that I created to get my ESL students acclimated to their new home--Houston, TX. Please take a look at it and feel free to use it...just give me credit as the idea originator! :) Reading 2ESL—Cultural Exploration Blog (for ESL/ELLs ) Objective: The students will create a blog on different restaurants and/or cultural venues (i.e. museum, boutique store, park or fair) they visited as an exploration of cultures other than their own nationality. The students will upload pictures, as well as posts on their blog, to document their experience. The teacher will collect the web addresses on a specific due-date to spread in a public manner. The students will review each other’s blog and comment on at least 4 different blogs of other classmates. Technology Component: The students will use a free blog to narrate/discuss their experience in a new sit-down restaurant and/or environment. ( Blogger.com ) Goal: To familiarize students will the ease of building a free blog and h...

The creation of my own 23 Things has empowered me in the world wide web. I did have basic knowledge and usage, but this has converted me and gave me affirmation in my abilities as a tech-geek! :) I enjoyed learning about Symbaloo and the freedom to post somethings dear to me (i.e. my crush on Darth Vader)! Technology is another communication device that won't disappear anytime soon and I'm fortunate enough to have acquired additional skills through this virtual learning process. EVERYTHING I blogged about I will incorporate into my library and/or classroom. I hope to challenge some students, via an after school media technology club to create this same 23 Things blog to hone in the skills they will need in a professional realm. In a effort for brevity, I will summarize my experience like this: 23 Things is a virtual adventure that equips the participant with another venue to express their communicative imagination and ideas; so link-in and absorb some blue-light!