Jean Darnell: Awaken Librarian

I love Ted Talks and especially those by kids. Therefore, when I came across Ted's blog with "Impressive Kid Ted Talks," I immediately had to share with you! One of my favorite talks are listed embedded below. Those of my students that follow my blog, be INSPIRED for you can have your own Ted Talk one day soon! Thomas Suarez: A 12-year-old app developer Perhaps you have used Thomas Suarez’s most famous iPhone app, the whack-a-mole game “Bustin Jeiber”? While most kids his age were playing online games, Suarez was learning how to make them. At TEDxManhattanBeach, he shares how he is sharing his knowledge and teaching other kids to develop apps too. Adora Svitak: What adults can learn from kids Childish thinking is worthy of real attention, says 12-year-old short story scribe and blogger Adora Svitak at TED2010. Instead of looking just to teach kids, Svitak urges grown-ups to try to learn from them too. Sirena Huang: An 11-year-old’s magical violin Sirena H...

And so we're starting another school year... I've added a literary workspace for my library. Please check it out here : And because it took a diligent effort and was down to the last wire, here's my bulletin board/wall. Yes...for those of you who know me personally, it's not up to par, but I'm working on several masterpieces, so give a girl a break! CHECK OUT THIS "AMAZING" SPIDER-MAN BONUS! This is for you, Julian! :)

So this year, I want to begin a behavioral series with the catchphrase "Find Your Character in a Book!" Within their time in the library, we'd analyze characters in books, and subversively, I'd help the students analyze themselves! We'd focus on the following characteristics: 1. Body Language 2. Refinement Skills (social interactions, mannerisms and speech dialect) 3. Likability 4. Perception (visual & digital) I got this grand idea from working with my former librarian, THE AMAZING AND TALENT DR. ROGER LESLIE on his textbook about character development titled, Teaching S.U.C.C.E.S.S. and Strong Character with Children’s Award-winning Chapter Books (Bayou Publishing). I was a contributing researcher, who analyzed popular children's books looking for characteristics like s elf-awareness, u ndeterred, c reativity, c ourage, e galitarian and s anguine (i.e. S.U.C.C.E.S.S)! And on a side-note, he's the best mentor I could ever have as a ...

I must admit, I'm in the midst of my last 6 hrs of graduate school, taking statistics! Let that sunken feeling drop in your belly! But I did find this slide share simple enough to understand and save-face for discussions: Statistics for Librarians: How to Use and Evaluate Statistical Evidence from John McDonald Statistics for Librarians, Session 4: Statistics best practices from Karen Harker

For those of you who've been under a rock, Pharrell (the musician) had a block-buster hit song, "Happy" last year from the great movie franchise, Despicable Me, but some of the most famous comedians did a "tacky" remake of the video/song. Please check it out below, as it is definitely HILARIOUS with comedians Jack Black, Aisha Tyler, Weird Al, Margaret Cho and Eric Stonestreet (from the hit ABC show, Modern Family! )

So those of you that know, I'm SUPER close to earning my Masters Degree in Library Information Systems and Media Technology! Yeah, me! Below is a program that I created for my library advocacy class (LLLS 6234.40 Librarians Empowering Learners)! I created this Infographic and below is an excerpt from my paper. I hope it inspires you! Read Right by Night Light(RRNL): Parent Literacy Initiative Program: The librarian will initiate a campus wide literacy program that is based on parents and students creating a 3-5 minute video of their reading/performing a children’s book. This program is in support of parents reading 20 minutes a day to their children. This will be a 6 week program opened to the entire elementary campus, grades K-5th. The librarian will introduce the program in the library, modeling how parents should interact when reading and different book and video ideas, as well as obtain the necessary parental consent forms and send home literatur...

Be Water, My Friend by Ken Mochizuki My rating: 5 of 5 stars As a further extension on what I did with Corey Rosen Schwartz's The Three Ninja Pigs , I decided to connect Mochizuki's book as it delved further into Kung Fu and the greatest Sensei/Martial Artist that's walked this Earth: Bruce Lee . Yes, he's my childhood hero. But, what I liked about Mochizuki's book is that he discussed "Mo Shi Tung" as a child (read in the book what it means)...a hyper-active, jokster, who went from a trouble-maker to a world-wide icon, due to the discipline learned in Kung Fu. He expanded his learning even more by creating "Jeet Kune Do," and that's what I want to instill in my students as a librarian: Take what you've learned and own it so much that you can create your own enhanced version or style. To me, and hopefully to my students, that's true originality. I'd argue you to find a better model than Bruce Lee: the philosopher, the master...