Jean Darnell: Awaken Librarian!

Happy Black History Month! I'm so thankful to highlight the contributions of these Americans! It's everyone's history...with a well deserved emphasis on those marginalized over the years! Now that I'm working at the best magnet arts campus in Houston, Gregory-Lincoln Education Center for the Visual and Performance Arts , I can't stop bragging about all the wonderful extra-curricular opportunities here! On Tuesday, February 28, beginning at 5:30 pm, come celebrate BHM with us! We'll even have our own "Barack and Michelle Obama!" PSA for GLEC's Black History play! from AwakenLibrarian on Vimeo . For those of you that didn't know, I've long wanted to be a playwright! So, for our "Black History" program, I wrote one! Because I secretly wanted to be a dancer as a young girl, and when challenged by a student that I couldn't waltz, I had to make him eat a little "humble pie!" Waltz on over to our #BlackHistor...

I'm very humbled to present to other librarians and tech enthusiast about how I use technology to advocate! Whether its blogging, tweeting or participating on various Facebook groups, (i.e. #FutureReadyLibrarians ), Social Media is now a part of fibers. THANK YOU #TCEA17 for accepting my proposal and giving me to wondrous next working opportunity! Here are some of the highlights thus far! And if you're here at TCEA, please stop by my session: Level 4, Room 15 at 2:30! Here's an online survey that details the effects of social media for librarians! Thank you Zakir Hossain Yes, that's me (above) standing next to a man holding a rattlesnake! Mind you rattlesnakes at the Capitol is just a friendly Texas greeting! Lol! Love the positive energy & ideas of @soulpancake CEO, Shabnam Mogharabi! "What's your story to tell?" #seedsofinspiration #TCEA17 pic.twitter.com/P4wRw7oJk5 — AwakenLibrarian (@awakenlibrarian) February 8, 2017 My f...

Kung Hei Fat Choy! I don't know about you, but the Goat was not kind to me last year, though I did blog about the mighty ram ! Therefore, I'm excited to celebrate this Chinese New Year. Cock-a-doodle-doooooo! Welcome to the Year of the Rooster! May it be a wondrous year full of good luck! Here are a few snapshots from our "day of absorption!" Then we did a wee bit of research and learned these fun "superstitions" courtesy of China Highlights ... Please enjoy our "digital dejavu" of how much fun we had! The Year of the Rooster in the Library! from AwakenLibrarian on Vimeo . Next, we fed our brains and coordination skills with The Story of Chopsticks , provided by GetEpic : #FlyHighFriday fun: Learning how to use #chopsticks ! My princess did it! WOO-hoo! 👏🏾 #HISD #chinesenewyear pic.twitter.com/dgr7i3ia6I — AwakenLibrarian (@awakenlibrarian) January 27, 2017 To conclude with some sizzling knowledge, this new year celebr...

It's NATIONAL NINJA DAY!!!!! I'm super excited to post this and know some of my followers have already started the festivities! Here's my spin... @NinjasRead We're celebrating our #NinjaNames for #NationalNinjaDay ! Get ready, as we'll post our activities all day long! Sensei KuzuMotoki pic.twitter.com/1Mxp0RG5tE — AwakenLibrarian (@awakenlibrarian) December 5, 2016 If you want to learn your own Ninja Name , then check out Ninjas Reads.com to get more ninja resources like the following: Any librarian worth their salt, knows about the marvelous resources available via GetEpic ! Here's a wonderful resource for "How to Draw a Ninja !" Here's a collage of our drawings! We received the anointing nod of Mr. Shoo Rayner, the artist who taught us how to draw those aforementioned ninjas! @awakenlibrarian @EpicKidsBooks fantastic drawings. Well done ! — Shoo Rayner (@shoorayner) December 7, 2016 If drawing isn't your thing, but you...

It all started on Saturday mornings, when cartoons went off and Bruce Lee came on TV. I've watched every Bruce Lee film, read his books on philosophy and Jeet Kune Do. I LOVE ME SOME BRUCE LEE! Today is his birthday, so in honor of my 30+ yrs of admiration, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRUCE LEE! Check out my book review based on his Be Water, My Friend 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 cr...

Happy #ElectionDay ! These kids are w/their parents & all #Americans today in spirit as we exercise our civic duty to #VOTE ! #HISD @TXLA pic.twitter.com/oQVaRzv6wc — AwakenLibrarian (@awakenlibrarian) November 8, 2016 HAPPY ELECTION DAY!!! As the fervor stretches across America, we're celebrating our civic duty in the library! Here's a bit of our ELECTION DAY FUN! "Me" or "We" #VotingDay Challenge! @KidsVotingUSA #kidsvoting ! #Election2016 #PantherPride pic.twitter.com/G3sOYuSSLg — AwakenLibrarian (@awakenlibrarian) November 8, 2016 To find out more about using a "Me" or "We" Challenge, see Kids Voting USA lesson ! After supporting our nation, a few kids had a question about what they could do to support the election? We discussed writing to Senators and the President to voice their concerns. However, they wanted something more concrete. So we came up with a "mock election" idea to beat all ideas...U.S....

Recently, I came across an article where community libraries in Spain had a prep-kitchen for their patrons to use! I thought what an ingenious idea! So I put together a proposal slideshow and video. Please let me know what you think... Additionally, I came across this clever little tool for easy voting, VOTESY! It's like social media voting polls from your global community. I'm thinking you can use this a variety of ways...which book will we read next? Which new class rules are most important? Field day t-shirts? The sky's the limit. See more in the video: Check out this one I made for community kitchens... And this little jewel for favorite childhood fairytales... Please leave me a comment and check out how simple it is to use Votesy!