Technology news and how-to's including Google Game, blogs in schools, social networking and more from School Library Journal
Yahoo! Teachers By Staff - 10/01/2007
Spread the word: Yahoo! has developed a free social networking site that lets librarians create, modify, and share standards-based curricula. Yahoo! Teachers lets educators search a specific subject and then pull up a list of preselected sites that adhere to state standards in math, science, social studies, and language arts. More
Campaign for Politically Savvy Students By Gail Junion-Metz - 05/01/2008
Countdown to Election 2008 teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/indepth/election2008.htm Kids seeking information on the presidential election should visit here. Designed for students in grades 3–8, 'Countdown’ also offers a game called “You’re the President” in which kids select their own advisors and create a balanced budget.
More
Batter up! Baseball Goes Online By Staff - 05/01/2008
Just in time for baseball season, the Library of Congress (LOC) has assembled a Web clearinghouse devoted to America’s pastime. The simply named “Historic Baseball Resources” (www.loc.gov/topics/baseball) features multimedia offerings from the library’s vast trove, including rare images of early games and the original sheet music to “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.
More
Videoconferencing to Go By Jeff Hastings - 05/01/2008
As a child of the space age, I’ve got to say that, despite all the recent technological innovation, the 21st century really isn’t turning out to be quite as Buck Rogers whizbang as I imagined back when I was a kid. Contrary to what I was always led to believe from browsing Popular Science, here it is, the spring of 2008, and I still do not own a flying car.
More
IXL Math By Kathy Ishizuka - 05/01/2008
www.ixl.com/math For members of the right-brain camp—like me—math can be a particular challenge. So it’s especially important for young learners to get a firm handle on the basics. And you know what that means—practice. The online resource IXL Math is a welcome alternative to dreary worksheets, presenting math quizzes for students in Pre-K to grade 3 in a visual way.
More
Start Your Search Engines Part 2 By Anna Adam and Helen Mowers - 05/01/2008
Are your students struggling to come up with kid-appropriate pictures? Have you ever scrambled to find that perfect image for a presentation? Well, there’s no shortage of search engines that’ll help you do the job, and we’re here to share some of our favorites. There’s no doubt that Google is great for finding images.
More
Masters of the Universe: the Passively Multiplayer Online Game By Christopher Harris - 05/01/2008
Given the choice, would you promote order or chaos? Not good or evil, mind you, but the absolute structure of order versus the free-flowing randomness of chaos. This may seem to be a rhetorical question for librarians, but let me take this opportunity to speak in support of chaos. Shocking, I know, but it just might be the next big thing for libraries.
More
What Would Madison Avenue Do? Marketing to Teens By Anastasia Goodstein - 05/01/2008
Whether you work for Nike or in a library, it’s tough to attract an audience. And that’s where smart marketing can make all the difference. Even though libraries don’t have millions of dollars to spend on slick Madison Avenue ad campaigns to entice today’s teens, you do have access to the media that kids love, and that’s a great place to start.
More
Podcasts are a great way to expand learning beyond the classroom or library. Here are more recommendations from Tech Chicks Anna Adam and Helen Mowers, following up their Dec. 2007 article Listen Up!
K-Gr 7–Children’s music doesn’t get much better than these 16 songs by Pomes in a Pail. What began at a writer’s workshop resulted in an amazing collaboration that combined the clever words of Alexander Jenny and the music of Karena Mendoza and Stephanie Snow.
View All Stories
