April is Poetry Month. Last week, just a little early, we hosted our first ever Springfield Slam. The kids from Literary Mag, Gay Straight Alliance, and Gallery Club, who helped me organize the event, assured me, Dr. V, there will be poems. I worried anyway. No need for that. There was a poem or two [...]
For those of you out there who are planning a Passover seder about now, you may want to rethink digging up the old wine-stained Haggadah’s (Haggadot?) you store in the dining room hutch. You may want to expand your traditional storytelling repertoire. And you may want to make a little space at your table for [...]
Because these are the details we obsess over. The authors who write them and the readers who read them. They connect us with our stories and connect our stories with each other. And with these connections comes a whole new world of discovery. Valla Vakili’s talk at the Tools of Change Conference. 2/14/12 In his [...]
Note: I am a member of this OITP committee and I urge my brilliant TL friends to apply for this recognition! OITP, LITA seek nominations for cutting-edge technology practices Washington, D.C. – The American Library Association (ALA) Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) and the Library & Information Technology Association (LITA) are soliciting nominations for [...]
For my September newsletter, I decided to resurrect and majorly update an old PowerTools document of ideas I had for mixing up the traditional student project and for offering students alternate strategies for communicating their knowledge and creativity. Yes, I have tried many of these at home with adventurous teachers. I thought I’d share. Please [...]
When I discovered I was selected to present at TEDxPhillyED last spring, I was both honored and terrified. Doug wrote about this event and his own TEDx experience in his post Everyone should give a TED talk. Doug hit the nail on the head with his question: So here is my question: Could you give [...]
Who says panel discussions can’t be fun? After the seriousness and pressure of preparing for my TEDxPhillyed talk on Saturday (more on that in a future post), several good friends and I presented the Learning Tools Family Feud at ISTE. Click on the Unlocking Potential image below to view the hour-long session. Perhaps we did [...]
It’s a new semester here in Springfield and I’ve been reflecting again. (This post is kinda connected to the next, so please read on. It will be up soon.) I am a huge fan of free apps for creativity and productivity and dynamic information gathering. No surprise that in this blog I frequently celebrate the [...]
Larry Magid and Anne Collier’s Parents’ Guide to Facebook is must reading for parents–and librarians. * 35-Page PDF guide * Chart of recommended privacy settings for teens Make sure you share the downloadable guide and accompanying online resources (available at Connectsafely.org). The perspective is reasoned and realistic and focused on supporting responsible citizenship. The authors offer [...]
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