Presenting YA RETELLINGS – an epic chart brought to you by Epic Reads. Read your way through this list of 162 young adult books that are retellings or re-imaginings of popular classic literature, myths, fariy tales and Shakespearean plays.

http://www.epicreads.com/blog/an-epic-chart-of-162-young-adult-retellings/

Using Twitter in the Classroom

This post about using Twitter in the classroom is from our local Tarrant Institute.

Spell Up: A Chrome Experiment

Chromebooks in the classroom

Click this link to go to the site:

Bookmark this site:

 http://goo.gl/m4rMV

A Learning Secret: Don’t Take Notes with a Laptop

Just in case you were wondering....

A Learning Secret: Don’t Take Notes with a Laptop by Cindi May for Scientific Americant

Students who used longhand remembered more and had a deeper understanding of the material 

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-learning-secret-don-t-take-notes-with-a-laptop/

Really interesting study published in Scientific American

We know that.....

-Laptops in the classroom enhance their academic performance. Check

-Laptops do in fact allow students to do more, like engage in online activities and demonstrations, collaborate more easily on papers and projects, access information from the internet, and take more notes.

 Check Check Check

Obviously it is advantageous to draft more complete notes that precisely capture the course content and allow for a verbatim review of the material at a later date.  Only it isn’t.  New research  demonstrates that students who write out their notes on paper actually learn more.

When it comes to taking notes, students need fewer gigs, more brain power.

I have a great 2 color pen method -stop by and learn how

​Read more HERE 

Want free YA audiobooks this summer? Sync Week is here!

The SYNC free audiobook project is back, with a pairing of free YA and classic audiobooks. Download each pair during the week they're offered but listen anytime (no annoying DRM or files that expire). 

Details about SYNC are here.

This week's downloads:

June 5 – June 11
ALL OUR YESTERDAYS by Cristin Terrill, Narrated by Meredith Mitchell (Tantor Audio)
JULIUS CAESAR by William Shakespeare, Performed by Richard Dreyfuss, JoBeth Williams, Stacy Keach, Kelsey Grammer, and a full cast (L.A. Theatre Works)

Look for these great titles in the coming weeks:

June 12 – June 18
CODE NAME VERITY by Elizabeth Wein, Narrated by Morven Christie and Lucy Gaskell (Bolinda Audio)
THE HIDING PLACE by Corrie Ten Boom, John Sherrill, Elizabeth Sherrill, Narrated by Bernadette Dunne (christianaudio)

June 19 – June 25
I’D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU, BUT THEN I’D HAVE TO KILL YOU by Ally Carter, Narrated by Renée Raudman (Brilliance Audio)
ANNE OF GREEN GABLES by L.M. Montgomery, Narrated by Colleen Winton (Post Hypnotic Press)

June 26 – July 2
FORGIVE ME, LEONARD PEACOCK by Matthew Quick, Narrated by Noah Galvin (Hachette Audio)
OCTOBER MOURNING: A Song for Matthew Shepard by Lesléa Newman, Narrated by Emily Beresford, Luke Daniels, Tom Parks, Nick Podehl, Kate Rudd, Christina Traister (Brilliance Audio)

July 3 – July 9
TORN FROM TROY by Patrick Bowman, Narrated by Gerard Doyle (Post Hypnotic Press)

PETER AND THE STARCATCHERS by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, Narrated by Jim Dale (Brilliance Audio) 

You'll also need the free Overdrive Media Console app (details here; Overdrive Media Console interfaces with iTunes if you want to integrate your downloads into your existing iTunes Library).

SYNC is open to anyone over age 13.

SYNC offers 2 FREE audiobooks each week through Aug 20, 2014. Sign up for email or text alerts that invite you to download the new titles as they become available.

Find out more...

A bunch of stuff you can do with Google!

GET STARTED 

Flip a Card

Try Kaizena with Your Google Apps

Kaizena is an audio recording tool syncs with Google Drive to provide teachers and students the easy ability to record their voice within Google docs.  Teachers and students can also add text comments and resource links.  Teachers report that many students prefer to listen to their teacher's comments rather than read them.  A student audio reflection can also be added to the learning process.  Perhaps most importantly, this tool has the potential to save time.

The MAGIC of AUGMENTED REALITY-- Create Your Own!

The magic of augmented reality… Create your own!
Some of you have seen the awesome example of AR- “augmented reality” we shared in the library (The Fantastic Flying Books… ) you focus your iPad on a page in the book and it comes alive - the “reality” (page in book) is “augmented” with technology. AR blends real life with virtual reality.
 There is a wow factor - but what about the “so what?” Now we - teachers, students can create our own augmented reality experiences! Easy as 1-2-3! I see sooooo many amazing possibilities for learning. It’s hard to imagine it if you have not experienced it. Stop by the library for a tour!




 
See the IMAG·N·O·TRON in action! from Moonbot Studios on Vimeo.

It's Complicated: the social lives of networked teens by danah boyd

Read the book for FREE! http://www.danah.org/books/ItsComplicated.pdf

 Read why danah is giving the book away and why you should still buy a copy- Click HERE.

Powerful Questions

Your students can find answers to these questions at the library. http://t.co/uFYTOcgWTW pic.twitter.com/CobNh4S7kN

— Kari Ahern (@kariahern) February 5, 2014

Sorting Fact from Fiction: The News Literacy Project for Middle School

Excellent teaching points - lessons - short videos to help us learn how to sort fact from fiction on media sources including Twitter - check out the stories about Hurricane Sandy & Boston Bombing - HERE
HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT TO BELIEVE

"The News Literacy Project (NLP) is an innovative national educational program that mobilizes seasoned journalists to work with educators to teach middle school and high school students how to sort fact from fiction in the digital age.

Students learn how to distinguish verified information from raw information, spin, opinion and propaganda — whether they are using search engines to find websites with information about specific topics, checking a friend's Facebook page, viewing a video on YouTube, watching television news or reading a newspaper or blog post.

The project gives students the critical-thinking skills to become smarter and more frequent consumers of credible information across all media and platforms. They are taught to seek news and information that will make them well-informed and engaged students, consumers and citizens."

Historypin

Watch the  introduction:

Historypin is a way for millions of people to come together, from across different generations, cultures and places, to share small glimpses of the past and to build up the huge story of human history.

Everyone has history to share: whether its sitting in yellowed albums in the attic, collected in piles of crackly tapes, conserved in the 1000s of archives all over the world or passed down in memories and old stories.

Each of these pieces of history finds a home on Historypin, where everyone has the chance to see it, add to it, learn from it, debate it and use it to build up a more complete understanding of the world.