Pottermore

Pottermore is a beautiful blend of literature and technology.  Harry Potter fans have waited for this site to become live for a while.  Pottermore is an interactive website that allows fans to go more in depth with the Harry Potter series.  It starts with the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (the American version is titled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone).  Fans start with chapter one of the book but see scenes how JK Rowling (the author) envisioned them to be when she wrote the books.  Users can click on images to read more information about certain parts of the story.  Rowling has written new supplemental material to accompany the books on the site.


If you are a Potter fan, Pottermore is definitely something worth checking out!  If you sign up, look for me.  My username is SkullCat8223. :)
   

Author of the Harry Potter series, JK Rowling

Khan Academy

As a library media specialist, it is important for me to keep up to date with current technology and trends.  I use what I learn to help the teachers and students in my building.  I recently learned about an awesome website called Khan Academy and have been sharing it with teachers at my school.  This website has over 3,000 educational videos that cover subjects such as math, social studies, and even economics.  Students, or anyone really, can watch these videos, for free, and then practice skills at their own speed.


This site is supported by Bill Gates and is starting to get a lot of attention in classrooms across the country.  The site says that its mission is to "help you learn what you want, when you want, at your own pace."  To learn more about Khan Academy, read the article "How Khan Academy is Changing the Rules of Education."

Glogs

Glogster is a social network that allows its user to create interactive posters called glogs.   Glogs are neat presentations that can be a lot of fun to create.  Glogster allows users to create glogs using text, graphics, videos, and audio.  Glogs can be used as a fun and creative alternative to Power Point presentations.

Since I have been in the MLIS program at Southern Miss, I have had to create two glogs for different classes.  One of the glogs was a babysitting pathway that offered books, articles, and websites about babysitting and the other glog was a guide to reader's advisory on a variety of genres. 

Teachers and librarians could use glogs in classrooms and libraries to make assignments and lessons more interesting.  Glogster is free and takes very little time to do.

A screen shot of my glog about reader's advisory

Kids Say the Darnest Things!

I am a librarian in an elementary school so I hear some of the most unintentionally funny things.  For example, while reading the book Rainbow Fish to the Rescue!, I asked students what might be something dangerous in the reef in the ocean.  A lot of students guessed shark, which is what I was looking for, but the best response was this:  "Mrs. Stanford, I think hell be at the bottom of the ocean!"  Wow, that would be quite dangerous and scary!  Keep in mind this was a kindergarten student!

I need to keep a journal for all the great stuff I hear from the students.  I bet I could write a book with it all!

E-Textbooks

I am currently a graduate student at the University of Southern Mississippi and I am pursuing a masters degree in library and information science.  It is a great program made even better by the fact that all of the courses are online.  It makes it so much more convenient to work towards a MLIS.    It is also pretty neat that I can come to class in my pajamas!
Recently, I read an article that a fellow classmate posted entitled "5 Higher Ed Trends for 2012."  One of the trends mentioned in the article is an increase in the amount of textbooks that will be offered in an e-book format.  I think that this is so great.  Textbooks can be heavy and bulky.  They definitely are not helping with the amount of clutter in my computer room where I do all of course work.  If I could have all of my textbooks in e-book format, I would not misplace them so frequently because they could all be stored on my Kindle or computer.  It would make it easy to highlight important text and since places like Amazon are starting to offer e-textbook rentals it also can mean sending less money on textbooks.

Pinterest

As of late, the site Pinterest has been one of my favorite addictions.  Pinterest is a site that allows you to create online boards and pin different things from the Internet to each board.  For example, I have a board titled "Yummy" and pin all kinds of recipes to it.  It is really fun because you can get so many ideas.  I found a pin that showed how to plant "magic" jelly beans the night before Easter and lollipops "grow" over night.  I tried it with my daughter and I think it might be a new tradition!

The lollipops that grew overnight after planting magic jellybeans.

Another great thing about Pinterest is that teachers and librarians can obtain a plethora on ideas for things such as creative lessons, units for books, bulletin boards, and so much more.   The article," 16 Ways Educators Use Pinterest," really shows the benefits educators can get from Pinterest.

YouTube Can Be Educational

Last week I was ecstatic at work because I realized that YouTube had been unblocked (hey, it's the little things in life, right?!).  Our story for library time in grades K-2 was the Ugly Duckling.  After reading the story,  I used my digital projector to projector a YouTube video of the story.  The students loved it and we were able to compare and contrast the two versions.

 I wanted to show an animated version of this week's story, The Frog Prince, since the students loved The Ugly Duckling so much.  Well, sadly, in less than a week, YouTube was blocked again.  It really is a shame because while there are a lot of foolish things on YouTube, there is also a wealth of educational videos that educators can really benefit from viewing.

Top 5 Reasons YouTube is a Great Educational Tool