Hot New StuffLMC Sponsors Speakers at the AASL Fall Forum In Focus:
The Essentials for 21st-Century Learning
November 5-6, 2010 in Portland Oregon!
See LMC editor and Linworth author, Gail Dickinson, and Libraries Unlimited and School Library Monthly authors Leslie Maniotes and Ross Todd. Click here for more information.
Gail Dickinson: Essential Questions:What is an essential question?
Leslie Maniotes: Enduring Understanding: How do we encourage students to learn beyond the test, to understand that gathering facts does not increase understanding?
Ross Todd: Evidence-based Practice: By focusing on evidence-based practice, demonstrate how your school library program contributes to the school as a thinking and learning community.
We hope to see you there!
Hot News
See who won the 2010 SIGMS Technology Innovation Award, sponsored by Follett Software Company and LMC!
Capstone, a leading publisher of children’s books and digital products and services, has acquired Portage Interactive, LLC, an e-learning technology solutions company based out of Minneapolis. Founded in 1999, Portage Interactive has an extensive background in technology, product development, and audio and media automation for learning games and creativity tools for children. For more information on Capstone Digital, visit www.capstonedigital.com.
The amazing Teen Health & Wellness (Rosen Publishing) is now even more robust, more interactive, and simply more “amazing.” New for Fall 2010: Instant article translation into 50 languages, including Spanish; Video throughout, including student created PSAs (public service announcements); Social Bookmarking; Health Calculators--Body Mass Index (BMI,) budget, blood alcohol content, more; Redesigned Home Page featuring user generated/student content, highlighting the Personal Story Project; Expanded photos, illustrations, and charts; New Articles (50) including the teen brain, concussions, being part of a military family, foster care, being GLBT; All entries have a 2010 update date; Site optimized for Smartphones. For a FREE 60-Day Trial of the NEW Teen Health & Wellness, go to http://teenhealthandwellness.com/ and enter user name: lmc, password: trial. Good through October 31. Questions or price quotes, call Rosen Publishing at 1.877.381.6649.
iSchool at Drexel, College of Information Science and Technology seeks to increase the number of certified school librarians in the School District of Philadelphia. The College was recently awarded grant money that will fund the educations of 10 students so that they can earn master’s degrees in Library and Information Science with a concentration in School Library Media from the iSchool and become eligible for Pennsylvania’s Library Science K-12 Certification. The College received a $622,963 federal grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS) to support the recruitment and education of these students. For more information, visit www.ischool.drexel.edu. To learn more about the Institute, please visit www.imls.gov.
SnapStream’s TV search capabilities can record thousands of hours of TV from traditional TV channels like Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, and Biography Channel and enable educators to cost- and time-efficiently search recordings and create video clips from their desks. The SnapStream technology saves teachers and professors thousands of hours of comprehensive TV research by bringing an easy-to-use search capability to TV and eliminating the need for costly coaxial cabling in K-12 schools (making it possible to deliver powerful DVR capabilities to teachers over an existing LAN). See this video for an introduction to the search technology http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uYnqF_2DQk&feature=player_embedded.
Califone International, Inc. announces the launch of its new desktop computer speakers, designed specifically for classroom use. Both Mac and PC compatible, the speakers provide optimal sound amplification, allowing audio to be heard throughout the classroom, including streaming videos, interactive games, and presentation software. The Desktop Computer Speakers (DMS1) are available for $65, and come with a one-year warranty for school use and service support available through authorized dealers nationwide. To order, contact a Califone dealer.
Reviewer and Author Spotlight
Congratulations to author Peggy Creighton! She successfully defended her dissertation on Tuesday (8/24/10). She's now Peggy Creighton, Ph.D.
AASL Fall Forum: In Focus: The Essentials for 21st-Century Learning. November 5-6, 2010. Portland, Oregon.
Our authors will be at the Fall Forum! See LMC editor and Linworth author, Gail Dickinson, and Libraries Unlimited authors Leslie Maniotes and Ross Todd.
Gail Dickinson: Essential Questions:What is an essential question?
Leslie Maniotes: Enduring Understanding: How do we encourage students to learn beyond the test, to understand that gathering facts does not increase understanding?
Ross Todd: Evidence-based Practice: By focusing on evidence-based practice, demonstrate how your school library program contributes to the school as a thinking and learning community.
The May/June issue of Knowledge Quest features several LMC folks. Shelley Glantz, Reviews Editor; Carol Simpson, former Editor; and Roxanne Mills, reviewer, are three of many retirees featured in the article, Librarians Unleashed. Also, Carl Harvey, reviewer and Advisory Board member, “facilitated” an article, Writing for the Profession.
Hot Off The Press
The ABDO Group is offering free teacher’s guides they’ve developed for their line of licensed Spotlight comic books for schools and libraries, beginning with several series of adventures from leading comics publishers Marvel and Dark Horse. Each series’ guide will include reproducible vocabulary worksheets, research and creative writing ideas, themes for discussion and literature circles, and more. The guides will be available as free PDFs for downloading off the company’s website. For more information, click on www.abdopublishing.com.
Flux’s 40th Anniversary Edition of America’s first gay teen novel is now available. Best known as the first teen novel to address homosexuality, I’ll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip will soon be available after an absence of two decades. The estate of the deceased author is donating royalties from this edition to the New York Public Library. I’ll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip, 40th Anniversary Edition by John Donovan| US $9.95 CAN $11.50|Trade Paperback|ISBN 978-0-7387-2143-7|Pub Date: September 2010|Flux Books|Ages 12 & up|216 pp. Visit http://www.fluxnow.com/.
More than 5,200 schools have taken advantage of Sylvan Dell Publishing’s School and Library Resource Grant. The grant provides a one-year free trial of their eBook Site License with all 55 Sylvan Dell titles. Sylvan Dell eBooks feature auto-flip, auto-read and selectable English and Spanish text and audio capabilities. Getting the one-year free access for schools and libraries is very easy. Just fill out the three to four minute application on the Sylvan Dell website and they turn it around within two business days. For more information visit http://sylvandellpublishing.com/ResourceGrant.htm or call Sylvan Dell Publishing at 843-971-6722.
Hot Awards
The Children’s Book Council (CBC) in association with Every Child a Reader, Inc. (the CBC Foundation), announced the winners of the third annual Children’s Choice Book Awards. Children across the country voted for their favorite books, author, and illustrator at bookstores, school libraries, and at www.BookWeekOnline.com, casting over 115,000 votes.
The Children’s Choice Book Award winners are as follows:
Author of the Year
James Patterson for Max (A Maximum Ride Novel) (Little, Brown)
Illustrator of the Year
Peter Brown for The Curious Garden (Little, Brown)
Kindergarten to Second Grade Book of the Year
Lulu the Big Little Chick by Paulette Bogan (Bloomsbury USA)
Third Grade to Fourth Grade Book of the Year
Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute by Jarrett J. Krosoczka (Knopf/Random House)
Fifth Grade to Sixth Grade Book of the Year
Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life by Rachel Renée Russell (Aladdin/Simon & Schuster)
Teen Choice Book of the Year
Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press)
Hot Links
iParadigms, creators of Turnitin and the global leader in originality checking and plagiarism prevention, and Instructure (www.instructure.com), the creator of Canvas, a next-generation, web-based learning management system, announced the integration of Turnitin with Canvas to help educators prevent plagiarism on written assignments in their courses. For more information, click on http://www.turnitin.com.
