Blog Posts

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Donalyn Miller (Book Whisperer) in Rochester

Donalyn Miller is presenting TWO free sessions on May 28th at the Monroe County Central Library (Downtown). This is sponsored by Scholastic and done in collaboration with Monroe County Library System and Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES School Library System

SESSION 1: Access to Books: Game Changer for Kids 9:30 AM – 11:30 AM

Children with meaningful access to books achieve at higher levels and experience greater engagement with reading. In this session, examine the current research on book access in schools, libraries, and homes; discuss intellectual and cultural access concerns including diversity and leveling; and explore resources and strategies for developing and sustaining high-quality classroom library collections that support students’ reading lives. Information based on Game Changer! Book Access for All Kids, published November 2018.

Target Audience: classroom teachers, librarians, K-12 reading specialists, administrators, literacy coaches

To Register: https://www.mylearningplan.com/WebReg/ActivityProfile.asp?I=3020602&D=18636

SESSION 2: Invest in Children’s Reading Lives All Year 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM

The institutional emphasis on standardized testing places students’ reading test scores in front of children’s reading lives. Extensive research proves that children with positive reading identities and the opportunity to read independently at school and home achieve at higher levels on reading tests. In this presentation, Donalyn Miller, describes the factors that engage children with reading both at school and home—ensuring both their academic success and their lifelong reading habits.

Target Audience: classroom teachers, librarians, K-12 reading specialists, administrators, literacy coaches

To Register: https://www.mylearningplan.com/WebReg/ActivityProfile.asp?I=3020612&D=18636

To learn more about Donalyn Miller: https://bookwhisperer.com/

2019 NYLA/SSL Conference

Save the date for the 2019 NYLA/SSL School Librarian Conference, which will be May 30-June 1, 2019 in Syracuse, NY. Keynotes this year will include, Julie Smith (Media Goddess), Allison Zmuda (Librarians as Learning Specialist), Donalyn Miller (The Book Whisperer), Liv Van Ledtje (LivBits), and Newbery Award Winning Author Matt de la Peña.

For more information and to register, see the conference site: https://sites.google.com/view/nyla-ssl2019/home

The DIGIES Festival is Open for Submissions

Have your students been coding, creating podcasts or videos, or drawing digitally? Maybe they would want to submit their work to this years Digies Festival.

The DIGIES is entering its 13th year. The DIGIES is an annual digital media conference and festival run by the Genesee Valley Educational Partnership. It recognizes student potential in an annual festival format. The festival celebrates student work in four categories: Audio, Graphic Arts, Interactive Media, and Video.

Submissions are open to school age children and young adults, from Pre-Kindergarten until 12th grade and are accepted through schools, arts councils or public libraries. All submissions are submitted digitally online by a teacher, librarian, arts council member or school staff member. Submissions are separated into four grade level areas: PK-3, 4-6, 7-9 and 10-12.

All entries need to be submitted online through the Media Festival website:
• Requests for a login to submit work can be initiated by emailing Brian Mayer at bmayer@gvboces.org.
• Submission are accepted from educators, librarians or program supervisors.

For more information on the Digies, see their website at: www.digies.org

New Public Domain Titles

This year brought tons of books, films and other works of art into the Public Domain. This means that anyone can use these works in other projects without asking for permission.

See the following articles for more information:

A Landslide of Classic Art is About to Enter the Public Domain (from the Atlantic)

New Life for Old Classics, as Their Copyrights Run Out (from the New York Times)

12 Great Movies Just Added to the Public Domain (from Vulture.com)

For the First Time in More Than 20 Years, Copyrighted Works Will Enter the Public Domain (from Smithsonian Magazine)

For a longer list of works, see this article from Lifehacker: These 1923 Copyrighted Works Enter the Public Domain in 2019

And for a pretty comprehensive list, check out the Wikipedia article for 2019 in public domain

 

Library Podcasts

Need something to listen to on your way to and from work? Try a library podcast!

Inspired by The Room of Requirement episode of This American Life, which aired December 28, 2018: Three stories of libraries around the U.S., we decided to post about library podcasts. Here’s a quick breakdown of some that may be of interest to school librarians:

Adventures in YA

This podcast is hosted by Sara (an avid reader) and Kristen (a librarian), who spent the time to read lots of YA books and then review them for us. Each episode lasts about 50-60 minutes and comes out sporadically. We like that its focus is on YA literature.

Book Talk

This is actually a radio show that airs every other Wednesday at 1pm and features one work of contemporary fiction. Episodes can be found online and in iTunes. Each episode contains a 25-minute interview with the author, and a 25-minute discussion of the book between the host (Cyd Oppenheimer) and two guest readers. They round out the show with a local librarian who recommends a middle-grade fiction book.

Booktalks Quick and Simple by Nancy Keene

Booktalks in 45 seconds! Although this podcast hasn’t aired since 2017, who doesn’t love a quick 45-second booktalk? Nancy J. Keane offers a daily booktalk on books for grades K-12. Listen to booktalks about some of the newest books published as well as some oldies but goodies. Instead of just reading Nancy Keane’s booktalks, tune in to hear the booktalks by booktalking expert, Nancy Keane, herself.

Documents that changed the world

In this podcast, Joe Janes, Associate Professor at the University of Washington Information school, takes a look at documents that have made a difference in the world. In less than 15 minutes, thought slightly awkward, Joe takes us through the history and background of different world documents, and weaves a tale that leaves you thinking. You can listen online at https://ischool.uw.edu/podcasts/dtctw, however, you’ll find more episodes in iTunes.

Professional Book Nerds

Each episode of this podcast is about 50 minutes long, and is hosted by staff librarians who work for OverDrive. Hear their book recommendations, learn about new books coming out, and listen to author interviews. While this isn’t a podcast specific to schools or even the K-12 age group, these are all books that are available in OverDrive (for public libraries at least).

If you listen to a library podcast that you think other school librarians would like, let us know!

PD Opportunities

We’ve developed the schedule for the Library Maker-Mondays series for this semester.

January 14th: Intermediate Block Coding
February 4th: Paper Moon
February 25th: Makey Makey Inventions
March 25th: Pop-up Haiku
April 22nd: GamiBot

We have also started adding Tuesdays to the mix, re-running some of the Monday workshops for those who cannot make it. Anna Bayerl has graciously offered to host the first one on January 22nd at Dake School Library in West Irondequoit. The workshop will be Block Coding for Librarians (Beginner).

All of these are visible in the Monroe One BOCES My Learning Plan. (Under the Search Term(s) box, click the “Select one or more options…” drop down menu, and choose “Library Services – CTLE Approved Sponsor”).

If you have any ideas for future workshops, or have requests for something specific, please let us know!

Doodle4Google Contest

Have you seen today’s Google Doodle? It’s the winner of last year’s Doodle 4 Google contest. Today marks the opening of the 2019 Doodle 4 Google contest, where one lucky student doodler will win a $30,000 college scholarship, and a $50,000 technology package for their school. Four National Finalists will win a $5,000 college scholarship.

Go to doodles.google.com/d4g for more information about the contest. The contest closes March 18th so get doodling!

Media Literacy Project Grant Announcement

The New York State Educational Media Technology Association (EMTA) has announced the opening of the application process for its annual Media Literacy Project Grant. Each year, the EMTA provides up to two awards in the amount of $1,250 for certified educators in NYS who are working with PreK-12 students on media literacy.

The grant supports educators who provide resources and services that correlate to state and national learning standards for instructional excellence promoting media literacy, and provides funds for research projects or demonstration projects that can be replicated in other areas across the state and nation.

Examples of eligible projects include a film literacy course after school, using video effectively in your lesson plans, and learning about the effective creation and use of media in student work. Descriptions of last years grant awards are listed on the EMTA website.

More information and the application can also be found on the EMTA website at: www.edmediatech.org

Submission Deadline for 90-Second Newbery Film Festival

The 90-Second Newbery Film Festival is an annual video contest in which young filmmakers create weird short movies that tell the entire stories of Newbery-winning books in about a minute and a half.

Every year, they show the best movies we receive at special-event screenings in Rochester New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, Boston, Tacoma, and other cities—co-hosted by festival founder James Kennedy (author of the young-adult fantasy The Order of Odd-Fish) and other award-winning children’s authors. This year, James will be co-hosting with Bruce Coville.

The national deadline for the 8th Annual 90-Second Newbery is January 11.

Who can make movies for this film festival?

It’s a big range: elementary schoolers, junior high kids, high schoolers, even college students. Adult help OK!

This is a fun project that will get your students reading Newbery winners, give students an excuse to mess around with video equipment, and learn and/or practice everything from close reading to scriptwriting, storyboarding to directing, and cinematography to video editing!

If you can’t get a project done in time, start reading now for next year, and attend this year’s festival to see what it’s all about. The festival will be held in Rochester on March 17th at 2pm in the theater Eisenhart Auditorium of the Rochester Museum & Science Center (657 East Ave).

More information can be found under the reading tab of our SLS LibGuide, or at the 90-Second Newbery festival web site.