e-Browsing Across the Ocean

I'm absolutely fascinated by all the excitement that e-readers are generating for kids and adults alike, and I love talking about how libraries are beginning to play a crucial part in all this. Despite my excitement, I've always been a paper book gal myself.

Until recently, that is.

My local library in the US now has Overdrive, the e-book platform that is super, duper cool. It took me a while to figure out how to use it (hint: download the free Overdrive app), but once I did, there was no stopping me. I now spend my Sunday nights browsing the shelves of my favorite small-town library all the way over here in Thailand, reading blurbs of new books or putting books on hold or downloading books to my iPad. And it's free! FREE! I say this because every time I am in the States, I am downright shocked at how many people do not use their public libraries. Free books! You simply can't go wrong.

Did I mention that Sunday night browsing takes place during a foot massage? Thailand is the land of fabulously wonderful and affordable massage. Combining massage with book browsing is a slice of heaven for me.

Books Too Good to Miss

As most librarians do, I host a teacher coffee morning with books every now and then. In getting ready for the morning, I spend some time writing sticky notes on the covers about how I would use the book with students or why I thought the book was so great. As I was setting up for one last school year, a parent walked by and said how much something like that would help her with her book choices.

Such a smart mama. Because of her, "Books Too Good to Miss" was born.



Our literacy coach, Tammy, and I wanted to keep the morning simple and casual--give parents time to look at quality titles and take some home with them. We chose four major areas and set up tables filled with titles related to those themes:

Reluctant Readers, Non Fiction, Early Literacy and Family Readalouds.

The morning was a smashing success! Over 65 parents showed up, and after a short introduction of reading aloud the book The Dot by Peter Reynolds (parents love to be read to as well!) and an overview of the themes, most of the 90 minutes were spent browsing books and talking, talking, talking. My big aha of the morning--parents are hungry not only for good books, but also for time to talk to librarians. Time to talk about their child who only reads Junie B. Jones or to deeper understand the importance of reading in their home language.

Two more "Books too Good to Miss" are scheduled for this school year. Hoping that is enough!

Digital Book Trailer Keynote

I've finally managed to drag myself away from the depths of summer vacation long enough to post the information that I presented at the ECIS conference. It was such fun to share this with others, and I loved hearing from librarians who went back to their respective schools and gave it a try right away. My hope was to share something practical and do-able, and I felt that came through.

Feel free to share the digital book trailer love.

In addition, my wiki for detailed info on how to create a trailer is found here.

Now, back to summer vacation!

Inspiration

One of the things I love about the digital age is all the sharing. What we used to call copying is now called 'being inspired,' and I have been buzzing with inspiration since returning from the ECIS conference.

When I read this post on one of my favorite blogs, I was immediately inspired. We read Kindergarten Rocks! by Katie Davis (check out her website--very cute!) and then brainstormed all the things we thought rocked this year in kinder. We made a quick Voicethread recording afterwards and will now share this with our Pre-K students who are heading to kinder next year. Super fun activity that wasn't too taxing at this time of year when energy is waning!

Summer Reading

It's that time of year again. Time to start thinking of the lazy days of summer when the extra time allows for tons of reading. As I began to put together a list for each grade level, I started thinking that there should be more than just me recommending books. Kids recommend books to each other all the time. Then, a tweet about kids helping each other find books using a google form* inspired me to make my own google form and put it on our Destiny homepage. Yet another use for that homepage!



*To make your own google form, look on your gmail account under google docs. There are so many fun choices of templates. Make sure to remember to change the setting to make it public.

90 responses and counting! Top winners so far are Children of the Lamp, Quantum Prophecy and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

ECIS Library/Tech Conference

Imagine 200+ librarians in one room, all excited and buzzing and sharing and learning. That would be the ECIS Library/Tech conference I attended last week. It was hands-down the best library professional development I've had. Of course, the conference being held in Istanbul was the icing on the Turkish delight. We were wined and dined on the Bosphorus by the book companies and were saturated with awesome information from the keynotes, Doug Johnson and Joyce Valenza.



It was also my first tweet-up (this is when you meet people from Twitter in real life!) with @sducharme, @librarydonna and @librareanne. It was great to meet them all and learn from them. Amazing connecting all around, and I'm already dreaming of the next one three years from now.

My big takeways from the conference...

1. Only2Clicks--using this to house the game and sites allowed in our tech zone. The visual part is so appealing.

2. Sqworl--Love this for finding age-appropriate sites quickly. Again loving the visual aspect of this.

3. QR codes--I am finally setting up my own QR code station (blog post to follow!), inspired by Book Trailers For All.

Last takeaway is that Istanbul is an amazing city. Cannot wait to go back one day!

iPad Apps To Love

It's been a while since I've posted about iPad Apps we are loving, and the list is growing!

I Write Words is the best handwriting app I have come across. What I love most is that it requires kids to trace the letter the proper way, and the little crab that guides you squeaks if you go the wrong way. Plus, it has a few extra features that make it engaging for little ones doing handwriting practice.

Little Explorers ABC Go is another favorite. The entire app is various forms of transportation, organized in abc order, and the bonus is there is a YouTube video demonstrating each and every mode of transportation. We are big fans of the ice skating and unicycle examples.

Little Things is a fun finding app that has a nice twist to it.

For the adults, I am loving the Zinio app. It gives me access to tons of magazines, and I get a full article from about ten features magazines a month. If I choose to purchase the magazine, great. If not, I can always wait until next month to read more articles for free. Just love this one.

Lastly, I must forewarn that Chicktionary is a bit addicting, especially for those who love word games. Anything that has kids playing around with words is a good thing.