The Wright Book

Image by Csaba Nagy from Pixabay I have been listening to podcasts for a couple of years now, and while my personal tastes run towards creepy ghost stories or NSFW humor, I can still appreciate the educational potential of this insanely popular medium. You can find podcasts on any topic, from obscure historical events to pop culture phenoms, church sermons to erotica, sports trivia to scientific breakthroughs. There is literally something for everyone in the world of podcasting, much of it easily discoverable on one's phone. For school librarians, podcasts can be a great way of keeping up with new book releases, picking up technology tips, or learn about best practices for librarianship. If you are primarily interested in listening to podcasts, here are some great recommendations that can help you stay current: Dewey Decibel Podcast This delightfully named podcast from American Libraries magazine (a publication of the American Library Association) has episodes covering ...

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay For this module, I was supposed to experiment with three different websites that allow users - regardless of artistic ability - to quickly and easily create their own comic strips. As evidenced by the plethora of lesson plans and ideas  provided by Bill Zimmerman of MakeBeliefsComix , there are a lot of ways that teachers can use comics in the classroom, such as in creative writing, foreign language instruction, or life skills practice. Online comic strip creators are useful because they allow students to focus on the content rather than the artwork, and a finished product can easily be created in the span of one class period. The first site I tried was MakeBeliefsComix . Users are not required to register for an account, and I found it was pretty intuitive to use. There were a few moments of frustration as I figured out through trial and error how to manipulate the different elements, but I was able to push past this quickly witho...

Image by 200 Degrees from Pixabay Videos A quick search of YouTube will reveal that lots of librarians are making and sharing videos for their school communities. For this post, I browsed through the offerings of four different school library accounts to see how my more experienced (and in some cases much more creative and energetic!) peers are using videos to promote their libraries, educate students and colleagues, and deliver public service announcements. After several hours of clicking from one video to another, I had gathered some new ideas, but my husband was very skeptical of my claims that I was doing homework. (Fine, I'll admit I got distracted by ONE random video of a woman reviewing ridiculously cheap wedding dresses she ordered from Wish.com, but the rest of the time I really was doing homework! I promise!) Here are some of the videos I came across and my thoughts about them. TheNHSLibrary  (Norman High School in Norman, OK) The video I felt students woul...

I have been a fan of screencasts since I discovered that anyone with the tiniest bit of computer savvy could make them. Why spend hours trying to type up a detailed explanation of how to do something on the computer when you can just demonstrate it instead? Not only does screencasting save you time, it makes it easier for your audience to understand what you are trying to get across. My inaugural experience of making a screencast came early in my first semester as a library science student. Blackboard is not very user-friendly when it comes to adding hyperlinks, so once I finally figured out how to do it, I recorded a short screencast to share with my classmates. It was immediately obvious to me that this was a great tool for teachers and librarians. Teachers can pair screencasting with a Google slides presentation to deliver flipped instruction, keep things running smoothly during a planned absence, or provide a review for students who were absent or need extra help. Librarians c...

Image by UnboxScience on Pixabay I have been intrigued by infographics since I first started to notice them seven or eight years ago. A French teacher at the time, I was excited by the possibilities French infographics presented as authentic input that was significantly less intimidating to students than a text-only article. What was intimidating about them, however, was the thought of trying to make one myself. A few times over the years I thought I might try to tackle an infographic syllabus for my courses - always during that fleeting, golden moment of end-of-summer motivation - but each time I abandoned the idea after a few half-hearted attempts. This is just too hard , I thought. And then my Internet for School Librarians course required that I create an infographic. *Gulp* Being an over-achieving, grade-grubbing perfectionist, I knew I had no choice but to finally overcome my intimidation. Luckily, aspiring infographic designers do not need to purchase or learn complica...