Tuesday Tips January 28, 2020

TECH TIP:  Slido for Google Slides

Slido is a Chome extension that you can add to your account and it allows you to add in quiz or poll questions right into your Google Slides presentation.  Students respond to the quiz or poll with a code on their device and the answers populate in real time.  

BOOK TIP:  Dig by A.S. KIng

  The American Library Association announced their winners of the Youth Media Awards yesterday.  These awards include the best books written for children and young adults.  The Michael L. Printz award for excellence in literature for young adults went this year to Dig by A.S. King.  Dig is a book that will make you uncomfortable and it wants you to be uncomfortable.  It is the story of four white teenagers who grapple with their dysfunctional family and its racial ignorance and overcoming the past.  Will make you think.

Tuesday Tips January 14, 2020

TECH TIP:  TextingStory App

  TextingStory could be a fun project with your students. It is an iPhone app that allows you to create a story told through text messages.  It will then turn it into a video of the messages scrolling through.  This could be used as a free write assignments, a conversation through two book characters, or even between two historical figures.  

BOOK TIP:  New York Public Library Top Checkouts of All Time

The New York Public Library turns 125 this year.  In honor of that anniversary, they released yesterday their top 10 checkouts of all time.  How many of these books have you read?  I've read all but one (any guesses which one?)

1. The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats: 485,583 checkouts
2. The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss: 469,650 checkouts
3. 1984 by George Orwell: 441,770 checkouts
4. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak: 436,016 checkouts
5. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: 422,912 checkouts
6. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White: 337,948 checkouts
7. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury: 316,404 checkouts
8. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie: 284,524 checkouts
9. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling: 231,022 checkouts
10. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle: 189,550 checkouts

Tuesday Tips January 7, 2020

TECH TIP:  The Google Year in Search

Need a feel-good moment as you adjust to being back from vacation?  Watch this year's Google Year in Review video.  The theme is heroes, as the world searched for heroes at the box office, at sports arenas, and in our own lives.  It will make you smile.

BOOK TIP: Every Moment After by Joseph Moldover

  When best friends Matt and Cole were in first grade, 18 of their classmates were killed in a mass shooting in their classroom.  Now, Matt and Cole are graduating high school, but they are still dealing with the effects of that fatal day.  This is a novel about the impact on those who survive these terrible tragedies.  It is a story surrounded by profound grief, but also of resilience and moving forward even when you don't want to.  It was a great read.