Twitterville Talk #30

So begins 2012 with predictions, loads of new books being published and the web ever changing. 

Mo Willems gives fans a peak at what to expect in the upcoming year, Mo Willems Doodles! Happy 2012.

Richard Byrne of Free Technology for Teachers posts that The Actual '73 Giving Tree Movie spoken by Shel Silverstein in available on YouTube.  Lucky us; first a new poetry book is published and now this!

Cool Cat Teacher, blogger, shares The Digital Learning Farm:  Apps for iPads.  Dig in you fortunate owners.

An author who has made her mark and who I was lucky enough to meet twice, Q and A:  Judy Blume.

Joyce Valenza, librarian and blogger for School Library Journal, Neverending Search posts a link Rules of a Creator.  I am thinking that everyone should hang this poster places so they can see it at least once a day if not more.

Elizabeth Bird, librarian and blogger for School Library Journal, A Fuse #8 Production posts Announcing The 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing 2011, a list compiled by The New York Public Library.

Interesting article on a study Why Books Are Better than e-Books for Children.
Thanks to LiteracyHead for the link

The New York Times discusses An Innocent in America the new Steven Spielberg film, The Adventures of Tintin.

Coming from The Horn Book is an outstanding, brilliant article which is an adaption of a keynote speech given by author, Richard Peck:  Books to Unite the Digitally Divided Family.

Five Questions for Jane Yolen has certainly made her mark in the world of literature writing and writing well for all ages.




Sincerest congratulations to Walter Dean Myers for his selection as the new National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. Children's Book Envoy Defines His Mission is a feature article in The New York Times on his appointment.

Publishers Weekly features him in Walter Dean Myers Named National Ambassador for Young People's Literature.

School Library Journal has SLJ Exclusive Interview: Walter Dean Myers, the New National Ambassador for Young People's Literature.

The staff at School Library Journal have put together:  Get to Know Walter Dean Myers:  A List of Resources.

Since I began my wonderful tenure as a school library media specialist in 1973 I have enjoyed and looked forward to each new Walter Dean Myers book; no one writes like he writes reaching readers that no one else can reach.

Just A Little Bit M. O. R. E.

In exploring the familiar when widening your view you sometimes discover something that was there but never noticed before.  In using the Michigan eLibrary my main focus has been the MeL Databases and MeL Cat.  Today M. O. R. E. , Michigan Online Resources for Educators, caught my eye. 

This is truly a goldmine of tools to facilitate classroom instruction free for the taking.  Their stated goal of Putting More Tech In TEaCHing is well met.  To take full advantage of all the options available register by giving your first and last name, a username, email address, educational role, ISD, school district, grade level and password.  By registering you can click on the Tools tab and use the Resource Locker, a place to store all your "finds", the Lesson Plan Builder, a detailed template for designing, saving and printing lessons, and the Collaboration Center.  To use the Collaboration Center you need to register to be a member of edWeb which is a professional social networking site for the education community. 

To search the site select the Search by GLCE/HSCE, content expectations to standards to sub-standards, and further sub-standards, or Search Across GLCEs/HSCEs, search across the content expectations by keyword, grade and subject, or Browse Subjects, twenty-seven educational categories with sub-groups or the Advanced Search, a combination of resource type, subject, source, and audience (grade level).