Beat The Heat #3

Congratulations Charlevoix Middle School students!  As of my most recent check you have read 5,537 minutes during the first week of summer vacation.  If you need any suggestions whatsoever refer to Beat The Heat #2.  Remember I welcome discussions with you about what you are reading.  Keep up the great work guys and gals.  Enjoy your summer.

Xena is doing twirls just for you and recommends that I show you this YouTube video as a reward.

Cool YouTubes and Books

Children's book author and illustrator Mo Willems hit the scene with Caldecott Honor awards in 2005, 2006 and 2008 for his Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus, Knuffle Bunny: A cautionary tale and Knuffle Bunny Too: A case of mistaken identity.  On September 28th his newest book, Knuffle Bunny Free will be available.


On July 27th this summer Tad Hills another outstanding children's book author and illustrator who is best known for his Duck and Goose books gave us How Rocket Learned to Read.


Actor and film director Rob Reiner states in an interview that he became acquainted with Wendelin VanDraanen's book, Flipped,  when his 5th grade son brought it home as required reading.  He was so taken with the writing style and story that on August 6, 2010 his film version hit the screen.  It has already received the Truly Moving Picture Award but that is not surpring given his record in the past as well as VanDraanen's success as a young adult author.

School Library Learning 2.0 #20---Social Media Revolution 2

As I said in the previous post, this video vividly illustrates just how "linked" into the ever-changing technologies the majority of the population is. As educators it is imperative that we not ignore this and incorporate these advances into how we deliver our curriculum and how we prepare our students for being active, ethical and knowledgeable users of these various technologies and their applications.

School Library Learning 2.0 #20--Gotta' Keep Reading

I have been a fan of YouTube for several years personally and professionally.  Sometimes a video captures the essence of a thought, idea or lesson so much better than anything else especially for those visual learners; which as a storyteller I can't believe I am saying. 
I am going to attempt to embed one of my and my elementary students favorite YouTube videos last year.
If I succeed I am going to embed the most recent version of Social Media Revolution which was posted on
2CoolTools blog just days ago.  It reveals the lightning like speed of changes in technology.