World Languages Page is Up

If you teach French, Italian, Japanese or Spanish, you can now find lesson plans and resources by clicking on the World Languages tab at the top of this page. I'm aware that other subjects are taught, but these are the most popular ones.

Throwback Thursday #7

Ok. I know I am late again. I could list excuse after excuse, but none would be acceptable. So here's TBT on Friday.

What to Do When Your Budget is Cut: Part Two

Money has really been tight for education lately. Every year, my budget gets cut a bit more than the last year. I have been racking my brain trying to come up with new ways to fundraise. I would love to hear your stories about how you were able to get extra money for your library.

1. Alternatives to Facts on File- The databases included in our school package are terrific, but the cost of $800+ is something we can't afford. The Facts on File databases we had were: World Geography and Culture Online, American History Online, Modern World History Online, American Women's History Online, African American History Online, American Indian History Online, Ancient and Medieval History Online, Science Online, Fergusen's Career Guidance Center, Bloom's Literary Reference Online and the Curriculum Resource Center.  I currently have created 119 pathfinders which cover everything from African American Scientists and Inventors to Young Adult Authors. Students know that I have chosen all the links so that they can trust them.

Several databases from EBSCO, which are provided for free for us from the NJ State Library:  Student Research Center, Literary Reference Center, Points of View, Funk and Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia and Novelist Plus. If your school doesn't have direct access to EBSCO, try your public library and maybe students can enter through their site by using individual library card numbers.This year I noticed that we no longer have three important databases: History Reference Center, Science Reference Center and Business Source Premier. Even the free stuff is being cut!

2. Alternatives to magazine and newspaper subscriptions- We used to subscribe to about 24 magazines, and I will be forced to weed out about half. BUT.....I was very happy to find that many of them including Consumer Reports, (full text 1991-present) TIME, (full text 1990-present) American History (full text 1994-present) plus many more are available through EBSCO.  Many magazines have web sites, (another choice) but you can't always find full text articles there. Digital subscriptions cost money. Now, all this online viewing brings up another problem: without any computers available, how do students read online? I wonder how schools with iPads are utilizing them. If you are one of those schools, I'd love to hear from you.

Our school is fortunate to receive free access to the digital editions of The New York Times and our local county paper, The Record. Unlike the web sites, this digital edition is like reading the actual newspaper, page by page. Check and see what local newspapers have to offer your school.

3. Amazon School Rewards- For the past two years, we have been using Amazon School Rewards to raise money without asking people to open their wallets. Simply by entering the site through our link, we receive advertising fees based on what items are purchased. I chose for us to receive that money in the form of gift cards, which I then purchased books with by entering the site through our link. The more people you get on board, the more money you will make.

4. Raffle- Two years ago, our library raffled off an iPod Touch and made a profit close to $200.00. The following year we did an iPad2. It may seem like small change, but the hundreds add up.

5. Grants- Writing grants takes a lot of skill, which is why there are people hired who do nothing other than write grants. Here are some resources for writing grants:
Grant Writing Resources -from About.com

Grantwriters.com

Guide to Writing a Funding Proposal
Writing a Grant Proposal- extensive information from Columbia University

If you would like to start looking for grants right now, try these sites:
Classwish- teachers create their own wish lists for classroom supplies; donors assist in the purchase
Digital Wish- various subject areas available, from art to writing
DonorsChoose- submit your request and donors can choose your school and contribute to your project
Donors Forum- tips on fundraising and more; free webinars
Education Funding Watch
GivingGetting- donors are linked with school in need

NEA Foundation Grants to Educators

New Jersey Office of Grants Management

The Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation- designated for instrumental music education in schools.

Target Field Trip Grants-  since 2007 they have awarded $9.76 million dollars in grants!

Touching Lives Through Theatre Grants

6. Fundraising- It can be candy, cookies, wrapping paper or an event at your school. Having my library council kids sell items is not on my to-do list. During the school year, students have to sell for their classes. It seems that at any given time there is some kind of fundraiser going on. I personally stay away from this type of fundraising. But there are other ways that school libraries can raise money:

• Birthday Book Club- create your own wish list and have parents purchase one of those books to honor their child's birthday. (This works for the younger grades--  older grades can just have a wish list of books.) The donor's name will be placed on a bookplate.
• Auction Author-Signed Books- if you are able to get a well-known author to sign copies of their book, you can then have an auction or raffle to raise money.
• Scholastic Book Fair- for elementary grade schools; the library can earn money based on the number of books sold.
• Box Tops for Education- usually used for grades K-6; school community collects these labels from various foods and purchases can be made from over 400 stores.
• Sponsor an Event- how about pudding wrestling or a talent show? I was thinking about a tamer version of MTV's Silent Library. Think out of the box and be creative!
• Book Sale- when you weed your collection, you can always have a book sale. (Donated paperbacks are great to add)

***What do YOU do to stretch your dollars? Please comment below.***

Why You Should Read Google's Blogs

Every time you turn around, Google has either added or changed something in their email or Google Apps. Many changes come along with no warning or instructions, like when the nine-dot apps menu appeared on the upper right hand side of the G mail inbox screen. If you would like to learn about all things Google, bookmark the Google Blog, Chrome Blog, the Android Blog and the Google Drive Blog. For example, the latest post on the Google Drive Blog talks about the new image editing features in Google Slides and Drawings. You would know that you can do a Google voice search in Chrome, and that Android is coming to wearables. You can also follow any of these blogs on Google+. 

April is National Poetry Month: 24 Great Sites to Check Out

April begins on Tuesday next week, and I'm hoping that by then we will be rid of snow for good in New Jersey. April is also National Poetry Month, so if you are looking for some great things to do in the classroom, look no further.

April is National Poetry Month!- from ReadWriteThink

Celebrate National Poetry Month- Scholastic

Different Types of Poems For Kids- site by teacher Kathi Mitchell

Favorite Poem Project- cosponsored by Boston College and The Library of Congress; people read their favorite poems

Infoplease- poetry quizzes, crosswords, famous poets, awards

Library of Congress Poetry Resources

Lit2Go- poems to download in MP3 format

National Poetry Almanac

National Poetry Month- teachers share their activities

National Poetry Month: Celebrating World Poetry- from EDUSITEment

National Poetry Month Resources

Poems For High School Students

Poem in Your Pocket Day- April 24

Poetry Everywhere- videos from the PBS Series

Poetry Lessons and Worksheets- from Teacher Planet

Poetry Month Ideas- LiveBinder

Poetry Resources For Teachers- from TeacherVision

Poetry Word Play

Poets.org Site- teacher resources

Reading Rockets- poets on poetry (video), learning through poetry, resources, lots more

ReadWriteThink- activity, websites and resources for all ages

Shape Poems- printable for grades 3-5

The Teacher's Guide Poetry Month Page

Useful Resources for Teachers and Students- from Edutopia

Free SAT Preparation From the Khan Academy!

In 2016, there will be a redesign of the SAT, with free SAT prep materials being provided by the Khan Academy. For those students taking the SAT in 2014 or 2015, Khan Academy will have practice questions from unreleased SATs. Information about the 2016 redesign can be found in the video below. Students who wish to study for the 2014-2015 SAT can go HERE for sample questions. You can sign up for updates on the 2016 redesign HERE.

Thanks to my colleague Rich for posting this for all our teachers!

Throwback Thursday #6

Story time in the 1950s












Story time in the 1960s

A class visits the library- look how well-behaved all the students are!

Library Budget Results: What's Next?

A while back, I asked for some assistance with a brief survey on school library budgets. Now that I have the results, I passed them on to my principal with the hopes of receiving more money next year. (My budget was next to the lowest result of $0) It's a sad fact that the most important place in the school building has been hit with financial cuts across the country. As you can see from the chart below, the highest amount of $90,000.00 is so far above everyone else I am wondering if it is accurate. But, that said, my next step is to find more creative fund raising tactics which I will share in a future post. I welcome your comments below. (By the way, if yours is the $90,000 budget, we are all green with envy.)

March 17th is St Patrick's Day: 33 Cool Resources

RESOURCES
10 Things You Didn't Know About St. Patrick's Day- from TIME

A Brief History of St. Patrick's Day- slideshow from TIME

Facts, Pictures, Meanings and Videos- from History.com

Fun Facts for St. Patrick’s Day infographic

The Real Story of St. Patrick- from Education World

St. Patrick's Day Fast Facts: Beyond the Blarney- from National Geographic

St. Patrick's Day Clip Art

TeacherVision's Resources- includes articles, printables

The Three Leprechauns- animated story written by a ten year old boy named Billy

WatchKnow Videos- filter by age

ACTIVITIES / LESSON PLANS / PRINTABLES
A Day in the Life of a Leprechaun- from TeAchnology

Colleen and the Leprechaun- based on the book with that title

ESL St. Patrick's Day Lesson- from El Civics

ESL Vocabulary Quiz- fill in the blanks

Fun With the Leprechauns!- for first graders

Green Food Graph- from TeAchnology

PowerPoints for St. Patrick's Day

Shamrock Pattern- print and kids can cut it out and color it

Shamrock Spelling- grades K-2

St. Patrick's Day Crafts- nice listing of ideas

St. Patrick's Day Lessons and Irish Heritage Month Resources- art, language arts, math, science, social science and other areas for lessons

St. Patrick's Day Linky Party- many printables on this page

St. Patrick's Day Printable Fun

Talking Book About Ireland- created by a sixth grade class

Teacher Planet's Lesson Plans

GAMES / QUIZZES
Click and Drag Puzzles

Games and Activities- jokes, riddles, mazes, coloring book pages, matching games, much more

The Pot of Gold Game

St. Patrick's Day Hangman

St. Patrick's Day Matching Exercise

St. Patrick's Day Quiz

Throwback Thursday #5

 

Interested in Becoming a Google Educator? Here's How...

The schedule for the 2014 Google Teacher Academy has been posted HERE,  and if you are interested, Google suggests that you first become a Google Educator before applying. Courses are done on your own and exams for each cost are around $15.00 each. When you have passed the exams, you are then considered a Google Educator and will receive the Google Educator certificate.

Running Out of Pages: A Few Modifications

Since Blogger only gives 20 pages per blog, it is easy to fill up those pages. So....I have decided to move Free eBooks to the right side of the blog. It is right above Books for Reluctant Readers and What a Listing! Holidays From September to June. If you ever find any links that do not work, please email me at jgreller AT gmail DOT com.

FREE eBooks!!!

Barnes and Noble Free Nook Books- search 0.00 and get a listing of free eBooks

Bookyards- pdf files can be ported to your Kindle

Books Buddy- a Nook app to locate free books

Digital Library NJ- Kindle, Nook; library card needed

eBooks Habit- regular postings

eReaderPerks- Kindle, Kobo and Nook; also, the "latest device news, book/ereader reviews and author interviews."

Feedbooks- Kindle, Nook; public domain books

Fictionwise eBooks- Kindle, Nook

Goodkindles- up and coming authors offer short-time free downloads via Amazon

Google eBooks: Best of the Free- Kindle, Nook

Inkmesh- search engine for free eBooks, including Kindle and Nook

Internet Archive- Kindle, Nook

Kindle Store's Top 100 Free

Librophile- search by genre

ManyBooks-Kindle, Nook; 29,000 downloadable books

Memoware- Kindle and Nook

Mobipocket- Kindle

The Open Library- Kindle, Nook; one million titles

Penn State University's Electronic Classic Series Site- Kindle, Nook; pdf files

Pixel of Ink- free and bargain Kindle books

Project Gutenberg- Kindle, Nook; 33,000 downloadable books

Public Libraries- Kindle, Nook; check your state and local libraries (I have listed my state of NJ above)

World Public Library- "the world’s largest eBook provider"; mp3, pdf files; they have classic literature, graphic novels, audio books, children's literature and so much more"

***Here is a comparison chart of Kindle vs Nook.***

Throwback Thursday #4: One Day Late

Apologies  for being one day late for library throwback Thursday; I was home sick and never logged onto my computer. Today's double feature is a 2-part video which takes place in the 1950's and tells the story of a family and their love for the library. Enjoy and share!

Have You Heard of the Adobe Education Exchange?

You don't have to be an graphics arts teacher to appreciate what the Adobe Education Exchange has to offer. Subject areas include business, education, English, humanities, law, math, science and social studies. With all grade levels and products covered, you can scan the discussion boards, read about other teachers and find lesson plans. All you need is a free account, so sign up here to get started!

Activities for PI Day: 19 Sites to Spark Your Students' Interest

Math teachers around the globe will be celebrating on March 14th, which commemorates the mathematical constant  π. (It is also Albert Einstein's birthday!) Wikipedia's definition is as follows: "The number π is a mathematical constant that is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter and is approximately equal to 3.14159."  There are many things that math teachers can do to make the celebration fun for their students. Please share any of your additional ideas in the comments section below.

Activities and Links- from the Lesson Plans Page

Discovering the Magical Pi- lesson plan from TeacherVision; fro grades 6-8

Estimating Pi Three Different Ways-from the New York Times Learning Network

Exploring Pi- fro from Scholastic; grades K-8



The Irrational Webquest- from Math Goodies

Lessons and Activities- from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

Lesson Plans and Other Activities for Pi Day- from Education World

Math Resources for Pi Day- from NEA

Pi Across America- activities, word problems

Pi Day- the official site offers tee shirts, videos, news and events

Pi Day Activities- Pinterest board

Pi Day Activities and Lesson Plans- from A to Z Teacher Stuff

Pi Day Fun- from the Mensa Foundation

Pi Day Teacher Resources- from the Lesson Planet

Pi Day Theme Unit- from edHelper; printables in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian

Pinterest Board About Pi

Teach π- "A one-stop Pi Day shop for teachers and number lovers"; activities, music,stories, people

Videos for Pi Day- from WatchKnowLearn; covers ages 7-18

March is Women's History Month: 50 Resources With Hundreds of Links

The list below covers all grade levels, with the lesson plans mainly for K-6. If you are familiar with my "What a Listing!!!  Holiday Resources From September to June", you know that I am constantly updating and adding to that page. You can directly connect to that list by looking on the right hand side of the blog. I've labeled it "What a Listing!".

INFORMATION
The 25 Most Powerful Women of the Past Century- TIME's list

African American Women Writers of the 19th Century

Afro-American Women's History Quiz

An Archive of Memorable Quotes by Women

Campaigners for Women's Rights- from Spartacus Educational; includes biographies, magazines, journals, campaign organizations and male supporters of women's suffrage

Celebrating Women in Technology- from Edutopia

Celebrating Women of Courage and Vision

Children's Encyclopedia of Women- written by 4th and 5th graders

Documents from the Women's Liberation Movement- from Duke University

Fact Monster

Famous Firsts By American Women- covers 1587-present; from Factmonster

The First Ladies- wives of the presidents

Franklin Institute's Women's History Hotlist- 29 items on the hotlist

Gender Gap- Wall Street Journal's charts show how women and men fare in the workplace, marriage, employment

Infoplease

Latina Women of NASA

National Women's History Museum- many online exhibits

Notable African American Women

Test Your Women's History IQ

Thomson-Gale's List of Biographies

Vietnam Women's Memorial Foundation

Women of Our Time- National Geographic's Twentieth Century Photographs Form the National Portrait Gallery

Women of Valor- trailblazing Jewish women

Women Who Changed History

Women Working, 1800-1930- Harvard University's Library's collection of books, pamphlets, journals, records, manuscripts and photographs

Women's History A to Z- scholars, scientists, teachers, talk show hosts, artists, athletes and much more from Bio.com

Women's History Month- from EDSITEment

Women's History Month- from History.com; videos, speeches, pictures

Women's History Month- from Time for Kids

Women's History Month for the Classroom- grades K-12 from NEA

Women's History Stories- Awesome Stories has a list of over 400 here!

Women's History Teaching Resources- from Smithsonian Institution

Women's History Timeline- from Middle Tennessee State University

A Woman's World- New York Times' interactive photo gallery with reader-submitted photos from around the world

LESSON PLANS
A to Z Teacher Stuff

Education World- lesson plans and resources

Lesson Plans Page

Library of Congress- wonderful resources for teachers

Mr. Donn- social studies teacher's website

National Women's Hall of Fame

New York Times Learning Network

ReadWriteThink

Scholastic- plans, activities, websites

Six Lesson Plan Resources for Teachers- from Edutopia

Teaching History's Women's History Month- primary sources, quizzes, lesson plans

TeacherVision- lesson plans, slideshows, printables, quizzes, resources

Vocabulary for Women's History Month- from Spelling City

Women's History Month Worksheets

Women's History Quiz- from About.com

Word Search Puzzle

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Iditarod 2014: The Race is On!

It began yesterday. The 2014 Iditarod teams left Willow, Alaska headed towards Nome. The temperature at the start was 30 degrees, a rather "warm" atmosphere for the 1,100 mile race. This is the 42nd Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, and I thought that students would love to learn about the event. 

Classroom Lesson Ideas- from the official site's educational portal

Discovery Channel Videos- 31 to choose from here

Iditarod 2014 is the Mushiest Event of the Year

Iditarod Activities and Lesson Plans- from the Teacher's Corner

Iditarod in the Classroom- NEA's list for grades K-12

Iditarod: Race Across Alaska- resources from Scholastic

Iditarod Teacher on the Trail- this year's teacher provides lessons in science and math in addition to stories from the race

Lessons and Activities- from the official site's educational portal

Meet Gary Paulsen- a Scholastic interview with the author, who was a musher in the 2000 race

The Mushers- a listing of the men and women who are guiding the dogs on the tail.

The Official Iditarod Website

Photos: 2014 Iditarod Ceromonial Start

TeacherVision Iditarod Resources

Other videos in this series can be found HERE.