It's All About the Book: When Controversy Gets in the Way

I am currently involved in book inventory, with weeding taking place simultaneously. Currently in the biography section, I came across Lance Armstrong's book entitled "It's Not About the Bike", which details his battle with cancer. Thinking about Mr. Armstrong's recent fall from grace involving steroid use, (and his decision not to cooperate with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's investigation of performance-enhancing drug use in cycling) I am trying to decide whether or not to pull his book from the shelf.  I found these opinions on the web:

Australian Library Puts Lance Armstrong Books in the Fiction Section

Lance, Lies, and the Library

Manly Public Library's Solution

What are you going to do in your school library? I am interested in your opinion!

Sending Really Large Files? Here are a Dozen Free Sites to Choose From

Last week I received an email from someone who was looking to send a really large video file to another educator. I have personally used Google Drive to share really large photos and it has worked really well. But what if you have one file which is 5G? The free Google Drive account houses a max of 5G, which is usually enough for most people, but could create a problem for those with many huge files. The list below specifies the max file size you can send.

1fichier.com- up to 10G; view in 7 different languages

Bay Files- new features allows up to 5G in size

Box- up to 1G

DropSend- up to 2G

File Dropper- up to 5G file

GE.TT- 2G

Google Drive- your free account can store up to 5G

JustBeamIt- up to 2G file size

LargeFilesASAP- up to 2G

Send6- free and $$ plans; 250MB

WeTransfer- up to 2G

Zeta Uploader

Spanish Teachers: 32 Resources for Your Classroom

I am continuing to add subject areas to my resources. The next page will be for World Language teachers, and today's entry will assist Spanish teachers. As usual, please add any suggestions at the end of this post.


RESOURCES 
Casa Notes- teachers can create typical notes which are given to students or sent home to parents; templates allow for customization

EspañOlé!- "THE On-line Resource for Students and Teachers of Spanish!"

Internet Activities for Foreign Language Classes

Royalty-Free Clip Art Collection for Foreign Language Instruction
 
Spanish Artists- from Artcyclopedia

Spanish Flash Cards

Yahoo! Espana

Yahoo! Mexico

GAMES
17 Fun Games to Play in Spanish Class

Free Printables and Games for the Spanish Classroom-  for grades 2-6
 
Free Spanish Language Games- from Don Quixote

Games and Activities for Spanish Class- Pinterest board

Games to Learn Spanish- hangman, word search, memory

Spanish Class Games- nice Pinterest board

Word Play- Spanish vocabulary game

Yamada Language Guides- this site covers 140 languages and 112 fonts for 40 languages; this is one of the very best guides to language teaching resources on the Web!

LESSON PLANS 
Grades 6-12- from Bright Hub Education

Hello-World- lessons, activities, games

iMendi- language flash cards

The Internet Picture Dictionary

More Spanish- lesson plans and technology for the Spanish classroom

Spanish4Teachers-includes worksheets and fifteen categories, including alphabet, vocabulary, grammar

Spanish Irregular Verbs Quiz 

Spanish is Your Amigo- beginner video lessons

Spanish Lesson Plans- Pinterest board filled with resources

Spanish Regular Verbs Quiz

The Spanish Teachers- covers Spanish I,II,III,IV

Spanish Templates- games, quizzes

Spanish Verb Drills

Spanish Vocabulary Quizzes

TeAchnology- many lessons and activities here

Verbs Online- Spanish verb conjugation trainer

15 Great Places to Find Free Webinars

Free is always good, and what better way to receive PD credits than to attend a webinar!  You can sit in the comfort of your own home and communicate with teachers all over the world. NOTE: This listing has been added the the "FREE" tab at the top.

ASCD

Atomic Learning- webinar archive

BrainPOP Webinars- How Do You Feel? Exploring Social Emotional Learning, From Alaska and the Iditarod Trail … To You!; there is also a webinar archive

Discovery Education- in addition to current calendar listing, you can view the archived webinars here.

 
edtechteacher- Explain Everything: iPad Screencasting and More

Emerging Tech- sponsored by Follett Software; for librarians and media specialists

Free Friday Webinars by Shelly Terrell and American TESOL

The Future of Education- track what's available on your Google calendar

Green Teacher Webinar Series- Using Insects to Motivate Students, Food Systems and Sustainability

Math Solutions- Supporting English Language Learners, Professional Learning Communities

PBS Teachers LIVE!

Scientific Learning- sample webinars include Guided Reading for Every Student Every Day, The Hidden Reason Your Child Struggles to Read

SimpleK12- many are free; some require full access $$

Webinars for the New Animoto Video Creation Process

Webinars for Teacher-Librarians- from the TLCafe; Student Collaboration, Research Skills and Tech Integration, Be the Change You Want to See in your Library Media Center.

Wolfram Alpha- nice list of courses by subject area

What My Father Taught Me

This past Friday night, my father passed away after a long illness. Although he had lived with Alzheimer's for the last 12 years, it wasn't until the last five when it really reared its ugly head. Throughout it all, my father's kind, gentle, loving personality never faltered; the aides, nurses, social workers etc. at the home where he resided found him a pleasure and loads of fun.

Dad always saw the good in people and was so honest that when a waitress gave him an incorrect check in his favor, he brought it to her attention because he didn't want her to have to pay out of her own pocket for the mistake. It is this type of behavior that I have tried to follow; this kindness and unconditional love I will always remember about him.

This disease needs to be stopped. There is currently no cure and the number of Alzheimer's patients is rising.  I have posted a brief video about the statistics. Thanks for letting me veer off topic today to grieve.

February is Black History Month: Have You Tried These 14 Resources?

BLACK HISTORY MONTH
The African-American Migration Experience- contains 8,300 images, 17,000 pages of texts and over 60 maps; this site is hosted by the New York Public Library.
African Voices- Africans talk about their lives and cultures; EXCELLENT SITE from the Smithsonian Institution.

African-American World-from PBS, this site has highlights such as the Kids section (with games and e-cards), and the Brainteaser Quizzes. There are related lessons plans for grades three through twelve.

Black Baseball-from Sports Illustrated, this site has a timeline from 1861-1947, when Jackie Robinson won the Rookie of the Year award.

Culture and Change:Black History in America- Scholastic's site has a timeline, jazz audio clips, and information on famous African Americans.

Enchanted Learning-find out information on African-American women in history, biographies on African-Americans, African-American inventors and inventions and many printable worksheets.

Encyclopedia of Prominent Africa-Americans- from Ali to Malcolm X

Fact Monster- biography, timeline, quotes from Martin Luther King Jr.

The History Channel-you will find African-American icons, great speeches, maps, video clips and more on this site.

Infoplease-loads of information here, including history and timlines, contemporary issues, special features, holidays, education, awards and quizzes and crosswords.

The King Center- established in 1968, the center was named for Martin Luther King Jr., a leader in the laregest nonviolent movement in American history.

MLK Online- this site is all about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., from his biography, to multimedia clips of his speeches.

Rosa Parks' Biography

Thomson Gale- biographies of famous African-Americans

YOU CAN FIND HOLIDAYS FROM SEPTEMBER-JUNE HERE. 

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Webpage Deleted? I Don't Think So

When my students train for the Library-Media Council, I have them play a great shelving game called Order in the Library. In the last several months, it just disappeared from the University of Texas' site, apparently taken down by its creator. BUT.....those of you who know me are well aware that I don't give up that easily. I went to the Wayback Machine, which is part of the Internet Archive site. Since 1996, they have stored 240 billion URLs!  All you have to do is search your deleted site as seen below:

As for Order in the Library, my students are able to play the shelving game here thanks to the Wayback Machine. Remember: your students may "think" they deleted something, but it's still there......