EasyBib in Depth: It's More Than Just Citations

NOTE: When I began working on this post, I hadn't attended the NJASL (NJ Association of School Librarians) Conference. Saturday I had the pleasure of meeting Emily Grover and Brad Heringer, who both work for EasyBib. Their presentation pushed me to finish this post on EasyBib and what it has to offer.

Many of you have heard of EasyBib, one of many free online citation generators. You and your students will find much more free stuff here. When you enter the home page, you will see many tabs to choose from. Below these tabs is the Citation Generator, where your students can pick from over 59 different sources to cite.

Let's first explore the one you are familiar with; the citation tab. under this section, there is a long list of downloadable pdf files in three different formats: MLA, ALA and Chicago/Turabian. Let's look at MLA, since that's what our high school students will be using. Roll your mouse over Citation Guides and MLA and you will see a long list of guides to choose from. All the guides are visually pleasing and easy to follow, so students won't have a problem understanding them.

Below on the left side of the page there is a list of Info Lit resources, which include, Website Evaluation Bootcamp, Plagiarism Prevention Series, Getting by with Google Presentation, and a Graphic Organizer handout. You can easily subscribe to any of the EasyBib series or their newsletter by filling in your name and email.

Now let's click on the research tab (on the HOME page) and search the term "school uniforms".

When students search on the EasyBib site, they are given results which rate the source as either credible, not credible or no rating. As you will notice in the image below, sources can be sorted in different ways. It is very easy to cite each and every one on the list just by clicking "Cite it".

Educators have a myriad of resources at their disposal on this site. From the home page, click "Educator Blog" which will lead you to a blog page with several choices, including Educator Resources, Product Resources, Professional Development and Student Resources. Let's first look at the Educator Resources.

There is a long list of handouts, including lesson plans, flyers, and the EasyBib Community. (social media sites under EasyBib) The Professional Development tab takes teachers to a listing of webinars, and the Student Resources offer research, citation, writing and topic guides, which can either be read online or saved as pdf files.

The only concern I have is with the left column roll-over categories. When you mouse-over a topic and it opens to a longer list, it moves too quickly and makes it difficult to pick what you would like to click on. I'm sure that it something that the site's webmaster can easily fix. In the meantime, I'm directing my students to EasyBib so that they can be information literate. For me, it's a no-brainer!

NEA's Resources Should Be Tapped

Are you aware that the National Education Association has over 600 lessons posted on their website? Browse by grade level and subject area. You do not have to be an NEA member to view. The listing is HERE.

7 Great Activities For Native Spanish-Speaking Students

NOTE: This list can be modified (except item #4) to work with any language. I created this list because we have a large Hispanic population in my school.

1. Create a comic strip in Spanish- list of choices HERE

2. Create a Menu for a Restaurant- it doesn't matter what type of restaurant, the menu is all in Spanish; MS Word templates can be found HERE or HERE for Google Docs.

3. Create a Newspaper- students can make it a local newspaper or one from their native country; MS Word templates can be found HERE or HERE for Google Docs.

4. C.S.I.: The Experience-Web Adventures- students solve forensic cases in Spanish

5. Fakebook- recently redesigned, this looks just like Facebook; students create accounts about famous Hispanic people

Fakebook: 90 second tutorial from History Teacher on Vimeo.



6. Glogster- create a poster in Spanish about their native country

7. Pinterest- create a board of links to information about their native country

Chrome Extension Aids the Visually Impaired

Today I was asked to work with a student who is visually impaired and introduce him to Google Apps for Education. When he explained to me that it was easier to view a website with white lettering on a black background, I went to the Chrome store to find a possible extension. I checked the "Accessibilty" category on the left side and found High Contrast. We read the description and reviews, downloaded the extension to Chrome, and opened up several websites. The student was very happy that he was now able to read without struggling. I've put together some instructions if you would like to add High Contrast to Chrome:

I set "Inverted Grayscale" as the default scheme so that my student could go from webpage to webpage without changing the settings. You will also note that you can disable and enable the extension as you desire.

Edcamp is Online!

In honor of Connected Educator Month, the Edcamp Foundation is presenting the first virtual Edcamp experience on October 25, 2013. If you have ever attended an Edcamp, (I've written about my experience here.) you already know unique the experience is. Promoted as a free "unconference" this online event will bring together everyone via the web. You can register and read more about Edcamp Online here. The video below is a great overview of Edcamp.

When Your School Library Covers Junior High and Senior High School Students

Not all students in my school are the same size. They can also be 6 years apart chronologically. So when a 7th grader came to check out a book from James Patterson today, I found myself telling him that I didn't think the book was for someone who was 12 years old. "I've read books from this author before," he said. I replied, "Oh, you must have read Witch and Wizard or Maximum Ride." "Yes, I loved those books," he responded. Then I had to explain that this author writes books for adults as well as children. Since the title of the book was "Honeymoon", I made a judgement call and would not check out the book. Believe it or not, this is the first time that has ever happened to me in 22 years of teaching. Students usually check out books which are age-appropriate. If you work in a school with junior/middle school students and high school students, I'd be interested in how you deal with a situation like this. I know this time I made the right decision.

September 11

These are post I made from 2011 and 2012:

22 Resources to Teach About September 11

Sharing 9-11 With Your Students