District Wide Information - Wow! I just realized that this is my 200th post on this blog.

I Love to Read Month 

I Love to Read Month is almost over, March Madness is just around the corner, April testing season is fast approaching and we are on the heels of promoting summer reading!  I always tell classes that just because I Love to Read Month is celebrated in the month of February, we should love to read everyday all year long forever and always.  I found Tips to Help Promote a Love of Reading,  8 Apps to Introduce Reading and The Tangible Benefits of Reading (Real) Books to Kids to share this week.  Although these articles focus on promoting reading for preschool and elementary aged kids, it is important to glean simple tips to help all students (K-12) develop a love for reading.  There are many fabulous books out there!  Encourage reading, model reading, promote reading!

I just realized that I forgot this site...
Book Love Foundation

More Info about OneDrive (SkyDrive)

As teachers move their documents and files to OneDrive, know that with this free account each account has 7G in storage.  It is recommended that OneDrive is used primarily for documents rather than pictures and videos or SMARTBoard Lessons that tend to be much larger in size.  A suggestion is that teachers can open a "personal" OneDrive account to allow for more storage (another 7G of storage). 

Students, in contrast, have OneDrive (SkyDrive) through their Office365 email accounts.  They get 25G of storage with this.  

District Wide Information

Future Name Change in SkyDrive

Just as Marshall Public Schools learns the name SkyDrive as a cloud source solution, the name is changing in the near future. The following article, Following Trademark Dispute With BSkyB, Microsoft Rebrands "SkyDrive" to "OneDrive," explains the rebranding of SkyDrive to OneDrive.  Watch for this change and know that it is one in the same product.    

District Wide Information

Read Across America 
I Love to Read Month, Dr. Seuss, and Read Across America is one of my favorite times of the year!  I am always looking for new ideas to share for this month long celebration to encourage and help develop a love of reading.  The Read Across America Toolkit offers many ideas.  If you are a Pinterest fanatic, check out NEA's Read Across America 2014 on Pinterest. These may be ideas to try in the classroom or to share with parents.  Check them out and have fun!  

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And the 2014 winners are.../Groundhog Day too!

Last Monday at the ALA Mid-winter Conference the Newbery, Caldecott, Michael L. Printz, Coretta Scott King, and several other book awards were announced.  These and other award winning books will be in the media centers soon!  These are great books to encourage students to read this year or over the summer.  

Newbery Medal Winner:
"Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures, " by Kate DiCamillo

Newbery Honors:
"Doll Bones, " by Holly Black
"The Year of Billy Miller," by Kevin Henkes
"One Came Home," by Amy Timberlake
"Paperboy," by Vince Vawter

Caldecott Medal Winner:
"Locomotive," illustrated and written by Brian Floca

Caldecott Honors:
"Journey," illustrated and written by Aaron Becker
"Flora and the Flamingo," illustrated and written by Molly Idle
"Mr. Wuffles!" illustrated and written by David Wiesner

Michael L. Printz Winner: 
"Midwinterblood," by Marcus Sedgwick

Michael L. Printz Honors:
"Eleanor & Park," by Rainbow Rowell
"The Kingdom of Little Wounds," by Susann Cokal
"Maggot Moon," by Sally Gardner
"Navigating Early," by Clare Vanderpool

Coretta Scott King Winners:
"P.S. Be Eleven, " written by Rita Williams-Garcia 
"Knock Knock: My Dad's Dream for Me," illustrated by Bryan Collier and written by Daniel 
     Beaty

Coretta Scott King Honors:
"March: Book One, " written by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin and illustrated by Nate Powell
"Darius & Twig," by Walter Dean Myers
"Words with Wings," by Nikki Grimes
"Nelson Mandela," illustrated and written by Kadir Nelson

After posting about the award winning books above, I discovered this timely article about Groundhog Day!  Enjoy!

An Ed Tech Groundhog Day PBL Story: Translated from Groundhogese Using Google