The Daring Librarian

I'm usually not one for new year's resolutions. If I decide to do something the calendar doesn't matter & I've blown too many good resolutions to believe an arbitrary day will make a diff. BUT...there are a few things that are easily done & feels great for a SUPER GEEKY SAFE ....errm Aware! New Year. (There is no *safe* on the Interwebs, only Aware!) (click above for a larger size or download PDF it here ) 1. Change your passwords. Yes, ALL of them. According to CNN Tech an 8 digit password can be hacked in 2 hours but a 12 character password would take 17 years. Use this handy NEW! Comic Tutorial to create a really super new password for every website....don't worry, there's a trick! Oh and in the small print I said 3 important things - Change your passwords twice a year, have a different password for Facebook that you don't use for ANYwhere else because FB's security is notoriously craptastic (and the bank, too), and as a disclaimer - I...

View more documents from gwyneth jones Does it ever seem that when your students go into the computer lab to compose & to write they've forgotten EVERYTHING they ever learned about formatting their MS Word documents? You get docs with wonky space bar spacing, 18pt comic sans (ick!), left justified headings, and strangely double spaced pages! Eeep! I know, right? I see proof of this working with my teachers, walking through the lab, and when kids come to me in the library to print out their work in the mornings & it's an assortment of crazy ill-spaced, scary fonted, and oddly sized docs, docx, and rtfs! JONESing for a Rescue! Yeah, I went there. So, one of my awesome new (to MHMS) teachers Mr. Justin Jones (no relation) came up with a comic tutorial for this! And after a little collaboration & tweaking we'd like to share it with you! We've created both a colour version for those of you who have unlimited colour printing (yeah, not us! LOL) and Black...

You know how most people say about awards "It's enough just to be nominated?" Well, I think most people are fibbing! Sure, it's TOTALLY true that it's a distinct honor to be nominated! Especially for a crowdsourced award like the International Edublogs Award! I also gotta argue with the (mis)quote from the cinematic oeuvre Blazing Saddles "We don't need no stinkin badges" - because yes, YES we do! Oooh shiny shiny! Maybe it's because I was kicked out of the girl scouts for talking too much in 5th grade - I just can't help but love the monetarily free but oh so personally rewarding little square .jpeg badges that shows that my contemporaries & colleagues feel that we and what we're doing matter! So yeah, WOW! I can't help but be psyched that I was nominated for Best Librarian/Library blog ! That's totally mind-blowing, humbling, and a true honor! And sure - I could be all "I don't care if we win" but that would...

To celebrate the #Eddies this year I thought I would do my nominating both on my professional blog and on our NEW! Daring School Library Edublog ! The EduBlogger award nomination process is a wonderful opportunity Pay it Forward by recognizing those in our PLN for their hard work and generosity. I wish I could name more than one on several of these categories! Gah! The Edublog awards has had a lot of buzz the last couple of years (both positive & hater) but I find the event & experience invigorating! I've been humbled & honored to be nominated a couple times (first by the amazing Shelly S Terrell! Thank you, Shelly!) and even came in second runner up once or twice! But what I get most from the Edublogs is an ever growing list of great new voices and views to add to my personal learning network. So, to practice what I preach about educational thieving, when I like something I STEAL IT! Here are my cribbed & adapted Edublog nominations! Heh heh heh! If you r...

I'm shamelessly lifting & adapting from Joyce's NeverEnding Search blog this week - if you follow my Tweets you'll know we're dealing with a family emergency right now (see below) but the TL Cafe is so close to my heart I gotta give you the heads up, right!? "Time to look back at the best of 2011 in our school library/edtech world and share! At the TL Virtual Cafe on December 5th, 8PM Eastern, we’ll be hosting a Learning Tools Open Mic/Smackdown/Karaoke . And the plan is to get ready by building a crowd-souced presentation/book . Joyce & I are listed as presenter & host, but the goal here is for YOU, friends, to do the heavy lifting. Look back at 2011. What is the most exciting thing you learned? What was the most powerful teaching strategy you tried? Which instructional tools best inspired learners? Did you have an epiphany about how to do something easier, better, cooler in your library or classroom? (Classroom teacher friends are welcome...

Why Blog?  You don't start blogging for awards. You blog because you are passionate about your profession, and have ideas & content to share with potential readers. If you blog it, they will come. Eventually. It may just take a while! Don't give up! I blogged for YEARS out the aethernets and for a handful of readers! (I'm lookin at YOU dear Svetlana in Vladivostock!) And you surely don't start blogging for comments! If you are expecting comments when you start blogging you're gonna be discouraged awfully quick and give up. I get about 6 or 7 comments per blog post and most all of those are spam. That's why I treasure each and every REAL comment I get! Now, I am in NO WAY saying I'm an expert blogger, (or writer! ha!) but I do have some ideas and tips for blogging that I've gathered over the years that I'd like to share and I'd love to hear yours! Start When You're Ready, Already! I started blogging in 2006, a few months after I...