The Daring Librarian

Brøderbund's Living Books Are Back for  the iPad & iPhone Thanks to Wanderful Books ! On Friday I was looking pensively at my boxed sets of the Living Books CD-ROM collection in my school library. I have resisted for YEARS (ok, like 10+) to weed them knowing how AMAZING & special these interactive stories can be for ESOL or special ed kiddos but alas - the sad weeding day has finally come.  Year after year when weeding time came around my sainted and patient assistant Robin Black (this is our 21st year together!) would take them off the shelf & and add them to the weeding book cart.  I then would go behind her with a furtive grin & and put them back on the shelf. But this year I tested them and they do NOT work on ANY of my computers. Not any of our iBooks, MacBook Pros, eMacs (2003), or brand spanking new iMacs.  We run an OSX school & these old CD-ROM's only run on classic. Noooooo! [shakes fist in air in mock fury] So, sniffing ...

As an educator I was touched by this timeless Huffington Post article from Mr. James Perry, once mayoral candidate and the the Executive Director of the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center: "Among the most important lessons I've learned from Dr. King is the example of servant leadership. A servant leader is one who offers an inclusive vision; listens carefully to others; persuades through reason; and heals divisions while building community. It is easy to spot servant leaders. In a room where others are jockeying for attention, they are the ones listening to someone others might consider unimportant. When faced with a problem, they look for solutions that benefit everyone. When something goes wrong, they take the blame. When things go well, they share the credit. They tell everyone the same story, even when it is inconvenient or difficult. They know that they don't have all the answers, so they seek advice from others. They work hard and inspire others to...

I forget sometimes how lucky I am that I grew up in the Washington DC metro area and have within 25 min of my front doorstep (ok, maybe not 25 with DC traffic, right!?) but close by is one of the largest collections of rich resources in the world - the United States Library of Congress. But don't fret, you don't need to travel to DC to enjoy the FREE and open globally to everyone in the world the resources, lesson plans, and primary source documents  through their amazingly extensive online website for teachers.  In these tough economic times when districts are discontinuing paying for online research databases this is a goldmine of FREE resources. (Have I said FREE enough? LOL) Oh and you can tell from the title of this post that I love me some alliterative action! But why not? "Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man" Use the Creative Commons infographic below to "sell' all the great stuff that's available AN...

I was going to update this post from last year & add some new stuffs for 2013 because this IS the time of year that I do try to do my Geeky housecleaning. But dag...this post holds up! So..being sorta lazy anyway I'm going to re-post it with new commentary! (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 Comic Tutorial to create a really super new password for every website....don't worry, there's a trick!  You don't have to go to every site you use right away - just make a commitment that when you do go to a site that requires your password you take the extra 5 min to change your password - maybe using the suggestions in my Comic Tutorial. Basically, have a root password, a varying numeric addition (not the year or your B-DAY!) and add an ending that has something to do wit...