Week 7, Thing 17

Idea #7: Students can create an avatar for a character in a book. They would need to explain (on their character's blog?) why the avatar looks as they do. Great one! I'll suggest it to LA teachers. I bet they're impressed! Thanks for making me look like a hero.

Trading cards - great idea about using this for 6th grade god and goddess reports. I'll either suggest it to the history teachers or just help some kids to create them in the library and develop interest subversively!

Using LibraryThing with a blog to keep the list of approved books. Good idea. I'm not sure how helpful the blog is since it appears you can keep the same information on librarything. I guess part of the helpful aspect would be for books that aren't picked. It would be great to have both district librarian reviews for approved books as well as professional reviews for use in collection development and possibly also in marketing to kids.

www.fodey.com Way cool! Have Library Techs (or other kids) create newspaper snippets. They look great and would be a fun way for kids to respond to something.

www.dumpr.net How fun. A website that will add various effects to your photos. I'm always looking for fun sites that kids can go to on their own time that still have some academic connection. This looks like one.

fastr tag game Looks like lots of fun and a good way to help kids understand tags and search terms and how subjective they can be. Unfortunately, I think this is one that I won't be able to use since Flickr is blocked at school.

WIKI page. (Extra credit geek points if you can add to the this list using the form Idea#_: in bold Format Normal, Font Arial, Size small then your idea Format Normal, Font Arial, Size small) I LOVE THIS! What a great way to try and keep things organized without coming off heavy-handed or controlling. 1000 extra credit geek points to whoever thought this up!

Idea #2 for history class. One of our 7th grade teachers has students do a biography. Several students study the same person. It would be fun to have them compile notes this way, then have each student write his/her own paper. How do you make sure each student contributes for grading purposes?

Wiki - Use a wiki to post minutes and other info from the district library association so members can see what's going on.

Idea 5. Instead of a presidents paper report, or an explorer's paper report, have you class create a NING with the students representing their president, explorer, etc. in a social network. Students could add pictures, comment one another etc... Good idea for 8th grade history. This is right up one teacher's alley.

IDEA 9 - LibraryThing is a great tool for students, too. It could be introduced to students in the beginning of a year and could be set up with categories of books read -- course-related, entertainment, extra-curricular (or a better sounding name.) Over the years, each student will see how much they've read/grown, what their friends have read, and so on. Lots of possibilities. This could become a school literacy strategy. ANOTHER GOOD IDEA TO TRY WITH LA TEACHERS. If they're not on board, try it with library regulars.

Gosh. There are just so many good ideas. As is the case with so many other things in life, sometimes you just have to get started and use one rather than spend the rest of your life evaluating which one might be the very best idea.