2.0 to P21 - Emerging Technology Tools

In this session I was introduced to tons of tech tools that I need to learn more about.  One in particular is Easy Bib (http://www.easybib.com/).  This site will give you the MLA citations for books if you simply type the ISBN number into the search box.  It seems pretty cool.  I will be introducing this to our students and teachers. 
This session also made me realize the TOTAL AWESOMENESS of google participatory tools (no longer called web 2.0 tools).  We immediately have to jump on this band wagon - particularly with google forms. 
One of the stand out things the presenter mentioned was that our students need the 5 Cs - (the 21st century skills framework) communication, creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and (her addition) curiosity.  I think I will post a big banner with this in the library as a reminder and try to make everything I do center on these concepts. 
She also showed us some of the cool things she does with Destiney - like uploading booktrailers, which I will do.  And setting up student emails so they receive overdue notices, which I will try to do.
She also mentioned the CRAP test for evaluating websites.  This was actually just something she mentioned in passing, but I'd never heard of it so I looked it up.  It turns out there is a method of evaluating sources known as the CRAP test.  This website (http://www.workliteracy.com/the-crap-test) explains it well.  We will be using this next year as well - because how cool is it to say, "Okay students, let's see if this source is CRAP."  In fact, when I talk to the English teachers at their district wide inservice in August I will be sure to discuss it.  Note - I actually thought she said "the crab method" at first and I was thinking, "Students, please check this for CRABs" may not be something all teachers would be willing to say. :)

The Embedded Librarian

This was a session about making yourself an integral part of your school.  It was presented by several really great librarians including Buffy Hamilton.  After attending I was totally inspired to begin a few new projects at my school.  Here are my ideas based on their presentation:  I'd like to start a social justice project with the students in English I.  I'd like them to pick a topic and do some research then create a Ted x type video (something they presented about).  The basic format for the video would be story - facts and data - end story - call to action.  I think this would be a good way to get the students to explore local outreach organizations and to form their own opinions about things while conducting VALID research.  For this project I need to secure Gale's Points of View database and make use of many google tools.   Also, I need to make rubrics and grade things.  It's not fair to expect to be a part of a co-teaching team and never grade a thing.  I'll also need cameras for the video portion of the project.  I was thinking the iPod Touch would be great because it could record video and access our WiFi making it a good tool for reading QR Codes (more on QR Codes to come).