I just recently received a FLIP video camcorder!  (…for my birthday – Woo Hoo!)  It was so fun to annoy my pets with it and I got some great footage of my cat yawning and my dog being needy. The FLIP is so simple that it doesn’t seem very “techie”.  The video is better quality than you’d expect, though, and I’m told it does extremely well in low light conditions.

I brought it to school and created a little FLIP video of a class of 6th graders, selecting and checking out books.  Importing the FLIP video to my computer was very simple.  I attached the FLIP to my laptop via the USB port, downloaded the FLIP software from the FLIP itself, and imported my videos.  The FLIP software allows for renaming and editing the videos, as well as creating a snapshot or still from the video.  Very cool.

I made the following iMovie from two video clips imported from my FLIP.  NOTE:  I am clearly a rookie filmmaker but want to point out that my filming of the students from the chins down was intentional.  I didn’t want them to “strike a pose”.  They did a fairly good job of ignoring me…
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We held our 2nd SSMS Jr. Tech Camp last Thursday after school.  Our jr. tech campers were shown a historical review of campaign posters from the mid-1800’s through today, highlighting the symbols and slogans used by past and current politicians.  They were then let loose with Scholastic’s Create A Campaign Poster online activity to create a campaign poster of their own.  I was very impressed with their posters.  Thank you to Sherwood Middle’s wonderful librarian, Karen Smith, for telling me about this online activity.  Our students loved it and it fit perfectly with our 2nd six weeks’ Presidential Election theme!

You can see some of our happy campers and a few of their creative campaign posters in the following Animoto video…

We’re FINALLY just a few weeks away from our presidential election.  There are many very good websites devoted to looking at the candidates, their parties, and the issues.  

Scholastic News Online highlights the Presidential Election of 2008 with information geared specifically to kids.  It includes details about each of the candidates, discussions of the debates, tips from news reporters like Brian Williams, Kids Press Corp blogs, and Election/Campaign-related games.

In our 2nd SSMS Jr Tech Camp, we’ll be using Scholastic’s online Create A Campaign Poster activity to give students the opportunity to explore the images, symbols, and slogans used to promote candidates for political office.  Jr Tech Campers will create campaign posters, using borders and banners, portraits and pictures, slogans and symbols.  I hope they have as much fun with it as I have!  I’ll let you know how it goes…

Next week is Teen Read Week, an annual initiative of YALSA (the Young Adult division of the American Library Association).  It’s the perfect opportunity to promote the library to the teenagers in your school.  At our middle school, roughly half of our students fall into the “teen” category.  Since the other half of our students are teen-wannabes, though, Teen Read Week speaks to the entire student body.

Why Teen Read Week? It’s in the teenage years that many students quit reading for fun.  There are so many other ways for teens to spend their time.  They need to be reminded that there are alot of great books written with them in mind and that reading for fun is a wonderful way to spend their time.  In addition… “Research shows that teens who read for fun have better test scores and are more likely to succeed in the workforce.” (http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/teenreading/trw/trw2008/index.cfm)

If you need ideas (or have ideas to share) to promote Teen Read Week to your students, check out the Teen Read Week wiki on the YALSA website.  The wiki is full of ideas related to promotion, programs, displays, web-based resources, books that tie-in to this year’s theme, etc.

Still looking for ideas on how to reach your teens?  Take a look at the YALSA Blog, a wealth of information on teen-oriented library services.

Also, here are TEN WAYS TO SUPPORT TEEN READING!

Suggestion:  Those students who don’t want to be called “children” but aren’t yet “teens” need a week of their own.  Maybe the week prior to Teen Read Week should be called Pre-Teen Read Week for the 9 to 12 years crowd…