The Bended Corner

This file is licensed under the  Creative Commons   Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported  license. Podcasts are becoming more and more popular.  I believe many people would rather listen than read!  I feel less distracted when I listen to a podcast over reading the same information in a blog post.  I tend to go down a rabbit hole and click on all the things, and the next thing I know, I've been scrolling for hours!    For this post, I am going to talk about three different podcast platforms.  I'll focus on a few features but mostly their ease of use.  I know teachers love to use podcasts with student performance tasks, so something students can access and use quickly and easily is a big part of my why behind this post. Podcasts can also be used in the library to discuss hot topics, book talks, or even interview other librarians in your district to see what they have going on in their library.  It is also a way to do "learning walks"...

Image created from https://www.cartoonize.net/ Graphic Novels and Comics are making a comeback, and having students create them can offer engaging ways to check for understanding.  Students can use comics to write their own ending to a whole class novel, narrate their favorite part of a novel, or even "break the ice" by making a mini-comic book to talk about their likes and dislikes. There are so many ways Comics and Graphic Novels can be beneficial to students and their learning. For this post, I played around with a few different web apps that allowed for comics creation.  Just for fun, I used www.cartoonize.net to cartoonize a photo of my family! It was free and didn't require a login so it would be a fun warm-up in the classroom!  I also played around with Fotojet, Pixton, and MakeBeliefsComix and made an example comic from each application! Fotojet  was fun to play around with!  Like other web-based apps that I have discovered, you signup, select a te...

  Image from: https://optinmonster.com/best-instagram-video-editing-tools/ YouTube - I find myself on YouTube daily.  It's filled with amazing tutorials, and I'm always able to find an answer to any of my questions.  Like blogs, they are easy to subscribe to, and many YouTubers fill their channel with helpful information and ideas.  For this post, I have linked several channels that are worth taking a look at. Linked are two videos from each channel that I believe to be most helpful to students and videos that students would enjoy best.  Norman High School Library Getting Started in the Library is a helpful video because it walks students through the steps to get logged in to the available resources.  Norman Public Schools Celebrate Your Freedom to Read  is a video students will enjoy because it highlights different schools in the district. The read-aloud from staff encourages students to read freely and enjoy the literature they want to. TheUnq...

  Image retrieved from: https://www.iconfinder.com/icons/4074103/content_on_demand_play_screen_cast_icon A screencast is a recording of your screen.  It often includes audio of someone talking through what they are doing on the computer.  This is an amazing way to include flip teaching instruction or to reteach individual students.  It's also a quick and easy way to help staff navigate a new tech tool! I tried out two different screencast tools and made a sample video using each.  I know that in my district, we have an account with Loom.  I work very closely with my Instructional Technology Coach, and she often uses this program to record screencasts, so I was excited to start there.  I was very impressed with how easy it was to navigate and how quickly I could get accustomed to using Loom.  I could download the Chrome extension, which made it incredibly easy to pick up where I was and start recording.   As we are nearing the end of the ...

Retrieved from: https://venngage.com/blog/what-is-an-infographic/ Infographics are visually appealing ways to represent data.  In this post, I am going to explore three different web based applications that can be used to create infographics. First up is www.easel.ly/ Registering for Easelly is quick, easy and free.  Infographics can be created in 3 steps and templates are available for use.  Easelly offers upgraded plans that include different perks based on the plan. There is not a huge bank of free templates and there are constant reminders of "upgrading" that tend to get in the way.  I do love that this site focuses on just infographics which can be good if you are easily overwhelmed by too many options! Second is http://piktochart.com/ Piktochart is also easy to set up, offers a free account and templates. What I love the most about this piktochart is that it lets users know exactly what is available with their free account and offers more that just infog...

I am a Facebook user and enjoy it on a personal level.  Unfortunately, I get sucked in and lose precious minutes of my life by constantly scrolling.  For this reason, I have deleted the app and try very hard to stay off it!  Without social media, I am much more productive.  However, I do see much value in social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  Especially in advertising programs and events for your library. I enjoy being part of groups on Facebook and often save posts to my own feed.  When I find myself idle, I will go to either the Learning Librarians or Future Ready Librarians Facebook group.  Both are recommended for a community of librarians that will help answer questions and give book recommendations and lesson ideas.  When I typed in “school library,” I instantly recognized that the first libraries that popped up were either local public schools or pages that my friends already follow.  After clicking through a...

Feed readers are available to help keep track of blogs and news feeds that you follow. The feed reader updates as the blog you follow updates. As someone who follows many blogs, I’m excited to learn more about feed readers and feel as though it will be a valuable resource. I get overwhelmed when I follow blogs because I end up with many emails that I end up deleting and never go back to the blog post.  What I look forward to the most is having an opportunity to follow library associations, authors, and of course, my favorite blogs to keep up with the most up to date information on release dates and reviews. Many free feed readers are available, but you may have to pay a fee for the service to specify further what you want to see.  In this post, I will highlight a few that were intriguing to me and then follow up with my favorite. Feedly - In 2018, Feedly was one of the top 10 feeders. It is clean, clutter-free, and known for having every feature available from a feed reader....