findingEducation’s Digital Teachers’ LoungeTips and insights from the findingEducation team.

Test your students’ knowledge of the notable events covered in findingDulcinea’s “On This Day” column this week with Quiztory. It makes a fun extra credit assignment.

1. Where were members of the Easter Rising rebellion imprisoned?

2. Who formed the Suez Canal Company?

3. Where did the residents of Pripyat relocate to following the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown?

4. What was the first commercially successful steamship in the U.S.?

5. Which pope canonized Joan of Arc?

What’s Coming Up?

Next week, “On This Day” will examine the premiere of “Citizen Kane,” the first commercial jet flight, a Japanese WWII balloon bomb and the crash of the Hindenburg. We’ll also take a look at Nancy Reagan’s use of astrologers, the Kent State shootings and the sinking of the Lusitania.

Subject: History, Other History, Social Studies, U.S. Government, U.S. History, World History
Tags: Quiztory

FindingEducation was delighted to spend some time chatting with Buffy Hamilton, also known as The Unquiet Librarian. We met Buffy after attending her presentation at the Internet@Schools conference in Washington, D.C., in early April. Hamilton has been an educator in the Cherokee County School District, an hour north of Atlanta, Ga., for 18 years, and a librarian for six.

Hamilton talked about the Media 21 project, a collaborative, interdisciplinary project she and her colleague Susan Lester developed in their school. Hamilton examined the impact this project has had on her students. “There’s one student who was in that group that was out of their comfort zone. She didn’t have a lot of confidence [before] and she has just blossomed … Even if you only impact a few students that way, it’s very powerful.”

Hamilton, a frequent speaker, blogger and thought leader, earned her graduate degree at the University of Georgia. She tweets @buffyjhamilton.

fE: What brought you into libraries?

BH: In the beginning of my career, I taught high school English. After seven or eight years, I took a position in our district’s technology services department where I got exposure to a lot of schools and age groups, but I also missed being attached to one school.

Around 2000, I realized that being a librarian would be the perfect marriage of my love of reading and books as well as technology. I’ve been a school librarian a little over six years. People often ask me do I miss being in the classroom. (I actually did teach English classes at night school up until last year.) I love being a classroom teacher but it seems like as a librarian, I’m more able to be a change agent. I can be an avenue for helping teachers introduce inquiry and help them to see that you can address the standards for learning and improve student achievement, without necessarily having to be tied to all those traditional ways of learning. I’m not saying that the traditional ways are bad but you can add to the learning toolbox.

(more…)

Subject: Uncategorized
Tags: Educator Profiles

Did you take the Quiztory last week? Now it’s time to check your answers:

1. Where were members of the Easter Rising rebellion imprisoned? Frongoch internment camp

2. Who formed the Suez Canal Company? Ferdinand de Lesseps

3. Where did the residents of Pripyat relocate to following the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown? Slavutych

4. What was the first commercially successful steamship in the U.S.? The Clermont

5. Which pope canonized Joan of Arc? Pope Benedict XV

Subject: History, Other History, Social Studies, U.S. Government, U.S. History, World History
Tags: Quiztory, The Answer Sheet

Did you take the Quiztory last week? Now it’s time to check your answers:

1. What country sent missiles to Cuba after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion? Soviet Union

2. Who was the mayor of San Francisco during the 1906 earthquake? Eugene E. Schmitz

3. What was the first-ever nationally televised congressional inquiry? Army-McCarthy hearings

4. How long did the Mariel boatlift exodus last? Seven months

5. Who was the leader of the Jewish resistance movement within the Warsaw ghetto? Mordechai Anielewicz

Subject: History, Other History, Social Studies, U.S. Government, U.S. History, World History
Tags: Quiztory, The Answer Sheet

Test your students’ knowledge of the notable events covered in findingDulcinea’s “On This Day” column this week with Quiztory. It makes a fun extra credit assignment.

1. What country sent missiles to Cuba after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion?

2. Who was the mayor of San Francisco during the 1906 earthquake?

3. What was the first-ever nationally televised congressional inquiry?

4. How long did the Mariel boatlift exodus last?

5. Who was the leader of the Jewish resistance movement within the Warsaw ghetto?

What’s Coming Up?

Next week, “On This Day” will examine the Easter Rising, the Suez Canal, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant meltdown and explorer Ferdinand Magellan. We’ll also take a look at Aldrich Ames, Joan of Arc and Adolf Hitler’s suicide.

Subject: History, Other History, Social Studies, U.S. Government, U.S. History, World History
Tags: Quiztory

FindingEducation met Rachel Borchardt, a science librarian at American University, at the 2010 Computers in Libraries conference in Washington, D.C. She and Jason Puckett, the instructional technology librarian at Georgia State University, gave a presentation about podcasting.

This week, we chatted with Borchardt over the phone about why she loves teaching, how her library is taking information literacy to the next tier and what podcasts can do for libraries.

Along with Puckett and Anna Van Scoyoc, a librarian in Mercer County, N.J., Borchardt hosts the monthly podcast Adventures in Library Instruction. “All three of us left [Emory University] to work in other libraries. We miss each other a lot, and we all enjoy bouncing ideas about teaching off each other. So Jason thought, ‘Hey, why don’t we start a podcast?’”

Borchardt earned her master’s degree in library science at the University of Pittsburgh, then worked for three years at the Emory University library in Atlanta, Ga., before coming to American University.

She tweets @butternutsquash.

fE: What preconceptions did you have about librarians before you became one?

RB: I thought that we would just sit at the desk all day and answer questions, which I was really excited about. I had no idea that you would spend so much time in meetings and at your cubicle working on other stuff.

I also thought there would be a lot more introverts. So it surprised me when I went to graduate school and everyone I talked to was super outgoing.

fE: What made you choose to become a science librarian?

RB: I worked in a science library my freshman year as an undergraduate, and I really liked it. After college—I graduated with a degree in neuroscience and psychology—I worked at a cognitive psychology lab at Carnegie Mellon doing MRI research for a couple of years, but it wasn’t really my thing. Being a science librarian seemed like a good way to be involved in science, without having to do the same thing everyday.

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Subject: Uncategorized
Tags: Educator Profiles

Did you take the Quiztory last week? Now it’s time to check your answers:

1. What position did Jackie Robinson play for the Brooklyn Dodgers? Second base

2. Where was Napoleon exiled for the second time? St. Helena

3. When was the reentry malfunction of Vostok 1 revealed to the public? 1996

4. Which Polish director made a film about the Katyn massacre in 2007? Andrzej Wajda

5. Who killed John Wilkes Booth? Union soldier Boston Corbett

Subject: History, Other History, Social Studies, U.S. Government, U.S. History, World History
Tags: Quiztory, The Answer Sheet

Test your students’ knowledge of the notable events covered in findingDulcinea’s “On This Day” column this week with Quiztory. It makes a fun extra credit assignment.

1. What position did Jackie Robinson play for the Brooklyn Dodgers?

2. Where was Napoleon exiled for the second time?

3. When was the reentry malfunction of Vostok 1 revealed to the public?

4. Which Polish director made a film about the Katyn massacre in 2007?

5. Who killed John Wilkes Booth?

What’s Coming Up?

Next week, “On This Day” will examine the Bay of Pigs invasion, the San Francisco earthquake, the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and Rosie Ruiz’s fake Boston Marathon victory. We’ll also take a look at the 1980 exodus of Cubans to the United States, the McCarthy hearings and Coca-Cola’s release of “New Coke.”

Subject: History, Other History, Social Studies, U.S. Government, U.S. History, World History
Tags: Quiztory

Geeta Rajan always knew she wanted to be a teacher. As an English teacher at St. Mark’s Public School, Meera Bagh in New Delhi for the last 16 years, Rajan has focused on making her instruction relevant to current issues while reaching out in a global environment. Through ePals, she’s involved in the Global Coalition Project, started by Bill Reilly in 2001. Right now, her students are working on a low carbon diet project with a school in Singapore. Last year, her students attended a Climate Camp in Copenhagen through an organization called Bright Green Youth.

“For me, my students are my inspiration,” she told findingEducation. “My organizing committee is designing a poster for Earth Day, and they won’t let me sleep until I approve of the changes, additions and deletions. We will have a good end product and that makes me happy, being part of kids’ excitement. I love their energy. And when I see them charged up, I get charged up too!”

fE: What inspired you to teach?

GR: I have always loved teaching. I spent a lot of my time with a neighbor’s family, which had three sisters who were older, and all were teachers. I also used to play teacher to the smaller ones in the neighborhood. I liked the writing on the blackboard, the use of chalk and then making lines to walk kids to their music classes. And if they weren’t around, I used to just act all by myself. Height of passion it was!!

fE: Why did you want to teach English?

GR: The three sisters—Shyamala, Kamal and Jaya—always used to get nice English books and magazines for me, hence I fancied English

fE: Describe some of the projects your students are involved in right now.

GR: Right now we are doing projects on climate change and sustainable development. We are planning eco cities for the future. The students will be ready with their presentations by April 23, when they will finally be judged by noted scientists. The purpose of the project is to encourage youthful ideas on preparing a more livable city. No pollution, more comfort, less diseases.

And we are sharing our information (with other schools) on a low carbon diet that focuses on how students can eat more nutritious food. No junk food. The students are doing this project with a Singaporean school.

(more…)

Subject: Uncategorized
Tags: Educator Profiles

Did you take the Quiztory last week? Now it’s time to check your answers:

1. How much money did the Marshall Plan provide in aid to Europe? More than $13 billion

2. Who was Martin Luther King Jr. speaking with when he was fatally shot? Jesse Jackson

3. What disease did Anne Sullivan suffer from as a child? Trachoma

4. Which U.S. president continued production of the neutron bomb after President Jimmy Carter temporarily halted production? Ronald Reagan

5. How long did the “Mercury Seven” serve in Project Mercury? 5 years

Subject: History, Other History, Social Studies, U.S. Government, U.S. History, World History
Tags: Quiztory, The Answer Sheet