Author Siobhan Vivian Visits NCS Via Skype

On Tuesday, November 16, the 7th and 8th grade classes were visited by author Siobhan Vivian via Skype.  Ms. Vivian is the author of A Little Friendly Advice, Not That Kind of Girl, and NCS Book Club selection, Same Difference.

During the skype interview, students were able to listen to Ms. Vivian talk about her writing process, her inspirations, and her recommendations to students.  Students were also able to ask questions.

For more information about Siobhan Vivian, visit her website, or check out one of her books from the library!

Jing for Screencapturing - The New Training for "Teaching Tools on Your Time"

As part of the NCS Library’s "Teaching Tools on Your Time" series, we are hosting a new Alternative Presentation Tools training session on Jing, an easy-to-use screen-capturing tool.

How Can Jing Be Used in the Classroom

Make your presentations pop by adding screenshots to enhance understanding of complicated processes or software instructions.  Screenshots are perfect for visual learners who need to see something to understand how it works.

Jing allows you to easily capture images or video.  When capturing images, you can easily annotate your images with arrows and text boxes and highlights.  Create an annotated screenshot in seconds!

Schedule a Training

To set up a time for training, email Chip Chase and list your available times. We are still training users on Glogster, Voicethread and Google Earth, so if you'd like to learn how to use those resources, let us know.

Also, if there is a specific technology tool that you would like to implement in your classroom, but not covered in our Teaching Tools on Your Time website, please let us know and we'd be glad to help provide training for you or your students.

Previous Posts

• Google Earth - The New Training for "Teaching Tools on Your Time"
• Voicethread - The New Training for "Teaching Tools on Your Time"
• Announcing Library Training Series: "Teaching Tools On your Time" - Glogster

NCS will host an AISGW Conference: "The Evolution of 21st Century Libraries"

On Tuesday, November 9, NCS will host an AISGW Conference on "The Evolution of 21st Century Libraries."  Dr. Katey Craver will join a panel to discuss the future of school libraries.

From the AISGW Website:

In this program, a panel of leading library experts will discuss how technology and economics are reshaping traditional school libraries and how librarians are working to manage these changes while finding ways to continue libraries' core mission -- teaching students literacy and research skills.

Event registration information is available from the AISGW website.

(Image: UCF Library Stacks, a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (2.0 Generic) image from Amadeus ex Machina's photostream)

Student Survey

Students, please take some time to be a part of our Student Survey regarding technology and library use.

http://www.ncslibrary.org/survey/

Google Earth - The New Training for "Teaching Tools on Your Time"

As part of the NCS Library’s "Teaching Tools on Your Time" series, we are hosting a new Alternative Presentation Tools training session on one of the hottest new sites in education: Google Earth.

How Can You Use Google Earth as a Presentation

Google Earth, as well as Google Maps online, are robust programs that can be used for a variety of purposes.  The downloadable Google Earth program is particularly good at creating detailed visual-based presentations that incorporate satellite data and 3D modeling.  

Presentations with Google Earth can be cross-discipline.  Create a "Lit Trip" based on a novel, allowing you to zoom in and out on various paths protagonists take through the story.  Calculate surface areas of famous landmarks across the world for a unique math project.  Annotate Placemarks on a map with images and video to create a detailed interactive final project for a research assignment.

Schedule a Training

To set up a time for training, email Chip Chase and list your available times.

We are still training users on Voicethread and Glogster, so if you'd like to learn how to use those websites, let us know.

Also, if there is a specific technology tool that you would like to implement in your classroom, but not covered in our Teaching Tools on Your Time website, please let us know and we'd be glad to help provide training for you or your students.

Previous Posts

• Voicethread - The New Training for "Teaching Tools on Your Time"
• Announcing Library Training Series: "Teaching Tools On your Time" - Glogster

Cite It: The NCS Plagiarism Presentation

This is the presentation regarding citation rules, plagiarism prevention and consequences for cheating at NCS.   Click on Menu at the bottom left of the slideshow box to access full screen viewing.

Cite It

View more presentations from National Cathedral School.

Websites of the Week: Note-taking Tools

Study smarter, not harder!

This week we are focusing on great websites for note-taking.  Change the way you keep track of notes by using one of these online resources.  With online notes, you always have a backup, and easy access (as long as you have an Internet connection.)

Noodle Tools

NCS has a school-wide subscription to Noodle Tools, a great note-taking and citation tool.  Anytime you come to the library, you've probably heard about this tool as part of our instruction.  Noodle Tools allows you to easily create MLA and Turabian bibligoraphies.

Over the summer, Noodle Tools was updated to provide more features, making it easier to link notes to sources and class projects.  The NCS librarians look forward to integrating more of these new tools into our instruction.

If you haven't already done so, make sure to create a personal Noodle Tools account by following the instructions in our Tips In a Minute Series on NoodleTools. Updates to these videos will be coming soon!

Evernote

Evernote is Mr. Chase's organization and note-taking application of choice.  Evernote is a web-based service that also has applications for Mac, PC, iPhone and Android.  To get started with Evernote, simply create an account, create folders, and begin taking notes.

In addition to traditional typed notes, Evernote also lets you easily copy entire webpages, upload PDFs and other documents to a note, add images, and even forward email messages to your Evernote account.

Watch this quick video to learn more about how Evernote works.

Diigo

Diigo is a web-based highlighting, screen-capturing, and note-taking tool.  It's a great way to highlight text and add sticky notes directly on web pages in order to save them later.  Like Evernote, in order to use Diigo, you need to create an account, download a bookmarklet to your Internet browser, and then begin research.


To learn more about Diigo, watch the video on the Diigo homepage.