October 23 - Secondary Librarians Team Meeting at TAC, Library Services 12:00-3:00
October 24 - Elementary Librarians Team Meeting at TAC (room 5-151) 8:30-11:30
November 7 - New Teacher Meetings at TAC in Library Services from 4:45-6:15
December 9-11 - Holiday Open House and Book Bonanza TAC, Library Services
Remember to add evidence to you folders in OPS School Libraries Notebook
\WNDB celebrated its 5th anniversary this past July. The nonprofit organization was 
created to advocate changes in publishing “to help produce and promote literature that reflects and honors the lives of all young people.”
Check out a few of their resources.
Booktalking Kit which contains
Where to Find Diverse Books: A list of sites that offer recommendations for diverse titles.
WNDB is a great resources for those librarians looking to promote literature that reflects and honors the lives of all young people.
Each year I look forward to visiting the Jefferson Elementary Library to find out what theme Heidi Andersen's students have come up with for the school year. In the spring, they brainstorm potential themes, and the students vote to determine the theme for the upcoming year. Then Heidi goes all out to implement the theme through decorations, table names (Oz, Mermaids, etc.), book displays, and activities related to the theme. This year's theme is movies:
The Unite for Literacy website hosts full-text guided reading books that can be read in multiple languages. It's a great resource to share with reading, world language, ELL, and classroom teachers. Parents would appreciate hearing about this resource as well.
Secondary Librarians, have you signed up for "The Sift" newsletter? This weekly email newsletter contains updates on the latest misinformation circulating online. It is a great resource to use when teaching students about evaluating web sources. Sign up for free today.
We have a lot of work to docombating Fake News! Here are few good resources:
NewsGuard is a free browser ex-tension. Rating icons, reflecting credibility and transparency, show up next to links on search engines and social media feeds. A green icon signals reliability and a red signal the lack thereof, with further gradations, as well. Excellent samples for teaching source evaluation!
FactCheck.org from the Annenberg Public Policy Center monitors factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players --ads, debates, speeches, inter-views, news releases. One nice feature: Ask FactCheck. Ask a question and the site will investigate. Previous “asks” document recent claims news followers will recognize
PolitiFact won a Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for National Reporting. Not only are there fascinating articles addressing fake news, shams and hoaxes in the media, there are features that read like page turning novels. The Pants-On-Fire section reveals the most egregious examples of recent Fake News.
Other fact-checking sites include:
Snopes.com-sadly, involved in a lawsuit over company ownership
OpenSecrets.org--pertains strictly to following the money in politics
TruthorFiction-Fact checking and a focus on disinformation news stories
Omaha Public Schools does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, disability, age, genetic information, citizenship status, or economic status in its programs, activities and employment and provides equal access to the Boy Scouts and other designated youth groups. The following individual has been designated to address inquiries regarding the non-discrimination policies: Superintendent of Schools, 3215 Cuming Street, Omaha, NE 68131 (531-299-9822).
Las Escuelas Públicas de Omaha no discriminan basados en la raza, color, origen nacional, religión, sexo, estado civil, orientación sexual, discapacidad , edad, información genética, estado de ciudadanía, o estado económico, en sus programas, actividades y empleo, y provee acceso equitativo a los “Boy Scouts” y a otros grupos juveniles designados. La siguiente persona ha sido designada para atender estas inquietudes referentes a las pólizas de no discriminación: El Superintendente de las Escuelas, 3215 Cuming Street, Omaha, NE 68131 (531-299-9822).