School librarians have always been teachers, even before the term "teacher-librarian" was coined. They teach every time they help students select books, locate and evaluate resources for research projects, or troubleshoot a computer problem. When they assist students, they explain and model the steps they are taking. Teaching for school librarians…

Which potato chip is healthiest: (1) regular; (2) baked; or (3) sour cream and onion? This problem requires critical and numerical skills in order to read and compare nutrition labels. The question has applications in mathematics and science classrooms but also in teachers' lounges and school cafeterias. It is a problem that addresses the five…

People don't just live in a material world anymore. They live in a digital world. Today's students have grown up with technology and the Internet. Like most people, they cannot thrive in their daily lives without the use of a digital device. In this article, the author suggests that teachers match their teaching strategies to the learning styles…

Two hundred years ago, literacy meant being able to read and write. Today people find themselves with many literacies in a nation that is considered ninety-nine percent literate. The plethora of literacies has just given birth to another term--transliteracy. Transliteracy is the ability to read, listen to, view, understand, synthesize, and apply…

"AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learner." New standards for library media programs! What does it mean to practicing library media specialists? Does this mean they must abandon all the strategies, activities, and lessons they have developed based upon "Information Power's Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning" and create all new…

There is clear and widespread agreement among the public and educators that all students need to be proficient technology users. Technology literacy is among the attributes that appear in nearly every set of "21st Century Skills." However, while districts spend a great deal of money on technology, there seems to be only a vague notion of what…

Information and communications technologies (ICT) are changing everything, transforming organizations, and redefining the skills and talents needed to succeed in the 21st century. At the individual level, the ability to understand and make use of ICT--digital literacy--is proving essential to employment success, civic participation, accessing…

Does history have to be boring and dry? Not if a person takes the familiar and adds an earthshaking twist! To begin the collaborative process, work with a willing teacher. This article talks about a teaching collaboration between the author as a library media specialist and Beth who was interested in literature circle titles for her 6th grade…

Making magic in the classroom or library media center is as simple as imitating what choreographers do. Just as they demonstrate and teach a dance routine a few steps at a time before asking the performers to put all the steps together for a presentation, many teachers find that breaking a unit of study into several parts, or mini-lessons, is a…

In spite of the efforts to increase student performance by using the newest technologies and software, there has not been enough advancement in student learning. Innovative teachers who make time to incorporate projects utilizing instructional technology are too often disappointed with the results; others find that their students spend an…

Picture books are short books, usually 32 to 48 pages long, in which the illustrations and text work together to tell a story or provide information. In this article, the author discusses how a library media specialist has effectively hooked the students into an in-depth study of the Civil War in a 20-minute read-aloud activity, using historical…