Google has been improving their search options almost daily and the improvements are exciting! I experienced Google's new Flight Tracker for myself when I needed to check on my husband's flight yesterday. All I needed to do is enter the airline abbreviation and the flight number, and there were all the details I needed: I didn't even need to hit return!

Need to check the weather for a certain city? Simple enter weather: "name of city". Without even hitting return, you will have a list of weather options with the weather outlook at the bottom of the search options.

Have a question? Type in the beginning of a statement followed by an asterisk.

Want the latest score of your hometown team? Type in the team name for the latest game info and a link for more details.

And the list of info goes on: stocks, conversions, zip codes, and more. Visit Explore Google Search for a complete list of searching options.

Google Teacher Academy -Washington DC

I've just returned from the Google Teacher Academy where I learned an amazing amount of information. I was honored to be among 50 accepted educators out of 340 applicants from all across the country. Sharing what I learned in one blog post would be impossible: I learned so much that my head is still spinning with ideas and action plans. To be sure, I will be blogging more on each individual application.

Going into the academy, I was most expecting to learn about all the cool, new apps such as Google Wave. What surprised me is the extent of information which I learned about apps which I knew well (or, should I say I thought I knew well)!

Such as:

• Google spreadsheets has Magic Fill - automatically completes a list by filling in related items you enter. "Strawberries", "bananas", "peaches"... think quick! 20 more fruits!"
• With the feature "View Together", Google Presentation allows a back channel of information during the slideshow presentation.
• Using Google Books, you can embed certain ebooks onto your website.
• Google Docs not only displays word count, but reading level

One of the highlights of my Google experience was listening to Jerome Burg talk about his Google Lit Trips. Once again, I thought this was a tool which I knew well and needed no further instruction. However, hearing Jerome's passion and his philosophy on motivating students was so inspirational! And when I told him about my idea of using Google Lit Trips for our Read the World even next year on Latin America, he said he would love to be involved! How awesome.

So -as I mentioned, more blogging to come on the wonderful world of Google!

Book Review: Have a Little Faith

When Mitch Albom’s Rabbi asks him to write his eulogy, he feels both humbled and uneasy about honoring a “man of God” who has touched and inspired so many people. Although Albom has known “the Reb” since he was a child, he wants to be sure he captures the true character of the Rabbi, Albert Lewis. Thus begins the treasured relationship which Albom has with Rabbi Lewis for eight years. As he interviews and spends time with him, Albom realizes that the Rabbi is an incredibly giving and forgiving person who has a tremendous amount of love for people and life. Paralleling his visits with Rabbi Lewis, Albom befriends Henry Convington, a Detroit pastor who is a former drug addict and criminal. As Albom witnesses Convington’s unselfishness and devotion to helping the homeless and needy, Albom clearly sees that faith can be found in all religions. This is a wonderfully inspiring true story which stresses the importance of community and of the power of tolerance.

Mitch Albom speaks with Katie Couric about "Have a Little Faith":

Watch CBS News Videos Online

New MacBooks Have Arrived!

Great news! On Friday we had 30 new MacBooks delivered to our library! Are you a "PC" kind of person? No worries: these are dual-boot which means that you can boot-up in either the Windows or Mac platform with the click of your touchpad.

Since there has been some confusion about how to save to the network on a Mac, I've provided a mini-tutorial below which guides you through the steps. You can also find this tutorial on our library website.Saving On Macs

View more presentations from mschwander.

Review: Picking Cotton

Picking Cotton is the true story of Ronald Cotton, a black man accused of raping a white, college-aged woman in the 1980’s. The victim, Jennifer Thompson, picks Cotton out of a line-up and has no question in her mind that this was the man who broke into her apartment and raped her as she lay in bed. Eleven years after Cotton is sentenced to life in prison, new DNA evidence proves that, without a doubt, Cotton could not have been the man who committed the crime.

The book is jointly written by Cotton and Thompson, with the help of writer, Erin Torneo. In alternating chapters, we hear about both Thompson’s mental anguish and Cotton’s denial to freedom. The reader can easily sympathize with both “victims” and can’t help but feel that the system has failed them both. The positive side of the story is that after Cotton is released from prison, Thompson gets in touch with Cotton, and they both form an alliance towards changing the way in which suspects are identified. In fact, you may have seen the two of them on TV as they spread their message across the nation. (See the 60 minutes clip below).
The website for Picking Cotton has a lot of interesting information as well, including the actual case files, a book trailer, and an eye-witness test to see how well you do at identifying suspects (I failed miserably!) Ronald Cotton and Jennifer Thompson have a compelling story which everyone must hear!


Watch CBS News Videos Online

Follow Authors on Twitter

I've been using Twitter for a few years now to extend my PLN and to stay updated on news and events related to education and technology. In many ways, it has replaced my RSS subscriptions since my "peeps" tweet about the latest article, new novel release or Web 2.0 tool that I may want to know about. At the beginning of the school year, I created a Twitter account for my library, LibraryLines, so that I could broadcast any library news to all of my followers. True, I don't have many followers to LibraryLines yet, but I sincerely believe that Twitter's popularity will grow and that eventually students and parents will realize its many benefits. Twitter is not all about "what are you doing?" as it has advertised in the past, but more about "what can you share?"

And now, with newly released Twitter lists, Twitter has even more to share! Over the weekend I busily created lists of librarians and lists of authors whom I follow. Now I can quickly sort my tweets by category and , even better, share my lists with others.
So here, my friends, is my small but growing list of authors on Twitter. Find out where writers are touring, what books they are working on, what they are blogging, or simply what their passions are. It's truly a wonderful look into to the lives of authors.

By the way, the highlight of my weekend was when I saw that Ishmael Beah reciprocated my follow by also following me. Pretty cool stuff!

An Inspiring Day with Allan Stratton

Yesterday was the final day in our Read the World series and it certainly was a perfect way to end the community reading program. Allan Stratton, author of Chanda's Secrets, was here at our high school all day and made a powerful impression on our students. In the morning, Allan met with a Creative Writing class and a Dramatic Writing class. After reading an excerpt from Chanda's Secrets, he answered questions from students which varied from handling writer's block, his inspiration for the characters in Chanda's Secrets and Chanda's Wars, and the time and perseverance necessary in writing a novel.

In the afternoon, Allan presented to all of our 9th grade students who are reading the novel with their English classes. I knew that his novel had made a powerful impression on the kids when I saw hands shooting up all over the auditorium - each student hoping that Allan would have time to address their question. Afterwards, many students approached him to ask him a question, sign a book, or simply to shake his hand and thank him for coming.

Later that night, he presented to a small audience which consisted of a few students, parents and community members who had read Chanda's Secrets as part of the Read the World program. Although the attendance was light, those there were very engaged and most lingered afterwards to chat with Allan and have him sign their books.

This is the first year of our community reading initiative which partners with the Free Library of New Hope and Solebury and the New Hope-Solebury Education Fund. The mission of the program is “one community, exploring cultural diversity, one book at a time.” This year we focused on the Sub-Saharan African region and four books were selected as recommended reads: Chanda’s Secrets by Allan Stratton, What is the What by Dave Eggers, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah and Brothers in Hope by Mary Williams.

In effort to educate our students and the community, each week in October we offered an event which focused on a cultural aspect of Sub-Sarahan Africa: an evening of Sudanese food, an African art sampler from the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Anthropology and Archeology, a percussion and a cappella workshop by Voices of Africa, a multi-media tour of Africa by National Geographic photographer, Bob Krist and, lastly, Allan Stratton's visit.

I am so very grateful to our New-Hope Solebury Education Fund committee for making Allan Stratton's visit possible and for supporting the Read the World program. I've heard so many positive remarks from students, teachers, parents, administrators and community members about the impact that Chanda's Secrets has had upon them, and about how the program, in general, has helped them to better understand this African region. One of the best comments came from a parent who told me that after her son saw Bob Krist's photographs of gorillas in Congo and heard about their threatened extinction, he went home and surfed the Internet to learn more about the illegal poaching of them. He also was so inspired by Chanda's Secrets that he went out on his own to purchase the sequel, Chanda's Wars. Another touching moment was to see a student walk up to Allan Stratton, shake his hand, and thank him for coming to our school. This same student came to me in the library this morning and thanked me for making Allan Stratton's visit possible. He, also, is one who went out to purchase his own copy of Chanda's Wars.

Another positive outcome of this whole project is a connection to a school in Namibia. Allan had put me in touch with a teacher there whose students were reading Chanda's Secrets, and who have experienced many of the issues that faced Chanda in the novel. This teacher is sending us videos of her students talking about the novel and describing their day-to-day life in their village. In turn, our students are donating their favorite books with a written inscription so that the Namibia school has some books in their fairly sparse library.

Hopefully we will get funding for Read the World next year, so that we can continue to focus on various cultural regions and offer some great presentations!