The purpose behind this page is to give both new and experienced teachers a general overview of the many useful tools that the library and the library staff can offer – both in the school library media center and online. I realize how busy a classroom teacher’s day can be, but I hope you will take the time to poke around and discover how library staff can work with you to strengthen your lessons and add a research and/or technology component. Please let me know what you think, if you would like to collaborate and/or if you would like to see anything else added. For your convenience, there is an email link at the bottom of the page. And, of course, you are always welcome to pop in to the library!
Chelsea School Libraries are part of the Boston Regional Library System. Students and teachers have access (from home/school) to many online databases. For easy access and descriptions of databases available, check out the library's Online Database page.
The IPL is the first public library of and for the Internet community. Check out the IPL PowerPoint presentation to see examples of the rich and varied resources available at the IPL including the worldwide newspaper collection, the blogs index, special multimedia exhibits, the research and writing guide, the TeenSpace site, and much more. Find out how our reference service works with students and teachers and where to submit your own questions.
The Library of Congress' National Digital Libary is an excellent source for primary source documents. Here, you can see such iconic items from the nation's past as Thomas Jefferson's rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, the papers of Frederick Douglass, early baseball cards, photographs documenting the women's suffrage movement, maps from the 16th century to the present, films of Thomas Edison and sound recordings from the birth of the recording industry.
The Library's Web site is a great resource for students and teachers.
Incorporating Digital Literacies into our everyday curriculum is CRUCIAL! The Internet is this generation’s defining technology for reading, literacy, and learning. We need to engage students with interactive, collaborative learning tools that they will use in their future!
The Williams Library staff welcomes the opportunity to work with teachers to create digital learning opportunities based on your classroom curricula.
Here are just a few of the free online tools that can help engage our students! If you'd like to learn more, just ask!
Use Weebly to create a free website or blogin minutes by using a simple drag and drop interface. No ads. One of Time's 50 best websites of the year.
With Glogster, you can make an interactive poster easily and share it with friends. Mix Images, Text, Music and Video. Make traditional learning more dynamic, more interactive and more in tune with learners today!
Xtranormal lets students create and direct their own animated movies. Xtranormal is a great way for students to express what they know creatively. Students can use Xtranormal to create mocumentaries on any subject, students could interview historical figures, report on geographical occurances, or create public service announcements.
Voki is a free service that allows you to create personalized speaking avatars and use them on your blog, profile, and in email messages.
A VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate pages and leave comments in 5 ways - using voice (with a mic or telephone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam). Share a VoiceThread with friends, students, and colleagues for them to record comments too.
Animoto is a web application that produces videos from user-selected photos, video clips and music. Animoto analyzes the provided photos, video clips and music, using them to generate a video similar to a trailer. Check out this example!
WallWisher is an online noticeboard maker where a group of people can easily communicate with each other by sticking virtual notes.
Museum Box allows you to build up an argument or description of an event, person or historical period by placing items in a virtual box. You can display anything from a text file to a movie. You can also view the museum boxes submitted by other people and comment on the contents.
Prezi is a web-based presentation application and storytelling tool that uses a single canvas instead of traditional slides. Text, images, videos and other presentation objects are placed on the infinite canvas and grouped together in frames.
Delicious is a free social bookmarking tool. Store your bookmarks online, tag them and share them with your colleagues and students. Easy to use and to search for other bookmarked resources.
Check out this video for ideas on how to use Delicious in the classroom!
The goal of TeacherTube.com is to provide an online community for sharing instructional videos. The founders of the site sought to fill a need for a more educationally focused, safe venue for teachers, schools, and home learners. It is a site to provide anytime, anywhere professional development with teachers teaching teachers. As well, it is a site where teachers can post videos designed for students to view in order to learn a concept or skill.
A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger." Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog. Blogger.com provides FREE space on the web for blogging!
According to Dr. Bernie Dodge, "A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the Web. WebQuests are designed to use learners' time well, to focus on using information rather than looking for it, and to support learners' thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation.
This site offers great examples of WebQuests and advice for creating your own.
Wikis are excellent for collaboration. If you want to let students collaborate, add files, suggest links, and create a document that's comprehensive and up-to-date, use a wiki. PBwiki is the easiest wiki to use (and it's free).
Because we are lucky enough to have a flexible schedule in the Williams Library, staff welcomes collaborative lessons/units to help meld the teaching of research and technology skills with your subject matter. Here are a few links to lesson ideas that we've worked on in the past. If you have any requests or ideas, feel free to ask -- call extentsion 8101 or email rileyl@chelseaschools.com.
Blog Book Reporting/Book Reviews: A sample lesson plan that provides students with a different way to report on a book and to share their views with others.
Ancient Egypt: An online resource guide created by Ms. Riley to provide students with trustworthy websites related to the study of ancient Egypt (Grade 7 History & Social Science Frameworks).
Author Studies: A sampling of sites gathered to support students researching specific authors.
Virtual Field Trips are online resources that connect classrooms with content providers from all around the country and throughout the world. Here are just a few...
WorldWide Diaries:
This would be a great resource for students studying the Holocaust and the Diary of Anne Frank -- allowing them to make the connection to more than just one area.
Integrating the Internet:
A Virtual Field Trip for Teacher on accessing library resources and integrating the internet in to their subject areas.
At the Tomb of Tutankhahem:
A very cool look into the uneathing of Tut's tomb, historical pictures of the area and Egypt and a link to the additional resources -- online and in print!
Site last updated
on April 30, 2010 by LaurieAnn Riley, Library Media Specialist
Williams Middle School Complex /
Browne & Wright Middle Schools / 180 Walnut Street / Chelsea, Massachusetts 02150
