A New Breed of Librarians:

Turn Engagement Emergencies into Opportunities

Work with teachers to turn boring activities into exciting experiences.

Exciting Experiences with Generators

Use technology to create a tactile story. Involve students in tactile experiences that help them explore stories, relationships, and patterns. How can we make the virtual world more tangible? What types of "tangible souvenirs" might be possible?

Many online tools can be used for creating projects and communications. Generator tools help users create interesting products with little effort.

Elementary

For each of the following activities, students build, save the image, and insert into a word processor. Then, write a story, create a problem to solve, or create directions. Design activities that ask one child to work from the creation of another student.

• Build a House. Write about who lives in the house.
• Build a Car. Write about a trip in the car.
• Color, Draw, and Paint
• Make a Christmas Tree. Write a story about a lonely Christmas tree.
• Make an Easter Egg. Design an egg for someone special. Write about who gets the special egg.
• Make a Face. Create two characters. Save each. Write a conversation.
• Make a Gingerbread House. Describe what it would be like to live in a Gingerbread house.
• Make a Pizza. Write the directions for making the pizza. Or, figure out the cost of making the pizza.
• Make a Pumpkin. Write a story about a pumpkin that comes alive.
• Make a Robot. Create a robot. Describe the elements and design to a classmate. Figure out the cost of making the robot.
• Make a Snowman. Create a snowman based on a description from a card. Can you match the snowman to the card?

Middle/High School

• Redkid - Sign Generators
• Fake Newspaper. Create a fake newspaper for your story.
• Packland. Create cool looking comic backpacks to include in storytelling.
• Trading Cards
• Warning Label Generator
• HugeBigLabs - create lots of fun visual images with photos like magazine covers and movie posters.
• Movie Clapper Board Generator - Creates a movie clapper image.
• Newspaper Generator - Creates a newspaper front page.
• Shelter-Ecards - Create a video newspaper e-card.
• Imaging
  • Use FotoFlexer to post your game points.
• Image Generators
  • HugeBigLabs - create lots of fun visual images with photos like magazine covers and movie posters.
  • Movie Clapper Board Generator - Creates a movie clapper image.
  • Newspaper Generator - Creates a newspaper front page.
  • Redkid - Sign Generators
  • TiltShift - Turns a photo into what looks like a miniature world.
• ClassTools
  • Fakebook
  • Status Updates
    

• Chopper Builder
• Fake iText
• Fake receipt generator
• Randomly Generated Identity
• Typo-Generators - creates text from photos

ReadWriteThink Generators

ReadWriteThink Generators

• Book Cover Creator
• CD Cover Creator
• Comic Creator
• Cube Creator
• Letter Generator
• Persuasion Map
• Acrostic Poems, Shape Poem
• Postcard Creator

Calculators

• Playing Card Shuffler
• Coin Flipper
• Dice Roller
• Spinner
• List Randomizer
• Currency Conversion
• Inflation Conversion
• Income Calculator
• Interest Calculator
• Money Counter
• Monthly Payment Calculator
• Payroll
• Phone Bill Calculator
• Savings Estimator
• Sales Tax Calculator
• ip Calculator
• Online Stopwatch
• Earth's Orbit
• Sun Clock
• World Time Zone

Converters

• General Tools- Google Search Features and Soople.
  • All Measures - contains categories, forumulas and no ads.
  • Convert Me
  • Online Calculators
  • Online Conversion
  • Math is Fun - contains a converter as well as a slider

Looking for more? Go to the Generator Blog.

Try It!
Use the generators to create a sample or model that could be used in an assignment. What tools would appeal to your students? How could you turn a boring assignment into an engaging activity or game?

A New Breed of Librarian

As library positions disappear and budgets continue to be cut, it's time for a new breed of librarian that embraces the new breed of readers, writers, and learners. As Gandhi would say, "Be the change that you wish to see in the world".

This new librarian must be able to view shrinking budgets, additional responsibilities, and other demands as opportunities for renewal and change. In order to be prepared for a constantly changing environment, professionals need to revisit, reframe, and re-imagine knowledge, skills, attitudes, and dispositions reflecting seven areas of their professional PALETTE:

• People,
  
• Administration,
  
• Learning,
  
• Electronic information,
  
• Technology,
  
• Teaching, and
  
• Environments.

People

This new breed of librarian must know how to communicate, cooperate, and collaborate with people. From their five-year old clients to each member of the school board, understanding these patrons and partners is the key to an effective school library program.

Innovative media specialists must shift thinking from broad, face-to-face communications toward focused, virtual interactions.

Administration

This new breed of librarian must know how to administer programs. From writing policies and procedures to managing personnel and writing grants, the media specialist must understand the daily operations of a school library and the impact of these programs on individual students.

Innovative media specialists must shift thinking from managing physical resources toward facilitating information and technology access.

Learning

This new breed of librarian must know how to learn and understand learners. The world is constantly changing and media specialists must acquire new knowledge, update their skills, and adjust their attitudes. Through reading, inquiry, interactions, and thinking, the media specialist makes important decisions about their patrons and programs every day.

Innovative media specialists must shift thinking from reacting to outside forces toward modeling innovative thinking and inquiry.

Electronic Information

This new breed of librarian must know how to access, evaluate, organize, and use information. From issues related to intellectual property to selecting age-appropriate curriculum materials, the media specialist must understand information.

Innovative media specialists must shift thinking from providing information access toward facilitating information use.

Technology

This new breed of librarian must know how to apply technology to solve problems, acquire information, and create products. From designing a virtual presence for their library to scheduling student assistants, technology plays an important role in today's school library.

Innovative media specialists must shift thinking from piecemeal approaches toward weaving a fabric of technology use throughout the school connecting classroom learning and the school media program.

Teaching

This new breed of librarian must know how to assess students, design instruction, and teach both children and adult learners. From collaborating with classroom teachers to working one-on-one with children, the media specialist must understand curriculum design and instructional development.

Innovative media specialists must shift thinking from isolated skills instruction toward infused modules across the curriculum.

Environments

This new breed of librarian must know how to use both physical and virtual spaces to support the needs of students and teachers. Designing an inviting environment that encourages creativity, supports inquiry, and provides universal access is vital to program success.

Innovative media specialists must shift thinking from place-specific programs toward flexible environments for learning.

Read Bursting with Potential: Mixing a Media Specialist's Palette by Annette Lamb (2011). This article explores the changing role of the teacher librarian. How will you turn emergencies into opportunities?

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