The most famous forecaster in the United States is Punxsutawney Phil, a legendary groundhog in north-central Pennsylvania believed to be nearly a century old.

Incorporating eBooks into your lesson plan

On February 1^st faculty, teachers and students from all across America will partake in a national celebration of technology.  The first annual Digital Learning Day is dedicated to engaging students and teachers with the newest technologies available in the educational world.
The founders have created the website Digital Learning Day full of great ideas, tool kits and showcases of school districts that are using digital media and advanced technologies to further their students’ educations.  There will even be a town hall meeting you can register for to learn more about the digital learning movement put on by the Alliance for Excellent Education.

If you aren’t able to institute any of their innovative lesson plans, I have some simple ideas for you to use with your students:

• During silent reading, instead of having students pull out text books, have them check out a title from our digital collection in the eMedia Catalog.
• Pull up a title on an Interactive White Board for open discussion about sentence structure and parts of speech.  Allow students to highlight favorite or important quotations.
• Assign a book report using an eBook from the Always Available collection.
• If you’re just getting started with our digital collection service, spend 15 minutes at the end of class walking your students through the process. You can find lots of help using our eMedia Catalog at eRead Me Vegas – FAQs, Tips and Tricks.

Digital learning day may be February 1^st, but incorporating technology into your lesson plans can be a day-to-day exercise.  Whether it’s keeping your students engaged with the Virtual Library or by using Digital Learning Day’s great website tool kits, there are endless ways to keeping your classroom ahead of the curve.

Feburary health program ideas brought to you by The Pulse, part of the Gale’s Health and Wellness Resource Center.

February is practically synonymous with Valentine’s Day and Valentine’s Candy. Unfortunately, that candy can cause problems for children’s teeth, many of which go untreated. In fact, one in six children have at least one untreated cavity and one in five children have not visited a dentist in the last year, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Fortunately, February is Children’s Dental Health Awareness Month and promoting it will be easy and fun with these free resources and with information from Health and Wellness Resource Center.

• Quick and Easy: printable coloring pages and other activities for children and teens.
• Featured Resources: books for children and their caregivers and links to reliable online information
• Book Club: ideas for your Tween Book Club
• Tie In: ideas for library programs that will get children and teens brushing
• Community Resources: local agencies to contact
• Publicity Resources: free resources to help you publicize Children’s Dental Health Awareness Month at your library through social networking sites or traditional printed materials
• Fun Stuff: links to fun activities for children

Quick and Easy

Books

Children’s Dental Health – Picture Books about Dentists and Teeth

Reliable Online Information:

• Academy of General Dentistry – Oral Health Resources
• American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry – Parent Education Brochures and Quick Tips for Busy Parents
• American Dental Association – Oral Health Topics
• American Dental Hygenists’ Association – Oral Health Information
• Canadian Dental Association – Your Oral Health
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Health Statistics – FASTATS – Oral and Dental Health
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Oral Health Resources
• Medline Plus – Dental Health
• National Institutes of Health – National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research – Dental Health
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – Women’s Health – Oral Health Fact Sheet

Book Club

Smile by Raina Telgemeier (Scholastic/Graphix, February 2010). Autobiography/Comic Book, Ages 9 to 13.

From the publisher: “Raina just wants to be a normal sixth grader. But one night after Girl Scouts she trips and falls, severely injuring her two front teeth, and what follows is a long and frustrating journey with on-again, off-again braces, surgery, embarrassing headgear, and even a retainer with fake teeth attached. And on top of all that, there’s still more to deal with: a major earthquake, boy confusion, and friends who turn out to be not so friendly. This coming-of-age true story is sure to resonate with anyone who has ever been in middle school, and especially those who have ever had a bit of their own dental drama.”

• About the Author
• Author’s Facebook
• Webcomics by the Author
• Author’s Blog
• Click to Look Inside!
• Video Trailer for the Book
• Author Interview
• New York Times Book Review

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl (New York: Knopf, 1964). Chapter Book, Ages 9 to 12.

Not only does this beloved book feature chocolate, but also dentists (Willy Wonka’s estranged father). Use the book to discuss the good side and bad side of candy and to discuss dentists and flossing.

• Author Website
• Author Profile and Educator’s Guide to the World of Roald Dahl
• Click to Look Inside!
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Movie Trailer

Tie Ins

Crafts and Other Fun Program Ideas

Community Resources

• American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry

• District and State Sites
• Find Pediatric Dentist
• American Dental Association

• Find a Dentist
• Find Your Local (Component) Organization
• Find Your State (Constituent) Organization
• National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research – Local Dental Schools
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – Health Resources and Services Administration – Find a federally funded, low or no cost health center near you.

Fun Stuff

Interactive Web Sites for Children and Teens

• Online Coloring from My Smile Kids

1. In the nursery rhyme, what had Little Bo-peep lost?

2. Is the colour vermilion blue, green or red?

3. Name the place in the Ukraine where there was a nuclear disaster on 26 April, 1986, releasing radioactive material into the atmosphere.

4. “Oxbridge” is a word that refers to what?

5. Which US actor starred in the films “The Magnificent Seven”, “The Great Escape” and “Bullitt”?

6. Who has been president of France since 2007? – try to give both his names.

7. Who wrote the novels “Jamaica Inn”, “Rebecca” and “Frenchman’s Creek”?

8. Which part of the human body includes the hammer, the anvil and the stirrup?

9. In which two countries would you be most likely to find Walloons?

10. Can you name four of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World?

How did you do?

0 – 1 Mmmm, not exactly brilliant.
2 – 5 A reasonable stab.
6 – 8 A good showing. But there’s still room for improvement!
9 – 10 You really know your stuff. Well done!

Questions set by Tony Augarde (www.augardebooks.co.uk)

Reading old newspapers is one way to do it.  The Virtual Library has the Las Vegas Review Journal  and the Las Vegas Age available online.  The Las Vegas Library also has the Las Vegas Review Journal and The Sun available on microfiche. Watch Tom Hawley’s Video Vault – Library Research for more information about these great library resources.

If so, THIS is where you can go to let everyone know there’s a problem! SAFERPRODUCTS.GOV will take your information, and actually check it out!

They’ll put your report up, so other people can read about it!

Here’s what you’ll need you submit a report:

1. What is it?
2. Who made it?
3. What happened? (What went wrong?)
4. When did it happen?
5. Who are you? (for example, are you a nurse and know this is a bad thing?)
6. How can we contact you?
7. Can we put your report up?
8. And, do you promise all this is really true?

1. Click on the Advanced Search link under the Search For box on the homepage.
2. Type the word debut in the top box, and select RV Review from the drop-down on the same line.
3. Leave AND selected in the second line.
4. Type 2011 in the box on the second line and select PY Publication Year from the drop-down menu on the same line.
5. Click Search.

This will give you a list of hundreds of debut novels published in 2011. You can then use the options in the “Narrow Results by” section to the left to narrow by genre or the boxes in the “Limit Your Results” on the right to limit by audience. This way, you can, for example, create a list of debut Mystery titles for teens:

1. Select Mystery Stories under Genre in the “Narrow Results by” section to the left of your Result List.
2. Select the Teens box in the “Limit Your Results” section on the right.
3. Click Update.

You will be left with over 15 Mystery debuts for teens.

A word of warning: you may find that some of the books in the result list are sequels to debut novels. The debut may be mentioned in the review for the sequel.

View the video New Voting ID Laws by MSNBC.

Discussion Guide

Lesson Plan 1- History of Voting Rights in the U.S.

Objective:  Students will learn about the history of voting rights in the United States and create a timeline of the most significant events

Handout Lesson Plan 1- Significant Events Impacting Voting Rights

Lesson Plan 2- Persuasive Writing

Objective:  Students will choose from several topics and write a persuasive essay

Lesson Plan 3-Voting around the World

Objective:  Groups will compete to collect the most information about the voting rights in an assigned region of the world

21^st Century Core Content
History
Government and Civics

21^st Century Themes
Global Awareness
Civic Literacy

21^st Century Skills
Work Creatively With Others
Reason Effectively
Communicate Clearly
Collaborate with Others
Work Independently
Be Self-directed Learners
Interact Effectively with Others
Work Effectively in Diverse Teams
Produce Results
Guide and Lead Others
Be Responsible to Others

 Additional Resources:
State Felon Voting Laws; ProCon.org
State Voting Requirements by Declare Yourself.com
U.S. Electoral College by Archives.gov
U.S. Department of Justice; Voting Rights Act of 1965
U.S. Constitution.net

Additional Resources from U.S. History in Context:
Florida Law Tightens Voting Rules
Voting Rights Act of 1965; Primary Source
Suffrage Topic Overview
Democracy Movements
Election Day! Primary Source

Lesson plan provided by Gale

Can you identify the rock and pop groups to which these players belong or belonged? Need Help? Use Credo Reference Online!

1. Which US pop group included

, Tito Jackson and Jermaine Jackson?

2. Which Swedish pop group included Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson?

3. Which British rock band included Steve Jones, Glen Matlock and Paul Cook?

4. Which US group included Carl Wilson, Mike Love and Al Jardine?

5. Which British pop group, formed in 1960, had a drummer called Pete Best?

6. Which Irish boy band, created by Louis Walsh, included Ronan Keating and Stephen Gately?

7. Which American vocal group included Renaldo Benson, Abdul Fakir, Lawrence Payton and Levi Stubbs?

8. Which British synth-pop duo formed in 1981 consisted of Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart?

9. Which British rock band included Jonny Buckland and Will Champion?

10. Which American band included Billy Corgan, James Iha and D’Arcy Wretzky?

How did you do?

0 – 1 Mmmm, not exactly brilliant.
2 – 5 A reasonable stab.
6 – 8 A good showing. But there’s still room for improvement!
9 – 10 You really know your stuff. Well done!

Questions set by Tony Augarde (www.augardebooks.co.uk)