March Madness in the book world, too!

March welcomes a plethora of the best reads (reading lists) for all ages and interests. Young adult readers will surely find a good read in Booklist Online's Best Fiction for Young Adults 2015 list.  Notable Children's Books 2015 offers something for younger readers, also published by Booklist Online.  Check out your Marshall Public School library catalogs to find these honorable books, and more award winning books for 2015.

The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend written and illustrated by Dan Santat is winner of the 2015 Caldecott Medal for best American picture book.   Find this book at Park Side, West Side, and the Marshall Middle School library



The Printz Award is given to the most notable young adult book, and this year's winner is I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson. 

Copyright Morsel

Hopefully with some of the information I’ve posted this year, some of the “muddiness” of copyright is becoming clearer.  The article for this week, Copyright Infringement: 5 Myths vs Facts, focuses on 5 myths and the facts behind them.  This information is shared in an infographic with more explanation in a video and text information.  I like how this article discusses internet copyright infringement.  Many aspects that we certainly need to be aware of today in a digital society. 

YouTube: Everything you need to know and more...and the weekly Copyright Morsel.

YouTube...it's a love hate relationship.  It has both pros and cons alike.  YouTube can encourage creativity, it's free, the music, it can teach you "how to...just about anything", and there is a lot of educational content available.  But the same qualities that make it fun, educational, and interesting, can also bring up a host of problems such as spam, inappropriate material and/or images, bad language, privacy concerns, advertising, etc.

Common Sense Media provides several quick and easy suggestions for making YouTube a family friendly site in the article, A Parent's Ultimate Guide to YouTube.  Using the safety settings, parental guidance, and channel subscriptions are but a few of the recommendations suggested.

Looking for YouTube content for your classroom or family to subscribe to?  Consider the following 7 of the Best YouTube Channels for Kids.  National Geographic Kids and Sesame Street are two listed at the site.  You can also find links to two other published lists of recommended YouTube channels at the bottom of the page.

The Good, the Bad, and the Viral: YouTube Pros and Cons also discusses both sides of the YouTube issue as it relates to kids and the Internet.

Thinking of using YouTube videos in your classroom, and you want to eliminate the unexpected, and often distasteful advertising and pop-ups?  Copy the URL address into the SafeShare.TV site, and you will be redirected to a link free of everything, but the YouTube video itself.  Copy and paste the new URL address into your presentations to make them easy to find for the next time.

Maybe you only want to include a short piece of a YouTube video, try TubeChop.  Copy and paste the YouTube URL address, and then use the tools available to isolate the section of the video you want to use.  The tool creates a new link of the shortened video selection that can be copied and pasted into your presentation, also free of advertising and pop-ups.

Copyright Morsel by Diane Konjura

This week I found an article from The Edublogger that was published in 2012, but is an excellent article about copyright, fair use, and creative commons for educators.  It not only explains copyright, fair use and creative commons, but also provides resources to help when needing images, videos, and curriculum.  An important message in this article points out how more and more law firms and organizations are seeking out copyrighted material that is posted publicly and is in violation of copyright.  I encourage teachers to check out this article: The Edublogger: The Educator's Guide to Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons

Visiting Author, Booklists, Upcoming Teen Tech Week, and the Copyright Morsel

Author Kelly Van Hull will be visiting the 7th and 8th grade language arts classes on Thursday, March 12th.  Van Hull is a South Dakota resident, and the author of two books The first book is titled "Tent City",  and tells the story of 17 year old Dani Campbell and her brother who must survive in a very different world after a plague wipes out civilization as we know it.  Van Hull's second book in the series, "Red River" continues the journey. You can read more about these books at the website linked above.

Looking for great books to recommend to young adults and/or children.  Time magazine posted a list of the top 100 young adult novels, and the top 100 children's books.  How many have you read?

Many exciting events are taking place at both the Middle School and High School media centers in honor of "Teen Tech Week" which runs from March 8th through the 15th.  Stop by either library that week to find the latest in Makerspace activities.

Copyright Morsel by Diane Konjura

Last week, February 23-27, was Fair Use Week 2015.  The Origin of U.S. Fair Use (in comic format) tells the story of Fair Use in our U.S. history and expresses the importance of Fair Use for artists, teachers, news reporters, musicians, students and our economy.  Another great example is the outstanding Yale student project video titled The Infringement Medley.  Be sure to check this video out and share it with students to help them understand our First Amendment Rights of Free Speech may support Fair Use.  This along with an infographic regarding Fair Use can be found in the following TechDirt.com article: Reminder: Fair Use is a Right-- And Not 'An Exception' or 'A Defense'