What better way to get students excited about reading and writing then to ask them to write a letter to their favorite author! This is exactly the premise behind the Letters About Literature Contest.
“Letters About Literature asks student readers to write a letter to an author describing how his or her work touched their life in a personal way. Authors can be of any genre or time period and can come from any country. The contest focuses on reader response and reflective writing and has three competition levels: Level 1 for students in grades 4-6; Level 2 for students in grades 7 and 8; and Level 3 for students in grades 9-12. State level judges choose the top letter writers from each of the three competition levels who will advance to the National Level Judging. Then, a panel of national judges for the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress will select one National Winner per competition level to receive a $1,000 cash award. The judges will also select one National Honor per competition level to receive a $200 cash award.”
With many area schools using Chromebooks in their 1:1 deployments, the title of this post may have got a lot of hearts racing! ARS Technica is reporting that Google might be looking to combine Chrome OS and Android. Some have said this means Chrome OS is going to be killed off. While others believe it won’t. Like many news bits in tech, it seems to early to tell.
Hiroshi Lockheimer, the new senior vice president of Android and Chrome OS weighted in on Twitter why you shouldn’t be worried about Chrome OS. Does it placate you?
There’s a ton of momentum for Chromebooks and we are very committed to Chrome OS. I just bought two for my kids for schoolwork!
YALSA has recently announced the titles of the 2015 Teens’ Top Ten. Teens all over the world voted as part of Teen Read Week. Altogether, more than 27,000 votes were cast for the 24 nominees.
Here’s the official 2015 Teens’ Top Ten titles:
“The Shadow Throne” by Jennifer A. Nielsen (Scholastic)
“I Become Shadow” by Joe Shine. (Soho Teen)
“To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” by Jenny Han. (Simon & Schuster)
“My Life with the Walter Boys” by Ali Novak. (Sourcebooks)
“Heir of Fire” by Sarah J. Maas. (Bloomsbury)
“The Bane Chronicles” by Cassandra Clare. (Simon & Schuster/Margaret K. McElderry)
“The Young Elites” by Marie Lu. (Penguin/G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
“The Kiss of Deception” by Mary E. Pearson. (Macmillan/ Henry Holt & Company)
“Since You’ve Been Gone” by Morgan Matson. (Simon & Schuster)
“The Geography of You and Me” by Jennifer E. Smith. (Hachette/Poppy)
Check out the video below featuring 2015 Teen Read Week™ spokesperson Bella Thorne announcing the winning titles:
Don’t have a computer for all your students? Or maybe you just want to plan activities without them. Thanks to the University of Canterbury, you know have an entire curriculum that is completely free and under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA License. Need a quick activity? Check out the Activities section for games and exercises to engage your students. How about videos? Their Videos section has them broken down by subject just in time! Want the whole package? Check out The Book, where you can download the full 243 page textbook.
StoryCorps is launching an ambitious program over Thanksgiving. To record interviews between students and their grandparent or another elder using the StoryCorps app. The goal is to “record as many interviews over that one weekend than we’ve recorded over the last 12 years combined.”
Check out the StoryCorps website to learn more about the Great Thanksgiving Listen, or you can view the teacher toolkit which has a lesson planning guide, follow-up activities, and questions that students can ask their elders.
What better way to get students excited about reading and writing then to ask them to write a letter to their favorite author! This is exactly the premise behind the Letters About Literature Contest.
With many area schools using Chromebooks in their 1:1 deployments, the title of this post may have got a lot of hearts racing! 
YALSA has recently announced the titles of the 2015 Teens’ Top Ten. Teens all over the world voted as part of 
StoryCorps is launching an ambitious program over Thanksgiving. To record interviews between students and their grandparent or another elder using the StoryCorps app. The goal is to “record as many interviews over that one weekend than we’ve recorded over the last 12 years combined.”