USATODAY – Fashion magazines showing more body types
Following Dove soap’s new real women ad campaign, teen magazines like Seventeen, Teen People and CosmoGirl are now featuring girls off all shapes and sizes rather than just tall, thin models. This can only be good for girls’ self esteem and body image. I look forward to seeing the trend continue with an emphasis on health rather than size.

Paper Toys is a site that offers patterns for fold-up models. From building models to origami to cards to paper airplanes, this site offers a variety of challenges for kids and grown ups alike.

UpToTen is a website filled with online games for children from toddlers to age ten. There are over 600 games and activities for children.

PAGES has a great article on service to teens in public libraries.
“Libraries have to start becoming community centers and move away from the white ivory tower type place where you’re only allowed to go in there for the information you need and you have to be quiet,” he says. “That bun-head thinking is going to kill this public library world.”
It goes on to say that until teen services are considered as important as children’s services, we are not doing enough as libraries to serve them.

Podcasting is one of the hottest new trends online. The Education Podcast Network collects podcasts of interest to teachers to use in the classroom or to use to understand the latest issues. You can browse by subject specific podcast or find student and class podcasts.

Written by an English teacher, How schools are destroying the joy of reading is definitely not an attack on teachers or schools. Rather it is an attack on those huge textbooks that hinder teens from really enjoying language and literature.
The piece concludes with:
“It’s time for states and school districts to kick the mega-textbook habit that four or five big corporations control and start spending money on the kind of books that will make kids want to do sustained reading, to get lost in the written word. For English classes, that’s paperback novels (whole novels) and collections of short stories (complete short stories) and poetry.”

Chicago Tribune — No joke: Comic strips aid in learning, teachers say is an article on how ESL teachers are using comic strips to teach English. The combination of visual, aural and humor add up to a perfect teaching tool.
You will get to have a free login at the Tribune to access the article.

Connect for Kids is a website that encourages parents and teachers to connect and talk about issues facing children today. From newletters to recommended sites to recent news and online forums, this site is timely and filled with items of interest.

Another new blog find! OK, so the blog isn’t new, but it is new to me. Librarian in the Middle is a blog that focuses on resources and news for middle school librarians.