Shannon Firth

Most Recent Articles by Shannon Firth

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  Hyperthymesia: Total Recall, Totally Overwhelming
  Due to a condition called hyperthymesia, Jill Price can recall practically every day of her life in vivid detail. New scans of Price's brain may finally reveal the source of her extraordinary memory.
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  Educators That Rock!: Josie Carbone
  Josie Carbone, the founding principal of Girls Prep Bronx, an all-girls charter school for pre-K through first-grade students in the Bronx, New York, got involved in teaching while volunteering to teach Spanish at a local elementary school during high school. After graduating from college in 1997, she worked with Teach For America in New York. Carbone taught for six more years before becoming involved with the New York charter school movement in 2003.
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  Is Your Brain Male or Female?
  Mounting evidence suggests that the differences between male and female brain structure may be more heavily influenced by environment than previously thought.
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  Educators That Rock!: Joyce Valenza
  

  A few weeks ago, findingEducation spoke with Joyce Valenza, an information specialist and author who manages the Springfield Township High School Library in Erdenheim, Pa. Valenza is also a blogger for School Library Journal, a former tech columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer and a lecturer on education issues and technology.
  
  Valenza sets the bar exceedingly high for librarians. Inspired by the benchmarks set by the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), she recently published "14 Ways K-12 Libraries Can Teach Social Media" (Tech & Learning, 21 Sept. 2009) and her own Manifesto for 21^st Century School Librarians, which calls for librarians to acquire the necessary skills to guide learners in new and emerging information and communications landscapes.
  
  “If you call yourself an information professional, you have to be a professional in the information landscape of your time,” says Valenza.

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  Educators That Rock!: David Lee King
  

  In Topeka, Kan., the library is the second favorite place for teens to hang out. “We’re sort of kicked out at the mall,” they tell David Lee King, the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library’s digital branch and services manager. As a result, the building, particularly the new media area and gaming room, are a little noisier than your average library. But King, a former DJ and assistant recording engineer, and now an author, blogger and librarian thought leader, takes pride in all the bustle. “Not too many people can say, ‘Yeah, teenagers think that the library’s cool.'"

  On Oct. 28, King is launching the Library 101 Project with fellow information specialist Michael Porter. The project will include a music video, educator essays and 101 resources.