Managing Your Library

I haven't posted in ages. I took on a simple task (not!) to catalog my personal library, and it's taken a great deal longer than I expected to finish up. I've been meaning to do it for ages--if anything happens I want to be able to prove to my insurance company how much my library was worth. And I want to avoid buying multiple copies of books. And all those other great reasons for cataloging a library. The problem is, I own a lot of books. Really a lot. (I read my books more than once, and I like to actually own books.) So I started several times in the past, and gave up discouraged at the amount of time it took to enter the information for each book.
So this time I decided to start by researching my options. And I found a tool that makes it practical (if not completely easy) to catalog all my books.
Readerware, by Readerware Corporation, is a database that simplifies the data entry process. You just enter the ISBN and the program looks the number up online (you select where to look, from options such as Amazon and the Library of Congress) to locate all the required information about the book, including value, title, author, etc.
And, to make it even easier (yeah!), you can use a barcode reader to simply scan in the ISBN information. I ordered the version with the free cuecat bar code reader, and find I can scan in an entire box of paperbacks (about 40) in only a few minutes. It takes a little longer for the look up process, but I can leave and do something else while the application is working.
If you don't want to take this approach, you can also drag web pages (such as Amazon) to the database to add specific books. You can even manually add information for books.
The database provides a check out feature that would be a great tool for classroom libraries, letting you track who borrows what book.
The application is a little more expensive than others, but I found the saved time to be well worth the cost.
Readerware

Online Timeline Makers

Recently, both of my children had projects that required them to make timelines. We did this in Excel, but I thought there had to be a better way. So I went searching online. Here are some excellent online tools that will let you create and print timelines:

http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/timeline/index.html
Lets you create, print, and save your timeline.

http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/materials/timelines/ Only lets you have 6-9 events on your timeline, unless you purchase a membership.

State Capital Flash Cards

These flash cards have the State name on one side, and the State capital on the other. They are set up to print on 3x5 index cards. I put all the State names in dark blue, and the capitals in dark green, which will print as black (or very dark grey) on a decent printer. However, having them different colors on screen makes the file easier to work with. To print them out, I found it works best to print out all the odd pages (which are the states) then follow the directions for reloading the cards into your printer to print the other side. Then print the even pages.
StateCapitals.

Multiplication Table Index Card

This multiplication reference table shows multiplication from 0 to 12. It makes a handy at-desk reference for students, or as a quiz tool for practicing their math facts. PDF. OpenOffice.

Word Wall Bingo

Bingo makes a great tool for working on word wall words. Here are three different ways to make Bingo Cards for your students:
1. Use Edhelper.com if you have a membership. It lets you enter and save word lists. You can then use those lists to make puzzles and exercises--including word search and bingo cards.
2. Use the Bingo Card generater file.
3. Print out blank bingo cards and have the children fill in their own cards. Excellent because they also have to practice writing the words.
Then play! You can tie it in to whatever reward system you usually use.

Stand Alone Flash Quiz tool

I put together a set of Flash-based flash cards for my daughter's class when they were memorizing their times tables, but it was a hassle reprogramming them over and over again. I put together this flexible version instead. It has two parts, a stand-alone flash file (called quiz.exe) and a text file. All you need to do is put the two files in the same directory on your computer. Then, edit the text file to show the questions/answers you want to use.
The text file must be put together in a specific way to work, so here's the explanation:
The first line contains
filelist=
Leave this here, it indicates the start of the variable list.
After that, each question group is on a new line. The question group has the question, then a "|", then four multiple choice answers separeated by "|", and finally, the number of the correct multiple choice answer (1 through 4).
For example, the first question appears as follows:
What is the capital of Michigan?|Lansing|Detroit|Holland|Ypsilanti|1
The question will be What is the Capital of Michigan?
Then you will see four multiple choice options:
Lansing
Detroit
Holland
Ypsilanti
Since the first option, Lansing, is correct, the number 1 appears in the last spot.
Once you have updated the file, your students just double-click on the quiz.exe file to get quizzed on the info. The quiz will ask each question only once, and will keep track of their right and wrong answers.
Hope you like this!
Files
Hope you enjoy this!

Weekly Agenda (letter size)

This letter size page lets you track an entire week's lesson information, and homework. Either fill it in ahead of time and print out copies for students, or give them blank sheets to fill in as the week progresses. Open Office. PDF.