Where to find images for school

Need images for a school project? The best option would be to take your own pictures or create your own images to use for a school project, but when that isn't practical, here are some alternatives.

Not all images are free for use, and even if they are, digital citizenship requires you ask for permission before using. Instead of using Google Images to find a picture, head over to the ES library catalog for ethical alternatives so that you can demonstrate the CAC core values of integrity and respect.

Students in grades 2 and up will be learning how to find images for for which they have permission to use and how to cite the sources of those images. 

Here are a few places to start your search for images. 

Britannica Image Quest

This subscription database offers millions of high quality available for students to include in their work. Britannica Image Quest offers images from many reputable sources, including government archives, famous museums and stock photography collections.

Britannica Image Quest is a subscription database, which means that we pay a fee on behalf of our CAC community, and that log in credentials are required. Students in grades 2 to 5 receive a card from the library through their classrooms with all usernames and passwords for all of our databases, but CAC patrons can also use the Quick Login. (All ES students know the Quick Login. Ask your child or stop by the ES library to request it.)

Wikimedia Commons

This site from the Wikipedia family offers 36 million images uploaded by users. Each image is available for download in different sizes and permission details are included on the page. There's even a monthly challenge for photographers.

The search interface is not as elementary school friendly as some other sites, but it is a good option for our older students.

Creative Commons Search

Creative Commons licenses are  sets of permissions for work of all types. By invoking a Creative Commons license, creators of content let people know what type of credit they would like for their work. Here is a very easy explanation of the main four types of licenses. I've also link to this explanatory cartoon on the Visual Tab.

The Creative Commons Search link on the Visual Tab will take you a site where you can search for different types of media: images, videos, and sound files.

Photos for Class

My new favorite, Photos for Class,  offers copyright friendly images that include the proper attribution right on the image once you download it.

ES Library and Grade 5 Journalists Making Headlines!

The grade 5 unit recently embarked on a journalism unit in their literacy workshop. The ES library is very happy to support them in this unit, as we have many resources to help them in their journalistic endeavors.

All 3 classes came to the library for a session on journalism sources and how to access many from the library catalog.

Journalists must keep track of their sources. We ask our grade 5 journalists to maintain a bibliography of citations. Templates for the citations (in MLA format) can be found in their student planners or on the Visual Tab grade 5 page. Citing our sources is one of the ways we demonstrate our CAC core value of integrity.

1. Personal interviews and observations
• Journalists find stories in the world around them. Our grade 5 students are encouraged to do so as well. 
2. Written materials, e.g., primary sources and  magazines
• Primary sources would include letters, maps, recordings and other materials created at the time of the event being 
• Magazines and other periodicals - we have many childrens' magazines in the ES library. They are getting checked out frequently for this unit. We remind the students that magazines and other periodicals are often printed on flimsy, inexpensive paper and so they must take extra special care with them. 
3. EBSCO's Primary Search database -- link on the library catalog's Visual Tab Current Events  page and the Home page.

• 
  
• This is one of our subscription databases. It searches for keywords in children's magazines. 
• Students are encouraged to use subscription databases because they are reliable sources of information. 
• Primary Search database allows students to filter results by time, subject, publication, geography and other limiters
• It also provides a citation for the article in question. This citation can be copied directly onto a bibliography
• 
  



4. WebPath Express -- on the library catalog
   
• WebPath Express is the search engine for our Destiny catalog. It searches for keywords in a large collection of websites vetted by teachers and librarians. While it may not return the most current of articles, it does return relatively authoritative and reliable sources. 
• To create a citation for an article found through WebPath Express, students will need follow the formats given in their student planners or on the grade 5 Visual Tab for research skills. 
5. Kiddle.co -- link on the library catalog's Visual Tab Current Events page
   
• Kiddle.co is a search engine for kids. It uses a customized Google search to first find articles written for children, then articles written for adults but accessible to children and finally articles written for adults. 
• The News tab on the Kiddle.co site will look for articles in children's online news sites first. 
• To create a citation for an article found through WebPath Express, students will need follow the formats given in their student planners or on the grade 5 Visual Tab for research skills. 
• When looking at websites through Kiddle.co, students should consider our website evaluation criteria, PAARC. (P-purpose, A-authority, A-accuracy, R-relevance, C-currency)
6. Current events page on the Visual Tab
   
• 
  
• The Visual Tab has a "Current Events for Kids" button. That will take you to a page full of links to online newspapers and magazines for children, from many countries and in different languages. Unfortunately, each site has to be search separately, but for the most part, these online news sites are quite current. Facts should always be cross checked. 
• We do not have an online site for children's news in Arabic, so if you know of one, please let us know so we can add it to the page. 
7. LAST resort: Google search
• Google search should be the last resort, to be used only if none of the other sources produce the information sought. 
• For our journalism purposes, we often are interested in different perspectives, so we can focus our search results by using the code, "site:", and adding the 2 letter country code. For example, a search for "Olympics 2016 news site:.eg" will give us results of news published in or about Egypt. 

Journalists must have at least 2 verifiable sources for the information they report on. This forces journalists to double check their facts. Our young journalists will be held accountable to the same standard. Using this list of sources will ensure that they know where to look for information.

A New Year Full of Reading!

Welcome back to school! We hope you had an enjoyable and relaxing holiday, and that you read heaps and heaps of great books. Remember to log your minutes of holiday reading, if you haven't already. The link to the Million Minutes of Reading Form is on the menu of this blog. You will need to log in with your CAC username and password.

Here's how far we've come as I type this. Please visit the Million Minutes of Reading Totals page  to see the updated total.

The monthly CAC Core Value focus for January is on integrity, and logging your reading minutes is an opportunity to exercise your integrity by entering accurate amounts. While it's okay to round up numbers to the nearest 10 or 100, please make sure to not inflate your reported minutes. We'll get there together and with integrity, or else the journey is not worth it. 

Compassion at the ES Library

We have a table display full of books on compassion this month to go with our ES school wide core value focus. Well, I should say now half-full because the titles have been in great demand and many are checked out at every check out session.

How do we show compassion in the library?

• We take good care of our books
• We recommend our favorite books to our friends, so they too, can enjoy them
• We respect the book choices of others
• When we read fiction, we try to understand how characters feel
• We make connections between text and our world, other books and ourselves

To see a full list of titles on compassion on our library catalog, you can visit the Visual Tab.

1. Go to the library catalog, library.cacegypt.org. 
2. Choose the elementary school library. 
3. Click on the Visual Tab
4. Navigate to the Core Values button
5. Click on the compassion icon - or any other of interest.

Here are a few of my favorite picture books on the compassion books list. 

PIC Seuss	We all know the story of the lovable elephant who stands up for invisible people on a speck of dust. Horton shows compassion and integrity in protecting all of the little Whos even though he cannot see them and can barely hear them. All he knows is that they're people and therefore worthy of respect. With The Seussical musical on this year, it's a great time to reconnect with Dr. Seuss.
PIC Stead	Winner of the Caldecott Medal in 2011, this is the sweet story of Amos McGee, a patient and loving zookeeper. When he stays home sick with a cold, his animal charges come to take care of him in return. Compassion all around goes around.
PIC Knudsen	One of my favorite books, Library Lion, by Michelle Knudsen, is super fun to read aloud because of the different voices and because of the lovable lion. In this story, librarian Mr. McGee forgets the importance of compassion for all library patrons, and the rule-abiding lion gently reminds him by example.
PIC dePaola	Another favorite. In this story, little Tomie teaches his grandfather to walk again after his stroke, just like his grandfather taught him to walk as a baby. This is a beautiful story of love and compassion between generations.
PIC Polacco	Patricia Polacco draws on a family story in the book about a Jewish family who helps their Christian neighbors one year when Christmas was in danger of not coming to town because of a bad scarlet fever epidemic. There are three books by Patricia Polacco on this list and I bet I could find several more to fit. All of her books are gorgeously illustrated and heart-felt.

Since December is a short month, we will continue to focus on compassion until the break. That's fitting because the world needs a lot of compassion right now. 

Responsibility in the library

This month, the elementary school will be focusing on the CAC core value of responsibility. We have a display of library books that illustrate this value. Students are encouraged to read them and check them out this month.

How do you show responsibility in the library?

• You return your books on time and always bring a bag
• You take good care of the library materials that you take home
• You always remember that we share the library with everyone else in the school
• You cite the sources you have found when doing school work
• You clean up after yourself 

We are very proud of KgS and 1T because every single student in those classes showed responsibility last week by bringing in their books and bags! We are so happy that they are becoming so independent and responsible, and as a great reward for their responsibility, they all got to take books home to share with parents and family members. We hope they will keep that up all year long and that their example will inspire all the other homerooms too!

Respect in the ES library

This month of September, the entire elementary school will be focusing on the CAC Core Value of respect. It is a good value to keep in mind as we start the school year.

At the ES library, we have lots of books that fit the theme of respect. Please visit the Visual Tab of the library catalog, http://library.cacegypt.org, and follow the picture clues to each of the core values.

There is a link to the catalog on the navigation menu of all the ES blogs, and also on the CAC website.

Our preK to grade 2 classes this week will focus on the core value of respect.


PreK and kg classes will be reading the book, I Am (Not) Small, by Anna Kang. In this book, two bear-like cartoon characters disagree about their respective sizes until another creature appears and proves that it's all relative. This humorous tale is a good vehicle to talk about respecting our differences and honoring our similarities. (Prek and kg have also been talking about how to show respect to books in the library: carrying them home and back in their library bags, and turning the pages from the corners.)




Grade 1 classes will be reading the non-fiction book, I Am Respectful, by Sarah Schuette. Through colorful photographs and simple text, this book illustrates many scenarios in which children show respect. It should spark a discussion on what respect looks like in the library.

What does respect look like in the library? Respectful library users:

• carefully handle library materials
• say please and thank you to the library staff
• listen attentively to each other when discussing books
• never make fun of anyone's reading choices
• remember that we share the library with everyone else at the school

Grade 2 classes will be reading Ryan Respects, by Virginia Kroll. In this early reader, Ryan makes fun of a slower classmate until he himself is the butt of his older brother's unkind teasing for having a teddy bear. Discussion will be centered on what students would do in similar situations, building on last year's guidance lessons on preventing bullying.


Do you have any favorite books that would tie well with this core value? Let us know in the comments.