By Edward van de Vendel In Classroom, Teacher TalkPosted January 18, 2021What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?: Guest Post by Edward van de VendelIf we could do a bit of time traveling and end up right next to the chair I’m sitting on, in a classroom, in, let’s say, November 1974 (I’m ten [...] READ MORE
By Lisa Bullard In Author InterviewsPosted January 15, 2021Kate Messner: The Grown-Up Version of “That Kid with a Million Questions”It only takes a quick glance at Kate Messner’s website to grasp that she’s a prolific, award-winning writer with a wide array of books to her [...] READ MORE
By Katy Tessman In Books in Bloom, Digital, Library, Mackin Library, MackinVIAPosted January 14, 2021Celebrate Black History by Honoring Today’s DiversityAs student populations become more diverse, classmates are very likely to have friends in different racial and ethnic groups. The year 2020 was [...] READ MORE
By Maddie Ince In Classroom, Library, Teacher TalkPosted January 7, 2021The Case for Comics in the ClassroomComics are kind of like that one “weird” kid in school no one knows how to be friends with. As a medium, it’s studded with unfortunate [...] READ MORE
By Ziki Nelson and Nyasha Mugavazi In Classroom, Library, Teacher TalkPosted December 31, 2020History of Comics: Guest Post by Ziki Nelson and Nyasha MugavaziThe history of comic books can be traced back to the African continent and ancient Egyptian civilization. The Egyptians created hieroglyphs as a [...] READ MORE
By Lisa Bullard In Author InterviewsPosted December 30, 2020Christian Robinson on the Art of Communicating Through PicturesChristian Robinson received a Caldecott Honor and a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor for his art in Last Stop on Market Street (by Matt de la [...] READ MORE
By Stephan Lee In Books in Bloom, Library, Teacher TalkPosted December 17, 2020K-Pop, Creating Change, and YA: Guest Post by Stephan LeeK-pop is no longer limited to Korea; its raging popularity has swept across the entire world. In this guest post on the Mackin Community blog, [...] READ MORE
By Lindsay Simmons In Classroom, Digital, Makerspace, Professional Learning, Teacher TalkPosted December 7, 2020Literacy in the MakingThere are many obvious connections between STEM and making, but as Dr. John Spencer writes in one of his blog posts, “Too often, we associate [...] READ MORE
By Katy Tessman In Books in Bloom, Digital, LibraryPosted November 30, 2020New Prequels, Sequels, and Spinoffs to the Movies That Were Released in 2020by Katy Tessman, New School Services Project Manager & Makerspace Specialist Most movies for youth are adaptations of children’s books and [...] READ MORE
By Lisa Bullard In Author InterviewsPosted November 30, 2020Varian Johnson: Relating Fiction to Real LifeVarian Johnson’s middle-grade novel, The Parker Inheritance, was awarded a 2019 Coretta Scott King Honor as well as received numerous other [...] READ MORE