FAKE News?!

(for Ms. Woodson's Journalism classes )

There are SO MANY places to get information these days, but how can you be sure the info you get is actual factual REAL info and not someone trying to bend the truth?

Today we are going to explore this thought. 

1. Follow this link and do the quiz.  You might be surprised at how good folks are at making fake news look and sound real!

2. Follow this link and read the article.  If you have earbuds or headphones you can also listen to the video. 

3.  Go to Google.  Type is this question:  Is water wet?  Now, check the source of the first link that pops up.  Many people NEVER look beyond the first link that pops up. Is this site a credible source for accurate information?

4.  If you want to be sure your sources of information are credible (ones giving you real, accurate info) you can count on using the digital resources found on our library webpage.  

• follow that link
• hover over the word library in the bar at the top. See the drop-down menu? Click the "NHS Digital Resources" button. 
• You will see a Symbaloo with many resource buttons.  
• If you hover over the buttons you will see the password hints. Fill in the missing letters and you have the passwords!
• Pick a topic and search.  See what you can find on various topics. 

Here's to 2018

For the past few years, I've chosen one little word to guide me through the new year rather than a list of resolutions that never seemed to change from year to year.  Like most people, it seems, resolutions just don't work all that well for me in changing my actual behavior.

Last year my word was Cultivate.  I had grand plans.  Some worked out, but mostly 2017 seemed to be a year of misplacing my mojo.

Y'all.  It was a hard, hard year.

I'm not ready to say I've lost my mojo---but it has definitely gone MIA.

I'm pretty sure my mojo and my joy ran away together.  They are probably living it up on a sandy beach somewhere at this very moment when I am putting fuzzy socks on my feet since it is a brisk 25 degrees outside here in my neck of the woods this morning.

I am a joyful person by nature.
I don't typically run to melancholy.
Kids often tell me I'm happy all the time.
But 2017 just felt...meh.

People don't always like to talk about the hard times.
Sometimes it is viewed as being negative.
The truth is, though, that life happens to all of us.  Some good, some bad.
Pretending everything is great all the time doesn't work long-term.
I'm not about to bad-mouth anything or anyone.
I'm not even about to share details.
But I am speaking my truth when I say this year has been a heckuva hard year and I am changed.

So, this year, I'm setting out to find my missing Joy.
I know my mojo will return with it----they are besties and partners-in-crime.
I am remembering my locus of control.
I am remembering that the answer is also to love more, not less.
I am remembering that perfection is an illusion.

“I just do the best I can to face what life brings. That’s the secret, you know. That’s the way you change your fate.” 
― Alice Hoffman, The Rules of Magic