Students are taking the TAKS test this week, and I’m here in my office with no phone calls or emails to distract me. Now is the perfect time to post about all these cool things I’ve been collecting from my Reader for the last several months.

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SafeshareTV – this web site allows you to share YouTube videos without all the distracting and sometimes inappropriate comments and related videos on the page. Simply paste the URL of the YouTube video you’d like to use into the box on Safeshare.tv, then click “Generate Safe Link.” Note: This doesn’t let you bypass any filters that are in place – in my district you still have to go to YouTube and override the filter before you can see the video through SafeshareTV – but it does cover up all the other “stuff” on the YouTube page.

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22books – Tara at the TLC=Tech+Library+Classroom blog first alerted me to this site. It is a librarian’s dream. It allows you to make book lists that you can link to or embed in blogs, wikis or web pages. Next time a teacher asks for a list of good books that are good examples of “voice,” make it on 22books and email a link. Lists created here are easy to update and share. Tara has created a whole wiki using embedded lists from 22books. Here’s a list that I put together in about 5 minutes. A really easy tool to use!

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The Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book by Terry Freedman is a free e-book that is perfect for librarians and teachers who want to integrate some new web 2.0 tools into their instruction. Download it today!

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Dan Pink, author of A Whole New Mind, has a new book out about motivation. Drive: the Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us picks up where A Whole New Mind left off and discusses the how people who are involved in creative right-brain work need different motivation than people who are involved in left-brain work. Definitely something for educators to consider. The video below is Pink himself discussing the science behind motivating people. It’s a little long (18 min.) but well worth watching.

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Writing a Paper? Try These 7 Research Tips – great article from US News and World Report that might benefit seniors going off to college in the fall. (via the Neverending Search blog)

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Teaching Kids to Read from the Back of a Burro – this CNN Hero is a man with a mission to save the rural children of Colombia from illiteracy. Great story!

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Rethinking Library Advocacy – One of the many great sessions I attended at TLA had to do with advocacy. The speakers were two of the ladies who have become known in library circles as “the Spokane Moms.” These women pulled together a grass-roots effort to save school librarians whose positions were being cut in Washington. They had some very sound advice for those of us who advocate for school libraries. This post does a great job of summarizing the session.

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Shelf Consumed is a new blog written by my colleague Leigh Ann Jones. She has some great content – it’s an RSS feed worth adding!

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That’s all I’ve got for today. Good luck to all the students working hard on those tests this week!