Plan Your Event

teen tech week, mix and mash @ your library, is march 6-12, 2011.

Use following activity ideas and booklists, suggested by the Teen Tech Week committee, as you plan your Teen Tech Week celebration! Have a great idea you want to share? Add it to the
YALSA Wiki.

Activities

Create Your Own Audiobook Have the teens create their own audiobook, or audiobook preview, for their favorite book or with a story they have written. Record and edit using
Audacity, an open-source audio editor. Encourage different teens to play different characters, and don't be afraid to use a bland-sounding "radio voice" for the introduction!.

Digital Scrapbooking Using a scanner and Microsoft Powerpoint, mix teens' photos with new technology to create an interactive scrapbook that teens can share with their family and friends. Add animations, music and more! This activity could include discussion of how to safely post personal information online or how to find copyright-safe music and images.

Make Book Trailers. Get teens excited about upcoming book releases by creating book trailers. Similar to movie trailers, teens can create their own videos portraying the story as they see fit. Using programs like Photo Story, iMovie, or Microsoft MovieMaker makes the process easy. Have the teens vote on their favorite trailers or have a trailer viewing party after hours to celebrate their hard work. The trailer that has the most votes can be used to promote the next book for the bookclub. Encourage teens to use images, videos, music, and text that will help the potential reader to determine what the book is about and if they would want to read it.

Start a Book Club Teen Tech Week is a great time to start a new book club at your library! Mash up fiction and nonfiction in a bookclub that will inspire teens to look beyond their favorite books to make real-world connections. Come up with theme-appropriate activities for each meeting, like ask teens to create a playlist that they think goes along with the most recent book club pick.

Visual Poetry Take inspiration from the Las Vegas-Clark Count Library District's
Visual Poetry competition and mix it up with a photography exhibit. Invite teens to submit their photographs that they have taken. Photos can be scanned and digitally altered to add a technological touch. At the end of the month, invite the participants to a gallery exhibit showcasing their work. Create an online gallery and link to it from your library's website.

Make Your Own Music Video Mix digital images (including photos and videos), music, and even special effects to have teens create their own music videos! Have your budding McGs use Windows MovieMaker, Photo Story, or iMovie — all of which are available for free.

Music Mash-Ups Make your own
Gleetastic mash-ups using free sounds and music from sites like
Freesound and
CC Mixter. Mix and mash using free Audacity audio editing software. Share them online or even burn them to a disc! Disc-makers can also go to
Big Huge Labs to make a custom CD cover for their teens' creations.

Teen Tech Week Bingo Make a list of 25 technologies or tech-related activities available at your library and put them onto a bingo card. Give teens who complete all the tasks on the card a prize.

Cell Phone Novels Start a collaborative writing project with your teens. Give teens a line of text and have them write a second sentence on their phone — then send to a friend, who contributes the next line. Have them read the whole story out loud as a group once it's finished.

Host a Tech Career Fair Invite local adults who work in a technological field to talk about their fields, a day-in-the-life, and the education that got them there. Highlight books from the library's collection about their occupations. Have the speakers demonstrate a piece of technology at the library that helps them with their jobs.

Draw Inspiration from YALSA's Mini Grant Winners In 2008 and 2009, YALSA awarded 40 libraries $450 each for innovative programs and services for Teen Tech Week. Check out the grant-winning programs
from 2008 and
2009.

Booklists

Inside Out: Rebellion vs. Conformity: Find documentaries and feature films from the 2010 Fabulous Films for Young Adults list.

The
2009 Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners list highlights must-reads for broadening teen horizons. In particular, check out the
Science and Technology and
Arts and Humanities lists.

Get Creative: Fiction and nonfiction books from the 2007 Popular Paperbacks list to help teens tap into their creative juices.

I'm Not Making This Up: Make reality come alive with addictive nonfiction from the 2007 PPYA list.

On That Note: Music and Musicans: This 2004 Popular Paperbacks list spotlights nonfiction and fiction that's in tune with teens.

For even more books aimed to help teens learn, create, and share, take a look at the
downloadable, customizable Teen Tech Week pamphlet from ALA Graphics, with more than 50 recommendations for audiobooks, books, websites, and more.