Each Friday through May, I'll be posting some of our most popular posts from the year (judging by hit counts and comments).
http://libraryvision.blogspot.com/2011/10/pinterest-for-librarians.html
*Originally posted on 10.18.11.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Thursday, April 26, 2012
App-tastic
Here are some great resources to use with your iPads and iPod Touch devices!
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/apps-elementary-classroom-mary-beth-hertz
http://appitic.com/index.php?option=com_sobi2&catid=106&Itemid=309
http://teachwithyouripad.wikispaces.com/Digital+Storytelling
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/apps-elementary-classroom-mary-beth-hertz
http://appitic.com/index.php?option=com_sobi2&catid=106&Itemid=309
http://teachwithyouripad.wikispaces.com/Digital+Storytelling
Friday, April 20, 2012
Friday Flashback
Each Friday through May, I'll be posting some of our most popular posts from the year (judging by hit counts and comments).
http://libraryvision.blogspot.com/2011/12/wicked-wikipedia.html
*Originally posted 12.15.11.
http://libraryvision.blogspot.com/2011/12/wicked-wikipedia.html
*Originally posted 12.15.11.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Boy Books and Girl Books
I am a firm believer that all literature provides equal opportunity for any individual, regardless of gender. There are many who disagree. Some folks say girls don't like Hatchet, and some say boys would never be interested Little House on the Prairie. To them I would ask why a girl shouldn't enjoy a good survival book (Hunger Games demographics have very recently proven that), and also why a boy wouldn't enjoy a vividly descriptive work about pioneer life.
We can't put readers in our preconceived boxes.
But just because it's true that some girls really don't like Hatchet, here is a great list of books recommended for the little ladies from ages 1-9.
Likewise, just as the young gentlemen can be a bit choosy sometimes when being proffered literature, here's another good list for them as well, appropriate for various ages through middle school.
These might be a neat idea for a display for the last two weeks in April. What would you title it? Boy Books and Chick Lit?
We can't put readers in our preconceived boxes.
But just because it's true that some girls really don't like Hatchet, here is a great list of books recommended for the little ladies from ages 1-9.
Likewise, just as the young gentlemen can be a bit choosy sometimes when being proffered literature, here's another good list for them as well, appropriate for various ages through middle school.
These might be a neat idea for a display for the last two weeks in April. What would you title it? Boy Books and Chick Lit?
Friday, April 13, 2012
Disaster Preparedness
Unfortunately, our area has had more than our share of natural disasters in the past year. In one of the recent webinars from the state department, LeeAnna Mills (librarian at Northside Middle whose school experienced a fire in 2011) offered tips for disaster preparedness that she learned the hard way. Here are a few:
The American Association of School Librarians also offers a huge grant for libraries who have experienced disaster. You do not have to be an ASLA member to apply. Details can be found here.
- Catalog EVERYTHING. The stack of donated books, the extra professional resources brought in by administrators, books you bought at the book fair, items purchased with grant money, big books, puppets, supplemental materials, resource kits, realia, equipment, new stuff, old stuff worthy of keeping...everything. If you have to go through a disaster, you won't remember what you had or didn't have. This is your best method of ensuring your collection will be replaced. LeeAnna said even if you don't have time to catalog an item, scan ISBN numbers into a Excel file at the very least (saved to the server) so that you have some sort of record of these resources.
- Keep an electronic copy of your personal items (certificates, awards, etc. in list or PDF form).
- Make sure when cataloging equipment to include Title, Make/Brand, Model Number, Serial Number, Date of Purchase, and Funds Used. (All of these are part of our district's standard record-keeping procedures for equipment.)
- Always have a wish list. After you experience a disaster, many times you will receive offers for help. Keep a digital list with a vendor (or Amazon) for generous people to purchase exactly what you need.
- Keep an electronic copy of your library's floor plan. Pictures are very valuable, too.
The American Association of School Librarians also offers a huge grant for libraries who have experienced disaster. You do not have to be an ASLA member to apply. Details can be found here.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Philosophies of Teaching Keyboarding in the 21st Century
I've long since stopped believing that students should be taught keyboarding.
I can literally hear people gasping right now.
Don't throw your lunch at me or call me a techno-heretic just yet! Hear me out, people, hear me out...
My reasons are four-fold:
1. Keyboarding skill-and-drill practice takes time that could be spent on more valuable experiences with technology. (Example: Instead of practicing home keys or finding capital and lowercase letters, let students-even 5 year olds!-type a list of words that begin with each letter of the alphabet. Have older students type reports, blog posts, comments on other blog posts, etc.) I'm not saying never give them a few minutes here and there on some sort of open-source software, but for the love of Pete don't take your 45-minute lab class to make students practice finding j-j-j, then h-h-h, and so forth. Oy vey.
2. My own personal experiences with technology has proven that it just takes time and consistent connections to real-world tasks to acquire ease on a keyboard. I am a digital immigrant who was never taught keyboarding, and I have survived just fine.I believe that it is much more meaningful to give students more opportunities to type in context of their course content.
3. New technologies don't even utilize the classic QWERTY-style keyboard. If we're keeping our kids up to date with tech tools, then we're putting iPods and iPads in their hands.
4. There really is no one "right" way to type. Whatever makes the user most comfortable and gets the job done most efficiently IS the right way for that person.
But you know what, don't take my word for it. Check out what these experts have to say on the subject!
And if you hate this philosophy of keyboarding (or rather, philosophy of NON-keyboarding), you don't even want to hear what I have to say about cursive handwriting (Which, from what I gather, was left completely out of the Common Core Standards)! ;)
I can literally hear people gasping right now.
Don't throw your lunch at me or call me a techno-heretic just yet! Hear me out, people, hear me out...
My reasons are four-fold:
1. Keyboarding skill-and-drill practice takes time that could be spent on more valuable experiences with technology. (Example: Instead of practicing home keys or finding capital and lowercase letters, let students-even 5 year olds!-type a list of words that begin with each letter of the alphabet. Have older students type reports, blog posts, comments on other blog posts, etc.) I'm not saying never give them a few minutes here and there on some sort of open-source software, but for the love of Pete don't take your 45-minute lab class to make students practice finding j-j-j, then h-h-h, and so forth. Oy vey.
2. My own personal experiences with technology has proven that it just takes time and consistent connections to real-world tasks to acquire ease on a keyboard. I am a digital immigrant who was never taught keyboarding, and I have survived just fine.I believe that it is much more meaningful to give students more opportunities to type in context of their course content.
3. New technologies don't even utilize the classic QWERTY-style keyboard. If we're keeping our kids up to date with tech tools, then we're putting iPods and iPads in their hands.
4. There really is no one "right" way to type. Whatever makes the user most comfortable and gets the job done most efficiently IS the right way for that person.
But you know what, don't take my word for it. Check out what these experts have to say on the subject!
And if you hate this philosophy of keyboarding (or rather, philosophy of NON-keyboarding), you don't even want to hear what I have to say about cursive handwriting (Which, from what I gather, was left completely out of the Common Core Standards)! ;)
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Common Core Standards - 5 Things...
Rebecca Harris has written a wonderful article in SLJ's April issue: "All Aboard! Implementing Common Core offers school librarians an opportunity to take the lead". The article offers some background on Common Core Standards as well as lots of advice. Within the article there is a list highlighting how to get started.
According to Christopher Harris in his article "How to Get Started" in School Library Journal's latest issue, there are "five things you can do to get started with Common Core" (SLJ, April 2012).
To paraphrase, here they are:
1. Be the expert you've always been with curriculum issues, etc. Be sure to attend training sessions - online, face-to-face and read everything you can on the subject
2. Collection development - "focus on literary nonfiction resources"
3. What is already there on your shelves that can be used? What is online? Which databases do you subscribe to that will be useful? How will you use the Alabama Virtual Library more?
4. Harris says your library is the textbook - How will you spend the funds that you have? (however meager)
5. Harris says to work at the district level to secure new online resources. Money will go further that way.
Even though this process will work at different paces at different schools, it is something that we can all be working toward and thinking about. The whole emphasis is on reading and understanding texts better. There is a huge emphasis on students being more prepared for high school and college. That means the textbooks that they have been reading with small "excerpts" of whole texts will no longer really be adequate. So, our job will be to find whole texts for students to examine and read. Also, they will need to see multiple points of view and come up with their own opinions according to Barbara Stripling, Syracuse University (haven't we been talking about critical thinking for years?).
I believe we will be ready and it is an exciting time for libraries! But there is too much to discuss in a single blog entry, so click here to read the full article online.
According to Christopher Harris in his article "How to Get Started" in School Library Journal's latest issue, there are "five things you can do to get started with Common Core" (SLJ, April 2012).
To paraphrase, here they are:
1. Be the expert you've always been with curriculum issues, etc. Be sure to attend training sessions - online, face-to-face and read everything you can on the subject
2. Collection development - "focus on literary nonfiction resources"
3. What is already there on your shelves that can be used? What is online? Which databases do you subscribe to that will be useful? How will you use the Alabama Virtual Library more?
4. Harris says your library is the textbook - How will you spend the funds that you have? (however meager)
5. Harris says to work at the district level to secure new online resources. Money will go further that way.
Even though this process will work at different paces at different schools, it is something that we can all be working toward and thinking about. The whole emphasis is on reading and understanding texts better. There is a huge emphasis on students being more prepared for high school and college. That means the textbooks that they have been reading with small "excerpts" of whole texts will no longer really be adequate. So, our job will be to find whole texts for students to examine and read. Also, they will need to see multiple points of view and come up with their own opinions according to Barbara Stripling, Syracuse University (haven't we been talking about critical thinking for years?).
I believe we will be ready and it is an exciting time for libraries! But there is too much to discuss in a single blog entry, so click here to read the full article online.
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