In case you missed it

Here's an interesting NY Times article about the documentary, "Race to Nowhere" and parents' reactions. Apparently, you can only see this film at private screenings. School PTA's, especially those in high-achieving suburban districts, seem to be at the forefront of orchestrating screenings followed by lively discussion. Is this, perhaps, more relevant to our district than "Waiting for Superman"? I'd like to see both. Here's the NY Times review.

What does this mean for us?

I've been trying to plan an inquiry-based research project for my fifth grade classes that incorporates a lot of my current research lessons such as, using databases, creating bibliographies, summarizing, website evaluation, etc. But instead of using themes like Lewis & Clark and the Iditarod, as well as discrete activities each week, I wanted students to choose their own topic and create a product at the end of say, 6 weeks, of step-by-step lessons on these skills.

I also want the students to work in teams of 2-3 students, and Google Presentation would be an ideal product because the skills learned would be directly transferable to Powerpoint, which is a 5th grade technology benchmark. Also, Google Presentation would allow the kind of collaboration that is so necessary and valuable for this kind of learning. So my question is - how does this October announcement that 'Google Apps to be implemented in K-12 schools across New York state' affect us? How soon can we use these great collaborative tools? Anyone have any idea?

Sunday Reading

I'm so happy to have an excuse to sit in my lounge chair in the backyard and read. (There is an upside to the whole empty nest thing!) Today's NY Times Magazine is devoted to Education & Technology. There's a fascinating article on gaming in the classroom, and how it's being used instead of traditional curriculum and textbooks in a NYC public school. Happy reading and enjoy this beautiful Sunday.

What to do with all those weeded books?

So, you may be wondering what to do with those weeded books after leaving them in the faculty room for a week with a 'Free Books' sign.  I came across this design blog post that might answer that question, IF you have a hot-glue gun or two or three and a bit of creativity running through your librarian veins.  I just don't agree with the title.  

Computing in the Couds for Librarians and Teachers

I'm embedding this form for the Saturday workshop participants to fill out.

Here's the link to the spreadsheet which was automatically created by this form.

Digital Nation

Patty Lopez and I were lucky enough to attend the 'Celebration of Teaching and Learning' last month. I love that conference because there's so much to choose from, so many great speakers and attendees that it generates such positive energy and excitement. Our biggest challenge was deciding what workshops and panel discussions to attend. We split up several times and got together to compare notes afterwards. Patty reported that the panel discussion by the makers of the PBS documentary Digital Nation was fascinating as they showed parts of the documentary and discussed the questions of how the digital age is affecting brain function and development.

I was bummed that I didn't get to attend so I searched for the video online and of course, it's there, as well as online discussions on the themes presented. You can watch the hour and a half video in segments, like I did, while preparing dinner or whenever you have a few minutes. It really is worthwhile, since we, 'digital immigrants', are teaching 'digital natives' every day, and it's important to try to understand what that means, in terms of the way they think and learn. For better or worse, the digital age is here to stay. We must strive to understand its effect on our students and children, in order to teach them better.

Wow - guess who has a secret longing to be a librarian!

I knew this was a cool profession. He even talks about the Dewey Decimal System!


Read all about it here.

Biblioburro - The Library Donkey

If you haven't seen this video, check out Luis Soriano from La Gloria, Colombia, as he brings books to children on his donkey. The second video shows the progress he's made with donations from the first video. The power of Web 2.0!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuTswmx9TQU

Gotta Keep Reading

Since the embedded youtube video, below, is blocked at school, here's the teachertube version.


Gotta Keep Reading

Happy National Library Week!

I've been sharing this video with classes as part of a 'Just Right Book' lesson this last week. You've probably seen it going around the internet. Apparently it was on Oprah...


There's also a copy of this on Teachertube.com, for those days when youtube is blocked. I put a link to the teachertube video on our Destiny homepage.

Did You Know 4.0

Take a look at this latest "Shift Happens" video:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8

What I'm Reading Now

Thanks, Carolyn, for the spring break read, This Book is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save us All, by Marilyn Johnson. As usual, I'm very much behind my planned goal of finishing the book by the time we get back to school tomorrow. But I'm at the chapter entitled 'The Blog People' which documents the prolific creation of blogs by a new generation of tech-savvy, irreverant librarians. And it seemed an appropriate time to practice blogging and inserting a book cover!

Some of the blog titles that Marylin mentions and which I'm definitely going to check out (just based on the fun name):

Miss Information

The Obnoxious Librarian from Hades

Free Range Librarian

Librarian's Rant

Info Babe

Wow, I'm feeling really boring with this name - should have been a little more creative?

greetings from SL

Do I sign into blogger to get into this blog? All info re: this blog is being sent to my home e-mail instead of my Commack account. This will allow me the opportunity to post info that I'd rather not post via the Commack e-mail. I will continue to send info via the Commack e-mail that is of interest. Got to go...I have company coming tomorrow and I have to prepare.
Regards.

Why School Librarians are Even More Important in the Digital Age

After last week's school budget meeting, I feel it's more important than ever to get the word out about what we do.  This article, sent out yesterday by Sara Kardasz, SSLMA president, explains why school librarians are even more important to students' learning in the digital age.  And the comments are good reading also.

 

http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/22/moran-librarian-skills-intelligent-investing-google.html?boxes=Homepagecomments

 

And here's the NY Times article referenced in the Forbes piece, which includes a great video of Rosalia, a NYC SLMS, in action.  These lessons and concepts are very familiar to those of us teaching at the intermediate level, but it's validating to see it being hailed in the NY Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/16/books/16libr.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=school%20librarians&st=cse

Oh, and hot off today's email, Sue Lercher sent this link:

http://fno.org/mar2010/still.html  Why We Still Need Libraries and Librarians.  

Welcome fellow school librarians!

I'm creating this blog for two reasons.  First, full dislosure, I'm leading a workshop in April, 'Cloud Computing - Using Google docs for Librarians and Teachers', and I wanted to use as many of the free tools Google has to offer as possible, before then.  Two, I have a fantasy of this being a repository of the great ideas, lesson, links, resources that we, the school library media specialists in the Commack School District, have been sharing all year, either in conversations, emails, meetings, etc.

Although, it's been a wild and crazy year at the MSIS library, especially for the three librarians travelling in to teach part-time, I feel I've benefitted from the sharing of ideas, lessons, and resources that takes place every week, out of necessity in this situation.  And I hope Ellen, Terry and Sue have also.

The only problem is that some of the ideas and resources get lost in the email history, or in my dwindling memory capacity.  So perhaps we could start blogging our great ideas here.  I don't want to add to the already full load everyone has, but if you have a resource you've used successfully, or a great article to share, think about posting it here.  In the meantime, stay dry and enjoy the week!