TechNet Handout Complete!

I have finished my “Beginner’s Guide to Scratch”. While “watching” the Super Bowl with my family, I focused in and completed my handout. This handout will be emailed tomorrow to one of the TechNet organizers, who will then post it to the TechNet website with other handouts from the conference. I will need to print about 30 paper copies of it to have in the classroom during my presentation. The presentation is scheduled to take place this upcoming Friday, February 12th. I am co-presenting with a colleague, who is presenting on another software that does animation, Go!Animate. She is a high school librarian and has had students use Go!Animate for a variety of projects. My co-presenter and I are planning to meet on Thursday to go over the presentation plan. We have talked on the phone several times over the past few weeks and have a general idea on what we are going to be doing, but we figure meeting face-to-face for an hour or so, will help us ensure we are prepared.

Job Shadow: School District Technology Director

On Wednesday, January 27^th, I spent a half day shadowing a school district’s director of technology.  I arranged to shadow her from 8:30 – 12:30.   She had suggested I come on a Wednesday morning, because those are the days she attends technology related meetings with other administrators in the district.

I arrived at her office at 8:30 in the morning.  She went over her schedule for the day.  At 9:00 a.m. she had a Support Services Directors’ meeting, at 10:00 an Educational Services meeting and at 11:00 she had a technology steering committee meeting. 

After going over the days schedule she showed me her technology budget and talked with me about the budget cuts and they are effecting the technology department.  I learned that her budget has been cut over 50% in the past two school years.  She had to cut 20% last school year, then this year they cut the computer replacement budget almost entirely, leaving a minimal amount for emergency purposes and now she has to cut another 10%.  Basically her 2008-2009 school year budget was $921,920 and for 2010-2011 it is $497,250, which is about a 54% cut.  All departments and schools are experiencing cuts like this, as her school district is trying very hard to cut “the things of education, instead of the people”, which is a very noble task in my opinion. 

The biggest cut to the technology budget was $270,000 which cuts replacing old computers with new ones on a rotation throughout buildings.  $100,000 was left in this budget for emergency needs only.   This has already impacted the tech director.  Usually the procedure is that classroom teachers can request to get the old computers in their classrooms as student machines.  The tech director already is receiving requests from teachers who would like additional student computers and she is turning them down in anticipation of the new budget.

After going over the schedule and discussing the budget, we headed to the 9:00 a.m. meeting, which was the Support Services Directors meeting.   The technology office is housed off of the high school library.  The meeting we were going to was at Central Office, but the high school is close, so we were able to walk.   In attendance at the meeting where the following: the assistant superintendent of support services, the director of food services/warehouse, the director of business, the director of transportation, the director of child care (before/after school care), the director of maintenance and the director of technology.    The meeting was lead by the assistant superintendent.  He began by reminding everyone that items for the February board meeting agenda were due the following week.  He then reviewed the status of the district budget.    He encouraged everyone to look at the Governor’s State of the State.  The Governor had stated he plans to fully fund the formula, but of course that is still subject to debate.  Key things to watch are Parents as Teachers, transportation and career ladder.   The Governor has asked for teacher union input.    Ultimately the assist. superintendent stated what happens really boils down revenue.   He reported that for the first time ever, the state will be with holding a small percentage of the funding formula.  He gave the example if the payment to the district was to be $100,000, they will instead send $98,500. 

After his budget update he reminded everyone of the classified advisory committee schedule.  The classified advisory committee is for classified employees, which are paraprofessionals, the technology assistants, bs drivers, cafeteria workers, etc.  These meetings take place so that classified employees have a voice.  All of the directors at this meeting had employees who may want to attend those meetings.

He then asked for updates from each person.  The tech director report that MoreNet’s funding was cut 35% and that these cuts will likely funnel down to districts, with fewer programs available.  The director of business discussed purchasing a new projector for the Performing Arts Center and the assist. superintendent clarified with the tech director if they had officially determined what happened with the previous projector.  The tech director said she believes it was damaged due to a lightning strike and if not, all signs still point to electrical damage of some sort.   None of the other directors had anything to report.    The meeting ended about 9:30 a.m.  We were the only people in that group other than the assistant superintendent that needed to stay for the next meeting.  The tech director asked if the assist. superintendent if he thought the other people for the 10:00 meeting could meet now.  He said he was fine with it if they were available.  The other people who were to be in attendance where the assistant superintendent of curriculum and the director of curriculum.  It turned out that the curriculum person was in a meeting with the assistant superintendent of human resources and actually didn’t expect to be done by 10:00.  They discussed rescheduling to 10:30, then just decided to cancel and meet up again at 11:00.

We walked back to the tech director’s office.  I asked her questions about her job.  Specifically I asked about Pentamation which is the student information/financial  information system (two separate databases).  I had heard a lot about Pentamation, but had never used it myself as the school librarian so she just clarified to me what it was.  It is able to share data with the electronic gradebook and other systems such as the library catalog as well.     She mentioned they had switched  the Pentamation server from a unix to a sql server.   At this point I shared with her that I feel like the database/networking stuff such as servers and switches and all the infrastructure is what I thought would keep me from applying for a job as a technology director.  She explained that she has learned a lot on the job.   She started as a computer lab para, moved up to a helpdesk person and then moved into the tech director position.  She said the previous tech director had been willing to teach her many things.  She also noted that the district was fortunate to have an excellent network and database administrators.  They are very knowledgeable in their positions.  She even noted here that with the budget crunch overtime had been cut in many departments but since “no two people can do with the network or the database administrators jobs, they still get it”.   I told her I have even considered getting an associates degree in networking at the community college,  just to have the background knowledge about what all goes on with networking.    She explained that her department alone can’t do it all.  They have occasionally contracted out big projects.   For example she said they had a company come out and help last school year when the district switched to voice over IP phones.   

Our conversation steered to legal aspects of her job, such as how much monitoring she has to do of students and staff on the internet.   It seems like these things are always in the news lately of staff being inappropriate on computers.  She said only 3 time has she had to be part of a forensic type interview, where a staff person’s computer was taken and turned over to police.   She said most of the reports she sees from Light Speed (the filter system the district uses), are from high school students.  She is able to tell which student, what time they searched it and what machine they were on when they did it. She stated with staff things, they are actually getting ready to send a daily email report to principals about flags that are coming through the filter with staff and students in their buildings.  She said it is up to them as to what they do with the reports. 

She said they are doing this new report because of something that happened to Springfield Public Schools, with an audit of their e-rate funding.   Basically during their audit they were asked to show how they were compliant with CIPPA (the child internet protection act).  They said they had filters on all their computers.  Apparently that answer was not good enough and they need to have a policy in place about what they will do with violations of the filter.  She said it is nice to learn from other districts, although it is not good for those district, but we can avoid those things if we learn from their experiences.  She also explained to me all about what e-rate funding was as we walked back over to what she thought was going to be the 10:30 meeting.  When we got there we learned that we were just going to meet at `11.   We then sat in the board room and discussed the budget a little more.  I asked what types of things she is looking at cutting. She said she is analyzing the online subscriptions.  She is looking at how much each subscription is utilized.  She said NetTrekker is one of the least used programs for the price.  She also mentioned they were looking at possibly replacing United Streaming with Annenberg Media from MoreNet.  I pointed out that had the potential to impact the school libraries, as we all use United Streaming to count for visuals and many of us hadn’t been purchasing many  (if any) physical DVD’s or video tapes because of having United Streaming available.  She said this was helpful information to her that she hadn’t though t of before.  We then talked a bit about projectors and Smartboards being in classroom.  She said every classroom should now have a projector, and we are getting closer to each having a Smartboard. 

People began to arrive for the 11:00 meeting, which was the technology steering committee.  In attendance at that meeting were the assistant superintendents of support services and curriculum, the tech director, the director of curriculum, the director of student affairs, the director of student support services , the two district technology facilitators and the database administrator.  The first topic of conversation was about Pinnacle which is the analytics software provider/data warehousing support for the district.  They are having trouble with Pinnacle doing what it should.  I was a little unclear exactly what was going on with Pinnacle, since it was an ongoing issue that is still a topic of conversation.   In a nutshell they are looking at what exactly they need to get data wise and whether or not Pinnacle is the best program for the needs.  The group then discussed End of Course exams at the high school, which will be taken via the computers for the first time.  The discussed how the schedule will look and if there is enough bandwidth to have everyone taking them at the same time (there is).  There was also discussion about how students receiving special education services would be impacted by these tests.   Finally the discussed test security, with a suggestion being made that students sit next to students who are taking a different test – ex: math, then English, math, then English.  The next discussion was about the budget.  The tech director discussed what she was considering cutting. Everyone shared ideas.  She shared with the group what I had told her about United Streaming.   The discussion then went to the Gradebook. They are working with the company to start using each buildings office scanner to scan bubble sheets for district common assessments.  What buildings have been using where small scanners, but they are slowing dying and are do expensive to replace.    The old scanners aren’t working properly, they aren’t scanning everything correctly, etc.    The main issue with switching to the office scanners may be that they need to be cleaned more regularly because of dust particles collecting from more frequent use of the scanner.    The final topic of discussion was transcripts. The database administrator has been working on the transcript system.  Again, I think this was another ongoing discussion that I didn’t have the proper background knowledge on to understand fully.  There was discussion about class rank and credits.   Finally the mentioned some had attended a conference with a speaker called Ian Jukes.  As the time ran out and others had to be at a 12:00 meeting, they said they would say more about this later.   The tech director told me to take a look at www.commitedsardines.com , which would give me more information about Ian Jukes.

I thanked the tech director for giving me her time and we walked back towards the high school.  I had to leave at that point to get back to my school in order to teach a lesson at 12:30.  

In reflection, I see that the technology director has a very big job.  I was happy to learn that with a strong network administrator, that maybe I really could be a successful director without knowing everything there is to know about networking and infrastructure.   I also realized that I really do not know very much about high schools or how they function.  Almost all of my education and training has been focused on elementary students.  I think a good next step for me would be to become a  technology facilitator or trainer and learn more about software.   With budgets cuts across the state, now may not be the time, but I will watch in the future for openings in positions like those.  I am glad I spent the time to shadow the technology director for a day.

Handouts for Tech Net

Tonight I began to work on the handouts I will give to people who attend my presentation session at TechNet. I am just creating a word document and using the print screen feature to create a pictorial step-by-step explanation of how a user can get started in Scratch. TechNet prganizers would like to put all the handouts online. I’d like to have my handouts to them at least a week before the conference, which would be February 5th. Tonight, I worked on defining Sprites, how to get Sprites into the program, how to move Sprites into/around the workspace and finally I pointed out the area where the scripts for individual Sprites will be created. The next time I work on the handout, I will focus on scripts.

Spring 2010 Internship: Students Begin Scratch Project

During the Spring semester of 2010, I will be taking a class that is an internship in the area of educational technology.   For the purposes of updating anyone who may be stopping by this blog, here is some information about me.   I am a K-4 elementary library media specialist.  I have a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education, a master’s in school library science and I am finishing my education specialist in learning resources, focused on educational technology/online teaching and learning.   I am very interested in technology in education.

For this class my main focus will be working preparing for and then presenting at a conference.  The conference I will be presenting at is TechNet.  TechNet is a conference in the Kansas City, Missouri area that focuses on technology in K-12 schools.  The topic I will be presenting on is animation software, specifically one piece of software called Scratch.  Scratch was created by students at MIT and was designed for students ages 8 and up.  I am presenting along with a colleague, who will be presenting on another piece of animation software called GoAnimate!, which was created for older students.  The colleague who is presenting this piece works in a high school.  We submitted our application to present at TechNet in October 2009 and received our acceptance notice in December 2009.  We are presenting on February 12^th, 2010.

One of the pieces I’d like to include as part of the presentation is examples of student created projects.  My colleague already has several student created projects from earlier in the school year.   I was initially unsure of the best way to go about teaching students how to use Scratch.  I wanted to be able to work with a small group and that is difficult to achieve with our busy school days. I thought it would be very challenging to teach a class of 25 students all how to use Scratch at one time, since it is a technology they are very unfamiliar with.
The school district I work in has grade level teachers gather in collaborative groups one day each week.  We call this Encore time.  I spoke with the principal at my school and arranged to be able to take a small group of 6-8 4^th grade students during the next Encore rotation, which was scheduled to begin the first week of January.    Snow days threw the start date off and today, January 13^th I met with my small group for the first time.

I was nervous about meeting with them, because even though the developers of Scratch feel it is created for ages 8 and up, I just wasn’t sure how it would go for the students.   Scratch is web-based software, so I took the wireless laptop cart to a 4^th grade classroom.  I gave each student a laptop and used the SmartBoard in the classroom to begin to teach the students how to get started in Scratch.  I explained to them key vocabulary as it related to Scratch, such as the term “Sprites”.  A Sprite in Scratch is any character (person, thing, object), that can have animation added to it.

Before I allowed the students to get started actually working on Scratch, I had them each select a simple nursery rhyme they could for their first project.   I had 8 students and each student picked a different nursery rhyme.

Students then began to work on picking Sprites and backgrounds for their projects.   I limited the students on this project to using Sprites that were already part of Scratch, rather than import any or create their own.  This caused an interesting and creative development.   The students discovered that not all the Sprites needed for their nursery rhymes were available.  We now have recreated nursery rhymes, which include  Jack jumping over flower vases instead of candlesticks and Hannah, Hannah, banana eater, rather than Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater.

 All of the projects were saved and hopefully next week, the students will begin to add the animations to their Sprites.

Week 4: Phone technology

I was excited on my car ride home from St. Louis last Sunday (Feb 1) to discover that I could access Blackboard on my husband’s new cell phone. He has an HTC Touch Pro and the web browswer on that thing is really great. I have a Palm Centro, which allows me to use some web applications such as Facebook, etc, but not Blackboard.

So I spent time on our 3 hour car ride home, reading posts. I couldn’t however bring myself to respond. There were several I wanted to answer, but the keyboard on the phone was just to little. I marked the ones I wanted to respond to as unread and went back to them Monday or Tuesday.

We are talking this week in class about the effects of new technology replacing old. This new cell phone technology and the ability to be online just about anywhere at anytime, is amazing. For us, it might be life changing. My husband really wants to go back to driving a semi-truck, but wants us to go with him. 10 years ago, it just wouldn’t have been possible. But today, I could potentially still work, “home school” my son with a virtual school, go to school myself and stay in touch with all friends and family, all while in the passengers seat of a semi-truck. It’s crazy to me but also really cool!

ADDIE

Well to be honest this blog is frustrating me as this is my second attempt this week and the first one truly was lost. I don’t think I would use this site with students, it would be discouraging. I have moodle at school that I would use to do a blog, which does require me to read submissions much like e-pals. Anyhow, I have been working on teaching my son how to use my digital camera for the purposes of the ADDIE assignment. Prior to this week, the only thing he knew how to do was snap a picture, now he knows how to turn it on, zoom, delete bad pictures and I will be teaching him tonight how to download pictures. I think when I get a new camera, I will give him this one. In other technology news, I attended my first webinar this week. The company (Follet) that we use for our library circulation had a new version released in December and the webinar was to show librarians about the new features. I signed into Microsoft Live Meeting about 10 minutes before the webinar was to begin. There was a phone number to dial so we could hear the audio. I put the screen on the Smartboard so my library para could also watch, we put the phone on speaker and we were ready. I really liked this technology. It saved both time (no drive time) and money (no transportation cost) and allowed my para to watch along with me rather than have me explain it all to her second hand. I was able to ask questions during the session via chat. I did have one question and it was answered very quickly and thoroughly. A great experience! Thank you technology!

Moving on to the technology side of things…

So begins the journey of obtaining a certificate in “Online Teaching and Learning” after completing an MA in library science. Why as a school librarian is this my next step? As a school librarian, I see daily how technology is being used in education. How teacher’s are designing lessons using it, how administration uses it as a communications system and how it is such a motivating tool for students. Additionally, so many resources are available online for libraries. E-books, online encyclopedias, online dictionaries, online databases, audiobooks, newspapers via websites, etc. Libraries are changing with the times as well, so I feel I have to stay on top of the technology game so that not am I aware the newest changes myself, but also (and more importantly) to be able to it with my students and the staff at my school. I am excited to see what I will learn from this certificate program. On another topic, this past Tuesday, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States. My school library was the place that many students and teachers watched the ceremony. But they didn’t watch it they way I had planned. I had ithe live stream set up on MSNBC ready to watch on the Smartboard. Apparently, so did about 200 other people in my district. Bandwidth was completely maxed out throughout the district, with not even the possibility of doing a Google search until nearly 2:00 p.m. What I didn’t understand was why they didn’t say that only 1-2 people per buildng could stream. How about each library and 1-2 classrooms? Instead it was “good luck with that”. We ened up watching it on the trusty old TV. With rabbit ears. But we did get to watch and that was what was important!

Artifact lesson plan

Title of Lesson:  Using Family Artifacts to Create Primary Sources

Subject: Social Studies         
Grade Level(s):  3^rd grade 

 

Objectives   

The student will be able to identify and create primary and second sources.

The student will use library resources.

The student will identify artifacts and tools. 

Time Allotted

30 minute lessons in the library during social studies, with communication arts time in the classroom to write reports

Correlation to Grade Level Expectations

Grade 3 SS 7 Knowledge of the use of tools of social science inquiry

1. Identify, select and use primary and secondary sources.
2. Identify and use library and media resources (electronic resources, encyclopedias, etc)
3. Identify and use artifacts

Grade 3 CA IL 1   Develop and apply effective research process skills to gather, analyze and evaluate information

1. Formulate keywords and questions to investigate topics
2. Locate information on keywords in provided resources

D. Informally give credit for others’ ideas, images and information found in various resources

Show-Me Standards

SS. 7 In Social Studies, students in Missouri public schools will acquire a solid foundation, which includes knowledge of the use of tools of social science inquiry.

Supplies and Equipment Needed:

Graphic organizer for research

Pencils

Print set of encyclopedias

Pre-selected websites

·         www.worldbookonline.com

·         www.inventors.about.com

·         www.ideafinder.com

·         www.worldalmanacforkids.com

Anticipatory Set: The teacher and librarian will motivate students and get them excited about the project by asking them if they can think of any items in their homes that might be at least 20 years or older.  Students will have an opportunity to share about items they have thought about. 

Lesson components:

Week 1, Monday  (Day 1)

LMS will go to classrooms during social studies time and talk to students about artifacts.  An artifact is anything that is 20 years or older.   Teachers will explain that students will be starting a project where they will be working closely with the librarian as well as their classroom teachers.  The first part of the project will involve students in interviewing a family member or neighbor about an artifact.  Students will also be doing research on the artifact that they interview their family about.  At the end of the project students will be asked to bring the item to school to put on display.  

The librarian will explain that this week students are responsible for completing the interview part of the project.  The interview will be due by Friday morning. Students will be told that late interview papers will result in not getting full points.   Students who are having trouble finding someone to interview should let their teacher know, so that perhaps faculty in the school can be interviewed if necessary.

Thursday (Day 2)

The classroom teachers and the LMS will meet to discuss week two during the classroom teachers planning period.

 

Friday (Day 3)

The librarian will collect the turned in interviews from the classroom teachers and make a list of artifacts that students will be bringing.  The librarian will check the library resources to ensure that resources are available for students varying artifacts.

The classroom teachers will be having students call home in the afternoon if the interview has not been returned.

 

Week 2, Monday  (Day 4)

Students will come to the library during social studies during week 2.  The librarian will lead a discussion on primary sources.  The librarian will show students examples of primary sources found in databases.  Primary sources that are selected to be shown should be interesting to young students and inspire them to want to check them out such for their own reading enjoyment (ex: The Diary of Anne Frank). The librarian will explain that students have just created a primary source by completing the artifact interview.    Students will be asked to share parts of their interviews with the class.   Since this is a new topic for students, this will take the entire 30 minutes.  The classroom teacher will be in the library during this time to clarify and assist as needed.

 

Tuesday  (Day 5)

The librarian will review/reteach keyword skills.  Students have already completed a keyword activity in the library a few months prior to this lesson.  The classroom teacher will pass out the graphic organizer (which will include a place to write what, who, when, where, why the artifact was made) that students will be using to complete research on their artifact.   The librarian will pass out the rubric that will be used to evaluate students as they complete their research.   Students will be working on the “what” part of the graphic organizer on Tuesday.   Their goal will be to decide on a keyword for their research.  The librarian and teacher will go around and assist individual students in formulating keywords.  For example if the student is going to bring a necklace, they might want to search using a keyword like jewelry. 

 

Wednesday (Day 6)

The librarian will review websites and print encyclopedia use with the students.  Students have used these items about a month prior to this lesson when completing a library/computer lesson on scientists.  The classroom teacher will explain a handout that will help students keep track of library resources used.  Students will be writing down the website or the title of the book/encyclopedia that they get their information from.  Students need to use at least one website and one book or encyclopedia.

Students will have the remainder of the time to research.  The goal will be for students to work on the who, when, where, why and how part of the research.

 

Thursday (Day 7)

Students will continue research.  If they have not finished the who, when, where, why and how parts of the research they should focus on that.  Students who are finished should work on finding three interesting facts about their artifact.  The librarian and classroom teacher will split up.  One will work with the print encyclopedias/books and one will be available to students on computers.

 

Friday (Day 8 )

Students will finish research.  Students who are finished with their research can assist other students who are not finished with their research.

Week 3  (Days 9 – 13)

During week 3 students will be working in their classrooms to create their written reports of the interview and research about their artifacts.  They will be creating drafts, then peer editing and creating final copies.  The library will be available for students who need to complete additional research due to absence, etc the week before.  

Week 4,  Monday (Day 14)

Students will be asked to bring the actual artifact to school on Monday of week 4.  Students will be finishing up their final copies.   Artifacts will be brought to the library for safekeeping.

 

Tuesday (Day 15)

Students will finish their final copies.

Wednesday (Day 16)

Students will set up their final copies of their interviews and their research next to their artifacts in the library. 

 

Thursday (Day 17)

Fourth graders will be invited to the library to see the artifact museum so that students may practice standing next to their artifact and report.    Parents, grandparents and neighbors are invited to come to the library after school to attend the museum of artifacts.  Students will stand by their projects and be able to share information about their projects as others browse.  

 

Content/input/explanation

During the second week of the lesson, the librarian will explain and discuss primary sources.

Modeling, “think aloud”, “talk through”

The librarian will complete a think aloud with the classroom teacher when talking to students on the first day of the project.   The librarian will pretend to be the student and the classroom teacher will be the interviewee. 

Re-teaching strategy

The librarian will review previously taught lessons such as keyword formulation and how to use websites and print encyclopedias to do research.

Guided Practice:  Students will complete a graphic organizer to help with their research.  

Evaluation: The artifact interview will be graded as either complete or incomplete.  The librarian and the classroom teachers will complete rubrics for the research process. 

Closure:  The closure of this project will be the artifact museum.   

 

Planning a collaborative lesson

Team:  Rene Burress, LMS; Teacher A, 3^rd grade social studies and Teacher B, 3^rd grade social studies

Description: Teacher A a 3^rd grade teacher who teaches social studies came to the library asking for resources on tools and artifacts.  The library media specialist shared a collaborative lesson idea that went along with artifacts.  Teacher A really liked the idea and shared it with the other teacher in her grade who also taught social studies.  Teacher B was a little more hesitant.   He wasn’t sure if this lesson would actually meet the GLE’s.  Ms.  Horner ensured him that she had just read over the GLE’s before asking The library media specialist for resources and this lesson did meet the GLE’s.   The library media specialist suggested that not only did the lesson meet the GLE’s, but that doing this project together would give students a chance to work with two qualified teachers (the LMS and the classroom teachers) at once, which should increase student achievement. Teacher B seemed to be warming up to the idea.  He said he would give it a try.  Teacher B gave the library media specialist a resource record list that he wanted the students to use.   The library media specialist talked to both teachers about how students would record the information they gathered from research.  Teacher B suggested note cards.  The library media specialist suggested that she could create a simple graphic organizer that would keep all the information collected on one page and help students stay organized.  Both Teacher B and Teacher A were open to this idea.  Teacher B then expressed concern that the library might not have the resources necessary to complete the research portion of the project.  He said, “What if a student interviews someone about a Sadd iron.  Do you have books in the library about that?”  The library media specialist shared ideas about using books, print encyclopedias and websites.   The library media specialist offered to collect the interview papers on their due date and create a list of artifacts that students would be researching.  The library media specialist would then find sources whether print or web-based to ensure that all students had valid resources to use.  Teacher A suggested that students should try to use at least one print source and one online source.  The library media specialist brought up the idea of assessment and how the three teachers could determine if the lesson was going well.  Teacher B suggested meeting each afternoon during third grades planning period to review how the morning went and discuss the next day.  He said it would not take the entire planning period, maybe just 10 minutes.  Teacher A and the library media specialist both thought daily reflection was a good idea to make sure we were covering all parts of the project and to make sure the collaboration was going well.   The library media specialist then brought up evaluation again.  She offered to be a part of grading the work done.  Teacher A said the only grade she planned to take was on the final report.  She would look at the writing mechanics and style and grade it.  The library media specialist suggested that the research part could also be evaluated.  A rubric that determined if students had used 1 print and 1 web source, if they had filled in all parts of the graphic organizer, etc.  Teacher A said this did sound like a good idea.  The library media specialist offered to grade the graphic organizers.  Teacher B suggested that students get credit for completing the interviews and turning them in by the due date.  The three teachers determined that the interviews would receive full points as long as they were in by the due date.  Late interviews would be docked points.  The library media specialist would create a rubric for the research piece and Teacher A was going to make a rubric for the final report.    By the end of the first meeting, Teacher B seemed to have a different attitude about collaboration already.  It was amazing to see his growth in just a matter of 30 minutes.  He is a very purposeful teacher and he wants to ensure he plans well and I think it was important for him to hear that the LMS had similar values.  

 

 

MASL in review

I arrived home last evening from my state school librarian conference. I attended the conference with my practicum supervisor and we had great fun.

We arrived Sunday afternoon and checked into our room. The first session Sunday was a 2:00. We both went to the session “Standards for the 21st Century Learner”, which are the new standards adopted by AASL. The session was a bit disappointing as it was very secondary school focused and we are both elementary folks. We did leave with a few ideas however. One good one was to do a artifact museum, where students learn what an artifact is and then they bring one to school, do a report on what it is and then they display it for week during which other students in the library get to see all the items.

For the rest of the sessions we split up so that we could both get ideas to share with each other.
During the second session I went to a presentation on the Mark Twain books for the 08-09 school year. The presenters gave some great ideas on things to do with the books. One thing in particular I took from the session was discussion questions that I will be putting in Moodle where students will be able to get on discussion boards and talk about the books.

Dinner Sunday was a great chance to see long lost colleagues and online professors whose faces I rarely see. We were treated to guest speaker, Dr. Monty Selby. Selby had us school librarians nearly rolling on the floor laughing with his songs and stories about the teaching field. He even wrote the a song for librarians! I appreciated his focus on teaching, since afterall we are school librarians.

Monday morning we attended that MASL business meeting for breakfast and part of it got a little heated when there was some disagreement about increased membership dues. They are increasing by $15 next year. People were upset that it was a 30% increase. I say $15 is not a big deal, considering all that the organization does for school libraries. It ended up passing anyways.

Monday morning I attended two sessions by Dr. Selby during which he gave more library specific ideas, such as playing music during check-out. Once the music is over, check out is done. Playing music as routines are done, such as coming into the library. Once the music is done everyone should be in their seat and ready to go. In one session he focused on brain research and talked to us about getting kids to cross their mid-section and playing softer/slower music before kids exit in order to calm them down. His ideas were excellent and I can’t wait to try some in my library! I am a music lover at my very core, so these sessions were of course eye-opening to me.

After a quick lunch, I had to run and get for my presentation that was scheduled for 2:45. I had agreed to meet the two other speakers at 1:00 to do a quick run through and make sure everything was set up. Unforunately, I did miss the lunch speaker because of this.

We had a decent turn out at our presenation, which was on the subject of motivating students in the library. We made a note in our workshop description that we would be utlizing discussion. We got the audience involved by asking them to share ideas on what they do to motivate students.

In each session five random people are asked to fill out a session evaluation. We got mostly 5′s and 4′s. One person gave us some 3′s with a note that said we should have done more presentation and less audience participation. The person said they don’t like being put on the spot. Regardless of that comment, we thought it was great to hear ideas from the audience and share some of our own at the same time.

Dinner Monday night was the Readers Award banquet. We had a great time finding out the winners of the awards. I had a feeling about the two winners and I was correct. I realy did not like Magnus and the Fire, even though the kids really did. So that goes to show how my opinion differs from that of my students.

Tuesday morning I had breakfast with one of my professors and had a good time hearing her advice. I then attended a session on Photoshop tips for Library Webpages. I am very hands on and really wished that we would have each had a computer to practice what he was showing us in that session. He did give us a great handout.

We attended the lunch meeting on Tuesday and then it was time to head home *(with a three hour stop at the outlet mall, yeah for shopping).

I left out some parts such as visiting with vendors and shopping at the MASL store (where I spent money on bookmarks and the Show-Me curriculum) and attending a UCM meet and greet. I also purchased some of Dr. Selby’s stuff and am looking forward to time to explore it and then put it to use.

I think that about wraps up my comings and goings at the conference.