Are you a boy or a parent of a boy and wish you had some great ideas for reading? Feel free to check out McKinley Elementary School's Library Website that has kinds of great ideas for reading, book clubs, crafts, making your own comic and more!!! If you are a McKinley Elementary School student, check out the site and also be sure to ask a librarian any questions you may have.

Voice Thread: Shelfari

Check out my Shelfari Voice Thread. Please let me know your thoughts!

Bookmarking with Diigo: Integrating Technology into the Classroom

Please click here for a Diigo Bookmark list of various websites about the use of technology in education.

Drought Resistant Garden Book Club - Santa Monica Library

Make your own photo slideshow at Animoto.

Shelfari Page

Check out my Shelfari page here for some great books specifically geared towards inspiring women readers!

Technology Leadership Role of School Librarians

As technology becomes more and more a part of our daily life, the role of the school librarian is shifting away from simply connecting students to resources to a campus resource for integrating technology into education. Students need not only to know how to use the technology, but are also able to synthesize and use the information. Librarians have the opportunity, and some would say, responsibility, for assuming the role of technology teacher and leader. School librarians have the opportunity to lead the school community into the integrating and understanding of how technology can be used not just in a library or technology lab, but also in the general curriculum

As students are being presented with ever increasing amounts of electronic information in the form of email, blogs, websites and more, teachers need to be both  familiar and comfortable with the same information that their students have. Some schools have the funding to have computers or laptops in many classrooms, but even those schools which are not able to afford that amount of technology usually do have some sort of lab in the library. School librarians are therefore often seen as leaders in school technology and can be a part of training teachers in new technologies. Many teachers need assistance in navigating the dizzying amount of available technology, and the librarians can support this learning.

There are sometimes barriers to school librarians assuming technology leadership roles. These can usually be categorized as:

·      Interpersonal issues

·      Institutional structures

·      Time constraints

·      Intellectual and  social differences

Institutional support should ideally be given to librarians in the form of staff meeting time, funding,  training in technology teaching and the ability to incorporate technology learning and teaching into their daily responsibilities.  Fostering a relationship between librarians, administrators and teachers that encourages trust and respect will go a long way in supporting school librarians in their roles as technology leaders.

Johnston, Melissa P. (2012, April 19). School Librarians as Technolgoy Integration Leaders: Enablers and Barriers to Leadership Enactment. EducationWorld. Retrieved July 7 2013, from http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/aaslpubsandjournals/slr/vol15/SLR_School_Librarians_as_Technology_Integration_Leaders_V15.pdf

Integrating Technology in the Classroom: Takes More Than Just Having Computers

1.     This article discusses the importance and even the necessity of incorporating technology into the classrooms. It also points out that technology should actually be incorporated into core subjects and not separated into a once in a while “technology” project. The key is to find projects that blend into the everyday learning of the school.

2.     Many teachers want to incorporate technology into their classes, but feel that they don’t have the expertise. The teachers need to be able to find the time to learn how to use the tools, which will allow them to incorporate technology into their existing curriculum.

3.     There are many websites that are quite easy to use and intuitive for teachers to introduce to their students. Using existing websites for teaching is a good way to begin to incorporate technology into their lessons without undergoing any training.

In the library, a good way to easily introduce technology would be to use an e-blast that all the students receive to their student email account each day or each week. In addition to  having any pertinent library news such as new books or activities occurring at the library, a librarian could easily hyperlink one or two interesting websites to the emails just in the body of the email.

It would be good to include websites that would be appealing to both students with an interest in math and also those who are interested in history or reading. One good site is called Math Forum, which can be found at http://mathforum.org/pows/. Once on the site, students could go to whichever math topic interests them, such as Algebra, Geometry or Calculus and do some fun problems and quickly check the solutions.  USA today manages a site called Today in History at the address: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/lhistory.html . Students could click on the link and be directed to the site that explains what was going on in the U.S. and also the world that day. What is nice about using hyperlinks to websites, is that there is little no no upkeep that the librarians have to do other than including the hyperlink the first time. Since the links connect to actively managed websites, the same link will take the students to a new website on a daily or weekly basis. Hyperlinks can easily be included in an email by highlighting a key word or phrase, such as click here and then right clicking on a Mac or Control clicking on a PC, which will open up a window where the librarian can simply paste the copied URL of the website.

Starr, Linda. (2011, June 12). Integrating Technology in the Classroom: Takes More Than Just Having Computers. EducationWorld. Retrieved July 7 2013, from http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech146.shtml.

Web 2.0 Search Engine

Check out a fun program called Voki, which allows you to create custom speaking avatars. This program is used primarily in the classroom and has a wide variety of possible uses. In a library, Voki would be a great tool to use for a virtual book club. Check out Voki on my wiki for a presentation on Marguerite of Navarre, who wrote during the mid 1500's in France.

 

Check out our group work on the ASSURE LESSON PLAN

Click here for the lesson plan.

Click here for the group worksheet.

Click here for the Presentation.

Feel free to post any comments, ideas or suggestions.


Thanks and enjoy!!

Autumn (on behalf of Group 3)

Student Centered Instructional Strategies

STUDENT CENTERED LEARNING

Please click here for presentation.

Click here to access ASSURE Model paper.

Using Cell Phones as Learning Tools

The cell phone is a piece of personal technology which most students have spent a great deal of time learning about. In today’s school environment of dwindling budgets, cel phones can be used as personal mini computers for students that don’t have to be purchased by the schools. Also, electronic communication that is possible with cell phones, such as emails and texts, can greatly cut down on the amount of paper used at a school.Banning cell phones from schools because they could be used inappropriately is akin to banning pens from schools because they could be used to write notes to pass back and forth in class or pencils because they could be used to poke someone in the eye. When new technology is unfamiliar, there is a tendency to be fearful or distrustful. Cell phones can certainly be distracting, but used correctly, can be a terrific teaching tool.

There are some terrific cell phone learning strategies that can be used and customized for specific subjects and age ranges. The “flipped” classroom model of listening to lectures outside of class electronically while completing homework and projects inside of class is possible by sending the lectures to cell phones as MP3s. Programs are being developed all the time such as “School Town” which allows students and teachers to collaborate in chats areas or Wiffiti which allows the teacher to show the class a screen and the students can text in their opinions.

In the library, I would encourage students to use Evernote on their cell phones. Students can use this program to type notes, clip web pages, take photos and grab screenshots. Evernote would be an invaluable tool when students are working on research projects in and out of the library as it allows them to keep all of their notes together.

Ormiston, M. TeachHub.com: K-12 News, Lessons & Shared Resources By Teachers, For Teachers. Retrieved from http://www.teachhub.com/how-use-cell-phones-learning-tools.

My technology strengths and weaknesses:

In facilitating and inspiring student learning and creativity, I am able to model collaborative knowledge construction be engaging in learning with students and colleagues in both face to face and virtual environments. I have used Skype to chat with colleagues from other schools and model collaboration for the students by working on cross curricular projects with other teachers. I need to learn more educational software programs so that I can promote and model creative and innovative thinking.

I am able to design or adapt relevant learning experiences incorporating digital tools in my work as advisor and teacher for the yearbook class. I have worked digitally on yearbooks at over five schools and used different software programs at each school and quickly became familiar with the various techniques. I have not had the time to customize and personalize learning styles using digital tools and resources.

In producing the electronic newsletters for our school’s parents and faculty, I have collaborated a great deal with people asking me to post articles, images, photos, google docs and links. I will need to teach these programs – specifically Dreamweaver and Blackbaud – to my replacement as I am moving on to another career opportunity.

I strive to be a good example of digital citizenship, and am very polite and have good digital communication etiquette, and am fully aware that each and every electronic communication that I send can be disseminated to the world at large. I am less certain about the copyright issues that arise in my use of photos found on line that I use for internal documents.

I have been so focused on my graduate school studies for my MLIS that I have not been able to participate in learning communities other than those at the University of North Texas. I have learned a great deal in this program, but look forward to reaching out to a larger community when I am finished.