Library Power

Collaboration: Digital Photo Style

2013-04-03T09:20:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago, my digital photo teacher came in very excited and concerned.

In the past his students had used Voicethread as a way of posting student work and then doing some peer reviews in an a semi-private space. Since

Voicethread has recently been upgraded there is no way you post to it privately without paying the fee.

Since it wouldn't meet his needs for their Monochromatic Color Review NEXT HOUR

what the heck was he going to use instead?

So, I did the thing I learned during all those literacy coaching training sessions- I listened. He explained the assignment as my mind researched for a tool or technique we might try to get him out of this jam. *Note to self: coaching strategies might be another good topic for blog post*

We tried Wallwisher (now called Padlet) and discovered student’s could put their digital photo assignments there, link to their pages using google, and then post comments right on the page. The teacher said it turned out wonderful and that the photos had better graphic quality than before. The students were focused and had constructive peer comments and good classroom discussions.

A week later I was listening to The Tech Chicks podcast and they mentioned Mural.ly. I told my photo teacher about this and he used it for his next assignment STREET PHOTOS and was overjoyed.

It works like a giant bulletin board and created spaces for individuals to post their photos, they could post their photos and other students could comment. The whole board could be private (with personalized access) and the quality of the photos was strong. In fact, they were actually thumbnails and students could double click to see larger versions.

Turns out Mural.ly folks are very responsive too- my teacher had some good suggestions that they responded to right away and initiated some changes based on his feedback. That was cool.

I had always used applications like Wallwisher, Lino and Mural.ly for brainstorming or debriefing. I'd learned about them in workshops or online presentations....I'd never thought to use them in this format before.

I'm so glad I have a "bag 'o tricks" that I can pull ideas out of. But I'm even happier to work with such genius teachers that can use tools in creative and innovative ways that really help students.

My peers make sure me look so smart!

Felix the Cat - c/o Joe Oriolo

ACT Grab 'N Gab plans to promote Libraryland!

2013-04-03T08:28:00.003-07:00

*note- I had this stored in DRAFT mode since last year...but updated this reminder so that I could be ready for the ACT date! Read on fearless readers!

Last year, upon completion of TCAP testing I invited all the staff up to the library for a kind an open house we called Grab 'n Gab!

I sure missed it this year, but we have one more change. April 24th after ACT testing we'll have another long lunch where I can showcase of materials that we offer teachers that they don't normally see. We'll have district book sets like HS poetry, Forensics, audio books and DVD's playing. We'll have Cyberbully lessons, Plagiarism and research presentation outlines available. There will be SLJ and Booklist set out for teachers to review & select books for purchase.

I'll need to order snacks: mini-cheesecakes, cream filled strawberries, chocolate truffles and drinks. I'll have brochures for the Colorado Standards: 21st Century Learning Skills. I've got an old book scavenger hunt that a student teacher made for every subject area that I'll upgrade (yes even including PE and math). Lastly- I'll find some cheesy prizes.

Mostly, we'll have opportunities to share some good with a wide variety of folks and departments. I'm hoping that many of our dispays and resources will be imeadiately booked or better yet go straight into teachers classrooms. Maybe I'll pick up some new work...let the planning ensue!

Many thanks to my friend Kim for letting me copy her idea from years ago.
Looking forward to a fun day! ~guybrarian

The winds of fall challenge my library role

2011-09-16T08:24:00.000-07:00

For the 3rd time this week I heard that our budgets will probably be cut again by up to 25% next year. I also have heard principals are questioning the value of keeping librarians in the face of all these cuts. They ask the why keep a librarian if they can get a full FTE classroom teacher that make more of an impact on kids?

My neighboring district to the south who has district employed/building specific librarians have already cut 1/2 their HS & Middle School librarians and just this year cut 1/2 their elementary librarians. Other districts are headed the same way. What does a half time librarian look like? Well, due to equity discussions- one librarian often serves two schools (sometimes a few days in one school then another, sometimes full weeks).

I'm really curious how effective I would be if I was only 1/2 time in a school? If a teacher is collaborating with me and gets behind in curriculum, maybe I can't float back and forth. How can I build relationships and trust so that I can collaborate if I'm only part time?

Perhaps a bigger issue is what is the role that librarians or teaching/collaborates will be playing in their buildings in the future?

Will we be Learning Specialists who focus more on professional development and 21st century learning standards as Allison Zmuda, Violet H. Harada suggest. Will we be developing a Learning Commons or instructional Facilitators as Koechlin Luhtala and Loertscher suggest? (February 2011 page 20)

I think if we are really going to be an active part of the future learning for our schools, we need to play an active role in the change that is coming. There may be some parts of our jobs that it is time for us to let go- perhaps some carry over from the "old librarian model". I'm not sure what those are, but I wonder what things we aren't willing to let go that might hold us back from serving our staff and students? Are you willing to give up reading picture books? Book talks? Being the sole coordinator of your collection development? What things keep us from being able to collaborate with teachers, training staff, work to support student achievement and 21st century learning skills?

Hmmm. Lots of thinking for a Friday am. I would be very curious to hear your thoughts! What will the new role look like? What can we do to best help kids? Thanks for your help!

Budget cut? Huge Classes? Make Lemonade!

2011-08-25T07:40:00.000-07:00

We use the team teaching model in our school. There is a bright young social studies teacher teaming with an English teacher for the 10th grade Integrated Social Studies and English class. We are on an alternating block schedule but students attend this class every day and will end the year with 2 credits!

It is a great interactive class because students learn about the history, read and write about it- often debating or do hands on research or projects. The kids learn tons, and gain meaning through the video and audio presented in class.

But the class is big - almost 70+ kids in it. We take down the partition between to classrooms for that hour and use one huge room. Mr Carpenter effectively uses short video clips to emphasis points and up until today we have had a projector/screen on one end of the room. We have been writing grants so that each teacher now has a projector and laptop (and raging sound system!). Just yesterday we were able to connect the two projectors together (with a 100' coax video cable through the ceiling), converter box/splitter for the VGA input from Mr Carpenter's Macintosh laptop. Learning is achieved!

I tell you this because I really think the librarians role is truly varied. I look forward to collaborating with both teachers very soon, but right now my work has been behind the scenes- troubleshooting to get this system working. Now, instruction can proceed seamlessly using technology in a way that highlights learning not impeding or being and end to itself. I know student's learning is stengthened!

Lucky day to be a librarian!

What is the value of a good teacher?

2011-02-17T17:28:00.000-08:00

What a time we live in! Colorado just announced their educational cuts for next year. (see Denver Post)

But if you want to hear an interesting discussion on how teachers can measure their success - listen to a recent podcast from NPR's Planet Money's What is a teacher worth. In it, he talks about how good teachers help kids be successful and then these students positively influence the gross national product.

The study highlighted in the podcast come from Eric Hanushek where he found that some teachers consistently produce higher performing students than their counterparts. These students then go on to be more productive and they earn systematically more money over their lifetime. These higher achieving student earnings result in an increased gross national product. The podcast takes the formula a bit further saying that a teacher with a class of 25 students that moves their students forward (in achievement) is worth over 1/2 million dollars every year (in terms of added value to the economy).

If we know this why are we even considering increasing course loads or increasing class sizes as Bud the Teacher notes in his blog? In the long term aren't we just making the problem worse? There has to be a better way!

Ancient Civilizations!

2010-08-27T11:03:00.001-07:00

This week I have been working with my social studies teacher to set up a intro lesson for ancient civilizations. He wanted to have students do some brief research about some of the major civilizations like Aztecs, Egyptians, Shang Dynasty etc. As a small group students were to find some basic information in the areas of geography, politics, inventions etc.

He wanted to make it more authentic for them so that they might get a scope of these empires. We decided to look at using google maps as a presentation tool. I found resources for each group and posted them on the website. We created one google account per classroom which allowed them all to be on at the same time, edit and change (even without sharing) and all the projects listed at once.

View Egyptian Empire in a larger map

We only gave the students about 40 minutes of class time to create this introductory lesson and they were to present the 2nd day. It turned out really nicely...and the teacher and I learned a lot. The students started presenting today and things got a good start. (They still tend to read right of the computer- but hey...we're still in the first week!)

Some ideas we thought of: different push pin shape for each topic, use several push pins to make simple points (2-3 lines or one picture), classmates take notes on the presentations. More and more.

Overall - it was pretty successful for the first try!

Seems like overnight...

2010-08-13T12:45:00.001-07:00

Working in my building this week with educators supporting the new teachers in our district. We have some very talented, bright folks here who really know their stuff!

I'm working tech support and liaison for our building and was asking the presenter for the plenary what equipment she needed for the next day. She said all she needed was an overhead in the auditorium for the 150 folks. I asked if she was joking. She was very good natured about it, saying that she knew she needed to step up...and use technology. I encouraged her and said to remember folks needed her content rather than be overwhelmed about adding bells and whistles.

We chatted for a while and she felt pretty confident that she and her husband could work that evening and get her preso changed to Keynote. Next morning came- and she was incredibly confident and proud saying that she got it! (finished about 2am!:)

You might have guessed that not only was her presentation relevant and meaningful, but it was so well done that folks really got what they needed out of it. Not only that- she ran the whole presentation from a new app she downloaded on her iPhone! VERY COOL! :)

So- I guess I learned that sometimes we can be the people that gently nudge others to do great and important work. Sometimes change takes place overnight!

To post or not to post?

2009-10-27T08:29:00.000-07:00

We had the local city council candidates in a panel last week. Students had some good questions and things went pretty smoothly. There were some issues that have been running under the surface of the election that have been hot button issues that came to light during the panel. Voiced got elevated, fingers started pointing and there was lots of groaning/jeering from the students. Perhaps not the most flattering moment for these candidates.

Question- we have students that weren’t able to participate that would like to see it. We recorded the 30 minute segment on a flip cam and it is a rather large file. Our host/social studies teacher would like to just post it online on something like Youtube. He says there are lots of folks wondering about this and they should see the real thing rather than hear the stories. We didn’t have written permission from the candidates to film this public forum.

What risk do we run if we post? What things should we consider before we post it? Should be fun to hear what you have to say!

Dewey Know What is happening @ your library?

2009-02-05T05:49:00.000-08:00

Library Volunteers needed to rebuild library

Need to do some browsing @ your library? Well soon you’ll be able to do just that when Silver Creek’s library initiates the BISAC (Book Industry Standards and Communications) cataloging system. The “bookstore system” will make it much easier to browse and select books using subjects rather than the existing Dewey Decimal System. Mr Goerner, Teacher librarian said “I really think students would like to grab their latte and search the Technology & Engineering or Political Science sections when doing their 1920’s research. It seems like lots more fun than using the look up station to find Dewey sections 629.8 and 364.”

Why the switch? Well Goerner says that lots of things have changed since Melvin Dewey developed his initial classification system in 1876. “We need to reflect the current needs of our users” Goerner said. “The change will allow Silver Creek to be more like bookstores with nooks and corners aimed to create a sense of privacy."

Volunteer help is needed to transport and re-catalogue all 9858 library items. Work will be done to transferring from 10 current classification areas to nearly 50 “subject headings”. SCHS Book Buddies members commented that the change seemed like a positive one. Kira Gerbitz stated “I already have 527 books in my online Shelfari account and the categories will match Silver Creeks new system exactly! It will be very exciting to see how other Silver Creek kids will like it- it will be so easy to find everything!”

**Submitted to student paper February 09. Can you tell this is tongue in cheek? Hope so- would want you to think I was upsetting the apple cart! :)

DPS librarian preso...

2009-01-30T08:00:00.000-08:00

Enjoyed presenting to the Denver Public Schools librarians last Monday. We looked at podcasts...here are some of my favorites!

Grammar Girl: Quick and dirty tips for better writing Nice blog and podcast for grammar tips.

Geek!ed is group of tech folks from MI who meet once a week to talk about what cool thing are going on in their schools. These folks love to laugh!

Radiolab: (WNYC.org) One of the best story telling podcast I have ever listened too. From NPR this is often a science-oriented podcast that offers topics like Choices, Wright Bros etc.

Library of Congress: Brand new site I found that looks like it has tons of booktalks, interviews, and lectures...seems to have a podcast on music.

Book Lust with Nancy Pearl Can't make a list without books. This is our own action figure Nancy Pearl as she interviews famous authors and poets on her Seattle-based program.

EPN: The Educational Podcast Network is a listing from David Warlick's Landmark Project that lists educationa podcasts by and for students and teachers.

The Wild Chronicles: great short videos created by National Geographic.

Geek brief tv: video cast by Cali Lewis about new tech toys and stories.

Slashdot Review: Is a great review of current tech news from Slashdot, Digg and Reddit. Andy McCaskey does a great daily job of keep us current in this concise podcast.

Promoting the Library

2009-01-29T18:01:00.000-08:00

Isn't it great to have smart friends? My library buddy has done some great promotional work in Adams 12. She has weekly fliers that go out to her staff and students telling the attributes of the library, books that are in or important events happening at the library. She does a different in"stall"ment for students and teachers. Teachers are really liking the version she makes them. I copied her idea (didn't want to be left out) and found the same in my building. Teachers told me that they really enjoyed reading what exciting things folks were doing in the building. Then, they come to me and ask if they could do those cool things too!
Click on image for full size view!

Teen Read Week 2008

2008-10-07T10:17:00.000-07:00

What a great time to celebrate YALSA's Teen Read Week™ October 12-18! There will be a very cool celebration every night that week @ Readergirlz. Each night next week they will have live chats with authors! The "epic lineup of published authors" and the five themed chats will take place at the rgz MySpace group forum, October 13-17, 2008, 6:00 pm PST/9:00 pm EST.

Student Collaboration

2008-06-23T12:37:00.001-07:00

Live blogging at CASL! Afternoon Workshop!

TIE is coming..

2008-06-21T10:30:00.000-07:00

OK- Getting ready for TIE (Technology in Education @ Copper Mountain) and I can't wait! There are so many very good sessions planned by educators that are full of great information. Finally the planning for my workshops is almost finished, and I have found some very cool toys for librarians to play with! Here is something I created with Wordle for my preso- it is made up of words from Standards for the 21st Century Learner.

What do you think?

Even if you can't attend- join us virtually for the conference! You can follow posts, pictures and more at David Warlick's Hitchhikr where the conference is named TIECO2008. If you post to your blog, add TIECO2008 and your post, photos etc will apprear for others @ Hitchhikr
Follow us via twitter with Hashtags: #TIECO2008 or http://hashtags.org/tag/TIECO2008/
See you there! Technorati Tags: TIECO2008

Marian Notes from 4/21

2008-04-25T10:32:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Beckie for facilitating and providing these notes!
** NOTE - next Marians Monday, May 19th!

· 21 skills are online learning in variety of ways: Blogging, video, databases.

· Virtual Campus is what St. Vrain is using. Classes are set up to use Moodle.

· Teachers are creating online professional development communities

· Alternatives to PowerPoint. Photo Story is an example

· The Program Destiny is used in Estes. When looking up books/topics in the library it connects to websites for research purposes.

· Transferable skills are what we need to teach.

· It was brought up that in Estes they are required to do 3-4 hours of professional development on computer skills.

Laura adds: great resources at:21st Century Skills

Also, the Framework for 21st Century Learning was presented at the CAL Pre-conference in November with Allison Zmuda. She was talking to librarians and principals and making sure principals knew that the skills businesses want to see in graduates are not necessarily the same skills be assessed in schools. Click here for her PowerPoint from that presentation.

CO Teen Literature Conference Authors

2008-04-07T21:04:00.000-07:00

Teens had the opportunity to ask questions of Alane Ferguson and Gail Giles during the Teen Literature Conference April 5th 2008. (Notes for some of the conversation below)

Next year's authors were announced: Jordan Sonneblick (Notes from the Midnight Driver) and David Lubar (The Curse of the Campfire Weenies/Sleeping Freshman Never Lie). This should make for a great conference!

Mark your calendars now- see if you can join us APRIL 4, 2009!

Teen Lit Author Panel- Denver 4/5

2008-04-05T13:09:00.000-07:00

Authors Hilari Bell, Linda Collison, Laura Resau, Donita Tompkins talk about the process of writing and answered questions.

Alex Award winners...

2008-04-04T21:58:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Learning Gems, I now have a nice piece to tease ALA's 2008 Alex Award winners! Have a look:

CLiC notes for RSS 2.0

2008-04-03T09:45:00.000-07:00

Need some help with your administrator?

2008-03-27T20:27:00.001-07:00

Joyce Valenza wrote a great blog post today about a project she has been working on for schools in her area. Inspired by the Did you Know video, she has created her own piece to advocate that certified media specialists/teacher librarians be in place in all schools Well put together and good supportive material.
Take a look:
Libraries- a tale of inequity

For her complete post, click here: NeverEnding Search

What TIME is it?

2008-03-24T18:29:00.000-07:00

After finishing a research project on great poets in the AP English the students posted them in their classroom Google presentation account. They were to use this information to map the poet's birth or life span on a time line.

Some students used the new stylish looking Mnemograph time line creator. It is easy to get into so the students begin creating some pretty slick looking time lines. After about nine students, we had difficult seeing all the time lines though. **Note- just got an email from Michael R. from Mnemograph who thanked us for the feedback and said this would be a good addition. Within just a short time, Michael had adjusted the problems and we are good to go for today.

Some of the students chose to use Xtimeliner which is a social time line creation tool. Our students also found this easy to use and fairly quick to navigate. It has different options like collaborative editing and time line sharing that are kind of nice.

Since we were trying something new, it was hard for the students (and me!). Crashing computers, stalled work...but the student stuck with it and created most of their charts. The main goal was for them to begin to see patterns in the artists lives- and who was influenced by whom.

Turns out both tools work well for this. Even though we got stuck a few times the students liked the looks and feel of Mnemograph better. (At least today- we'll try with another class tomorrow!)
~guybrarian

Grab 'N Gab

2008-03-19T20:24:00.001-07:00

Today, upon completion of CSAP I invited all the staff up to the library for a kind an open house we called Grab 'n Gab!

It was a showcase of materials that we offer teachers that they don't normally see. We had district book sets like HS poetry, Forensics, audio books and DVD's playing. Cyberbully lessons from Netsmartz. I set out SLJ and Booklist for teachers to select books for me to purchase.

We provided mini-cheesecakes, cream filled strawberries, chocolate truffles and hot cider. There was a display of Information Literacy Standards. We even had book scavenger hunts for every subject area (yes even including PE and math). Lastly- we had cheesy prizes and opportunities to share some conversations.

It was a good lunch hour- Science, English, Foreign Language, Special Ed, administrators and even Math departments stopped by for a visit. Several of the books sets went straight into teachers classrooms. I even picked up some more work with ESL and special ed...great opportunities for future planning! Many thanks to my friend Kim for letting me copy her idea, my great clerk and new intern for making this possible. What a fun day! ~guybrarian

Question # Dos

2008-03-12T10:53:00.000-07:00

As a spin off from Teen Tech Week, my Spanish teacher is now using VOKI avatars.
Her current assignment is to have students tell their favorite restaurants, and foods. Even though it is not required, then can create a VOKI and respond right on her blog. She has been very pleased with the variety and amount of responses. Because of the technology, her year 1 Spanish students are loving it and doing good work.

Check out her blog: Clase de Espanol. Make sure to click on the little clipboard/notebook to hear and see the students responses!
~guybrarian

Teen Tech Week Workshops - part three

2008-03-10T08:28:00.000-07:00

(I almost called this THE REVENGE OF TTTW! ARGHHHH! This is part 3- read from below up to here! :) ~guybrarian)

Evaluation: Wow. Did I learn a lot! Here are some highlights:
1) Informal statistics
From my little polls I determined that 1/2-2/3's of my students have their own My Space accounts (only one student out of the 8 classes said they had Facebook).
About 1/3 of the students use an online photo tool, most use Photobucket
Most of them have been creating powerpoint presentations since about 4th or 5th grade.
There were 8 blocks of students that attended, filling every IMC computer. (Also a handful of teachers!)

2) What they don't know
They don't really know whats available to them online.
Most of the students had never seen the applications I previewed for them, much less used them for classroom work

They don't know too much about how to tag information
When we talked about online photo accounts, they used them but had never tagged their info in order to organize or even RSS them. Even the term TAG or TAGGING was new to them. I think this puts them at a disadvantage when they to sort information or research.

They don't know too much about RSS.
Making friends in my space- you bet! But we also talked about push/pull technology and it was pretty clear that they didn't know they could create spaces that would bring all their information to them in order to create meaning.

They don't know how to embed code into their web pages
When finished working with VOKI's it provides a script, and very very few of them knew what it was or what they could do with it. So, they didn't really know that they could adapt their online pages to become something that helps their learning.

They don't know how to create online workspaces that help them to be more efficient and organized.
When I showed them IGoogle (or pageflakes or netvibes) they had no idea that they could set these types of workspaces up for themselves. A few created them during our time, and saw the value in it.

They need practice on how to have productive live/online conversations.
While I was hoping that they could use the backchannel to clarify and share constructive information, my monitor ended up refereeing much too much for my taste. I just don't think students had a concept of what could really be accomplished here.

What does it mean? Successes:
Even though this didn't quite accomplish what I hoped there were some positive things.

A few students registered for online photo accounts and began organizing photos. I thought the avatar creator had less educational value than some of the other applications, so was a little embarrassed when students flocked to it. Then a teacher found a way to embed this cute avatar in her foreign language wiki. She set up an brief response to go with an assignment that I'm sure the students will love. (Check it out!) Lastly, I was very glad to see a few students create IGoogle accounts and began using them. This really seems useful for them and I wonder what it would look like to help students set these up for classes and activities.

The whole experience brought up many questions...
* What do students need to know so that they can create something of value to add to the web?
* How can we coach students to get to deeper levels when researching for themselves (rather than a prescribed assignment for school)?
* How can we best help students to productive and meaningful conversations on the web?
* What are some questions you have? :)
~guybrarian

TTWW TOO! (or Teen Tech Week part 2)

2008-03-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

(note: if you are lost- read the previous post about how I set up workshops for teen tech week @ Silver Creek library!)

Implementation: I started with my original plan, but changed it every hour. Students didn't know the tools I wanted to go over so it took a little longer. They loved playing with and creating avatars via VOKI, so spent quite a bit of time doing this. Had 3 or four teachers come in during their plan and created an extra handout for them, but they played with the VOKI too.

The night after the 1st presentation, I re-listened to Joyce Valenza's comments on Women of the Web 2.o podcast #65. Amongst other things- she talked about teacher her seniors how to create their own launching pages using IGoogle. So, the second day I incorporated that into the presentation by helping students to set up their own pages that could link to their teachers pages, the library and even have to-do lists.

Oh- and I tried to run a live backchannel chat during each session. It was managed by the Study Hall teacher back in her room and it was my intent that students could ask eachother questions and make helpful comments about the workshop. I also invited other librarians out of the building to poke in from time to time.

Evaluation: How did it go? Oh man! Wait till you read this...next blog post! ~guybrarian