Auntie Librarian

I went to the SCASL conference this past Thursday and Friday. The conference was awesome. It was time and money well spent. I am up to my ears in technology at school and I have been neglecting the book part of my job. I chose to attend sessions without a technology focus as a librarian-chakra balancing prescription. I think it worked. Here are a few of the tools, ideas, tips and tricks that I will be returning to and sharing with my fellow teachers.

At the Reimagining Education @ Your Library session with Janet Boltjes & Valerie Byrd-Fort:

Check out the Bud the Teacher Blog. Wow. (I needed a Kleenex for his provocateur video.) The post the presenters featured, Safe Places and What is Yet to Come is about School Libraries. I think I may have to dedicate a post to this article. Powerful Stuff.
Reimagine Ed, coolness! Check it out.
Libraries need to be the place where students go when they want to create something.

Improv rules can help you. The ones I learned about at this conference are: 1. Listen, 2. My idea is good, your idea is better, 3. Say YES, AND. 4. Ask What if? 5. Agree. (Game Changer!)
Marker boards as creative spaces in the library
A stage in the library? Hmm. Cool idea.
Must get furniture sliders!

At Martha Taylor's session, "Feeling Overwhelmed? Apply the KISS Principle"

A way to practice citations with class check outs or orientation is to have students create simple citations of one of the books they are checking out. Put names on the citations slips, use them in a drawing.
Book citations can be exit slips
I need to be using student and teacher evaluations for every unit I teach with one of my colleagues. This documents what was taught, and the results, and gives feedback for improvement. I can see where this would be very helpful for advocacy efforts. (instructional evidence)
After working with a class, look at students finished products and determine the percentage of students who used high quality sites in their research. (instructional evidence)
Provide a generous circulation allowance for non-fiction items.
Check out those live scribe pens.

At "Research, Welcome to the Big Easy" with Connie McClanahan & Denise McDougal

Think about offering a proofreading service to my students. Require papers to be submitted 24 hours in advance. At least offer bibliography checking.
Try starting with books first when researching because the information is limited and not as overwhelming. This will help students select a focus and refine what they want to discuss in their paper or project.
When collaborating with teachers on class research projects we must teach the research process.
We need to go back to "old school" style research projects and require note cards to discourage plagiarism.
Copy four note cards on a piece of paper to eliminate the lost note cards problem.
Consider limiting students to one sheet of paper per source.
Students can cut up the paper and organize note cards into topical sections when writing.
Check the source cards and then let students go on to the next step.
I think I'll use these suggestions with my "mini research paper" and see what happens.

At Dr. Berkowitz's Keynote, "Change or Start Looking for a New Job"

We should discourage overuse of topical research.
Librarians should keep a lesson plan book.
Document and report the student work that was done in the library.
Use assessments to evaluate successes of instructional strategies.
Programs should be defined, predictable, measured and reported
"We teach success.", "We teach process."

Donalyn Miller's Keynote - check out the slide share. How do you get your students to read over 6,000 books using no extrinsic motivation (grades, AR, incentive parties)?

Dr. Shannon's introduction of Donalyn Miller made me cry.
Donalyn Miller is coming out with a new book called Reading in the Wild!
Great idea, have students make signs at the end of the year with the number of books they have read.
Krashen - The single most important factor in reading skill is independent reading.
University of Oxford study - Reading books is the only out of school activity for sixteen-year-olds that is tied to getting a managerial or professional job.
Reading fosters empathy
We need more reading time beyond SSR.
During SSR, everyone needs to do nothing but read . That is not happening.
Allington - higher achieving students read three times as much as lower achieving students
To carve out more reading time: eliminate bell ringers and fast finisher activities, make explicit reading plans.
We must increase students access and exposure to books. Don't look at classroom libraries as threats.
Reading doors - great idea. All faculty makes one showing what they are reading.
Donalyn Miller helped create the Nerdy Book Club! Look for my post in April!
I need to read The One and Only Ivan. ( I needed a Kleenex just listening to her talk about it.)
I also attended one of her sessions and met a couple dozen new books that I can't wait to tell my students about.

A few weeks ago I purchased two refurbished iPads for the library. The iPads are now available to students for in-library use and are soon to be available for teachers to check out. I purchased Otter Box protective cases, screen protectors and an App Store gift card to load the iPads with a few apps. I called Apple with my questions about setting the iPads up and creating a library account. They were very helpful. My School Librarian guru Cathy Jo Nelson was even more helpful with a few tips. I am especially thankful to know that the Apple login remains "open" for window of about 15 minutes after each session. I must be careful not to lend out the iPads immediately after I have been logged on with our account, especially if there is money left in the account.

We will be having the first iPad workshop for teachers after school on Wednesday. Teachers who are interested in checking out the iPads will be required to attend one of the workshops that will be offered and sign a copy of the iPad policy. Teachers who are not interested in checking out the iPads are also encouraged to attend. The iPads will be checked out to teachers in a neoprene zipper case with the charger, an iPad to VGA cable and a 6ft VGA cable to act as an extension enabling teachers to connect the iPad to their Smart Board for display purposes.

Students have been checking out and "playing" with the iPads during their lunch periods. The students with iPads must sit and stay at a designated table while they are using the iPad. Once I have checked out the iPads to students during any given lunch period, it is not long before there is a small crowd surrounding the two students. I have loaded strictly educational apps onto them. I enjoy watching the students use the iPads, thinking they are just playing. It also makes me smile when I see the students show each other how to use the iPads. Hearing the astonishment in students voices as they say, "We can use those iPads? You bought them for US to use?" (translate: Really? You trust us? They are not just for teachers?) has made me feel rich (and daring) like a king presiding over a feast.

I remember reading somewhere that one thing that shaped Bill Gates was access to a networked computer at school, where the thirteen-year-old Gates learned to program. Two iPads may not have a tremendous impact on my entire school, but the possibility that it might impact one or two students is the reason I made this leap. Some of my students have their own iPads and iPhones. Most of them do not. There are schools where every student has their own iPad - right now. My school is not one of them, but my students will have to compete for the same jobs and opportunities as the students who come from these schools.

I have been partnering with Pam Fowler, a technology teacher at my school in setting up the iPads, planning the training and learning about the educational possibilities these iPads could inspire. It is our hope that teachers will check out the iPads, recommend apps for downloading, and offer students the option of using an iPad in a future project or assignment. I think it has been a good move to start off with just two iPads while we learn the ropes. If all goes well, we will apply for grants and look into purchasing more.