Hugo Cabret Lesson

Brian Selznick interview

Cost of Life

I found a wonderful opportunity for students to play an online game that will connect them to the global issue of poverty and how health and education impact a family's chance for survival.  The game is call Ayiti: Cost of Life.  This game has been developed by students working with software professionals to address issues of social justice.  The game will be a real chance for students to connect with a serious global issue, and then, hopefully, be inspired to TAKE ACTION.  In this way, they will learn to participate ethically in their world, and work to solve the problems they discover.  The game can be accessed through this ning:

Cost of Life Portal

Ayiti: Cost of Life

I have created a podcast that students would listen to before the lesson:

Coming together.....and falling apart

I started this class fairly confident in my life experience in school library management.  These discussion have made me realize how different my experiences are from those of education. On the other hand, the classes I am taking are truly coming together.  I'm learning about teaching digital natives from the essays of Marc Prensky.  I'm learning to differentiate lessons and to weave literacy into every lesson.  All this comes together with the roles I am learning about media center management from Woolls.  Still, the more I'm learning, the less I know...

Education and sales

In researching the pros and cons of leveling books, as well as the other topics such as using AR, grouping by series, using the Dewey decimal system, my thoughts turn to the dichotomy of a school library.  Our mission, as discussed earlier, is to educate, teaching critical thinking skills and ethical use of information.  Yet, unlike almost all other teachers, we also have to market a product.  Sometimes education and sales are at odds with one another.  The short article I read by Timothy Shanahan (2012), challenges some of the myths around the importance of connecting readers to texts within their level.  My thinking, however, from the "sales" side, is damn the level, connect them with something, ANYTHING, they want to read.   Our textbook supports that when it says "we are responsible for students having ready access to good books." (p. 185).  How do we make the two roles work together?  And, on which side do we err?

Shanahan, T. (2012). Common Core Challenges the Myths About Matching Students with Books. Illinois Reading Council Journal, 40(4), 5-6. 

Purely academic

Some topics I feel at more of a disadvantage because I am not working as a LME currently.  Facilities design is definitely one of them.  I have ideas if I get the job I want, but there are no guarantees.  I also believe that some issues are only addressed once in a blue moon:  lighting, design, windows.  Many of these things are expensive to change outside of a huge remodel.  I HAVE bookmarked the resource page of the MEMO ning for future reference:

http://memotech.ning.com/page/resources


I wish these discussion weren't purely academic for  me.

Information...best defense in the world

In discussing 6-8 word missions phrases, I am inspired by some of the words that my classmates used:

Jennifer:  encourage
Bruce:  appreciation of learning
Gina: Amazing
DeAnn:  Endless possibilities
Tiffany:  Global thinkers
Janeen:  Connecting
Michelle:  Helping

These are all fabulous words to have connected to my future!  I hope that I can embody them!

What's in a Name?

I just changed the name of my blog from Learning Reflections to Reflections of a Work in Progress.  I did so for two reasons.  First, the new title is more reflective of my life right now.  I truly am a work in progress.  Second, I am using this blog to reflect on more than just my learning, although that is still a large part of the process.  I think the new title frames this blog properly. Join me on my journey!

Maud Hart Lovelace in the 21st Century

A major focus of library media education is teaching students to be ethical users of information.  In the traditional library setting this meant teaching about plagiarism and citation of resources from the library.  In today’s world, with the world available to each student, it becomes so much more.  Plagiarism is still and issue, perhaps more, because there are so many casual references made to information gained from others.  To begin to teach students how to participate in an online community appropriately, I would like to set up a Maud Hart Lovelace program online.

Background:  Currently, the Maud Hart Lovelace Award is presented annually to the books Minnesota students in grades 3-8 select as their favorite from a previously vetted list.  There is a division I list for grades 3-5 and a division II list for grades 6-8.  At Bluff View, the process for participating in this vote involves reading at least three selections, taking an AR test to prove a selection has been read, and then voting on paper.  The media specialist tallies the votes, announces who wins for Bluff View as well as submits the votes to the state-wide contest.

Future plan:  I would use Edmodo to create a MHL group.  Students interested in participating would first be asked to sign a Code of Conduct document outlining the rules of participating in this discussion.  They would then be given a lesson on using Edmodo, either live, or via a webcast for latecomers.  Then they would be given access to the group.  On it, we will discuss the b  oks they’ve read.  I would ask them to consider specific questions, rather than post generic comments such as “it was awesome.”  Questions to consider:

I liked this because….
I didn’t like this because….
I was surprised to read……
I connected with a character because…..
This book reminded me of…..
I would also consider thoughts suggested by students.

I could use the features of Edmodo to help students learn responsible online discourse during the course of the school-year-long discussion.  I would then use the polling features to have the students vote for their favorite.

As this project develops I can see it expanding:  state-wide discussions and student-created booktalks are just two I have currently.  Assessment would be formative through discussion coaching.

The path of a digital immigrant

My history with the internet closely follows that of the general public, as I graduated high school in 1985.  I actually started my college education in computer science.  I hated the programming courses, but, loved hacking into the internal communication network and, essentially sending renegade e-mail messages to fellow classmates.  I switched my major English and briefly lost sight of computers and the internet.

My next encounter came in the business world.  My post-college professional development led me first to database management.  In this case I managed the marketing database for a company that sold to a niche market.  I was learning the language of mass marketing and using information intelligently.  My focus was gathering information about individuals that we could use to successfully marketing our products.  I remember a co-worker talking about CompuServe and I couldn’t imagine needing that level of contact with people I may have never met.  Our company, however, was already using those connections to benefit our marketing efforts, and, ultimately, sales.  This would have been during the early 1990’s.

I next moved to the world of technical support.  Because this was the mid-to late 90’s, I supported a company in transition from the old model to the new.  I worked on every possible platform: mainframe, AS/400, Oracle, LANs, pcs, a few Apple computers, even phone systems!  It was the very beginnings of instant communication and the potential for linking remote sites.  We were able to take remote control of computers in San Francisco, upper New York and even Canada from our corporate headquarters in the Chicago suburbs.  I learned all about cables, IP addresses and network cards.  This foundational knowledge has helped me understand the workings of both software and the internet.

While my career up to this point made me more comfortable than most with technology, I am not by nature drawn to technology.  In 2000, my husband and I moved away from the Chicago suburbs and I stayed home with our daughter.  I also disconnected from tech for awhile.  I had a cell phone, e-mailed and occasionally accessed the internet.  However, I found my connections more at the playground and in the library.

As I moved back into the working world, I feel that the internet became my biggest resource.  It has also become my community.  Not only did I glean all sorts of ideas for my new career, I also used it as a means to communicate with my colleagues as well as customers.  As I move into the world of library media education, using the potential of the internet has literally made this transition possible.  I would not have the time to complete this degree if I had to commute to a campus for all the classes that I am taking online.  I have also used it to collaborate through Google docs, Skype and even Facebook.  I am excited to use all this potential in teaching students to be successful and ethical users of information.  I want to channel from my students those urges that made my classmates and I figure out how to communicate clandestinely way back in 1985.

Is blogging different?

I find myself in an interesting position when I think about blogging.  I have used resources from blogs in my academic research.  I have found great ideas to use in the classroom from blogs.  I have started a Pinterest board of books I want to read based on blogs that I follow.  I absolutely benefit from them.  Having said that, I find it ironic that I find the idea of creating my own blog uncomfortable.  The reason for this, for me, points out the big difference in writing for a blog.  While the process of writing, for me is the same, the audience is not.  Who am a writing for?  I am not comfortable simply throwing my thoughts out there for the world to read.  I need direction and a sense of purpose guiding my writing.  At this point I don't consider myself an expert in any field, so that excludes me from the blog-world of some of those that  I follow, like Joyce Valenza: at http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/neverendingsearch.  And, perhaps because I'm a digital immigrant, I am not comfortable simply throwing my thoughts out for public consumption.  That, to me, is the biggest difference in writing for blogs:  the purpose and audience.  Perhaps, someday, when I have a classroom, I will feel differently.

I only have experience with Blogger and found it very easy to use.  I have created this blog to hold required learning reflections.  I also used Blogger when I was the Children's Librarian at the Lake City Public Library to maintain their website.  It was an economically efficient (free) solution, and it was easy to maintain with no particular training, and, it looked professional.  They have since moved the blog to WordPress:  http://www.lakecity.lib.mn.us/
Many small libraries use the blog as a website, such as this version, also from WordPress: http://www.wabasha.lib.mn.us/

There is much potential in the thoughtful use of blogging!