The National Writing Project presentation on Why Digital Writing Matters for Learning

All writing matters. Writing is not just what is on paper. Why does this matter?
Digital writing is how we write, share, collaborate, publish, and participate today and into the future. What does this means for the future of writing?

Http://digidalis.nwp.org

some thoughts on common core

We know the curriculum better than anyone else in the building—this adds huge value in rolling out Common Core--remind your principal and superintendent about this often

We know technology and how to use it to gather information and create products that show learning

In order to do what we do well, we need to be able to do it—time to collaborate, time to plan, time to teach.  

When we don’t have this, and don’t do our jobs well, we lose librarians.  If you CAN do these things, you owe to those who don't to advocate on their behalf.

Pennsylvania School Library Association just completed HUGE study on status of school libraries in PA and will next develop an information literacy curriculum summer of 2013 correlated with the Pennsylvania Common Core—something for Massachusetts to keep an eye on. 

Digital reading is getting teens and young adults reading—don’t worry about print vs. ebook, just look at how kids are reading and go there!  New Pew Study out this week:  http://libraries.pewinternet.org/2012/10/23/younger-americans-reading-and-library-habits/

“Librarians teach process!  Librarians are Common Core—this is what we do!”  Melissa Jacobs-Israel, NYC public schools.  New York City public schools have “unpacked common core” for librarians:  http://www2.lhric.org/libsys/IFC.html

Good elementary program IS Advocacy

Melissa Techman of the Albermarle County Schools presented on her AMAZING elementary program. 

She suggests that advocacy is easy when you get kids engaged and excited at the elementary level.  Every student that goes home and describes a cool day at school, makes a product to share (digitally or physically), or tells a parent s/he loves the library is creating a parent advocate.  Librarians who interact with adults have a built-in opportunity to showcase what they do….so it is important to volunteer for duties and activities where you see parents, to invite visitors in, and to use volunteers.  When they see what you’re doing, they become your advocate.  Get their emails and send out regular updates about your program. 

When the library is exciting and busy, the rest follows….

How to thinks about space:

• ·         Does it work for your users (and not just for the monthly faculty meeting…but the actual kids)?
• ·         How do you combine public and private spaces?
• ·         How to you make the space look EXCITING?

Some of her ideas:

• ·         Weed maniacally to free up space; put everything you can on wheels to make the space as flexible as possible
• ·         If you are within driving distance of a university—invite the set design crew, art students, etc to come in and help you think about cool cheap ways to redesign and decorate your space (for example, she had a student build a GIANT clip board to put in the room)
• ·         Talk to local companies and ask if you can have their displays when they are done
• ·         Put up boards with giant speech bubbles made of paper that is laminated; when kids have conversations—have them put their very best idea on the bubble and post it
• ·         She has lots of great ideas on Pinterest   http://pinterest.com/mtechman/

Things she does with kids:

• ·         Ask kids to evaluate products—even preview boxes from book companies; look at Amazon; look at your book orders—they don’t make the final decision, but they give opinions that they know matter
• ·         Lets kids come in at lunch time and teach things to one another—e.g., google maps
• ·         Scaffolds lots of ideas for having kids learn how to have “academic talks”—how to check that they are staying on topic, how to use evidence to back their ideas; uses check lists, etc.
• ·         Blogs:  uses approach developed by Sylvia Rosenthal Tolisano: http://www.langwitches.org/
• 
  

TThings she supports:

• ·         Daily 5 (I happen to love this) and sponsors some literacy stations in the library and takes small groups during the week:  http://www.thedailycafe.com/public/department104.cfm
• ·         Modified Maker Fairs:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maker_Faire

Online life:

• ·         Runs an after school program where kids create e-books using online tools such as book creator app on ipad; aerbook cloud publishing http://www.aerbook.com/site/ , zoo burst http://www.zooburst.com/; google docs (especially drawing tool)
• ·         Quadblogging—you share a blog with group of students from around the world:  http://quadblogging.net/
• ·         Follows stories from the cloud:  http://storiesfromthecloud.blogspot.com/
• ·         Easel.ly to create infographics  http://www.easel.ly/
• ·         Tweets at mtechman
• ·         Blogs at mtechman.wordpress.com

SLJ Summit--Thinking about Disruption

Hello--
Here in Philadelphia with the MSLA crew at the  School Library Journal Leadership Summit.  Our topic is advocacy.  We are starting the day talking about the disruption in our culture as we get used to living in the 21st century.  The focus of the day is advocacy and how librarians lead in this new culture.  Focus is on how to create cultural spaces for contemporary learners--we need to have spaces where people search, connect, communicate and make!  We need to get kids in the room and get them excited.  Want to follow along?  Here are the slides etc:  http://todaysmeet.com/slj2012

Some fun ideas already--

• tweet as a book character--create a hashtag; assign kids characters and throw out some questions--have a twitter meeting!
• show your teachers a text book and then show them what it cannot do!  You can't touch a word and get the definition; you can't swipe the corners of a photo and get it to enlarge; you can't run a search for a topic--so maybe an e-book has some advantages!
• The word "book" used to be so simple!  (love that)
• Number one skill kids need in this century is curation capability--wow!

More coming!

Judi P.

Dan Rather and The Fonz

The real glamour at ALA Anaheim involves authors (and being able to blog about them while sitting next to the hotel pool under a palm tree!).  Between meetings and workshops, there are opportunities to listen to a range of celebrity authors, and Anaheim has been a joy.  I’ve been able to sit in on a panel discussion on the role of science fiction and fantasy featuring Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin, and attend talks by Sherman Alexie (True Adventures of a Part-Time Indian), and journalist Dan Rather.  My morning concluded with a presentation by Lin Oliver and Henry Winkler about their new series Ghost Buddy, which is aimed at middle grade readers, and apparently has a ghostly character that talks just like The Fonz.   Some of these presentations are a call to action, such as Rather telling us that we need to help bring awareness to the role giant corporations now play in controlling what news is reported in the U.S.  Others are reminders of the importance we play in broadening the world of our youngest patrons, as Martin described how his mind was blown when he was able to escape from the 5 block world he inhabited as a young boy living in a Bayonne NJ housing project by reading Robert A. Heinlein at his local library.  Winkler and Oliver spoke movingly about how the best children’s fiction has an emotional component that kids can relate to on a deep level.  But, I think my favorite was Sherman Alexie telling us that we are in charge of organizing all the knowledge that ever existed.  He said that he amazed when you go to a library and badly describe the type of book you are looking for, and the librarian says “I have the perfect book” and s/he does.  He said if librarians really knew how powerful they were they would be incredibly conceited!  Oh, and I have a great photo of the Fonz.

Busy Morning at Affiliate Assembly

The second round of AASL Affiliate Assembly started with a regional meeting.  Massachusetts belongs to Regional 1, which is comprised of the New England states.  We began by creating a Google doc we can use to streamline communications among state organizations both to collect necessary information and to share concerns and commendations.  We also had brief conversations about managing ipads and apps in schools and teacher evaluations and how they impact school librarians. 

Announcements:

·         AASL Library Task Force discussed initiatives to advocate for school library programs at the national level.  There is a huge push right now to ensure school libraries are included in ESEA funding.  We are also being asked to identify administrators in each state who can assist in national advocacy efforts. 

• ·         Chris Harris reported out on work being done on e-books.  ALA has e-content blog that covers what is going with e-books and all new development at http://www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/e-content .   The  e-content group is also developing tip sheets about managing e-books in your library and talking points about using e-books.
• ·          AASL has formed a retirement SIG that is getting very active. 
• ·         Fall Forum—Transliteracy and the School Library Program.  Details are at http://www.ala.org/aasl/conferencesandevents/fallforum/fallforum
• ·         Banned website awareness day, October 3, 2012:  http://www.ala.org/aasl/aaslissues/bwad/bwad
• ·         NASTEMP:  National Association of State Media Professionals—looking to connect to state organizations representing school libraries to coordinate state level information--http://nastemp.wikispaces.com/;  one big initiative is to work with directors of school library programs at the district level
• ·         Beyond Words, Allison Cline:  provides grants for public school libraries affected by disasters (begun in response to Hurricane Katrina) but now expanded to any disaster
• ·         ALA Washington Office expressed commitment to working on school library advocacy; have developed many documents that they will share for state advocacy efforts
• ·         National Center for Literacy Education—group affiliated with National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is now looking to work with AASL

Elected officers to run AASL Affiliate Assembly

We voted to commend several excellent national programs fostering literacy, developing library leadership, using primary sources, and providing professional development in innovative ways.  Valerie Diggs and I discussed reviewing these models to see how some may be adopted for use in Massachusetts.

AASL voted to as the AASL board to:

·         take actions to improve communications and orientation for members of the affiliate assembly

·         to form a task force to look into the research and implications of moving from Dewey organization of collection to organizing collections by genres

·         to charge the AASL Research and Statistics Committee to create a comprehensive school library studies database

Susan Ballard challenged each librarian present to submit a lesson plan to the L4L database this summer.

Best Websites for Teaching and Learning

One of the best moments for school librarians each year at ALA is hearing about the best websites for teaching and learning.  The committee selecting these websites looks at the best free tools available to help educate students.  To read about the criteria used and link to the best sites for 2012, look here:

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/slj/home/894866-312/aasl_unveils_top_25_websites.html.csp

Critical Thinking in a Digital Age

Critical Thinking in a Digital Age:  Presentation from Gwinnett County Schools in Georgia about why social media tools are great for working with elementary (and older) students to help them think critically.  Lots of good ideas for creating projects where kids have to create new products to show what they’ve learned getting away from fill in the information projects.  A great emphasis on “Google-proof” questions.   There were wonderful ideas for using a variety of tools and many good ideas for projects.  Presenting team really emphasized using Twitter to connect with other librarians and teachers using technology to share and connect.  Great stuff at this wiki:  http://criticalthinkingala2012.wikispaces.com/

Cooney Center on Digital Research and Children

Presentation from Lori Takeuchi of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop focusing on their new research into the lives of kids aged 5 to 11.  Kids at this age are developing their basic skills in reading and mathematics they will need to access content.  This is also when they first begin truly using digital media independently.  Cooney Center is looking at how digital media impacts kids—especially those from low income and minority families.  One of their studies is called Family Matters and looks at how digital media is used by families in terms of what families are sharing, how they are sharing, what limits they are putting on their children.  Findings include:

• Older parents control access more than younger parents
• Parents often share what THEY are interested in online, not kid-friendly content
• Parents talk about what they most like to do with their children—and top choices are not sharing digital content or games; watching TV, reading print, playing board games

Other study they are just publishing is called Co-Viewing and it is a look at how and when parents are sharing e-books.  Just starting to look at this.  Parents believe some features of e-books are actually useful in helping their children learn to read (e.g., audio features), but do not believe things such as games or video are useful.  Some parents who have e-readers do not share books with their children for a variety of reason—some nostalgic, some practical (they can break them!).  More research is needed to see impact of ebooks with kids…for example, will it bridge gap with low income and ELL kids who need a more print-rich home environment.  Are phones appropriate for accessing books, as more families have these.   Lots of implications for talking to families about using digital media.  For complete reports:  www.cooneycenter.org  Go to Reports and Initiatives

AASL Affiliate Assembly--what does it do?

The American Association of School Libraries (AASL) Affiliate Assembly meets twice during the ALA annual meeting.  Two delegates from each state (Judi Paradis and Ann Perham represent Massachusetts and Valerie Diggs is on the Board of AASL) meet with delegates from throughout the country to offer commendations for excellent programs and to discuss concerns brought up by delegates.  These are vetted by the AASL board and then brought to the assembly for discussion and voting.   At our Friday night meeting , we split into groups to discuss three major concerns:

·         A perceived need that AASL affiliate members need improved means of communication, especially as we are trying to collaborate on projects across distance

·         State organizations are being asked for advice on reorganizing school library collections by genre (the bookstore model) instead of by Dewey Decimal, and would like some direction from AASL about what to recommend to members

·         A proposed project that would assemble a comprehensive database of school library research in one common format that could be easily searched and understood by library stakeholders; this came about when Pennsylvania School Library Association was asked for this by their state legislators and school administrators and discovered that this did not exist in one easy-to-find place

I sat with the group working on this final concern and we worked to come up with a specific action to be voted on at our Sunday meeting that we believed would lead to the development and ongoing maintenance of a user-friendly, searchable database of school library research that will help members make the case for funding and supporting school library programs.

ALA Anaheim--Diversity Town Meeting

The ALA  Diversity Town Meeting  is an opportunity for the ethnic affiliates and GLBT round table to report about how they are supporting their communities.  The meeting provides information about how librarians that belong to these communities or serve these communities.  It was apparent that these groups are excellent resources for materials about their communities (especially AILA and GBLT Round Table).  Many groups (especially REFORMA and AILA) continue to stress family literacy initiatives.

Lots of discussion about the responsibility of librarians to the many groups that make up their patron communities:  How do we recruit a more diverse population of librarians?  How do we sensitively address needs of our patrons and serve their needs?

Some ideas that might be useful:

• At state conferences—think about a panel on diversity offering input from these groups to talk about sensitively reaching out to their communities? 
• Be sure that school librarians serving schools with large populations from particular communities (e.g., Hispanic, African-American, Asian, Native American, GLBT) know that they can join these affiliates on behalf of their patrons even if they are not themselves members of those communities

One nice feature of the meeting this year was lots of discussion about how to involve members and grow leadership.  Some of the ideas that resonated with me included:

• Membership needs to be fun and members need to be engaged—many spoke about the need to provide members with opportunities to get involved in a way that is safe and increase comfort levels as they become involved—this is the best way grow leaders
• When the same people continue to do everything, there is a risk of alienating the new members—there is a tendency in some organizations to ask the people that you know and that you know are capable to do the work;  there can also be a tendency to put out the call for help in a very general and generic way and then complain when no one steps up.  Burn out can be a real issue when the same people do the same things for too long.

• The ALA  Diversity Town Meeting  is an opportunity for the ethnic affiliates and GLBT round table to report about how they are supporting their communities.  The meeting provides information about how librarians that belong to these communities or serve these communities.  It was apparent that these groups are excellent resources for materials about their communities (especially AILA and GBLT Round Table).  Many groups (especially REFORMA and AILA) continue to stress family literacy initiatives.

• Lots of discussion about the responsibility of librarians to the many groups that make up their patron communities:  How do we recruit a more diverse population of librarians?  How do we sensitively address needs of our patrons and serve their needs?
  
  
  Some ideas that might be useful:
  • At state conferences—think about a panel on diversity offering input from these groups to talk about sensitively reaching out to their communities? 
  • Be sure that school librarians serving schools with large populations from particular communities (e.g., Hispanic, African-American, Asian, Native American, GLBT) know that they can join these affiliates on behalf of their patrons even if they are not themselves members of those communities
  
  
  One nice feature of the meeting this year was lots of discussion about how to involve members and grow leadership.  Some of the ideas that resonated with me included:
  • Membership needs to be fun and members need to be engaged—many spoke about the need to provide members with opportunities to get involved in a way that is safe and increase comfort levels as they become involved—this is the best way grow leaders
  • When the same people continue to do everything, there is a risk of alienating the new members—there is a tendency in some organization to ask the people that you know and that you know are capable to do the work;  there can also be a tendency to put out the call for help in a very general and generic way and then complain when no one steps up.  Burn out can be a real issue when the same people do the same things for too long.