TheGuybrarian

I can't believe I'm going to write this . . .

2011-05-24T20:15:00.000-07:00

I think I'm over Non-Fiction books. I honestly can't see a use for them in 5 years. Now I know that this is probably a pretty unpopular opinion out there in the world. But just hear me out. Yes, I'll give you that there is just something about the feel of a book in your hands. I cannot argue that, and that is why I'm only saying this about Non-Fiction. The primary purpose of the Reference/Biography/Non-Fiction section is research. Yes, there are students who check out these books to learn for pleasure, but they are few and far between. I can think of three students in my school of 300+ who consistently check out Non-Fiction books. All other patrons are in those sections for purpose only; the purpose of fulfilling a teachers' need. Now, my problem with this is these students need up to date research that can attract them and be user friendly. The books on my shelves are neither. Think about how long it takes a book like that to reach my shelves from the author handing it off to a publisher. About a year. That means the information is out-of-date when it gets to me. No matter how "new" or whatever you call it; I can search it online and find more up-to-date information than that book has. Plus I can find videos and more images than that book can ever contain. Plus, have you seen what a kindle, your iPhone, or any computer can do with an e-book? It has out of this world research possibilities. You can be looking at a book that has links built into it, while connecting to the link in a browser, while using the built in dictionary to find unfamiliar terms, while using the search function to locate only the sections you need. It definitely makes me sad I got my undergrad when I did. I would have been unstoppable and efficient back in the day. But all of this brings me back to my original point; I don't see how we can justify continuing to pay the same price for a book that will get worn down or unused. There will be a tipping point sometime soon, and while I still don't think that will change anything about the fiction collection, the Non-Fiction section may have met its match this time around.

Pro/Con.org

2011-05-24T19:58:00.000-07:00

Pro/Con Website
As an information specialist I am often asked to gather resources to support teachers in their instruction of a difficult unit or topic. When the sixth and seventh grade teachers got together with me this year to discuss their upcoming projects on debating, I was left wondering what I could get my hands on to help them. Obviously, I began by searching the print library to see if there was anything of use for a debate in 2011. While we did have some materials, I came to a tough realization that I will talk about in my next blog. This led me to look at our digital resources. ECSD has an extensive collection of electronic resources available to them thanks to the selections by our District Library Media Coordinator. However, I found it difficult to find any peer-reviewed argument and looking at two sides of an issue sites. EBSCO host has one but it is only funded through the high schools; additionally this site is geared a bit high for middle school. So this left me in an obvious conundrum. I needed a better resource for my teachers to help their students succeed in this learning target. I did have resources, but they are better suited for gaining background knowledge, not digging into the hear of issues. That was when my master teacher, Mary Liebl, told me about a site she had used once called Pro/Con.org This site has it all. From interesting topics, they have 42 currently, to a rating system for the "experts" it has on its site. I have recommended this site to other media specialists and all have found it highly useful. It is a free, peer reviewed, site that is geared towards students researching topics for debates. There are Youtube videos, ways to get in touch with authors and creators, excellent citations and links to official studies that raise the interest level and usability all the way to college. This website has it all.

NWEA

2011-05-24T19:39:00.000-07:00

So the last 2 weeks have been a non-stop NWEA proctor-fest. There was a time where I would have been nothing but relieved to have multiple days sitting and proctoring; but not now. In our library there has not been an inventory done in a looooooooong time, which leaves the responsibility to me. Don't get me wrong, I'm finding this fascinating as I've never done one of these all the way before. But back to the thesis; NWEA is killing my ability to get the inventory finalized. I've got 69.87% of my inventory done, but that last 30% is causing me headaches because I've already scanned EVERY book that is physically in the library. So what that means is that I have a lot "treasure hunting" to do in these last 9 days of school. And by the way, 9 days is not enough; because that 30% is roughly 5,000 items. Wow. Wow. Wow. However, having watched several of these NWEA tests in all 3 disciplines now, I must say that I think this test is something else. The fact that it is able to essentially differentiate itself to each individual test-taker is quite impressive. And I have to say that I have yet to be surprised by a score at all. When I have recorded benchmark scores in the past I have noticed major discrepancies in both the month-to-month individual scores and some of the single scores I have seen that are completely not indicative of the students' ability. NWEA is a program that, while I do not support the quantity of testing students today have, challenges appropriately and provides, what appears to be, solid data that truly values the students abilities in a given subject. Additionally, there is the matter of the time limit, I have seen students get bad scores for moving too quickly, and I have very rarely seen a student that put in multiple hours on the test not be rewarded. However, it does lead to the idea that we have students (approximately 20%) that are spending at least 2 hours on this test. And we do this for 3 weeks. That is quite a bit of a load on the brain stress-wise and normal workload-wise.

Unique Perspective

2011-05-09T17:35:00.000-07:00

So as I'm thinking about how to submit all of my work for this grant; I'm left wondering if I'll have to reinvent the wheel, again. For this class I created an entirely new curriculum that I modified and worked through this year that is now a sleek and sexy curriculum that is both doable for the student that walks into my class with a tech background as well as for the student who comes to me with nothing. I guess my big question is, does my current curriculum meet the standards of this grant? I've developed both a server based syllabus location and a Google webpage for at home viewing. What I'm looking at here is the fact that my class isn't really a lesson 1,2, 3, etc. My class is somewhere that all the work for the trimester is given at the beginning of the term and students are expected to work independently on each project until all 7 have been completed. This makes the whole "unit" idea very troubling. My "unit" is actually my curriculum. I suppose that you could say I have an Office unit and a "separate tools" unit, but I view this curriculum as something that does not build on itself too much. Granted, it would help to do the Word section before the Power Point because there is some word processing involved in Power Point, but with my Jing videos, examples, and rubrics I have not had a student have any problems solving my 7 challenges while doing them in whatever order they wish. My question is, what do I need to modify in my course to make it fit into the requirements for this grant? Do the documents the students see count as my lesson? I guess not because there are no standards on them . . .

So why do we pay for them?

2011-05-09T16:58:00.000-07:00

Recently, I have found myself in a bit of a quandary when it comes to accessing the electronic resources that the district subscribes to. Were it not for the librarians in the building would anyone really use WorldBook Online? How about Marshall Cavendish Digital? Oh, wait, you don't even know what the second one is? Hmmm, maybe that is due to the fact that you are a "Google'er" or a faithful disciple of Wikipedia? Don't get me wrong, both of these sites have their positives. But when doing research on a topic for an academic presentation, they make your life a lot more difficult to cite and ensure credibility. My main question is, why is the district not "forcing" these resources on teachers? All that seems to ever happen is during the "Motivation and Engagement" seminars the district will trot someone out there who tells you how wonderful these sites are and then you never hear about them until the next August. Am I the only one who feels that this is both a waste of our tax dollars and extremely ineffective? I went to a training this year on one of our databases where I was the only person in the room! Does that mean that all teachers in the county feel confident to use our databases? I think not, I've worked with many a teacher who doesn't even know how to get onto their schools' library webpage where these resources can be accessed! I don't blame the teacher here because they have enough on their plates; but at the same time shouldn't they be inquiring about these resources they have been hearing about each August? The beauty of these sites is how easy they make researching for students. So, why wouldn't everyone be using them? If we are here to promote how much of a 21st century district we are, then why are we still letting our students and teachers use what is essentially an almanac for research papers? Because its just easier, that's why. We as adults have become too comfortable in our usage of Google to ever stop using it; I myself must admit that whenever I need a fast answer that's where I go. However, if you re-read that last sentence carefully, you'll see that I only use it when I need a quick answer. When I do research now, my first place to go is the BCMS library webpage where I can find peer-reviewed resources that also provide a pre-made citation. After all, why wouldn't I?

Wait, Twitter did that?

2011-05-09T16:48:00.000-07:00

Civil War on Twitter
Recently, during the lead-up to the Civil War anniversary, Twitter did something that, to me, is extremely useful and outside of the box type thinking. A historian created an account where he was going to use the actual dates and people associated with major events of the times leading up to the Civil War and tweet as if they were happening real-time. I can't imagine a better use of Twitter for educational value than this. The fact that we had someone who had studied this period in history and then wrote about it as if it were happening today is just so cool!
When I think about Twitter and its primary use in this world (allowing people that most of us really don't care about to describe their most intimate experiences at Starbucks.) I find myself stunned to see such a practical and educationally appropriate use for this tool. Now don't get me wrong, I do have a Twitter feed of my own, but just like my status update on Facebook, it never gets used. However, a feed like this could be used as a daily warmup activity for students in a Social Studies class to determine what important event happened on this day and how might people have felt during this time. To me, this is a great way to use Twitter; instead of making it all about yourself, use it to teach others about themselves and create a connection to history.

The Complexities of Creating a Tech Curriculum from Scratch

2011-05-04T16:09:00.000-07:00

     This has been something that has caused me a great deal of time and stress this school year. When the year began, I was told I would be teaching technology to 6th and 7th graders. "Great," I said, so what foundation has been laid that I can modify to meet my skills? Then I found out that there were none. The previous teacher had not had a curriculum that the students worked from. This caused a great deal of stress for my beginning of the year. Having never explicitly taught technology I was worried about the realization that this curriculum would come exclusively from me. However, I was given the opportunity to join the E2T2 grant and this provided me with a framework for what and how I could create the class' work.
     Through this class I was introduced, in greater detail, to the world of ISTE and its resources in helping build curriculum and skills that students would need to succeed in the future world. So, I began the journey of creating a full trimester worth of assignments that my students could create and use to show a beginning level of computer competency. The first trimester was somewhat successful, but there were major problems in some of my assignments. Whether it was sentence agreements, or answers that were taken off the databases, or assignments that did not make sense I began the process of editing and "bettering" my curriculum. I found after the second trimester that there were fewer changes to make, but the changes were more profound. In this round of editing, questions were asked in more detail, questions required a deeper search using online resources and the skills necessary to complete the assignments were ramped up a bit. I began to create lessons that required students to search the help and use online tools to help them with the software; just like I would do if I were learning on my own.
     In the end I feel that my current curriculum is streamlined and very user friendly. This trimester I have not had hardly any questions from my students concerning how to do any of the projects. With the combination of the rubrics, explanations, examples and jing videos my students have had great success in working independently this trimester.

Xtra-Normal

2011-05-04T14:26:00.000-07:00

     For a final assessment in my second tri class I chose to add an xtranormal project that required the students to teach me about one of my other assignments. This project was very enriching and really seemed to bring about a higher level of thinking in the students. You can view the details of the project here. Through having to create a somewhat realistic conversation between two people discussing how to do a project in my class the students were able to better connect to some of the minutia that the software has available in it. When I gave an informal verbal assessment to some of my students I found that those that reached the final project in my class (and completed it) were far more advanced in telling me about the features of certain software than those who just completed the basic project. I think this all comes back to the old belief that you never really learn something well until you've taught someone else to do it. This project was intended to do just that, teach someone else how to perform the steps needed to complete a project.
     While I do feel that this web tool is very valuable it doesn't come without some sort of drawbacks. The server sometimes can be painfully slow to save or publish the movie that has been created. Without putting money into an account the students cannot publish their work to the web. Finally, the subtle hand, face, and body motions that could really provide students with a way to create non-verbal expressions to amplify their teaching points do not really work that well. Unless the character is told to raise a hand or some other obvious motion, nothing really shows up in the final film.
     All in all I would give this website a big thumbs up, but just be ready for some small frustrations.

Wait, is this the 21st Century?

2011-05-04T14:11:00.000-07:00

So I found out recently that not only will I be working somewhere that will not offer technology as a class but there will only be 2 certified librarian working in the libraries. I was under the impression that in this day and age computers were the focal point of preparing students for the future work force. I guess I am mistaken. It is extremely disheartening to know that in no elementary schools will there be someone with training to help inspire a love of reading. Don't get me wrong, the classroom teacher comes first and foremost in inspiring these students with a love of reading, but isn't the library the place where many of us remember going as young children and being exposed to new stories and ideas? Now I do agree with the argument that almost anyone who can read in voices and display a passion for reading can help this process along, but the school librarian has morphed into so much more. They are not just there for books anymore, but for helping with research and information literacy. A part of me worries that when these students get to their secondary years they will truly believe that google and wikipedia are the only places on the internet to get answers to questions. And I agree, they are good sites, but what are they really beyond a fancy almanac? You wouldn't use an almanac to write a research paper, so why would you use google or think it is ok to teach students to use it? Either way, it is a sad day for our educational field in general. Librarians are the glue that bonds students, teachers, and proper research techniques. (I'm not saying that all teachers are bad researchers, but ask yourself this . . . Where can you find peer reviewed literature at either your public library or local school district?)

No Tech In Eagle County?

2011-05-04T12:19:00.000-07:00

So I've just found out that I will no longer be teaching technology in our building. Actually, I discovered that no one will be teaching "technology" in Eagle County. I understand that this is a budgetary issue, and I fully understand, but it seems a bit sketchy to me. I've helped numerous teachers with tasks on their computers that could only be described as "entry level". How exactly are these teachers, and I'm only referring to some of them here, supposed to properly instruct students in the ways of the computer when they themselves would barely rate Partially Proficient? It seems to me that many of our students will be lacking in their 21st century skills unless they are paired with a teacher that excels at them.
Additionally, who is ensuring that our students learn to type correctly? Will Coloradans in the future be able to distinguish Eagle County students from other students due to their expert abilities at the "hunt and peck" method? Again, I know and understand that that this is simply a financial matter, but I worry about what will happen when the economy improves? I've had veteran teachers tell me that once something is off the table of funding, it is very difficult to get it brought back. Will it be the same with Technology instruction?

Engaging in Self-Directed Activity

2010-12-03T13:08:00.000-08:00

In order for students to be engaged and interested in a self-directed activity they need to see need and have ownership of the work they are doing. The problem with this concept is how to make students find something in our state curriculum that they feel "needs" to be learned and then incorporate it into the districts standards for our pay for performance model. Somehow you need to get students to find a part of our/their curriculum that they feel a personal connection to. After all, if Gmail was created during this "free choice time" didn't the creator obviously feel a personal connection to the content he/she was working on? So the problem becomes how to make individuals that may not be naturally curious/studious work on a project/idea that will allow them to learn the necessary material but also allow them to build something new that they feel a personal interest and connection to.
What does it look like in MY classroom?
In my classroom, Technology Basics Class, there is some of this but I have set parameters that give them a focused topic. The students go online and get their assignment off the server and also while there they can see a rubric and examples of what this assignment is. Other than the broad "skeleton" I have given them, they are free to create something of their own design. My main objective is to ensure that they learn the proper ways to format and use the features of the software. Where they get the opportunity to be autonomous is in the content/subject matter of the material. They can learn about anything they wish and then take that information and put it into the "skeleton" I have given them for using the particular software.
I feel this gives them some autonomy but my question is, "Would they even bother to use the software without my direction?" My students know they aren't creating the next Gmail with their work so why/how exactly do I get them to have the desire to work inside this software with the goal being to create a project that incorporates new learning and fuels a natural curiosity in them?

E2T2 Class Number 1

2010-10-27T13:55:00.000-07:00

New learning, for me, was slightly limited today. As a media specialist collaboration is a key component of my "education world". However, there was some interesting conversation today that led me to some new and interesting learning.
I have used Wikispaces in my classroom previously and feel very comfortable in a digital world. However, I would consider the discussion concerning “bytes” to be interesting new information, 44 exabytes per month as the internet traffic is a large quantity of information. How much data is that? Especially when you consider that 5 exabytes is equivalent all words ever spoken by human beings . . . ever. I believe I did a good job because I participated when necessary, I moved at my own pace when the objective of “cutting our teeth” was stated and I was able to accomplish the targeted learning.