ITES Activity 3 by Joanna Pendleton

For those who used to read this blog, and this might pop up on your Feed Reader... This is an activity for a class I am taking on the NC Essential Standards for Information and Technology.  I will be linking the IT Essential Standards for 5th grade to the Science Essential Standards for 5th grade.  If you're not an educator (or even if you are), you may just want to bypass this one. I won't make any promises about posting anything else, but maybe you'll hear from me again before another two years pass. Who knows?

1. Sources of Information
• ITES: Use various sources of information to complete a task, making sure that the resources chosen are relevant and reliable.
• Science Connection: A teacher could assign research on any one of the science standards and require students to use resources.  Since the Science Essential Standards are supposed to be inquiry-based, students might even be asked to come up with their own questions to answer using different resources available to them.  Science Standards that would lend themselves well to research using print and non-print resources would be:
• 5.P.2.1 - water cycle
• 5.E.1.3 - global weather patterns
• 5.L.1.2 - human body systems
• 5.L.2.1 - comparing ecosystems
2. Informational Text
• ITES: Use appropriate and differentiated strategies to read information in a variety of formats and genres.
• Science Connection: Again, the ITES objectives would best be met in the context of a research assignment. See above for Science Standards that would be best for research.
3. Technology as a Tool
• ITES: Use technology tools to gather, organize, and present information.
• Science Connection: In addition to using technology tools within the context of a research project as mentioned in previous points, technology would be a great tool to use for some of the other Science Standards as well:
• 5.P.1: Force & Motion -- Students can watch demonstrations and experiments online or using the Discovery Education Techbook, making predictions as they go with the teacher facilitating discussions. Students can also create a graph using any number of technology tools (5.P.1.3).
• 5.P.3: Heating & Cooling Matter -- This standard requires the students to explain the effects of heating and cooling. After conducting investigations, students can use technology tools to create and publish their explanations to demonstrate understanding.
• 5.E.1: Weather Patterns -- Technology is an absolutely essential tool for students to be able to collect and compare weather data so that they can make predictions.
• ALL: Really, technology could be used as a tool in teaching any standard. With so many ways for students to gather, organize, and present information using technology, the possibilities are endless. I would say that for this IT Standard, the teacher should just be careful to make the use of technology as authentic and practical as possible. For example, students need not be required to type lab notes when a pencil would be just as effective. BUT if the students are to explain a concept, the teacher may wish to have a student create an informational blog post so that he or she can receive some authentic feedback.
4. Research Process
• ITES: In 5th grade, students need to be able to carry out a research process in collaboration with others.
• Science Connection: See IT Standards 1 and 2 for a list of Science Standards that could be taught well within a research project context.  In order to encourage collaboration, many of these standards could be broken up and each student or group assigned a small piece of the objective. When students present their work to one another (hopefully using technology tools that would encourage authentic feedback), they can be held responsible for what is being presented as well.
5. Safety and Ethical Issues
• ITES: In 5th grade, students should understand how to be responsible with hardware, how to use information ethically, and how to be safe on the internet.
• Science Connection: For any published research (written, posted, etc.), students will need to understand the IT SE Standard.  See IT Standards 1 and 2 for Science Standards that could be used well in a research project setting.  Again though, this standard could apply to any Science Standard in which technology or information could be used -- practically all!

School Libraries May Soon Be History?

The Rhino Times recently published an article about school libraries. Several folks came up to me to ask about the situation for school libraries after reading the article. You can read the article, my response to the article, and the author's response to my response here.

Learning from Librarians

A couple of weekends ago, I headed out of town for the 4th Annual Librarian to Librarian Networking Summit at East Carolina University. (Cute yet sarcastic comment from dad-in-law: "A librarian conference three hours away on a Saturday? That sounds exciting.") Although I wasn't quite sure what to expect, I came back with some great new ideas to try, and I was extremely impressed with the event itself. If you're in the library field and have a chance to go next year, take the opportunity if you can. Nothing beats hearing what works from your own colleagues, and lunch was really good.

Why I recommend the event:

• attention to detail: Everything from registration to scheduling to lunch was planned and executed in a smooth, effective, efficient manner. Anyone who has ever been to any number of professional conferences knows that this is not often the case.
• schedule: I left Durham at 6:00 a.m. to be in Greenville on time, so I was about ready to leave when the summit ended around 3:30. Even so, since the event was about the length of a school day with a nice lunch break to boot, I didn't feel exhausted or overloaded, but it was still worth the drive.
• speakers: Most of the speakers were either media specialists from North Carolina or media-friendly folk from the NC Department of Public Instruction. I always want to hear what works for other media specialists above anyone else, so I loved the fact that most of the small session speakers were my colleagues. The featured speakers were an author (Michael Dahl - not incredibly well-known, but solid) and Ann Martin, the president (!) of AASL, so that was a treat too.
• price: You can't beat it for $25. The summit coordinators did a great job of getting sponsors for the event to reduce costs for participants. Lunch, breakfast, and snacks were provided in abundance, and we got all kinds of great free stuff, including a book by the featured author and the ubiquitous "conference bag" to add to the collection.

What I brought back home:

• Suggestion Box: I know this is kind of a "No, duh" thing probably for many of my colleagues, but I'm pretty new, and I don't have a Suggestion Box in my library yet. But I will now. And I even created a Virtual Suggestion Box on the media center web page.
• staff development plan: February, being Black History Month, tends to be my biggest month in the media center for research projects. I am in the process of planning a short staff development session for the 4th and 5th grade teaching teams that will include the topics of research process, avoiding plagiarism, research projects that discourage plagiarism by their very nature, evaluating web sites, why Wikipedia is not an authoritative source, etc. And I can also advertise myself as a wonderful collaborative partner for research projects and share my African American History pathfinder for our library materials. Should be fun!
• leadership frames: Ann Martin talked about four frames for leadership (structural, human resource, political, and symbolic) and how to incorporate each when leading and advocating for the media department. Hopefully, some of these ways of thinking will bring some clarity to what I say about the program.

Next year, maybe I'll be a presenter. I am really having a good time with my media crew kids at school this year, and I think it might be a cool idea to share. Our school is pretty unique regarding how we run clubs, and the kids are just having a blast and learning a ton.

For those new to the library field (like me!) or maybe working toward the field, my top piece of advice is to participate in professional learning whenever possible. It may take some time, travel, and sometimes (sigh) money out of your own pocket, but it's so worth everything! So go ahead and be a big library geek; you won't regret it.

New Frontiers for 2009

I have several new ideas going for 2009, both on my own and professionally. January through March will be the final sprint towards finishing my National Boards Portfolio, but I'm hoping it won't be an all-consuming endeavor. Here are a few other things I'd like to be working on:

1. Diving into Podcasting, Albeit Slowly

As of yesterday, I have a podcast over at 1ytb.blogspot.com. At my church, we are all reading through the Bible in one year, according to The One Year Bible plan. So, I'm podcasting the readings for each day. I looked around for some podcasts by others doing the same thing, and most of the ones I found were pretty heavy on the commentary. Mine is just straight up Bible passages. So, it's less like a podcast and more like an audio book I guess.

2. Continuing with Web 2.0 Student Use

I'm so proud of my kids at school for really stepping out and trying new things this year! I am able to have a special club of children in each grade level 3rd through 5th, and these guys are awesome. My fourth graders are writing and photographing for their very own news blog called What's Roaring, Tigers? In 2009, my goal is to help them publicize the blog so that we can reach a wider audience and maybe get some comments from people outside our school community.

3. Ironing Out the Snags for Video Editing

Our school was blessed this year to be able to purchase a new digital camcorder. Thus far, my fifth grade club has been producing weekly TV Shows using photographs, clip art, and audio files in Windows Movie Maker. You can see a couple of their shows here. With the new camcorder, we should be able to incorporate some live action as well, which will be exciting. However, Tech Services is having to work with me on being able to download the videos from the camcorder and edit them effectively. Restrictions on the computers are making things a little weird.

2009 should be a great year for new advances for me and for my media program at school. I'm excited to see how it will turn out!

Huge Update and Excuses Post

I know the point of blogging is to do it regularly and not just come back every couple of months with a huge and overwhelming update and excuses for why I haven't posted lately. That being said, here comes your huge and overwhelming update and excuses from me, hopefully within the realm of subjects covered by this blog, such as librarianship and organization.

Here's the result of our October home project, which was basically carving a pumpkin:


We also planted pansies and ornamental cabbage (which, as it turns out, is the only other thing besides pansies that survives the winter), but I don't have pictures because the leaves all fell down this weekend, and the yard is therefore unsightly.

During the last couple of days of October, I was able to attend the North Carolina School Library Media Association Conference in Winston-Salem. I wasn't as excited about this conference as I have been in years past, and I wish now that I had worked up a presentation on my rockin' media schedule that includes time for kids to choose projects like a news blog and a TV show to work on during the school week. It probably would have been way more interesting than some of the ones I went to. And now, I have to wait until 2010 to do it because next year, we're all going to the ALA Conference instead, since it's in Charlotte.

A couple of highlights of the conference were meeting authors:

Joyce Moyer Hostetter talked about her book Blue, which I loved, and she gave a little preview of the sequel coming out in May called Comfort. If you have an interest at all in WWII-era historical fiction or just in a really wonderful piece of North Caroline literature, I recommend Blue. But read it in private because you'll cry big ugly tears. And the symbolism rocks, just as a side note from someone who loves to see figurative language used well in children's literature.

Author-illustrator Melanie Watt is just the cutest shy little French Canadian ever. She talked about her book Scaredy Squirrel, which was a smash hit with the kids last year. And again, the book was a decent metaphor or allegory or something cool like that.

Ok, now completely off the topic of anything blog-related, here is one of my recent fun trips:

A week ago, Ty and I drove up to Stone Mountain, NC, for our autumn hike. We were sore for a few days afterward, but it was worth it.

And with all of those marvelous things under my belt for October and November, I am now moving into Christmas gifting mode. I'm trying to make a bunch of gifts this year, so I'll try to keep a photo log of it all and post after Christmas, so as not to ruin any surprises. Suffice it to say, I will have to have very busy fingers for the next few weeks.

Good luck to all the NaNoWriMo-ers out there! Sometime, I might try to write a children's book in November, but not until I get a good idea for one. :)

Best School Year Evvvaaar

My Top Ten Reasons Why 2008-2009 Will Be the Best School Year Ever:

10. I have my MLIS degree finished, so I'm getting paid appropriately to do what I do.

9. I'm going for my National Board Certification this year. This may not end up being my favorite professional development task ever in the world, but people are coming out of the woodwork to support me as I work, and I think the process will be beneficial. (Plus, I get a big pay boost when and if I pass.)

8. I think maybe I'm getting a budget to order books and equipment. Hope has diminished somewhat since the summer, but there's still enough left for me to persevere in asking/begging/advocating for money for the media program.

7. My assistant is nice, helpful, and willing to learn new things.

6. The specialists are working well as a team. With the exception of some minor drama, we are unified and pretty much rocking out.

5. I really like my administration. They have the power to make or break a school, and we are blessed at my school.

4. I have tweaked the schedule to near finality, and although it's not perfect, it does mean that I have very few periods where I see two classes at once, and I even have some flex time for collaboration and various media-related endeavors.

3. We are starting a cool thing with our specials schedule (enrichment stuff like art, music, PE) where the kids get to choose a club to go to once a week during the school day. Clubs are supervised by specialists. This will be such a marvelous opportunity for the kids, and a great time for me to work with some special small groups of students. This is an innovative plan that I want to present at a conference next year if it works out.

2. We have a new Tech Facilitator! Yay! We are one of the only elementary schools in Guilford County to have a full-time certified technology teacher. (Who knows why though... I think it's absolutely essential!) In addition to enjoying a wonderful new partner in crime, this also means I no longer have to take care of technological problems in the school building, which means more time for media and literacy, which makes me inordinately happy.

1. My job is great every year, but never have I been so full of hope for innovation and creativity and exciting change happening in my school.

Advice for Media Specialists

I don't know how many media specialists (or school librarians) actually read my blog, but since school is starting soon, I thought I'd do a quick post on advice for beginning media specialists. I started in my media center a mere two years ago. I was blessed to have no precedent to uphold, since my school had been without a media specialist the previous year before I came, and I have had a very successful two years. But certainly, there are things I wish I had known when I started, or learned quickly after I started.

If you are just starting out in a media center, here are some things (in chronological order) that I would suggest you do:

• Know your purpose and your mission as a media specialist, and let that be the measure for all that you do.
  
• Make friends with the office staff, including secretator (not a typo), treasurer, and SIMS operator. You will need their help, and it will be sooner rather than later.
• Make friends with your custodian.
  
• Make friends with your administration.
• Make friends with your school-level and district-level technology coordinators.
• Do something to make the physical space your own. (Move furniture; add decorations; just do something to make it different than it was before you arrived.)
• If possible, take the summer before starting in your position to assess the collection and move it around on the shelves if necessary.
• If you are lucky enough to have an assistant, train her or him immediately, well, and thoroughly. Do not assume anything.
• Find a buddy who is a media specialist in your district, preferably close by. Media specialists can have a very lonely job since there is usually only one per building, and it's hard to learn the specifics with no other media specialist to help you.
  
• Start with a clean slate for patrons (both students and teachers), especially if the media program was previously a little fishy, as it was in my case. You don't want to fight a battle that someone else started because you really don't know who was right in the situation.
• Make sure you have policies and procedures in place for students on the very first day that they come to the media center. They will not automatically know how to act. You will have to teach them explicitly, no matter the grade level, which means you will have to know and explain exactly what you want.
• If you teach classes regularly, make seating charts. Kids like and need to know exactly what to do, and it will help you learn their names quickly.
• As soon as possible, begin analyzing your collection, weeding regularly, and coming up with a long-term collection development plan focusing on different parts of the collection every year for five years. (I'll cover this more later and give some of my favorite techniques.)
• Present a budget to your principal or Leadership Team as soon as possible. Try to gain access to data concerning how much was spent in previous years, average county or state spending for media centers, etc.
• Be friendly and inviting to everyone on staff. Although a media specialist can sometimes be lonely, you also have the advantage of being politically neutral in most cases, which can be of great benefit and definitely where you want to be in order to help everyone and get their cooperation in return.
• Go to all of the district-level media specialist meetings, even the optional ones. Network, network, network. Who knows when you'll need something that someone else is giving away?
• In the same way, go to conferences (and join professional organizations). You do have time, and it is worth the effort. Get re-charged, meet some authors, network, and bring back fabulous ideas.
• Get on your Leadership Team as soon as possible. You are the representative for the media department, and you need to be a school leader in order to be effective.
  
• Don't stress. It's your first year, and you can't do it all. Just keep track of all your great ideas, and look forward to implementing them in years to come.

Any other ideas from those in the field? Personally, I am looking forward to a fantastic new school year! I'm no longer the new kid, so now I can start really having some fun.