Monday, July 23, 2018

LBS 850 Module 9- Teaching Teachers

This week, our task was to create some professional development for teachers. I was excited for this project, as I believe it will be really useful to implement in real time when I'm back in school. This is a technology class, so I struggled with whether I had to be making up professional development that taught a form of technology or if I could teach any topic as long as I used technology. I finally settled on teaching technology because it felt like the biggest stretch for me and I want to get as much as possible out of this class. I'm proud of myself because I really wanted to do a webpage dedicated to helping teachers find diverse books and use tech tools embedded to leave mini-reviews and network about which lessons and standards they were able to meet with each. I'll tuck that idea away for another time.

We talked a ton on the discussion boards this week about how useless a lot of PD is, and I've heard this from numerous sources during my 10 years as a teacher. I'm really proud of how my district has been moving away from pointless PD- a teacher-led committee solicits ideas and sets up mini workshops for staff to choose from at the beginning of every year, but through out the year the building principal usually has the final say on individual days of PD. In general, if you can prove that what you're doing is standards-based and building professional knowledge, we're given a lot of space to make the best choices for our personal practice. I know that's not the case everywhere, so I feel really lucky.

I think, in my actual real-life practice, my best bet is going to be things I can explain via screencast and/or protocol document and then leave up on a website for teachers to access on their own time. I'll also continue to make myself available for one-on-one time helping teachers, if anyone ever has enough time to take me up on it. Meet them where they're at and give them what they need!

Monday, July 16, 2018

LBS 850 Module 8- Top Tech Tools

This week our class took a look at integrating tech into lessons for our students. The natural culmination of familiarizing ourselves with these tools is to apply them to our teaching. We were also challenged to look at the tools that are most important to us and rate our absolute top five. I'm struggling between tools I already use all the time and ones that I would like to develop my practice with, so I did a little of both.

Twitter/Instagram: My social media in the library is still developing- I post to Instagram more often and Twitter rarely, but I find this way of connecting very important and am definitely working to use it more.

Flipgrid- I'm hoping to use this tool more in the coming year. I love the idea of students making videos of 90-second book reviews.

Biblionasium- I can see this tool supporting the development of our school reading culture, which is a major goal of mine. Safe, fun, social reading community? I'm sold.

Kahoot- I've heard amazing tales of student engagement skyrocketing when using this quiz app, and I would love to get my kiddos that excited in the library!

Scratch-  This has been a goal of mine for at least half the year. This coding curriculum is already very popular at my school and these are skills that can be developed from a young age!

Monday, July 9, 2018

LBS Module 7- Social Networking and Gaming

This week we looked at games! While I found the gaming information interesting, I was really stuck on the importance of the social component for teens especially. I think it's crucial to honor what our students are doing with their time and give them tools to be safe and successful. Basically, my bottom line is that the internet is here, kids are using it, and our job as Library Media Specialists is just to train them up right. Judgement-free zone necessary because frankly librarians need to stay cool and relevant and anyone harping about "kids these days and their gaming!" is not helping our image!! Below are some resources I really like for talking about digital citizenship with kids.

Common Sense Media Digital Citizenship Curriculum
Great classroom posters here
Pause and Think Online (adorable song and video)

BrainPop Digital Citizenship Curriculum

Dot by Randi Zuckerberg, illustrated by Joe Berger

Once Upon A Time Online by David Bedford, illustrated by Rosie Reeve

But I Read It On the Internet! by Toni Buzzeo, illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa

The Pirates of Plagiarism by Lisa Downey, illustrated by Kathleen Fox