Guest Post: Voice is Power: Are You Using Yours?

Summertime immediately brings to mind the raspy, soulful voice of Janis Joplin, sleeping in, and sand between my toes.  In reality, though, summertime is a flurry of professional development sessions, educational conferences, lesson planning, and connecting with other educators.

http://www.imaginelearning.com/blog/2012/06/teacher-pd-that-wont-interrupt-your-rr/

This summer I attended four conferences, five professional development sessions, one 3 day workshop, moved, visited my new granddaughter in Kansas, got married, went on my honeymoon, and started a new job and I have loved every minute of the non stop action!  

As a connected educator, cofounder of EdCamp Atlanta, a “groupie” of all things EdCamp, a blogger, and a Twitterholic, I take for granted the fact that I speak up and contribute to educational conversations on a regular basis.  But many educators do not feel comfortable following suit, and this is a problem.  It is a problem because if we fail to speak up then who is doing the speaking for us?

Quote by Vickie Davis (aka: Cool Cat Teacher) Photo: http://bit.ly/14zotzp

It is a problem because if we fail to speak up, connect, share, and learn from others how are we going to continue to grow professionally?  Is passively waiting for our school district to provide us with timely, relevant, professional development good enough?  Do YOU want to be just “good enough”?

At one of the conferences I attended this summer the failure to speak up and it’s consequences became glaringly and embarrassingly obvious.  An amazing speaker had just finished talking about the importance of making our voices heard and how each one of us has a story to tell.  Immediately following this riveting speech that received a standing ovation the conference transitioned into a SmackDown session.  For those of you not familiar with a SmackDown session it is one of my favorite things!  During a SmackDown everyone in attendance is encouraged to come up to the microphone and share, in two minutes or less, an app, website, lesson, etc., that they used or discovered that year.  There is usually a long line of people waiting to share their great finds and often a cut off point is determined by the moderator of the SmackDown.  It is fast, energetic, exciting, and you learn a lot of new, cool things in just a small amount of time.

http://careerteacher.wordpress.com/2012/05/22/ed-camp/

At this particular conference for school librarians, however, no one shared during the SmackDown session.  

NO ONE.   

Yes…. NO ONE.  

As moderator, I and a few board members modeled how a SmackDown works.  I then encouraged the attendees to share some of their great tidbits.  

NO ONE.  

I encouraged attendees, saying, “Certainly everyone here has at least one thing they did in their library this year that they can share (big smiley face)”.  

NO ONE.

http://1realimagination.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/empty-stage/

I was aghast at the deathly silence that engulfed the room filled with school librarians from around the state.  Librarians who had earlier expressed grave concerns about zero funding of their libraries for the last nine years.  Librarians who had just lamented the firing of all school library aides throughout the state.  Librarians who recounted horror stories of school districts that had received waivers from the state department to do away with having a school library at all.  Yet, these same librarians couldn’t find even one thing to share during the SmackDown session at a conference for and about school librarians.  

If this group of school librarians couldn’t think of anything worth sharing with others in their field is it any wonder that the state legislators don’t see school libraries as valuable enough to fund?  

If this group of school librarians couldn’t think of anything worth sharing with others in their field is it any wonder that principals and superintendents don’t allocate local resources to help fund their school libraries?

If this group of school librarians couldn’t think of anything worth sharing with others in their field is it any wonder that administrators don’t see libraries as valuable enough to even have at their schools?

At another conference later in the summer I asked a librarian friend of mine who was there that fateful, silent day, why she had not shared during the SmackDown.  Her reason for not sharing was that the other librarians in her district were jealous of her and “bullied” her when ever she spoke up about anything so now she just keeps her mouth shut.  Seriously???  She was “mean-girled” into silence by other librarians?

http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/712017-mean-girls

This time I was silent.  I simply couldn’t think of anything to say in response.

Now that I have had time to recover from the shock, this is what I want my friend and all the other librarians to know:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. ~ Marianne Williamson

I challenge you, whether you are a school librarian, teacher, administrator, Instructional Technology Coordinator/Facilitator, Superintendent, etc., to share.

SHARE. SHARE. SHARE.  

Your voice matters!  

You matter!

I also challenge you to ask yourself this question:  

Have I done, taught, discovered anything today, this week, this year, that is of value in my school, in my classroom, in my library, in my district that is worthy of sharing with others?  

If your answer to this question is no… turn in your letter of resignation.  You are hurting the rest of us and more importantly you are hurting children.

Yes. Speaking out and sharing is scary. What if people don’t like what you have to say? What if someone criticizes your blog? What if you sound stupid?  What if you aren’t as great as someone else?  The stakes in education are too high for the barrage of negative “What ifs” we cripple ourselves with and our students are too valuable for us to cheat them by giving into the fear that the negative “What if’s” bring.

http://cynicalbabblings.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/the-no-free-lunch-principle/

If nothing else in this post has yet convinced you of the power of and importance of your voice, please watch the video, Obvious To You-Amazing To Others by Derek Sivers.  It does a great job explaining why you should share.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nikki D. Robertson

EdCamp Atlanta Co Founder

#TLChat LIVE! Moderator

TL News Night Producer/Anchor

http://about.me/NikkiDRobertson

Guest Post: 5 Things Your Library is Trying to Tell You

When I stepped into my role as an elementary school librarian in my current school last year, I was in
awe. The library had been completely rebuilt from the ground up and stocked with brand new books.
I had worked at this school a few years before and the transformation was absolutely astounding. As
I spent more and more time in my new “home”, it became apparent that as nice and updated as this
space was, there was still some room for improvement. As the months rolled by, my library began to reveal to me five important things I would absolutely need in order to keep my students engaged and
falling in love with books.

You Need To Know Your Collection
While almost every book in the library was brand new, I noticed that our fiction and biography
sections  were lacking. While we had books in these areas, there definitely wasn’t enough. Most of the books in the biography section were on a level way above what my students could read without difficulty. My school serves students in K-2, so it became imperative to find books they could actually use. I found several books in our collection that were appropriate, so I made sure to shop from those publishers to beef up our collection in these areas. The process is still ongoing, but we’re headed in the right direction.

You Need To Use What You Have
I also noticed a wireless barcode scanner tucked away in a cabinet that had never been used by the
previous librarian. I got our district technology coordinator to connect it properly for me and it makes
inventory a breeze. There were also a ton of literacy center games that had never been used. I dug
those out and put them to work. What I discovered in my new library was that we already had a ton of
resources but they were doing nobody any good tucked away in cabinets. See what you have and if it’s not what you want, think of how you could use your resources in a different way.

You Need To Step It Up
When I first started as a librarian years ago, my main job was merely checking out books and keeping a class quiet. Gone are the days when this was the norm in school libraries. My library is a hub of learning and a visitor walking in might mistake it for a regular classroom because of the energy inside. I know that in order to keep this momentum of learning going, I have to stay in a constant state of learning myself. This spring I took three online classes that have taught me some new ways of teaching my students. I would also encourage you to join online learning communities for librarians and get digitally connected with your peers. I read a ton of blogs written by librarians just like me and connect with several of these librarians on Twitter and Facebook. I love to see how others are doing things in their own libraries and gather new ideas to try in my own.

You Need to Go All Out

This was the first year that I went “all out” for my school library. We held a reading fair, a book fair, and had a fun-filled week of celebrating Read Across America. Was it a lot of extra work? Absolutely. Was it worth it? Absolutely. I am fortunate enough to work with some really great people who are always ready to lend a helping hand when it comes to extra projects and events. These events got the students so excited about books and reading and had them literally begging for more. I’m already thinking ahead for this next school year to make these events even better.

You Need To Take Risks

As I’m challenging myself to stay current on library trends and professional development, I also had an 

experience this year that taught me to take risks for my library. I had never held a school wide book fair in my years as a librarian. My principal encouraged me to give it a try this year, and although I was really apprehensive about our school meeting our goal, we did it. I’ve never seen my students so excited about books and experiencing their enthusiasm for reading during book fair week was an amazing thing. You see, I work in the Mississippi Delta where poverty is very high. I wasn’t too sure my students could afford some of the books that we would be selling. However, the parents were so supportive and Scholastic worked with me to provide my students a small book fair on an affordable level. My students and co-workers purchased so much that they made it possible for our school to receive over $800 in new books. As soon as it was over, the kids were asking when the next book fair would take place. I’m so glad I gave this a chance.

As I’m looking ahead to the start of a new school year in just a few short weeks, I’ll be keeping these things in mind as I prepare for the arrival of my students. Take a look around and see if your library is

trying to tell you something, too.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mandy Zuniga is an elementary school librarian at H. M. Nailor I.B. World School in Cleveland, MS. She blogs at http://www.readwritemom.com.

Guest Post: Build Your PLN This Summer Via Podcasts

Summer is the perfect time to reflect on the past year and learn new strategies for the coming year.  One way to do this is by building your PLN…personal learning network.  Teaching can be an isolating business, yet there are hundreds of teachers in your state, country and throughout the world who do exactly what you do and are willing to share their successes and failures with you. There are many ways to build a PLN, but today I would like to focus on one of the easiest ways (in my humble opinion) which listening to podcasts.  Podcasts/vodcasts are audio/video recordings that can be viewed on your computer, smartphone or ipod/mp3 device.  There are a growing number of teachers who voluntarily produce very informative podcasts on a variety of educational topics. What better way to learn about the value of listening to a podcast than to listen to a podcast?  Teacher Tech Talk is a fabulous teacher-produced podcast and in episode 1.5 the host Chad Kafka provides a “tech tidbit” on the value of listening to podcasts, shares how to listen to podcasts and highlights some of his favorite podcasts. 

For you to begin your podcast adventure, you will need to find a podcast that suits your needs.  There are several organizations that provide a collection of podcasts that might be a good place to start.  The first place I would recommend is The Edreach Network.  You can listen to their publications through their YouTube Channel, on itunes or on Stitcher radio if you have a smartphone.  They have podcasts for administrators, theater teachers, art teacher and so much more.  My personal favorites are Teacher Tech Talk, Mobile Reach,   The Google Educast and Techlandia.  Another organization that provides a variety of podcasts is TeacherCast.  My favorite podcast of the TeacherCast network is the TechEducator podcast, but there are several other great podcasts as well.  In addition, there are many other podcasts available just by searching the itunes store in the podcast section.  I stumbled upon The Cool Teacher podcast that way.

Whether you listen to a podcast in the car, while you are exercising or just sitting at your desk you are sure to be motivated to check out a new ipad app or website, or read an intriguing news article.  Try it out!  Most podcasts are between 15 minutes – no more than hour!

GUEST BLOGGER INFO

Julie Spang is a Technology Integration Specialist who lives in Dunstable, Massachusetts and will soon be working at Groton-Dunstable Middle School. She has been a technology teacher and integrator for 9 years.  You can find more articles on her blog: http://technologeyes.wordpress.com/

Guest Post: Walk in My Shoes, See What I See

"The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy, we can all sense a mysterious connection to each other.”  - Meryl Streep

Empathy.  The ability to understand another’s perspective and emotions.  An elusive skill to teach, but research shows that it is just as important as any academic skill.  Learning to walk in someone else’s shoes opens a world of sympathy, compassion, and ultimately collaboration.  So how does one go about helping students become more empathetic?  What offers children a place to experience empathy, to feel emotions, and be transported into the world of another person?  I would whole-heartedly say books!  Children’s books to be exact.  Children’s novels offer a wide range of experiences and the ability to transport and draw in the reader.

So where to begin?  There have been a plethora of exceptional books written that are perfect for emersion into another’s point of view and support empathy education.  The highly praised Wonder by R.J. Palacio has been a wonder for just this topic.  The book not only deals with how August, who has a physical deformity, is treated, but how the people around him navigate their feelings towards him.  A movement called Choose Kind has cropped up in schools throughout the country with empathy at its center.  Another amazing book written about a young girl forced into the foster care system is One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt. Carley, the main character, gives the reader insight into how disorienting living with a foster family can be.  Her struggles with feelings for her foster mother and the family are heart wrenching.  Others like The Strange Case of the Origami Yoda series by Tom Angleberger and Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli are wonderful portraits of how being different can be awkward and at times painful.  Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper opens the world of Melody who cannot communicate verbally due to a handicap.  We learn that being ignored and dismissed easily short changes Melody and her intellect.  So B. It by Sarah Weeks has the same theme but the main character, Heidi, is the daughter of a mentally disabled woman.  Excellent view into how living with a parent who has a disability can be overwhelming.  Hound Dog True by Linda Urban and How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O'Connor both deal with realistic situations of homelessness and being the new kid at school.  They both have easily accessible characters and forge connections to readers.

These books and many more can help readers understand situations they may never experience allowing them the ability to feel emotions of characters in difficult situations within the safety of a book.  

How these books are presented to students is important.  Assigning a book with no student input or reading a book because the theme is “struggling kids” or “empathy books”  will fail to allow organic learning about the topic.  As children’s book experts like Donalyn Miller and Teri Lesesne advocate, students need to make their own choices about what they read.  Since these are such high quality books, it is easy to recommend them and students tend to gravitate to them naturally.  Ultimately, providing students with books that are empathy focused will give them opportunities to experience situations and emotions they may not experience in their own lives.  They can make emotional connections and understand other perspectives within the safety of the pages of a book.  And in the end isn’t that what we hope children reading these books do?

GUEST BLOGGER INFO
Tammy Langeberg is a teacher librarian in Jefferson County, Colorado currently working at Semper Elementary.  She has been a teacher for 25 years, 14 of those as a school librarian.  She earned her National Board Certification in Library Media and participated in revising the library media National Board Standards recently.  She has been a member of the Highly Effective School Library Program (formerly Colorado Power Library Program) since 2002.  She was honored with the Jared Polis Teacher Recognition Award in 2011.  You can find more information about her at her blog: http://tlangeberg.blogspot.com/