Calling All Guest Bloggers

With summer right around the corner, it's time for me to once again offer all educators the opportunity to do a guest blog post right here on A Media Specialist's Guide to the Internet. No matter what your discipline is, you are welcome to fill out the form below. If you are chosen, I will email you with all the info needed to share your post. We begin on July 1, 2015!

Guest Post: The Secret to Having it all @ Your Library

Image courtesy: This Book Is Overdue! by Marilyn Johnson

I’ve been a teacher-librarian at an elementary school for 5 years and this past year I absorbed the technology classes into my schedule. Struggling with how to manage a library, classes and over 100 laptops, I devised an experiment. I decided to Let it Go!


I’ve always been a bit of a control freak, so I took a deep breath and looked for those areas that I could let go. I’m proud to say that I let go of my collection: overdue notices, shelving and collection development. I let go of the bulletin boards and I let go of the book repair. Librarians are superheroes, but even a superhero needs a sidekick. I gave my library over to my community, the rightful owners. By giving them ownership, they felt more invested and worked with me to keep everything running smoothly.

Here are a few things I did that may help you out as you look for more time in your work day:

Circulation:

Children as young as 7 can learn to check out their own books. Think about it, their moms are already training them by using the self-checkout at the grocery store. I pull one child from the class - you know which one - the eager beaver and I train him/her to use the self-checkout system, how to troubleshoot simple errors. Then s/he watches the others checkout. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. (I keep a checkout station running behind my desk so I can do manual overrides.) Will there be a few books not checked out properly? Of course, but it’s a small price to pay for your time.

Check with your school district: chances are you may be allowed to have the circulation software on more than one computer. I placed my self-checkout station on a laptop, so I can easily relocate it, or gasp! take it into a classroom with me?!

Overdue Books:

A mentor once said to me, “Think of a book as a $20 pencil.” This is my mantra.  Books will come and books will go, relationships with the students are more important. Remember the ultimate goal of the library is to inspire young minds and to create life-long learners, not to squeeze a child out of his allowance. The relationships you form with students will influence their future feelings towards libraries and librarians. By all means, students should be held accountable, but there are kinder/gentler ways to do this without becoming a crazy book lady.  

First and foremost the responsibility should lie with the child. Borrowing and returning books is an exercise in responsibility. My older students attach their email address to the circulation software so they receive overdues via email. Younger students write notes to mom and dad, asking for help remembering their overdues.  After a reasonable amount of time, I reach out to parents via email or with the item’s bill. I always, always give the option for the parent to purchase the item from Amazon in like condition.

I allow students who have a lost book to work off their fines, but only if they genuinely can’t replace it.  My rule of thumb is to have them work ten minutes of their recess time for 3 days in a row. Students vacuum, wipe down tables, sharpen pencils, and dust the shelves, etc. I allow older students to re-shelve books, make bulletin boards, and perform simple computer maintenance. After the book is “worked off”, I make sure students know that their slate is wiped clean and that I do not hold a grudge, ever.

Collection Development - Let others Work for You!

I have a few methods for keeping my collection fresh.  I keep a public Amazon wish list that I refer students and parents to if they’d like to purchase an item for the library. I place a special bookplate inside, honoring the student. I promote this list on the school website and Facebook. Also, I use Google Forms to collect lists of wanted book titles, including ISBN. Navigating between separate tabs in a web browser and cutting and pasting is an important skill for students to learn.  If you’ve never used Google Forms, you’re missing out on an invaluable classroom tool! Here’s a simple form that you may use as a model.

I keep a running list on Follett Titlewave all year long of books that I may want to order. The collection development tool makes it simple to assess my collection weaknesses. Titlewave even suggests books to fill these holes. Another thing I do is survey the teachers every Spring and ask them where they felt the gaps in the collection were regarding their curriculum, again with a Google Form.  One of my favorite features in Titlewave is the bulk search. If you read a great article in SLJ, you can cut and paste the entire article into the search field. It picks out the ISBNs and populates a list for you. Wow! Think about how easy it would be to copy the ISBN field from your book request Google Form spreadsheet in order to search for those books.  Also, don’t forget that your book reps can make lists for you. Just ask!

Library Organization:  Dew-ey or Don’t We?

Yes, the Dewey Decimal system is wonderful, but I decided long ago that my collection needs to be easily accessible, especially for my youngest patrons. I still adhere to Dewey, mostly. This past year, student volunteers labeled our sub-3rd grade non-fiction with E stickers for easy locating. Popular subjects (dinosaurs, animals, transportation) are placed in free standing browse bins for quick selection. Not only does this make it easier for kids to find what they like, but the real bonus is

that these books are easy to shelve! I also use foldable cloth bins from IKEA on the shallow bottom 

shelves of my fiction bookcases for series paperback fiction. They fit so nicely! I label them with a 

picture of the series, and Velcro to the bin. Also,I recently pulled out all my little readers and organized them in awesome IKEA bins that are pre-labeled!

Remember - there is no rule that says your shelving cart  must be empty at the end of the day. No rule at all. I’m going to say it again. You can go home and leave things on your shelving cart! I’ve found that kids don’t mind taking books from the shelving cart. In fact, if it’s on the cart, it must be popular! I have a volunteer position that I call “Shelving Angel”. Several parents who know how to shelve occasionally stop by when they have a few minutes and they shelve. No scheduling required. Some of them even shelve during the monthly PTA meetings that are held in the library. Parents feel needed when you leave them things to help with.

Book repair - 10 minutes is too long!

This was a tough one to let go of because I’ve always wanted to be able to save every book, but the truth is, that’s impossible. I sat down and thought about how much my time is worth. I decided that if it takes more than 10 minutes to repair a book, it’s time to replace it. I hack fix many of my books. Nothing is off the table, duct tape, glue, construction paper. My goal is to circulate those popular titles a few more times. A school library is not an archive. One caveat, I strongly believe that stocking your library with ugly books sends the message to students that they are not worthy of nice things. My goal is to repair items quickly, but nicely. Of course, if you find a brilliant and neurotic volunteer (student or parent) who loves the challenge of tipping pages into your Captain Underpants books, the 10 minute rule doesn’t apply!

Pulling materials for teachers: - Get Them Involved

At the beginning of the year, I make sure my teachers know my preferences for requesting books. I prefer that my teachers know their way around the library and circulation software so that they can pull and checkout their own materials. Otherwise, I ask them to email me a list of titles through the OPAC. I have students pull these titles. I also make sure my teachers are aware that both our school district library and the public library will create book baskets for them within a two week window.

Displays and bulletin boards:

Students and parent volunteers can do these for you! Simple bulletin boards are the best. Have students write book recommendations, post student work, or tear apart some of those broken “Where’s Waldo” and “I Spy” books for a quick bulletin board!

How did my “letting go” experiment work out? I’m happy to report that it was a smashing success. I had more time for lesson planning and computer maintenance. I had more time to investigate Google Apps for Education. I had more time to reflect and refine my practice. I ended the year with only twelve outstanding student books, out of 415 students. The ultimate bonus is that I have created a space where everyone feels needed and welcome. I love it when students walk through the library as a “shortcut” on their way to class, just to say ‘Hi”. That’s when I know I’m doing it right! My next steps are to look for more places I can “let it go”!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Denise Cushing lives and works in Denver, Colorado

denise_cushing@dpsk12.org

carsondenver.weebly.com

Guest Post: "Hiring" Library Pages: The Best Library Publicity You Can “Buy”

I have a wonderful problem.  I have too many students who want to volunteer their time to work in the library...I know!  My heart swells every time I think of it!

Our middle school has an abundance of dedicated and exuberant readers.  They help keep our fiction shelves stocked with all the new releases.  They love to recommend new titles and are constantly stopping in during homeroom or study halls to browse the shelves.  AND they love to sit behind the desk and run the show!  

With only two check-out computers, I have more demand for volunteers than I can reasonably staff.  Here is how I make this possible:

·   All volunteers need to apply.  I have a short permission slip that they need to get signed by their parents and homeroom teacher.  I just want to be sure that homeroom time isn’t essential for the student to get their homework done.  Showing initiative that they can get their application back to me is step one.

·   Step two is a short interview with me or our other librarian.  They should be able to articulate why they want to work in the library (and they should not answer "because I want to see what everyone else is reading!").

·   Students who are “hired” are given a day of the week to report for their shift.  Often they will stop in other days too just to see if I might need extra help…how can I say no??  I’ve become very imaginative with these lesser though equally necessary tasks:  make new posters for signage, walk around the school looking for missing books, etc.

• They need to progress their way up to the circulation desk...with a smile!  If I need them to shelve, they shelve.  If I need them to work crowd control, they roam the stacks.  If I need them to pull books for a teacher collection, they take a cart and hop to it.  Running the circulation desk means they have proven that they are willing and able to do it all.  We also discuss the concept of privacy and our pages prove themselves remarkably trustworthy in this regard.
• Students need to know that they can get fired.  While I "hire" them and pay with "good kid points," I need them to take their shift seriously and be accountable.  A few no shows without any communication and they will lose their library benefits:  their bonafide library badge with lots of bling, full behind the scenes access to their wonderful library and the opportunity to spend the end of the day in a different environment than the classroom.

Let’s be clear.  This can make for a hectic and busy end to my day but knowing how important this is to the students makes it well worth it.  And sometimes it is absolutely wonderful to step away from the desk and watch my pages shine!

a library page working the desk

Students come into the library and see their fellow classmates manning the circulation desk or shelving books and they are in awe – you work here?  Can I work here too?  And our pages are so excited and proud about their role that they spread the word.  It creates a great library buzz that costs us nothing but means everything in terms of promoting the library as a vibrant and essential place in our school.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Suzanne Dix, Middle and Upper School Librarian | The Seven Hills School, Cincinnati, OH | suzanne.dix@7hills.org

Guest Post: Turning the Faculty Meeting Upside Down!

I have been a big fan of the movement in education towards free Professional Development via Edcamps.  An Edcamp is a form of unconference designed specifically for teachers and their needs and are built on principles of connected and participatory learning.  They strive to bring teachers together to talk about the things that matter most to them: their interests, passions, and questions. Teachers who attend Edcamp can simply participate...but more importantly, are free to lead sessions on those things that matter to them, with an expectation that the people in the room will work together to build understanding by sharing their own knowledge and questions during the sessions. I attended several Edcamps in Boston and helped plan the first Edcamp in Grafton, MA with a good friend and former coworker of mine, Cyndy Engvall.  I am an addict!

It bothered me that no matter how strongly I evangelized about the benefits of Edcamps, only a small number of my co-workers have attended one.  I knew the solution was to bring an Edcamp to my district, but how? My solution?  Turn a faculty mtg into a mini-Edcamp!

I spoke to the principal and assistant principals in my Middle School building about the idea, and was immediately granted an entire faculty mtg to put my plan into action! Since few of my co-workers really understood what an Edcamp was, I needed to plant some seeds with the staff to assure that this would be a success.  First, I created a Google Form to gather feedback about the kinds of sessions teachers were interested in learning about and whether they would be willing to lead the session.  Then I confirmed and cajoled some of the staff to lead some sessions. I asked those brave teachers to suggest other teachers who are doing interesting things in the classroom, not necessarily technology based, just pedagogically speaking.  I spoke to these teachers and the momentum began to build.  I learned of some amazing things happening at my middle school that evolved into the following agenda:  

Math Madness - learn about a creative approach to MCAS prep that can be used in any curriculum area that includes student choice, prizes and student engagement!

Make and Take Gclass folders - learn how to use a new ipass report and the gclass folder script to develop a folder system for students and teachers to simplify and streamline your Google experience in the classroom.

Buzzword Lingo - Discussion based on buzzwords we hear in education. Are we all speaking the same language?

SLAM across the curriculum - Join the conversation about how you can use the ELA "SLAM" writing principles in your curriculum area

Managing Your Google Data - share your strategies and tips for organizing data in Google

Evernote Tips and Tricks - What ideas do you have on managing your time in evidence collection? What tips have you learned for using Evernote to document your practice?

Evernote Evidence...what are you using? - What evidence did you use for the many indicators in the new Teacher Evaluation system?

Using theater to aid in student memorization - See what clever ideas you can use in your classroom to help students memorize!

The meeting ran flawlessly!  I opened the mtg with a brief explanation of how the Edcamp was to work and reviewed the ground rules.  We had 30 minutes for teachers to attend one of the 8 sessions.  At the appointed time we ended the mtg with a quick App Slam (which is where you get 2 minutes to demonstrate a cool app or google extension that you want to share).  Again, I searched out a few teachers who promised to share an app in advance so that I knew we could be successful.

The results were phenomenal!  In a survey that I administered after the session, the teachers overwhelmingly indicated that this was an effective use of contracted time and they preferred mini-Edcamps to the traditional faculty mtg format.  My Technology Director was incredibly supportive of the effort and encouraged other tech team members to do the same at their schools.  I assisted other co-workers to make Edcamp happen at the high school (one of the teachers at the high school spearheaded the creation of our own Edcamp logo!) and one of our elementary schools.  I also tweeted out the results of the Edcamp and connected with several members of my PLN to provide them guidance on how to run an Edcamp at their schools.

To me, this was only the beginning.  I am hoping that this small bottom-up success will result in other changes in our PD paradigm.  Curriculum days, department meetings and other contracted time provides other potential opportunities for ground roots PD.  What are you doing at your school or district to turn traditional meeting times upside down?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Julie Spang

Technology Integration Specialist

Groton Dunstable Regional Middle School

Groton, MA

Guest Post: Using Research Ready

As a teacher librarian, flipping our instruction has been made easy with ResearchReady, by Imagine Easy Solutions. This is a remarkable tool! There are pre-made courses easily customizable to adapt to every co-teaching opportunity. You can also write your own courses about anything you want to teach the kids. Videos, pictures, documents, etc., can be added to any page for instruction. The student management section makes organizing classes a snap. Viewing student performance gives immediate formative data to pinpoint students who need more help. This component is priceless and Imagine Easy has created an effortless way to construct meaningful assessments.

This year, to introduce new information or review skills they had been working on, my middle school students were asked to complete the online courses before beginning their projects. They would login and complete the coursework at home or at school. They were able to work at their own pace giving them the ability to spend more time on skills that were unfamiliar to them. These courses promoted more confidence, excellence and independence in the research process. I also wrote courses specific to our library like how-to use EasyBib, how-to use our databases, and what Career Day was all about for our 8th graders.

ResearchReady is geared for middle and high schools, but is worth a look by anyone interested in flipping their instruction.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Amy Kauth

Maple School

Northbrook/Glenview School District 30

Mediapprentice blog  http://blog.d30.me/mediapprentice/

Got Something to Say? Why Not Do a Guest Post Here...

Last year I began using guest bloggers for the months of July and August. It gave me some time to spend on my photography and volunteer work. This year I am putting out another post in search of my fellow teacher-librarians to write about things that affect us in our daily jobs. I would love to hear from elementary, middle and high school teachers. You will get great exposure on the web, so think about it...deadline is June 7, 2014 to apply. PLEASE SHARE with your readers.

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/