Posts

SL Interview with Heather Loy - Shared Foundation: Explore

Image
  EXPLORE ** Implementation ** The interview with Heather Loy, the school librarian at Wagener-Salley High School focused on Explore.  She explained that she is implementing these competencies in the library program through the purchase of comics plus, which is an online subscription for K-12.  The library program has middle and high school versions to support the reading levels of all the students in the school.  Her decision to purchase an online comic book subscription was prompted by the circulation statistics for graphic novels.  The students consistently requested books that had already been checked out.  The comics plus subscription provides multiuser access to books, plus it has its own app.  The library services also includes MakinVIA, a complete eResource managment system allowing access to eBooks.  This is an effort to implement the domain Think , in which students are encouraged to read widely in multiple formats.        ** Resources ** The library at WSHS offers a variety
Post a Comment
Read more

SL Interview with Stephen Roper - Shared Foundation: Curate

Image
  CURATE ** Implementation **  As a first-year school librarian at Hephzibah Middle School, Stephen Roper has concentrated on domains Think and Create in these first four months of school.  For the domain Think , Roper presented a lesson to 8th grade International Baccalaureate (IB) students on using the GALILEO ( G eorgi A LI brary LE arning O nline) database to research their topics for their IB projects.  Topics relate to improving local community problems such as homelessness, food scarcity, and pollution.  Roper provided an introductory lesson and incorporated the basic research process.  This involved using keyword searching by brainstorming words related to their topic.  Then, the students had to use GALILEO TO idenitfy sources of information they chose to use in their research.        ** Resources ** GALILEO is an excellent and underused resource by students because they do not fully understand the scope of the resources that are available on the database.  It provides free a
Post a Comment
Read more

SL Interview with Lori Hoover - Shared Foundation: Collaborate

Image
  Collaborate ** Think **  The school librarian is Lori Hoover,  served as an English teacher at the school prior to the current position at Hephzibah High School.  Her skills as a classroom teacher supports her continued service to patrons as a librarian.  She facilitates collaborative opportunities by the following: S tudents select art pieces to study in depth from a list, research the pieces, and add slides to a Powerpoint in Onedrive.  Students then present to classmates to “teach classmates” the material. Students select music pieces to study in depth from a list, research the pieces, and add slides to a Powerpoint in Onedrive.  Students then present to classmates.  Students then present to classmates to “teach classmates” the material. ** Create **  Students choose a type of media festival production to produce and they choose specific roles (script writers, proofreaders, camera persons, editors, etc.). They work together to act (if appropriate), shoot, and edit the production. 
Post a Comment
Read more

SL Interview with Tammy Story - Shared Foundation: Include

Image
INCLUDE ** Implementation ** The interview with Tammy Story provided some interesting insight on the Shared Foundation Include.  At Richmond Hill K-8, Story implements a full and eventful schedule.  She implements the school librarian domains and competencies through story time for grades K-4. She includes story time in a flex schedule where teachers sign-up during their class time for her to read a story to their students.  The teachers and or the paraprofessional for the class is in proximity, but Story goes into another world with the kiddos.  She reads a book or shows a story from story online .  She engages learners by asking before, during, and after questions.  Even though the majority student population is African American, Story makes story time inclusive by reading diverse books that cover different ethnicities, genders, topics, and themes. ** Resources  ** Story implements various resources and variations to implement this valuable library program.  She reads picture books a
Post a Comment
Read more

I Found My Ninja! (Blog 10)

Image
I started teaching in elementary school in the mid-1990s when basic computing was all that I knew.   My school had a Title I computer lab where students engaged in computer-assisted instruction in a weekly rotation with art, music, physical education, and library.   I never knew what they were learning in the computer lab.   I never asked the proctor assigned to the lab and did not know how to connect the computer assisted instruction with my classroom instruction.   I had a successful first three (and only) years as an elementary school teacher, but it was hard.   My students had very low skills and most of them were not ready for first grade (even though most of them attended kindergarten).   During that time, the focus of kindergarten was play and then the next academic year was a major culture shock to desks and no sleep time!     I was always brainstorming, always searching, always networking, always looking for new ways to enhance my instruction to engage student interest.   I we
Post a Comment
Read more

Imaginations Unleashed (Blog 9)

Image
Metaverse  is the #1 tool for creating augmented reality (AR) and interactive content without using any code, and it does not require a headset (Young, 2020).  This Augmented Reality stimulates and  encourages learners to get engaged, empowered and captured in learning experiences that have endless possibilities.  This is a small price for our digital natives to move beyond the simple and into a more advanced and stimulating segments in our virtual world (Massis, 2015).  As we have seen, 2020 is the year of unleased possibilities, they no longer offer customer support as of November 15, 2020.       It is awesome for young learners (and adults too!) and will not break the bank because it is absolutely free!    The sign up is super easy for anyone who is ready to create content with unlimited potential.    The tool can be used for creating anything you can possibly think of in your imagination.    You can run the gamut—scavenger hunts, games, quizzes, stories, events, tours, photos, geoc
4 comments
Read more

What Do You Think We Should Do Next to Make Music? (Blog 8)

Image
  As I think about makerspaces, I reminisce about my childhood.  My cousin had gotten a one-cassette radio for her birthday from her dad and her mom got her a pack of cassette tapes.  She and I wrote the lyrics to popular songs and then we would record ourselves singing the songs.  We would play back our recordings and record over them until we heard it the way we thought it should be. I remember we popped a few cassette tape ribbons, but we figured out that a little piece of invisible tape mended the tape ribbon and it ran over the reel just fine.  This was our own made up preservation effort that worked time and time again.  An ode to the Thomas Makerspace!       We did not know how to use the fast-forward and the rewind functions until we tried them out.  Once we did, we auditioned to became superstars!  We critiqued each other’s renditions from our own star-studded rubric.  As Moorefield-Lang (2014) argued, we were engaged in experimentation, used problem solving techniques, and pa
4 comments
Read more