Please Don’t Call Me Encore

Instead of being called Special Area Teachers we are now being called Encore. Please don't call me Encore. Call me collaboration partner, call me teacher/librarian, call me instructional partner, or just keep the old term of Special Area Teacher. Because what I do in the library is not as Webster defines: "a reappearance or additional performance" or "a demand for repetition." What I do is not "extra" or simple "repetition", libraries cover 44 of the 176 new Pennsylvania Common Core Standards and you need me because it's hard to hit all 176 of those standards in your classroom in one year! Synonymous for the word encore include: Repeat, Extra, Reprise, and Repetition. As most of the teachers in my building know I don’t repeat, I may enhance but I rarely repeat what is already being done in the classroom. I constantly ask my teachers what they are having a hard time fitting into the curriculum and I tackle it using my library curriculum. Next week in my library grade two will be learning about Simple Machines, we’ve already completed a research project and presentation using PowerPoint solely in the library because there is just not enough time to do such things with curriculums packed with other things. The same is true for other grade levels. We work, we do, we create, we evaluate, we interpret, we predict, we film, we write and blog, we use technology tools, we hit the highest levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy in the library, we do not repeat and reprise. Please don’t call me Encore.

Ken Robinson: How to escape education's death valley

Sir Ken Robinson's TED Talk... if you are teaching but no one is learning are you really teaching? Cherish and value the relationship between teachers and learners. Schools need a climate of possibility. I hope I can be a teacher/librarian that proves all things are possible because it is... what are you doing to change the climate of your school?

e-books or print books... which to buy, rent, borrow...

The other day Karen Hornberger, the librarian at Palisades High School in Bucks County sent around an e-mail with a link to a Google Doc and asked librarians around the state for their opinion on purchasing e-books... what were the pros and cons. It was so very interesting being online with so many other librarians across the state at the same time and all of us typing away our ideas and reasons for making the purchases that we do.  Do we purchase traditional books or e-books? How do we make our decisions? How do e-books fit into the curriculum?  How do e-books fit with the new Common Core Standards?  Karen took all of our ideas and put them into a fortunately/unfortunately slide show which I am sharing below. It is up to each of us to decide to e-book or not to e-book, check out the slide show below.

E book collections from khornberger

Karen posted this slide show on her blog today and has promised to make this one of the conversations at the Unconference that will happen the evening before the PSLA conference in May. It is so exciting that librarians are talking about these things together! The more we talk the better informed our decisions will be when making choices with limited funds. Thanks Karen you made my day with your blog post today!

Author Alan Katz is Visting Arrowhead

We are so excited to welcome Alan Katz to Arrowhead on March 7th. Here is a little presentation I put together to give my students a taste of what they have to look forward to. Come back after March 7th to see what we think about Alan Katz's visit.

PETE&C 2013

I just have to share this wallwisher from my sesson in iBook Author... just so you all can see what other teachers want to do with this Apple Software.

Created with Padlet

Sarah Heintzelman is the owner of this wall and was the leader of this session. She is from Centennial School of Lehigh University. She has seen people use this for portfolios as well as for digital storytelling. I can't wait to get started on my library skills iBook!

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

This month our librarian's book club is reading Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. I usually avoid this creepy kind of book but then I saw this trailer and all the comments. Everyone, or almost everyone said they enjoyed the book. And I must admit I did too until I got to the end... which is not really an ending but a jumping off place for a series! I am not sure who the actors are in this trailer but it is fun to watch. And, a movie is supposidly forthcoming (with different actors). According to comments on the Youtube video page, Tim Burton is directing the film version of the book but I don't know where that information came from. All I could find on IMDB.com was the film of the book is in development. Enjoy!

Night Circus

As a Librarian it is important to keep up with current literature. To this end the librarians in my district have formed a book club that meets once a month. The book that we read for this month's discussion is "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern. I am also attempting to get my students to try new ways to do book reviews. To that end I created this short Voki.

Privacy is Dead

Can I brag about my PLN again? PLN stands for Personal Learning Network or Professional Learning Network. These are the people that I follow and follow me most on Plurk but on Twitter and Facebook too. I first came across Matthew Hughes when he was a pimply faced teenager in high school in the UK.  We followed each other while he was in college but were never friends on Plurk until recently. And I am amazed at his growth and maturity. Yes, in a way I feel like he is one of my students or one of my kids. We have never met yet, but today he taught me something we all should realize, nothing is private on the Internet.  Here he is speaking about the death of privacy and how we can find out anything about anybody online!


Pretty heavy stuff and who would put a picture of their debit card online?

Internet Safety

Lately I have been very impressed with some YouTube videos I have encountered on the subject of Internet Safety, Cyber Bullying, and Digital Footprints. I am very impressed with the video below.

Flocabulary

On Saturday, October 20, 2012 I attended EdCamp Harrisburg held at Harrisburg University. Yes, I am a geek. I spent a full day at a conference that gave me no professional development credit and you know what. I loved every second of it.
It was my first time seeing the Pennsylvania State Capitol that close but it was my second EdCamp experience. And it did not dissapoint. I learned so many new things my head is still spinning. I learned what I need to upgrade on my MacBook Pro in order to creat e-textbooks for the iPad. I learned a few good websites for creating QR Code games (http://qrwild.com and http://www.classtools.net/QR/). And I was one of the big winners. I won a year site license for Flocabulary! I can't wait to tell my principal tomorrow morning. I plan to use the Flocabulary video below with my students this week as we study the election process and if this video is any indication of what is available through Flocabulary, my students are going to love it!!!

No more dull annual report!

I took away so many good ideas from last nights first ever Teacher/Libraraian chat on Twitter (#tlchat). The theme was collaboration and how librarians reach their target audiences, teachers, students, parents, and administrators.  Some suggested e-mailing teachers good links to topics they are teaching at the moment, been there, tried that. Others suggested a monthly newsletter, been there tried that. Some others suggested going to PTO/PTA (Home and School) meetings to talk with parents, already do that when I can and volunteer at many events. It is the least I can do for a Home and School that helps me with my semi-annual book fairs. I have no library aides and my parent book fair helpers are like gold to me. They help me tame the book fair and keep me informed on not only their students but on the pulse of the community. My favorite time of the year is my evening book fair event when I can chat with students and their parents at school but away from school pressure knowing the book fair is in the capable hands of a Home and School volunteer.

And then Jennifer LaGarde, aka librarygirl, shared her annual report. An annual report is something I have been toying with for many years but is becoming more of an imperative now that hard times have fallen on school librarians. I have never figured out what or to whom I should be reporting since this is not a requirement, and then came Jennifer! She posted a link to her school blog post of her very visual annual report and I loved it! Not a dull, lifeless document, but an in your face graphic display of instruction and student impact that every student, parent, teacher, and administrator can understand. A copy of her report is embedded below but not only that, she shares her goals, audience, and tools in her blog post making the reader see that an annual report does not have to be dull all the way down to the bottom line! Enjoy the graphics!

MGMS Library Annual Report 2011-12 from Jennifer LaGarde

Easel.ly is a new online tool for me but I am so looking forward to trying it. Thanks for influencing my practice this year and every year @librarygirl.

Yeah IPEVO!

I know I have said this on twitter recently but I have not written a blog post lately or maybe ever about how much my students and I love our IPEVO document cameras. About 2 years ago I purchased my own IPEVO P2V document camera to use with students in the traditional way. The document camera I was using was an old Elmo that I purchased from eBay the year after I started teaching. The overhead projector I was assigned was so old we could not longer get bulbs for it.  So, I purchased the Elmo on my own (better than having nothing) and the students loved it! They responded and completed more of their assignments when they were able to see the information in front of them. When we work together they can following along and they love working with apps on my personal iPad (iPad 1) while the rest of the class watches. I now focus the iPad under the IPEVO P2V and it shows either on the TV or the SMART Board. Then last year Alex Yang from iPevo contacted me and asked if I would be interested in an IPEVO Ziggy. I checked with my principal first but of course I said yes! At first I thought I was being greedy since I had the original IPEVO Point 2 View but I am able to do so much more with the Ziggy because it prevents glare on items with a special slide in plastic disc. And then I had this brilliant idea (at least to me) to get the document cameras in the hands of the students. The additional document camera gave me the flexibility to allow students to take their own pictures and do their own presentations. Giving them use of the both the IPEVO P2V and Ziggy allowed them to practice presentation and take their own pictures in the library. They began using the document cameras on their own in a new way. And let me tell you do they ever love it! I keep both IPEVOs attached to student computers and students may use them at any time in the library to take pictures or fine-tune presentations. The 4^th grade Behind the name project became so much less of a burden on me. Students take their own pictures now and save them to their network drives saving me hours of downloading pictures from digital cameras and uploading them to their drives. Using 2 document cameras halves the time it takes to photograph the entire class, and the pictures are good quality. How can I ever thank IPEVO and Alex Yang enough? Students constantly use the document cameras to take pictures of themselves, fellow students, and others fun things happening in the library. One group of students took it upon themselves to make a farewell video for a teacher using the document cameras to capture the photos. I am now considering purchasing a magnifying lens & a height extension stand for my IPEVO P2V.  If you use your document cameras in different ways leave a comment so we can share experiences. 

Advice for New Teachers

Richard Byrne is in my PLN. He writes a Blog called Free Technology for Teachers. Mostly he talks about free lesson plans and technology for teachers. Last year around this time he asked the PLN for suggestions for new teachers. Below is his embedded Google Doc of the results.
Now Richard Byrne is looking to update his crowd sourced tips for new teachers. If you have a tip to share check out his blog and fill out the embedded form. Don't forget to add your Twitter or Plurk name. Who knows you may find yourself joining Richard Byrne's PLN!

Don't Let the Pigeon Touch the Library Books

This morning my grandsons and I went to story time at the local library. I wore my powder blue Mo Willem's Pigeon shirt. It has the pigeon on the front as shown in the photo and on the back it says, "I have dreams you know."  One of the moms fell over herself after the story time trying to get to me to find out where I got my shirt.  She was so excited because her children like most children are addicted to the crazy pigeon and his antics. Her exact words to me were, "I read those books over and over, I might as well wear the shirt." Mo Willems, we love your pigeon! Which brings me to this wonderful parody video which teaches students about book care using their beloved pigeon. You can bet I will be using this video during the first week of classes to introduce book care to my students! Oh, by the way, the Pigeon also has his own Twitter account, and I got my pigeon shirt at a librarian's conference but you can find it here. Looks like I can also get myself a plush pigeon there too, guess I better do that so my students can make their own pigeon videos!

Manage Your Digital Footprint

I did not have time to take part in The State of Tech PD in your PJ's Online Conference on June 16th. It was my birthday after all! But I love that some of the videos are still available. I am enjoying this one below on managing my digital footprint. I want to share it with my students. Hope it is something you want to share with your students as well. Post a comment and let me know what you are doing for PD this summer.