The Teacher Librarian Chronicles
Tuesday 15 April 2014
Choice is the Future of Literacy
Wednesday 11 April 2012
Teacher-Librarian Mission Statements
Personal Mission
My mission is to connect all members of my learning community with ideas and information by providing user-friendly access to a diverse and growing collection of print and digital resources. By showing leadership with regards to 21st century skills, I will work as a member of a collaborative team to inspire our students to become responsible, self-directed learners and creators in our knowledge-based society. In being an advocate for my school library, I will continuously promote a love for reading, cultivate competence with relevant technology and communicate cutting-edge information about our ever-changing media landscape.
School Library Mission Statement
Our library is at the centre of learning in our school. It helps students to become effective, as well as discriminating, users and producers of information and ideas by assisting them to access resources, think critically, and demonstrate understanding. By fostering a culture of inquiry and encouraging the practice of meaningful learning, the library will play a vital role in supporting multiple literacies, meeting curricular objectives and boosting overall student achievement. The library is a welcoming and engaging space that motivates all our students to discover, respond, create, collaborate, and share knowledge.
Friday 24 February 2012
Teacher-Librarian Values... the Bubbl.us way
This is my first mindmap created in Web 2.0. What a cool way to synthesize information!
Friday 2 December 2011
Your Mountain is Waiting. So, Get On Your Way!
Just go right along. You’ll start happening too.
--Dr. Seuss
My adventure to explore eight different web tools for EDES501 is coming to a close. It's been a whirlwind of a project as I immersed myself in blogging, Google Reader, Twitter, GoodReads, Jing, Evernote, Diigo and Prezi. I've come out on the other side with a much clearer understanding of how Web 2.0 can support learning and living.
But where to next? If I've discovered anything at all, it's that learning about Web 2.0 doesn't end. Just when you think you've got one thing figured out, a new and brilliant tool will present itself to you. Already, I've got several tools on my to-do list:
- Mindmeister – This mind mapping and brainstorming tool was a missed opportunity in my inquiry. I like how it would support almost any student in any course.
- Wordle – I am interested in this tool to show the weight of concepts, to pull out big ideas from my students, and to embed in presentations.
- Survey Monkey – I am interested in learning more about this tool so students completing distance education courses at our school can provide much-needed feedback.
- Sliderocket – I am moving away from PowerPoint because it’s not in the cloud. I love Prezi, but I’m not sure I always want to work with their canvas. I’d like a more straightforward option, both for myself and my students.
Writing this blog has reconnected me to my love of writing. I stated in my final reflection that a blog is a combination of narrative, journalism, show and tell, diarying, research, academia and design. It has completely captured my imagination. Throughout the past several weeks I found myself myself daydreaming about topics, titles, quotes, links and images at all hours of the day and night. I even dreamed about my blog. I'm absolutely hooked! This may have been my first blog, but it certainly won't be my last.
Next week I'll start work on our annual Animoto Christmas video slideshow that has now replaced the traditional cards I used to mail. With the semester coming to a close and the Christmas season upon us, I wish you a most wonderful holiday with friends and family. Best wishes for a Web 2.0-filled 2012!
References
RetroWilliamTV. (2010, November 3). How the Grinch stole Christmas - Welcome Christmas 1966 [video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs4S9o-KESE
from...
Jones, C (Producer) & Geisel, T (Producer). (1966). How the Grinch Stole Christmas [TV]. USA: Cat in the Hat Productions.
Thursday 1 December 2011
Hail to the Hyperlink
A hyperlink is a simple enough tool, but now that I've been blogging for a couple of months, I've come to realize the immense power it brings to the medium. When I hyperlink, I participate in what Richardson (2010) identifies as "connective writing", a new genre that calls for careful reading, clear explanations and communication for the purpose of learning. Those hyperlinks are what separates true blogging from simple posting and/or straightforward journaling.
Links are the driving force of the internet and Web 2.0: they are what make the web, web-like! "Hyperlinking is the foundation of the web. As users add new content, and new sites, it is bound in to the structure of the web by other users discovering the content and linking to it" (O'Reilly as cited in Berger & Trexler, 2010, p. 5). This article on internet pioneers shows that hypertexting, or the ability to jump between documents, was at the heart of the idea for the world wide web.
The irony of this post is that I had a heck of time finding good hyperlinks about hyperlinks, which goes to show that linking is so ubiquitous that it becomes something we take for granted. This blogging project has given me the opportunity to pause and reflect on the value of the hyperlink and how it can enrich our learning experience.
References
Berger, P., & Trexler, S. (2010). Choosing web 2.0 tools for learning and teaching in a digital world. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.
Griffin, S. (2000). Internet pioneers: Tim Berners-Lee. Retrieved from http://www.ibiblio.org/pioneers/lee.html
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousands Oaks, CA: Corwin
Sunday 27 November 2011
I Think, Therefore I Blog
Blogs have taken off as one of the most popular mediums on the internet. Over 180 million people have blogged, and two new blogs are coming into existence every second (Richardson, 2010, p. 19). But why? What is the power of the blog?
Seth Godin is a famed blogger and marketing guru. Although the above exchange was captured at a seminar about entrepreneurship, Godin's comments about blogging ring true no matter what the occupation of the writer.
"What matters," he says, "is the meta-cognition of thinking about what you are going to say." Later he states that with blogging we "force [ourselves] to become part of the conversation." His comments get to the heart of the questions I have regularly asked myself with this blog: What is the purpose of my post? What can I connect my ideas to? How can I make this post relevant to today's conversation about education?
Blogging taps into higher-level thinking, which is why it makes such an outstanding project to do with our students. Think about all the skills being engaged at once: planning, writing, researching, linking, synthesizing, critiquing, commenting and responding. When you look at Bloom's Revised Taxonomy, this chart shows blogging at the top:
Will Richardson (2010) points out that true blogging doesn't happen instantaneously; it is a progression from something simple like journaling to something more complex that involves articulating one's understanding of content through links and interaction with your blogging audience (p. 31). It's taken me over two months to start to feel comfortable with the blogging process. It evolves slowly, with patience and self-discipline. It is the process of blogging and the benefits that come as a result that I'm excited to share with students.
References
Fisher, M. (2009, February 27). Digital Bloom's Visual [web log post]. Retrieved from http://digigogy.blogspot.com/2009/02/digital-blooms-visual.html
Innerpreneur. (2009, April 18). Seth Godin and Tom Peters on blogging [video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=livzJTIWlmY
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousands Oaks, CA: Corwin
Friday 25 November 2011
A little Housekeeping with Google Reader
As the fall semester draws to a close, I decided to review my use of Google Reader and do a long overdue clean-up.
I went through all my subscriptions in my Teacher-Librarian folder and deleted a few feeds that are either inactive or that, when I reviewed the blog and checked my "trends", I found I wasn't ever reading. Next, I renamed the remaining blogs according to author. I have always found it disorienting to read a blog only knowing it's title rather than the author. Here is my newly renovated folder:
Going through and visiting these blogs one by one was a good way to catch up on a few things I've missed and it reminded me of why I'm reading these blogs to begin with! Here, I found a great check list helping kids to conduct research (Diigo bookmark!) and here I found some useful information on a plug-in called Google Cloud Connect which may finally help me overcome the home vs work document disconnect!
Which blogs do you regularly follow for education/library? I'd like to know what I'm missing out on!
References
Jones, L. (2011, November 6). Deconstructing research [web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.shelfconsumed.com/2011/11/deconstructing-research.html
Whisen, G. (2011, July 9). Google cloud connect [web log post]. Retrieved from http://ideaconnect.edublogs.org/2011/07/09/google-cloud-connect/