By Pam Verfaillie
Digital MakerSpace - what will YOU make? How are you going to express yourself in the digital realm? Click on the icons to connect with free online tools to get you started in making everything from infographics to presentations and books, music to videos. Explore basic coding or even experiment to make your own apps! The majority of these websites have been recommended by the American Association of School Librarians. Check out the websites here. By Debi Tice When the opportunity to attend the School Library Leadership Academy presented itself, I didn’t hesitate to sign-up. 2018 was to be one of the few summers I would spend in state. I was blessed with the opportunity to visit with forward-thinking, future ready librarians who are as excited about professional development opportunities as I am. I came away with so many ideas and goals that I am feeling overwhelmed with where to start. One very helpful tool to get me started, however, is Shannon McClintlock Miller’s “goal chart” that has the Future Ready Librarian’s framework in a Google Sheets that is ready to go! She also shared the FRL framework that is in a cross-walk with ISTE standards! Soon to come is the additional AASL standards cross-walk, where all three will be combined. In the process of self-reflection, I want to share my goals and ideas for the beginning of the year, hoping they may serve as inspiration. One idea came from the Future Ready standard “space”. After thinking extensively about how to make a MakerSpace space that is convenient, attractive, central to the library space, etc. I have decided to re-purpose our central library circulation desk and eliminate it as a “librarian” space and make it a space for students and staff to access materials that are important for them. Another goal of mine has been to integrate the reference materials that are cataloged as “in house check out only” into the circulating non-fiction. In conjunction with this, I will collaborate with teachers and consider creating “unit” checkouts. Often teachers will ask for their “elements” cart or ‘ancient Egypt’ cart of books to be checked out and brought to their classroom. These books are usually in several places throughout the library collection and the time it takes to gather those materials could be streamlined by creating unit shelving. These books are rarely if ever checked out except by the teacher, so creating a collection shelving that would free up time for other tasks would be ideal. I also want to take the opportunity this year to create a set of bookmarks that will have all the information for a “library in your pocket”. Instead of giving the returning 7th and 8th grade students a repeat orientation, I want to have them bring their own devices and ‘bookmark’ or download apps that will allow them access to the library 24/7. I also hope to have the library Instagram/Facebook account up and running and hope to have the students and teachers follow us. Another goal is the creation of bookmarks that can be left any and everywhere our students and families can be found. Let’s call it “guerilla advocacy”. Places for the bookmarks include the gym for sporting events and other assemblies like ‘back to school night’ and the front office counter. Bookmark contents can include “best apps” of 2018, how to be safe online tips, etc. I will also have our iPevo portable smartboard/document camera setup on a cart that can be mobile and checked out for students and teachers. Training sessions will be offered on a regular basis for both staff and students. They will also be able to use the iPevo setup in the library where there will be a station for them to collaborate and present. The last thing I want to implement is a rotating station of “cool” things next to the library copier. Often copy jobs will take teachers and students some time to complete. By putting up a computer with headphones and a “playlist” of TedTalks or podcasts like science Friday or RadioLab, teachers can get instant PD! The ideas are endless: school events, a running slide show of new resources, new apps to try, and/or videos/images our students and teachers at work. Best wishes for a great 2018/19 school year! Ideas from the 2018 School Library Leadership Academy
Debi Tice Librarian, North Pole Middle School One of the core concepts discussed and explored during the 2018 School Leadership Academy was STEM/STEAM. I looked forward to the variety of sessions that showed us ways to incorporate the philosophy of the movement into the library and/or how library staff can support the inclusion of STEM/STEAM in other curriculums. Read the rest here. By Debi Tice
The 2018 School Library Leadership Academy in Juneau focused on the lens of STEAM. I have been interested in coding for some time, and would primarily use Scratch for a unit on coding when I taught middle school Computer Science classes. In my role as librarian, I would promote “Hour of Code” and would use their site in December for a week or two of lessons. This past spring I was able to host an after-school coding club for our middle school students. We used a variety of resources such as Code.org, Spheros, Google’s CS First. I built lessons for the students in Google Classroom and allowed them pretty much free time to explore and build where they saw fit. This Google Slide, “Coding as MakerSpace”, has multiple links for exploration that I used. It also includes many of the resources shared with us during the STEAM academy in Juneau. View slides here By Debi Tice
The 2018 School Library Leadership Academy in Juneau focused on the lens of STEAM. I am a champion of the A in STEAM and feel that there is art in all that we do. I was particularly excited to have a chance to listen to Laura Connor, Research Associate Professor at UAF. Her presentation on “STEAM- The Colors of Nature” served as the inspiration for a future collaboration between the library, the middle school art teacher, and the 7th grade science teachers. The first few days of school being back in session this August came with, tears, hugs, smiles, laughter, and conversations about scheduling. I discussed the idea of collaboration between art and the 7th grade science native Alaskan tree unit and a way the library could support them both. Resulting from the discussion and the inspiration from Laura Connor is the following MakerSpace lesson idea in a skeleton form that would can be adapted for grade levels and content areas. Summarizing the Project: What elements of native Alaskan plants make them valuable for creative expression?
What is Pi Academy?
By Audrey Drew I had read about Raspberry Pi some time ago, and as a former Ed Tech Collaborator, we had two Raspberry Pi laptops in our playground equipment. The Raspberry Pi laptops we used to show others had just a breadboard, power supply, and built in monitor. It was interesting and you could access the internet and that was about all we showed others. The biggest selling point was that you could build a computer for under $100. That sounded great! However, little did I know at the time, that there was so much more you could do with a few Raspberry Pi components, a keyboard and a used monitor/tablet. This past April I went back to school librarianship and started planning how to build my makerspace and library projects. Raspberry Pi seemed like it might be a good addition to what I already had available for my students. To read more about Audrey's experience, click here. The Lilead Project To Launch Online Professional Development Courses for School Library Leaders9/3/2018
The Lilead Project will launch four Lilead Leaders courses for school library professionals at any level who are looking to hone their leadership skills and work toward lasting transformational change for their students, schools, and districts during the 2018-2019 school year.
The Lilead Leaders courses will focus on four topics:
Registration is now open for the first Leaders course, “Preparing for Transformational Change." Groups of 10 or more students registering concurrently may receive a discount by contacting the Lilead Project at [email protected]. Register Now!Students will receive continuing education units (CEUs) from the University of Maryland’s Office of Extended Services (OES). individuals may choose to take all four courses or select one or more courses that are particularly applicable to their work. Whether starting with the first course in August 2018 or with a later course, the first course a student takes is $349; subsequent courses come at a reduced price of $279. The Lilead Project www.lileadproject.org [email protected] (240) 770-1692 |
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