Resilient Library, Resilient You

Aubree Burkholder

IL

Gutsche, B. (2015, January). Resilient Library, Resilient You - WebJunction. Retrieved from http://www.webjunction.org/news/webjunction/resilient-library-resilient-you.html 

Summary:

An informative article on how to help librarians deal with change that always come with rapidly changing technology.  This article also outlines the models of change that librarians may utilize when faced with new emerging issues. 

Evaluation/Opinion:
I know that myself along with most people have difficulty adapting to continuous change. I enjoyed reading this article because it not only explains that change is both inevitable and continuous, but it also outlines many helpful models for librarians and teachers to adapt to change. 

Beyond the Classroom (HOW LEXILE MEASURES ARE BEING USED IN THE LIBRARY TO ACHIEVE COLLEGE AND CAREER READINESS)

Frey, Jennifer

IL

Smith, M. I., Schiano, A., & Lattanzio, E. (2014). Beyond the Classroom. Knowledge Quest, 42(3), 20-29. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=17&sid=aaa26ac7-0982-4b89-9b80-670687af61fe%40sessionmgr4006&hid=4106

Summary:

                 This article talks about librarians being a driving force in education. It brings up the common core standards and how they have changed the role of the librarian. This article also explains lexile framework for reading. It gives a background on lexile and describes how it is used by educators and librarians to help pair up students with the proper reading materials and increase their readiness for college and careers.

Evaluation/Opinion:

I enjoyed this article because the lexile score was something I was curious about anyway. I liked how it listed both the lexile codes and scores. I think this article could be helpful to future educators/librarians who wanted to know more about the lexile framework.  

Common Core and School Librarians: An Interview With Joyce Karon

Frey, Jennifer

CA

Kramer, P. K. (2011). Common Core and School Librarians: An Interview with Joyce Karon. School Library Monthly, 28(1), 8-10.

Summary:

      This interview explains what common core standards are and how they affect education. The person being interviewed, Joyce Karon, is a former school librarian and advocate for school libraries. She answers questions about the common core and simplifies what it means to teachers, students and librarians. She addresses how they are different from other standards and what school librarians need to know about them. The article also mentions the AASL Crosswalk of the Common Core Standards (http://www.ala.org/aasl/standards/crosswalk), I looked up the website and found some really useful information there for school librarians.

Evaluation/Opinion:

       In my reading plan I had decided I wanted to learn more about school standards. I am not a teacher myself or have any background in teaching so I found this article helpful since it simplified this area I wanted to become more familiar with. For someone with little to no prior knowledge who wishes to see how the Common Core Standards also affect school librarians this article is helpful. I liked the interview format, it made it easy to read and broke it up. I also liked how it encourages school librarians to step up to the plate and start collaborating and learn more about the standards and what they can do to help implement them. 

SAMR and Bloom's

McClanahan, Lydia
ET

SAMR. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.schrockguide.net/samr.html

 

Kathy Schrock's SAMR + Bloom's article emphasizes the need for teachers to plan and align redefinition tasks with higher order thinking skills as outlined in Bloom's. She argues that creative tasks outlined in the modification and redefinition levels of SAME  are often limited by the lower order thinking skills on Bloom's, knowledge and recall.  The higher level tech tasks must  be matched by higher order thinking skills for creation and assessement according to Schrock as indicated by the image above.

Schrock's article not only helped my understanding of the SAMR model, but it also reminded

me that in creating rigorous instruction, a variety of  tasks, assessments and types of thinking must be considered.   Schrock's article pushes for a synthesizing of the familiar with what might be considered unfamiliar for many teachers. Introducing technology for some is unfamiliar and Substitution is a comfortable place to stay. Schrock however, helps those of us veterans, who might be used to pen and paper, the traditional, consider how we can use what we know, what we are comfortable with to push towards more innovative, 21st century thinking and instruction.

Digital Projectors for Interactive Teaching

I finally found an article interesting enough to post here on the classroom blog.

Kids around a table using an interactive projector.

Nelson, K. (2016). 10 game-changing ways to use an interactive classroom projector. WeAreTeachers.com. Retrieved from http://www.weareteachers.com/blogs/post/2016/02/01/10-game-changing-ways-to-use-an-interactive-classroom-projector

This article describes modern technologies, like digital projectors, used for interactive teaching, turning any surface into a whiteboard which then detects fingers or a special pen so it moves like the touchscreen on a tablet or smartphone. Think of the possibilities in that. Maps, history, geography, all able to be interacted with and change how classrooms work.

Creating Hybrid Spaces for Exploration

Subramaniam, M. M., Ahn, J., Fleischmann, K. R., & Druin, A. (2012) Reimagining the role of school libraries in STEM education: Creating hybrid spaces for exploration. The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy. 82(2) pp. 161-182.

Summary: This article examines the role of school libraries in STEM education from a sociocultural approach. The article stresses the need for school libraries to create hybrid spaces for STEM education and to maximize the roles school librarians have in that education. The authors propose that teachers and librarians take on an active role in STEM education through advising, collaboration, and technology. The authors further propose that librarians are in a unique position to create an environment for active participation for STEM activities which will further aid students in creating a STEM identity.

Evaluation: Though focused on STEM education, the takeaways from this article really stress basic elements of teacher-librarianship and library space. They stress libraries being active learning commons, collaboration with teachers and librarians advising students on resources and technology to provide transformative experiences for learning. 

Making the Classroom-library Connection

Moreillon, J. (2016). Making the classroom-library connection. Teacher Librarian 43(3). p 8-18.

Summary: This article describes the author’s experience with providing a workshop to pre-service teachers about collaboration and co-teaching with a teacher-librarian. The workshop was co-taught and featured small and whole-group sessions where preservice teachers were exposed to areas of teacher-librarian expertise such as copyright and fair use and a co-planning demonstration.  The author found that the majority of preservice teachers saw the benefit of collaboration with a teacher librarian and that efforts by teacher-librarians to reach out to these teachers would generally be well-received.

Evaluation: This article stresses an important element about co-teaching that is rarely addressed in the literature: teacher instruction. While librarians are taught about collaboration and co-teaching as fundamental to their careers, preservice teachers are not getting this exposure in their education. The author suggests that teacher-librarians reach out to teachers for co-planning, and that engaging new teachers in collaboration early can set the stage for more co-teaching. The author also suggests that this workshop could be given to education students and foster the idea of collaboration and co-teaching before teachers enter the school system.