Friday, April 12, 2024

 Gift to Seniors

Hello friends! Here you are, almost done with allllll those years of school. Many of you are about to embark on further schooling, with a focus on a chosen field of study. Many will be heading into full-time work, and perhaps establishing a career. Some will be heading into the military, with its own set of challenges. And some of you haven't quite figured out what the next step will be and just need a break, a chance to take a breath and decompress. Which is ok! 

As you make those decisions, I wanted to offer some helpful tools and advice to help guide your steps as you move out of the somewhat protected world of high school and into adulthood. So here is my gift to you:


Monday, January 10, 2022

Access as a Two-way Street

I had a revelation at 2:00 in the morning as I was lying wide awake in bed (as one does...). We librarians love to talk about the value of equitable access in our libraries, and we strive to provide that access to all of our patrons/customers/students. We seek to remove any barriers to access, whether they be physical barriers or barriers based on perceived ability or biased assumptions. 

But in the school setting, we are in the unique position of also having access to every member of the learning community, every classroom, and all curricula. Few other individuals in the school have that position. We have the privilege of being able to build a relationship with every student, to get to know the child who is entering the school for the first time, to offer the safe space to the kid who is struggling. 

We hear about a new resource or attend a session at a conference and immediately imagine a teacher whose classroom will benefit from the information. Collaboration is such an ingrained part of our work that we begin to plan how best to incorporate the new resource into the curriculum. 

Ranganathan states, "Every book its reader" and "Every reader [their] book," but the corollary in the school setting could be, "Every student their person." And the librarian is that person. Every kid has access to the librarian, and the librarian has access to every kid. It's a symbiotic relationship. For some children, knowing that they have that one person can mean the difference between despair and resilience.  

Sadly, when that access is removed, the students lose that one individual who knows them, who sees them grow during their time in the school, who follows their progress and revels in seeing their learning and celebrates their successes. 

When I began my career as a school librarian, I quickly realized that one of the many benefits of my position was that I got to see my students grow and mature, that I got to be part of that moment when adulthood began to set in. How awesome is that?! 

Photo by Paul Hanaoka on Unsplash


 


Monday, April 27, 2020

Comfort Reading

I have some edtech tools I am collecting, but right now I really wanted to share a concept I came up with about a year ago called "comfort reading." You know how we call mac 'n cheese comfort food? Same concept. When I am going through some stuff, I don't need more unknown in my life, so starting a new book, even if it's really good, can be a bit daunting. That's when I reach for my old favorites. It's like hanging out with a good friend - you know who the characters are, you know what they say, you know how it ends, and it all surrounds you and lifts you off of the couch and out of your house and plops you right into the setting. It soothes your brain and your soul and gives you - well, comfort. Hence the name! 

Enough with the chatter. Here is a list of some of my favorites. 

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

On Writing

Today I want to focus on some good resources for writing. These are ones I'm familiar with and have been collecting into a Wakelet folder. Which, by the way, is another terrific resource! Connects directly to Twitter, so that you can bookmark tweets and threads to read later. Completely shareable. Great for teacher librarians and other educators to share resources with students, colleagues, parents.
Works well as a portfolio for student work, since documents can be uploaded from Drive. And there's a Chrome extension, so you can pop links that interest you directly into folders without having to switch tabs. I've embedded the Wakelet folder directly into this post, and will be adding to it as I see new resources. 

I do want to also recommend Grammarly, which is also available as a Chrome extension and will just cruise along in the background, catching your spelling and grammar errors. It has a tendency to be a bit obtrusive sometimes, but you can adjust the settings to make it go away. 

Thursday, March 19, 2020



        

Today I want to focus on a topic that is not new, but is finding a very interesting place in classrooms across the country - podcasts! Podcasts are a great tool for learning, for entertainment, for inspiration, and because of their singular nature (audio only, episodic), they are perfect for multitasking - washing the dishes, working out on the treadmill, walking the dog, the options are endless! 

Here are a few suggested podcasts for students:
My personal favorite!!

Youth Radio


    
    
Now here's the cool part - you can create your own podcast, using your iPad or smartphone! And you can submit it to the NPR Student Podcast Challenge and have it played on national radio. They've extended the deadline for submission until April 7, so give it a try!

You have several apps on your iPad which work well for creating a podcast:

Anchor
I recommend Anchor for its ease of use. It has lots of built-in music and sound effects, and walks you through the process. And the software will automatically upload your finished product to online podcast catchers, including Spotify. The only drawback is that you can't edit audio files, so make sure you get it right in one take. This is why PRACTICE is important! 



Soundtrap
       
Garageband














Here are the steps I recommend for creating a podcast:


  1. Listen to other podcasts! Use the recommended podcasts above, or search the Podcasts app on your iPad for topics you like. You can also listen to the one I created, with book recommendations. Listen to how the stories are told, how they open their podcast, how they convey emotion.
  2. Decide what you want to talk about. Being stuck at home during a pandemic would be an obvious choice, but perhaps you want to take your mind off of the situation, or take your listeners' minds to a different place. 
  3. Decide how you will tell your story. Will it be informative? Dramatic? Argumentative? Inspirational? Will you include sound effects? Music? 
  4. Create your script. This is an important step. Don't just wing it. You can make talking points for yourself, but the whole process will be a lot smoother if you know what you will be saying. Remember what I said above about practicing?! 
  5. Decide which app you will use and begin recording. In Anchor, you can invite contributors, even if you are not in the same house or you are practicing social distancing! 
  6. I'd love to hear what you come up with - and be sure to submit to the Student Podcast Challenge! 

Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Haven't visited this page in a loooong time! And now, thanks to the quarantine, I have the time and the mental energy. Of course, I prefer seeing my friends in person, but here we are...

Yesterday I created a document that dealt with reading resources. You can get to it here. I'll update it as I hear more information. Today I want to focus on exploring the Self-Service folder on the OACSD iPads. If you happen to be reading this and are NOT affiliated with our district, you can still go to the App Store and download the apps yourself! 



Informable

This app gives you the opportunity to test your ability to identify advertisements, evidence, and propaganda from popular social media sites, including Tik Tok, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Created by the News Literacy Project, the app uses gaming to help you become a better consumer of information online. I highly recommend visiting the News Literacy Project website as well - lots of excellent tips!




Educreations Whiteboard


Educreations is a unique interactive whiteboard and screencasting tool that's simple, powerful, and fun to use. Annotate, animate, and narrate nearly any type of content as you explain any concept. Teachers can create short instructional videos and share them instantly with students, or ask students to show what they know and help friends learn something new.




Spark makes it easy to combine video clips, photos, icons, and voiceovers — plus cinematic motion and professional-quality soundtracks — to create compelling video stories. It’s big-impact communication that takes just minutes to create.

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

I've been dying to try Spine Poems for awhile now. This little initiative from the Strand Bookstore in NYC is the perfect opportunity to give them a go. I sent an email out to ELA teachers asking who would be interested in bringing in students to do these, and a couple enthusiastically responded. Can't wait!