Join in on conversations about South Carolina school libraries on the South Carolina Association of School Librarians’ Blog
Yes, you will have to wait until November 2009, but AASL’s National Conference is close to home next November! The theme is Rev Up Learning @ your library. Mark your calendars for: November 5-8, 2009
Think you’d like to present a preconference? They are now accepting applications…more information available here: http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/conferencesandevents/national/charlotte2009/forpresenters/requestforproposal/rfp2009precon.cfm
The 2008 SCASL Summer Institute was yesterday at Seawell’s in Columbia and it was great! Erlene Bishop Killeen was our guest and she was wonderful – a school and district level librarian and professor who shared with us research about reading and gave tips and tricks about the Reading Program and the Library Media Specialist. The institute was interactive and everyone walked away learning something new!
So I know many of you have seen this February article from Scholastic’s Administrator titled “Meet Your New School Library Media Specialist: Not Your Grandma’s Librarian…” I’m pretty sure I saw it when someone published it on the SCASL list serv, but I had already seen it in Doug Johnson’s Blue Skunk blog too. SC received some really good kudos in that article, particularly for our LMS ADEPT program. What I did not realize was that the AASL Blog had president Sarah Kelly Johns had posted her thoughts on the article in February as well, and best she directly expressed an intrigue with our ADEPT instrument used to evaluate South Carolina Media Specialists.
I know many who actually worked on the development of the instrument, and I’ve had the chance to sit on evaluation teams (as many of you know, ADEPT is not done by a sole administrator, but rather a team of no less than two evaluators, one an administrator and one a peer.) With many of us being “singletons” in our schools, that peer is usually another practicing LMS from a neighboring school. I’ve been involved in the evaluation of LMS’s a couple of times using the instrument, and I must say it is a fair instrument that really reflects today’s school library media program. As a matter of fact, I’ve used my presence on these teams to “educate” principals on the vernacular of a current best practice library, and gotten some of them look at their program compared to best practice, hoping to be a catalyst for change in a school (i.e. showing how a fixed schedule does not really fit the evaluation instrument–that only an open or flexible schedule fits the evaluation instrument.)
Have I been able to make changes for the schools where I served on the team–particularly ones using a fixed schedule and a librarian as a planning period? No, I cannot say I have. I did though get the last school that I served on the team with to increase the school library budget so that the LMS would not be cited in the instrument on the collection when no monies had been allocated at all. I am proud of that instrument too, and hope that our administrators will take a second look at it now–particularly now that we are getting attention from a national perspective. I am also glad to know that activists in our organizations like AASL President Sarah Kelly Johns and Doug Johnson are giving our state kudos for the evaluation program we use to assess LMS’s. Do I think it will be a catalyst for major change? No. I will continue doing my part in educating administrators when I serve on evaluation teams, I promise. But we all know some things look good on paper, and that ometimes the reality bites. I wonder how many LMS’s in our state that have been required to do ADEPT have passed with flying colors, even though they have pathetic budgets, outdated collections, and no time for true collaboration (b/c they are the planning time for teachers)? I would wager many. Also let’s not forget the only LMS’s who have to go through the evaluation program are LMS’s who enter the profession as a first year educator, experienced LMS’s who move into South Carolina (and that is not every district or school, even), or LMS’s who work under progressive administrators who see the program and want to strive for change (and hope that the evaluation will be either a cure-all or cause a vacancy to fill.) Either way it is viewed, I still think the LMS Adept program deserves the merit and attention it is getting, and it makes me proud to work as a teacher librarian in the state of South Carolina.
One more note–for those of you who are using blogs for personal professional development, please note that the AASL Blog has relocated and renovated. Update your feeds to this address. Check out the new and improved AASL Weblog at http://aasl.ala.org/aaslblog or http://aaslblog.org
Joyce Valenza (uber-teacher librarian, SLJ’s Neverending Search ), who will be joining us at the SCASL conference is a scheduled guest on one of my favorite web shows, the Women of Web 2.0 this coming Tuesday night. She and the Director
of Media and Technology Doug Johnson (Blue Skunk Blog fame) of Mankato, Minnesota (another oneof my favorites!!) will be visiting the 2.0 ladies (hence the name of the show Women of Web 2.0, known to many as WOW 2.0.) There is a planned Ustream, and the EdTech Talk website that hosts the live program offers an AWESOME chat for the virtual participants. Someone from the show watches the chat, and always brings our comments into the mix. Plan to join the show on EdTech Talk (or Ustream–they will share details about the Ustream as we get closer to Tuesday.) The show is on just about EVERY Tuesday night at 9:00 PM. EST.
Want to join in but don’t feel so comfy using the site? Email me or chat to me in my gmail (cathyjonelson) and I’ll assist you getting in to listen and even chat if you like. First timers sometimes have difficulty finding the audio stream. Of course if you’ll jump right in the chat and ask for help, many there (Lisa Durff, Lisa Parisi, Carolyn Foote, me, others) will offer all kinds of things to try. I consider myself (and these friends) regulars in the chat room, and all of us go out of our way to assist newcomers. The shows are always powerful, the hour flies by, and you will make many new friends. Best, this Tuesday is ALL ABOUT what we are about–school libraries.
C’mon, represent South Carolina LMS’s THIS Tuesday!
The SCASL Call to Conference has been posted (www.scasl.net) and mailed out…I hope that you are all very excited about our conference…I know I am!
I am going to start sending out a little more information each week about our conference…details about sessions and tours, announcements, and more. If you have questions or want more information about something I send out, do not hesitate to let me know! The SCASL Conference is YOUR conference and I want you to get the most out of it!
Technology is such an important aspect to our jobs and there are lots of exciting events happening this week for S.C. LMS to learn more about using technology with students and teachers. The EdTech Conference in Myrtle Beach, AASL in Reno, and the wrap up of the K12 Online Conference! Whew!
If you cannot attend EdTech or AASL, never fear! SCASL is bringing lots of technology sessions to OUR conference, March 12-14, 2008 at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center. We will give you the tools you need to successfully integrate technology into the classroom and library!
Here’s just a little of what you can look forward to:
Annette Lamb (she will be at the AASL conference!)
Annette will be doing a variety of sessions for us on Wednesday, March 12 and Thursday, March 13. You can attend an all day pre-conference with her about E-scrapbooking; or pick a concurrent session to attend. She’ll be talking about using existing classroom technology tools (such as PowerPoint) to create engaging project starters in “PowerPoint Sidekicks and Desktop Learning Spaces.” Learn about using Google Earth to track a book character and using video conferencing for meetings in “Re-imagine, Rejuvenate, Renew” on Thursday. Her husband, Larry Johnson, will also be presenting sessions…you can catch an AM or PM pre-conference with Larry. He’ll be talking about collaborating with your classroom teachers and on Thursday, he’ll be talking about how to get out of the “Information Avalanche” by using RSS feeds to keep up with blog reading and other information we often find ourselves buried under! Find out more at their website: http://eduscapes.com/
Joyce Valenza
We all love her so much! Joyce will be one of our keynote speakers on Thursday and will be doing a couple concurrent sessions. Joyce is a blogger for School Library Journal (add it to your RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SLJNeverEndingSearch) and an all around technology/library role model. Be sure to check her out!
Confused about all of those different 2.0 tools out there or not sure how to use them with your students? Attend the all day pre-conference session, “Power Up to the Future…with Web 2.0″ with the Richland One Instructional Technology Team. Be on the lookout for concurrent sessions by members of the team as well, many of whom are also presenting at EdTech!
Not sure what to do with that SMARTBoard (or any interactive whiteboard) in your library? We’ll have a concurrent session to help you! Barbie Zinkovich, Marilyn Gramling, and Lucy Ballew will be presenting this session at EdTech AND SCASL!
Martha Alewine and Frank Baker will help you provide your teachers with the best resources in understanding information/media/technology literacy at their concurrent session (they will also be presenting an all day pre-conference about using K.A.T.S. in your library)!
Want time to explore Knowitall.org, DISCUS, and StreamlineSC? Our friends Andrea Thorpe, Amy Duernberger, and Donna Thompson will help you!
You know that SCASL has a blog and Flickr page, right? If you do not know how to post to these tools or want to learn more about them, visit our very own “Technology Queen,” Cathy Nelson, as she guides you through the use of these tools at our Exploritorium on Wednesday evening!
Finally, other technology related concurrent sessions to look for include (and this isn’t even ALL of them!):
Using 3D images and Videos
iPods in the Classroom
Introduction to SchoolRooms
Nuts and Bolts of Podcasting
MovieMaker Magic
Library of Congress resources online
WOW!
If you are going to a conference this week, have fun and learn lots! If you are stuck at school and you are waiting to go to the SCASL Conference, please look forward to excellent technology sessions!
More SCASL Conference updates next week!
Valerie Byrd Fort
SC EdTech offers content and activities that span all areas of educational technology with diverse workshops, presentations, speakers, exhibitors, and recognition events. SCASL is a sponsor of this annual conference. There will be strands that certainly address information literacy, and a number of sessions are actually being presented by fellow LMS’s and folks who directly impact our libraries, including:
Make plans today to join us in Myrtle Beach for the 10th Annual SC Edtech Conference. Help us with e-transcripts and hosting registration and information desks too! Visit the SCEdtech Wiki (password edtech to edit and add your name) to select a spot to help out. There are great networking opportunities at this conference, and volunteering guarantees your seat in popular sessions.
Please let me clarify something. My post regarding David Loertscher and David Warlick was primarily about how a webcast can draw me away from gurus like David Loertscher, and not to be misunderstood. I’ve followed David Loertscher through the years, and he adds value and has given excellent guidance on implementing a solid school library program that supports student learning. My favorite David L. presentation is from his book Ban the Bird Units! He has been in SC in recent years at our annual SCASL conference, and is well known among the SC school librarians. Doug Johnson said very positive things about David Loertscher and the presentation given in Second Life Wednesday Night, and I am glad I was able to use his post about the presentation since I did opt for the Women of Web webcast instead of ISTE’s David Loertscher presentation in Second Life. David Loertscher is right on top of current trends as you can see with his three spaces for students.
Doug Johnson states it best here:
…David Loertscher has remained a constant source of inspiration and ideas in the field of school librarianship through out my career. He’s an amazing guy…
Thank you Doug for sharing the information from a presentation I had a hard time leaving as I made my way over to the Women of Web 2.0 webcast.
Cathy Nelson
Yesterday I was in a dilemma about what evening professional development event I wanted to participate in. I had read weeks ago that Second Life planned a presentation event in conjunction with ISTE featuring David Loertscher, library media guru and professor at San Jose State. I had also heard that David Warlick would be a guest on a weekly webcast i join, Women of Web 2.0. So at 9pm last night I was truly a multitasking person, pulling up both, and trying both at the same time. As I waited for David Loertscher to begin, I am standing there in SL thinking how eerie it feels to be in a virtual world, and how I was NEVER really a gamer, and didn’t know if I would EVER develop a comfort zone for this. I actually stood, too, b/c I could NOT make my avatar sit down. Seats were rapidly filling. But the other part of my computer was iTunes (as well as a chat window), and the folks were shrieking with laughter and very obviously having a great time. The conversation was LIVELY and fun, and I kept going back so I could follow the chat. The ladies and their guests always bring in the conversations happening in the chat, and last night was no less. I was incorrect about the guests though. David Warlick is going to visit soon, but last night was a show focusing on using social networks and new presentation tools. It was mentioned that WOW2.0 was competing with an ISTE event in SL, but the chatroom had a record crowd–in the upper 30s. The guests were Darren Draper of Blog “Drapes Takes,” 5th grade teacher Dean Meyer, and Steve Hargadon of blog fame, Ning fame, and best, Edublogger Con fame form NECC 2007.
What a WISE decision I made. Even though I was mildly disappointed that it wasn’t David Warlick, it was still very powerful conversations about new, free (mostly opensource) presentation tools, like Elluminate, FlashMeeting, Google Presentations, and others, and how these tools have enabled us to have meaningful professional development with tools designed not only to share, but also involve and interact with participants. Many of the new tools have a chat feature enabled, and sometimes the presenter can even incorporate the back channeled conversations right into their presentations. How awesome. We also talked of the power of social networks and social networking, reliving just a bit of the power that came from EdubloggerCon (which i attended and participated in at NECC Atlanta 2007!!)
Doug Johnson of Blue Skunk Blog fame had blogged yesterday about how he planned to attend the David Loertscher presentation in SL. So I emailed him and shared about my quandry–which one to choose? He emailed me back today, noting that he went to the SL presentation, and it seemed to me he was mildly disappointed that David Loertscher was only there apparently in handout form, as his assistant conducted the presentation. The content was good, but available as a pdf handout download. (NOTE: You can get good summary as well as Doug’s take and thought provoking questions from this SL presentation in a post on his blog today.)
So with this information I now am SO GLAD I choose Women of Web 2.0. It was well worth the hour I spent online in this chatroom as I listened to the guests and hostesses carry the program. Best of all, I was NOT alone in my choice. Reports are that the chatroom had record numbers, and included in the chatroom were some really big experts like David Jakes, Miguel Ghulin, and LMS’s Joyce Valenza, Carloyn Foote, and Lisa Durff. (Great minds think alike, and apparently meet up in the same chatrooms!) My friends, it is a wonderful opportunity to network with educators who have a similar interests in students and education. Here is quoted text from their site that tells what it is:
WOW 2.0 is for all who are using the tools of the internet whether it be in a classroom setting, leading seminars, authoring books, maintaining blogs or wikis, or just enjoying the tools of the internet in an educational and exciting way.
WOW2 is brought to you by Cheryl Oakes, Jennifer Wagner, Sharon Peters, & Vicki Davis, four women who not only love using the tools of the Internet but also love sharing the tools with others…Each Tuesday night’s chat is great fun and we invite you to join in the conversation via the chat room.
One last note. I asked Jennifer Wagner when David Warlick will be there. They are trying to have him mid October, which for the show translates to Tuesday night, October 16, from 9-10PM. I promise if you come any Tuesday night you won’t be disappointed.
Recently a live webcast I frequently tune in to (called Teachers Teaching Teachers Wednesdays at 9:00pm) focused on databases used in the schools, and their primary focus was state funded databases. [UPDATE August 11, 2007: Podcast NOW available here.] Our state funded database is called DISCUS, and I really do not know what I would do for database subscriptions if we did not have it. The focus of the conversations, both in the chat and in the skype calls focused on how our students and yes, even us, often first turn to Google for our information need, and the concern that this source is not necessarily a good source at all. The potential is so great for misinformation! If you are from South Carolina and you haven’t been in a while, you probably should check it the redesigned DISCUS site. It has a whole new look and feel. DISCUS is one of the only ways public schools in South Carolina can provide database subscriptions to their students and teachers. Generally a subscription to one of these databases would cost upwards of $1000, and many schools don’t even net that amount for one school year to buy books, let alone subscribe to databases. Be sure the next time you have an opportunity, thank our legislators who continue to support funding so that it is a free resource in our schools.
The discussion on TTT centered on why teacher-librarians and educators in general can’t seem to win students over on using these databses as a first choice in their research. Some of the reasons stated (Joyce Valenza for one) named the complexity of the interface as one reason. Another issue is the complexity in login/password. Google doesn’t require a password, does it? What are your thoughts??
Join the next two Wednesdays at 9:00pm to listen live, and perhaps join in the discussion, either through the chat or skype. You never know who is going to be there! Already booked an appointment or have a conflict? No problem, visit the TTT site to listen later straight from the web, or subscribe as a podcast. There is some powerful learning there for you.
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