SCASL Conference Notes

R David Lankes: Keynote

Notes and Quotes:

• don't be "too modest"
• share clear collaboration and announce its benefits
• recognize opportunities and potential to be involved and grow
• "boundareis are temporal and passable"
• we have an obligation to lead thought change
• "you can aspire"
• encourage communities to make smarter and more informed choices
• "bring the world into our classroom and bring the classroom to the world"
• every proposed filter is a moment of opportunity
• the core of librarianship is sharing instead of data technology
• repetition of "knowledge"
• developing and sharing the best practices with each other
• we have a "social mission" of values and ethics and service and intellectual freedom and civic discourse and...
• our goal is to generate great supporters of libraries
• not about an individual program or school, but about a community and world and workers and and and

Response:
Dr. Lankes keynote address certainly set the tone for the conference. It was both empowering and realistic about the goals and roles we have been studying in the MLIS program. I did feel a little like I would need to be Superman in order to fulfill the sort of social role and responsibility Lankes was suggesting. Sure as a whole group I suppose we can accomplish these major goals of leading a "revolution" in the "values" that he talked so much about. I know that those of us in that room certainly do value the things he talked about. I think that Lankes was offering collaboration and establishing connections as the new leader of the LIS school, which will no doubt benefit both USC and the schools in the state.

Passive Programming by Leigh Jordan: Session

Notes and Quotes:

• "I Spy" to acquaint students with the library
• one month program
• prizes rotate through the day/week
• 3-year program rotations (middle school)
• Big focus and programs during April's National Library Week
• One station per week in April
• Activity Ideas:
• Fortune teller template to recommend books
• Spine poetry
• craft/maker space
• duck tape website
• 9 Hole Golf course through the shelves
• Lego build & write 
• Memory with books/authors/characters
• Candyland through the stacks
• Use materials or texts or genres as themes for activities
• Advertise activities throughout school/on newsletter
• Summer drop in for middle schoolers and siblings
• 4 times over summer
• paid via district stipend
• open 2 to 7 PM

Response:
Ms. Jordan had many creative ides for her library. Some seemed rather involved and requiring several materials. Jordan did suggest that most were collected through donations or bought at second-hand stores, but would still require quite a bit of prep to include into the library program. One of her biggest suggestions was to develop the program over the course of a few years to really collect this many activities. I liked the creativity she displayed; however, I felt that most of the presentation could have been drafted into a suggestions list that could have been easily published and distributed for SLMS use and reading at our leisure. Additionally, "Passive Programming" was not at all what the topic of this session was, so I was a bit disappointed once the lecture actually began.

Reading Using Technology by Eve Heaton: Session

Notes and Quotes:

• Seven Sneaky Ways (to get kids to read)
• digital timer
• "realistic time"
• students to set timers to give power
• challenges and badges
•  build from easy to harder challenges over school year quarters
• ClassFlow for interactive lessons via Promethean
• "MicroCredentials" for skills building
• multimedia books
• i.e. Patrick Carmen, videos follow at the end of each chapter
• 3:15 series of short stories
• advertise as a "Scary Book Club...don't come, it's too scary!" (reverse psychology)
• online libraries
• free AT SCHOOL: epic!, Big Universe
• subscription: OverDrive
• gamify reading
•  BookAdventure.com
• Book Scavenger
• size matters
• DOGO News!
• Newsela
• ReadWorks and ReadWorks Digital to teach Text-Dependent-Analysis and test literacy skills
• transcripts and closed captioning
• have students listen only, then watch video
• have students watch video without sound to read captions
• Flocabulary (subscription)
• CNN Student News
• Discovery Education (subscription)
• YouTube (CC)
• My Simple Show
•  copy of her PPT: https://goo.gl/J0g9hw

Response:
Let me tell you, I was more than a little miffed when, at the end of the session, Ms. Heaton said that her whole presentation could be read on a published website. What a waste of an hour! At least I had some tasty hand pies from the Hyatt and got free swag from her room! Despite this, several of the ideas I have used in my own classroom before and have found them effective. I did learn of a few resources, but again, this could have easily been distributed as a published list rather than required a whole session of the conference.

Day 13: Professional Development and PLCs

The Ravenel teachers had the opportunity to meet and discuss/learn about successful STEAM projects in the classrooms here within the school. I decided to attend one of these groups as the STEAM initiative is a central part of the ONE Seneca ideal. Let me unpack that. ONE Seneca is the high school district within the school district of Oconee County. There are two other high school districts that each have their own feeder elementary/middle schools. STEAM, which is the rarer form of STEM, represents Science Technology Engineering Arts and Mathematics, a program that encourages student learning through discovery and application challenges. I have seen many magnet schools or other specialty schools encourage the STEM program, but increasingly I see various elementary schools incorporating the program as bonus curriculum or as growth initiatives.

I have seen various programs both during my internship and during my teaching career that are half-hearted, unpopular, or unsupported; however, the STEAM program at Ravenel seems to be gaining both momentum and enthusiasm from the teachers and students. I spoke most specifically with Mr. Quarles, a fourth-grade math teacher. He chose to create box cars with his students using the ideas of parallelism, force, and distance to base his “mathematics” lesson on. Quarles ordered a kit that came with “wheels” made from push-pops, straws, rubber bands, and balloons. The students then had to measure and build a car that could go five feet in a straight line. The fundamentals of keeping both sets of wheels aligned as well as how much to inflate the balloon and where to put the balloon were all factors to a successful car. While many teachers focus on the STEAM lesson over a single week or other compacted unit of time, Quarles “spirals” his units, teaching and re-teaching specific skills with increasing rigor and difficulty. He chose to develop this STEAM lesson over the series of a few weeks, adding different skills and curriculum-based lessons into the intermediate time. Quarles said that the students had fun as well as learned essential skills for mathematics and science based on the problems they encountered with their cars. It sounded like a fun unit both for him and for the students.

The library has not yet experimented with the STEAM curriculum, but does have a few books that have been used in other classrooms. CIndy and I have talked about the SLIS 720 Grant Writing project possibly looking into materials on STEAM lessons and resources to use in the LMC. The ideas she and I have talked about at this point mostly revolve around Technology, Arts, and Mathematics using the resources already available in the library.

I also used today to create a tech video to introduce some of Google's features. The teachers have had Google all year, but many of the teachers are still unfamiliar with its processes and options. I decided to show them how to add a picture to their profile and to create multiple login profiles via Google Chrome. The pictures were really a feature both for fun/personalization but also for use with the multiple profiles on a computer. Many of the teachers use Google as a personal account and now have the school's account. This way, the teachers can keep student information secure on the Oconee network, as the safety brief I got on Feb 6 required.

I wanted this video to be about two minutes, but when I recorded the first video it was a little over five. I decided to change up some of the order and pre-open some tabs, but the video was still about four and a half minutes. I wanted these videos to be brief so teachers would have time and be willing to spend the time on watching them; but it seems like to fully understand what is happening and explain the whys and hows required that little bit of extra time. I decided it was worth the extra three minutes and will be sending the video out on Tuesday for Tuesday Tech Tips! Hopefully these are received well by the staff!

PD Email: Google Drive Basics

Hey, all!

I want to offer bite-sized technology PD for you to view on your own time!

This week's episode is on Google Drive Basics:

0:23 (1) G Suite Training App

1:08 (2) Creating a new document

2:08 (3) Sharing a document

2:30      (with editing, commenting, and viewing modes) 

3:36 (4) Viewing as the receiver (Cindy)

5:17 (5) Recap

​

 Two Minute Tech Tuesday: Google Drive Basics.webm

​

I hope that this and future videos can show you some useful skills for your repertoire! Please let me know if you have a request for a tech video!

Have a great Tuesday!

Elizabeth

P.S. I did really try to keep this one to two minutes, but a basic intro needs a minute or two more! Next week, I'll be keeping it to two minutes, focusing on personalizing your Chrome browser!

--

Elizabeth G. Heck

Media Specialist Intern

University of South Carolina 

egheck14@gmail.com

Cindy Edgerton

Media Specialist

Ravenel Elementary

cedgerton@g.oconee.k12.sc.us

Day 5: Filling in the Roles

Today, I taught another class of first-graders, reading Roses are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink. They LOVE this story! Not only do the students respond to the moments of the story, but they also relate to the message of being kind to one another and the consequences of writing mean things. The biggest curve I will need to learn is timing. I did go a little over the teacher's allotted time which potentially sets his/her own plans back. From teaching for six years, I know that timing is something that comes with practice: practice with the student groups, with the materials, with the environment, with teachers' expectations. I have a few more times with this story with different classes, so will try to focus on appropriate timing and interaction.

I also had my first experience with adding books to the catalog. These books were ordered from Bound to Stay Bound, and Cindy pays for them to be prepped for shelving. They came already with call numbers and barcodes, though we added some information within the pages. We stamped the Ravenel ownership "watermark," wrote the AR reading level/points, and put the spare barcode on the first end page. Cindy also writes the vendor and the fiscal year on the inside spine to keep easy track of inventory sourcing. She then puts the packing list or invoice in a binder organized by date. This way, she says, if the bookkeeper requires any additional information for review, Cindy can pull up the form easily. Though much information is now digitized, Cindy says that this "ledger" has saved her spending lots of time searching for information. This way, it is tangible and brief to record and retrieve information for orders and inventory.

After the instructional day, today was a faculty meeting. Our first presenter was for additional insurance. He was goofy and adorable. All the while, the glaring ''CODE RED'' was staring at us all from the projection behind. This meant this presentation was not as well received. The second presentation felt terrifyingly tense for this collection of sensitive and caring elementary teachers. The Sheriff outlined so many scenarios and horrific potential realities that the ''training'' felt like a scare tactic rather than an educational system of protection. Even the officer and the district trainer both said the reality vs. the plan will change. One of the teachers also reflected that the students are often traumatized after their undercover intruder drills, including nightmares, tears, and general terror. Obviously safety training and drills are important, especially with recent events locally and nationally, but there must be a method that is both effective and empowering to the teachers. I don't know what the right answer is for this, but these are my observations from today's training. Two valuable points from the presentation were: (1) do not keep id with a key on it: if left, immediate access and knowledge from where the keys belong; and (2) prepare ''outs'' for each room including cafeteria, recess, etc