Parkway School District Library Services
Volume 4 | Issue 12
Know & Go Updates @your Library Program Evaluation This week we created a draft of survey questions for parents, students, librarians, teachers, and administrators. These questions are our starting points and we’ve requested input from the program evaluation group as to what we might be missing or what we might want to change. Each one of the questions is based on our topics of study for this evaluation. We are hoping to have them finalized and distributed in the next few weeks.
Follet Endof-the-Year Orders Due to BOE policy requiring all checks to be approved by the Board of Education, the last day to order using LMS budget funds is March 31, 2017. Follett orders will be finalized and shipped by May 19th. The earlier orders are placed, the higher the fill rate. Please refer to your school Google budget sheet, shared in July, for funds available. Contact Nancy for questions.
Looking for Summer Developer Summer will be here before you know it and we are looking for people interested in teaching tech classes. If you are interested in teaching a class to your colleagues on a specific topic, please let Bill know as soon as you're able. He hopes to have sessions set up in the next few weeks. Please email your topic, a description of the class, and dates that you'd like to offer it. Even if it's not solid, he’s trying to gauge interest at this point.
Teen Tech Week Resources The YALAS’s Teen Tech Week (March 5–11) takes place the first full week of March each year as a way to spotlight the rich and diverse texture school libraries have beyond print resources and the critical role played by school librarians across the nation as leaders in technology in today’s 21st-century schools. In Nikki Robertson’s blog post from SLJ.com you will find great tips and resources, such as the 2017 Teen Tech Week Pinterest Board.
What does it mean to be a librarian in the digital age?
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Librarians List 2016-17 Who To Call Ordering procedures Follett ordering w/screenshots Follett Acct #'s Follett req Instructions Building budget Sub librarian list Sub Training Videos Ordering/renewing databases HS only Destiny FAQ Free Lib Book District Surplus Property Procedures
#ParkwayMakes Make an Inchworm Using LittleBits LittleBits Tutorial - A few months back a group of students had the opportunity of checking out the STEAM Student Set from littleBits. It's one of their newest kits and is packed full of maker goodness. Students decided to test out some of the bits and ended up creating an inchworm as shown below. Super fun project ! They loved it so much we they made two and raced them. If you're interested in creating one, you can check out the step by step tutorial video.
#FutureReady Builds Instructional Partnerships Tips for Meaningful Making Advice and resources from a panel discussion at this year’s TCEA Annual Convention & Exposition (similar to our METC Conference). The question posed was, how can we use maker programs to inspire learning and curiosity across the student spectrum? Be patient and support each other. Maker programs don’t happen overnight. It takes time; it may not happen the first or second year. Encourage each other and know that makerspaces will look different from school-to-school and year-to-year. Purpose for having a maker movement in your building often changes, find people to encourage and support you in this endeavour. Learn from others. Go see what’s happening at other schools several times a year to learn from programs that are evolving. See what works for them and take elements of those programs back to your site. Make it your own. There’s no one right way to do this. Your MSPLC is a great group to learn from, as well as, following specific maker hashtags on Twitter. Make it for all students. Find a way to extend your program to all students – not just the members of the STEM club or after-school program, Look at ways you can build it across different content areas, such as art, social studies, English language arts. Another route is to ask yourself, what need is being addressed in the makerspace? The panel also offered these free resources you can use to get more ideas: ●
Makerspace Links ● ● ● ● ●
Library Services Makerspace Order Form Vendors List: Mobile Makerspace Kit Request Mobile Makerspace Site Mobile Makerspace Stories & Quotes
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Meaningful Making: Projects and Inspirations for FabLabs and Makerspaces. Hard copies of the book are available for purchase but the PDF version is available at no charge. Wicked Decent Learning blog. Check out Dan Ryder’s “Design Thinking” section to get insights on making and reflection. Agency by Design. Visit the Educator Resources section to see different ways to approach the thinking behind making. ~adapted from smartbrief.com
Bonus Maker Resource Moving Beyond Lego Walls Let's make things interactive! In this worlds-of-learning.com blog post, Laura Fleming is pushing the envelope and offering high-tech and low-tech alternatives to the Lego Wall depending on what your school community needs. Check out these other posts from Laura: ● Making GREAT Makerspaces: The 7 Attributes of a GREAT Makerspace ● BYOT (Bring Your Own Toolbox)
What does it mean to be a librarian in the digital age?
Google Updates Insert and delete groups of cells in Google Sheets
#FutureReady - Curates Resources & Tools What More Can I Do with my Android Tablet ? Create Video Lesson with Know Recorder Know Recorder is a free app for creating whiteboard-style videos on iPads and Android tablets. The free app will let you record yourself speaking while drawing on your tablet. Your video can have multiple pages which is a nice feature when you want to give a multiple step demonstration without having to erase anything. Know Recorder will let you import PDFs and pictures to display and annotate on screen in your instructional video. Completed videos can be saved to your device’s camera roll or exported directly to YouTube. practicaledtech.com
What’s new: data in spreadsheets isn’t always neatly distributed across entire rows and columns; oftentimes, for instance, sheets contain multiple tables and regions of data that can’t be separated. With this update it’s easier to insert cells into these sheets without disturbing that content. You can delete chunks of cells in the same way. You can insert cells from Insert menu and delete cells from the Edit menu. Both features are also accessible when you right-click on a cell. For more information, check out the Help Center.
Doodle 4Google Voting is Open Here's to all the #Doodle4Google state and territory finalists! Vote for your favorite submission to help decide the national finalists, then they'll pick one grand prize winning submission to be featured on the Google homepage. Voting lasts until March 6 at 5 pm EST. https://goo.gl/9N9Dpj
Recap Looking for an easy way to gather evidence of student thinking using video? Take a look at Recap! Create a class, invite your students, and ask a question or assign a prompt. Students do a quick video response using the webcam on a Chromebook or laptop. Great for formative assessments and reflections. Letsrecap.com
25 Ways to Use Technology in the Classroom + Downloadable List Many technology-based teaching methods and resources effectively engage students and build their skills. Keeping a condensed list of resources on your desk for quick reference can help you decide how to deliver content, utilize video, and run learning stations. See them all at www.prodigygame.com. What does it mean to be a librarian in the digital age?
Creating files from templates now easier in Google Drive What’s new: Google introduced templates for reports, certificates, and presentations, as well as templates designed by experts and developed specifically for your organization. From Drive > New > Google Docs/Sheets/Slides or Forms > From a template. From there, you’ll be directed to the applicable template gallery, where you can select the template of your choice. For more details on templates, visit the Help Center.
#FutureReady Build Instructional Partnerships Powerful Closure Activities What Is Closure? Edutopia explains closure as an activity that ends a lesson and creates a lasting impression, a phenomenon that Colorado State University professor Rod Lucero calls the recency effect. Teachers use closure to: Check for understanding and inform subsequent instruction, emphasize key information, and tie up loose ends. Some of the 22 powerful closure strategies include: Parent Hotline - Give students an interesting question about the lesson without further discussion. Email their guardians the answer so that the topic can be discussed over dinner.
Events @your Library ● ● ● ● ● ●
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March Madness - Book Battle March 2nd Read Across America Day March 5 - 11 - Teen Tech Week March - Freedom of Information Day April - School Library Month April - Celebrate National Library Week with the Libraries Transform campaign D.E.A.R. Drop Everything and Read Month (April) April 30th Children’s Day/Book Day - Dia May 1- 7 -Children’s Book Week May 4 - Star Wars Day May is National Pet Month so celebrate being a participatory library by hosting a pet’s reading photo contest. Summer Reading Ideas
Two-Dollar Summary - Kids write a two-dollar (or more) summary of the lesson. Each word is worth ten cents. For extra scaffolding, ask students to include specific words in their statement: Ann Lewis & Aleta Thompson Cover It - Have kids sketch a book cover. The title is the class topic. The author is the student. A short celebrity endorsement or blurb should summarize and articulate the lesson's benefits. Question Stems - Have students write questions about the lesson on cards, using question stems framed around Bloom's Taxonomy. Have students exchange cards and answer the question they have acquired. See them all at www.edutopia.org
Five Game Based Learning Ideas for the Library CoolCatTeacher, Vicki Davis along with guest podcaster, Jessica Gordon shared many suggestions and resources for game based learning in the February 17th episode of the 10-Minute Teacher. Below are some additional ideas and resources to go along with challenge or game based learning: Choose a theme - Here's a Pinterest board made for you with theme and mini game ideas. Another popular theme is Classcraft and a medieval nobility theme. Adventure Paths - Michael made a video to help you understand what Adventure Paths are and how you can use them in the library or classroom. Mini Games - A favorite mini game is Explore Like a Pirate, but you can search your subject and find them. A quick search turned up 132 mini-games and activities for the ESL/ELL classroom. Take time to find one in your subject by using Google or Pinterest. Use Game Mechanics - Think about using Game Mechanics or take a look at the many resources Epic Guide to Game Based Learning to help understand how to create your own games. Do a Build Challenge - Use Kapla Blocks and Legos to have students build and create. What does it mean to be a librarian in the digital age?
#FutureReady - Professional Learning Highlight from the METC 2017 Conference Questioning Techniques That Bring About Change Kim Darche - Spotlight Educator @kimdarche Some teachers ask between 200-300 questions in a day. How many do you think students ask? Most students ask two per day. As educators we want students to be problem solvers, but what if they were problem finders. This thought could revolutionize the way we think about our makerspaces and learning. Having students lead with questions will change their mindset about learning. Students who keep asking questions find better answers and gain deeper insights. It’s not easy being a good questioner or getting students to ask questions but think about the power of pictures. Have students look at the pictures below and have them come up with five questions, put them in categories, and then rank them according to most interest. Want more interesting pictures to evoke questions? Checkout 101questions.
#ParkwayReads When Real Reading Isn’t Happening So what do we do when we give students a reading task, but we see that real reading is not happening? Reading takes focus and when students choose behaviors that prevent them from entering the text, it's crucial to take action and change conditions so that students will make the choice to read. In this article from Education Week there are four ways to respond based on the situation. Each of these questions come with suggestion on how to help students connect with reading whether it is a narrative or informational text.
At the conference, several suggestions were made to practice questioning. For example, instead of telling someone something, ask them to have a conversation with only questions - make the entire conversation out of questions. This allows students to engage, think and process what is being said. Dice Game - Select a particular topic and ask students to roll the dice if they: roll a 1 define it, 2 apply it, 3 flip it (opposite), what is your stake in the ground about it, 5 innovate it, 6- question it.
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Example questions to ask: How do you know what’s true or false (evidence), How might this look if we stepped into other shoes (viewpoint), Have we seen this before? (connections), What if it were different? (conjecture), and Why does this matter? (relevance). What does it mean to be a librarian in the digital age?
Is it the environment? Invest in the routine of silent reading. Is it certain students? Plan differentiated supports for individual students. Is it the task? Simplify expectations to promote, not disrupt, the flow of reading. Is it the text? Build or repair students’ positive expectations toward reading with interesting texts. Get suggestions at blogs.edweek.org
#FutureReady - Personalized Professional Learning The Power of Twitter
Parkway Credit One option for earning Parkway credits is to participate in webinars and events, such as Edcamps, SLAA events, makerspace open houses etc. In order to earn participation credits watch the webinar or go to an event, then record your participation at tinyurl.com/webinars-events. Remember that district credit is based on the number of clock hours that you participate. Credit is issued as follows: six clock hours will get you .5 credit and 12 clock hours will get you 1 credit.
This www.easybib.com blog post contains suggests a list of of nine educators and one education entity to follow based on digital literacy, social and emotional learning, and educational policy. The one entity is a fantastic resource for curriculum and lessons in literacy and the content areas.
For Fun @your Library Here's what happens when a theme park company designs a library... Virtual reality simulations, talking robots and a magic school bus — this is what happens when a theme park company designs a library. Landmark Entertainment Group — the company responsible for the Spider-Man and Jurassic Park rides at Universal Orlando and Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas — has partnered with the city of Homestead to create the world’s first “Cybrary,” or cyber library.Read more here: www.miamiherald.com
EdWeb Webinars Edweb.net offer many free, relevant webinars. Check out their monthly calendar and register through edweb.net They also have access to archived webinars that are also applicable. Archived webinars are available too:: ● Media Literacy in 60 Minutes Upcoming webinars: ● Personalizing Instruction Through the Library ● STEM PLAY: Integrating Inquiry into Learning Centers
Student Opportunities Think Camp your little tinkerers the perfect chance to experiment, create, and build at The Wilson School’s Think Camp. Think Camp is led by experienced and enthusiastic teachers dedicated to ensuring that your child’s camp experience is safe and fun with tons of opportunities to explore and learn. Think Camp gives kids hands-on experiences in science, technology, engineering, and math. Throughout the week, campers will learn to apply critical thinking methods to fun and creative problem solving activities. Think Camp combines hands-on labs, STEM challenges, digital investigations, game design and more. www.wilsonschool.com
The Write Stuff Contest The St. Louis County Library is holding a writing contest for kids and teens ages 8-18. The official contest rules can be found online at www.slcl.org/kids/write-stuff-contest.
What does it mean to be a librarian in the digital age?
Snapshots ●
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6th grade working with Boeing engineers Creativity in the makerspace at Claymont Cublelets, modular robotics in the library at Highcroft Beyond the Lego wall, the low-tech lite-brite wall at Green Trails (golf tees and a peg board)
Well said: Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” ~Albert Einstein
Contact Information Bill Bass Innovation Coordinator: Instructional Technology & Library Media Twitter: billbass Kim Lindskog Library Support Specialist Twitter: klindskog
Vendor Contacts: Undelivered Post Dispatch: Russell Ham rham@post-dispatch.com
Access the Library Services Webpage using the QR code or www.tinyurl.com/libserv
Undelivered USA Today & New York Times: Wesley Trammell wtrammell@ebsco.com
Amy Johnson Digital Learning Specialist Twitter: ajohnson106 Nancy Ikemeyer Administrative Assistant Skype: nancy,ikemeyer.pearl Twitter: NancyIkemeyer
What does it mean to be a librarian in the digital age?
Back Issues of Know & Go: Volume 4 https://goo.gl/Idfr5O Volume 3 http://goo.gl/0Evfcw Volume 2 http://goo.gl/zCsIig Volume 1 http://goo.gl/MtxaUk