The ISTE - National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) and Performance Indicators for Teachers by International Society for Technology in Education

Ultimately, what I've gotten from this publication is reinforcement of standards more fully fleshed out elsewhere.  In particular, though, I was struck by the expectation that teachers will, "demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations."  I immediately reflected on how commonplace it has become for us, as educators or simply as adults, to abdicate our role as experts and authorities the minute a new technology comes into the picture.  I believe throughout history many teachers have rejected new approaches and philosophies, but I'll bet we'd be hard-pressed to find a time when educators fully acknowledged the importance of a tool while laughing off any responsibility to learn to use it so as to teach it to students.  We do that all the time when we ignore our students' abilities and interest in new technologies.  Gotta be at least one chapter ahead, a mentor teacher once told me, and that means with technology as well, hard as it is to accomplish.

Parents: Focus More on 21st-century Skills, in eSchool News

"Parents do not feel that schools are effectively preparing students for the jobs of the 21st century, and [they] view technology implementation as essential to student success."   I used this very quote in a recent email wherein I updated my school administration on my own schooling process.  I thought they needed to read that parents are wanting more technological expertise taught in light of job-preparedness.  Ours is a college prep school with wonderful, pie-in-the-sky ambitions for teaching and learning, but it's so important to remember that so much of what these kids will be able to accomplish as persons depends ultimately on their ability to provide for themselves and their families.  This responsibility is weighing heavy on many parents' minds, and parents' concerns weigh heavy on my school's list of responsibilities, because these parents choose to send their kids to PRS and choose to send us their hard-earned money, as well.

Fwd: [CALIBK12] FW: O'Connell Announces Model School Library Standards are Available for Public Review by California Department of Education

These standards are so clear, so incredibly detailed, and so wonderfully official.  In it I have practically endless fodder for my new LC program.  The key that I will stress along with these standards is that what cannot be obtained from any technological device is a well-trained, caring instructor who will teach each learner in an individualized manner exactly how best to use resources and think clearly about them.  That's where I see my role in working to achieve and exceed these standards.

Technology in Schools: What the Research Says by Cisco and Metiri Group

I just realized, looking again at this amazing resource, that the first grant I will apply for will be a summer professional development mini-grant from my school in order to organize and prepare to implement the huge amount of data, instructions, strategies, and research I've encountered over the summer at ALA and this semester.

To the report:

1.  In discussing IWBs, the authors write, "students will continue to play a passive role if teachers do not engage them in active higher order thinking processes through student-centered uses of these devices."  Surely, this is a summary of any kind of classroom technology use and at the same time a stunningly difficult teaching style to change.  We've got to keep working on this, assisting teachers with specific strategies for this higher order thinking through student-centered teaching.
2. Summaries of Research Studies regarding clickers and physics students is particularly inspiring.  Our kids are taking high school level physics in 8th grade.  I personally believe this is simply too soon for many of their developing brains.  However, it is happening, and I'm thrilled to see these results again to remind me to try a collaborative project with the physics teacher in particular, incorporating clickers.  Great to have this as a segue into working with students in a science setting!
3. The entire gaming conversation is interesting.  It would be a hard sell in some ways, but not so much in certain contexts at my school.  I think a way to introduce the possibility of gaming-as-learning is through the Global Village geography game, especially since the authors cite excellent learning improvement results with this game in particular.
4. Reminding me of the cereal box claiming that its contents are part of a balanced breakfast, I think the authors are so wise to caution us regarding a rigorous 1:1 laptop program, "successful laptop programs must be part of balanced, comprehensive initiatives that focus on
   education goals, curricula, teacher professional development, and student assessment practices."  A math teacher at my school is currently pursuing this goal, but I'm not convinced it will be the magic bullet he indicates.  First, coming primarily from middle to upper middle class families, 99% of our students have computer access at home, and all of them have access to laptops in carts throughout the school.  Second, I haven't seen any initiatives that will ensure faculty and students alike will learn more or learn more efficiently if 1:1 were implemented.
5. I've been looking into computer assisted instruction with one of our algebra teachers, primarily to find technology-based teaching aids that will help him mix it up a bit in his class of slow math learners.  And isn't evidence interesting?  Nothing like the scientific method, I say!  There's I CAN Learn Pre-Algebra and Algebra, a commercial product, with a "Positive Effects" evidence rating and at least a positive 5 improvement index. Down below is the University of Chicago's Math program showing "No discernable effects" and a negative 6 improvement index!  Not what the ivory tower would have us believe.  This whole picture reinforces my growing understanding of the necessity to prove that what we do works to the benefit of the learner.

LitCharts

Well, this has been challenging to think of ever since I first checked out LitCharts when the arrived.  The challenge lies in students' not using others' work instead of their own.  One of my main concerns lies within this larger picture--I'm wary of providing the kids with what they may well see as "official" analysis of a text and therefore more important or correct than their own.  It takes a strong will, at 13 or even 17 years old, to even think of disagreeing with an instructor-provided, professional analysis of challenging text.

So I would use this tool as an example of simply another take on the text.  Specifically, I might work with an English teacher to offer LitCharts information as analysis for critique.  For instance, students would read LitCharts' analysis of a chapter and also write their own, citing differences and arguing their own points of view.  I would specifically allow the students to read the LitCharts information along with writing their own analyses because they would be required to come up with something unique, cite differences between their own take on the text and LitCharts', and be able to discuss these differences in a text-based conversation.

Thus, I would hope to eliminate the urge to avoid reading the original text and to teach them to create, value, and defend their own perspectives.

The Mile Guide

The Mile Guide toolkit looks interesting and helpful, no doubt, but I don't plan to purchase it immediately.  I am getting so much information and tasks from this class and the connections from it that I....

Ok, that's ridiculous.  It's $10 and surely doesn't have to be read cover to cover right away in order to be very useful, especially as my history teacher/collaborator and I hammer out new projects to work on together.

I'm ordering it right after I turn in this reading log. 

Position Statement on the School Library Media Specialist’s Role in Reading by AASL

1. "...requires that they develop as strategic readers..."  Love that term, it could mean so many things, all of them good.
2. "...a deep knowledge of the wide variety of authentic reading materials available in the school library media center and beyond" is something I lack to an alarming degree.  I will include some reading in my daily life at school--it's the only way to actually get it done while working as a student and a mother, and it's great modeling.  Ok, then, a new leaf turned.  I'm looking forward to it.
3. I think I'm beginning to fill the "leadership role in organizing and promoting literacy projects" on campus--beginning to.  
4. Regarding that, it's actually a neat experience to reread all these articles having had the class largely completed because the connections between them as a whole set and the class discussions become more obvious.  
5. I'm looking forward to Listening Lunches and possibly investing in Tumblebooks...middle school, yes.  High school for Tumblebooks, doesn't look like it.
6. "Opportunities for planned and spontaneous library use best serve learners as they identify, analyze, and synthesize ideas and information by using a wide range of materials in a variety of formats and media."  Ok, if that's not a Learning Commons well described I don't know what is. 
   

Noblesville Educators Win National Award for Reading Incentive Program by Betsy Reason

These teachers deserve this award!  Tetrick and Duvall's program is inspiring.  I'm particularly drawn to the Listening Lunch style reading by the teacher herself, and I just finished checking out Tumblebooks.  It's in my learned nature to cringe when I see children of any age staring without participating at a screen of any kind for a period of time. 

I've had to do a double take here, though, with Tumblebooks.  What the kids are following on the screen is simply text, and they're simultaneously hearing it read to them.  Solves the difficulty of wanting to expose them to written text with the added richness of reading aloud.

I'm looking into it as a possibility for our 7th and 8th graders' lunch period once a month.

Transitioning to a Learning Commons by Robin Cicchetti

Like so many others, I've read this wonderful article many times and am just now getting to annotating it.  I'm seriously thinking of asking my administration for professional development funds to go visit Robin to see her LC in person. 

The part of her write-up that grabs me in particular is "Reinventing Ourselves."  I will admit here in cyberspace for all to see that the first couple of times I read this section I tried to read between the lines, hoping to ascertain that, indeed, Robin's position as teacher-librarian was a "head librarian" one.  I was wholly unaware of my own desire to see a hierarchy in her job descriptions, I just knew something about the networked, interdependent descriptions made me slightly sea sick.  I'm so accustomed to vertical organization I craved it intensely as I imagined implementing some form of her breakdowns of who would do what. 

Well, I've just realized why I've had vertigo regarding the whole thing, and I realize that there may well be a clear hierarchy to her organization.  But I also have taken the lesson that as I encourage teachers to lower their guard, open their doors and work collaboratively, I have to keep this experience in mind.  Surely some of my colleagues' resistance is rooted in similar fears of either losing their place in the hierarchy or losing the control that singular work allows.  I've thought all of this to myself but never connected it to my own emotional experience.  Maintaining ones place in line is a frightfully powerful motivator for status quo behavior.

I will remember this as I move forward, and among other things, I'm grateful to Robin for providing such a clear canvas for this realization.  Her work is so impressive and, well, straight-forward.

WatchKnow

Fantastic collection and I particularly like the philosophical approach, stating that "the Internet is full of useful information, but it's disorganized and often unreliable," while also expressing clearly the net's potential, "especially," as a repository for teaching and learning.

I've explored a bit for an Algebra video for one of the teachers, but so far have only found things for younger kids.  Will keep looking through WatchKnow for new additions.

Using Technology Tools to Build Excellence in Teaching and Learning by David V. Loertscher and Elizabeth Marcoux

As we discussed in class, when I had read the article but hadn't yet annotated to this blog, the main point here is to "flip" the entire discussion of technology vis a vis teaching and learning so that we look not at the latest shiny toy and try to find a use for it, but we look at the skills and content we must teach and provide our faculty technological tools with which to do that.

I really really really like this approach.  It sits so well with my sense of what makes sense.  I've long been puzzled by the drive toward a "technology-rich campus" for no sake that I could see other than to say we have one; I've seen this at my children's schools for years.  Time and money are precious investments for a school community, and making that investment in what we judge to be the best avenue to effective teaching and learning is of course the way we need to be going about things.  In the authors' words, "begin with best practices you want to achieve and then fit the tool to that challenge.  Become the doctor, not the pharmacist."  I love that!

1. p. 2 - The very first "best practice," we have one of the greatest challenges to use of technology today--efficiency!  If it doesn't lead to more efficient ways of working, albeit with some training and practice usually, out it goes!
2. p. 4 - "Collaborative spaces raised “students’ level of concern...."  This reminds me of the idea in our The New Learning Commons book that some students will behave much differently, and, yes, more expressively and with greater commitment to the learning process, in an online environment than in person.
3. p. 7 - Aaaaa!  There is so much here that should instantly be in place in my school...it's like facing a Christmas tree ringed with wonderful building toys that each take 6 months to really get going!  Ok, the one that just hit me is the school that created its own YouTube-esque repository of the best of the best campus videos.  We have so many fantastic ones, they really will be great gathered into one place.  Hey, how about that as a geek squad's first job, collecting and installing the PRS YouTube space on the VLC?  I'll bet they'll come up with a great name, too.  Putting that on my to-do list right now.
4. p. 8 - "Inclusion of Different Types of Learners," a no-brainer when it comes to there being a very important place for technology in teaching learning.  Reminds me of the assessment article we read, outlining new technologies for layered assessment that takes the students' problem-solving process into account

The Role of a School's Library in a School's Reading Program

I've read this article many times now and am beginning to feel less overwhelmed by the amount and scope of vital recommendations.  Here are some of my observations on reading it yet again:

1. p. 3 - How could it have escaped my attention, the need for a physical collection of professional development literature in the learning commons?  I've always imagined, and have now begun to stock the VLC with professional resources, but am woefully low on books and journals that can help a faculty member who's stuck and wants a few minutes with a book in a comfy corner.
2. p. 3 - "Every classroom is a print-rich environment."  Got a long way to go here.  Every classroom in our school still has a temporary feel to it since teachers migrate from one classroom to another, and all of our buildings are at least in the long run physically impermanent until our permanent building goes into place.  Books in every classroom would give the rooms a much homier feeling; the challenge is squeezing in a cart since classrooms are small and all are arranged either with a large Harkness table taking up most of the space or smaller tables approximating the same thing.  It's got to be a priority, though.  This is a big visual in the drive to opening barriers between the learning commons and classrooms (and home, and the rest of the world...).
   
3. p. 3 - "Reading is one of the major issues of the professional learning community...."  Ok, I'm actually beginning to make some headway on this on.  I'm working with a history teacher, an English teacher, and the Learning Specialist to hammer out some benchmarks and practical plans for improving literacy among our average to advanced readers. 
   
4. p. 5 - Best sites for Teaching and Learning...must make a-site-a-day from this list part of my daily tasks.  Will help, I think, managing the juggernaut that is the world of online professional assistance and resources.
5. p. 4 - If I could get each teacher to spend a couple of minutes a day reading to the students--7th through 12th graders!--it would be so fantastic.  It's a moment that all of us love, and it could be funny, touching, adventurous, anything.
6. p. 5 - Reading leadership team teaches parents about how reading is reading--magazines, graphic novels, non fiction, blogs and, yes, even websites.  Reading is reading and is to be encouraged, as long as it doesn't actively frighten or hurt either the reader or the subject of the writing I would add regarding online reading in particular.
   

Transitioning to a Learning Commons by Robin Cicchetti, LMS

As Bill Tucker reminds the reader, changes in one area of a school's instructional practices necessitate similar and usually far-reaching changes in other areas.  Tucker refers to improvements in the reach and scope of assessment tools' precipitating the need for changes in curriculum and pedagogy.  Here, Ciccehetti opens the discussion of her learning commons with the comment that she had the full support of her school's administrators who saw the potential that her plans had for the faculty and students alike.

I find this encouraging, as I'm struggling not with a difficult administration at all, but with my own hesitation to take on such a leading role in my school.  It's good to remember that I, too, have an administration that is always looking to deeply improve teaching and learning, and that the school was founded on the academic principle of integration.  A functional learning commons is exactly what Pacific Ridge School needs as a hub for academic, cultural, and professional integration.

I wonder if the Student Services Specialist is MLS trained.  I'm looking to fudge this position into my library right away as I'm moving into teaching more and more, and I wonder about the training necessary.  I certainly think an intelligent person could fill the position part time without MLS training.

The big picture here shows such a willingness to embrace change throughout the school--surely Cicchetti has some extremely effective leadership skills to guide so many individuals into far-reaching development.

The Next Generation of Testing by Bill Tucker

A few of my forward-thinking colleagues and I are currently hammering out collaborative assessment strategies for our 7th through 12th grade students.  I sure wish these technologies that Tucker writes of were available today!  The idea of being able to track a student's decisions and movements throughout the test is so appealing, in that we're trying to teach the process of learning and to find out whether or not we're effectively communicating a decision-making process that each student can really use. 

I think the key lies in Tucker's words, "successful changes to assessment will also require equally challenging revisions to standards, curriculum, instruction, and teacher training." We've got to seriously reconsider how we teach in order to avoid the huge temptation of teaching to a test.  Or maybe if the test is actually measuring a larger learning process, teaching to the test isn't so bad anymore!