Ms.berningDojo
Ms.berningYA Literature
YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten is all about teen choice! Teen readers between the ages of 12 and 18 can vote online for their favorites from this year’s list of nominated titles from now through October 19th. The resulting Teens Top Ten will be announced during Teen Read Week, the third week in October. You can find an annotated list and a book trailer of the nominees as well as tips for promoting the Teens’ Top Ten to teen readers on ALA’s website. And be sure to check out the fantastic TTT Tumblr! Help us get the word out, and use #TTT13 on Twitter and Tumblr when promoting the Teens’ Top Ten!
The Teens’ Top Ten is part of an ongoing project that connects teen book groups with publishers of young adult books. The publishers provide advance reading copies to selected teen book groups, and the teens evaluate the books and provide feedback to the publishers. These same teen book groups create the nominations list for the Teens’ Top Ten by nominating their favorite titles published in the previous year.
More information, including a list of these fabulous Teens Top Ten book groups, may be found on ALA’s website.
Ms.berningSave libraries
80% of success is just showing up.
Woody Allen
The booklet School Library Research Summarized (Kachel, Mansfield University, 2013) analyzes 20 years of the impact of school library programs on student achievement. In summary:
... it has been shown that incremental increases in the following [library program attributes] can result in incremental gains in student learning:
- increased hours of access for both individual student visits and group visits by classes;
- larger collections of print and electronic resources with access at school and from home;
- up-to-date technology with connectivity to databases and automated collections;
- instruction implemented in collaboration with teachers that is integrated with classroom curriculum and allows students to learn and practice 21st century skills, such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and communication of ideas and information;
- increased student usage of school library services;
- higher total library expenditures; and
- leadership activities by the librarian in providing professional development for teachers, serving on key committees, and meeting regularly with the principal. [emphasis mine]
While collaboration with individual teachers is important to a successful library program, collaboration with school leaders and membership on school leadership teams is critical - and too few building librarians recognize this. Librarians tend to focus on working with individual teachers, rather than the entities who give those teachers their direction.
Not only does working with other leaders help librarians stay informed about their building's and district's goals and priorities, it also gives them a voice in helping create those goals and priorities - allowing librarians to lead.
Given the division in philosophies about how to best teach reading, how to best measure student "achievement," what priorities should be given to higher order thinking skills and creativity; and, indeed, even what the purpose of education itself should be, no conscientious educator can remain mute - or simply grumble to peers.
Librarians, you can and should be serving on at least one, if not more, of these teams (in addition to meeting regularly with your building principal):
By virtue of training and experience, we in the library profession hold unique and valuable insights into the way children learn, what creates a positive school climate, and what students need to know and be able to do to be successful adults. As Woody remarks above, just showing up gets one a long way. But I would advise that the final 20% consists of being persuasive when participating on committees, teams, and task forces. This means having research, expert opinion, and studies to back up one's views and values. Know the research that supports voluntary free reading; understand why creativity and higher order thinking skills, not just test-taking skills, are critical to student success; and know what studies show make an impactful library program.
In a climate in which children's futures are being sold for political points or few dollars of extra profits by educational corporations, to remain silent is unprofessional, even unethical.
Show up. Speak up. Collaborate. Lead. Librarians, make this your goal for the 2013-14 school year - and every year thereafter.
See also "Starting Off on the Right Foot"
Ms.berning
Ms.berningDojo
Ms.berningStudent response systems, flipped classroom
Ms.berningIPads
We often hear people comment about how intuitive it is to use an iPad. While that is certainly true for many people, it’s not true for all people. Joanne Villis has put together a nice little guide for first-time iPad users. Her guide starts with explanations of all of the buttons on an iPad and finishes with three ways to get content off of your iPad. Joanne published the guide on Slideshare and you find it there, on her blog, or as embedded below.
Ms.berningWebsites
Ms.berningPDFs, tools
Ms.berningiPads
Ms.berningChromebooks
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Ms.berningEmerging technology, bing
Among the many sticky conversations I had at ISTE was one I had with Cameron Evans, Microsoft’s Chief Technology Officer, who generously took the time to introduce this confirmed Apple girl to Windows 8–the biggest change in windows since 1983.
We also discussed two big Microsoft projects aimed at education.
1. First a disclaimer/confession: I am really enjoying the Surface RT that Microsoft distributed free(!) to 10,000(!) ISTE 2013 conference attendees as part of the Windows in the Classroom Surface Experience Project. (I got mine as a member of the press.) Microsoft is currently offering discounted Surface RT tablets for schools.
I’ve gotten way past the fact that Dark Titanium is not my favorite color. It took a while to find and get used to the charms and I haven’t yet gotten around to exploiting the split screen/multi-tasking features. But I already love the contextual search–you can search the entire drive, an app, the store, or anything else in your charms.
I am also loving its light weight (1.5 lbs), its sturdy kickstand (especially nice in the kitchen!), the battery life, the lovely Metro touch-and-tile interface, the USB port for quick file transfer, the ability to create multiple logins, and, especially, the handy depressible Touch Cover keyboard with its very sticky magnet that so elegantly and easily attaches and detaches from this tablet.
Windows apps are not as plentiful as the Apple Store apps I’ve installed on my still beloved iPad. But I’ve discovered a few new ones, have easy tile access to Office Home and Student 2013 RT applications–Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote–and my favorite web-based applications in a browser. I can also quickly switch back to the Windows 7 desktop if I choose to. The Windows 8 touch screen and those new tile apps ARE very pretty and it is fun to explore and easy to produce on the Surface.
I may be crazy, but I am now carrying a laptop, two tablets, and my iPhone on my trips.
My conversation with Cameron went beyond the Surface. He was eager to share the launch of another project of interest to educators.
2. Microsoft hopes the not-yet-released Bing For Schools will become the default search for schools.
Free and open to all K12 schools, Bing For Schools will not require any additional software and will offer enable the experience across all searches from within the school’s network.
The search is designed to offer
The folks at Microsoft are still finalizing details of the initial release.
Although Bing For Schools may be a valuable, cost-saving tool for many schools, I have not seen any screenshots.
I am I look forward to test driving and looking at how results are returned and how flexible the filters will actually be. At the high school level especially, I want my kids to be able to get to the stuff they need.
With Google Apps and search features such a part of so many school cultures, will Bing’s new filtered search be enough of an incentive for schools to make the cultural shift and for Microsoft to gain ground against Google in the school market?
And would/should schools sign up before seriously test-driving the search first?
TechCrunch’s Darrell Etherington describes the move in terms of the fight for the school market:
Of course, Bing is promoting this as a purely giving move, but should it prove successful, it will give the company a way to seed its search engine early with educational institutions across the U.S., who will likely encourage its use as part of the program. There’s a lot of value in figuring into the lives of students early in their education in terms of later adoption, so Bing For Schools isn’t just an investment in the future of our kids, it’s an investment Microsoft is making in Bing, too.
Bing rival Google offers a host of tools for educators, including Search Education and Google Scholar, but this approach by Microsoft could help it gain more ground in early- and middle-stage education, which is a big advantage to have.
In his June 24th Bing Sea
rch Blog post, Bing Behavioral Scientist, Matt Wallaert, shared his hopes for the program and Microsoft’s interest in using stakeholder feedback to build and continually improve it:
For now, interested educators and parents can find out more at Bing.com/schools and register to receive updates and information on how they can encourage their school to participate and support the program.
We see the program as something we can build alongside teachers, parents, and visionaries to create the best possible search experience for our children, and will continue to update you with new information as we work towards our launch later this year.
Ms.berningDigital literacy
In a powerful, proactive reminder of the principles for which our profession stands, yesterday ALA announced the launch of ALA Liberty,
a new website that contains tools libraries can use to host educational sessions and public forums that help Americans understand their First and Fourth Amendment rights.
ALA Liberty offers guides and tip sheets for libraries as well as tools from Choose Privacy Week, the ALA campaign that asks citizens to think critically and make more informed choices about their privacy.
The site was a response to news relating to government collection of big data on millions of Americans.
Protection of readers’ privacy and communication records is part of ALA’s long-standing principles to protect and foster First Amendment rights and the privacy of library users and others.
In her recent open letter to ALA members, President Barbara Stripling, shared her concerns as they relate to the role of libraries and librarians:
When we spoke out in 2001 against the passage of the PATRIOT Act…we were fearful that the government would come into libraries without warning and take library records of individual patrons. . . Even the most cynical among us could not have predicted that the Obama administration— an administration that campaigned on the promise of greater government transparency and openness — would allow a massive surveillance program to infringe upon the basic civil liberties of innocent, unsuspecting people.
We need to restore the balance between individual rights and terrorism prevention, and libraries are one of the few trusted American institutions that can lead true public engagement on our nation’s surveillance laws and procedures. Libraries have the tools, resources and leaders that can teach Americans about their civil liberties and help our communities discuss ways to improve the balance between First Amendment rights and government surveillance activities.
The new ALA Liberty website follows the spirit of the resolution passed at the Chicago Annual Conference that asked Congress, President Obama and the Courts to reform the nation’s climate of secrecy, overclassification and secret law regarding national security and surveillance.
Ms.berning4th grade, social studies
Ms.berning2nd grade, financial literacy
Ms.berningiPad
App Name: Barefoot World Atlas
Cost: Free
What does it promise? This interactive 3D globe invites children to explore the regions and countries of the world, discovering hundreds of fascinating features and immersing themselves in the wonders of planet Earth.
Ms.berningBanned books
On Saturday, June 29, a panel of librarians presented a session on book challenges at ALA 2013. Their message was that most challenges were from parents and involved material for children and young adults.
Panelists
What Motivates People to Challenge Library Material
Emily Knox began by discussing the motivation for challenges. She explained that most challengers are frequent library patrons. They go to libraries, check out material, and understand the value of a library to their community. While some adult books are challenged, most challenges involve books for children and young adults. The commonality between the majority of challenges is that they come from parents who see their role as that of boundary protector. A few general themes seen from challengers include:
What Gets Challenged
Challenges come from both the left and right. What is controversial is different for different people so there is no way to have a controversy-free collection. Some of the most challenged books include:
A diverse collection is more likely to be challenged. Many challengers do not know library procedures or consider them inadequate. They often feel librarians have too much power in determining what books are presented. They feel that text is what it is and that children will interpret material only one way, and that children don’t have skills to interpret material in ways that are not harmful. For example, if a book mentions drug use, they fear kids will read it and then want to do drugs.
The good news is that parents who initiate the challenges understand the power of books and the importance of libraries. Reading is important to them. They believe books can change lives. The bad news is that they believe books can lead to bad moral character. Many are concerned about the world. They want to make the world better but they feel powerless to make changes in many arenas of their lives. They think watching out for young minds and the content of library books is one thing they can do to make a difference.
While discussing some of the challenges their libraries have faced over the last few years, Kristin Pekoll and Suellen Reimers reinforced the message that challengers often feel kids can’t be trusted to make decisions, that what they read can influence them to do bad things. Challenges they discussed covered everything from the physical distance between the young adult and children’s book areas, to the listing of LGBT themed books for teens on a library website, to individual (and sometimes award-winning) books.
Final Thoughts
All challenges should be reported to ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom where statistics are being kept. And when a challenge is issued, remain calm and smile.
– B.A. Binns, currently reading The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time by Mark Haddon and listening to The Count Of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Ms.berningSummer reading program
Most adults assume that once kids become independent readers they do not like to be read aloud to or told stories. Totally wrong. Young kids and teens love to hear stories and love to have books read aloud to them. Summer is a great time for the whole family to read aloud together.Ms.berningDigital literacy
Ms.berningElementary, high school, social studies
Ms.berningCommon sense media
One of my favorite discoveries at ISTE was Graphite.
Launched by Common Sense Media, the nonprofit known by parents, teachers and librarians for its high quality, nonpartisan reviews and its popular Digital Literacy and Citizenship Curriculum, Graphite promises to be the go-to platform for helping teachers make sense of an exponentially evolving number of digital learning tools.
The site is not only free, it’s also ad-free.
Now in beta, with a full launch planned for August, the goal is to objectively and transparently review and rate educational technologies and to guide busy teachers to the best websites, games, apps and digital curricula that will augment their teaching and to relieve the time-consuming burden of searching, sorting and sifting.
The ISTE panel shared that the vision is for the site to become the Consumer Guide for teachers, with a secret sauce of rigor with a side of reality, and that it plans to create the best possible learning rating system ever–a five-point star system based on the criteria of engagement, pedagogy and supports.
The team of
professional educators – early childhood development experts, doctorates in education, and teachers with hands-on classroom chops – rate each website, game, and app based on our detailed rubric that scores each product on 15 dimensions. Plus, we tag each product for subjects, skills, and grade band and map them to Common Core and other state standards. And every product is rigorously reviewed to dig deeper into what and how your students will learn with it.
Users may search by for resources by keyword, type, subject, grade, and price. Reviews are highly visual and robust with: pros, cons, bottom lines, supported standards, teacher notes, screenshots, bottom lines, great fors, and much more. Clicking on the + sign reveals a full narrative review.
The Graphite team acknowledges the need to develop critical mass and hopes to grow the site into a dynamic peer network. It welcomes teachers to join, create a profile, and share their personal reviews and field notes about how they use specific websites, games, and apps, and what works best with their students–what good looks like.
iCivics review
Down the road, Graphite hopes to also involve student feedback. The panel shared: We imagine that teacher users will send us their kids to us to share feedback. Older kids know how to do research. They can help us discover tools and we can learn from their input and field notes.
Seeta Pai, Common Sense Media’s Vice President of Research and Digital Content, noted that Graphite’s focus on transparency includes sharing the rubric with the developer community–ensuring that developers hear the voices of educators.
There is a lot of interest from developers who want to be discovered and get guidance on what makes good learning. We get hundreds of requests a week. But it’s church and state. Our Editorial Department has established a clear firewall. Commercial interests will not influence our reviews or ratings.
Also check out Power Up!, Common Sense Media’s printable guide to apps for kids with special needs and learning differences.
TLs: This would be perfect to introduce to teachers in a September newsletter or fall inservice!
Ms.berningHigh school, English
For many teachers, the red pen is as essential to the trade as a brush is to a painter or a hammer is to a carpenter. Red is a bold color. To us, it implies leadership (only teachers use it), warmth (red is bright) and rectification (red shows students where they need to improve). But for students, red ink carries a lot of baggage with it. Even the most minimal markings on a paper smolder and shout at students against the sheen of white paper.
NoRedInk helps teachers reinvent grammar lessons and retire the red pen
NoRedInk is a free online grammar application that makes teaching and assessing our students’ grammar literacy simple and red-pen free. Here’s how it works:
After creating an account, teachers send their students an invitation password. After they enter it, NoRedInk finds out all the things your students love by asking them about their favorite TV shows, musicians, athletes, hobbies, friends, superheroes and presidents. Do your students like The Simpsons, Friends, Seinfeld, The Daily Show, The Office, The Hunger Games, Twilight, or maybe Disney movies? Based on your students’ choices, NoRedInk will generate grammar quizzes, assignments, and grammar lessons based on their interests.
NoRedInk instantly assesses your students’ skills and uses a color-coded heat map to show them where they need to practice. Whatever they need help with—apostrophes, commonly confused words, subject/verb agreement, commas, fragments and run-on sentences—will show up in your online records.
Another noteworthy feature is that when students make errors, they have several opportunities to learn from their mistakes. Not only can they retake the test, they can consult a tutorial that uses simple language and sample sentences to explain the grammar rule.
NoRedInk is a cool application, but there are other ways you can reinvent your grammar lessons. One of our favorite assignments is called the labyrinthine sentence. You can learn more about it by clicking here.
Ms.berningEarth day
I’m adding this infographic to The Best Sites To Learn About Climate Change (click on it to enlarge):
Ms.berningGoogle forms
