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For more than twenty years, school librarians have focused the largest portion of their advocacy efforts on individual principals, superintendents, and board members, struggling to convince them that libraries should be integral and institutionalized elements of K-12 education. It hasn’t worked.
There have been many articles and blog posts lately debating the future of libraries. It is hard to imagine a school without one of these learning centers (where else would faculty meetings, testing, and baby showers take place?), but this post focuses on busting the myth that librarians will become obsolete. See Job details and similar jobs for Teacher Librarian. Search Jobs Employment and Career Opportunities in Australia. A video capture about the importance of libraries and librarians. Less than one-third of the 200 Prince George’s County schools will have a full-time library media specialist next year, after what many principals call a year of making do with school libraries closed three days the school week and finding other staff to teach research skills.
“Whenever you have a full-time media person, there is an opportunity for the person to work with classroom teachers,” said Frances Tolbert, principal at Cool Spring Elementary School in Adelphi, where there will be a full-time specialist this fall. “Students got the benefit of that coordination of services.” "Exposure to news media at my high school library helped me to become engaged with my community. Fiction and non-fiction books at elementary and high school libraries promoted recreational reading and the chance to explore subjects and interests that appealed to me.How much more information is accessible to students in an unending barrage; librarians promote information literacy so that students become knowledgeable consumers. Students who are left to fend for themselves in navigating information options will be placed at a disadvantage. Students on the wrong side of the digital divide, without access to information on the Internet, will be disadvantaged all-the-more." 
Schools need to offer a sound curriculum in protective measures of social media that is methodical and practical. Let's choose wisely rather than rely on learning bits and pieces or possibly incorrect information from friends. TL guides to cover information literacy, school libraries, information fluency, curation, digital collections....an extensive and useful listing. 
"In a time of constant change and uncertainty in the 21st century, the world is rapidly transitioning to a digital world. What will the library look like, IF most information, resources, and services become digitized? Where can libraries focus their efforts, energy, and resources? The accompanying articles identify key trends in public libraries that examine new ways to look at how the public library can meet community needs..." via @hbraum Via Buffy J. Hamilton 
Why our kids need a powerful disposition to be self-managing learners when they finish their schooling, why they are unlikely to have it, and what we can do about it.
For some time now it has been obvious that middle class kids are becoming more vulnerable. This is so despite the fact that they may be living in nice homes with supportive parents and attending well resourced schools and having comforts that their Third World counterparts can only dream of. They are vulnerable because learning is not personally significant to them. Kids who learn to avoid the discomfort of unfamiliar ideas, who do not welcome the instructive complications of error, who think learning is a boring necessity because it is basically about preparing for tests, who are reliant on parents and teachers to tell them what to do, or to do it for them, who expect university degrees to be passports to employability and financial security – such kids are now in real trouble. 
Share these tips and tools with your teaching community and I'm sure you will be appreciated. Why not show them how to get organised by providing some professional learning on the tools that are mentioned. "How can students learn to think for themselves, make good decisions, develop expertise, and become lifelong learners in a rapidly changing information environment? How can students learn, create, and find meaning from multiple sources of information? These are fundamental questions facing educators in designing schools for 21st-century learners. Guided inquiry is a practical way of implementing an inquiry approach that addresses these 21st-century learning needs for students." Via Monica Nilsson, Anu Ojaranta 
"As a 2012 Technology Fellow for the ALA's Office of Information Technology Policy (OITP), I've had a chance to work with academic librarians, school librarians and public librarians on an emerging definition of digital literacy. Although digital literacy may take different forms depending on the individual, it’s a constellation of life skills that include basic foundational literacies, like reading comprehension and computer skills, as well as transformational literacies, that include the ability to access and evaluate information, create and critique messages, and use reflective thinking and civic action to make a difference in the world." |
The alarming 2006 ABS statistic that just under half (46%) of adult Australians cannot confidently read newspapers, follow a recipe, make sense of timetables, or understand the instructions on a medicine bottle, was a motivator for Australian libraries to found the National Year of Reading.
Rutgers University Center for International scholarship in school libraries has released the second part of their research into the impact of school libraries on learning. Critical reading for school leaders Via L2_S2S, Anu Ojaranta 
-by Donna Alden, Teacher-Librarian What's the difference between a school library and a school learning commons, and does the name make a difference? From the Colorado Association of School Librarians (CASL). 
My pre-conference survey elicited a number of interesting responses. I have been collecting this kind of data for 4-5 years now and something is changing. Teacher-Librarians, in my previous experience, were resisting the inevitable changes wrought by the internet/WWW. No longer: 
"I recently chatted with a school librarian for a story I was working on. When I arrived, she and the media specialist were helping a student understand a poem she had to analyze for a class. The media specialist looked the poem up online and the three chatted about it. The student left with her brow a bit less furrowed." 
So much incorrect information is on the Internet. Are we really willing to allow Wikipedia and the randomness of Google Search to determine our children’s futures? I understand budget cuts are needed in today’s economy, but the library is not a place where we can afford to cut from. I encourage all those who do see library teachers are indispensable to go to board meetings or let their board directors know. Darbee Shauers, age 14 
By Melanie Pinola
"Earlier this week, Google introduced Knowledge Graph, the company's new search technology that understands "things not strings" and adds rich and relevant details about your query in the sidebar of your search results. Here are five great things you can now do with a quick Google search."
"I took the new version of Google Search for a spin to find out just what it can do, and have to say it's pretty useful. To recap, Google now connects your search query with its knowledgebase, which includes Wikipedia and the CIA World Factbook. If you search for a person, place, or thing within that 500+ million object database, Google adds the related key facts alongside the regular search results. (The tech is still rolling out, but you should see it when you're logged into Google sometime in the next few days, if you don't already.) Via Jim Lerman, SCIS 
This guide offers resources for K-12 teachers interested in project-based learning. This teaching method relies on classroom projects to facilitate learning. 
UK - Society of Authors letter urges the Schools Minister, Nick Gibb to support children's literacy by making school libraries a statuary requirement in both primary and secondary schools.
The letter is full of common sense suggestions – ideas that are absolutely achievable, that are not cost heavy, and that will make an immediate and noticeable impact. 
"On one hand, teaching our students about how to conduct good quality research is pretty much the most important skill we can impart, and should ideally form the foundation of everything we do. On the other hand, I live in the real world and know how hard it is to both find the time to foster and develop such skills in our students, and what a difficult task it actually is." 
"This reality should be a warning to all educators that we must prepare our students to make meaning from the overwhelming amount of information at their fingertips, and we must guide their ability to create and publish new information worldwide. To do this effectively, we must return to the basics of what it means to be a good researcher—but at the same time, we must look at the new tools our students have access to." Via Joyce Valenza, Anu Ojaranta 
A collection of blog posts, CPD materials and screencasts on using Twitter as a place to learn, network and gain CPD from your peers. |
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