Teacher Librarians Blog

What Students Know About Information Literacy

Northwest AEA — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 19:22:50 -0600

As teacher librarians we know the necessity of information literacy skills. These skills are foundational to a student's future success. Recently Credo and Libraries Thriving conducted a survey of college students to ascertain student's skills and confidence in finding information. A short video follows describing the key findings. You can also download the survey results as well as an infographic that highlights the survey results.

Best of the Web 2013

Northwest AEA — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 15:03:29 -0600

I'll admit it. This is a shameless attempt on my part to "advertise" Richard Byrne, one of the keynotes at the T.I.C.L. Conference this summer. One of his keynotes will be highlighting his selection of the best web tools available. We hope to see you on June 17-19 at the T.I.C.L. Conference. We're also still looking for teachers to share how they integrate technology in their respective schools and classrooms. Click on the T.I.C.L. Conference link for more information.

Best of the web april 2013 from Richard Byrne

Digital Citizenship

Northwest AEA — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:57:24 -0600

In a recent Authentic intellectual Work scoring session, a teacher was sharing a lesson he had created about plagiarism. Everyone in the group agreed it was something our students need to know. It's easy to take this one step more and address the issue of digital citizenship. What does it mean to be a digital citizen? Is that the same or different from being a citizen of the United States? Northwest AEA provides two resources that tie in very nicely with the concept of digital citizenship. Cybersmarts and Teen Cybersmarts are two resources that build students' understanding on how to be safe online. Another one of the Iowa AEA Online resources, Soundzabound, provides some digital citizenship resources as well. Richard Byrne in his blog, Free Technology for Teachers, also provided a website with lots of resources. Digital Citizenship is a natural way for teacher librarians to collaborate and work with teachers. With our understanding of copyright, we can easily help teachers with resources and ideas about this topic. Do you have any resources that you use? Please share in the comments.

MackinVia

Northwest AEA — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 15:33:17 -0600

Northwest AEA has recently started providing eBook content for our schools using the MackinVia portal. At our next Media Advisory Meeting, scheduled for April 17th, we will be having David Stiles from Mackin provide some training for us. In order to best meet your needs, we would like to ascertain what you would like to know. Help us by completing this short survey.

How Teachers Are Using Technology at Home and in Their Classrooms

Northwest AEA — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 14:09:53 -0600

The Pew Research Center recently released survey results highlighting how teachers use technology. Not surprisingly, the survey found the Internet has had a major impact on a teacher's ability to access content, resources and materials for their teaching. The Internet also provided teachers greater opportunities for sharing with colleagues and also interact with parents and also their students. At the same time, teachers shared that the Internet and other digital tools have added new demands and challenges to their lives. Teachers felt they must now have a broader range of content and skills for which they must be knowledgeable. And 41% of teachers think that the Internet and digital tools requires more work on their part to be an effective teacher.

The next findings have special significance for teacher librarians. Teachers most frequently use digital tools to have students conduct research online. Teachers also shared that students expect to be able to find information quickly and easily. Teachers felt the amount of information available to students via the Internet is often overwhelming and students do not do a good job of finding and using a wide range of resources when doing research. Resources found by students are also not always credible sources of information. Once again, research affirms the need for teacher librarians teaching information literacy skills.

A majority of teachers (62%) felt that their school does a good job of providing support to help them bring digital tools into the classroom. A majority of teachers (68%) also say that their school provides formal training in this area. However, many teachers still individually learn ways to integrate these tools into their teaching. Again, this is an area where teacher librarians can serve an important role.

There still remains a digital divide among income groups when technology use and access is considered. 56% of teachers of the lowest income students say that a lack of resources among students to access digital technologies presents a challenge when they try to use digital tools in their teaching.

There is also still a difference in the way younger teachers (under age 35) and more experienced teachers (55 and older) use technology in their classroom. Younger teachers are more likely to have students share work on a website, wiki or blog. Younger teachers are also more likely to utilize online discussions in their classroom and have students use collaborative web-based tools such as Google Docs. Younger teachers are also more likely to enlist the help of their colleagues for ideas about using new technologies in the classroom.

Finally, teachers personally use more technology than other adults in the general population. More teachers own smartphones, laptops, desktop computers, tablets and e-book readers. Teachers are also more likely to use social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter than the general adult population.

If you'd like to find out more, this report is available online.

Getting the Word Out

Northwest AEA — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 09:23:48 -0600

How do we get necessary information to students and teachers about the services we provide and impact we have on student achievement? I've been wondering about that recently. There are of course all kinds of Social Media that many are using to quickly and efficiently share information with others. However, that might not be the most effective way for us to share our message. There are still a number of teachers that don't tweet and have no inclination to utilize such tools. Within our schools, many of the Social Media resources are also blocked and inaccessible during the school day. We can share studies and research with colleagues about how important school librarians are, but again, studies can be long and difficult to read. In a recent blog, Joyce Valenza shares some tools. The first is an infographic that succinctly summarizes recent studies about the importance of teacher librarians. The other is a video that was created for New Jersey School librarians to share their message. Does hearing that 75% of college students don't know how to conduct research properly or that 60% of college students don't verify the accuracy of information they find cause you to stop and say, "that's what I do as a teacher librarian!"

Updates...

Northwest AEA — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 14:54:22 -0600

Recently I attended the IEC Media and Technology Advisory Meeting in Des Moines. Part of our agenda usually centers on items of interest to teacher librarians and this meeting was no exception. A few highlights follow:

The statewide Online Resource free trials begin February 18 and continue through March 31. For additional information, you can go to the IEC website. Click on library located in the middle, top part of the page. Next click on Online trials 2013. Northwest AEA will again supplement the cost of any of the resources in the trials by contributing 1/2 the purchase price.
AEA Digital Library Collection: The AEA Digital Collection or ADL continues to grow. A big part of the collection currently focuses on science but a number of Human Relations Media titles have been added. There are Family Consumer Science Titles that are on order. We also met to recommend additional titles. If you haven't looked at the AEA Digital Collection (Iowa AEA Online resource), I'd encourage you to do so.
We met with Soundzabound Representatives.Just a reminder about the links and additional resources you can find on the Soundzabound site. For example, Soundzabound has a good number of articles on digital citizenship.
SIRS has added a number of Common Core Resources. If you go to the Educator's Resources, you can find a Common Core Guide to Writing Arguments. SIRS also has resources for National History Day. You can find this in the Spotlight section of SIRS.
MackinVia: We continue to look at additional titles to add to MackinVia, but we also continue to discover that eBooks that have unlimited simultaneous access are incredibly expensive, so we have to continue to prioritize and reduce our list of titles.
Promotional Items: We will be sending Iowa AEA Online posters to every building in the near future.

Page Turner Adventures...

Northwest AEA — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 10:35:10 -0600

I'll admit it. Sometimes I focus too much on technology and forget how effective some of the more traditional props or kits can be to promote the love of reading. I was reminded of that fact after experiencing the Page Turner Adventures workshop in Sioux City on February 6. Riley Roam and Kenny Milk entertained and showed the audience how to use common materials to create book props that support reading. They also provided ideas to create "fun" in libraries. Northwest AEA Media has a number of DVDs created by Riley and Kenny. You can download the list of available materials here.

In the spirit of using crafts in the library, I'll share something I found on Riley's Pinterest.

Source: ctbakerintheacres.com via Riley on Pinterest

This next craft is something Riley and Kenny shared at the workshop.

Source: pageturneradventures.com via Riley on Pinterest

Nonfiction Books and Text Features

Northwest AEA — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 09:21:47 -0600

The Common Core Standards put a much greater emphasis on informational text. Here's a short little video that might help you introduce students to both nonfiction and the text features within nonfiction books. Enjoy "traveling" the nonfiction trail in this video.

The Nonfiction Trail from Jonah Salsich on Vimeo.

What Roles Do Books Play in our Lives?

Northwest AEA — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 09:14:27 -0600

School libraries have always been about providing books for children. That's still true today, although the format may have changed. In a radio interview with NPR, Justice Sotomayor shares the influence books had on her life. Starting with comics and progressing to Nancy Drew and William Shakespeare, Sotomayor proves that books had a profound impact on her life. How have books changed your life?