Discussion Postings for IST 611

Hi All!
Welcome to my humble blog.  I've been posting off and on for a couple months now.  I mainly blog about things I've done around the library I currently work at and what the student's are learning in the library.  However, I really wanted this blog to document my experience transitioning from academic to school librarianship and some of the opportunities and challenges I see and experience in making this change. I usually post once every two weeks and try to add a good combination of pictures and text.  I'm just trying to find my voice and figure out the theme for my blog and how I want it to evolve.  Anyways, here's the discussion questions for IST 611 and my answers to them. Enjoy!

Discussion #1:  Imagine this scenario. You are designing a web site for your library. Reflect on how a blog might be a tool you could use to support the library program. Would it be a blog of your own? Or one that involved students? Some combination? What aspects of the Common Core State Standards and the IFC/AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner might your blog address?

I think a blog would be an excellent platform to get information out about the type of lessons being taught in the library and the type of technologies that could help students in learning and exploring different topics.  So many teachers are using blogs to connect to families of students in their classrooms.  Librarians are in a unique position, we have all students and no students at the same time.  I think having a blog that parents could visit to see another dimension of their child's learning would help them to see how their child is developing different literacy's.  I also see a blog on a school library site as being an avenue through teachers could connect with the librarian.  The librarian could show teachers practice tips for technology through the use of a blog.  

I also think utilizing a library blog in the context of a book club would be fun!  It would offer students the opportunity to engage with technology and help to reinforce digital citizenship with them.  Plus to would help them work on their speaking abilities, if being video taped, or on their writing.  Having a blog where students could contribute would help to hit AASL standards: 

• 3.1.2 Participate and collaborate as members of a social and intellectual network of learners
• 3.1.4 Use technology and other information tools to organize and display knowledge and understanding in ways that others can view, use, and assess.
• 3.1.6 Use information and technology ethically and responsibly.
• 3.2.1 Demonstrate leadership and confidence by presenting ideas to others in both formal and informal situations.
• 3.2.2 Show social responsibility by participating actively with others in learning situations and by contributing questions and ideas during group discussions.

If students were to utilize a blog to document material covered during lessons in the library or book clubs it would connect to common core through the writing standards (if there were to utilize writing specifically) or towards the speaking and listening standards.


Discussion #2:  Why not try out any "reader" and start subscribing to a few blog feeds that are of interest to you. Once you are comfortable with it yourself, consider whether this tool may be useful to you in teaching an information literacy lesson or even in planning an event or program for your school library.

I think using an RSS reader would be a great opportunity to push out information about a library event.  Although, many parents are on Facebook and Twitter, if a blog was set-up through the library and an RSS was attached to it, parents could subscribe and get blog updates without having to actually go to the site.  The link would be direct and there would be no need to have to send out events through flyers or through other email subscriptions and in the event the student was to move they could easily remove themselves.  I could also see the potential of using an RSS to for the surrounding community to get involved and stay up-to-date with the happenings of the library.  This would be especially beneficial for local vendors if they want to showcase that they have worked in conjunction with the school during an event the library was hosting.  However, I could see parents complaining about it causing too much junk in their mailboxes, and I'm not sure how frequently parents would check their emails to keep up-to-date on current events in the library or on the blog.  Maybe crowdsourcing the idea out to teachers and parents to see if would be a beneficial tool.

mLearning in Elementary Schools (Just Some Thoughts).

I wanted to take a moment to document an experience I had the other day while it was fresh in my mind.  Last week, in my IST611 class, we were discussing mLearning and it's application for students and schools.  Many liked the idea, some were apprehensive, and the total consensus was that there needs to be policies and training in place for both teachers and students.  I think mLearning is where the future of education is going.  So many people have devices, including students, and more and more people will acquire them as the technology develops and becomes cheaper.

Anyways, I was out at recess duty at my school, which is at the elementary level.  I monitor 2nd and 3rd graders out on the playground and I was approached by a young girl.  She proceeded to tell me that one of the 3rd grade students had a cellphone at school.  It is prohibited for students to bring cellphones to school (a rule which is slowly becoming archaic).  Any who, I went over and kindly told the young girl that she needed to put it in her pocket then put it away in her book bag when she got back to class.  End of story.

However, as I was walking away I was struck by the discussion and the readings I had done earlier in the week.  Why is it bad that this 3rd grader bring her device to school?  If her class had been using computers, could she have used her device instead thus alleviating the need for her to have a computer?  Could other students bring their devices and the teachers and librarians teacher them how to use them ethically in the class?  What would the tax on our school's board band service be like if students brought their own devices?  Could it be adjusted?  Are there are districts or schools in the country who have switched over to mLearning?  What are their policies regarding ethically usage?

Later on in the week, I saw the young girl again and asked if she had her device with her.  She said no, but when she gets older (maybe middle school) she would be able to use it.  I was again struck by her mention of using it later rather than now.  If we are to cultivate a culture of innovation and 21st century learners I believe we need to encourage students to utilize devices in the classroom at an earlier age.  However, we (educators) need to make sure that they are using it in a way that is conducive to learning and connected to the lessons at hand.  We need to find a way to have them experience the world in which they are going to be required to enter into upon graduation.  It's not enough to give them the opportunity when they are in middle school.  It needs to start earlier so that connections are made and ethical behaviors and responsibilities are put into place for students to utilize.  This way the students that are considered digital natives, can begin to fully navigate the information they are surrounded by to the fullest extent.  We need to get students to move from the "digital native" to the "digital explorer."

So much to do. So little time.

The title pretty much sums up how things have been for me lately.   Between work, online classes, two kids, a husband, and a dog.  I'm being pulled in a few different directions.  I'm actually down sick today at home.  With two kids, if one gets sick you can usually bet there will be a domino effect soon.  I've enjoyed every moment of my busy schedule,  and I'd much rather be too busy, than be bored.   However, having some down time to recoup from whatever this, is wonderful and much needed for me and my littlest.  With that said here are a few photos and snip-its of what I've been up to these past three weeks.

These 5th graders created an awesome marble run!

Elise and Avery (two partner team) and their marble run.

Our 5th graders Friday Clubs started.  This is from the Design Studio club.  Rachel Armstrong, Michelle Colte, and myself head it up.  The first meeting challenged students to make a marble run from PVC pipe.  This challenged students to collaborate with one another.  Our second meeting consisted of them getting their feet wet with Lego Movie Maker.  Again, the students did an amazing job expressing themselves with the materials they had at hand.  This third we asked students to make optical illusion art.  Our student Moses created a great pop out name art.  All the students did an amazing job!

Moses creating his pop out name.

The finished product.

Student making 3D hand art.

In my #IST611 class we have to do an assignment where we evaluate an application.  I chose Seesaw because many of the teachers work with it at our school as a way of curating student's learning.  Here is what Michelle Colte and I came up with to get ready for our school wide #DotDay16 celebration. These are 2nd graders from Mr. Russell's class utilizing Seesaw to analyze and reinforce our reading of "The Dot."

All of the students did an excellent job making their dots and it was fun to see everyone's interpretation of what their dots would look like.  I was excited to see student's accessing the application on their own by using the QR code.

Below are a couple of pictures from our #DotDay16 celebration on September 8th.  This day celebrates creativity, collaboration, and individualism.  It's a great way to connect a story to an event.  Dot Day this year had a couple of theme's running through it.  Students could make an outline of their hand and fill it with dots, make a parrot out of toilet paper tubes, or learn to talk like a pirate. We included the pirate theme since our Book Fair coming on Sept. 26th is Pirate themed!  It was a great way to do some advertisement out for the Book Fair.

Students at our Shark photo op.  

Some of the participants at #DotDay16

Fifth graders have been working on Explorers for their history projects.  Mrs. Colte and I decided to do an exercise that incorporates visual literacy.  We asked students to look at a photo of Christopher Columbus's landing from a textbook and document what they saw, questions they had, and what they thought.  Some of the inferences students were making was amazing!  They were taking the exercise so much further than I thought they would.  I loved seeing one girl in Ms. Park's class accessing her background knowledge of the names of the ships that landed.  It was a great exercise and I would like to see it be taken a step further by having students compare two pictures, one from a textbook and one from a painting that is maybe more realistic or has different visual elements.

5th grader making an inference based on an interesting shadow.

Below is a document I created in Google Docs that can be used in future exercises.

     
Here are a couple of pictures of students writing down the information they saw and accessing their background knowledge when making inferences about the painting.

I loved seeing this student accessing her background knowledge!

In addition to working I've also been taking classes to get my school librarian certification for New York state.  For my IST668 class Literacy Through School Libraries I had to create a Wix Website that will start outlining my plan for my literacy program once I have a library. If you would like to take a look you can find the link below!  Any feedback is appreciated or just talking library!

 http://leahrstone.wixsite.com/libraryliteracyplan.

Hopefully, this blog gives a quick description of what we've been doing at Daniel K. Inouye.  In addition to all of our classes we've also been in the process of moving our old library into our new library.  It's been a lot of work and we've been fortunate enough to have many volunteers to help us (either teachers or parents).  Hopefully we'll be done this week.  We have definitely made progress!