Blog Post 4: Refection on What I have Learned

In the last five years there have been numerous standards and guidelines for librarians to follow. In the article “Recent Trends in Information Literacy and Instruction” by Arp and Woodard do their best to list the several different standards they even give a description of each set of standards.  It is interesting to see these standards and guidelines work together.  They all focus on the same things the words just are different so it begs to ask the question “Just how many times do we need to retread the wheel before we can get on the road?” (pg. 128)  It seems like every year there is some sort of new standards or guidelines out there to follow, it is making it hard to teach the students.  There has been some recent research that really has transformed the way librarians teach.  Mardis and Perrault said it best with this quote form “A Whole New Library: Six ”Senses” you can use to Make Sense of New Standards and Guidelines” “These new documents reflect an evolution in educators’ abilities to prepare students for the world with skills that unite classroom efforts with the school library (AASL), efforts from the school administration (ASCD), efforts from technology staff (ISTE), and efforts form the community and industry (Partnership for the 21^st-Century Skills).”(pg. 34) Librarians are no longer the lone teachers; the new standards and way of thinking want to make the classroom an extension of the library.  It seems the new way of thinking is that the teachers and librarians together are going to make lesson plans and try having a more team teaching environment.  Which makes sense the books and what the students learn in library should reflect the leaning that is going on in the classroom.  Then to take it a step farther the learning should reflect in and on the community.  To do this librarians should think about what Daniel H. Pink has to say “we need to think beyond fact based, routine, left brain thing and propel them to embrace personal, dynamic, creative activities that allow them to change and grow all though our lives.” (pg. 34)  When a person takes a step back and looks at all that we demand of students it is crazy insane.  So to get more of these creative juices flowing librarians need to find ways to make the learning personal for the student, which can be as simple as using Web 2.0 tools, or finding ways to teach to the different learning styles.  The Standards for the 21^st Century Learner seem to allow the students to grow and learn and find ways to evolve in to the 21^st Century adult.  Some of their standards follow closely to what the two articles say.  For example both articles mentioned that librarians have to teach student work together to reach a common goal, which is “Participate and collaborate as members of a social and intellectual network of learners.” (pg. 6)  It is hard to pinpoint a standard in these standards because every stand can work for almost anything that a teacher or a librarian teaches the students.  Which means teachers and librarians should have no problem making sure that they address these standards when teaching.

Technology is a tool that can destroy a teacher or make a teacher great.  So when using technology one has to be careful not to get over zealous and use it all the time.  So to use technology in the classroom/library will be a challenge but very do able.  For example: have the students turn in one project a six weeks using a different technology making sure they are working in groups.  Make a presentation made for the students or help a teacher make one for a new or old concept that the students need to learn.  The possibilities are endless when it comes to technology.  Pink says that teachers and librarians need to find a way to engage the right side of the brain, which houses all the creative juices.  So in a way letting students use Web 2.0 tools that allow them to create something is a way to get those juices following and get the fun back into school.  

References:

Mardis, M. A., & Perrault, A. M. (2008). a whole new library: Six "senses" you can use to make sense of new standards and guidelines. Teacher Librarian, 35(4), 34-38. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/224874665?accountid=7113

Arp, L., & Woodard, B. S. (2002). Recent trends in information literacy and instruction. Reference & User Services Quarterly,42(2), 124. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/217924704?accountid=7113

Standards for the 21st-century learner. In (2007).American Association of School Librarians. Chicago: American Library Association. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/aasl/guidelinesandstandards/learningstandards/standards

Blog Post 3: Learning with Technology

The once stuffy rooms with an old white haired lady sitting at a desk telling you to be quite, are over the world of teaching is changing and we as teachers have to move with it.  I love the idea of students using the technology in the library; the technology makes it real for the students.  There are many ways to use games and technology in the library, you just have to find what you like and make it work for you.  In the article that I found by Khalida Mashriqi she makes sure that every lesson has a technology component. 

For example when she works with the kindergarten or Pre-k, she lets them have time to play on starfall.com.  Which is a great free public website that helps students learn letters or to read.  Then the next day those same students are actively participating in an interactive whiteboard lesson that Mashriqi created.  She also provides differentiated instruction.  Sometimes it can be hard to try to find ways to teach to the different learning styles.  I have noticed as well as Mashriqi that technology sometimes can target all the different styles at one time, which can be very helpful.  The students learned for to take notes from a movie, and make a KWL chart with the information on an interactive whiteboard, and to really make sure the lesson stuck she finished up with a song.  So right there in that lesson she catered to all three of the learning styles.  As she is using technology in her library she is taking the dull and boring out of the library.  I can remember that the library was a quiet place, with people that told you to shhhhh all the time.  I can say now that Mashriqi’s library is nothing like that.  She let her students create a short video using a flip camera.  She helped the students film the short videos and when they were done they got to watch them and discuss what they did.    

In my classroom I am going to try to make interactive whiteboard activities for my students.  I was thinking of making activities for each letter of the alphabet.  Where each slide has something for the student to come up and do, for example tracing a letter, circling the picture that starts with the letter.

I would like try making a video with my students.  The project as a whole seems like a lot of fun and would be a good way to teach sequencing.  I would have my kids act out a story or a song that we have read or sung a lot. 

In conclusion we need to get with the program and start using technology more.  Start out small and then work your way up the technology ladder.  You have to find what works best for you and make it your own.  The ways that Mashriqi presented lessons to her students is brilliant and I am already thinking of ways to implementing them into my own classroom. 

Mashriqi, K. (2011). Implementing Technology and Gaming Lessons in a School Library. Knowledge Quest, 40(1), 24-28.

States and Capitals Search Engine