Hello again,
I must say, I was overwhelmed with all the suggestions about what to do
for my in-service presentation. Here is a HIT of the suggestions - I
think I'm going to do something "fun" with web evaluation, provide some
tools for teachers to use for websites intended for instructional
purposes and also with students (a worksheet kids can complete to
identify "good" website choices from "poor" choices of information). I
include some of the phony websites out there and have a "stump the
teacher" contest to see if they can identify the phony websites from
valid sources -maybe pit the science and social studies teachers against
each other (we have a pretty congenial atmosphere, so that should work).
I think working databases in there will dovetail nicely, since databases
are a much more reliable source of info that Joe Schmoe's website about
(insert obsession here). Also, paying attention to the wise advice
offered by some, I will of course provide some munchies.
Thanks again to everyone!
________________________________
The state of the new information landscape and why teachers, admin and
the students need you more than ever. Go to thumbshots.com for a little
piece of software that ranks search engines, mention paid sites and
Google algorithms that give you the most popular site rather than the
most relevant, artifical intelligence applications being used by Google
to build searcher profiles so every search you perform is now preicated
by your previous search history (it gives you what it thinks tou
want/need based on previous searches). Have attached my latest paper
which you may use provided you print it as a whole document and
acknowledge the source - information seeking skills of the Net
Generation also called generation Y or Millennials. Good luck.
________________________________
What about a curriculum mapping exercise? We did something in a grad
class last month -- divided the class into groups of 3-4, using the
topic "weather" we then assigned a subject area to each group (fine
arts, math, history, science, etc). Each group spent ~15 minutes coming
up with activities and lesson plans associated to weather and meeting
state PASS standards. It was fascinating! If nothing else, it gets
people thinking in a bit of a different paradigm.
________________________________
I would teach Social Studies teachers how to setup and use RSS feeds.
This is perfect for their area. You could weave in how you selected good
sites and thus talk a bit about evaluation, but meanwhile you would also
be showing them how to be the information goddess of the web, print and
electronic databases. If you do something like this, check out the
YouTube video by Lee LeFever on RSS feeds. It's simple, fun and
interesting.
________________________________
We had one good session last year with the faculty that was helpful for
everyone. The session began with web evaluation and search engines. We
researched websites in the computer lab. We emailed helpful links to
ourself to bookmark later. Each teacher was able to find sites helpful
to their subject, try out some games, etc. It was noisy but not boring.
________________________________
Do you all have United Streaming? That might be good.
________________________________
What about making it into a game like Jeopardy? Google it in advanced
and put in PPT only format. My principal was very impressed with what I
did even for the students. That way you could cover what you want, have
fun, and still hit sci and ss!
________________________________
How about a workshop on using wikis? PB wiki has a presenter's package
they offer for anyone wanting to present.
http://educators.pbwiki.com/FAQs
* You can download your Presenter Pack PDF and Powerpoint files at
http://educators.pbwiki.com/PresenterPackInfo
Here is the name of the person who sent me the presenter's package info.
You may try emailing her directly if you need more info.
________________________________
Have you thought about having them do a scavenger hunt of the library?
It could be set up in teams and concentrate on each of the Dewey subject
areas, i. e. social studies, science and special teachers.
Also have them find things on the Card Catalog, assuming they can rotate
from computers to shelves, etc.
Then have them search specific data bases relevant to their field. Give
specific targets.
Finally, set up a link to a vendor list of titles in their curriculum
area.
You can easily get those lists at www.mackin.com by registering, logging
on and go to "Suggested Titles" then entering Pennsylvania, then going
to the list that shows the grade level and curriculum level that matches
those teachers.
Then open one of the lists at a time and at the top of the screen, click
"Select all items listed" then click "Save To" and create a name for the
list that fits your teacher(s) that should look at it. Once the list is
saved you can forward it to your email and then from that stage forward
the list to the individual teacher. Then that teacher has a set of
titles that fit the Pennsylvania guidelines and are potential wish list
requests to you for the library. This process would have to be repeated
for each curriculum and grade level and would take time on your part,
but could really be dynamic in that those folks would begin to gain some
ownership in the library.
Let me suggest that if you add the Mackin steps that you first save a
copy of your library's catalog to your desktop and then send that copy
to Mackin for Title Match and Collection Analysis. That will facilitate
your determining titles you already have.
Another thing you could do is have parts of those lists made
available/printed out and have the teachers search your catalog to see
if any of them are already in your library.
Now, the Mackin stuff may just be TOO much.
But scavenger hunts are hands on. They do require work on your part,
but are well worth the effort. The hunt can involve simple Dewey
questions, and more, even a mapping out of the library. You could put a
simple map on the paper and have them go to the parts of the library in
order to label the features on the map. That's always fun.
Again, work in teams and give fun prizes for the winners: by time,
correctness, etc. The prizes can come from a Dollar Tree store, which
usually has those little figures holding books, often bears sitting on
books, etc., or CHOCOLATE! Everyone loves chocolate. And you can have
cookies as well. Maybe the principal will kick in the funds for the
prizes.
Be sure you have graders/judges in place to help tally results. Get
volunteers or aides to help with that.
Have the principal participate, too. The activity should WOW him/her
with a new perspective of your library as well.
Once you execute such a program, you will have the experience behind you
and can do it again with additions, deletions, etc. another year. It
can become an annual Post Trick or Treat at the Library, or Don't be a
Turkey: Gobble Up Resources at the Library, Fall Scavenger Hunt: Leaf
it to the Librarian to make Things Fun!
I am really getting corny. But you get the idea!
Whatever you decide to do, have fun and good luck!
________________________________
Do a presentation of all the picture books that can be used with those
subjects, along with a few ideas on how to use them. As I always say,
you're never too old for picture books!! And many agree - I have a
presentation on that topic once and a college prof in the audience said
she got her students to come to class on time by starting every session
with a picture book read-aloud. None of them wanted to be late and miss
the story! Her stories didn't even relate to her subject, either!
________________________________
Use "Shift Happens" on YouTube and present on School Library 2.0.
Introduce all the great tools out there that teachers can use. They are
always looking for things to make their lives easier. Include whatever
new technology the district is pushing-Smartboards, Turnitin.com, Safari
Montage, etc. Let them walk away with a list of tools to try or new
project ideas.
________________________________
I've taught the teachers the Big6 skills, as I would the kids, with
enormous success, and during the entire presentation the teachers went
oooh and aaah as if this was the most fascinating news about information
literacy that they had ever heard.
________________________________
Erin, you or someone at your school may have already done this...but
I'm thinking about showing Google World (or whatever it's called) at one
of our faculty meetings. I had downloaded it a couple of weeks ago and
had played briefly with it. At our library meeting this past Wednesday
our coordinator showed us some more things. I thought it would be neat
to demonstrate it by showing putting in some of our staff members
addresses and pulling up where they live...and then show other things
and how they could show this to kids and do geography. While our rural
community is not in the high rez area (we are about 70 miles NW of
Atlanta), most of the major cities are in high rez and some places have
buildings/monuments that have been done in 3D from someone drawing it
with CAD software. We looked at the Eieffel Tower and could rotate the
plane from looking straight down to horizontal and see it as if we were
on the ground.
________________________________
how about website evaluation lesson? You can present fake fun websites
like Cats reactions to pictures of bearded men, velcro farm etc It would
cover all topics and be useful as well. if you could prepare a power
point and hand out a list of questions to ask about a website. I
sometimes do this together with reminders about internet safety. Have
fun- this is a great opportunity to show off and remind them how
essential your work is to all disciplines.
________________________________
I would try presenting GoogleEarth as a learning tool. I use it to
show settings in stories I read to 2nd graders. It has definite social
studies connections and the science of navigation and landforms can be
explained and there is even a GoogleEarth button to switch from Earth to
space! I have GoogleEarth Plus at home and haven't checked out if the
space aspect is one
my school computers yet. There is so much you can do with this. I
just hope you are familiar with it or can take the time to learn some of
the MANY aspects of it. Go to Google Earth bog for more info and help.
I always get a WOW when I show it to newbies and I use it so much I keep
finding more all the time so even those in the know Can be wowed.
________________________________
Set up a Book Blog so your students can write their book reviews on
line!
They can be fully moderated by YOU, the Librarian. I just did a
statewide conference in MICHIGAN and Librarians were very excited about
it. My principal loves it!
Parents are supportive because it is fully moderated!
Check it out: www.mikids.com, click on BookBlog, choose a teacher
(Working) and click on "comments".
Technology meets the Library, supporting Reading and Writing!
________________________________
I'm doing my first staff presentation on our our In-Service day on
November 6th. The district recently purchased United Streaming, so I'm
going to spend the day showing groups of 25 teachers what United
Streaming is, and showing them how to incorporate United Streaming into
PowerPoint. If time permits, I'd also like to show them how to use
Windows Movie Maker.
If you don't have a new resource like that, how about showing them what
MySpace and Facebook look like? Go over the sites and talk about
Internet Saftey. Hand out a list of safety tips, and then have them
evaluate the "risk factor" of some of the students' profiles that attend
your school. You could also show clips from Dateline's To Catch a
Preadator.
________________________________
Focus on showing them something they can use: student work or
description of projects (an d actual books) you've used with teachers
(especially if they can help you talk it up). Handouts with database
info., web addresses, etc., so they don't have to try to remember that.
My teachers enjoyed learning how to search the website for the local
public library and place holds (in case we didn't have something they
needed). By the way, I have trouble getting my teachers interested too.
________________________________
I would talk about the Web 2.0 tools - give them a look at what's hot
today and will be coming to their school in the very near future.
Also - show them that terrific video "Shift Happens" - and then follow
up with Web 2.0!
should be a terrific program! Good luck - Toby
________________________________
Wow! What a great opportunity. If I had such an opportunity, I would
want to show every way in which I could help the teachers teach their
students. This would really keep them interested, because, who wouldn't
like their job to be a little easier??? Of course, it will be harder
for you ;) How about "100 Things Your Library Media Program Can Do for
You"? or however many things you think are appropriate. It also
connects the media program to classroom instruction--as opposed to
"library" instruction. I don't know if that is a problem for you, but
it is for multitudes of other people.
If you have a school reform initiative on your campus you might want to
highlight some things/ways in which materials or services you offer can
be utilized in helping teachers align their instruction with the reform
initiative. I have been studying school reform in my doc program
lately, and there is precious little about library programs in the
literature of school reform (that teachers and administrators see.).
Hope this sparks some ideas for you...Good luck!
________________________________
The state of the new information landscape and why teachers, admin and
the students need you more than ever. Go to thumbshots.com for a little
piece of software that ranks search engines, mention paid sites and
Google algorithms that give you the most popular site rather than the
most relevant, artifical intelligence applications being used by Google
to build searcher profiles so every search you perform is now preicated
by your previous search history (it gives you what it thinks tou
want/need based on previous searches). Have attached my latest paper
which you may use provided you print it as a whole document and
acknowledge the source - information seeking skills of the Net
Generation also called generation Y or Millennials. Good luck.
________________________________
I have found just the opposite to be true. I always stick with
something such as a generic database - such as EBSCOhost or Proquest
which will cover all disciplines. Also web evaluation pertains to every
class so i can't imagine anyone being bored. But then, I believe it is
bigger than library as databases and the web effect all classrooms in
all disciplines. I just make sure my examples cover several arears in
the searching process.
________________________________
It would definitely be databases! Use Power Library. Show them
exactly which ones would benefit them. Also, do a mock q and a with the
new ASK HERE PA service. It's great! (You can find it on ACCESS PA
site) Also, what I have done in the past, is have a mini "book fair"
for the teachers. I went around the library, got out all of my
materials that support their units. (Teacher reference,
fiction/non-fiction, big books, videos, dvds, magazines, etc.) I talked
for 15 minutes about the Databases in Power LIbrary, then let them
browse the materials and then gave the last 5 minutes for check out.
Very cool. Teachers loved it.
________________________________
At our library conference at the start of the school year we were shown
this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U
It was incredibly interesting and you could show the video to the
teachers and spark a conversation about different forms of research
available to students and staff. You could show the staff the internet
research sites that are available, as well as how the teachers can use
united streaming in their classroom, how to hook up their TVs to their
computers, etc. Good luck!
________________________________
I was thinking about your question and how your principal is setting
such an unprofessional expectation for your session. He's also selling
your teachers short.
I think the key to planning this is to make it relevant to what teachers
see in their classrooms. If you talk about web evaluation, make it
relevant by "How many of you have the student who clicks on the first
thing in the search results and accepts it at face value?" Have lots of
examples of good and bad websites and tools for evaluating their worth.
Put some of the funny ones up for them to work with. I developed a
website a few years ago on web evaluation. There is a list of sites at
the end, as well as a collection of evaluation instruments. Feel free to
use (anytime). < http://www.usd308.com/bowmanc/webeval.html>
I did a session on EBSCO once where I showed teachers how to get an
email alert when a journal they were interested in was online.
The things that are obvious to us aren't always obvious to teachers. Be
enthusiastic in laying the foundation for the subject and in your
presentation and you'll have their attention!!
________________________________
We just did a Tech Fun Friday (we invite all the teachers to stop in for
their prep period) and we covered Podcasting. We did everything from
what is a podcast to where to find them (we had already looked up
several on iTunes for each discipline so we could show them) to how to
create them. It seemed to be a big hit- a lot of teachers who had never
even heard of/considered using podcasts in the class are setting up
times for further information or for us to come to their class to help
them set up. Our dance teacher is having us come to help her tomorrow! J
You could totally do something similar and having several podcasts to
show would make it more interesting and make it so you did not have to
speak for the entire time. J Good Luck!
You could also show and talk about iTunesU. I think that most teachers
do not know that all podcasts and iTunesU stuff is free and that you
don't need an iPod or an Apple computer to view it.
________________________________
Be sure to provide food of some sort. I have done staff development
sessions and for some this is all that matters. I do think the database
idea is your best best. Choose one that has something for all subjects
(or almost all) and be sure to show them how to take images since their
students probably do photostory or power point. I have to go but also
show them the lesson plans as examples that most databases have as well.
Good Luck.
________________________________
What a great position to be in! I would recommend doing something on
basic research since you have both the social studies and science
teachers present.
How about how to frame questions? There is a good presentation fro
the AASL conference by Carol Brown with some examples that would be good
to use. Also Joyce Valenza uses the term "fat questions". I would
design my presentation so that the group has to pair off and create some
of the "fat questions" Explanation on how this helps students avoid
plagiarism.
Secondly, it would be good to show them some of the online citation
sites like the Citation Maker and David Warlick's Citation Machine. My
teachers loved that. Again, the theme of complying with copyright and
the correct research methods...
I think that would give you a good relaxed pace with some individual
question time and the follow-up (at a later time) would be those
databases you have for each of the subject areas. I'd offer to do that
with their individual class as they come in for research.
________________________________
A presentation about databases can be made interesting if you show the
faculty what's in it for them and their kids. Many faculty members are
aware of the existence of these resources but are not always sure how to
use them and especially how to cite them as sources.
A short overview with quick searches on pertinent topics for each
subject area should do the trick. You might also include handouts on
citations and tips on easy use.
A Power Point with screen shots of the steps in a few quick search might
be very effective.
________________________________
At our back to school in-service, our new clicker systems were
demonstrated with a ques. and ans. competion about the new tchrs. with
faculty split into two teams ( male vs female).
If you have set of clickers, you could make a quiz about ???? your
databases, copyright,,,,,,,,
________________________________
Erin L. Glover, Librarian
James Buchanan Middle School
Mercersburg, PA
erin.glover@tus.k12.pa.us <mailto:erin.glover@tus.k12.pa.us>
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