8.20.2014

Kids returned to school today.  My co-teacher and I introduced ourselves using some vintage photography (slide 3).

8.19.2014

Working lunch today. Preparing first day of library/tech class.

My daughters made a terrarium for my office. Kids return tomorrow.

8.18.2014

The 2014-15 welcome back breakfast and assembly for CCSD faculty and staff was today.

"Schools are the work of persistent and caring people."

This quote from our school board president has stayed with me.

8.8.2014

The waning days of front porch sitting and reading in the middle of a weekday.

8.7.2014

Contributed another post to the Iowa Association of School Librarians blog. I continue to enjoy my involvement in this association and look forward to writing more posts in the new school year.

8.6.2014

Part of the my-first-marathon preparations are weekly visits to the U of I track to do a bunch of 800 meter runs (as fast as I can). Some things I really appreciate about these evenings:

There is a pace group for EVERYONE who comes out.

EVERYONE asks about upcoming races people have planned. 

Individual goals and accomplishments are celebrated by EVERYONE.

This environment is encouraging, supportive, and informative.  A guy I consider one of my running mentors lent me this book today.

8.5.2014

Time to order some professional reading for the teachers at Creek.

8.4.2014

I took a much longer period of rest time this summer than usual. Let's see if this 365 blog can take off starting today.

My attempt at taking doodle notes using the Adobe Ideas app during today's PL at College Community. I will give these a few days to percolate and see where they take me.

6.25.2014

My preparation for the ALSC Board of Directors meeting led me to do some research about digital media and early childhood education.  Technology and Interactive Media and Tools in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth through Age 8 is a white paper jointly authored by NAEYC and the Fred Rogers Center.

There is much to think about in this document. They draw a clear line between interactive and passive media.  The potential benefits of interactive media are explained in detail.  It also makes abundantly clear the important role educators have in mentoring young children to use these media and tools for the best results and experiences.



This document was very helpful in helping our board talk about emerging technology and the role of the librarian.  I also think it has some implications for the digital literacy initiative at College Community School District.  Hope the digital learning team can look at this and act on these recommendations with teachers in the PreK-3 range in 2014-15.

6.23.2014

Met with a team from Creek via Google Hangout to plan our first major literacy night event for 2014-15. This is really shaping up to be an interactive and informative exchange between parents, students, and teachers.  More details to follow.

Photo by Raney Kinsey-Thomas

This is the post where I realized the wisdom of my colleague Kathy Kaldenberg. From here forward the title of the post will be the date of activity being shared. This allows me to post multiple days at once.

Coit Tower

Library Mural

Iowa Children's Choice Award list

Starting my reading of the 14-15 list.

Dueling Paradigms

Education is in the midst of competing paradigms over what literacy means for kids.

One is very narrow as demonstrated in the recent report from the NCTQ (http://www.nctq.org/dmsView/Std2_UG_G_Elem)

One is more broad and positions educators to use the full range of student experiences for teaching and learning.

More to Read

One welcome part of returning home from a trip is the pile of professional reading awaiting me.

What Will You Create?

The Children's Creativity Museum has given me ideas about how to transform the Creek animation club into an open studio space.

Seeing information in 3D

Museums are so good at making multi sensory discovery a reality. These images from the current Skulls exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences.

Perhaps Google would like to partner with the Prairie Creek Library?

Today has me thinking about possible exhibits to host in 2014-15.

Take Note

My note taking will probably never become completely digital. I still take detailed notes about youth literature in paper notebooks. Using apps such as Notability supports my digital note taking. This hybrid approach works for me.

Marzano's research shows us that note taking done well elevates student achievement.  Wondering about the best approach for them.

Following the Snail Trail

On a recent walk with my kids we discovered some snails. Several minutes were devoted to observing and talking about their movements, appearance, and purpose.  I was curious if this moment could be used to meet the new science standards.

The Next Generation Science Standards are on my reading list for this summer. There is much to unpack and think about in these standards. I began by reading the short document on the conceptual shifts and browsed through the scientific practices and crosscutting concepts.

The first conceptual shift contends that science education should "reflect the interconnected nature of science as it is practiced and experienced in the real world".

Now I was ready to take my snail moment and look at it through the Next Gen framework. I used the search feature to locate a possible list that would apply. That rich observation of snails could easily be used to meet this life science standard IF schools find approaches that truly integrate content. The ELA standard of writing opinion pieces matches perfectly with this science standard. 

Teacher Recommended

Prairie Creek teachers participating in the June Book Boot Camp are creating several useful tools to guide student reading next school year. 

One of their "camp crafts" is a simple but effective shelf card. Here are some examples I provided from Copperfield's Books.

7 Day Power Up Challenge

Over my morning coffee I watched a recently archived webinar.

Watch "Top Tips for Getting Savvy with your Digital Device Over the Summer | With Jennie Magiera" on YouTube

The major growth area for me in this challenge will be to curate more digital content for my classes. Currently I bookmark stuff in browsers or add it to my pocket account.

Ms. Magiera encouraged us to use tools like educlipper (available as an Edmodo app too) for this work. She likened it to Pinterest for teaching.

https://educlipper.net

More to report on this challenge.

Reading is Social

My colleagues and students are using the power of social media to share our summer reading experiences. Thanks to the Edmodo app on my phone I am connected to fellow summer readers no matter where I go.

Convergence

In my travels I am always on the look out for how common spaces are designed and used by people. This was a remarkable space in the San Fransisco airport. No signage necessary ...people unknown to one another simply engaged in shared enjoyment.

All Things Tween

Emails and phone calls today related to planning for the 2014 Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) National Institute scheduled for September.

I am pleased to be co-presenting with Penny Peck on Easy Programming for Discerning Tweens. Here is the full program description:

"Expand your programming toolbox with these field tested programs for tweens (youth ages 9-13, or grades 4-8), that take into account the unique social, emotional, and developmental needs of young adolescents. Participants will experience a range of options from one-time programs including Star Wars Reading Day, hands-on Maker programs, programs celebrating specific books, authors, or subjects, interactive movie programming, and engaging passive programming. Participants will also learn about ongoing programming series options, including stop motion animation, book discussion groups, Lego clubs, and board and video gaming."

Also made a trip to the Iowa City Public Library to learn more about their Tweens on Tuesday summer programming.  Vicki, the Children's Services Coordinator, was kind enough to talk about getting this series off the ground. We agreed to talk at the end of the summer to swap more information about tween services. There was a big crowd for today's program about all things lasers, 3D, and electrical.  In addition to what we are doing at Creek I plan to share the ICPL experience with the Oakland crowd. 

My #bookaday was The Odd One Out: a spotting book. Enjoyed the collective noun fun (a wobble of flamingos!) while spotting the odd duck & bat & fish & camel.

Image from Indie Bound

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Data Hats

The Creek building leadership team met today to dig deeper into our plans for data driven instruction in 2014-15. We also practiced wearing several different hats to do this work.