As Joyce and I (and the rest of the geek squad) get ready for our last day of AASL sessions, we want to begin a very open conversation about what we loved and didn’t so much love about our experience in Charlotte.
Let’s expand the way our conference is evaluated!
For those of you who are here, and those of you who are not, please share your thoughts:
What worked at Conference?
What are your takeaways?
What needs to happen in Minneapolis 2011?
What didn’t work?
Please respond in your comments and your own blog posts (aasl2009) or Tweet it out with the hashtag #aasl2009.
Some of the geek squad links you may find useful in thinking about Conference:
The final resource page is housed at http://sites.google.com/site/aasl2009buffyjhamilton/home . The final slidedeck does not reflect this change, but in the actual presentation, I integrated three live polls from PollEverywhere into the presentation and PowerPoint—audience members could respond to the questions I used to kick off the discussion via Twitter or by texting, and they could see the responses live within the PowerPoint. PollEverywhere rocks! I truly loved having the option to invite audience discussion through a traditional means (flip chart—thank you to Heather Loy for being my scribe) and through digital mediums.
Are you interested in creating conversations in your library to facilitate student learning and teacher collaboration? Do you see your library as more than just a place of information objects? Do you want your library to be about experiences and not just “stuff” in the library?
If so, I would like to invite you to my session, Not Just Another Brick in the Wall: Engaging 21st Century Learning Through Participatory School Librarianship, that will take place on 11/06/09 from 2:15PM to 3:30PM. It will be located in room 213BC of the Charlotte Convention Center. We will be engaging in our conversations about how to create conversations for formal learning and the AASL Standards for 21st Century Learners as well as creating conversations with your library community using traditional and Library 2.0 tools.
Right now, the final presentation materials are under wraps, but they will be posted by 10PM Tuesday evening, November 3, 2009 at http://theunquietlibrarian.wikispaces.com/aasl2009. Once posted, you will be able to preview the slidedeck and presentation links as well as a Google Moderator session I have created as a medium for you to pose questions.
You are encouraged to bring a laptop to the session, but it is not required. You may also want to bring your cellphone for a fun activity as well as your creative energy for some hands-on activities I hope to do with you as a guest in the session.
If you plan to Tweet my session, please use the #aasl2009 hashtag as well as this hashtag just for my session: #plaasl2009. I hope to see you there!
The process of creating monthly reports is a yearly evolution for me; each year, I try to find ways to include more meaningful and relevant data while presenting that information in more interesting ways. Last year’s reports were a major step forward as they were packaged in attractive Word document (and converted to PDF format) with statistical and anecdotal data about happenings in the library each month.
One of my professional goals this year is to do a better job of assessment and data collection. After an insanely busy first three months of school, I am finally beginning my first steps toward adding more dimension to my monthly reports. In August, I used Animoto to create a “video” report; the response has been positive to this format. Now I want to supplement my reports with additional layers of evidence as I try to be even more transparent about what is happening in my library program. I will now be creating a page for each month (example: September 2009 in its infancy). On the home page for the month, I will include the statistical data and a video. I will then add subpages to that month to represent each lesson or unit I create with a classroom teacher. As you can imagine, this will take time, but I think the investment in collecting more anecdotal data will be worthwhile in terms of getting better assessment and reflection for me in regards to library programs and practices as well as better educating our learning community about what we do with students and teachers.
This page represents a very rough draft of what I hope to be the template for this new mode of reporting. Essential elements for each teacher page will include:
an attached PDF for a unit or lesson plan using the AASL Standards for 21st Century Learners template; having a copy of the AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner is essential for identifying skills, benchmarks, dispositions, and responsibilities.
a link to the research pathfinder
a link to student learning artifacts and/or embedded student work on the actual page
Written and/or videotaped reflections from students and the teacher
Any other multimedia to support the collaborative lesson or unit
This example is my first effort, and it is rather rough, but hopefully, it will provide a model of what I hope to accomplish. I will still need to refine my details on the template and do a better job of collecting formative assessment, but I think this page represents a decent start. It is missing some of the additional assessment data I want to include (polls, surveys and the teacher video), but I feel this is a step in the right direction. You can see additional videos featuring teachers and students that I will am collecting and preparing to incorporate into the collaborative lesson pages at our library’s YouTube Channel.
I love how Google Sites easily lets me embed this data; I also like the attachment option as well. My goal is to go back and create pages for all the collaborative projects I have done since August 1; then I will be ready to move forward and document the projects as they are developed. I hope to have all pages completed by December 1, so I will provide an update at that time on this project and hopefully be able to showcase a much broader range of data for you; I also hope to better show the “vision” of these pages that I have in mind to feature as many kinds of data as possible.
If you can think of additional data that would be helpful and meaningful to include, please share your thoughts here with me on the blog!
Look for Sara Kelly Johns, candidate. 4 ALA president, in Charlotte. Stop her & lend your support. Follow us on twitter #aasl2009#skj4ala16 minutes ago
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