Divergent Day at Todd

Check out this cool Smore that my talented colleague, Wendy Rollins, made to promote Divergent Day at our school. Can't wait for all the fun and I am excited that so many students are becoming interested in the series.

SCASL Reflection - ReTweet!

I am still processing all of the great experiences and ideas from SCASL 2014, but thought I would share Cathy Nelson's blog post.  So proud that I got to be a part of her session - collaboration at work!

SCASL 14 Day 3 Final Reflection - Friday, March 14, 2014 SCASL kicked off the last day of conference with our ... http://t.co/rq8DYTJtq3
— Cathy Jo Nelson  (@cathyjo) March 19, 2014

Google Forms for Libraries

Taking a page from my Dorman high library mentors, Melanie Dillard and Cathy Nelson, I created a book contest entry form using Google forms. The contest is to pick the first student to check out Jeff Kinney's 8th installment in the Diary of a Wimpy kid series, Hard Luck. Our students LOVE this series and are eagerly awaiting the newest one.

This year our school is 1:1 with iPads (3rd-5th) and MacBooks (6th-8th) so students will be able to access the entry form very easily. What I like the best, aside from the ease of use in creating the form and tweaking the look and content, is that the results will feed into a Google spreadsheet with each entry sorted automatically.

Thanks Google and your magic Docs! Now that I have tried forms, I will definitely utilize this tool in the future.

Day 20 - Goodbyes

Pictures from M. Dillard, C. Nelson, and my own photos.

Thursday was the final day of my Dorman internship and I left with mixed emotions.  Though I am thrilled to have completed one of the final components of my MLIS program and will graduate from USC's SLIS program December 6, I know that I will miss the fantastic DHS media center team - Melanie, Cathy, and Erika.  They welcomed me in, challenged me to try new things, and were always willing to answer my questions and listen to my ideas.  

Photos by E. Graham

Thank you to Dorman High School's students and teachers for all the great times!  I have truly been able to experience all aspects of a high school library program and would love to work at one in the future.  Love the spirit, the energy, the YA novels, the learning, the ideas, and the fun that comes with teenagers.

Day 19 - Literary Research

Today I worked with Ms. Davis' 12th grade English classes (hard at work in the photos to the left and right). The students are writing an essay about symbolism in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". First I introduced appropriate database resources for their literary research and how to access them. Then I provided research and formatting advice. As Ms. Davis observed, these students are preparing for college and should be able to work independently.  Overall, most of the students did use Discus, Gale or Ebsco Host literature databases for their research. The essays are due tomorrow; as a fellow student, I wish them luck tonight!

 

 
I enjoyed reflecting with Melanie and Cathy about how they evaluate and design action plans for their program. Cathy also shared details about her American Association of School Librarians conference adventures last week. Check out her blog to learn more.

The best part of my day was talking and working with DHS students. I have come to know some of them and will miss their insights and great reading suggestions.  One of the student library helpers is reading #4 in Michael Grant's Gone series, Plague, and agreed with me that this series is addictive.  As I was leaving I got to meet Dorman principal, Ken Kiser, and he praised Melanie and Cathy for the great job they do.

Day 18 - Day of Reflection

Thursday was an unusually quiet day at DHS.  This provided a good opportunity to reflect on my goals and plans for my remaining week.  I met with a student teacher to share my New Teacher's Guide to the School Library presentation.  Another book order came in and, as usual, I loved looking through all the great new titles. I recognized quite a few books from my browsing at the Teen department at the Spartanburg Public Library. Even better, I was able to check out a copy of this hot title. Thank you Melanie! 

With Erika's help I put together a display of sports titles, both fiction and nonfiction.  At first I intended to only feature football books, but since basketball season is beginning we decided to feature all sports.  I will check on Tuesday to see if any titles are missing - meaning they are checked out!

Day 14 - Happy Halloween

Today Erica put out new books for students and they browsed and selected as though they were at a retail book store.  Love those new books! 


I worked on plans for a professional development session with student teachers.  School libraries and librarians can be great allies and guides for new teachers and I want to share all of the benefits of teacher/librarian collaboration.  Here's a view of my Smore invitation:

Exciting technology news for Dorman: 15 iPads were donated to the school and the library will oversee the management of them.  Classes can check them out for instructional use and projects.  Melanie showed me how to control and manage apps and restrict unauthorized downloads. 1:1 programs are popping up all over our state and my home district will roll out iPads for 3rd-5th grade this month.  I welcome every opportunity I have to learn more about device management and how to best utilize iPads as part of student instruction and to allow students to create digital products.

Day 12 - Busy Day at The DHS Media Center

As expected, Thursday was jam packed with activity.  Melanie went over budgeting, requisitions, and purchase orders with me, but, as she advised me, each school will have its own unique requirements and steps for budgeting and spending.  Once I have my own library, I will need to make good friends with the school bookkeeper so they won't mind all the questions I will ask them!

Mrs. Shepard's class completed their Destiny Quest book reviews. I briefly went over copyright and citations and then the class  moved on to the next phase of the project: visual book reports.  Visual book reports are a mashup of text and images that represent the major themes, symbols, and or characters of the novel.  I think the students will enjoy the creative freedom of this project and I am excited to see their final products.  Cathy will work with us on the final day and provide needed guidance on the graphic design aspects of the visual book report.

Teen Read Week (TRW) festivities continued with library trivia and  special guests, Travis and Heather, from Spartanburg County Public Library's teen library staff.  Many students stopped by during lunch and won t-shirts and other cool swag for showing their SCPL cards.  See more TRW pictures and details on the Cavaliers Read! blog.

Events like Teen Read Week are a great way to create a "buzz" around your library program and to get students excited and inclined to think the school library is a hub of fun and activity.

Day 10 - Halfway There

http://cultureofyes.ca/2012/02/02/what-is-west-van-talking-about-checking-in-at-the-midpoint/

Tuesday began with an multistep student project.  Cathy is helping an art class create narration files to go along with a physical and web based display of student created artwork, a virtual art walk.  Using Audacity, students recorded narrations, exported the files, and created QR codes linked to the files.  There are more steps involved, but the process should be worthwhile once the art and audio are linked.

Melanie discussed my midpoint evaluation with me and we identified checkpoint items that I still need to complete.  For the professional development component I am planning to offer a Media Center 101 session to any student teachers at Dorman this semester.  Another idea is to offer training on using Destiny Quest.

Cathy and I met with Mrs. Shepard to finalize the plans for next week's curriculum unit.  I am excited about the project and hope the students enjoy creating digital book reviews and visual book reports.  I am also happy to have Cathy assisting with some of the more technical elements of the project!  She has done visual book reports project before and has some great tips in this blog post.  We will add in some information technology instruction related to citing images.

Melanie and Cathy attended EdTech this week and I look forward to hearing all about it.  As I am posting after the big crosstown rival game, I must acknowledge that the Dorman Cavaliers beat my home school district team, the Spartanburg High School Vikings,  42-35.  Hope I don't hear too much gloating on Tuesday!

Day 9 - PosterMyWall and Basketball fiction

Thursday was filled with lots of planning and working with students.  Cathy gave me more ideas for visual, creative student projects. PosterMyWall is a site that allows students to create collage posters that can be downloaded for free.  This can be used to combine text and images to represent a work of fiction.  This requires students to analyze and synthesize and work those higher order thinking skills.
Not your average book report!

In her capacity as a Tech Trainer for the district, Melanie is teaching a course on Google Docs.  The teaching role of the teacher librarian is not limited to instructing students.  TLs can and should be up to date on technology initiatives as we'll as curriculum content in order to provide professional development to school colleagues.

The Pinterest Nursery & Layette project continued and I enjoyed seeing the varied baby related gear the students pinned.  I helped a student find some basketball fiction - new category for me!  I made a note to read some YA sports fiction as well as to become more familiar with authors/titles popular with boys/young men.

Next week I take the PRAXIS II - Library Media Specialist area.  This is one of my last steps in becoming a certified School Library Media Specialist!

Day 5 - Student Interactions Aplenty

Day five was filled with lots of student interaction.  I helped two teacher cadets brainstorm on an interactive element to go with a literary unit.  The girls have written a story and are making it into a Big Book. Later this semester they will get to work with K-2nd grade students and actually use their story unit.  The students at Dorman have so many opportunities to explore their career interests - a big change from when I was in high school!

Every semester the library has a rotation of student helpers.  I got to help train some new helpers which helped me get a refresher course on all the sections.  DHS has such a big library (24,000 materials!) that I am still finding new sections after 3 weeks.

A government/econ class was making a group video project about college tuition and they recruited me to be interviewed.  I was impressed with their professionalism and got to express my humble opinion that, yes, college tuition is rising too rapidly.

During 4th block, Mrs. P-G's government class worked on a project about the Bill of Rights.  We suggested that the students use Discus and research databases instead of general internet search engines.

Next week is Banned Book week and the BYOB lunch club.  I look forward to more adventures with Melanie, Cathy, and all the DHS gang!

Day Two - File Conversion, Pez, and Beowulf

Day two at Dorman went by at a brisk pace as my day was filled with two more classroom observations, interacting with students, and planning with Mrs. Dillard and Mrs. Nelson.  In preparation for a booktalk next week, Melanie walked me though using converting YouTube videos to .wmv files so that they can be played in the classroom.  Cathy and I talked about the research process, finding good sources, and how to walk students through the steps.  She also gave me some pointers on doing an effective presentation.

Melanie helped me identify potential teacher collaboration partners and I look forward to exploring a variety of curriculum topics.   Speaking of varied curriculum, the classes I sat in on were Physics and a 12th grade English class.  Even though I must confess an ignorance when it comes to Physics, I was impressed with the teacher's enthusiasm for the material and her rapport with the students.  The classroom featured student projects - tombstones of famous scientists and blinged out periodic element blocks.  My favorite touch was the teacher's large collection of Pez dispensers lining the tops of shelves.  Very fun! 

As an English major, I did feel more at home in the senior English class.  They started the session with an SAT review question and discussed test taking strategies.  Next was silent reading time (which I was more than happy to participate in), followed by a discussion of Beowulf.  The teacher advised the kids to become "active readers" as a way to more fully engage with the text.

Day One - Hit the Ground Running

Tuesday was Day One of my library internship at the Dorman Media Center.  Fitting the scale of Dorman itself, the media center is a large, open space with room for multiple classes, a large collection and a wide assortment of work rooms and offices and serves as a hub for school activities. I received a warm welcome from Mrs. Dillard, Mrs. Nelson, and Ms. Hammett and was provided with my own intern workspace and official notebook.

The media specialists encourage students to frequent the library before school, during lunch, and after school to check out, use the computers, and even just charge their devices.  

This year Dorman has a BYOD (bring your own device) policy and students can use their phones, iPods, laptops, and Kindles on their own time or, in class, with their teacher's approval.

I learned more about some of Dorman's academic iniatives and how block scheduling works.  Mrs. Nelson did a library orientation for a sophomore English class and I sat in on a U.S. government/economics class.

If Tuesday is any indication, I will have a busy semester as I was able to meet many teachers, staff, and students and already have projects, book clubs, and book trailers on my calendar and agenda.  In the afternoon I helped some students find books and was happy that I could provide some "high school" age recommendations.  I can't wait to see what Thursday brings!

BYOD Image retrieved from http://ltlatnd.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/what-is-byod-and-why-should-i-care /
Dystopian Fiction Image retrieved from http://edu.glogster.com/blog-thumbs/14/21/75/66/21756632_2/dystopian-fiction.jpg?u=cfffe272ded09e462d8be18e86f73ab1