I'm working on a project related to parent participation in elementary, middle, or high schools, and am interested in learning about any examples of school librarians in particular working with parents and families.Does anyone have any knowledge of particularly successful efforts, or suggestions on other vehicles besides this Ning network I can use to find out?Thanks!
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If anyone is experiencing the same butterflies about blogging as I am I may have found a few sites that might be helpful. I really haven't had time to fully explore them; however, they looked intresting so I wanted to share.EdutopiaEdutopia, sponsored by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, is the online companion to the Edutopia magazine. The site provides an “in-depth and interactive resource, with practical, hands-on advice, real-world examples, lively contributions from practitioners, and invaluable tips and tools.” You can read articles online, or sign-up for an email newsletter.http://www.edutopia.org/Classroom 2.0Classroom 2.0 is a wiki-based resource for educators interested in new Internet tools for education. The site has articles and resources for those just getting started, and a forum for communicating with other teachers.http://www.classroom20.com/Open Educational Resources CommonsOER Commons is a global teaching and learning network of free-to-use K-12 resources. “The mission of OER Commons is to expand educational opportunities by increasing access to high-quality Open Educational Resources (OER), and facilitating the creation, use, and re-use of OER, for instructors, students, and self-learners.” Content is searchable by key-word, subject, or grade level. Members can submit their own content and links.http://www.oercommons.org/EduBloggerWorldEduBloggerWorld, is “an international network for educational bloggers and friends. A meeting place, as well as a coordinating location for live face-to-face and virtual events.” This site is dedicated to facilitate connections and community among educational bloggers from around the world.http://edubloggerworld.ning.com/2. Read blogs from interesting peopleDavid WarlickEducational consultant and author, David Warlick speaks frequently on issues surrounding 21st Century Literacy. His Landmark for Schools web site (http://landmark-project.com/) provides resources from his presentations as well as web tools such as the Citation Machine.http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/Vicki DavisVicki Davis, also known at the Cool Cat Teacher, self-described teacher, entrepreneur, and freelance writer, is the author of the popular Cool Cat Teacher blog, covering topics from her conference presentations on innovative uses of web resources in the classroom. Vicki is also a frequent contributor to Ed Tech Talk podcasts.http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/Larry FerlazzoLarry Ferlazzo is a high school teacher English Language Learners. His blog specializes in web resources for teaching ELL, ESL, and EFL students. Larry is best known for his collections of “Best of” resources for everything from “The Best Websites To Help Beginning Readers” to “The Best Online Video Games For Learning Language & Content Knowledge” and more.http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/3. Listen to Podcasts and Watch VideosEdTechTalkPodcasts by educators for educators. EdTechTalk currently sponsors shows like EdTechWeekly (a weekly roundup of technology and education issues,) Teachers Teaching Teachers (hosted by teachers who mentor and teach other teachers,) and WOW2 (featuring women educators.) Episodes are broadcast live, and are also archived.http://www.edtechtalk.com/TeacherTubeTeacherTube is kind of like YouTube, but for teachers. Their goal “is to provide an online community for sharing instructional videos.” Videos are searchable and also organized into channels like Elementary, Middle School, and High School, as well as groups like Bilingual Parenting or the 505 Youth Film Festival. If you sign up for an account, you can also add videos to a list of favorites.http://www.teachertube.com/TED TalksThe TED Conference (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an annual conference bring together some of the most significant voices from divergent fields from around the world. Short video presentations are available from people like Al Gore talking about global warming, Amy Tan discussing creativity, Malcolm Gladwell exploring the nature of intelligence, or Stephen Hawking posing big questions about the nature of the universe. http://www.ted.com/Keeping up with all these new sources of information can be a daunting task. To make this task simpler, learn to use RSS, also known as Really Simple Syndication. RSS lets you collect all of the updates from many sites in one place. Lee Lefever, on his Common Craft blog has a terrific video explaining how this is done.http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_englishThose of you who are more experienced at blogging, your comments would be helpful so I can get a better idea as to what is good, great or just not worth my time.
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I'm just not yet into the habit of blogging. I tend to "talk" more in person and believe me I have lots to say.This year I enjoyed the company of a new 1/2 library assistant (first time ever at my school) as well as the invaluable services of a 1/2 to full-time volunteer. It was like the library had a STAFF of 3 people.We enjoyed greatly increased and enhanced library programming. I think our best efforts were in the PR realm. We made displays, showcased books for reading and helped students better learn how to use the library for themselves.The schedule last year was really pretty good. I liked it and came to depend upon it strongly. Now, I wait to see if the schedule has been changed for next year. Hmmmm..... I have this feeling that "library" just gets tossed in after all the other hard schedule crunching happens. Well, I think I'll just be glad that I enjoy flex-scheduling. When August gets here I'll just become creative all over again. Isn't that how each year always begins?Enjoy your summer. I plan to read, garden, cook and clean clutter from my house!!!
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Please forward this announcement to teachers in your district.This summer teachers from around the nation and the world will join online to exchange ideas and share best practices. The conversations are rich. The community is real. If you've never taken an online class before... this is the one to start with!Teaching and Assessing Writing with the 6 TraitsEDUC 744 920 Elementary (Gr. K-4) - 3 gr. cr. begins June 16, 2008 EDUC 744 909 Middle/High School (Gr. 5-12) - 3 gr. cr. begins June 16, 2008Learn to teach and assess writing with the 6-Traits of writing (voice, ideas, word choice, organization, sentence fluency and conventions). Learn to use the 6-Traits with the writing process to teach revision strategies. Help learners meet higher standards and improve testscores.Earn graduate credits via online courses that support your professional development goals for licensure renewal, salary advancement and advanced certification.Sign up soon to reserve your spot! Classes are TOTALLY ONLINE. You may participate from your home or school computer. Registration is limited to 20 participants per section.Syllabus and other details: http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/traits.shtmlREGISTER ONLINE or REGISTER BY FAX Fax: (715) 232-3385For more details e-mail Dennis O'Connor: oconnord@uwstout.eduRead more…
Please forward this announcement to teachers in your district.This summer teachers from around the nation and the world will join online to exchange ideas and share best practices. The conversations are rich. The community is real. If you've never taken an online class before... this is the one to start with!Teaching and Assessing Writing with the 6 TraitsEDUC 744 920 Elementary (Gr. K-4) - 3 gr. cr. begins June 16, 2008 EDUC 744 909 Middle/High School (Gr. 5-12) - 3 gr. cr. begins June 16, 2008Learn to teach and assess writing with the 6-Traits of writing (voice, ideas, word choice, organization, sentence fluency and conventions). Learn to use the 6-Traits with the writing process to teach revision strategies. Help learners meet higher standards and improve testscores.Earn graduate credits via online courses that support your professional development goals for licensure renewal, salary advancement and advanced certification.Sign up soon to reserve your spot! Classes are TOTALLY ONLINE. You may participate from your home or school computer. Registration is limited to 20 participants per section.Syllabus and other details: http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/traits.shtml REGISTER ONLINE or REGISTER BY FAX Fax: (715) 232-3385For more details e-mail Dennis O'Connor: oconnord@uwstout.edu
