ISCI 794 Interview with Rebecca Adams regarding Include

             Rebecca Adams is the Media Specialist at Waccamaw Middle School. She started out as an eighth grade Civics and Economics teacher but realized she wanted to shift her path in education to help with students’ literacy skills. She concluded that the students in her class who struggled the most with the content had poor reading skills. Luckily, she had a mentor in the Media Specialist at her school who recommended that she get her master’s in library and information science, so she did. Once she had that degree in hand, she became an elementary school media specialist because that is where the foundational literacy skills start. Eventually, she returned to the middle school level, and it is where she will finish her career.

            When asked about the standard to discuss, she stated that INCLUDE is a great one to think about for middle school as the students are all at such a unique stage in life where inclusion for them is important. She creates lessons and activities with all learning styles in mind and makes sure there are opportunities for student collaboration in each lesson. She also displays a variety of genres and reading levels and includes diverse books to represent all perspectives. In lessons, she also makes sure there is movement for the students by working at different stations, a mixture of sources from print and digital, and always has Hi-Lo books available. One of the biggest successes is using the Breakout EDU boxes in lessons in each content area too so they see the connections between literacy, problem solving, and teamwork in all their classes.

            Collaboration with the teachers in the school is essential in Mrs. Adams’ eyes as she sees that as how to make her lessons/activities a true enrichment for their content curriculum. To do this, Mrs. Adams attends PLC meeting when needed and works closely with the curriculum coach to implement the lessons/activities. Some of the activities have been with science to learn about research, ELA classes to understand credible resources and citations, and social studies have done Breakout EDU boxes to review the three branches of government. There are also activities that involve every student, such as book tastings that really make the students aware of all the great books that are in the collection and usually the checkouts after the lesson are high. Mrs. Adams also works with the Special Needs class so they can have library time and appropriate books for their levels.

The greatest challenge faced is time. It is hard for teachers to give up classroom time for this to work, and it is hard to cover everything in a class period for a lesson, however, it always is a success and the students benefit from it the most.  

Share:facebook - twitter - pinterest

ISCI 794 Interview with Rebecca Adams regarding Include

ISCI 794 Interview with George Geer Regarding Collaborate

            George Geer is the Media Specialist at Waccamaw High School in Pawleys Island, SC. He started his career as an English teacher and after teaching eleven years, he transitioned into the library role. We talked about the different standards and landed on discussing Collaborate as it can look a little different at the high school level but also be very impactful.

            I asked him about the resources in his library program that he uses to implement this competency. He states that he uses NewsBank for research and writing instruction, Beanstack for reading challenges, and tutor.com, Discovery Education, and EdPuzzle for instructional support. He also has genrified the fiction section in his library to help students find books that they are interested in and updated the nonfiction section to fit current curriculum and Titlewave criteria. He also helps with the school communication systems like the website and social media. He hosts a lot of school organizations in his library space and has collaborated with Coastal Carolina University on cultural displays for the Waccamaw Indian People.

            We talked about how he collaborates with the teachers at the high school level. He has co-taught essay writing and how to research classes, helped support poetry projects, collaborated with the Spanish teachers to purchase books for their students, hosted monopoly for the Business class as well as a game design class. He also helps with the technical issues at the school for the students and the teachers.

            We then switched topics and talked about the challenges he faces with trying to implement this competency. He states that there are limited class visits and school policies that do not allow students all access to the library during the day. He had to encourage the faculty to see his role as an instructional partner as they were not used to that with their previous media specialist. He also has a high workload on non-instructional dues, especially technical issues including fixed assets, student chromebooks, and the school website that takes up a substantial portion of time each day. He also feels the teachers are overwhelmed in general with duties so sometimes it is difficult for them to add another thing to their plates such as a collaboration time with him in the media center. Overall, he states that he loves his freedom in his job, the variety of what he gets to work on each day, and that he gets to help students with their own passion projects and learning outside the classroom.

Share:facebook - twitter - pinterest

ISCI 794 Interview with George Geer Regarding Collaborate

ISCI 794 Interview with Caroline Danysh Regarding Inquiry

            Caroline Danysh is the Media Specialist at Waccamaw Elementary School which is only 4k-third grades. She started her career as a first grade teacher and after 10 years of teaching stayed home to raise her children. Once her children got older, she decided to go back to work in the school library, getting her MLIS through USC while working her current job.

Having such young students in her school, I asked her which competency would be best to discuss. At first, we talked about EXPLORE but she did not feel that fits her exact goals. Her number one priority with this age group is teaching them to read and therefore, she states that her lessons all involve literacy. She stated that in the spring she does venture into more inquiry-based learning, so we decided to focus on INQUIRY.

            I asked her to describe some of the lessons that really exemplify the inquiry standard and she gave the following examples for her library. She collaborates with the third-grade teachers when they start their unit on biographies. She teaches information literacy and then supports the students as they research and write about their chosen famous person. She shows them both print and digital resources and teaches them different presentation tools they can use to share their work.

            She also does a graphic novel unit with second grade where they create their own comic strips using a website called Pixton. She then has a robotics lesson that she teaches to first-third grades, and it really emphasizes problem solving but having them learn to program a robot to do specific tasks while working with a partner. And finally at the end of the year, she shares makerspace stations with the students, and she states that they love it! She uses this opportunity to let them be creative and build and solve problems while working as a team.

            When asked about challenges she faces in her library program regarding these standards, she states time is the biggest hurdle. She is on a fixed schedule and is part of the specials rotation each day. She also has a lunch duty each day too. So, to find time to do all she wants to do with the students is her biggest challenge, but she states that she loves her job in every way!

Share:facebook - twitter - pinterest

ISCI 794 Interview with Caroline Danysh Regarding Inquiry

ISCI 794 Interview with Stephania Burton regarding CURATE

    Stephania Burton is the current Media Specialist at Socastee Middle School and her path to her current role started in North Carolina where she was a teacher, a Media Specialist, and worked as the digital tech to the teachers at 42 sites for over 10 years. Once she moved to South Carolina, she was hired for her current job. Her technology experience is something she loves, and she has integrated it into her daily duties as a media specialist. When asked which standard she wanted to discuss, she selected Curate as she feels it can be more complex for her district.

I asked her how she is implementing Curate in her library. She discussed how she is fairly new at this school, so she is now started to weed the library after being able to assess it, purchase books to finish series that are missing books, and focus on getting the collection to be Lexile focused. She stated that Horry County has moved to the Lexile rating system and they want the library collection to reflect that for the 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grades that are in the school.

We then discussed what resources she uses for Curate in her library. She stated that Titlewave is a big piece of what she uses to not only see the status of her collection, but to find reviews and keep wish lists of books she may purchase. She also uses her Professional Learning Network of other Media Specialists when she is finding out about books that her library lacks or a genre need. She also uses her School Library Journals for information about the latest releases or other commentary on current books that she finds relevant. One source that she does not use currently, but is on her list of goals, is social media. She knows that there is so much information out there regarding other libraries and their collections on social media and she needs to take advantage of that resource. Also, one of the ways the students can help her with curating her collection is completing the students’ input form on what they hope to find in the library. She keeps a student suggestion form in the Schoology system in the media center folder that they can complete at any time.

Finally, we discussed her collaboration with teachers and challenges she faces with curating her collection. She stated that each year she tries to understand what the teacher’s curriculum includes so that she can stay current on their needs regarding materials and lessons she could teach. She also likes to do fun activities with the classes such as book tastings or breakout games. For her to add any books to her collection, she must have them approved via a committee that consists of herself, administration, teachers, and parents. It is a lengthy process and requires a great deal of research and presentation skills to get it ready. Since this is more complicated, she only adds to her collection 2 or 3 times a year.

Share:facebook - twitter - pinterest

ISCI 794 Interview with Stephania Burton regarding CURATE

ISCI 761-Blog Post #9-Virtual and Augmented Reality

 

Pokemon Go Logo written in yellow and navy with red and white ball in letter "o" from Creative Commons Images 

This week is all about the Virtual and Augmented Reality. I loved reminiscing about Pokémon Go as my daughter and I played it everywhere the year it came out. We had so much fun! And that is the catch, it is fun. It only makes sense to incorporate Virtual or Augmented Reality into the curriculum for students so that learning can have that fun too. I wanted to focus on the program 3D Organon VR Anatomy and all the options it offers for anatomy/science classes. At our high school, anatomy class and a biomedicine class are offered to our students. This would be an amazing addition to the program to get students really involved in a “hands on” approach without actually having a cadaver to examine.

Picture of upper body skeleton with arteries. Arteries are labeled. Picture from Creative Commons Images

There are various levels of cost depending on what you want to be able to do and at what level. There are basic options that are free, 3D options for the desktop in the $80 range , and the Virtual Reality package can reach$500. High schools are always looking for ways to prepare students for particular careers, this would be a great addition for those looking to continue their education in the science field. 

Here are two short YouTube videos that give a glimpse into the program.

Resources:

Young, L. (2020, April 7). Get the most from AR/VR technology without breaking the budget. School Library Journal. https://www.slj.com/story/get-the-most-from-ar-vr-technology-without-breaking-budget-library

Share:facebook - twitter - pinterest

ISCI 761-Blog Post #9-Virtual and Augmented Reality

ISCI 761-Blog Post #8-Makerspaces

 Book Art

I took this photo in December 2020 at my local library of book art they had done for the holidays. Picture is an old hardback book with pages folded to create an angel dress with strips of pages to use as hair on a plastic ball painted with a face to be the head, and pipe cleaners as hands. 

Makerspaces is an interesting topic and can be hard for small schools to implement. The space and money can be a big hurdle and finding something the kids want to do within those two constraints is a challenge. After viewing the YouTube video lecture from this week’s module, I really appreciated the free, low cost options. I wanted something low tech and easy to start so that I would be able to gauge the students’ interest which is the best way to start a makerspace process when a school is starting from scratch in this area. My mind was searching for an idea to fit a high or middle school library and the one idea that really stuck with me was the book art, which was presented in the lecture showing a book written by Clare Youngs. I looked to Amazon and found a copy of the book, Book Art by Clare Youngs and another book by the same author called Folded Book Art, the cost for both books would be under $40.00 new or less if you buy the books used. I wanted to find a blog that talked about having a book art space in the library and I found the blog Renovated Learning and the post How to Run a Recycled Book Art Workshop. It also included other book sources that can get your space started. I liked that this does not need a dedicated space because all the needed supplies could be stored in bins and set up using an existing table and chairs in the library. The start up costs were at a minimum too.
 
The students can use these resource books for ideas and instructions, but also find ideas on their own via Pinterest or other web sites. In the article by Kristin Fontichiaro "What I have Learned from 7 Years of the Maker Movement," students love to take something home. When doing Book Art there is a tangible item when they are finished that is theirs to keep. It could also be displayed in the library, a picture of it could be posted to the library’s Instagram account, or even included in the school’s weekly newsletter. You could also involve the art teacher at your school if they wanted to incorporate it in any lesson. If this book art is a successful activity for the students, there are other activities that use these “vintage” books including black out poetry,  students could redesign a book cover once they have read a book, or make book spine poetry. With the book spine poetry, the student or librarian could take a picture and post it to the library's Instagram with a caption asking other students to interrupt poem or make their own and post with a particular hashtag. All of these ideas require very low funds, but loads of creativity, and can be displayed around the library, school, and social media.
 
I enjoyed the readings (this is a great resource) about how to start small as it is tempting to jump in big with lots of ideas on makerspaces, but feeling out what the students want is the key to making it work. Also constantly revaluating a makerspace to make sure it is still being used or to switch out to something else keeps it fresh for the students. Once you determine that a makerspace is something your library would benefit from and use, the possibilities are endless.

And for a laugh...here is a picture of my attempt to recreate the "book angel" seen above. :)

Picture of hardback book with book pages folded to make body of angel, moss for hair, and a plastic ball with a face on it to represent the head of the angel.

Share:facebook - twitter - pinterest

ISCI 761-Blog Post #8-Makerspaces

ISCI 761-Blog Post #7-Cyberbullying

Picture is an older boy holding up younger, smaller boy up against wall in school, taking his money. Picture from website

Bullying as a general term brings up the picture of the big kid in the playground who beats up the small kid to get his lunch money. The kid that was bullied went home and felt safe there because the bullying only happened in the school yard. Technology came and evolved, introducing cyberbullying. Cyberbullying encompasses all the same feelings of physical bullying but adds in another dimension. It never stops. It can follow you everywhere and the one being bullied cannot find a safe space to ever escape. It is always surprising on how far the cyberbullying can reach someone.

Photo is a cartoon of boy sitting on the floor crying with cell phone on floor and words in bubbles like they were texted. Words are Freak, Ugly, Loser, Nerd, and Stupid. Backpack on floor. Picture is from website.

Thinking of how I have had lessons for social emotional learning involving bullying before with middle school students, there is a delicate balance of how to approach it. In the actual lesson, starting with a video that involves students and not adults is always attention grabbing and gets the conversation flowing. The largest problem is that you must focus on reminding students not to bully anyone in any situation, but at the same time realize it takes place and you need to cover how to help those being bullied too. Most students that have a relationship with a teacher or staff member leading the lesson will talk about their experiences with bullying. Most students always have something to share. It is tricky with cyberbullying because it is harder to “catch” for the teachers or adults. It again comes down to relationships that have been built at the school or with other supportive adults. If a student is being bullied, they need to feel comfortable reporting the incident to an adult. The student needs to know they are not alone in their situation. This is one reason it is vital not to overwhelm teachers to the point they do not have the time to build the relationships with students so they can notice when someone is acting different than their normal. This week’s module is a reminder that bullying in any form can be a silent killer for students. Being attuned to watch any signs of one that is bullying as well as those being bullied become equally important to stop cyberbullying.

In the article, “From the Sandbox to the Inbox: Comparing the Acts, Impacts, and Solutions of Bullying in K-12, Higher Education, and the Workplace” it expands and relates bullying, cyberbullying, and harassment by looking closely at it from an early age to adult age, following the K-12 issues, college, and eventually the workplace. The anonymity that can exist with cyber bullying also puts a different spin on how to stop it when you do not have proof of who engages in it. Also relating bullying to all ages and situations helps shed light that it is a continuous problem, so punishments are tricky when it comes to prevention or stopping it from happening. Another article to highlight is, “What Parents Can Do to Prevent Cyberbullying: Students’ and Educators’ Perspectives” and how it promotes kindness as a weapon against bullying. I do think lessons in kindness with examples in “cyber-kindness” and having adults be a role model in showing kindness to all people is worth so much in the prevention or reduction of bullying at schools. These lessons can be embedded throughout the school year as well as a partner to any bullying lessons done.

There are not a lot of answers just yet of what exactly works to prevent or stop bullying, but the more everyone is aware of what to look for and on the same page that it is wrong and detrimental to someone now and in the future, the more we can move forward in our fight against bullying.

Here are a few takeaways from this week’s module:

• Videos that involve students in the making of them have a bigger impact on kids. However, if the video goes too far in the depiction, the message is lost as the students will only dwell on how shocking the video was to watch.

• Whether you are in kindergarten or in the workplace, bulling and harassment are harmful and unwarranted behaviors.

• Cyberbullying can be done via e-mail, chat rooms, online gaming communities, or social media. It is vital for parents/guardians to be aware of what their student is involved with online.

• Too many victims suffer in silence and bullying is underreported. It is important to encourage bravery in other students to speak out for people that are not able or afraid to speak out for themselves if they see bullying take place.

• Solutions are not simple nor are they one size fits all. Building relationships and promoting kindness, are some of the most important ways that might help prevent bullying from reaching a devastating outcome. 

Photo is off school supplies and a slogan of No More Bullying-Acceptance-Kindness-Respect-Friendship-Compassion. Also Alexa James Co. is creator and image can be found at this website

Resources:

Cassidy W, Faucher C, Jackson M. What parents can do to prevent cyberbullying: students’ and educators’ perspectives. Social Sciences. 2018; 7(12):251. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci7120251

Faucher, C., Cassidy, W., & Jackson, M. (2015). From the sandbox to the inbox: Comparing the acts, impacts, and solutions of bullying in K-12, higher education, and the workplace. Journal of Education and Training Studies, 3(6), 111-125. http://dx.doi.org/10.11114/jets.v3i6.1033

Share:facebook - twitter - pinterest

ISCI 761-Blog Post #7-Cyberbullying