Wonderopolis

SMART Goals

What a PLC is Not!

GoAnimate.com: PLC Needs Help by sgweiss

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Frustrations

I think some of us are just as frustrated as our students. We need tech support that understands what we do in our classrooms and at our sites.

Our Pledge

MySpace Celebrity and Katalyst present The Presidential Pledge

Middle School Learning 2.0

Summer is over:( Time to face the reality that I'll be a classroom teacher this year. I am fortunate that I'll be at the same school I've taught at for 12 years. Instead of being the Teacher Librarian, I'll be teaching two sections of LASS (6th grade language arts and social studies) and a computer research elective for 6th graders. The elective is part of the 6th grade rotation; a 5 week long course covering a variety of topics including languages, computer graphics, art, music, drama and my Computer Connections unit. I've decided to utilize CSLA's Middle School Learning 2.0 for the elective. I plan on having students work on 2 "Things" per week, with an emphasis on web site evaluation, cyber safety and being a good online citizen.

Wish me luck....

Keeping Up With Our Students

This is why we keep up with the current technologies:
(from the Consortium for School Networking)

One Dad's View of Standardized Testing

Blogumus

Saw a really cool, animated tag cloud on Techomnivore's blog. I've tried to follow the directions on bloggerbuster.com, but I obviously need more entrees to fill in my cloud.

And where has my avatar gone?

Once a TL, Always a TL

The school year has ended and so has our library program. I've thought long and hard about what I can write about the demise of our program without sounding bitter. It's difficult to understand why the district decided to cut the site librarians serving 6 schools, and the 2 teachers that handled technology in the district, in favor of 3 district level positions to handle it all. We all know that there is a budget crisis in California, but what are they saving? We are all still employed; maybe not in the library, but in classrooms for the next year, or at the district level. Unfortunately, the ones who suffer most will be our students.

Budget Cut Season, Once Again

I've heard it said recently that budget cuts affecting Teacher Librarians in March are as common as flu season. Once again the Teacher Librarians in the Las Virgenes Unified School District are facing major cuts to our program. At this time, the Bd. of Ed. has approved the restructing of the 6 TL's and 2 TOSA's (Teachers on Special Assignment/Technology). The goal is to collapse 8 positions into 3. Those 3 teachers will teach teachers how to incorporate technology in their subjects and, oh yes, some library functions will also have to be included. No one really knows how this will be accomplished or by who. This is the grand plan of our district. So, all 6 TL's have received their reassignment letters, as have the 2 TOSA's. We will not, however, go down without a fight - we will not go gently into that good night.....

Creative Commons: What every Educator needs to know

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Creative Commons: What every Educator needs to know

View more presentations from Rodd Lucier. (tags: culture creativity)

A Family Reading Tradition

As I was driving to work this morning, I was listening to NPR, my favorite radio station. Lynn Neary was interviewing a family that has a family tradition of reading holiday books as a family. They unearth their box of books sometime after Thanksgiving, share them during the holiday season, and pack them back up after the holidays until the following year. I wanted to embed the podcast into this blog, but unfortunately am not able to. So, here's the website. Hope the link works......
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98308208

What a wonderful way to spend some quiet time with family - and instill the love of reading at the same time.

Glogster

Tried playing with Glogster. Now I have to figure out how to incorporate it into my website, etc. Here's my experiment so far - needs work....

Success

It's official - after a summer of worrying about passing the CTEL exam, the results are in. According to the "unofficial" results, I've passed all 3 components. Time to throw out the notebook and flashcards (or at least recycle them) and make room in my brain for the next project. YIKES, school starts in 2 weeks. Guess that's enough of a project for now.

Time Flies

I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last post. So much has happened it's hard to figure out where to start....

The CLAD exam is OVER!!!! Thank God for that. Why the California Teachers of English Learners (CTEL) would use a multiple choice test to determine the ability to teach English Learners is beyond me. That's exactly the kind of assessment we learned was not appropriate for determining a student's grasp of material. 60 hours of test prep for a 6 hour exam - how brutal! And to think that this is sanctioned by teachers - why do we do this to ourselves?

Once the exam was over it was on to the next hurdle of the summer - moving my mom from a 1 bedroom apartment to one room at an assisted living facility. Thankfully, this was her choice and the move was to what the facility calls a "cluster home" afiliated with the Jewish Home for the Aging. So my mom is in a 4 bedroom home that she will eventually share with 3 other women. She has her own bedroom and bathroom sharing the kitchen, living room and dining room. As I helped my mom go through her lifetime of "stuff", I'd send my sister updates. She found the humor in them and thought I should write a book - maybe once some time passes. We have decided that our inheritance rests in the box of paper goods stored in my mom's new garage - yes, she still drives at the age of 85. The number of boxes of ziplock bags, aluminum foil, wax paper and baggies she has rivals the papergoods aisle at the market - box after box after box. She'll have to live another 50 years to use it all up. It must be that generation - I think I've just finished using up the foil that my mother-in-law left when she died - and that was over 20 years ago! And shoes, in plastic boxes - cardboard shoeboxes weren't good enough. I think we "paired" down over 60 pairs to about 12. Each pair of shoes had to be tried on and of course there was a story to match. I think my favorite though had to be the plastic hangers, stored in plastic bags, waiting for clothes - 4 market sized bags!

So, she's moved and adjusting quite nicely. She was able to take her bedroom furniture and a good deal of kitchen gear - not that she cooks anymore. She'll finally have someone to clean the house weekly and help with laundering the sheets & towels. She can choose to eat her meals at "home" or in the dining room at the main facility. It's all about choices - thankfully, these were her's to make.

While going through all of her things, I was struck by how much we accumulate in our lives and that the responsibility to disperse those "things" will be left to someone else. I've already started to "weed" closets, drawers, and anything that isn't nailed down. I've also made the commitment to give those things I no longer use to others who will enjoy them now - they do no good to anyone stored in a closet or drawer.

Breathing Easier

School is out and it's time for some well deserved r & r. It's been a hectic year so far. The Teacher Librarians in our district have been fighting for our jobs since January. That was when the news of the California budget was released. I do not envy the Board Members and the daunting task they had to decide what to cut and what to keep. Last Tuesday, the Board adopted a budget. Well, what a Board Meeting it was. Thankfully our jobs are safe for this year - provided the State approves the budget as is. We have our work cut out for us - why we have to justify our positions is beyond me. We are very fortunate that we have parents & teachers who understand and support our library programs. The 6 Teacher Librarians in our district will work together to promote our programs and make sure that we are visible forces working for the betterment of our students, not just background support.

Tag Cloud Makeovers

One of the advantages of reading other blogs is learning about new web tools. Thanks to Joyce Valenza and her blog NeverEndingSearch, I've discovered Wordies and have made over my del.icio.us tag. The tags don't link to anything, but they are fun to make.

Facebook????

Ok, so I finally developed a facebook page - much to my daughter's dismay. I have found it is a great way to share photos with family and friends. I have posted and shared photos using Flickr.com, but have found facebook easier to use. It's been fun linking up with people I know. I'm not sure how much I'll really use this application and really don't get the allure. In fact, this video found on librarygarden.blogspot.com pretty much sums it up...

Update

It's hard to believe that months have passed since my last post. So much has happened - some good, some not so good. Be that as it may, it's time to catch up and even learn something new in the process. Our district has contracted with a web-development company to host all of the school web-sites. It's been a challenge to fit content into someone else's framework, but I do like the consistency in the teacher sites and the ease with which content can be created and posted. I'm looking forward to summer so I can spend more time on the site and get things really set up for next year. The district has also used tech funds to purchase new circulation software for the libraries, bringing us into the 21st century. After a long, exhaustive search, the 6 Teacher Librarians came to the conclusion that Alexandria best suited our needs. Most of us had it up and running early May. There have been some gliches (like slip printers that work with Spectrum but not Alexandria) but they are a part of the process and learning curve. All in all, I'm happy with the software decision, sorry I didn't listen to Kelly (a TL at one of the other middle schools) and order the bluetooth hand-held scanner, and looking forward to the end of inventory so I can really see what is happening to the collection.

Since my last post, my co-TL, Jane & I were able to coerce one of the TOSA's (teacher on special assignment) to start on Classroom 2.0. She has set up her blog and offered the tutorial throughout our district. Quite a few teachers are taking advantage of the program. Having completed the tutorial, I am now a cheerleader. Being one of the cheerleaders gives me a chance to follow those exploring these tools, read their reactions to the web 2.0 tools and comment on their musings. I have found some of these tools invaluable and use them everyday, other applications need a second look. Isn't that what summer is for.....