Congratulations to Sara Curry and Judy Garner of Rock Hill High. They are among 24 teachers county-wide who have been awarded grants from Family Trust Credit Union for their proposal titled “Book Bag Lunch.” Am I the only one who reads the district updates? Way to go! Now details, ladies, details!! We want to hear all about it!
Speaking of grants, the SDE Teacher Grant Program (or Unit grant if you are feeling industrious and particularly collaborative) are due VERY EARLY this year--in January as a matter of fact. The SDE grant, if you haven't looked at it lately, reads a lot like a mini grant. So if you have an idea for an innovative project---consider writing it up as a teacher grant for $2000.
http://www.ed.sc.gov/agency/offices/grants/EIATeacherGrants.html
The district office wants the grants submitted by January 12, 2007 so that appropriate signatures can be obtained in a timely manner.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
A Library Jeopardy PowerPoint
This is so way cool! It is created by none other than Joyce Valenza. She posted it to her blog today, and she describes how it came to be. But I can see endless possibilities here. I have created jeopardy templates to use at school before (for myself as well as other teachers) but I love the simplicity of this design. Wouldn't it be really COOL if we made a PPT like this to play the game against legislators regarding the Strive for 25?? We could sponsor an OEC Jeopardy Library Tournament of sorts, invite our legislators to come out and play, and EDUCATE them not only on the cost of equipping the 21st Centruy Library, but also what today's libraries offer. Maybe this could even be a Foundation Grant, and (on a local level) the invitations could be extended to parents, other teachers, and district administrators! I think it's a good idea anyway....
Technorati Tags: Strive for 25 ,
Joyce Valenza
Technorati Tags: Strive for 25 ,
Joyce Valenza
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Strive for 25!
If you attended the OEC conference on October 9th or the AASL Leadership training in Columbia in June, then you are aware of this opportunity. We are being asked to support this by writing letters to our legislators and by making the public aware of this need - to gain monetary support for books in our media centers. Now that the elections are over we need to flood our legislators with these letters. I feel that we could easily have success in getting our faculty to write, as well. Also parents. I have wanted to pursue this for some time but have lacked the time to do this. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions on how this could be done so we make a united effort? We were told to be specific as to where our school's needs are, such as "new science books due to new standards", etc. Is this something we should ask Mike F. (OEC) for help with? Let's make this happen!
Web 3.0? Gimme a Break!
Just as I am getting used to the idea of Web 2.0, there is an article in the newspaper this morning about the upcoming Web 3.0. Instead of giving you tons of information gathered from existing sources, it will go a step further and customize information just for you. For instance, instead of giving a hotel a 4 star rating, you can search for the hotels with specific information, such as the most comfortable bedding, etc. Education searches to seek out universities best for you or your child can be identified. Also, (and this is my favorite), you will be able to use it to customize your vacations, just like a live travel agent by specifying what price you want to pay, what kind of climate you desire, and if you have children going with you. You can do this today but you have to sift through tons of information. This will give you a vacation package planned just for you!
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Monday, November 06, 2006
Just testing you....
Don't forget that anyone can post a new topic! Just go to www.blogger.com and login!
I'm sure Cathy and I aren't the only ones who have been checking here lately for information, but we seem to be the only ones posting. You can respond to the posts here by clicking on "comments".
So, just to test (and tease) you, I'm going to give you only half of the new information about the November 20th meeting.....yes, it changed even as of today! Some of you may know a little more than others, but no one knows all of the details....(ha, ha, ha....)
Date: November 20th
Time: 1:30 - 3:30
Location: The Flex??? RRMS??? DO???
Topic: DISCUS??? MAPS??? Neither???
Others in attendance: ???
In order to get all of the information, we will need to have at least 16 different media specialists to comment to this post. Your comment can be short and sweet...but please comment! Good sports will get a "prize" at the meeting.
I'm sure Cathy and I aren't the only ones who have been checking here lately for information, but we seem to be the only ones posting. You can respond to the posts here by clicking on "comments".
So, just to test (and tease) you, I'm going to give you only half of the new information about the November 20th meeting.....yes, it changed even as of today! Some of you may know a little more than others, but no one knows all of the details....(ha, ha, ha....)
Date: November 20th
Time: 1:30 - 3:30
Location: The Flex??? RRMS??? DO???
Topic: DISCUS??? MAPS??? Neither???
Others in attendance: ???
In order to get all of the information, we will need to have at least 16 different media specialists to comment to this post. Your comment can be short and sweet...but please comment! Good sports will get a "prize" at the meeting.
November 1st Informal LMS Meeting
I think everyone who was able to attend the informal LMS meeting last week would agree it was time well spent.
The discussion Cathy Nelson led on media center webpages evolved into a great conversation involving a number of cool technology ideas and Jane Daffine gave everyone helpful information about applying for grants. If any of you took notes and want to post some of those ideas for everyone else to read, please do so!
Perhaps the group would like to do this again on a different day?
The discussion Cathy Nelson led on media center webpages evolved into a great conversation involving a number of cool technology ideas and Jane Daffine gave everyone helpful information about applying for grants. If any of you took notes and want to post some of those ideas for everyone else to read, please do so!
Perhaps the group would like to do this again on a different day?
Joyce Valenza's Library Webpage Web Quest
http://mciu.org/~spjvweb/evallib.html
As promised last week, here is the Library Web Page "web quest" published by Joyce Valenza. She has many examples of what she considers "best practice." Even if you do not want to go through the webquest, you can glean tips, ideas, or useful links from the listed sites to consider as additions to yours.
Her media center website is awesome as well--definitely a best practice example for middle and high school.
As promised last week, here is the Library Web Page "web quest" published by Joyce Valenza. She has many examples of what she considers "best practice." Even if you do not want to go through the webquest, you can glean tips, ideas, or useful links from the listed sites to consider as additions to yours.
Her media center website is awesome as well--definitely a best practice example for middle and high school.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Agnes Pflumm Website
Here is the website for the Agnes Pflumm series. You may want to share with your teachers. I will be posting it on the Northside school's website and on my Teacher Technology blog (TechnoTuesday Blog). I had heard Merry Southgate 7 years ago while I was in Aiken. It was a workshop we were invited to at the Ruth Patrict Science Education Center at USC-Aiken. Merry Southgate has also attended and presented at SCASL before, so if you were thinking "I know that name from somewhere..." you probably did. If memory serves me well, Marcy Yates of one of the private prep schools (Mason Prep?) in Charleston helped Merry launch her career as a consultant. But I may be wrong on that tidbit. If you did not get to attend today, there is a second meeting planned that will cater to the artsy side of her presentation. I for one am going to request to be allowed to attend since my school is an Arts Based Curriculum (ABC) school and an identified "Distinguished Arts Program" award recipient. I would love to see that part of the presentation. Dr. Jawarowski is the reason Merry Southgate came today. I hope my principal can garner me this invitation.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
K12 Online Conference
http://k12onlineconference.org/
It's MUST SEE and MUST hear info. What a novel idea! An online conference (virtual in every aspect of the word) where you can actively participate through blogging, podcasting, videos, and wikis, or you can be a passive observer, and just soak up the information. You can even apply for renewal credits.
DavidWarlick's opening Keynote address was yesterday, and last evening he participated in a Firelight Chat (using Elluminate) that was incredible. It was called a "firelight" chat because we would all be illuminated by the glow from our computer screens!! This goes on for two more weeks, and is chocked full of experts and more, all sharing about Web 2.0 in education. And BEST, I was afraid it would cater to the experts and expereinced, but no, it is for even the most uncomfortable beginners. Might want to check it out.
Technorati Tag: K12onlineconference
It's MUST SEE and MUST hear info. What a novel idea! An online conference (virtual in every aspect of the word) where you can actively participate through blogging, podcasting, videos, and wikis, or you can be a passive observer, and just soak up the information. You can even apply for renewal credits.
DavidWarlick's opening Keynote address was yesterday, and last evening he participated in a Firelight Chat (using Elluminate) that was incredible. It was called a "firelight" chat because we would all be illuminated by the glow from our computer screens!! This goes on for two more weeks, and is chocked full of experts and more, all sharing about Web 2.0 in education. And BEST, I was afraid it would cater to the experts and expereinced, but no, it is for even the most uncomfortable beginners. Might want to check it out.
Technorati Tag: K12onlineconference
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
RSS explained
Chris Harris' blog "Infomancy" has a really good explaination of RSS and RSS feeds. You can read it by clicking here.
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Are you fuzzy on Bloglines?
David Warlick's preconference workshop and one of his sessions went over setting up yourself a Bloglines account. He has extensive handouts on his site. Here is a link to the one that helps you set yourself up for tracking the blogs you are interested in reading about, but may not have time to "visit" everyday. Bloglines will "notify" you when new material is posted. Visit his site for everyhing he talked about in Myrtle Beach.
Technorati scedtech2006
Technorati scedtech2006
Thursday, October 05, 2006
News from Library Supervisors Roundtable
Yesterday I attended the LMS Leadership Roundtable and want to pass along the information.
Position shortages
The shortages of certified LMS have led to many districts filling positions with candidates going through the PACE program. PACE hire-ees (my word & I like it) no longer have to have a Masters in Library Science and the course requirement has been lowered to 24 hours (with only 9 required from USC Lib School). PACE is easier on the districts/candidates that can not afford the internship since there is no internship required nor the PRAXIS. Much discussion was held and the Roundtable as well as all LMS need to hold conversations with anyone who can create any/all of the following changes.
A. The state department - the requirements for the PACE program need to be more in line with the background and training that the job necessitates
B. The USC School of Lib. Science - this program needs to be much more flexible with indistrict internships and inschool mentoring internships
C. The state department - the office of Teacher Certification needs to recognize the growing shortage of LMS and look at accepting/promoting a Bachelor of Science degree with emphasis of Library Science
Library Supervisors Roundtable (SCASA)
Apparently SCASA recently said that there is no such entity. This roundtable was formed initially for communication and credibility. The group will continue to meet and a committee was formed to petition SCASA to recognize this group as a subgroup of SCASA.
External Review (Someone please edit this for clarification - my notes are fuzzy here - ER of what?? SACS?? NCLB??)
For the 2007-2008 year only the first 3 of the 8 target indicators will remain, but no benchmark standards will be included. The 3 indicators cover collaboration, size & age of collection, and flexible scheduling. A future concern is that the size & age target indicator will be omitted because it does not tie to legislation and is not funded. M. Alewine felt that we are fortunate to have the 3 indicators remain included and not to have lost all indicators in the wave so has not made much noise on this. Remember the whole point of ERT is to look at ways to improve student achievement.
Funding
School libraries are back in the 07-08 General Assembly budget request. The one million dollar request is not a line item, but a special allocation. It was noted that this amount will not go far statewide, but the funding was last approved in 1999.
The $25/student funding (= 1book/student) is still in discussion in the Education Oversight Committee. This money, if approved, will be specifically for print resources and not technology.
Data Collection
This will be the buzz topic for school administrators next year, especially tying data to test scores. LMS are encouraged to use MAPS scores to determine the impact their programs have/can have on student achievement.
SCASL Conference
Both the March 2007 and 2008 SCASL Conferences will be held in Columbia. The group signed a 2 year contract with the convention center.
School Advisory Committees
As more and more books are challenged, you are encouraged to develop a School Advisory Committee to work with you on collection choices.
SPATIAL - New Student Association
Apparently there used to be a student association (again help me out here someone - it sounded like schlossa??) that was parallel to FBLA or HOSA. There is interest in SCASL helping to develop SPATIAL that focuses on Information Science. The group would include student assistants and anyone interested in the field itself. A service component would be a major focus in the program. SPATIAL - Student Professional Association of Technology Information And Library Sciences
Martha Alewine's Blog
You may want to add Martha's blog to your list. www.scschoollibraries.blogspot.com
Speaking of Blogs
Remember, instead of going to each one of the blogs you like in order to check to see if anything new has been posted, have Bloglines do this for you! Bloglines will keep up with what you've viewed on ALL of the blogs you subscribe to and give you all of the updates to all of the blogs in one place. Then you just check one place ( http://www.bloglines.com/ ) to get the new stuff. If you are really sweet, maybe Cathy Nelson will share her blogroll with you - that will give you a bunch of Media Center blogs and Ed Tech blogs and you can add your favorites to them and delete the ones you don't want.
The Library Supervisors Roundtable will meet again in January.
Position shortages
The shortages of certified LMS have led to many districts filling positions with candidates going through the PACE program. PACE hire-ees (my word & I like it) no longer have to have a Masters in Library Science and the course requirement has been lowered to 24 hours (with only 9 required from USC Lib School). PACE is easier on the districts/candidates that can not afford the internship since there is no internship required nor the PRAXIS. Much discussion was held and the Roundtable as well as all LMS need to hold conversations with anyone who can create any/all of the following changes.
A. The state department - the requirements for the PACE program need to be more in line with the background and training that the job necessitates
B. The USC School of Lib. Science - this program needs to be much more flexible with indistrict internships and inschool mentoring internships
C. The state department - the office of Teacher Certification needs to recognize the growing shortage of LMS and look at accepting/promoting a Bachelor of Science degree with emphasis of Library Science
Library Supervisors Roundtable (SCASA)
Apparently SCASA recently said that there is no such entity. This roundtable was formed initially for communication and credibility. The group will continue to meet and a committee was formed to petition SCASA to recognize this group as a subgroup of SCASA.
External Review (Someone please edit this for clarification - my notes are fuzzy here - ER of what?? SACS?? NCLB??)
For the 2007-2008 year only the first 3 of the 8 target indicators will remain, but no benchmark standards will be included. The 3 indicators cover collaboration, size & age of collection, and flexible scheduling. A future concern is that the size & age target indicator will be omitted because it does not tie to legislation and is not funded. M. Alewine felt that we are fortunate to have the 3 indicators remain included and not to have lost all indicators in the wave so has not made much noise on this. Remember the whole point of ERT is to look at ways to improve student achievement.
Funding
School libraries are back in the 07-08 General Assembly budget request. The one million dollar request is not a line item, but a special allocation. It was noted that this amount will not go far statewide, but the funding was last approved in 1999.
The $25/student funding (= 1book/student) is still in discussion in the Education Oversight Committee. This money, if approved, will be specifically for print resources and not technology.
Data Collection
This will be the buzz topic for school administrators next year, especially tying data to test scores. LMS are encouraged to use MAPS scores to determine the impact their programs have/can have on student achievement.
SCASL Conference
Both the March 2007 and 2008 SCASL Conferences will be held in Columbia. The group signed a 2 year contract with the convention center.
School Advisory Committees
As more and more books are challenged, you are encouraged to develop a School Advisory Committee to work with you on collection choices.
SPATIAL - New Student Association
Apparently there used to be a student association (again help me out here someone - it sounded like schlossa??) that was parallel to FBLA or HOSA. There is interest in SCASL helping to develop SPATIAL that focuses on Information Science. The group would include student assistants and anyone interested in the field itself. A service component would be a major focus in the program. SPATIAL - Student Professional Association of Technology Information And Library Sciences
Martha Alewine's Blog
You may want to add Martha's blog to your list. www.scschoollibraries.blogspot.com
Speaking of Blogs
Remember, instead of going to each one of the blogs you like in order to check to see if anything new has been posted, have Bloglines do this for you! Bloglines will keep up with what you've viewed on ALL of the blogs you subscribe to and give you all of the updates to all of the blogs in one place. Then you just check one place ( http://www.bloglines.com/ ) to get the new stuff. If you are really sweet, maybe Cathy Nelson will share her blogroll with you - that will give you a bunch of Media Center blogs and Ed Tech blogs and you can add your favorites to them and delete the ones you don't want.
The Library Supervisors Roundtable will meet again in January.
Saturday, September 30, 2006
An EASY Grant
Many of you know my passion in grant writing. I stumbled across this one last week. EASY,EASY,EASY! It is located at this site
My Hometown Helper.
FAQS:
Deadline: each month by the last day of the month, through May 31, 2007. General Mills Sales, Inc. and Hamburger Helper are offering grants of up to $15,000 each month from September 1, 2006 through May 31, 2007. All requests for funding must be sponsored by a municipal or civic organization such as a public library or school.When evaluating requests, the review committee will favor organizations the meet the following criteria:
Demonstrate a need in a community;
Illustrate a helpful, creative or innovative concept that meets this need;
Clearly identify change/s that can be made as a result of receiving the award. The online application consists of a 250 word description of the grant project. Applicants can request a one time award for a minimum of $500 and a maximum of $15,000 during any single month. One example grant project on website is for computers for a library or school.To apply, visit http://myhometownhelper.com.
My Hometown Helper.
FAQS:
Deadline: each month by the last day of the month, through May 31, 2007. General Mills Sales, Inc. and Hamburger Helper are offering grants of up to $15,000 each month from September 1, 2006 through May 31, 2007. All requests for funding must be sponsored by a municipal or civic organization such as a public library or school.When evaluating requests, the review committee will favor organizations the meet the following criteria:
Demonstrate a need in a community;
Illustrate a helpful, creative or innovative concept that meets this need;
Clearly identify change/s that can be made as a result of receiving the award. The online application consists of a 250 word description of the grant project. Applicants can request a one time award for a minimum of $500 and a maximum of $15,000 during any single month. One example grant project on website is for computers for a library or school.To apply, visit http://myhometownhelper.com.
How to Blog
I have created a weblink with directions for blogging for visitors that are new to blogging. It can be found at this site: How to Blog if you are not a Blogger
In surveying my teachers and students, I found that most just did not understand what to do in the blog, though they enjoyed reading it. So I returned to my desk and created poster-sized directions for them to hang above their classroom computers. I am hoping more will now begin to post. After further thought, I decided to make the directions available via our school website. That way anyone who is cruising through our school's website and wants to post a response, but is new to blogging can click on the links for directions. Then, after further thought, I decided to add the link of directions to the links on the blogger sites. So now it is permanently a part of the blogs themselves. I knew that one day my html coursework would come in handy. Up until now, I've only used it occasionally. If you would like a copy of this, you can visit the link from above to see what step-by step directions I made, and even download the "poster" which is really just a Powerpoint printed out and taped together. NOTE however that these directions are specific to "blogspot" sponsored blogging sites, and are geared for "non-members" for the most part. Other blogging programs will behave similarly, but there will be slight nuances to how they work. Feel free to use this, modifying it to suit your school and educational community's needs, if you so desire.
Cathy
In surveying my teachers and students, I found that most just did not understand what to do in the blog, though they enjoyed reading it. So I returned to my desk and created poster-sized directions for them to hang above their classroom computers. I am hoping more will now begin to post. After further thought, I decided to make the directions available via our school website. That way anyone who is cruising through our school's website and wants to post a response, but is new to blogging can click on the links for directions. Then, after further thought, I decided to add the link of directions to the links on the blogger sites. So now it is permanently a part of the blogs themselves. I knew that one day my html coursework would come in handy. Up until now, I've only used it occasionally. If you would like a copy of this, you can visit the link from above to see what step-by step directions I made, and even download the "poster" which is really just a Powerpoint printed out and taped together. NOTE however that these directions are specific to "blogspot" sponsored blogging sites, and are geared for "non-members" for the most part. Other blogging programs will behave similarly, but there will be slight nuances to how they work. Feel free to use this, modifying it to suit your school and educational community's needs, if you so desire.
Cathy
Monday, September 25, 2006
I learned something new today
Sorry I had to skip out today. I am teaching a small group of kids afterschool about digital photography, and it starts right at 2:30, so I left right at 2:00. I didn't park as Julia advised, and it took some minor pleading with a few parents to let me out of the parking lot. I got back to school JUST in time. Our photography group has a blog, and you can see it at http://nsesphoto.blogspot.com/ Hopefully there will be some links to the students' work soon. Oh--and their parents too...the K-2nd grade participants had to have a parent or older "buddy" to help them. (We only have two 1st graders, and their Moms are more than delighted to be involved and learning too.)
I have some limited experience with blogging. I do consider myself still a beginner. Today Meredith made me aware of referencing images to online sources or databanks. Up until now, I have just used ones on my hardrive. It is true that storing the images online allows for a picture to never "disappear" and so I am investigating these storage sites. I do have a Flickr account, but I am very interested in looking into photobucket and even bubbleshare.
I am glad I did not skip this meeting, because it seems Meredith and others are helping us cast a vision for our roles in the district. I keep coming back to a phrase I have heard repeatedly over the past year...If it is to be, it's up to me. I am purposefully expanding my comfort zone, and initially I was confused and uncomfortable with blogging. But that was true about many areas. Do any of you remember all my rants about Follett when I first
began using it? Isn't it great that I can reflect on that and laugh at myself?
Wait until you try to edit that template for links!! Hope you remember some of that html you may have had one time. But really, it's not that bad. Anyway, it was fun to see everyone, and I just want to let you know that I'll be glad to help anyone who is struggling to understand. I am by far no expert, but I do feel "somewhat" equipped to give a helping hand.
Cathy Nelson
Northside
I have some limited experience with blogging. I do consider myself still a beginner. Today Meredith made me aware of referencing images to online sources or databanks. Up until now, I have just used ones on my hardrive. It is true that storing the images online allows for a picture to never "disappear" and so I am investigating these storage sites. I do have a Flickr account, but I am very interested in looking into photobucket and even bubbleshare.
I am glad I did not skip this meeting, because it seems Meredith and others are helping us cast a vision for our roles in the district. I keep coming back to a phrase I have heard repeatedly over the past year...If it is to be, it's up to me. I am purposefully expanding my comfort zone, and initially I was confused and uncomfortable with blogging. But that was true about many areas. Do any of you remember all my rants about Follett when I first
began using it? Isn't it great that I can reflect on that and laugh at myself?Wait until you try to edit that template for links!! Hope you remember some of that html you may have had one time. But really, it's not that bad. Anyway, it was fun to see everyone, and I just want to let you know that I'll be glad to help anyone who is struggling to understand. I am by far no expert, but I do feel "somewhat" equipped to give a helping hand.
Cathy Nelson
Northside
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