Professional Listserv

I previously posted about the professional association MAME (Michigan Association for Media in Education). I am a member of MAME so I have been following their listserv since the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year. I think this is a great way to network and communicate with other media specialists in Michigan, and I’ve found many posts to be useful in my classroom. Unfortunately, you only have access to the MAME listserv if you are a member. One of the posts that I really loved applied to teaching students about Internet safety. There are a lot of resources out there to teach this, but I wanted to differentiate this lesson because I teach so many classes and students. The MAME post was shared by a media specialist in Clarkston, MI who was looking for other ways to teach children about Internet safety. The FBI created their own program for students in grades 3-8 to learn how Internet safety. In this post, the media specialist shared the website and also mentioned that her students really enjoyed this program. I tried it out for myself and found that my students also really enjoyed this, and didn’t even realize they were learning! 

A lot of the emails I get from MAME are about MeL databases and new things these databases have to offer. My school district subscribes to many of these databases so I really enjoy reading about any new things that have come out that I can use with my kids.

Many of the posts from MAME are other media specialists who are looking for advice on specific topics. One librarian was going to be working in a brand-spanking new library and wanted advice on the placement of certain things, such as her circulation desk. Others post about book recommendations for certain ages and much more.

Another topic that is posted about often are about conferences going on in Michigan that would be beneficial to media specialists. More recently, many have been posting job openings in different libraries around the state.

One post that just came up yesterday that I found to be very interesting, especially after doing the ethics assignment, was about identifying appropriate books for a diverse middle school population. In this post, the media specialist mentioned that while some books in the library would be appropriate for the older students in the building, they are not necessarily meant for the 6^th graders. The librarian then asked if anyone had ever done something such as an 8^th grade only shelf. I found this to be very interesting because in our ethics scenario assignment we talked about how librarians are here to serve all patrons and do not have the right to say whether someone can check a book out or not. What was even more interesting to me were the comments that followed this post. There were a handful of people who responded stating that we do not have the right to limit books from others. One person mentioned talking to parents and making sure they are playing an active role in monitoring their children’s book choices.

Overall I have found many useful posts from the MAME listserv. I do get a ton of emails every day, but I’ve found some to be beneficial to my teaching and awareness of issues happening in relation to libraries in Michigan.

MACUL Conference

This past week I had the opportunity to attend the MACUL conference at the Cobo Center in Detroit, MI. This was a two day technology conference on March 19-20 that offered an enormous amount of information. Prior to the conference I looked at all of the available sessions throughout the days to decide what I wanted to learn most about. I'm not going to lie, this was very overwhelming! There were 20-30 sessions during each hour block and it was very hard to pick between all of them. I attended this conference with the other media specialists in my district, so we tried to split up into smaller groups to get the most out of the conference. We all started out the conference by seeing the keynote speaker, George Couros. He talked about technology and how he's used it in the classroom, how he's seen it used in the classroom, the benefits of technology in schools, and so much more. I thoroughly enjoyed his speech and was very excited to learn about new ways I can incorporate technology into my own teaching.

The first session I went to was called Who Needs a School Librarian? This was presented by three school librarians from three different school districts. The reason I decided to attend this session was because the description said they would talk about different innovative information technology programs that librarians can use in their schools. I thought this would be beneficial to see if there are others things I can use in my own classroom. I'm not going to lie, this session did not meet my expectations. I think this session would have been beneficial for administrators who do not have full time media specialists in their buildings. The three librarians talked about how they are responsible for teaching library and technology skills, and went over the different things they teach. These were all of the things I already teach in my school, so I was a bit let down. They did have posters and information about the importance of media specialists in schools and how they benefit student learning, so that was good to see at least.

The next session I attended was called Projects Your Students Will Never Forget. This was presented by Rushton Hurley who is the Executive Director of Next Vista for Learning. He was a very engaging speaker and it was very interesting to listen to him, but again I was a bit let down. He talked about three specific projects you can do with students, but they all involved making movies. While this is something I really would like to do with my kids, it's not exactly feasible for me. I have access to iPads in my school, but in order for me to complete a project like one presented I would have to have complete control of the iPads. If I were able to complete a project like this in one class period it would work, but a project like this takes much longer than 50 minutes. The others teachers and students have access to the iPads, so I wouldn't be able to have my kids save their work and continue working at a later time. Rushton did have some very good ideas and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to him speak.

The last session I attended on the first day was called Little Coders. I really enjoyed this session, which was led by a first grade teacher. I do coding with my students throughout the year, but I've only done it with my 3rd-5th graders. I wanted to learn more about doing this with my younger kids because I know my kids are really engaged and enjoy doing this. The presenter showed different websites and apps he uses with his kids and I loved how kid-friendly they were. He also talked about how teachers tend to teach too much when they code with their kids. I realized I did this when I coded with my students. I showed them what they need to do to complete each level. I think I did this because I know many kids get frustrated when they don't get something right away. However, students needs to be challenged and need to be able to think critically. Next time I code with my kids I want them to figure out the rules for themselves, so I plan to provide little instruction. 

While I really enjoyed my day at MACUL on Thursday, I was a bit frustrated because I wanted to get more out of the sessions. Friday proved to be much better. The first session I attended was my favorite by far! This session was called Ideas for Creative Projects. What interested me about this session was that the description mentioned it would discuss other ways to create technology projects without using PowerPoint. While I love PowerPoint, as do my students, I wanted to find other things I can teach my kids. There were so many different websites and apps the presenter showed I was blown away! I felt that this session completely made up for the sessions I wasn't crazy about on Thursday. The presenter, a Technology Integration Specialist, was so engaging and showed us so many things I wanted to use right away. He had examples to show us that we could participate in on our own devices, and I loved that I could see first hand exactly how to use the different programs. One website I really liked that I plan to use in my classroom soon is called Pear Deck. This was a very cool interactive website that you can use during lessons and have students participate as you go through a lesson. Another website I really liked was ThingLink. We only saw a small example of this, but I want to explore this website more because I thought it was something my kids would really enjoy. There were way more websites given that I loved and plan to test out to see if they will work for my classroom. This session was a great start to Friday and I was so excited to learn more throughout the day.

The second session I went to was called Using Kidblog to Tap into Your Students True Writing Potential. This session was taught by a kindergarten teacher, and I wanted to go to this one because blogging is something I've wanted to do with my students. Most blogging websites require a student login or email address so I haven't done this in my classroom yet. Kidblog is great because students do not need an email address to use it and it is very user friendly. I was encouraged because the presenter uses Kidblog with her kindergartners and they absolutely love it. This session mostly showed us how the teacher uses Kidblog in her classroom, so I didn't learn a ton but it did get me interested in blogging with my students.

The last session I went to was called Engage Your Students With Free Web Tools. I really enjoyed this session because we tested out so many different websites. What I loved the most about this was that the presenter gave us a huge list of websites and programs that students can use without needing an account. This is always a big issue when looking into new websites. My students do not have email addresses so this tends to be a problem for some websites. A lot of the things we were shown in this session were very cool, but not all of them seemed exactly educational. The presenter gave us his website that has all of his websites listed on it, so I plan to go back and look through his list to find the ones that I think would be the most beneficial for my students.

All in all I really enjoyed my experience at MACUL. I have so many new things I want to take a look at to see how I can use them in my classroom. I'm finding that I want to try new things with my students instead of the same projects. It will be a learning experience, but, as I tell my students, it's good to make mistakes - that's how we learn!

Professional Blogs

Throughout this semester I have been following two librarian’s blogs. The first blog I’ve been following is Information Wants to be Free, written by Meredith G. Farkas. Meredith is a librarian at the Portland Community College in Oregon. She is also a lecturer at San Jose State University’s iSchool. She began her blog in 2004 and her posts cover a wide array of topics within library and information science. Her blog contained so many posts about so many different topics I found it to be a little big overwhelming. I wanted to read through posts that I found relevant and useful to my job, so I started with her teaching posts. One post, “Free and Cheap Technologies to Supercharge your Teaching,” was an interesting read and helped me think about new ways to use technology in my classroom. There are tons of links included in this post about different technologies that can be used in the library. One of my favorites was Where in the Library is Carmen Sandiego? This activity uses QR codes to take students through an interactive mystery game. While this is specific to the Lafayette College Library, I think I could create something similar for my students. I read through her teaching posts, too, but a lot of Meredith’s other technology and teaching posts relate to higher education.

The second blog I’ve been following is called Mr. Library Dude, written by Joe Hardenbrook. Joe is a reference and instruction librarian at Carroll University in Wisconsin. He started his blog in 2011 and it also covers a large range of topics within library and information science. Most of his posts are related to academic libraries and the next most posted about topics are technology and public libraries. Because there were so many posts throughout the past four years he’s been blogging, I decided to look mainly at his teaching posts. I thought these would be the most beneficial for me to look at in relation to my job as a media specialist. I really enjoyed reading his teaching posts because they gave a lot of useful tips I can use in my own classroom. He also provides real world examples of lessons he’s done with his own students. These examples include the lesson plans and resources to use if you’d like to do a similar lesson. My favorite teaching post is titled “Library Instruction: No More Lecturing, NoMore ‘Death by PowerPoint.’” While this post was older, written in 2011, I found it to be very beneficial and relevant to my job. I’ve struggled with finding creative ways to teach certain topics when I’m not teaching specific technology skills. I’ve found PowerPoint presentations to use, but I find the students aren’t exactly as engaged as I’d hoped. In this post, Mr. Library Dude explains how he introduces information and research to students in a way that grabs his students’ attention. This post was very helpful and Joe explains the activity for the day, complete with pictures and an activity to go along with the lesson. I plan to tweak his worksheets to fit my needs, but I think this post could be very helpful when talking about research and information with my older students.

I also looked at many of Joe’s technology posts because I thought they could be helpful, as well. Most of these posts talked about social media sites and how they can be used in a library. Since I work in an elementary school I didn’t really find these posts to be useful. It was interesting to read about how he’s used social media sites in his library though. My favorite post in this category is called “HowNot to Tweet for your Library.” Twitter is a popular site for libraries and Joe talks about some guidelines for making sure libraries aren’t turning patrons away with certain tweets. He posts five rules for libraries using twitter with examples of what not to do. While I don’t use twitter myself, I thought this could be a useful post for many who do.

A last post I wanted to highlight because I’m currently facing this issue right now is titled “Why We Weed: Book Deselection in Academic Libraries.” I’ve completed redone my nonfiction section of my library because it was a mess when I started my job. I finally got around to moving everything around during conferences last week when I had four hours to do nothing! After moving everything to where it should be, I began the daunting process of weeding. Joe mentions this is typically an undesirable task that is often put off – he is definitely right. While his post is aimed at academic libraries I still found it to be useful. Many people find it odd for libraries to get rid of books, but Joe explains why it is needed. One sentence that stood out to me is when he says, “…not every book is precious for your library.” This really hit home for me because I’ve come across many books that I want to remove from my collection but think that maybe SOMEONE might check it out. I need to get out of this mindset and make sure I have books that are relevant to my students.

Mid-Semester Reflection

For this post I looked back at my previous posts up until now. It is clear that I am focused on school libraries and media programs, which shouldn't be a surprise considering my job. When I looked at my first few posts I've realized that my goals and thoughts about the profession haven't changed much. I still believe this course and future courses I take will help me in my profession to make sure I am providing my students with all the information and resources they need to be successful. One of the posts I spent more time looking back at was the professional association post. I was more interested in the the NAMTC organization and am thinking it might be beneficial to join this association. I am already a member of MAME and have found that there are many resources available to me that are of use. I'm considering joining the NAMTC now because this is a national association and could be even more beneficial to connect and network with others in a similar profession across the country. I've enjoyed doing research and learning more about the library and information science field so far, and I'm anxious to learn more. Many of the exercises and assignments I've done have helped me see the importance of my job, and I've learned a lot more about just how much of an impact librarians make on their patrons. One assignment I just completed that I really enjoyed was the ethics scenario assignment. For this assignment I researched different codes of ethics from various organizations. I was very interested to read about the different codes and how they affect certain situations. This gave me more insight into my job as a librarian.

Freedom to Read Week

For Freedom to Read Week I chose to read The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. It took me awhile to decide which book I wanted to read because I had already read a lot of the banned classics. I was talking with a friend about this assignment and she was surprised to find that many of the books on the ALA’s Banned/Challenged Classics page (http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/classics) were books we were required to read in high school. Anyways, I ended up choosing The Catcher in the Rye because this was one of the books I did not read yet and heard it was a really good novel. 

The Catcher in the Rye was challenged and banned from many different places for its sexual content, offensive language, and being unsuited to the age group. I found this book to be a quick read because I was very involved in the story. I felt like I knew Holden Caulfield personally and I wanted to keep reading to find out what was going to happen to him. I wanted there to be more to the story when I was finished because there were some loose ends that I wanted tied up. He makes it clear that he doesn’t want to talk anymore about what happened to him after he got kicked out of school, but I had so many questions I wanted answered because I was so connected to his story. It is clear in the end that he is in some kind of psychiatric facility, but no other details about that are given. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this novel.

While I was reading The Catcher in the Rye, I was aware of the issues for which the book was banned. However, I didn’t feel completely repulsed about the language or sexual content. Nothing seemed that extreme that it would need to be removed from schools. I can understand why many would want this book removed from schools and/or public libraries for its language. Holden is sixteen years old and uses curse words in just about every sentence. In my opinion, most of the swear words are pretty mild, however towards the end he does drop a few F-bombs. Although as I thought about it, most PG-13 movies contain swear words that were used in this book. I think the part most people are offended about in terms of his swearing is that Holden often takes the Lord’s name in vain. I get why some parents and/or teachers might not want their kids reading a book with profanity, however, I don’t think kids reading this book are going to start talking that way. Kids are exposed to so much in today’s world and parents need to make sure they’re talking about what is acceptable. Music, video games, movies, etc. also contain profanity to some degree, yet parents still allow their children to listen and watch. Why should books be any different? 

In addition to swearing, the main character is constantly smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, and occasionally talking about sex. For example, Holden gets himself into one situation with a prostitute that doesn’t end the greatest. Even with the sexual content being a common theme throughout the novel, I didn’t find it to be offensive. Nothing was talked about in any serious detail, and, because the novel was released in the 1950s, some of the sexual words Holden uses are a bit dated. I’m sure students reading it would get the gist of what he’s saying, but it’s not the same language we use today. Again, children are exposed to sex in other forms of media and parents should be talking to their kids about it. In my opinion, kids reading this book aren't all of a sudden going to start talking about sex or experimenting. They are exposed to way more from other forms of media.

I believe this book is a great piece of literature that should be kept on shelves for certain age groups. In my opinion, I think high school juniors and seniors should be able to read The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. This novel can teach students a lot about being who they are and many of the struggles they can be faced with while growing up. The issues presented for banning this book are not new things children are exposed to. Other forms of media portray profanity and sexual content in which students see. While The Catcher in the Rye contains these things, as well, it is a great piece of literature from which students of appropriate ages can gain a lot from.