Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.

Mary Oliver

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

History Day @ Your Library

I am presenting a Breakout Session at the History Day @ Your Library training for teachers being held at the MN History Center in St. Paul on November 10, 2010. I'm excited about sharing! The training I do is usually connected to technology, but this is simply using technology(the faithful data projector and laptop) to communicate ideas. I like to find the story in everything--it's her story, it's his story, it's their story, it's our story, it's HISTORY!
The Shelfari widget I just added on the sidebar has some of the picture books I'll be sharing with participants as starting points for a discussion of Debate and Diplomacy, this year's theme.
A picture book is such an excellent teaching tool, people shouldn't abandon it after third grade!

Thursday, March 4, 2010

April is National Poetry Month

Poetry--definitely a good place to visit in springtime...words and thoughts growing and bubbling inside of you and finding beautiful release in rhythm and rhyme. I think children are natural poets and should have the reading and writing and listening experiences that allow them to express themselves through the magic of poetry. I'm sounding very lyrical about poetry, keying on it's beauty, but of course ugly, messy, angry poems have their place too. Poetry helps us see and understand what is real and true. I remember a poem I wrote (which I'll share tomorrow) called "A Cup of Tea" which helped me uncover a whole new understanding of my childhood and the directions my life has taken since. I don't think writing in a journal could have done the same thing--I don't think months of therapy could have done it either. There's something about poetry that requires you to look for the "essential" core of an idea or a feeling and to remove everything else that doesn't belong.
With the complexity of my life and the workload I carry, I think I've just reminded myself that I need to spend more time in the company of verse.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

New Media, New School Year . . . and a New Resource | Edutopia

New Media, New School Year . . . and a New Resource | Edutopia

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Librarians Are the Best...

filters, that is, according Anne Collier who said “Librarians are the best filters,because they can teach students about the filter between their ears.”
I found this article in the School Library Journal worth reading because, among other things, it points out once again the value that librarians and media specialist bring to schools. While classroom teachers may feel more comfortable with their "doors closed" and their energy focused primarily on their own students; librarians and other specialists whose job it is to serve the whole school and the whole student body find it uncomfortable to have the doors closed. They often have a broader view of student needs and the context in which students learn.
Because of the different focus that specialists bring to their work, they are often more flexible and more open to new ideas. Our students need both types of caring attention: the sharp focus on immediate student needs and learning and the broader focus on the whole child over their whole educational career and that child within the broader context of school and community.
What we need is to raise the awareness of that value that librarians and media programs bring to schools...an awareness that can be diminished in economic hard times. What can you cut...those that not directly in charge of students. The learning is diminished for students.
We need to continue to raise that awareness and speak up when our work is not recognized!

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Analyzing Websites and Using the Internet Effectively

Analyzing Websites:
This is an excellent tutorial on using the Internet...something we all feel comfortable doing, but don't necessarily bring all our best thinking to...I know I need to remind myself to be more reflective and thoughtful about how I search and what I do after I get results.