Dribbling lesson and Collaboration

THIS IS THE BEST INGREDIENT TO WHIP UP A SMOOTH DRIBBLING LESSON AND COLLABORATION TOOL..... (It doesn't "float" in space, but I couldn't figure out how to draw a table top.)

Catagorizing research topics is a good dribbling lesson I am working to complete. Even though the Media Center will close in two weeks for the major renovations of adding two computer labs and reorganizing the layout of the main area, I need to drop by classrooms and incorporate this dribbling lesson. The English department has been collaborating with me concerning a fabulous research project where the ninth graders need to personalize their project by finding a topic that conveys something that has been passed down through their family. The ideas vary from a girl being cognizant that the women in the family all have the Gemini astrological sign, the men in another family all like to get dirty and fix old cars, a major WILD hockey fan, or a fifteen year old Latino girl reliving her Quinceanera. All of them struggle to narrow down their topic and would do well to have the dribbling lesson to categorize their topic and also know where to go to locate the answers. I've been a cheerleader all year to tell them to go to databases and do SMART Google searches with the five steps. Thanks to Metronet for the plans and the technology to spread the ideas further!

MLA citations and bibliographies

This is indicative of what frustration I feel as I peruse the completed Health papers classes turned in after many lessons on how to access databases and use of proper MLA citations. THESE ARE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS! Who did their work? The papers revealed such responses on "Work Cited" pages as

• yahoo.com
• American Diabetes Association site
• A book called Diabetes

We need to revisit this lesson! Obviously, they didn't get it!

History of social networking

Since I am over fifty and a "rookie" at social networking, I am trying to gain all I can by digging and listening. I found this link helpful to give me a foundation on a timeline on social networking and a link to wikipedia and information gleaned there. Of course, the best way to learn about it is to ask my own children! They love it when someone they haven't seen in a long time adds their name to their list of friends. What a great way to contact a voice from the past. Our district filters social networking sites, so I check it out at home. I'm not as savvy as the kids who use proxy servers that spring up overnight.
http://www.nfistudios.com/blog/2007/06/21/a-brief-history-of-social-networking-sites/

Research and Technology Standards and Principles of Learning

The jargon the Education people throw at the general community is full of acronyms and strange verbiage which is confusing and useless to the rest of the world. Now, we have Standards that MEMO created and adopted as well as Principles of Learning that spps endorses. Please see the links listed to access them in your hour of need. I even put them up on the wall of the Media Center in LARGE PRINT. This is what we ascribe to so as to get the best effort out of our students to meet with success in a world full of competition. Equal access is a wonderful goal.
http://memoweb.org/htmlfiles/linkslitstandards.html
http://www.thecenter.spps.org/pol.html

A Day in the Life of a Librarian

Enforcing copyright

Is anyone as confused with the copyright laws as I am? Regardless, we still are put in the position of being the Copyright Cop! In graduate school, a copyright attorney came to our class and scared the "Ba-gee-bees" out of us concerning copyright infringement and consequences to a Library Media Specialist that doesn't watch the staff at the school. Thus, finding this article on Enforcing Copyright was interesting to me. It was a bit more in depth than we need, but good in content. Its authors are attorneys! Check it out.

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=18&hid=2&sid=af422bcd-15f7-4959-9787-c29effd009d2%40sessionmgr9

Photo credits are listed below: http://www.portlandpolicemuseum.com/museum001001.jpg

History Day lends itself to great lessons

Our Social Studies department is going crazy getting students ready for History Day.

• One of the new formats this year is creating a web page. Ivar Nelson from the Technology Dept. has been great setting up administrative access to several of our students to create their own webpages. It was fun going into Urban Planet and refreshing my skills.

http://www.mpls.lib.mn.us/mn_history_day.asp

• Many students were in awe at MNLINK and the ability to locate materials in print from all over the state. The LCD projector assisted in showing the group a key word and how easily they can get their hands on information. This helped push the fact that they all need a public library card. The databases are a boon to History Day, as well.

https://www.mnlinkgateway.org/zportal/zengine?VDXaction=ZSearchSimple

Oh, wiki, here I come!

Since I had to miss the session you had on Wiki's, I felt inept when you were all discussing it. I am a "hands-on" learner, so I went to a video that instructed me at my level. It made me laugh and gave me a comfort level to get in and try it. Check it out. It's called "Wikis in Plain English."

http://www.commoncraft.com/video-wikis-plain-english

Policing Facebook and MySpace

Being the Media Specialist, I was crowned the computer "cop" concerning inapropriate use. This is a job I DO NOT want. I am open to ideas of how to find a middle of the road and not be the cop or the lenient pushover. Our students are ahead of us adults on proxy servers to get into the sites. We filter and then fourteen new ones spring up in its place. Being an older person, I don't get into the compulsion to do the social networking 24/7 or giving out personal information. My parents told me not to talk to strangers. Let's discuss the article concerning how schools are handling students posting items the district deems are a violation. http://wcco.com/local/facebook.drinking.pictures.2.640000.html

Update on the Library renovation project

Oh, I am so excited! We've had many meetings with the architect in charge of the Library renovation project for this summer. May 5 the Media Center will close until fall. All the Library collection materials, furniture, and computers need to be boxed up and housed elsewhere for the summer. How fabulous that a company will come in and do it all for us! The computer labs will be air-conditioned, which is a strange oddity at Central. When the temperature hits 90, we have a joke that we breathe "Central air," making the kids all groan. I do have major trepidation thinking of how to check in all the textbooks in June. The laptop and a scanner will do the trick, but where to put them remains a problem.

Collaboration with the Media Specialist

Two of our wonderful special education teachers came into the Media Center and wanted ideas of what to do for a meaningful project for the students in their classes. They wanted a foundation of tangible sources before they dove into databases. I shared various project outcomes that were unique and didn't resemble a term paper. We decided they were going to come up with a brochure on a renowned African American person, from a prescribed list so they wouldn't all grab the same name. The students had the first lesson on reference sources that contained information, how to fill out a form to cite their sources, and how to take "fast and dirty" notes on what is presented. We mapped out the brochure like a storyboard, to show them main ideas to organize each area. The next lesson will be a demonstration of the databases that are appropriate and how to gather images from google. The students also saw how to save information and send it to their spps school email account, using their username and password. When you present a lesson, buy-in from the students comes in the form of what they are interested in learning. It was cool to see them move incloser to the LCD projector so they could see what was happening!