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