8+rss+Gems

My Five Gurus[[http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/search?q=social+network|

http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/search?q=social+network]] Lisa Nielson

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$23 Billion to save jobs?? I hope so.

From LM NET Some key points about Weeding: all formats need to be weeded weeding enhances the collection and increases budgets be agressive use volunteers use the data provided your automation system and collection assessment throw out the discards; do not give them to classrooms

Have fun and reap the rewards.

P.S. Weeding keeps the library feeling new and up-to-date. Even if you love some old classics, you can throw out the copies from 1964 and repurchase them. [] Oklahoma considers firing all librarians. SLJ was filled with articles about which states will be gutting their libraries. This is a huge cause for concern. Not only do librarians teach literacy etc. they provide a haven for students. Empty libraries mean more children at risk. We will pay for this for many years. The dumbing down of eduation, coupled with lack of space for children to hang out is a recipe for disaster. Obviously, academically we will also pay for it.

Nancy Willard writes in LM NET that she "librarians that have gained the authority to offer overrides are using this authority to help to educate your teaching colleagues about web site credibility. This is shifting your role - into that of "literacy specialist."

She advocates that that the "school librarians MUST have the authority to override because of the teachable moment this provides at the school level to assist the other teachers in making sure that they are using the best resources. If the decision is made at the tech services level, this exceptionally valuable "teachable moment" is lost. THIS is the argument, I believe, that can start to open the filtering up for more of you."

"In fact, I was going to argue that all teachers should have override authority. I am going to back off of this recommendation - this is the ultimate objective, but not a good path. If we start with the school librarians (and the active Internet using teachers) having override authority, then this could help shift the perception of school librarians to valuable literacy specialists who are assisting the other teachers in engaging in 21st century instruction. And I think this is really, really powerful."

All I can add is that let's use our media savvy to incorporate all the good things we need to teach.

I

[|**http://tinyurl.com/ye3yc5n**] Curious George Saves the Day! Read about how CG was lovingly created and how he was spirited out of Nazi Occupied France. A great way to teach about the Holocaust, especially since CG survived!

@http://www.marinij.com/marinnews/ci_14728793 LM NET "It is more than ironic that school districts are willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on reading programs and staff development which have had limited success in boosting test scores, but are unwilling to invest in school library programs that show such direct correlations to student success," researcher Douglas Achterman wrote in a 2008 study of California school libraries. California is 51st in the nation for library funding. (WOW! and I thought we only had 50 states!) This article rehashes what we already know. Yet it is sad to keep reading over and over how this country has boxed itself in with its disastrous financial decisions, only to find that we have no money to educate our children. The consequences for this will be astounding as we go forward with workers that cannot work. If we keep our national debate away from knowledge, education, creativity only to focus on corporate profits, tax breaks and zoning laws, a small minority of people will have engineered an impoverished nation of people who cannot think. We will continue to outsource our technical jobs, and squander our resources by creating food products with harmful ingredients/additives in them. The Los Angeles unified school district has a horrible reputation. It is a known fact among middle class parents that if you live there, you will send your kids to private school. What a shame, it keeps mid-level people with children from moving to California and improving their economy. I'm a proud graduate of a NYC public high school. It further depletes the resources of middle class parents, so that they are being taxed very unfairly to give their children a decent education. For all those people who are endlessly in favor of tax cuts, and gutting the system, whether it is education, health care or environmental regulation, please remember the burden falls on individuals in random and disproportionate ways. The cost of a nation of depressed, unemployed, unproductive adults is staggering. []

This article only comes as PDF, so you have to subscribe to the Bulletin. In a nutshell, Albany public Libraries are dropping Dewey. Maybe he's too complicated. I think it's a good idea to put certain types of books in the hands of the readers, and not make them so difficult to find.

Another VERY interesting article in this issue is HOW LIBRARIES CAN HELP AMERICANS WITH PRINT DISABILITIES. I will xerox it and get back to you on what it's about. Suffice it to say, that although the technology has already been created, it's been turned off because of proprietary reasons. [] 8 Personal attributes that lead to success, including spirit of adventure, having someone believe in you, belonging to a group and confidence.

Maybe schools should be spending a little more effort making sure every kid has at least one afterschool, performs at least once or twice a year and goes for a walk in the woods or in the neighborhood (depending where you live) a few times a year. I've never seen a guideline like that, yet I have two kids.

LM NET A teacher needs helps on "How to not teach a lesson" so that her aide can follow through on the lesson when she is not there. I made the following suggestions. (The union forbids the aide from teaching, only allows her to read a story.) 1. Have a pile of books out and let the kids sort them, play with them or reshelve them. 2. Leave the reference books out with a scavenger hunt of ideas they can look for. 3. Write a book that the aide would be allowed to read to them. The book can cover the topics and be funny. 4. Give every kid a stack of index cards. On one side would be what they’re looking for i.e. historical fiction, and on the other side the kid would have to fill it in.

=How books are shelved= I don’t know where I read it anymore, but not all books need to be shelved in Dewey. A public library in Ct. decided that its’ children’s section needed to be shelved according to basic categories: transportation, picture books, holidays, etc. Kids looking for books about trucks did not need to learn Dewey. At Westorchard, where I student taught, certain popular books such as “How to Be a Pirate,” were not shelved because they would have been lost in the 800s. In Byram Hills, most popular books go into Author’s Corner. While it worked well in the Elementary school, in the high school they don’t take out books from any other section of the library and the collection is woefully outdated.

[] =Wartime Pope Has a Huge Fan: A Jewish Knight =

Published: March 7, 2010
A self- taught historian proves that Pope Pious XII saved some 860,000 Jews during the Holocaust. The problem is, bona fide scholars question his statistics and say his research is shoddy. This brings up the debate, can an educated person learn new tricks? In the meantime, Gary Krupp has done a lot of good work bridging interfaith dialogue. He even got the Vatican to lend some of Maimonides books to the Israel Museum. As we talk about 21st c. skills, Gary Krupp needs to be a model of what educated people can do, whether it their field or not. As an aside, why would Israel need Maimonides books? Can’t they just put in a cappuccino maker instea [] It’s not often that you see a women standing in front of a well-used bookshelf on the front page of the Sports Section of the NY Times. Dorothy Jane Mills co-wrote three voluminous works about Baseball with her husband, but was never credited for her work. Sadly, today’s women do not discuss feminist issues such as this. Mrs. Mills set the record straight at a recent SABR convention. However, issues of scholarship and women’s rights need to be discussed.

http://hotissues.wikispaces.com/

Joyce Valenza's link to a page with many resources on how to explore hot issues.

[] Your book is overdue. WoW! A Westchesterite takes on the world of libraries in a novel. sounds good, but I'll wait to get it for free at the library!

@http://www.librarycopyrightalliance.org/bm~doc/ibstreamingfilms_0 Lawyers are suing to keep free streaming video in the classroom. [] Detroit is cutting art and music. Schools that are eviscerated of culture can't really teach. All this pressure to pass state tests and they are dropping education in favor of school cuts. Of course this impacts libraries--kids will not be developing any interests to read about. And the impact on the economy will be profound. In order to get people dropping their leisure dollars at the symphony and the museums, they need to have a foundation in these departments. = http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA605244.html = =a lot of good information about becoming a librarian. Havent' read the whole article yet., http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6719309.html?rssid=190 Reading Fiction Can Help Combat Obesity, Study Says= That, coupled with healthy mealtime routines and getting enough sleep can help girls control their weight.

( Tamara's comments---) However, NO ONe, including Michelle Obama, is talking about all the food additives in the last five years that have created supersize people starting from infanthood. Virtually every food has corn or a derivitive of corn in it, something our pancreas can't digest. If it's not corn, than it's something that is causing diabetes to skyrocket. Too many people do not have access to fresh vegetables, and I would suspect that most people don't know even basic cooking skills.

=Percy Jackson: The lightning thief[| http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6718650.html?rssid=190] Great Movie. . As School Exit Tests Prove Tough, States Ease Standards= New York Times, By [|IAN URBINA]Published: January 11, 2010 []

Value: To question why lawmakers are imposing huge taxes on Americans to provide exit exams, when in reality, that's what teachers are supposed to do.

A law adopting statewide high school exams for graduation took effect in Pennsylvania on Saturday, with the goal of ensuring that students leaving high school are prepared for college and the workplace. But critics say the requirement has been so watered down that it is unlikely to have major impact.

States are spending a lot of money on exit exams, but they are so watered down, that they do not confer graduates with the distinctions of having learned much, yet it has the deleterious effect of lowering graduation rates. Some states have watered down requirements.

In PA students have the opportunity to take the tests up to three times, and then get remedial work.

Opinion: I am skeptical of this because teachers are trained to teach. They know if a kids is failing or passing, but they no longer have the authority to fail a kid.

=Music is instrumental in teaching=

Learning program is a hit with students, teachers
By Anne Krueger, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER Saturday, December 19, 2009 at 12:01 a.m. [|www.signonsandiego.com]

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Every few years, educators again "realize" that teaching music has a strong correlation with math. So they develop another curriculum that pairs the two and children are taught rudimentary music. This article focuses on teaching kids piano on a synthesizer.

Why is music not valued for its own sake? There is never a goal to get a child into an orchestra, or jazz band, just to raise his score on a math test. The children do not learn names like Mozart, or cannot distinguish between Bernstein and Gershwin.

=President Obama Proposes Eliminating Federal School Library Funds= []

By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal,02/01/2010
In his FY2011 budget proposal to Congress on Monday, Barach Obama completely eliminated the Improving Literacy for School Libraries grant program, designed to boost academic achievement by providing students with access to up-to-date school library materials. During the Bush years, this initiative was funded at $19 million/year. Congress has the power to act on the budget before it is passed. The Digital Divide threatens all of us. Let's make sure we educate every child. “Something’s obviously wrong if we weren’t able to convince [Obama and Duncan] that state-certified school libraries are fundamentally important to learning,” Barnett says. Obama’s budget consolidates federal monies for school libraries into a number of DOE programs, basically wiping out any federal funds earmarked for media centers. Parents are concerned that their students will not have access to the crucial information that is taught in a library.

= What I Learned from Teaching Adult Learners Online = [] By Denise A. Blake, Shenandoah University

December 29, 2009 Today, the vast majority of students seeking a higher education are working adults who balance families and jobs. As early as the year 2000, 43 percent of postsecondary students in the U.S. were adult learners (age 25 years and older), and about 60 percent of all U.S. higher education students were classified as non-traditional (Council for Adult and Experiential Learning, 2000, citing in part the National Center for Educational Statistics). It's estimated that by 2014, there could be a shortage of 9 million qualified workers because many future jobs will require a postsecondary degree—that's the main reason adults are now studying for a postsecondary degree (Chao, DeRocca, & Flynn, 2007). Adults have not only gone back to school, but are also active computer and Internet users, which makes it easy for them to consider an online course of study a viable option.

Opinion: Learning online offers possibilities that were not available,especially as I can be home with my kids and save gas. However, it baffles me how the administration of LIU has webct, blackboard, and moodle and our own personal wikis. I would like to learn new applications and information, not be saddled with a bureaucracy of websites.

ONline Lifeskills for Teens []

This article focuses on online practical learning for teens including money, careers and how to projects success.
= This is important because kids are not learning how to fend for themselves in practical matters. =

On the Librarian:What's the point? [] A scathing commentary on librarians who don't keep up with social media. Why it is that social media is where the action is in libraries today. People are twittering away with comments.

01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, September 27, 2009
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In the spring of 2008, a teacher at Mt. Hope High School (RI), was proctoring the 11th-grade New England Common Assessment Program science test. The majority of students could not write the open-ended essay questions. The school responded by adding a writing component to every class: shop, art, music in addition to the traditional English classes. The hard work paid off, and the school has improved its percentage of students who can write. All sophomores are required to take writing tests in 4 subjects for their portfolios.

WRITE on! Finally a school that is tackling a basic skill deficiency.

How to identify kids who get bullied []

Kids who can't read social clues are the ones who get bullied. Left in isolation, they are more likely to experiment with drugs, drop out of school. Librarians can detect kids who might slip through the cracks. It is our job to make sure no child is left behind, and you can spot them easily in the library.