Jane Lofton's Blog: How to participate in a live chat I'm delighted to report that we (Katie McNamara and I) moderated our first #calibchat Twitter live chat on April 27, and a good - and productive - time was had by all! (You can read the announcement of the first chat in my last post.) Here is the Storify transcript. We had a great mixture of California people and tweeps from all over the country.
The Joyful Teacher Librarian (Melissa Thom) In 2015 I obtained my Library Media Specialist certificate through the ACES ARCLMS program and am currently working as a middle school teacher librarian at Bristow Middle School in West Hartford, Connecticut. The decision to leave the classroom and enter this field was somewhat unplanned but has turned out to be the job I was always meant to do. Read Janet Lee Carey's blogpost about the Bristow Library to see some of the exciting things that happen in the Bristow Library Learning Commons and Makerspace! Reading, books, author events, social studies, geography, tech tools and connecting people and ideas are a few of my passions. As a classroom teacher, I always had a well stocked classroom library and was often the person other teachers came to when they were looking for resources and tech tools.
Blogging and a little common sense I serve at the pleasure of the school board. That means I am not affiliated with any organization that bargains for me, offers legal protection to me, or stands beside me if my job is on the line. It's not so bad. 15 librarians to follow on Instagram It’s no secret that school librarians and libraries play a critical role in today’s schools and have a positive impact on student learning (don’t miss the School Libraries Work! research compendium to learn more about the importance of school libraries). This year, we had the privilege of meeting some impressive library professionals, including the winners of the 2017 School Library Journal School Librarian of the Year Awards.
ON LIBRARIES: Hilda K. Weisburg I decided to take my own advice and make time for fun (yes, that’s a professinal resolution. Read on to see that one) – and more time for me. My blog for this week is a repeat of the one I did for January 2, 2017. I am also going to take next week off. I deserve it. 23 Things for Digital Knowledge Thirty years ago, networks developed for communication between people were adapted to communication between machines. Since then we’ve gone from transmitting data over a voice network to transmitting voice over a data network. Digital forms of information and communication are transforming what it means to work, study, research, and express oneself.
School Library Connection Blog In today’s age of social media and instantaneous communication, the world seems smaller than ever before. With so many people across so many diverse countries, cultures, and backgrounds in contact with one another—and often part of our school communities—it is important to acknowledge and promote a global perspective among young learners. This is particularly relevant for libraries, where diverse characters and stories can offer readers windows into the lives of characters very different from themselves. Below is a list of titles recommended by SLC reviewers that focus on characters from various backgrounds and walks of life, all experiencing problems, joys, fantasies, and ordeals that readers from anywhere in the world can recognize and relate to.
Why Every Leader Needs a PLN The concept of a Personal Learning Network (PLN) has been around for a couple of years now. Educators who have embraced this concept have experienced firsthand the positive impact on professional practice that being a connected educator brings. The premise is relatively simple. Carve out a little time each day (15 – 30 minutes) and use one of many available free tools to learn. It is less about the specific tool that is used for the foundation of a PLN and more about the relationships, engagement, and new knowledge that result.
Top School Library Blogs One look at the titles of blogs narrated by school librarians reveals the evolution of a profession within an institution that is at a pivotal point. Charged with the vital duty of promoting digital literacy, today’s librarians are daring, unquiet, sassy and definitely e-literate. This list features the top school library blogs ordered by website popularity metrics and social media engagement including the number of websites that link to a blog and number of followers on Twitter. We commend these school librarians for taking the time to share their ideas, experiences, and advice with the school library community. If you would like to recommend a school library blog to add to this list, please contact us to help improve this resource. Our list of top school library blogs is based on website popularity and social media engagement as measured by the number of sites linking to the blog, Google Page Rank, Moz’s Page Authority, MozRank, and number of Twitter followers.