The case for strategic planning It’s like making resolutions, but it’s all about measuring your progress toward keeping them. In practice, I regret that didn’t create formal plans. I did write at least three goals each year and I reported on my progress. Those goals moved my program forward and moved me beyond simply making short-sighted hunches that I was simply doing a good job every day. For example: Goals pushed me to address the needs of the growing immigrant population in our community by gathering critical resources and developing targeted learning experiences and activities for our ESL students. Goals pushed me to discover the needs of my administrators and solve their problems by developing LibGuides that connected them to the resources they needed for educational research and for examining effective practice and innovative strategies. In my Leadership, Management and Evaluation of School Libraries course in the MI program at Rutgers, my students engage in a culminating strategic planning project. Why plan?
Learn to fight fake news in your classrooms and schools In the 1930s, Upton Sinclair was one of the most prominent writers in the United States. But no amount of fame could protect him, when he ran for governor of California, from “one of the most well-orchestrated smear campaigns in American history,” instigated by political and business interests hostile to the muckraking revelations in Sinclair’s books, such as The Jungle, making him a victim of “a forerunner of [the] ‘fake news’” that’s so pervasive today. Nor was he the first American to be misrepresented by his adversaries: John Adams and others in colonial and post-colonial times often felt abused by an unfettered free press. Call it fake news, propaganda, disinformation–it’s been with us in some form or another as long as the written word and doubtless in the oral tradition before that, in whispering campaigns and word-of-mouth slander. Related content: How to fight fake news Fight the good fight and combat fake news! But what’s happening today is different.
Win or Lose, Competition Always Makes You Stronger Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. People have a remarkable capacity for putting off the inevitable and making life way harder than it has to be. We do that by creating huge, imaginary obstacles and using them as excuses not to take any action at all. It affects our work, our careers, our companies … even our health. I can just imagine Julius Caesar looking sadly down at his overgrown belly and confiding in Brutus, “I can’t even stand to look in the mirror anymore. The reason why more people aren’t healthy is because they think they’ll have to go on a strict diet, give up everything they love to eat and commit to a daily exercise regime. Truth is, getting into decent shape isn’t that hard, unless of course you’re a complete mess to begin with. Related: Neurotic? We tend to view competing for business or jobs the same way. I’ll tell you why we can’t all just get along. Besides, everyone can’t be a winner. While competing may be hard, it’s not all that hard.
Handouts, Worksheets, & Activities for Information Literacy | Indiana University Libraries Teaching & Learning Department I Services Handouts: Information on key concepts & skills Worksheets: Exercises for students Activities: In-class activities to be facilitated by an instructorAdditional Resources More about information literacy. Handouts Inquiry:Top 10 Research Tips for IU Students: Introduces key library resources and servicesFrom Topic to Research Question: Steps in developing a topic and research questionsNarrowing a Topic: Steps in exploring and refining a research topicIdentifying Keywords: Tips on keyword searching in databasesBasic Search Tips: Search strategies and ways to narrow/broaden a searchIntroduction to OneSearch@IU database: Tips for using this interdisciplinary database Evaluation:Evaluating Sources Rhetorically: Page 1: Questions for evaluating sources rhetorically; Page 2: Illustration of Bizup's BEAM model for rhetorical source use.Evaluating Search Results: Tips for how to evaluate relevance of search resultsIs It Scholarly? Worksheets Activities
Four Ways Google Calendars Can Help Teacher-Librarians Plan There are no two days alike when you are a teacher-librarian. You don’t have the same kids every day. You don’t have the same teachers every day. And you don’t have the same schedule every day. To maximize your impact on student achievement, it is crucial to have a plan to manage programs, lessons, and promotion. Calendars Organize Being organized makes sure things don’t fall through the cracks and keeps everyone on the same page. Calendar 1: Programming. Calendars Document We work in a data-driven profession. Calendars Don’t Just Record Dates and Times Of course, you can extend invitations, but Google Calendar also allows you to set up conferencing via Hangouts. Calendars Save Time Create tasks and set reminders that you can check off or mark as done when complete. There are all kinds of calendar options. This is a guest blog by Brandi Rosales and Kristi Starr. Save
The Rise of Junk Science In early 2017, Eduardo Franco, a professor in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University, sent an email to his colleagues, warning them of a global “epidemic” of scams by academic journals that was corrupting research and, in effect, endangering the public. As head of the oncology department, where he oversees approximately 230 people, Franco promised to comb through every CV and annual evaluation in the department to flag any colleagues’ resumés that listed journals and conferences that weren’t reputable or, in some cases, even real. He didn’t spell out the consequences, but the implication was clear: the faculty members would be held accountable. A scholar for forty years, Franco has followed the rise of junk publishers for about a decade. These companies have become so successful, Franco says, that for the first time in history, scientists and scholars worldwide are publishing more fraudulent and flawed studies than legitimate research—maybe ten times more. So they rebelled.
"Crime Junkie" Hosts Accused Of Deleting Controversial Podcast Episodes The hosts of the popular true crime podcast Crime Junkie have been accused by a former journalist and multiple fellow podcasters of using their work in episodes without credit — and then quietly deleting the episodes after being called out. Crime Junkie is a weekly podcast hosted by Ashley Flowers of Indianapolis and her childhood friend, Brit Prawat. Flowers, a self-proclaimed "crime junkie" herself, launched the podcast in December 2017 after working with her local Crime Stoppers. Flowers told Deadline she hosted a crime segment on a local radio station before starting the podcast. Over the past year, Crime Junkie has rapidly become one of the most popular podcasts of the genre and is currently the most listened to series on the iTunes podcast charts. Flowers and Prawat have quickly leveraged their success, selling merchandise and hosting a series of live shows around the country this summer and fall. The hosts did not return a request for comment from BuzzFeed News.
Using Search Engines- CRLS Research Guide It's pretty easy. Just follow these basic guidelines and plug in your own key words. For a more developed discussion of this topic with examples and diagrams, click on the "Related Links" below. Is your list of relevant hits too big? Schools that Read Together: Cultivating Reading Communities at the Secondary Level by Heather Rocco Approximately three years ago, Chatham Middle and High School teachers implemented an independent reading initiative for their students. There are many components to implementing an effective independent reading program, especially at the middle and high school levels. To explain all we did (and do) requires a much longer blog post or, say, full texts written by brilliant educators like Donalyn Miller or Penny Kittle (our IR muses). Instead, I’d like to focus this brief post on one of the most surprising, yet inspiring results of our independent reading initiative. This initiative strengthened our school community. All our students have one thing in common – books. Community of Readers Books bring people together. I do not intend to oversimplify. Hey kids! The secondary level teachers encourage students to share their reading in many ways. Classroom Design – Many teachers allot space in their classrooms for a book wall. Teachers Read Too Read With Them – Adolescents are a dubious bunch.
Citation & Documentation - Excelsior College OWL Here you’ll find extensive support for APA, MLA, and Chicago documentation styles. This section features instructional videos that show you how to set up your papers in APA, MLA, and Chicago formats, interactive checklists, and visual support for both in-text documenting and referencing at the end of your paper. If you’re new to documentation or just need a refresher, the Citations & Documentation area can help. Research papers at the college level will require some kind of documentation style. The most common documentation styles are APA (from the American Psychological Association) and MLA (from the Modern Language Association), and some fields require Chicago Style (from the University of Chicago Press). While it may feel tedious learning the different aspects of a documentation style, it’s important to remember following style guidelines helps add credibility to your writing by providing you with a structured method for sharing your research with your audience.
Start A Google Classroom To Share With Your Teachers This Year! Last year, I wrote about being at the Future Ready Institute in Ohio and getting this awesome idea for curating and sharing resources with our teachers. As we discussed the different wedges of the Future Ready Librarian Framework and roles we have, I gathered ideas on a piece of paper that really stuck out to me and ones I wanted to put into place in our library. I spoke about how awesome Collections by Destiny are to curate resources and share with teachers and students. We also brainstormed and shared ideas on the best ways to get the word out about all of the things we do as we gather, curate and share them too. This is when one of my new teacher librarian friend from Ohio gave me the BEST idea! As I was sharing how we created Google Classrooms for each elementary class this week, she said, I created a Google Classroom for my teachers too. Brilliant! Every time we post in our Library & Technology Google Classroom, the teachers get an alert in their email.
Creating an Annotated History Bibliography A Roadmap of Your Interpretation A annotated bibliography for history research shows sourcing, contextualizing and corroborating, the thinking skills used by historians. Critical annotations are an intellectual roadmap of your thinking. They support your reasoned interpretation of the historical record (primary sources) and the scholarly analysis of that record (secondary sources). Once you’ve curated the essential sources in a Chicago style list and completed a rough draft of your paper or project, you’ll begin to write descriptive annotations. Historical Thinking Every discipline has ways of knowing. Sourcing. What does sourcing look like in an annotation? For a research project investigating the U.S. decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan in World War II, the curator identifies relevant credentials, experience and knowledge. WHAT DOES contextualizing LOOK LIKE IN AN ANNOTATION? WHAT DOES Corroborating LOOK LIKE IN AN ANNOTATION? Your Final Paper is a Conversation with Historians
Bitmoji Library Rules - Mustard Seed Reads I know we may not want to think about it right now, but school starts back up next month, and I have the cutest FREE, editable printable for you to get back in the swing of things! Bitmoji Library Rules! On your desktop or laptop, make sure you are signed in to your Google account, then click on the link above. Go to File – Make a Copy – and BOOM, they’re yours to customize! A copy can now be found in your own Google Drive! Add/change rules, Bitmojis, colors, and more! Adding Your Own Bitmoji There are a few different ways to do this: If you are using Google Chrome as your browser, the easiest way is to go to Apps – Chrome Web Store and install the Bitmoji Extension. You can also use the Bitmoji app on your phone. Printing To change the print size, go to File – Print settings and preview. Displaying Since these posters are in Google Slides, I have them running on a loop on the large screen in my Library for the first few weeks of school.