Inspired Learning

A great way to impact everyday teaching and learning in your classroom is with eBooks. Many people consider adding eBooks to their library collection, yet bringing these digital tools into the classroom provides another opportunity to improve teaching and learning.  

eBook Tools

The tools included in most eBooks can assist students with understanding, organizing and retaining information.

Vocabulary. I rarely see a student go to a print dictionary anymore to look up a word -- with the click of the mouse they can easily find what a new word means while never leaving the eBook.

Struggling Readers. Students who need a little extra help may listen as the book is read aloud and the text is highlighted - often being able to change the speed of the read-aloud to meet their needs.

All of these features help students "unpack" the information and assist in their understanding of the material, in both fiction and informational texts.

In addition, including eBooks in research provides students with even more tools. Students can highlight important information, bookmark pages for future reference, and take notes in the eBook. (These are all things we prefer they DON'T do in our print collections!)  When using Follett eBooks, these notes stay with the students’ accounts and don't get deleted when the book is returned—very important in student research. Being able to take notes directly in the eBook and keep them electronically may also decrease the big issue of "copying and pasting."

 Teacher-Led Instruction

So where do you start? A good way to start using eBooks in the classroom is through teacher-led instruction. Picture books are great instructional tools for all ages. They not only introduce a concept, but, as an eBook, they often have much better graphics and images. To ensure everyone see the pictures as they enjoy the story, you can use a data projector to share an eBook with your entire classroom.

Another option is to select a history or science informational text in an eBook format when teaching reading skills with your students. Project a page(s) that highlights a topic students are studying in another class or subject. As the students read to select main idea and supporting details, sentence subjects, etc., they will also be reviewing the topic. Project the pages on an interactive white board and students can take turns highlighting/underlining their selections.

Individualized Learning

To take it a step further, we are beginning to use Follett Shelf™ Classroom Connections™, an option with Follett eBooks. This product facilitates lesson-based interactions between students and teachers within the eBook. Teachers can assign students to groups, assign groups specific eBook titles and embed questions and discussion prompts in the assigned eBook.  As the student reads the eBook and comes to a teacher prompt, they respond without ever leaving the eBook environment, and the teacher is able to respond to the student individually.  

This is a very simple description of the platform, but I think it provides many opportunities for using eBooks to enhance teaching and learning. As a teacher you may select an informational text to use for instruction in a specific topic and individualize your instruction to meet your individual student's needs.  

I also see this is a great tool when teaching a novel.  We all remember the "read a chapter and answer the questions" days. I think it would be a much better option to insert discussion prompts directly in the novel and interact with the students digitally while they are reading. This allows students to move at their own pace and allows the teacher the opportunity to respond to individual student responses and provide immediate feedback and follow-up questions. Classroom discussion is not eliminated, but enhanced by the student/teacher interactions.

Consider using eBooks to enhance your instruction and student learning. If you haven't looked at them in a while, take another look. The quantity and quality of titles available have increased greatly and they are an excellent option to enhance instruction!  

by Anna Cosio, Executive Regional Educational Consultant, Europe

Librarians from schools all around Europe and from as far as China and Zambia gathered recently in three European cities for the fourth annual European Follett Workshops. Madrid, Vienna and Copenhagen played host to this year’s workshops and it was delightful to have old and new friends come from near and far to join in the fun and learning!

Larry Gilbert, aka 'The Destiny Doctor', was on hand to provide full days of training on Destiny's new features and enhancements, debate cataloging questions, and share tips and tricks. "Dr. Destiny always has good tips and fixes so I always appreciate his presentation and one-to-one time," reported one attendee. "Also, seeing other librarians' presentations gave me some great ideas."

Attending librarians exchanged ideas on how they are using Destiny in their schools and shared their excitement about the newly released features from the AU1 update, such as the link to EasyBib citations in Universal Search. One librarian said, "It was great to see Universal Search working. I also came away with lots of little tips that I can put into practice here. These shouldn’t be underestimated!"  

The second day of the workshops was dedicated to professional development and attendees shared stories and discussed usage of eBooks and Classroom Connections, summer reading programs, supporting the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum in the library, and Titlewave scavenger hunts. There was even a rather hot debate on “Do We Dewey?”.  

As always, much laughter was heard and new connections and friendships made. When the workshops ended, we heard many statements like these from attendees:

"I LOVE these workshops, as the personal connections with Follett staff last a long time beyond the workshops. Follett is singular in its commitment to customer service. . .  Thank you very much for putting the workshop together, communicating with us and listening!"

"I would like to thank the team from Follett for their professionalism and overall seriousness with the workshop. I look forward to more of these opportunities in the future!"

"Thank you for a great day, the time flew and I would have loved to have a whole second day with Larry, continuing on from what we did on the Friday.  I look forward to next year and learning more."

It is wonderful to see everyone come together and share and we look forward to many more years of workshops around Europe! We encourage customers to join us at next year's workshops, which will take place in Amsterdam (April 11th and 12th, 2016); Warsaw (April 14th and 15th, 2016); and Budapest (April 18th and 19th).

See you there!

Anna Cosio, Executive Regional Educational Consultant, Europe 

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By Andrew Davis, Director of Early Learning at Follett School Solutions

In my travels around the country, I’ve observed several schools and early learning programs boasting about the technology they’ve acquired. From interactive white boards to tablets to computer stations, programs for young children are becoming increasingly wired (or wireless, in some cases) almost as a prerequisite for serving the perceived needs and expectations of incoming digital natives. When asked how the acquired technology is being used, however, these same programs are often slower to articulate any current programming or plan of action. Many even admit that the drive to acquire the technology outpaced the plan for its use.

The role and presence of technology in early learning settings has been one of the most hotly debated topics over the last few years. In January of 2012, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media at Saint Vincent College released a joint position statement on technology and interactive media in programs serving children from birth through age 8. The document was intended to provide some initial guidance to programs considering the use of technology and ultimately led to more discovery, research and the growing acceptance that not all technology is evil. But while there is an increase in acceptance and acquisition of technology, there must also be a corresponding increase in intention around its use.

I’ve found that there are three general intended uses for technology and interactive media that start the planning process. Programs that can establish clarity early in the process have a better chance at success and avoid the confusion of purchasing to satisfy one purpose while trying to implement another.

1.       Technology for learning and discovery. Among the many benefits of technology are the affordances it brings. The ability to animate content or extend lessons in different media formats can have the benefit of increasing engagement and supporting the different learning styles of young children. While care must be taken to avoid the many entertainment programs available or those promoting a passive experience, there are several alternatives that promote healthy adult-child or child-child interactions around a topic or subject. The key question to ask is, “How does this tool enhance what I want the child to learn or experience?” This helps keep in mind that technology is merely a tool that can be useful in the proper, developmentally appropriate context and might not be the best solution in every case.

2.       Technology as a teaching tool. While there are several administrative technology tools that aim to make life easier for teachers, the focus here is on tools for teaching young children. Several apps and software programs allow educators to monitor, track progress and deliver feedback and messages through their platforms. Technology devices like interactive white boards or digital microscopes can allow for the delivery of lessons in novel ways. A key question here for educators is, “How does this tool allow me to enhance the delivery of information and content around this subject?” With an emphasis on enhancement, educators will be guided to consider where the technology tools fit in their lesson plans.

3.       Exposure to technology. One under-articulated goal of technology is merely to expose children to its presence. In communities where there is limited access to technology, exposing children to the many capabilities of the technology in the broader world can help to bridge the experience gap between those with and without technology. All children, however, can benefit from an intentional exposure to not just the existence of various forms of technology and interactive media, but guidance on its proper use and direction for healthy engagement. The key question here is, “How would exposing children to this tool enhance their understanding and connection to the world around them?”

It’s no accident that each question focuses on the intentional use of the tool and its ability to enhance an overall learning experience. We know that the demand for technology in learning environments will continue to grow and the technology itself will change and evolve over time. But it is us in the learning community who bear the responsibility for ensuring that the technology tools that are the most useful, developmentally appropriate and supportive of our intended uses are the ones that survive and thrive.

Andrew Davis is the Director of Early Learning at Follett School Solutions. His interests include effective early education strategies and education as a vehicle for social mobility. 

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Sales Consultant Karei Swift Serves as Competition Moderator for Ten Years

To his Follett friends, Karei Swift is known as the sales consultant for the Eastern North Carolina region. But, to many people in the districts he serves, he’s known as the “Battle of the Books guy”.

For the past ten years, Karei has volunteered his time to act as moderator for dozens of Battle of the Books competitions – a reading incentive program disguised as a fun quiz-bowl competition, engaging students from elementary, middle and high schools. Teams of students are asked to read numerous books, which are determined each year by a committee at the state level. Karei’s job as moderator is to ask the questions that test the students’ knowledge of the books.

Karei’s Battle of the Books journey started when he was asked to fill in – at the last minute - as the competition’s moderator for one of his districts ten years ago.  While he said that his first experience was a little bumpy for him, he must have done something right because he was asked to come back the following year.  Word spread of Karei’s moderating talents, and he now serves as moderator for a number of middle school district competitions in North Carolina.

Karei recalled what a day of moderating is like:  “It’s a long day.  I have to keep the kids engaged and put a lot of personality into it, keeping it moving, and keeping people involved.  We take it seriously but we also try to have fun.  It has become something very dear to me.”

Before Karei joined Follett 13 years ago, he worked as a mental health case manager in Pittsburgh, PA, helping mentally ill children.  While he misses working with children, Karei says his involvement with Battle of the Books is his chance to stay involved with kids and help promote the importance of reading and education. And, at the rate he’s going, he’ll have plenty more chances next year… since he’s already signed up to moderate seven competitions in 2016.

Karei, congratulations on playing such an important role in your community!

Some say April is the cruelest month (T.S. Eliot for one). I love April, especially here in Texas. 

The bluebonnets are everywhere—and I am reminded why with my annual re-reading of the Legend of the Bluebonnet by Tomie de Paola. 

Reading this picture book multiple times has not diminished its luster one bit. It has deepened my reading and allowed me to see things I had missed in the first and second and twentieth readings. That is, in part, why this picture book remains one that appears not only on my syllabus for children’s literature, but on syllabi and reading lists across the country. These picture books that speak to a wide range of readers, that stand up to repeated readings, that remain as timely as the year they were published are some of the books I refer to as mentor texts. And so for April, I thought I would highlight some of the newest books to join this collection of mentor texts. The books on this list have received multiple starred reviews (and do not get me wrong, it does not take a star for a book to be worthy of mentor text status) and have been on shortlists of the best picture books for 2014.  Although the system might label these as books for K-3, they really are appropriate for a much wider range.  

All Different Now is a perfect book for social studies’ classes. 

Share Draw and Ashley Bryant’s Puppets with the art teacher. 

There are some textless books that would work well with ELL classes.  Poetry and nonfiction offer different forms and formats. For anyone looking for a cross section of the wealth offered by picture books, this short list is a good place to begin. I urge all of you to build out from this list on Titlewave.com. 

Plant some seeds, and see what blooms!

by Dr. Teri S. Lesesne

Dear Mr. Fröbel,

On the occasion of your birthday, I thought it fitting to share a perspective on the current state of your kindergarten concept in the United States. After all, here in the states we commemorate April 21st as “Kindergarten Day”. I realize that you, of all people, would be happy to know that in each state, every child has access to kindergarten, although it is not always required.

While we have provided access, kindergarten often seems like the battlefield where the academics of birth-to-five child development and K-12 education square off. There has been fierce debate over how it should be implemented, what is best for children and the role it should play in our system of educational matriculation. Here is a short summary of my observations:

To play or not to play is too often the question. You once wrote, “Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood for it alone is the free expression of what is in a child's soul.” Today, advocates of play-based classrooms say that the push for more academic rigor in the kindergarten classroom comes at the expense of valuable allowances for physical expression and exploration. Frequently, teachers and schools responding to these demands feel forced to shape daily activities that will drive the desired results on tests or assessments.  

What I observe are not as much direct opponents of the need for active learning, but well-intentioned educators who need more direction on how to include opportunities for play.  Conversations are sometimes positioned on one side of the play spectrum versus the other. In reality, neither a classroom with too much play and not enough active adult support nor one with little to no play but lots of scripted, teacher-led activity fully benefits the child. The ideal environment is one where children are allowed to actively explore in the presence of teachers who provide guidance through experience-rich activities. Unless play is valued as a key driver in children’s learning and a connector to the academic benchmarks we seek, our kindergarten classrooms will most likely fall short of the environment you intended.  

Practice makes perfect when it is developmentally appropriate. What kindergarten-aged children can do and should do is another highly debated topic. There is such a proliferation of research on effective practice available that to simply base kindergarten expectations on the retrofitted goals of the subsequent primary grades seems short sighted. While this is not always the case, there certainly is room for several more collaborative conversations between the leading thinkers in child development and those crafting K-5 curricula and programming.

As you stated, “Children are like tiny flowers; they are varied and need care, but each is beautiful alone and glorious when seen in the community of peers.” This perspective gives us the perfect blueprint for the developmentally appropriate kindergarten classroom. By understanding what is typical for all children at this level, we can create a context for determining and appreciating what is both individually and culturally appropriate. Just as we wouldn’t expect a sprouting plant to bear fruit too soon, we must be careful to nurture children in their early stages of learning and development. Including child development specialists as part of the conversation is necessary to do it correctly.

Look for meaning in the name. The word “kindergarten” means a child’s garden or a garden of children. Either way, it implies a process of care and patience. Although many educators might naturally be caring and patient, our schools frequently have a stigma of being anything but. Were we to rename the kindergarten year as Grade Zero – representing a launch to the remainder of formal primary schooling, it might be more consistent with how some kindergartens are actually operated.

But I believe the name you left us is appropriate. As our population becomes increasingly diverse and our schools endeavor to deepen their service to our children, recalling the name and its meaning just might serve as a reference point for how accurately we align with its intentions.

As with anything worth doing, Mr. Fröbel, there are successes in the midst of the challenges. You wrote, “If three hundred years after my death my method of education shall be completely established according to its idea, I shall rejoice in heaven."

As you can see, we’re just over halfway there. And while we still have some work to do, I’m confident together, we’ll figure it out.

Sincerely,

Andrew M. Davis

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Math isn’t really about numbers. I know this may sound heretical. Math is the course with the numbers after all. 6+2=8. That’s math. Well, sort of. That’s a part of math. Those numbers and symbols we learned in school allow us to take very complex ideas and express them in symbolic shorthand. They allow us to communicate big ideas in elegant ways. Eight is just a simple way of saying 6+2. It expresses the concept in just one number instead of two numbers and a symbol.  

Math is about taking the complex and messy and making it simple, elegant and refined. Math has been defined as the science of patterns and order. A mathematician takes the chaos around him/her and seeks to make it ordered and understandable.  This is done using a four-step process. Understand, plan, solve, check.

To solve a problem, first you have to understand your situation.You have to look at where you are and what you have to work with before you can move forward.

Once you understand the situation, you can create a plan.This process can happen very quickly, but it is a critical step. Without a plan, you have no framework for solving the problem.

Next, it’s time to solve the problem and try to bring order to the chaos. Put your plan into action.

Lastly, you have to make sure your solution works – that you really did bring some harmony to the discord of a problem. Sometimes your plan works, and sometimes it doesn’t. If it did work, awesome! If not, go back and start the process over. Make sure you really understand the situation. Come up with a new plan. Execute it. Check. Start over if necessary.

Does any of this sound familiar? It should. This is life. We are surrounded by problems and spend our days trying to solve them. Some are small and happen in the blink of an eye. We are constantly solving problems while driving. Speed up? Slow down? Change lanes? Turn? Other problems are bigger. Much bigger. Much murkier.  But our experiences in math have armed us to handle those, too. Understand. Plan. Solve. Check.

The world seems inefficient and complex. Math class teaches us to simplify it, break it down to its component parts, and strip away what overlaps so we can make order of the chaos.

Be aware of the math around you. It is everywhere.

by Michael Cherone, Academic Consultant

ThinkCERCA is a great example of how technology can and should be used to benefit learning.  Its purpose is not solely to provide access to content, as most technology does, but rather, to give it great utility.  Students use ThinkCERCA to better understand concepts and then think critically to move through the framework.  It truly prepares them for the “real world” as they are expected to state a claim, find evidence, and then use reasoning to prove it – a process nearly all of us go through on a daily basis in the workforce.  While schools have been doing this for years on paper, the use of the technology allows for truly differentiated and personalized instruction, the use of engaging content that is current and relevant, and automatic grading that allows teachers to quickly and easily embed it in what they do.  The result is an engaged classroom that sees results, as ThinkCERCA has proven through numerous case studies and white papers.

In mid December, I had the pleasure of joining Eileen Murphy and the ThinkCERCA team on two school visits in the Chicago area – a cutting-edge charter school, Intrinsic,and a more traditional elementary school, John W. Garvy.  While I expected to see full adoption of ThinkCERCA at Intrinsic, a school built around technology, I was actually even more surprised by how integrated the program was at Garvy.  In all my years working in education, I’ve never seen a program so embedded in the curriculum, with students so eager to use it.  The level of engagement in the classrooms was more than palpable.  In fact, when the ThinkCERCA team asked some questions about the program of the students, nearly every hand was up ready to give feedback. 

At Follett, a program like this, which helps develop literacy while improving engagement, is a perfect fit.  With our focus on improving reading, writing and vocabulary skills, and our vast library of engaging content that could truly support the CERCA model in an even more robust fashion, the opportunities for educators are endless.  Also, with our reach, even more students can benefit from the program and more teachers can see the amazing benefits. 

Earlier this month, I talked about the challenges our profession faces - ourprofessional paradox, I called it - reconciling authority control andmillennial learners’ search habits, which are anything but standards-driven. Materials classification presents a similar challenge. Material types are changing so fast that the guidelines for indexing and citing them feel perpetually out-of-date.

 In Questioning Authority Control, I explained that at New Canaan (CT) High School, a Destiny (our OPAC) search will produce results that include an array of formats - free websites, database links, copyright protected eBooks, digital files, and of course, call numbers for print books. Follett Learning, the creators of Destiny, rely on the Library of Congress standards to identify indexable material types. So when students choose the “Material type” filter in an OPAC search, their options include:

Unfortunately, our students are unfamiliar with much of that terminology. We weeded globes, atlases, maps, printed music, hard-copy image files, VHS, and music in 2006 while undergoing library renovation, and we’ve had no need to replace them since. Last week, we weeded the remainder of our audiobook collection - our students don’t listen to CDs. much less cassettes (as an experiment, we circulated a Sony Walkman for a while, but no one borrowed it). Our students exclusively borrow audiobooks in downloadable format. Our visual collection is limited to DVDs, and our students don’t borrow those either. Many of our students’ households do not have DVD players, and DVD drives are becoming increasingly rare on computers. Our students prefer streaming their video content from their family subscription accounts. So clearly there is a disconnect between the list of material types and our collection.

 The most glaring lexicon issue involves websites. How do we index a website? At New Canaan High School, we label it "computer file", but it's a poor descriptor - and its icon is a floppy disk. Ouch. How about an article? A document? And while we're at it, why do we call visual recording a "video"? How is a student supposed to know that a "serial" is actually a magazine? This language may work for the 20th century, but not for this one - at least not in K-12 learning. There are so many instructional priorities. Teaching outdated lexicon should not be among them.

 This problem bleeds into another area - citing sources. The seventh edition of the Modern Language Association’s Guide to Writers of Research Papers was released in 2009. The 6th edition was released in 2003. Five and six year stretches between editions leaves students with too many citation questions that have no answers. The information landscape is evolving so fast that we have to invent solutions. Content providers (database vendors, publishers, eContent distributors, library management systems developers, and online research and citation facilitators, such as NoodleTools and EasyBib rely on the standards-makers - Library of Congress, the Modern Language Association, the American Psychology Association, etc., to classify resources, and waiting for guideline updates compromises their capacity for currency.

 The Common Core State Standards (CCSS), and their facsimiles in non-CCSS states prescribe that students learn to distinguish among article types. It would be helpful if database providers featured filters that facilitated this instruction. Article types, their authorship, and purpose impact how students reference them in their writing. Many database providers in K-12 education offer the same article type filters.

A student trying to locate an OP-ED article will not necessarily know that “Commentary” might be the right filter. Or they might choose “Editorial”, which, in theory, should be an unsigned article representing the publication’s viewpoint rather than an individual’s. Why not offer OP-ED as an option so the student can focus on learning rather than searching? The library of congress designates a number of the categories in the list, and the classifications fail to mirror the terminology used in contemporary media.

As school librarians, we have limited instructional opportunities and innumerable instructional responsibilities. Our time will be better spent teaching students new media literacy and critical reading rather than outdated terminology. The standards should evolve with the shifting information landscape.

If there is one thing I have learned as a librarian in the 21st century, it is to question The-Way-It’s-Always-Been-Done. Not reactively fight it, but just reexamine it with the mindset that change can open doors to new ideas and transformative learning. And yet, standardization is at the core of librarianship: Dewey, Library of Congress, MLA, APA, etc.

Much of what we do is guided bystandards, and standards are intrinsically linked to The-Way-It’s-Always-Been-Done.There isn’t much wiggle room. This is our 21st-century professional paradox.

I remember first learning about authority control in library school. It seemed so logical back then. You establish a set language for a subject, and then cross-reference it in a few places, and voila! That seems like a very long time ago.

I moved from the classroom to the library in 2001. Back then, our library did not subscribe to databases; we did not have a library website. We had fewer than a dozen computers scattered about our facility. Even in that era, authority control, as a teachable concept, was over. The best a school librarian could do was teach students that in an advanced search, choosing the delimiter "subject" might generate fewer, and more relevant results so long as students typed the right word into the search field. That's very different from explaining that effective research on the French Revolution requires a search for France - History - Revolution, 1789-1815.

 If authority control was a problematic concept to teach in 2001, it is even more so now. As a school librarian, I am an unorthodox cataloger. Established subject headings by the Library of Congress and Sears drive my thinking far less than the words the students type into search fields. Every New Canaan High School research exercise has its own subject(s) in our Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC), Destiny Quest. A search for any of the following phrases will produce a list of 50-250 library resources

R U What U Eat?

Napoleon's Trial

Dictator Dating Game

Who Killed the King?

Global Pitch

Our students know this. If they plug a project name into our OPAC, Destiny Quest, their results will include an array of formats--free websites, database links, copyright-protected ebooks and articles, digital files, and of course, call numbers for print books. They can’t do that in Google! Destiny Quest makes it simple for students to easily locate all resources available to them, whether in print, digital, or online.

 So it isn’t that standards are a problem as much as standards need supplementation. For example, if I import the MARC record for The Age of Napoleon by Susan Conner, my import will include

Greenwood Guides to Historic Events 1500-1900

Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821

France History 1799-1815

Biography & Autobiography / Historical

History /Europe / France

History /Europe / General

But a careful review of our Napoleon’s Trial assignment will reveal that our students might also look for the following keywords or phrases, most of which are pretty unconventional subjects by any standard (no pun intended). So we added them.

Amiens (Peace of)

Aristocracy

Aristocrats

Catholic Church

Civil Code

Concordat

French Revolution

Jacobins

Louis XVI, King of France, 1754-1793

Louis XVIII

Napoleonic code

Napoleon's trial

Peasants

Restoration

Third Estate

Waterloo, Battle of, 1815

One could easily challenge this practice, pointing out that a student researching the Catholic Church might not want French Revolution resources in their search results. They may not, but we do because it helps build curricular connections. A New Canaan High School student researching Catholicism should be reminded about the de-Christianization of France during the 1789 revolution. 

This becomes increasingly important as students turn to digital sources for research. There was a time when librarians would “pull a cart” of books for a project. Pulling a cart of electronic books is doable; there are resource lists, shelf-browsing tools, etc., but these are not quite as user-friendly as a cart full of print books, at least not to the current high school population. I expect that will change as the iPad generation moves up. The best way to “pull a cart” in the digital world is through enhanced cataloging with a curriculum-driven list of customized subjects.

It could be argued this denies students the learning experience of locating resources independently. How will students learn to locate resources using their college and public library catalogs? My answer is, “Baby steps, baby!” At least they aren’t searching the catalog for “Is Napoleon guilty of crimes against humanity Italian widow“ and anyone who teaches research to millennials can recognize this as progress.

 Watch for Part Two of this blog, where I will explore the MLA citing issue more extensively and discuss possible solutions.

First-time visitors to the Learning Commons at American Community School (ACS) in Amman, Jordan are noticeably amazed when they walk through the double glass doors. Some iteration of Wow, this is really something, is voiced by adults, and school-aged children breathe Awesome. The 2013-2014 ACS Alumni who visited during their college winter break moaned Why wasn’t this ready before we graduated?

A sweeping look to the left reveals the cafe with seating for 30. A stage and a sound-proofed acoustic room are tucked behind a 100-gallon aquarium inhabited by eels and sharks. The favorite student hang out is directly in front of the main entrance, providing comfortable couches peppered with red, yellow, green, and blue pillows. To the right are several six-top study tables, cleverly separated from each other by mobile bookshelves with the latest and relevant fiction and nonfiction resources to support and enrich student learning. The primary color scheme is continued on the numbered glass doors of the six seminar rooms and echoed inside each room by the domed lights and the seats of the swivel chairs; whiteboard walls and mounted monitors are at the head of each table, inviting creativity and collaboration. A short corridor interspersed with squares of colored carpet leads to a set of sliding glass doors opening to the Elementary side of the Learning Commons, an oasis of reading and learning for the younger ACS students. There are round tables with soft bench-style seating; numerous reading nooks built into the walls, some with room for two; and spectacular tiered seating leading up to windows welcoming in the natural light.

Throughout the Learning Commons, accompanying this inanimate visual, is a sound that is hard to describe:classroom teachers know it; teacher-librarians welcome it; and, administrators crave it. It is the sound all educators seek—of engaged, motivated, and happy students. The Learning Commons at ACS buzzes with the energy of its students,and it is awesome.

My involvement in the creation of the Learning Commons at American Community School started with an email I received from Larry McIlvain, Superintendent of ACS. He had a vacancy in his school library and he wanted a library of the future. I had experience transitioning a traditional school library into the 21st century, and I wanted to start the international chapter of my career as a teacher librarian. That initial contact in October 2013 led to a Skype conversation, a series of interviews, a job offer, and just over one year later, to the November 2014 opening of the Learning Commons at ACS.

In between the job offer and the opening of “the LC”, as it is now commonly referred to, many minds came together across tables, cities, countries, and oceans with a common goal: to create a space in which student learning was priority. The four “primordial learning metaphors” proposed by Thornburg (2004) guided the initial conversations of the planning team: the Campfire, the Watering Hole, the Cave, and Life. Like architect and school planner Nair (2003), we believed that “each of these modalities is important in the overall scheme of learning: Campfires are a way to learn from experts or storytellers; Watering Holes help you learn from peers; Caves are places to learn from yourself; and Life is where you bring it all together by applying what you learn to projects in the real world”.

Numerous questions were raised as to how the space as a whole was to be divided into the three learning spaces. A week-long planning and information-gathering session in March 2014 included panel-style interviews with students representing the Elementary, Middle, and High School divisions; a Q&A with the PTG; an analysis of student usage habits of the existing school library; and, insight from the Leadership Team as to what they hoped a new library would offer students. Much of this information gathered was used to inform the preliminary layout of the LC, along with many other suggestions adopted from the resource, Building the Learning Commons: A Guide for School Administrators and Learning Leadership Teams: A Whole School Approach to Learning for the Future (Koechlin, Rosenfeld, & Loertscher, 2010). The hiring of an interior designer meant the collected data and the ideas primordial learning spaces could be applied to an overall design philosophy and provided another level of professional dialogue to the planning team.

The construction of the Learning Commons started three weeks before the students’ last day of school in June. To accommodate the end-of-year return of resources and the packing of the print collection, artificial walls were built to cordon off a section of the library. When the cement walls started coming down, operations were relocated completely. With a tight summer timeline it was fortunate the project was more of destruction one than construction, although with students still in session this too provided logistical challenges. Following the operational classroom relocation plan, the four neighboring G5 classrooms were appropriated, essentially doubling the floor space of the old school library to the present 1200 m2  Learning Commons.

The month of Ramadan (June 28 - July 27) slowed down this ambitious project, and when I arrived in the middle of August there was only a rough skeleton of the new Learning Commons in place. I realized that the summer timeline was quickly becoming a fall timeline. The locals, however, assured me that never before in Jordanian history had they seen a workforce as dedicated as the one at ACS. It is a tribute to the spirit of the school and those who lead it that the project was completed before the winter break.

As the walls were painted, the carpet laid, and the furniture placed, there was a heightened sense of responsibility to create an environment in which “multiple spaces for individual, small group, and whole class learning” could thrive (Ontario School Library Association, 2010, p. 13). Each and every student received the same message in their orientation: Your primary purpose for being here is to learn. Our challenge as professionals working with students in the new space now lies in collecting evidence to prove that we have, in fact, created a Learning Commons of the 21st century, which is having a measurable impact on student learning. Stay tuned for that update!

By Jessica Levitt, Teacher-Librarian at American Community School

References

Koechlin, C., Rosenfeld, E., & Loertscher, D. V. (2010). Building the learning commons: A guide for school administrators and learning leadership teams: A whole school approach to learning for the future. Salt Lake City, UT: Hi Willow Research & Publishing. 

Nair, P. (2004). Making peace with campfires: Confessions of a reformed radical. Education Week, 22 (28), 

Ontario School Library Association. (2010). Together for learning: School libraries and the emergence of the learning commons. Toronto: Ontario Library Association. 29. Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org 

I find that the older I get, the fewer resolutions I make.  I am not certain why there is a correlation, but I do think it makes for a happier February when I have not abandoned all my goals and resolutions.   But recently, a challenge posted on Book Riot intrigued me.  Using this model, I developed a bit of a challenge for all of us for the first few months coming year. 

In January, let’s resolve to read ONE of the books that wins an award at ALA Midwinter.  Newbery, Caldecott, etc., you pick a book and read it.  The awards will be posted to the ALA website after their announcement on February 2, 2015.  Hint: if you are pressed for time, tackle a Caldecott winner first; they are 32 pp. long.

In February, maybe it is time to develop a new love?  How about each of us reads a form or format that is not within our comfort book zone?  Not crazy about graphic novels?  Try one from the Great Graphic Novels for Teens List.  Need to read more nonfiction?  How about a Sibert Award winner? 

March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb.  So, perhaps reading a book about animals or unlikely friends? 

April is National Poetry Month, so I think we can locate a book of poetry to celebrate.  Try one of the winners of the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children. 

Here is a list of some of the award winners mentioned here to get you underway with the 2015 challenge to read, to read widely, to read even more.  

By Teri S. Lesesne, Professor of Library Science, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville TX

Follett School Solutions has a very talented group of individuals (pictured below) who provide customer training for Destiny and various professional development topics such as eBooks and Follett Shelf Classroom Connections.  On a typical day, you won’t see these trainers walking the hallways of our buildings.  They are a dedicated group of former librarians, teachers, administrators, and trainers who work remotely for Follett on a part-time, contract basis.  They devote days upon days to learning our products and becoming experts in the delivery of training and helping adults learn.  They help customers troubleshoot problems and provide solutions to perplexing issues.  They dedicate many hours of extra time beyond a training to get customers answers to questions, not only to help them use our products, but also to keep them satisfied – which is a goal for us all.  The trainers’ numerous and outstanding contributions often go unnoticed by most, but are never unappreciated by those who know them and to the thousands of customers they help year round.    The trainers’ passion for what they do is simply incredible.  They love Follett.  They love helping others learn and discover.  They love interacting with school personnel to help make their jobs easier by incorporating Follett tools and resources in the classroom.  Do you know someone who has this similar passion?  Be they a teacher, librarian or administrator – we would really love to meet these people.   We are currently building our contract trainer pool.  If you know someone with K-12 experience who has retired or will soon, and would like to become a part of the FSS training team, please let us know.  Although we are asking for referrals for an immediate hiring need, we will accept referrals for contract trainers at any time of the year!       To contact us with questions, or to send referral names and contact information, please email [email protected]. 

Struggling readers present with a variety of reading problems that require differentiated and targeted instructional interventions to support their individual needs. This poses another challenge to teachers who are already strapped for time with all that is on their plates.

  We know that early intervention is key, yet there are many students in upper elementary, middle, and high school who have limited reading ability; who struggle with decoding and do not have the requisite foundational skills; and those across all grades who struggle with fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Included among struggling readers are ELLs who can have many of the same problems if they do not have a solid foundation in their first language. Best practices for struggling readers involve several components—explicit instruction of skills and strategies, clear explanation of what students are to do with a given reading task through modeling and examples, many opportunities for practicing new skills and strategies, ongoing monitoring and corrective feedback, and adding new skills and content challenges along with previously learned material so prior skills continue to be practiced and built upon.

With the advent of the Common Core State Standards, TEKS, and other new standards, the challenges are intensified. In addition to unpacking and understanding the standards, many content area teachers—not trained in literacy per se—are now sharing accountability for their students’ reading skill development. CCSS challenges include increased reading proficiency expectations, increased text complexity demands, exposure to more text types, integrating technology into their lessons, and filling content gaps. They have little time to research needed content, to develop text sets and collections that support the standards, or to find collateral materials and tools needed in order to meet skill and technology expectations as outlined in the Common Core. Teachers are skillful and knowledgeable and working intensely to rise to meet these challenges. We at Follett have seen this first hand during many district visits, from extensive surveys, and from ongoing direct support to teachers and administrators throughout the country by way of creating customized solutions to help teachers meet these challenges.

  For professional development and instruction vis-à-vis struggling readers, teachers can use our expert tool, Titlewave.com to find many outstanding titles on teaching to CCSS standards and skills, using technology tools, differentiating instruction, and much more, from a wide variety of content providers. Using the reading level filters, including Lexile measures and Guided Reading levels, teachers can easily sort through a given list to fine tune selections to provide appropriate challenge and ensure students are accessing core academic content that is comprehensible. Our Curriculum Tags give teachers valuable information on how a book can be used to support instruction, including key skills, and range of text structure, genre, and rigor as called for by the new standards.

Most administrators believe that all you need is an inquisitive student and a passionate teacher and the sky’s the limit in terms of what can be achieved by this pairing. The reality is most teachers dream of a well-resourced school, access to the latest 21st-century technology, combined with a limitless budget, allowing them to purchase teaching aids and textbooks throughout the school year.

Working in the Middle East for six years, I found it challenging to find a campus meeting all of these expectations. Even the premium schools had financial constraints, and new-builds, in particular, were often lacking in fundamental resources.

The financial crash in 2008 caused even oil-rich countries to tighten their purse strings and school administrators looked for ways to ensure their campuses were adequately equipped while focusing on a more thoughtful approach to resourcing. This explains why, in 2010, I was tasked with setting up a Teacher Resources Centre (TRC) so my school would have a department dedicated to providing materials that could be catalogued, tracked and looked after.

Accountability is key to successful resourcing, and the establishment of a TRC and Follett provided the perfect solution through Destiny. Not only did Destiny Library Manager track our library books, but through Destiny Textbook and Asset Manager, I was able to single-handedly barcode 24,000 teaching aids, textbooks, science and athletic equipment, and science materials. If a teacher used it, a barcode was slapped on it!

By the time the next budget year came around, we could accurately forecast our needs for the next academic year. Destiny allowed us to report on what had been lost, what needed repairs, and how certain types of materials were circulated. If a department said ‘we must order more of this!’ administrators could check the reports to confirm if this request was valid, based on the number of circulations in the previous year. Destiny Textbook Manager also allowed us to work with students and parents to locate textbooks lost in the black hole of a child’s bedroom or in the never-ending cave of the school locker. That’s only because with Destiny, we could definitively say if a student had checked a textbook out of the TRC rather than relying on already busy teachers to keep track of the class set of this term’s biology workbooks.

This autumn year, Follett introduced Destiny Resource Manager, which combines the most popular features of Textbook and Asset Manager, so that everything can be tracked through one user-friendly interface. If you would like more information on how to set up your own TRC with Destiny, get in touch with Follett International and we will be happy to help!

After graduating with an MA from the University of Leicester in 2008, Caroline Gregory moved to Dubai where she was an employed as the Library and Resources Manager for one of the region’s premier schools. During this time she led a small team of assistants to start up the school library and oversee the overall management of educational resources. In 2010, she set up a Teacher Resources Centre, barcoding and inventorying over 25,000 texts, audio kits, and guided readers, as well as microscopes, board games and digital cameras. She is now Follett International’s Senior British Educational Consultant for the Middle East.

by Stuart Crouch, International School of Düsseldorf

As a British expatriate living in Germany, Christmas is a hybrid, international affair. I’ve lived in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Caribbean over the past twenty-something years, and have found that Christmas becomes all things to all men and women, very quickly. I have spent Christmas Day in Jaipur, India, halfway up a mountain in Indonesia, on the beach in Curacao and in the sweltering heat of Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. At each place I have been accompanied by friends – new and old – from all across the world. No matter which group forms to spend time together at Christmas, each person brings something from their home culture, and even something from an adopted country of their choice. And that time in Namibia when everyone else was singing in Afrikaans and I was singing in English, nobody seemed to mind as we shared food and drink looking out over the Atlantic Ocean.

I really don’t mind where I spend Christmas, but Christmas pudding and carol singing are two vital elements for me (if you like rich, stodgy and heavy desserts, swimming in thick, hot custard, then Christmas pudding might just be for you too). Years ago in Africa, I would tune in a shortwave radio and listen to Christmas carols on the BBC World Service. Now with the advent of Internet radio, I can listen to carols from King’s College, Cambridge, with such clarity that I am transported back to my homeland – and my childhood in England. Mix the two together, carols and pudding, and you have the recipe for the perfect Christmas. 

Christmas in Germany is wonderful. There is a rich tradition of food, drink, and seasonal contemplation. Christmas here seems to be an intimate affair, unchanged in generations. There are Christmas markets with Glühwein and roasted almonds, handmade wooden decorations, and on the evening of December 6th – a precursor to Holy Night on the 24th - Nikolaus, the traditional Saint Nicholas, visits the homes of children to leave a gift in their boots – but only if they have been good!

And what about Christmas at school? Here at the International School of Düsseldorf, Christmas means many different things. It’s hard to say what people do, however, because school is closed for a fortnight, and staff and students scatter to the four corners of the globe to spend the holidays with friends and family. I asked a few students what they were doing for Christmas:

  I’m going to Tenerife with my family…

We’re staying in Germany and my grandparents are flying in from Brazil...

And one kid told me: I don’t know. My mum says it’s a surprise!

Now, I said the library closes for Christmas, but this is only partly true. The doors are locked and the shades are pulled tightly shut against the cold winter weather, but the library is still available. The library website is on offer 24/7, as are our eResources. And for the past year or so, our eBooks have been available to anyone with a device and a network. For the really clever ones – the ones that also get their wish lists to Santa Claus at the North Pole early, the same ones that always get their library books back before the due date – you don’t even need a network. Go to Follett Shelf, download a book or three, and you’ll have your own library in the palm of your hand for the whole holiday season! 

    And how about some reading recommendations? If you want to feel the icy winds of Scandinavia in your blood why not try my favourite book? Peter Høeg’s Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow is a classic whodunit, set in Denmark and Greenland.

If you want something nice for the children, why not try Shine, by Stuart Crouch. Yes, I also write. This Christmas I’ll be editing my latest thriller and working on a collection of poetry. And of course singing along to carols with a mouthful of Christmas pudding. 

Wherever you are this festive season, and whatever you are doing, have a safe, happy, and restful time!

Nobel Week (December 6-12) is officially underway. Lectures and presentations in Stockholm and Oslo can be viewed by live stream video throughout the week by visiting http://www.nobelprize.org/. The prestigious, international Nobel Prizes, established by Alfred Nobel, are awarded for cultural and/or scientific advances. The Nobel Peace Prize will be presented to the winners on December 10, which is the 118th anniversary of Alfred Nobel's passing. This year's Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded jointly to Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education". Miss Yousafzai has the distinction of being the youngest Nobel prize award winner in the history of the awards. She is just 17 years old. 

                                         Golden room of Stockholm City Hall

  Follett has compiled a list on Titlewave, called "December 10 is A Magic Date: Nobel Prize Awards". This compilation of books tells the stories of the more than 200 men and women recognized by the Nobel Prize since it was established in 1901. Books in this list include:

Alfred Nobel, The Man Behind the Peace Prize Interest level: K-3

An illustrated exploration of Alfred Nobel's invention of dynamite and how his feelings about how it was used led him to create the Nobel Prizes.

Almost everyone has heard of the Nobel Prize, a collection of prizes awarded for accomplishments in science, medicine, literature, and peace. But few people know about the man who established the award and for whom it is named, Alfred Nobel.

Alfred Nobel was born in Sweden in 1833. A quick and curious mind, combined with a love of science and chemistry, drove him to invent numerous technological devices throughout his long life. But he is perhaps most well known for his invention of dynamite.

Intending it to help safely advance road and bridge construction, Nobel saw his most famous invention used in the development of military weaponry. After a newspaper headline mistakenly announces his death, Nobel was inspired to leave a legacy of another sort.

The Man Behind the Peace Prize tells the story of the enduring legacy of Alfred Nobel.

Nobel's Women of Peace Interest level: 5-8

Among the women celebrated in this book are Baroness Bertha von Suttner, one of the first activists in the modern peace movement, Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan, who worked in the 1970s to bring peace to Northern Ireland, and Mother Teresa, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. The most recent winner was Wangari Maathai, who won in 2004 for her struggle for democracy, human rights and environmental conservation in Africa. All the women included are inspiring heroines for peace.

How to Win the Nobel Prize in Literature Interest level: AD

Includes bibliographical references and explores the decisions made by the Nobel Prize in Literature committee over the years, and provides quotes from the presentation and acceptance speeches.

With humor, wit, and insight, David Carter sets out a number of fail-safe rules to follow in order to win the Nobel Prize in literature

There are acclaimed writers—James Joyce, Marcel Proust, Tolstoy, Mark Twain—who never won the Nobel Prize, and others, less well known, such as Henryk Sienkiewicz, Paul Heyse, and Romain Rolland, who did. What exactly does one have to do to impress, or be snubbed by, the Nobel Committee? This book is a fascinating survey of the Nobel Prize for literature, constructed as a tongue-in-cheek series of rules. "Be a man" is one of them, and "Make sure your best work has been translated into Swedish" another. Presenting biographical information as well as extracts from their work, David Carter will try to answer a number of questions about the prize, such as What are the outstanding qualities of the winners' works? Were there any unusual circumstances attending the award? and Who else was considered and rejected and why?

The Art of Peace Interest level: YA

Transcript of the Nobel Peace Laureates Conference on Human Rights, Conflict and Reconciliation held at the University of Virginia in 1998. A collection of essays in which Nobel laureates share their views on human rights, war, and peace. The Laureates share their views about the importance of basic human rights, their concerns about conflicts that arise when these rights are denied, and their practical ideas for conceiving reconciliation.

The Nobel Peace Prize: What Nobel Really Wanted Interest level: AD

In this groundbreaking and controversial critique of the selections of Nobel Peace Prize winners, an eminent Norwegian lawyer and peace activist calls for its return to legal and moral compliance with the will of Alfred Nobel who wished to support disarmament to prevent war. Includes bibliographical references and index. Argues that the Nobel Committee does not award the Nobel Peace Prize according to the original intentions of Alfred Nobel, but rather succumbs to political, geopolitical, and commercial pressures.

                                View complete list on Titlewave.com