Mass. School Library Association Annual Conference

I had the great opportunity this past Monday to attend the annual Mass. School Library Assoc. conference, a wonderful professional development venue for school librarians. It is always inspiring to network with colleagues. The day is packed with a multitude of workshops I loved hearing about hot new young adult books, and have already ordered a number of them for the middle school library. I heard about how Cushing Academy is organizing information now that the library has drastically reduced their print collection. Last year, I was concerned about the library nearly eliminating all print resources; despite my lingering misgivings, I am impressed with their vision about how to organize online information. I feel validated, having worked on the MS library web page for the past year and a half with Svetlana; we are moving in a similar direction in terms of information organization. We are striving to create a library web site that serves as a portal for information access, both print and electronic. Later in the afternoon, my imagination went to town as I listened to the librarian and info. tech. specialist from Pentucket High School describe their "Digital Literacy Challenge" program. Every two weeks, they present their school community with a challenge that requires use of a digital tool or resource, like visiting delicious, exploring the wonder wheel feature of advanced google search, using the online library catalog to find relevant resources for a research project, and more. I'm thinking about how to integrate this sort of challenge into the middle school. I am always grateful for a chance to learn new things and find ways to use them here at BB & N!
Beth Brooks, MS Library Director and All School Library Coordinator

ATS Picks 9/30/10

1) Adora Svitak- What Adults Can Learn From Kids.

A prolific short story writer and blogger since age seven, Adora Svitak (now 12) speaks around the United States to adults and children as an advocate for literacy. She was a BLC 2010 presenter. She says the world needs "childish" thinking: bold ideas, wild creativity and especially optimism. Kids' big dreams deserve high expectations, she says, starting with grownups' willingness to learn from children as much as to teach. Also check out her blog.

2) Fun for the Brain

The Fun for the Brain site has engaging games that help elementary students review math facts. A favorite is "Gone Bananas", a Mario Brothers style game.

3) Discovery Education's PuzzleMaker
Puzzlemaker is a puzzle generation tool for teachers, students and parents. Create and print customized word search, criss-cross, math puzzles, and more—using your own word lists.

4) 4Teachers.org
The 4Teachers site has: RubiStar for creating rubrics, NoteStar for note-taking, QuizStar for creating quizzes, etc. Use of the website and its family of education tools is free, but one does have to register, provide valid email address and zip code.

8th Grade Science Fair Research

The librarian introduced eight graders to the Science Fair Resources posted on the library web page. Students evaluated two bogus websites and learned some search strategies. They explored search engines (advanced google and sweet search) as well as electronic databases and educator-approved websites accessed through the library online catalog.