By ReLeah Cossett Lent, Author of the ASCD published title “Overcoming Textbook Fatigue”
Textbook fatigue [tekst-book fug-teeg], noun.
Read moreGuest Blog: Overcoming Textbook Fatigue through Text Sets
By Dan Alpert, Program Director: Equity/Diversity and Professional Learning, SAGE Publications
Each year, scathing critiques of public education flood our newspapers and social media. It may be an old story, but public school K-12 educators are at a critical point in time this school year. We are deep into the massive project of implementing rigorous new standards for college and career readiness. Despite the passage of 60 years since Brown v. Board of Education, 50 years since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and despite significant shifts in our nation’s demographics, we’ve made little progress closing sizable achievement gaps between our privileged and marginalized student populations. And the inauguration of new high-stakes assessments, the brainchildren of two interstate consortia – PARCC and Smarter Balanced — will undoubtedly launch a fresh, new wave of dire predictions.
Read moreTo Change the Way Students Learn, We Must Change Professional Development
By Lauren Newman, Library, Media, and Technology Specialist, Northern Burlington County Regional Middle School
Google is amazing, isn’t it? What did we do before its cultural proliferation? As a veteran middle school media specialist, I accept that none of my students remember a world without Google because they were not alive to experience it. However, I also know that Google can’t always satisfy one’s needs. I understand how much more information is out there that is inaccessible to Google. I have been trained on databases and the “invisible web.” I value what else I can find from authoritative, reputable sources. My students, well, they’re a different story.
Read moreGuest Blog: How to Sell Students on the Benefits of Databases
By Kathleen Roy, Library Media Center Director, Cretin-Derham Hall High School, St. Paul, MN
Why are we teachers first? Why not school librarians who do it all? Managers-teachers-procurers-developers-organizers-programmers-etc., etc., etc….
Read moreGuest Blog: School Librarians: Teachers First, Everything Else Second!
By Judy Galens
What does autumn bring? For many, the season means visits to cider mills, the return of jacket weather, and spectacular treetop displays of red, orange, and yellow. For sports fans, it’s weekend afternoons of football and evenings of post-season baseball. For all of us, in even-numbered years at least, the fall season also means the peak of political campaign season: a seemingly endless supply of junk mail, the intrusion of dinnertime robo-calls, and inescapable television and radio campaign ads.
Klaudia Janek, IB Teacher-Librarian, International Academy, Bloomfield Hills, MI
Working in an International Baccalaureate (IB) school, as a school librarian, presents the opportunity to focus on a more global perspective and to have set expectations when it comes to research and information literacy.
Read moreGuest Blog: A school library within a global community
By Naomi Bates, Teacher Librarian, Northwest High School, Justin, TX
In today’s world of academics and reading, libraries are integrating with new technologies through 21st century tools. This trend can be seen not only through eBooks and databases, but also through the unique personality a library can create through publicity and online branding. Savvy librarians are ensuring their virtual presence through curation sites, online posters, infographics, and social media, most of which are free resources.
Read moreGuest Blog: Making Digital Connections with Patrons