The OLD Top Shelf

AASL eAcademy – Online Learning for School Librarians

AASL has entered into a cooperative arrangement with the University of North Texas (UNT) project LE@D to offer online professional development to school library media specialists. These professional development opportunities are offered as either self-paced or facilitated programs.

Registration for Winter courses is now open! Register today! This would be a great way to obtain the hours you need for certificate renewal.

For course listings and registration, please see:

http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aasleducation/onlinecontinuing/courses/courses.cfm

AASL Offers Its First Digital Institute

AASL has launched its first ever Digital Institute.

Available as part of the AASL e-Academy online offerings, the “Minding Your Students’ Future” institute offers a rich continuing education experience through multiple media, including podcasts, vodcasts, and video.

Focusing on the future of learning in school library media programs, the institute pulls together a variety of sessions captured during the AASL 13th National Conference & Exhibition in Reno, Nevada, October 25-28. It includes a session on the “Standards for the 21st-Century Learner,”

AASL’s newly released learning standards. Other topics explored in the digital sessions include teaching information literacy, research, podcasting, book challenges, and more.

Check out the clips of the Opening General Session with Dan Pink and register for the Digital Institute at:

http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aasleducation/onlinecontinuing/institute/institute.cfm

AASL National Conference Video

In this snapshot from the American Association of School Librarians 13th National Conference in Reno, Nevada, keynote speaker Dan Pink talks about his subversive high school librarian, keynote speaker Omar Wasow discusses how school libraries can compete in the age of Google, AASL President Sara Kelly Johns talks about the new AASL standards, and we are introduced to a project called “Sheet Happens.”

Teens Pick Books with Bite @ Your Library

More than 1,000 teens across the United States chose Books with Bite @ your library as the 2008 Teen Read Week theme, announced the Young Adult Library Services Association.

The theme was chosen in an online vote at www.ala.org/teenread during Teen Read Week 2007.

For the news release, please see:

http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2007/november2007/bite07.htm

The AASL Conference was held last week in Reno, Nevada. For those of us who were not able to attend, they have kindly posted the presenters’ handouts online for us. A quick scan shows that there were some GREAT sessions on reading, collaboration, and several on Web 2.0!

Going down Virginia St., Reno

Originally uploaded by Tenunda.

Presenter: Nancy Kubasek, Richardson High School, Richardson ISD

Nancy does several staff development sessions and she offered us a taste of two of them.

Booktalking

All of us need a pleasurable experience with reading every day. Kids will give us 3 opportunities to recommend a book to them. After three failures, their trust is broken.

Paper bag project – Librarian booktalks several books; students read them, then put items in a paper bag that represent their books and give their own presentation; Librarian comes to the classroom to listen to their booktalks

Don’t talk about books you don’t like personally. Talk about books that suck you in and won’t let you go.
Examples:

The Red Thread by Roderick Townley

Runner by Carl Deuker

Desert Crossing by Elise Broach

The Silent Room by Walter Sorrels

Classic/Contemporary Connections

Nancy’s English teachers were sick of reading research papers, so they came up with a way to spice up the typical literary research paper by pairing classic and contemporary literature for a comparison. Contemporary fiction answers the question “who am I?” Pairing it with a classic piece helps students to make that connection between themselves and the classic work. Students don’t look for differences, but similarities instead.
Process:
Students come to the library to get the books they are to read. After doing the reading, they return to the library for literary research on the classic they have read. The next library visit is for literary research on their contemporary book.

What would classic would you pair with these titles?
The Raging Quiet by Sherry Jordan

The Crucible?

Truesight
by David Stahler

Farenheit 451? Brave New World?

These are just two example of pairs. The key to the success of this project is booktalking the contemporary fiction.

If either of these is of interest to you as a librarian, please post a comment.

If you need CPE credits to renew your library certification, you might consider one or both of these courses…

The Texas State Library is pleased to announce the availability of two online courses for school librarians and school library staff: “Creating Compelling Programming in Your School Library” and “Creating and Maintaining an Engaging School Library Website.”

Both courses are eligible for 1.5 hours of SBEC credit. The self-paced courses typically take one to two hours to complete and are delivered in the WebCT online course environment.

The courses were developed for the continuing education of school library staff by subject matter experts hired by the University of North Texas School of Library and Information Sciences, as a part of the University of North Texas’ Library Education at Desktop program.

At this time, the Texas State Library has purchased 250 seats in each course. The courses are available free of charge on a first-come, first-served basis.

HURRY! Licenses are limited and registration is now open! To learn more and/or to register, please visit: www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/workshops/online/lead/index.html.

This year’s conference will feature author Isabel Allende; “Unshelved” library comic strip creators Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum; demographer Steve Murdock; learning specialist Stephen Krashen; “The Shifted Librarian” Jenny Levine and Internet pioneer Michael Stephens; partnership expert Gary Hartzell; OCLC’s George Needham; Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson; Internet specialist Hal Davidson; technology guru Aaron Schmidt; technology researcher Marshall Breeding; and information literacy expert Randy Hensley.

Some Highlights

Start practicing now for the second annual book cart drill team competition, which will be held Thursday, April 12 from 5 pm to 6 pm. You can show your friends just what all can be done with a little music, some choreography, and a book cart. Or, if you just want to cheer on your favorite team, plan on attending this rousing event which completely dispels the notion that book carts are only for books! The winning team will be invited to compete nationally at ALA 2007. Team preregistration is required.

Portrait in Sepia is the selection for this year’s One Book One Conference. Join in a discussion of general session speaker Isabel Allende’s epic story that explores the lives, loves, struggles, and secrets of a family in 19th century revolutionary Chile. Read the book and come ready to participate in the third TLA One Book One Conference event.Coleen Grissom of Trinity University (San Antonio) will lead the discussion.

The Spring/Summer 2007 Region 10 Instructional Technology Professional
Development calendar is now available online at:
http://www.region10.org/InstructionalTechnology/professionaldevelopment/
and as an attached pdf file.

For the latest course updates or to register for any of these courses,
go to
http://www.region10.org/InstructionalTechnology/professionaldevelopment/
and click on the title of the desired course. This will take you to the
correct Calendar of Events registration page.

Announcing! 6 New Online Courses for School Librarians

Self-paced–one month to finish a 2-hour course
Offered by the University of North Texas through Library Education @ Desktop – LE@D
Partially funded by grant from IMLS

Creating and Maintaining an Engaging School Library Website
A basic introduction to designing a web page for your school library

Creating Compelling Programming in Your School Library
Programming in the school environment, and provideing support for programs that meet the needs and goals of the school library

Copyright Issues in the Classroom and School Library
Be able to better understand what you read regarding copyright and make decisions that are based on solid baseline information, not rumor or possibly erroneous “common knowledge.”

Trends in Children’s Literature
A brief review of the basics of children’s literature, which includes examining contemporary books and trends for students in kindergarten through fifth grade Emphasis is on books published since 2000 and keeping current with new titles.

Multicultural Literature for Children and Young Adults
Introduces readers to books that have the power to introduce experiences, reinforce an understanding of a complex society, develop empathy, and provide shared experiences among diverse groups.

Reaching Reluctant Readers
Be able to recognize reluctant readers and design programs to engage and encourage them.

Register online now at LE@D – www.leadonline.info

Only $19.95 each

Each tutorial is approved for 1.5 continuing education credits by the Texas State Board of Education.

Thanks go to Region 10 and the Regional Consotium for Innovation Board for renewing the subscription to the High School Library Connection. This service provides the Thomson-Gale databases to Mesquite high schools for the 06-07 school year at no cost to us!

Region 10 is offering morning and afternoon training sessions on November 6, 2006 and January 18, 2007. Register online

Also available is a full day session, Teaching to the High School TEKS with Gale Databases on November 17, 2006 and January 22, 2007. Register online

We will be meeting next week to discuss chapters 1-4 of Classroom Instruction That Works by Robert Marzano. The discussions will be held from 2:30-3:30pm at the PDC, Room 213. There are three discussion opportunities, October 3, 4, or 5. If you aren’t sure which session you signed up for, or need to make a change, please contact Library Services.

As you read, make a list of ways that you could incorporate these instructional strategies into your library lessons.