(It’s that time again. I was thinking about how sad I am going to be to say goodbye to this year’s senior class, and decided to update a piece I first shared in my April 2009 VOYA column.) A letter to my seniors Each spring I watch another class leave me for the university and [...]
AASL just announced the launch of its Standards for the 21st-Century Learner Lesson Plan Database, designed to be: a public, online database providing school librarians a fast and user-friendly way to create and share quality lesson plans with their peers. Building on the template provided in Standards for the 21st-Century Learner In Action, the Lesson [...]
Even small academic libraries can be confusing for students. And so, the librarians at the Miller Library at McPherson College developed the super-cool, zombie-rich graphic novel, Library of the Living Dead, as a vehicle for introducing student users to their resources and services. The authors explain their mission, one designed to combat zombie-style research on [...]
My practicum student Jenni Stern and I have been playing with ideas for promoting new and traditional skills we think are important. And we’ve been inspired by my good friend Gwyneth Jones’ Comic Life At-A-Glance tutorial posters. Says Jenni: Gwyneth’s posters guide students and teachers to work creatively. Her design is contemporary and eye catching, in [...]
I am delayed a bit in reporting back on our visit from AASL President Dr. Nancy Everhart on the Pennsylvania leg of her Vision Tour. Springfield Vision Tour from Joyce Valenza on Vimeo. It was a very special honor. I was personally touched by the kind comments from those who spoke and sang and danced [...]
Mike Eisenberg, Dean Emeritus and Professor at the University of Washington iSchool and co-founder of Big6, shares a growing series of video conversations that should provoke both understanding and discussion of topics and issues near and dear to the hearts of teacher librarians, topics and issues that should matter to everyone involved in learning. In [...]
AASL’s Standards for the 21st Century Learner are largely about information and media literacies. What we are about is helping learners understand and create with information and media as they: Inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge. Draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge Share knowledge and participate ethically [...]
Well-respected Indian librarian Shiyali Ranganathan (1892-1972) contributed his Five Laws of Library Science to our profession in 1931. Books are for use Every reader his/her book Every book, its reader Save the time of the reader A library is a growing organism Most of us learned about these as ideologies in library school and they [...]
In his Newsday article last week, Dr. Marc Bernstein, Superintendent for the Valley Stream (NY) Central High School District, suggested Steps to Take Now for our Schools; What Cuomo Can Do to make NYS Education More Efficient and Effective. Among the several steps Dr. Bernstein suggested Governor Cuomo take in this Internet age is, eliminating [...]
Some stuff just seems harder to teach. Some standards seem harder to own. Digital citizenship is a critical element of ISTE’s NETS (standards for students). It is woven throughout AASL’s Standards for the 21st Century Learner. Everyday I live, model, and teach citizenship. But, to be perfectly honest, I haven’t been able to figure out [...]
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