Minor Musings

Summer is a great time to binge watch while digitally organizing/reorganizing/decluttering, isn’t it? So here’s what I’ve bookmarked and saved over the past few months.

Books, Reading, etc.

• B&N’s Teen Readers blog has a great list of their favorite summer reads and NYPL has a list of great YA reads (runs to make sure we have them on our shelves). Meanwhile, Ernie thinks about the white canon our students are asked to read in school.
• From NYPL: a great reading challenge. While I can’t comment on my current reading for the Alex Awards, I can say I’m meeting this challenge! You?
• We’ve been weeding the collection and getting great print and digital replacements. Here are more thoughts on the process from another weeder.

School Life

• Thinking this summer about The Power of Nonneutral Librarianship and my library’s role in our school’s life.
• Asking students to interact with Wikipedia may lead to greater understanding of how it works. Here’s one assignment I’d love to try.
• What skills do students need in the 21st century? IMVHO, they’ve always needed most of these skills, it’s just the tools and pedagogy that changed.

Tech Stuff

• I’ve been a huge RSS user for years and, since the demise of Google Reader, I’ve been using Feedbin (try it!). Here’s how to find/create an RSS feed for any site.
• The more I think about privacy, the more I know that you have to unsubscribe carefully. Here’s one way to protect yourself. And perhaps think about online shopping and privacy.
• The 23Things movement hasn’t slowed. Might be something to update and try again. Use Twitter? Try TwitLamp to see your timeline.

Miscellany

• I’ve been doing a mixture of a bullet journal/general notebook for the past few years, starting a new book every July 1. This post on To Do Lists is making me think about how I’m doing this, both digitally and in print.
• Apropos of the above, the idea of blocking off an entire Friday afternoon to plan makes me miss my days back in the corporate world.

July…

From PhD Comics:

 

Minor Musings

Winter hit.  More accurately, a winter cold hit.  And wouldn’t let go.  But luckily things are back to normal and I’m able to enjoy our Spring Break (two+ weeks in March, unlike public schools nearby that get a week in February and a week in April).  There’s the AISL conference in NOLA later this week and a Faculty Forum when we return – stay tuned for things learned from the amazing people at AISL as well as the library department’s Fake News presentation for my colleagues.  Until then…

Books, Reading, etc.

• Serving on book award committees and keeping an eye on various best selling lists, I’ve always wondered.  Now I know what makes a best seller.
• Food for thought: Angie’s Towards A Less Normative Future in Library Services to Children & Teens
• If you like Litographs, you’ll love these star charts!
• The artwork of these manuscripts is stunning.  Thanks BL for sharing.
• What happens when you read a book?

School Life

• What about creating something similar for your school or community using local archives and oral histories?
• Creative Commons now has an image search!
• Love the “sounds of learning” in your library?  This is food for thought (and a plea for quiet spaces).
• A new way to look at 21st century pedagogy.
• For the visual learners among us: a guide to statistics.
• It’s research season for many of us.  The OUP has some thoughts about using quotations. And LJ lists great “ready reference” websites and apps we should all use.

Tech Stuff

• If you’re a fan of Chrome and use Amazon, check out this extension, which shows whether the book you’re about to pay money for is available for free in your local library!
• Colorized photos from the 1800s?  Definitely changes how you see people and events. (ht: David)
• Note to Self’s Privacy Paradox challenge (and tip sheet). And according to this quiz, I’m a minimalist in terms of social media.  Do you need to unplug?
• FeedFlip from MIT – get out of your Twitter bubble.
• Librarian tested & approved apps. Flippity looks like fun, too.

Miscellany

• In honor of our mid-March storm, an interactive guide to Boston’s museums (for those don’t leave home “field” trips).  Or maybe take this Southern Literary Trip, do a virtual museum tour, go around the world in 80 models, take a tour of where penicillin was discovered or plan to visit some secret libraries.  Best: Honey, I Shrunk Myself (into a prayer bead).
• This course looks interesting.
• These miniatures make me happy.

Minor Musings

I’ve been busy planning for ALAMW and the YMAs – while I usually avoid the crowds, this year I need to be there as part of my Alex Award committee work.  So here’s a little something to think about and explore while I finish the 2017 award work (feel free to get ready for the Big Reveal!).

Books, Reading, etc.

• Tracking Reader Habits?  Luckily,  the majority of mine is print and untrackable.
• Wondering what good books you missed in 2016? The WSJ has a list of the 20 that made their year.
• While 2016 seemed to have a higher than normal number of celebrity deaths, did you know about these literary losses?
• Fiction vs. Nonfiction: does the difference matter? Is there a difference?
• Valentine’s Day is coming – this interactive map of fictional romances in New York City is the perfect to share with students.  Then have them update with local information!

School Life

• Word Births might be a fun winter display (my year produced “cyberculture” – who knew it was that old?)
• From detecting “fake news” (can we stop using that phrase?) to choosing courses, we can all use these Tips to Improve Critical Thinking. Or what about a course in The Fine Art of Sniffing Out Crappy Science?

Tech Stuff

• It’s never too early to have students think about internet privacy and to reconsider how they’re using the web. And in filter bubble news, make sure everyone knows how Facebook Warps Our World.
• Schools have replacement cycles for tech, but upgrades just aren’t great anymore.  Maybe time to rethink? And what about users skill levels?

Minor Musings

Wow.  It’s been a year since I did one of these!  I’ve been squirreling away links and things to share, and using Schoology at work to share them with my team.  Now, here’s some sharing with you…

Books, Reading, etc.

• This is the time of year when I make a list and check it twice: what great books from the previous year slipped under my radar?  Here’s YA Interrobang’s list. And this of “what to read in each of life’s decades“.  And one on Native voices.  Did I miss any of 2015’s great translations? (yes, probably) For Rory Gilmore fans, a list of her past 9 years reads.
• Why the library shouldn’t be all things to all people.
• Important reading for all, especially English teachers: The Reading Rules We Would Never Follow As Adult Readers.  Amen.

School Life

• With “fake news” and “post-truth” being topics of conversation/angst, here’s a great list of ideas and resources. And then there’s this article and Hoaxy. And this graphic:

View post on imgur.com

• Many schools (including mine) spend a lot of time talking about privilege.  That phrasing bothers me, and when I read this in IHE about using “advantage” rather than “privilege” I wondered how we can convince others to change their phrasing.
• What a great idea for a local history project for students (also, helps the community) – linking graves to historical society information.
• Not all information wants to be free.  Something we’re thinking about regarding student work (newspaper, etc.) and our archives.

Tech Stuff

• Some interesting ways to reenvision the to do list.
• If you use your phone for notes (and who doesn’t?) consider Bear.
• Did using computers lower China’s PISA score?  What are the implications for the US?
• It’s the new year.  Perhaps add one of these tech blogs to your feed?
• What do you know about the TOS for your apps and related content?  Probably not enough.
• A great graphic of the ISTE Standards.  Is there one for ACRL and AASL?

Etcetera

• Thought-provoking post about deciding if traveling for PD has a good ROI.  Networking isn’t covered, but should have been.
• This is the second school I’ve worked at that touts the presence of Harkness tables, yet no one has been trained in the method.  I suspect that many schools are in the same position.  So here is one way “to Harkness” (hint: it’s not about the table!!)
• Why streaming music (I may be one of the few who refuses to) is going to harm music creation.

More from the mailbox

Part of reenergizing the program at work has included purchasing the LibGuides platform to create what we’re calling Resource Guides (it’s the Kleenex/tissue issue – who knows if we’ll stay with the same platform, so why confuse students with a brand name?).  This is the third school I’ve used these guides in, and they’re an amazing way to collect resources and guide students to them, as well as teaching them how to do research.  The usual sequence is: teacher approaches us with a topic, we create the guide, we meet with the class, and then we forget about it until the next year or next time the project is done.  So imagine my surprise when I found this in our mailbox the other week:

Here’s a guide I whipped up in a few moments, presented and hadn’t thought about in several months that has had an impact on someone completely unrelated to our school!  I’m… pleased.  Stunned.  Thrilled.

Here’s proof that what we do matters in ways we don’t always anticipate or see. And proof that adhering to our mantra of sharing resources (via ILL, online, etc.) is one that serves us well.

So here’s what puzzles me: why do school libraries keep their resources hidden?  Why aren’t all school libraries easily findable on the school’s homepage?  If you’re using the LibGuides platform, why aren’t your guides public (there are ways to hide database passwords and login information that still make the rest of the guide public)?  It’s such a surprise to me when I look for a friend’s website, attempt to search a catalog or try to see what databases a peer school has and I can’t find more than a publicity page created by the communications people.  It saddens me that all that’s available to the public is a few facts, maybe a photo.  Allowing others to see what’s going on and what you have is such a help to those of us looking to find books on a topic that work for a certain education level (“will this work with our 7th grade?”) or ways to present information for a research project.  And it’s free pr for your school and its program.

We’re considering a third revamp of our website in two years, asking students for input on usability and comparing our page to peer schools and colleges.  Are we using similar language? What’s important to share, and what can be hidden? One thing we know for sure is that links to our Resource Guides, our catalog and our databases will be available (we use EZProxy, so you can’t access our database content without being a member of our community).  We want to share that with anyone looking because we know how important that can be.

And if anyone asks why, that email is response enough.

Is it October already?

My acedia has returned, I think.  Or maybe I’m still exhausted from the summer work.  Or my EBV is acting up.  Whatever.  Anyway, saw this on  Quo Vadis’ Writing Wednesday and decided to use some of it as an opportunity get caught up.

1: What are your goals this month? What actions do you need to take to work your goals?  Trying to stay organized (ok, ok,  get organized), being less aggressive with my Never Ending To Do List, catching up with friends, and keeping on top of both Alex reading and other reading.  The actions are pretty self-explanatory.

2:  What are you excited about in the coming month? We have two long weekends this month!  During the first, I’m heading to a friend’s house and hanging with some friends from high school; during the second, I’m reading reading reading.  Both will be very necessary to accomplishing my month’s goals, beyond being necessary to my mental health.

4: Close your eyes and imagine your ideal ending for this year. What have you accomplished? Where are you? What were the best things you did this year?  This summer’s weeding and rethinking the space and program were probably my biggest accomplishments – it’s a little early to say if they were good, bad or need serious tweeking.  Hiring the right people for our two job openings has been a huge help with rethinking how the library approaches research needs and reaches out to the larger school community.  And personally, getting my life somewhat together in terms of clutter, maintaining friendships and reading for Alex all fall into “best” territory.

6: In the northern hemisphere, days are getting shorter and leaves are turning. What do you love about autumn? Crisp apples… snuggly sweaters… hot cups of tea.

19: Write a list of things that bring you joy: your family, your pet, a favorite book or movie, sitting with a hot beverage in a cozy spot, etc. Look at the list often.  See number six, and add discovering a great new author… casual conversations that lead to really great friendships… cuddling with my cats… helping a student or colleague and getting a heartfelt “thank you”… getting a spontaneous, genuine smile from a someone…

25: What is something new you learned this month? A new skill, new information, a new point of view?  Not sure it’s something new, per se, but the resources my staff and I are sharing fill me with hope regarding changing our practice.  Watching Resource Guides change and grow to better fit student needs has been great, and I love having experienced colleagues to bounce ideas off of and build great projects.

28: List 5 things you’ve been procrastinating. What steps can you take to get these things done?  Tweaking our new OPAC, updating our Resource Guides, creating a better Reader’s Advisory program, organizing our storage room, working in our archives creating finding aids.  What can I do?  Figure out a sensible plan for spending a few hours a week on each of them.

30: What good things happened this month?  Getting our new cafe tables and watching the positive reactions to them.  Despite some concern about the weeding and space reorganization, most students seems to like what we’ve done.

What I did on my summer “vacation”

Wow.  I know I promised to post when life calmed a little – guess what, it didn’t.  While my position is on the teachers schedule, this summer we had a major project going on.  In the space of seven weeks, I and two recent graduates worked hard to weed books, reshelve them in a better order, move furniture and really start the process of creating a 21st century library space:

There’s still much to do, but at least the pace will be a lot slower.   I won’t promise to blog more, because that hasn’t worked in the past, instead I will promise to try to blog more.

More testing thoughts

A couple of weeks ago I was chatting with a friend about my job and recent developments in library land, and the topic of testing arose.  As always, I’ve been very happy to not be working in a public school with all that mandated testing, but we still do see students studying (and taking classes) for AP exams.  Only one school I’ve worked at had a full compliment of AP courses, while the others have had more or less depending on their focus.  Hackley, for example, had gotten rid of the humanities AP classes but still had science and math courses (although that was under discussion); PCS only offered an AP for Calculus, but didn’t classify the course as AP.  My current school has many “honors” and “advanced” classes but nothing called AP (which is a designation that only those who submit a curriculum for approval can use).

I’m of two minds about the AP.  As my British and French friends have repeatedly said, having some sort of national test allows universities to determine the academic readiness of the student.  That’s a fair point: knowing that someone in rural Kansas has the same knowledge as someone at an elite East Coast prep school does help in the admissions process.  But… it bothers me no end that while we’re all too ready to decry Common Core or No Child Left Behind, we’re also all too ready to give millions of dollars to a company (College Board; not-for-profit, but still!) to not only test our students but to approve our curriculum!

Following on that conversation, a colleague told me that he had to submit his curriculum to the College Board but hadn’t quite followed their rules and guidelines.  He’d learned that they’d sent it back unapproved and so, over a long weekend, he’d spent about 30 hours dotting ever i and crossing every t they required… submitted it late Sunday and got approval early Monday.  So clearly “they” didn’t even really look at what he’d done, just made sure that the ‘tasks’ had been completed.  Says quite a lot about the company that also administers all the SATs, doesn’t it?

Over the next week or so students are going to start thinking about their courses for next year.  Some will have to take required classes to meet graduation requirements, most will have some leeway with electives.  The advanced and honors classes will be filled with those who are thinking about taking the AP in April, looking to prove their academic worth to college admissions counselors.

I wish that weren’t the case.  I wish that one company didn’t hold so much power over our students academic careers.  I also wish there were some way we could come to a consensus that would take their power away while still allowing for some sort of level playing ground in terms of education, so all students have an equal chance to prove they know US History or Biology, or whatever.

 

Testing… testing…

This is my fifth school and the fifth iteration of EXAMS.  Each school has done things differently, but somehow the student stress remains.  Even though my own school days are very far behind me, my memories of exams (trisemester or semester) are that there was less stress, less sense of impending doom.

Of course, “everyone” says that students today are overstressed, overscheduled, overwhelmed, etc.  Schools have started to try to ameliorate the scheduling and the stressing, and sometimes that has an affect on testing.  For example, Hackley School decided to do away with finals and moved exams to March.  Reason?  Having midterms in January, so close to Winter Break, meant that students didn’t truly get a break because they knew that those tests were looming.  Having a final in June meant that students took a test and then got it back on “Class Day” and then told, essentially, ciao.  Got an F? Ciao.  Got an A? Also ciao.  No way to celebrate and build on your expertise and no way to recover from a disaster. March, prior to APs, gave students an alternative that meant they could practice for an AP or have a final project that gives them an opportunity to prove themselves in a different way than by taking a test.

That seems sensible and after a year’s worry (OMG!  This is 2/3 of the way through the year?  how will I remember the ‘extra’ information??) students and faculty seem to have a good feeling about all this.

When the test happens aside, I wonder about the why of having a final (or midterm).  Why don’t we just have a regular test in class?  One of the people who works with me teaches Chinese when she’s not in the library (ok, it’s really the other way around but I like to think she’s primarily “mine”) and she’s giving an exam.  But why couldn’t it just be a regular in-class test?  What difference does the extra hour make?  Isn’t language cumulative, so each unit builds on the previous one, which means that if you do a regular test (or one over a two day period to encompass written and oral) you know whether or not the student is learning the material .  Why do you need to give one two hour exam that explores… what?  What more can you ask, beyond simply asking for more?  The same holds true for other subjects, not just languages.  And for subjects that are unit based, why, once you’ve moved on from a unit that you covered in, say, October, do students need to recall the information in January or March if they’re never going to use that information on any other assessments that year?

This week is Exam Week which means the library is filled with students madly trying to cram information in (or back in) before sitting down for two hours to prove their knowledge.  We have students working in groups, in pairs and as solo studiers.  We’ve purchased coloring books and Crayons to create a #nostresszone feel in some places.  Today bags of candy were handed out to give students something to keep them going during their tests.  That hasn’t stopped the stress and as the day wears on it’s worse as they finish one  and anticipate the next.

I get having students write essays to showcase their immediate writing skills (as opposed to the edited and thoughtfully considered essays they’ve handing in as homework).  I get quizzes and tests.  But the need for one exam?  or two? that totally disrupts the flow of school and adds so much stress to the system?  No matter when we hold them, it seems odd.  We’re talking a lot about teaching the essentials and about changing how we teach. Maybe a good start would be to change how we test.