25
October
2008
The Michigan caucus of the national media literacy organization AMLA, now called NAMLE , met at Wayne State University in May. Presenters focused on virtual learning, film production, Web 2.0, internet safety, broadcast media, and a school with an actual media literacy curriculum K-12. The bottom line of all of this was SOMEBODY needs to be talking with educators and students about the pervasive media and helping them sort through the mess for learning and living.
Months later I presented a media-literacy-oelma-2008-ppt presentation at the annual OELMA conference. Although most folks seem warmed to the idea of “doing” media literacy, I think we still have a long way to go. Follow some of the links in the Powerpoint and get more information and share any comments here about successes (or frustrations) with teaching or researching media literacy issues.
Posted under elementary, libraries, Media, media literacy, school libraries Tags: libraries, media literacy, OELMA
5
February
2008
Wiki and Moodle eTech 2008 OK, after Day 2 of the overwhelming eTech conference in Columbus, I am feeling thick and full in every meaning of these chubby words. Thick, as in the expression, “in the thick of it.” Here we are, we techie types, self-congratulating and also soaking in hundreds of new ideas in mere minutes of listening to each other. Exhilarating and exhausting. Thick, as in kinda stupid & dense, because Ray Kurzweil is the very smartest person with whom I’ve ever shared space. Are we preparing today’s students only as vessels for knowledge which will be someday (soon!) simply implanted into their brains? What do they REALLY need to know, then? Isn’t knowing the state capitals completely meaningless now? Ditto with cell wall anatomy and genders of German nouns? So let’s teach them compassion and information literacy and let them access and use information as they need it — teaching content is meaningless. Thick also from sitting in a Grove City motel room eating Bob Evans mashed potatoes, but that’s a personal aside, huh? When I start looking for deep technological and philosophical meaning in Bob’s mashed potatoes, I’m thinking that’s a sign of fullness beyond capacity. PPT file for my session is here at the start of this entry. Please comment if you’re not too full. Happy Fat Tuesday y’all.
Posted under web 2.0, website evaluation Tags: , informationliteracy, RayKurzweil, technologyliteracy
5
December
2007
Matt and I presented this topic (see Powerpoint slides) at the SOITA conference this Tuesday. A great gathering of educators (teachers, tech folks & librarians) pondered the need for perpetual skepticism in today’s new media onslaught. Read Matt’s blog about his reaction to The Cult of the Amateur by Andrew Keen. If anyone who attended our session is reading this, please post a comment about web 2.0, media literacy, and/or blogs in particular. I am feeling especially green after listening to seriously tech savvy colleagues and would love your feedback and suggestions.
Posted under elementary, libraries, media literacy, web 2.0
5
November
2007
Notice there has been very little said here about reading. Managing internet research mistakes and misconceptions (a.k.a. just plain bad research) dominates my time with the elementary students and teachers. Here’s the document I created in an attempt to squelch bad research before it begins. Ms. Fultz’s Research Rules Next post is gonna be about books, by god. Shall we talk Hugo Cabret or Love, Stargirl??
Posted under elementary, Google, libraries, reading, school libraries
27
October
2007
See pic of proud Matt and Me and Dad and Mom I recently received my state association’s (OELMA) Librarian of the Year award. The experience was very emotional for many reasons, but the pure untainted pleasure was the opportunity to sincerely thank the people who impacted my career. The following appeared in the Awards Luncheon program:
My thanks to Christine Findlay, Donna Dietrich, Melanie Myers, Tish Wilson, Marjorie Pappas, Mary Kay Biagini and Lura Peterman for introducing me to the perfect fit of librarianship and education. These women inspired me through example and by periodically kicking my butt. It is my mother, though, who deserves majority credit for showing me how curiosity and reading enhances life — so much so that I have become nearly religiously devoted to helping other people with their intellectual pursuits and reading pleasures. Humblest gratitude also to the Weller community — my teachers, administration, students, and families. These are the minds and hearts and souls I work to support, educate, and inspire, and they define (or deny) my success as their librarian.
Although I am constantly railing against our block schedule (here is where Chris Findlay often needs to punt me along…), I do my darndest within its confines to meet the needs of my staff and students. And so this award stands as possible proof that a successful library program can (as Doug Johnson passionately asserts) be realized when every student walks into their library every week. Most of all, though, I hope my winning this award can scream and shout that credentialed elementary school librarians are needed as the norm around our state rather than as the exception.
I’m certain there are media specialists out there who deserve this award much more than me. So many of us run in 5th gear all day and work long hours beyond the school day to attempt to serve all the students and educators and families who need us. It is gratifying to be acknowledged as one of this devoted tribe.
Posted under elementary, libraries, school libraries
8
October
2007
I love analogies, to the point of being a bit goofy about over-illustrated, sometimes far-fetched comparisons. My fifth graders and I are having our usual battle between using online resources and Google searches right now. While in class with me, they will obediently listen and complete assignments which prove the value of pre-selected websites and online databases. They promptly return to their classrooms and their homes where they Google like fiends, as if they knew no better. Sigh.
So I come up with analogies trying desperately to make them see the error of their ways. My first analogy was: obtaining all your research from Google is like always going to a garage sale for Cheerios and socks. Eeeuuuwww, the kids all say. Where do you go for Cheerios and socks, then? They all easily name specific stores. My goal then, I tell them, is for you to be able to list online resources like that. Need science? Go to Grolier’s New Book of Popular Science! Need biography? American National Biography! We have this fabulous discussion in library class. One hour later, I am delivering a repaired book to a fifth grade classroom and what do a see? Google-fest at the computers in the back of the room. I told them I’m quitting.
But of course, I didn’t (yet), and I found new determination to convince them of Google’s questionable value to 10 and 11 year old researchers. New analogy: homemade cookies and website evaluation. When the students walked in the library, they faced the question, “What questions should you ask someone who is offering you free cookies?”
They rattled off quickly and brilliantly,
“What’s in them?”
“Why are you offering them to me?”
“Who are you?”
“Is there something BAD in the cookies? Maybe someone else should test them first.”
“It depends on the situation — how familiar am I with the person offering?”
“How do I know if I can trust them?”
“Where and when were they baked?”
AHA! Those websites you find on Google are mysterious free cookies! HOW can you go on eating them without asking these exact same questions!
Actual cookies appeared. They started questioning. When were they baked? This morning. From whose kitchen? Mine. That was enough — they clamored for them because, as they said, they trust me. Just like that.
If they trust me so much, they should stop their Google habit and listen to the wisdom of their cookie-baking librarian!!
The battle continues…
Posted under elementary, Google, libraries, school libraries, website evaluation
21
September
2007
One of my son’s friends told me today his teacher reported that their upcoming field trip messed up the precise lesson schedule she set this summer. Wow. I cannot imagine making definitive plans in the summer for the 4th or 5th week of school. Too many spontaneous things happen in the individual classrooms and in the world for this approach in library-teaching. Current trends, events, and obvious needs must be immediately addressed to make learning relevant to the students. This approach can create situations of panic and/or exhaustion with intense 11th hour lesson-planning, but I feel it’s the only way to remain fresh and flexible. So, when I finally set pencil to planbook for Sept. library classes, I thought about the omnipresence of pirates recently in the media and in children’s literature. Library map-making is a successful orientation lesson I’ve done in the past. So I added the pirate twist — the students needed to think about their library treasure — the part of their IMC that they were most looking forward to at school’s beginning. With a lot of help from my dad and his blowtorch, Maps101, a handy pirate map website, plus the donation of 100+ “maps” from our art teacher, Weller’s 4th graders did a fantastic job making colorful and navigable maps of their library, complete with treasure.
Posted under elementary, libraries, maps, school libraries
5
September
2007
My third graders will soon enjoy absorbing and debating the philosophies displayed on The Rights of the Reader poster available from Walker Books.As I prepare this lesson, I have to take a hard look at some of my library policies. Our elementary school library includes some titles I have determined 4th/5th or 5th grade only. This distinction was made originally because 1st graders (and sometimes 2nd graders) found it way cool to stroll around school hefting Eragon or Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as a badge of honor with no intention or ability to read these titles. So to separate the men from the boys, so to speak, I used our Follett system’s ability to add a circulation note, “4th/5th only,” to pause this practice and have a conversation with students attempting to check out above their head. Fast forward to 2007 — we no longer have first graders in our building, but my passion for YA books and my ability to distinguish titles as 5th grade only has expanded our exclusive intermediate collection quite a bit. The Rights of the Reader includes a rule I agree with on principle — the right to read anything. I know a couple of third graders who will gleefully call me on this one: “But Ms. Fultz, what about those 5th grade only books?!” After much debate with colleagues and parents, I came up with a solution: a letter to families alerting them to their child’s interest in something a bit more sophisticated. Trying for the best of all worlds. Time will tell.(Student name) is interested in checking out (title), a book that has been determined 4th/5th only in our Weller IMC collection. A small number of books in our library have been given this designation based on their content and/or reading level.Knowing that each reader is unique, I am asking that you discuss the interest in this title with your child, and let me know if you’d like him/her to have the opportunity to check out this book.
Posted under elementary, libraries, Malfoy, Management, reading, school libraries
27
August
2007
And so it is First Day Eve and after nine years of being a teacher-librarian, I still have a tremendous amount of stage fright and certainty that I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing. My general aims this year are, as always, to encourage reading, to support teachers, and to promote libraries (whether school or public) as THE best places to be. When schedules and office politics and misbehavior and equipment woes overwhelm me, I try to go back to these basics. Did a student trust me for good reader’s advisory today? Did I arm a teacher with a good resource? Did a student have a good library experience today? If I can answer yes to these then I have to give myself a break for not getting a digital camera’s batteries charged. Is this rationalizing or the backbone to a successful library program?
Posted under elementary, libraries, Management, school libraries
20
August
2007
It’s time for this librarian to get blogging. Expect to see thoughtbits about media literacy; hot current titles for children, tweens, teens, and educators; some historical perspectives about children’s literature (aka retro and classic reads); and raves and rants about running a hopping elementary library in the midwest. The title should kinda make sense now — I was trying to be too comprehensive, as usual.
Posted under libraries
