Sherry Gick: Connected Educators

Sherry has been an intermediate-school librarian for five years. In her post on 9/30/13 she relates her story of finding links to the library world. For the first two years of her librarian job she relied on list servs to guide her. Then she found Twitter --she cites this link as her inspiration in 2010.
    http://www.edudemic.com/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-connected-educator/      

A worthwhile read for school librarians knowing they have to reach out to a larger virtual network for their professional learning. This blog entry of Sherry's and her reference to the link above will give you some guidance.                                           

Cathy Jo Nelson: Book Clubs

Librarians always want to work in a book club or two in their year. Lunch time is when most of our students are available, but it's also a socializing period with peers. Librarians seeking to hold a book club during lunch period have to offer something pretty enticing. Cathy Jo discusses in a recent post the channels she traveled to find the best way to hold lunch-time book clubs. She learned it was to plan one or two lunches in the semester that she could coordinate with her admin/cafeteria manager to be 'catered'. She set the dates and advertised early among students, required 'reservations' and students signed on early to attend--spend their lunch hour discussing the book while lunching on pizza or deli sandwiches/chips.

No need to reinvent the wheel on book clubs; I'm following Nelson's thoughts. Let's make book clubs alluring--advertise to students the title, where they can get the book, and they will reserve a place at the catered luncheon for book discussion.

http://blog.cathyjonelson.com/  (Dec. 16/13)

Sherri Gick, co-anchor on TL Virtual Cafe

Every 3rd Monday of the month is the night for teacher-librarians to tune in to what's going on in the library world across our nation.  Sherri is one of the virtual anchors on this news program format: TL News Night.

This month's airing featured Beth Ann Miller, spokesperson for the Georgia Library Media Association. She addressed the recent state law which has allowed school districts to choose a model of operation for funding. One option of districts is the status quo (which some commentators feared would eliminate the school librarian position). Another innovative approach adopted by some school districts is one in which school librarians become the Media Education and Technology Instructors, subsuming a position that might have been previously held by an educational technologist.

I've always envisioned the role of the librarian as a Media Education and Technology Specialist, and wonder how that would affect my district's operations/funding if the more innovative approach in Georgia were adopted in my school district. 

Every month a different state's library media spokesperson presents a topic that is generating thought and concern among teacher-librarians in their state and selected teacher librarians from across the country weigh in with responses. Viewers are able to comment via  #TLCHAT

TL Virtual Cafe is booked with featured speakers through September, 2014. I'm looking forward to watching March's airing--Shannon Thompson talking about 3D printers in the library.

Cathy Jo Nelson: The Other 21st Century Skills

Cathy Jo posted this cool infographic, "The Other 21st Century Skills" created by Jackie Gerstein, Ed.D. and first posted on Jackie's blog:   http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com.

It's undeniable that everything this visual depicts is a valuable part of the students' learning experience. It's also imperative that schools work as communities, joining the educational efforts of teachers, librarians, counselors, etc. in order to address these skills. Teacher-librarians can collaborate with classroom teachers to reinforce and expand the students' learning experiences, primarily in 'Collaboration across Networks, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving, and Curiosity and Imagination.' Teacher-librarians, with knowledge of web tools and other media supports, can provide a bridge for learners to explore and expand these skills outside of the classroom.

Cathy Jo Nelson: Professional Thoughts

Cathy Jo Nelson is a South Carolina library media specialist and maintains the blog Cathy Jo Nelson’s Professional Thoughts. The reason I’m including her in my PLN is that her posts are timely and practical for school librarians—they address formulating professional development for staff, newest applications for technology in the schools, and updates on conferences and recently published children’s literature. Moreover, she updates her blog regularly (usually two times a week) and so far every post has held great interest for me as a future elementary or intermediate school librarian. http://blog.cathyjonelson.com/
     One of her posts today included this entertaining video from 2009 as youth literature award winners were being notified. I'll be visiting her blog tomorrow to link to the live podcast of  the 2014 youth literature awards announcements from Philadelphia.

Sherry Gick: The Library Fanatic

I am also following Sherri Gick a.k.a Library Fanatic. She is an intermediate and high school librarian in Rossville, Indiana. She collaborated with Matthew Winner to present ‘Earth Pals’ in spring of 2013; Genius Con, their newest project, is in the planning for spring 2014. Matthew is the analyst of this duo in future and planning; Gick is the reflective partner. Her posts are geared towards librarians, asking them to contemplate and personalize ideas to fit their own library. She posts regularly (twice in 2014) and her website provides great links. Absolutely check out Gick’s 11 questions about libraries that need answers and consider her challenge to school librarians (posted Jan. 14, 2013)  http://www.thelibraryfanatic.com/