Librarians in the Middle or, the Richardson Juxtaposition

Okay, so we spend all of this time ingesting and digesting Richardson's advice that we not disregard community created knowledge ("folksonomies," p.90, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms) but instead embrace them as the new reality, a move he directly contrasts with what we did "Back in the old days" when we depended upon librarians to categorize information for us.

Then, like slamming into a brick wall, we encounter Catalog It! and its continuing mantra that one MUST NOT (gasp!) create one's own subject headings but follow strictly those carefully and microscopically created for us by committees of people who spend months debating the relative merits of Seuss, Dr. vs. Geisel, Theodor, vs. Dr. Suess (AACR 1988 ed.). One almost wonders, when the tears of laughter have subsided, whether so many trees needed to die for this significant development to be shared or implemented.

Thank god they do spend some time assuring us that cataloging police do not, in fact, exist. Even this comes with the caveat, however, that if our catalog is online and can be shared (and thus viewed critically by others) well, then, uh - better have your subject headings in order!

From the weekly overview and discussion posts (not to mention the horror in the eyes of my mentor that appears when I murmur "cataloging decision") I gather that earlier versions of this content have been loads more brutal.

Cataloging It!

I approached this first of two weeks dedicated to cataloging with a mixture of excitement (I've always loved cataloging and happily did a lot of what I thought of as cataloging for my mentor librarian), apprehension (did I really know what cataloging was? Did I want to know?), and procrastination (okay, it was a loooong week at work with author visits, greek day, 8th grade research, and summative evaluations due).

Having (belatedly, and against the express (and excellent) advice of my professor, crammed all of the reading into two days, I can honestly say, I love cataloging!!!

Topic specific posts to follow - a warning or an encouragement, depending largely on whether you are one of a select band of oddballs that enjoys this topic or, NOT.

Peeps Update

Courtesy of my learned professor, I want to share this link.

And . . .

Almost forgot. I loved this on ways to help students create a positive digital footprint. Instead of saying, "Don't do this! Don't do that! This will get you in trouble! This will have predators at the door!" - an essentially negative, and bordering on alarmist, approach, instead take a positive approach and teach them how to create a good digital footprint.

Internet Safety: resources

There are so many resources for teaching kids about safe online practices. Many say similar or the same things. I think it's more a question of finding the right way to say these things to your particular populace than what they need to know.

A checklist;
A simple 'ten tips' sheet;
A K - 12 site for teachers, parents and students with lesson plans and activities;
A list of links for teaching internet safety;
A great site for teens with both animated shorts and corresponding interviews with teens;
An FTC/MSLA sponsored site;
A site specific to sexting, including corresponding criminal offenses;
And a nice site containing tips, power points, rules, games and sample pledges for multiple grades.
And in print:
Leu, Donald J., Deborah Leu and Julie Coiro. Teaching with the Internet K-12: New Literacies for New Times, 4th Ed. Christopher-Gordon Publishers. Norwood. 2004.
Richardson, Will. Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Corwin Press. Thousand Oaks. 2009.

My favorite thing about the Richardson is the sample forms for kids and parents. I would rather students take pledges and make promises, knowing the consequences of failure to follow through, than censor them.

Hometown Librarian

How idyllic is this? I live a five minute commute from my job!

When I go to CVS, the market, ANYWHERE, weekday, weekend, I hear, "Hi, Mrs. Lutwak!" No more pajamas at the grocery store for me.

My niece posts on Facebook that she has run into a TEACHER at the airport and it is SO WEIRD and awkward.

Is it a mistake to teach locally? I like that I know moms and kids from K on, but. It can be dicey!

Professional Development for Web 2.0

I detected a measure of dread in all of us this week as we contemplated teaching teachers. Not for lack of things to teach them, or enthusiasm for the content, but for what we had experienced of them as students. Funny.

It seemed clear to me, given my faculty and grade level, to choose the basic tools that could serve across the curriculum and be used again and again, both by teachers and students. Although I included some of the more specialized applications - FlickR, Bubbl.Us, Doodle - in my plan, it was really the basic stuff like a Google account, blogs and wikis that I wanted to get across to them and, hopefully, to their students.

For the presentation itself, I simply made an outline. That's how I teach, and how I argued as an appellate lawyer. I don't want to be squinting at notes or a script when I'm in front of people with limited time, but I don't want to forget the main points, either. An outline always works for me.

As with the students I have taught online applications to so far, I wanted to spend as little time lecturing as possible and as much time as possible having the teachers play with and create the chosen product. In this case, a blog. That way, I would be available to help troubleshoot if they stumbled. I wanted them to walk away with something, and feel like they had mastered something new.

Unlike students, I did feel the need to spend more time up front justifying what they were about to learn. To that end, I frontloaded the presentation with Common Craft video and examples of great teacher/classroom blogs to whet their appetites.