Thing 32: Annual Reports – Make Them Matter & Report More Often!

I realize that I am doing an extra post, and think I may even do Thing 50 on the new AASL standards.  I really can't stop and I can't thank Polly enough for energizing me!  There are so many of these topics that I find could have such an impact on my learning and teaching.  I am hoping we will have access to the google classroom, links and materials even after this project has ended.  There are so many more I would like to explore!  So, I am squeezing Thing 32 (and maybe Thing 50) before I do my final reflection blog to conclude the class.

Thing 32: Annual Reports – Make Them Matter & Report More Often!
I traditionally do a monthly report that I give to my principal, and have done so since starting as a librarian 20+ years ago.  I also do a more cumulative  annual report for not only my principal, but for our superintendent and assistant superintendent for secondary education as well.  My reports includes some statistics (circulation, scheduled class visits, attendance, collection development etc...) and an anecdotal summary of the month (or year).  I try to keep it to the highlights and make it fun and interesting. I talk about collaborations, successes (and failures), special projects or programs, and try to include any fun or humorous stories...and when working with high school students, these abound!  I have always done this in Word format with a table for stats.  Boring!  I always thought I should try to find a way to jazz things up...but did not have the time to explore all the options out there...enter Thing 32! 

Once again, I immersed myself in this "Thing" and explored the links, video, articles and samples. The samples in particular inspired me.  And, I did end up exploring parts of Thing 18- Infographics and Data Visualization.  I was especially intrigued with David McCandles TED talk, and loved the quote, "Information is Beautiful" from McCandles.  If only I could make my information beautiful!  I would settle for less boring!

It was easy to feel overwhelmed with all the options out there for jazzing up a report.  I decided to pick one, jump in and just try it.  I decided on giving Piktochart a try for my March monthly report.  I am including a link to it.  I have to say two things...I liked it but I was frustrated with not being able to include more of the anecdotal information.

I looked back at the sample reports provided in Thing 32, from Jennifer LaGarde.  I spend a lot of time checking these out and realized I like the combination format...those reports that included colorful charts and grafts for the data, but still left room for text.  I saw some in formats that I liked, but they were uploaded as PDFs so I am not sure which product(s) the authors used to create these.  I may reach out to the various creators for more details.  So, I would say my foray into jazzing up my reports was enlightening, but I think I still have a good amount of work ahead of me.

However, I can say that this exercise has confirmed for me the importance of reporting what we do on a regular basis.  Our administrators and other stakeholders need to know what we do and we need to demonstrate to them the value of our roles in our schools.  I now realize that other formats could work  for me (videos,  pictures, infographics).

March Monthly Report using Piktochart

https://create.piktochart.com/output/29608440-monthly-report-march-2018Open on Web

Thing 21: News Literacy

Where to begin?!  This was another timely topic and it worked well with the session I did on Search Tools, but, warning,  it was vast.  I spent hours delving into the amazing wealth of information provided.  I selected this topic because, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I am often found on my soap box, expounding on the responsibilities of being a member of a democratic society.  We talk about this as we do a lesson on evaluating the internet...but to me, news literacy is the next step in this lesson, and as members of a democratic society it is our responsibility to make sure that where we get our information from reliable sources...I know, blah, blah, blah!  So...since the 2016 election I have been exploring the idea of an online news literacy lesson for students to work through.  I have visions of this being a school-wide expectation and that all students will be held accountable for working through the steps of the lesson...on their own.  I do not want to take class time to do this, but think they should receive a  grade for either English or social studies.  (Now that I have articulated this in writing, it seems I will have to follow through!).  Next year our building will be going 1:1 with laptops so this might be the year to do it. Stay tuned...

But in the more immediate future, I am conducting a professional development session on an upcoming Superintendent's Conference Day related to databases and other library tools.  I am sure some of the information I learned in this lesson will make its way into that session.

There was a wealth of valuable resources in this "thing."  Starting with Joyce Valencia's article.  This was the one label..."if you read nothing else...read this."  And, indeed it was chocked full of resources.  I especially liked the Stanford History Education Group's document titles, "Evaluating Information: The Cornerstone of Civic Online Reasoning."  Not only was this important for the overview and big picture regarding the state of online reasoning, but it also contained excellent activities and lessons geared towards various grade levels related to online reasoning.  What I think I liked best is that they also provided you with a rubric and sample responses at various levels- mastery, emerging and beginning.  This was extremely helpful.  I am planning to use parts of this for sure as I plan for my "online class."

As I worked my way through the Readings/Resources, Lessons and Tools, I found myself stopping to email various co-workers with sites/links I thought they might find helpful as well.  I loved the link to the article titled, "Facticious"  which offered the top 10 sites to help students check facts. This was from ISTE...great stuff.  And I could not wait to send my ELA and ESL departments the links to Rewordify and Readable.io.  I thought Rewordify would be extremely helpful to our many struggling readers, especially those learning English as a second language. There were a couple of articles that stressed the importance of digging and reading multiple sources. 

Truthfully, the thing I think I will struggle with the most as I move forward, is assimilating all this great information.  I would love to meet/talk with anyone else who might be interested in creating the type of assessment discussed above.  Suggestions/Comments welcome. 


 

Thing 13: Screencasting and Screen Sharing

I chose Thing 13 as one of my options because I have been exploring this as a way to flip my classroom.  I started this year with the things I have to repeat over and over...it never gets old to explain that the information for citing a book source is on the title page.  So, I experimented with Office Mix, a product/add on to Microsoft Power Point, as a way to do this.  It was okay...a bit cumbersome to use.  But I created several videos particularly related to citing various types of sources.  However, when I saw "Thing 13" I knew this would have to be one of my picks.  I read a few of the articles (more on this later) and explored all the tools in the lesson but ended up using Screen Cast-O-Matic. It was easy to download and easy to use!  I struggled just a bit with the editing feature- I found it hard to zero in on the point I wanted to stop and start recording over.  At one point I just deleted and started from scratch.  I also appreciated the tips- keep it short (mine is 6 minutes, which is probably way too long) and to not worry if it's not perfect!  I decided to created a video to explain the basics of how to start a literary research paper (we do a lot of these!), focusing on database sources.  I thought I would link the video to our library home page for students that missed instruction, or who might need a refresher. 

Regarding the articles...I also found the articles very helpful.  I know all the reasons why I should be using screencasting, but one of the articles talked about why and how students could be using  it!  This is a level that I did not consider...way at the top of Bloom's!  So, given the ease of using these tools, Screen Cast-O-Matic in particular, I am going to explore ways to have students create screencasts!

Literary Research Tutorial

Thing 9: Search Tools Ninja

As I stated in my first blog post I was feeling a bit overwhelmed as the year started, but now that I am getting into the groove, I am overwhelmed, but it a different way!  I am like a kid in a candy shop, which "Thing" to do next?  How do I  choose?  I settled on Search Tools Ninja as my second post because I always feel as if I am a fraud when it comes to internet searching.  Is there some magic tool out there I am missing?  Am I teaching my students the right way to search?  Am I teaching them all that I can?  And let's not even talk about evaluating sources!  So...Thing 9 to the rescue.  I spent hours going through all these tools!  Yikes.

As part of our freshmen research project we do a unit on internet evaluation.  I realize now, that this is good, but it doesn't go far enough.  We need to include a section on internet searching...and maybe we start with some basic power searches for freshmen, but then build on this  each year with the more sophisticated search techniques.  As part of this unit I also have lately tried to engage students in a conversation about the importance of being informed members of a democratic society...and the role fake news can have in society, and in an election.  So, there were many features on this cool tool that I plan to use.  Paul Horner's site had some good information, I especially liked the News Examiner and the article, "5 Ways Fake News Websites are Evolving."  The confusion between fake and real news and the impact this has readers was fascinating.  I thought the Advanced Google Search Cheat Sheet was wonderful...and hope to use a version of this in my library.  I envision having students doing a  "think, pair, share" activity using a chart that has them exploring various search results from different search engines, or using different search strategies.  I have been doing this myself and the results are fascinating.

I am planning to share the benefits of the "Way Back Machine" with my teachers...lots of great applications for this tool!  And Twitter Analytics as well...and then there are the tips on how to verify photos and videos!  As I tell my students, borrowing from Spiderman, with "great power comes great responsibility."

Thing 1: Blogging

My name is Kathy Jaccarino and I am a high school librarian at Brockport High School.  I signed up for this program to try and stay on top of the new technologies out there!  I am sorry that I am starting so late.  I must admit, it sounded like such a great idea back in Sept. when I signed up, but the year has been a busy one and I am finding it tough to keep up.  I think once I get started the momentum will follow.  Thank goodness for winter break!

I have used blogs in the past, to set up class discussions and even for an online literary magazine...but got away from using them.  But, now that our district will be going 1:1 next year, I think it is time to bring them back.  So, some of these fresh and exciting new ideas and uses for blogs will come in handy, I hope!  

I liked the article from Teach through Technology that discussed reasons why students should blog.  This was refreshing and I gleaned some new reasons!  Not that this is new, but I especially like this: that it gives students a reason to use proper grammar and punctuation.... "Nobody wants to look like a fool.  No matter how many times they tell you they don't care, they do.  Posting their work online so anybody can read it is self motivating for them to focus on grammar and punctuation.  It gives them the exposure and experience they need to become better writers from a grammatical sense."  I will be sharing this article with my ELA dept. and principal, as we struggle to raise the bar and get students away from text-writing!