http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com
This week I landed on the blog called The Unquiet Librarian which is written by Buffy Hamilton-a librarian in Georgia. I chose this blog to explore because I liked the name-it is catchy and intriguing. I needed something fun to explore.
I did a lot of exploring on this blog. I read an article about choosing an eBook platform for the K-12 school library, explored personal information, an article about a library on wheels, and then I stumbled on slides from a recent presentation that Buffy did as a keynote speaker at a conference in North Carolina. The power point was AMAZING!! While I am sure it was much cooler to actually hear her present with the slides, I still learned a lot from the presentation and was able to make connections with recent discussions from our own class.
The resource was good. I enjoyed the library on wheels article (something that we could incorporate with our 5-8th grade students at study hall time so that they have an opportunity to get books!!) and I REALLY enjoyed the presentation that I found. I did not care for some of the guest posts-they did not apply to my age of student and were not as interesting as other articles I read. The site is user friendly-although there were a few dead links that need to be fixed. I will return to this blog and will also be passing it on to the 7th and 8th grade team at our school. I want to share the power point presentation slides because the presentation touches on standards based grading which is being utilized in our building. I know that these teachers are looking for supportive evidence that they can use to share with parents as our building transitions to a new style of grading, and this information would be most helpful to them. I will also be creating a "pitch" in regards to a library on wheels for study hall times. I'm not sure how that would really work, but I think it is a cool idea and one that I will be pursuing. I am going to add Buffy to my RSS feed so that I can continue to follow her.
I learned a lot from the content on this blog. As I shared above, I learned how easy it would be to put books on a book truck and wheel down to a study hall room where kids are under utilizing their time. Since we do not see the 7th and 8th grade students for fixed library times, I think this would be a cool way to stay in contact with the students, present them with an opportunity to check out books, and could encourage those readers that are slipping away to grab a selection and try something new. I also took notes on the presentation that I've been writing about in my entry. Buffy has so much information that is applicable and immediate that I will be going back to review this entry again. I took notes on the idea of enchantment and how it is the sustained voluntary delight that is mutually beneficial-if the students are enchanted with reading/research/what they are learning, then they see the benefit of learning, engaging, etc. I noted Buffy's ideas that relationships are the cornerstone of libraries and that the library is the shared story of the human experience. I thought a lot about our last class and how technology is a piece of this human experience-but not the overall arching role that is played in a school library. This led into a section that I took notes on regarding participatory learning. Buffy took this idea of learning and noted that school librarians can be the "catalyst to spark larger change in a learning ecosystem:-how cool is that? I could go on and on with all that I learned! It is worth a peek! I am going to do more research on the idea of participatory learning, engaging students, and the role of the librarian as the catalyst but looking at the blogs of R. David Lankes and Henry Jenkins. Both of these men were on individual slides and as I read the entries that Buffy had posted, I realized that taking the time to read these would be worth it.
Even though Buffy is a high school librarian, the information shared on her site is applicable to all grade levels. I really learned a lot-more so than any previous blog that I have visited. The information here got my brain working and wondering-how we can make our school library better? How I can become more involved with my school's ecosystem? What can I do to create that sense of enchantment within our students?
Definitely good stuff here!
No comments:
Post a Comment