Summer Reading - How do I motivate my family?

This time of year I am often asked for summer reading suggestions. The real question being asked is "how do I motivate my children to read during the summer?" We do not have a specific summer reading program promoted by our school or school system, but I do have some family-friendly suggestions.

First of all, for my own family I encourage reading as a fun activity that offers something for all interests. My belief is that I can't force them to love reading as do, but I can find something that they will each enjoy reading...but that's a topic for another post. Even though I am teacher and librarian, I never ever never require reading for my kids during the summer. (Gasp!) But, if you come into our home or see us at the beach or pool, you'll see us surrounded by stacks of books or magazines. You'll also see iOS devices full of audio books and eBooks. And, new this year, is the Trowell Family 40 Book Challenge posted on our refrigerator. If you have a middle or high school student, you may be familiar with the 40 Book Challenge which is based on Donalyn Miller's The Book Whisperer. Our family goal is to read 40 books between Memorial Day and the first day of school. That gives us about 12 weeks, which is roughly 3.3 books a week. We have 2 avid readers and 2 occasional readers, so this should balance out nicely. If you are interested in setting up a summer reading challenge for your family, please feel free to copy and adapt this template to your family of readers - Family Book Challenge  ***Please notice, I am not designating a certain number of books for each family member, as this is too close to "required" reading for my purpose.

So, how do you find titles to peak your young (and old) readers' interest? My main "go-to" sources are the public library, the local bookstore, Goodreads, and Indie Bestsellers.

Wake County Public library's website - www..wakegov.com/libraries - allows you to not only search the catalog and electronically keep up with your account, but also to place holds on books. Be sure to look through the multiple lists of books, blogs, and more under the "Reading" tab. The lists I use for my children are the Kids Book Lists and the Teen/Young Adult Reading Lists. I often will pull up a list on my iPad, place it in front of my son, and then ask him to select titles for me to place on hold. He's not a super-enthusiastic reader, but he is motivated when he selects books this way. He always asks "have you gotten the email that my books are in?"

Those of us in Raleigh can't talk about books without mentioning Quail Ridge Books and Music. QRB is an independently owned bookstore located in Ridgewood Shopping Center. Even if you do not live nearby, a visit to shop or to see an author at this bookstore is always a treat. They also have a website with resources such as Staff Recommendations for Kids, information on bookclubs, and a calendar of upcoming community events.

If you have not tried out Goodreads yet, I highly recommend this social networking site . Without signing up, users can search books by title, author, or genre. For example, children's literature can be found under genre > fiction > children's. If you choose to join Goodreads, you are able to connect with friends to see what they are reading. Books can be marked as "read", "currently reading," and "want to read."  Please note that Goodreads is not intended for use of anyone under the age of 13, so I am recommending this as parent resource. Please follow me at goodreads.com/atrowell!

Indie Bestsellers lists are published by IndieBound, a group that brings together independent booksellers to promote independently-owned businesses. IndieBound also offers Indie Next Lists, which will give you a peek at new and upcoming titles. QRB is a member of this association, you know that it is a quality source for book suggestions and reviews.

If you are still searching for that "just right" book for  your family member or yourself, please check out the   Book Lists located on the Underwood Media Center website. And, as always, feel free to contact me if you need suggestions.

Happy Summer Reading!

Shared Beliefs

I've just had a big "AH-HA" moment! So, I'm drudging through the last  pieces of my (almost final) graduate classes - putting the final touches on my e-portfolio, taking a final exam, reflections, and more reflections - when it all came together. For almost every major assignment for the past twelve classes, I've had to align with standards - ALA/AASL Standards for Initial Preparation of School Librarians, ALA’s Core Competences of Librarianship, NC Standards for the Master of Library Science Degree, the Common Core standards, and the NC Essential Standards for Information and Technology. And, let's not forget the biggie - the North Carolina School Library Media Coordinators Standards. As a teacher, I get it when it comes to standards. We should be working towards common goals with our students, and these goals are outlined in the standards. My "Ah-Ha" is with the standards, specifically the new NC School Library Media Coordinators standards, as they relate to me personally. My realization is that the standards outline what I believe to be true of effective school librarians.

My core beliefs are that School Library Media Coordinators...

• should demonstrate leadership. 
• should build a learning environment that meets the instructional needs of a diverse population of students. 
• should implement a comprehensive 21st library media program.
• should demonstrate knowledge of learners and learning and promote effective instructional practices. 
• should reflect on their practices. 

Further, I fully share NCDPI's Vision for School Library Media Coordinators:

The demands of providing a 21st century education dictate new roles for School Library Media Coordinators. School Library Media Coordinators are called on to have a larger role in their schools and school communities. School leadership is distributed among the staff and administration in order to bring consensus, common understandings, and shared ownership of the vision and purpose of the school. School Library Media Coordinators are valued for their leadership abilities throughout the school as well as in the media center. 

School Library Media Coordinators help make the content engaging and meaningful to students’ lives as they support teachers and facilitate the integration of curriculum and related projects across disciplines. In the school and the media center, School Library Media Coordinators facilitate instruction, encouraging all students to use 21st century skills to discover how to learn, innovate, collaborate, and communicate their ideas. They serve as facilitators of information skills development through the provision of professional development, coaching, mentoring, and co-teaching activities. Their work includes supporting the development of authentic and structured assessment strategies to assure that students demonstrate understanding of the content taught and ability to apply the skills they have learned. School Library Media Coordinators demonstrate the value of lifelong learning and instill a love of reading and learning in the students with whom they come into contact.

To pull all of this together, I am sharing WCPSS's Instructional Technology and Library Media Services team's work philosophy:

We build supportive relationships by guiding students and educators in using the right resources and tools for the right learners at the right times.

These words resonate with me - I truly feel that my primary responsibility is to do just this! My job is to  build relationships with my staff, students, and community so that I can guide them in using the right resources and tools for the right learners at the right time. Thanks to NCDPI and the new standards, along with my county's team for helping to clarify what exactly it is that I believe. How fortunate I feel to work as part of a system with which I share the vision!

I Can!

Students are at their highest level of engagement when their task is purposeful and authentic. Actually, this statement should read....people are at their highest level of engagement when their task is purposeful and authentic. For example, if I told one person to walk around the block, and then gave another person $10 to walk to the store to buy a snack, which person would be more motivated to go for a walk? Motivation is key to learning, and students are motivated when they have a meaningful reason. So how do we give students meaningful reasons to learn? By empowering them with choices of what (and how) to learn!

Kiran Bir Sethi, founder of Riverside School in India, teaches kids life's most valuable lesson: "I can." Watch her students take local issues into their own hands, lead other young people, even educate their parents.

Kiran Bir Sethi asserts that students should be made aware (so they feel), which enables them (to imagine), and then empowers them to do something. Since watching Sethi's video, I have quoted her many times to fellow teachers - (inquiry is) "a shift from 'the teacher told me' to 'I am doing it." I Can! When students are empowered, they learn. I have also thought about Sethi's suggestion to "take one idea, anything that bothers you, choose one week, and change a billion lives."

As librarians, we should be encouraging the inquiry process so that students are empowered to do just this - change a billion lives. This will not happen if we continue to assign a specific topic, with specific facts to find, from specific resources, etc. We must open the doors for our students, guiding and supporting them along the way.

Improving Disposition

I have been researching librarian dispositions this semester, and for a recent assignment was asked to narrow these dispositions down to the five I felt to be the most important. If you're wondering what exactly a disposition is, Lillian Katz defines dispositions as a "pattern of behavior exhibited frequently... in the absence of coercion... constituting a habit of mind under some conscious and voluntary control... intentional and oriented to broad goals" that can be caught and taught through modeling. 

Narrowing down to just five patterns of behavior that librarians must exhibit was quite a challenge! As librarians we must be empathetic, hospitable, professional, collaborative, flexible, respectful, reflective, persistent, open-minded, enthusiastic, reliable, trustworthy, ....How to edit down to just five? Through the process, I was able to reflect on the dispositions that are my strengths and those that I can continue to improve. 

So, after much thought and reflection, here are the top dispositions I believe school librarians must have in order to effectively do his/her job supporting learners with the right resources at the right time....

School Librarian Dispositions

Disposition	What does this disposition look like in a school library?	How could a librarian develop this disposition if he/she felt weak in this disposition?
EMPATHETIC	When an educator has compassion, he/she has a core belief that all people can learn. He/she then works diligently to find strategies tailored to individual students. Librarians do this by taking time to get to know staff and students and their interests, assisting students in finding good fit books, and matching resources with timely needs. Librarians use various scaffolding techniques to meet student needs - show and tell, tapping into prior knowledge, allowing time to talk, pre-teaching vocabulary, using visual aids, and pausing to ask questions.	He/she can make an effort to get to know individual students who are struggling. One idea is to have a weekly “lunch bunch.” When relationships are established, then the librarian will have motivation to find creative ways to support these students.
COLLABORATIVE	School librarians participate in school and district-based Professional Learning Teams. They regularly collaborate toward continued improvement in meeting students needs using data, professional experience, and best practice. Librarians have a shared vision for a better learning environment that supports the needs of all students. In collaborative planning, the teacher brings knowledge of subject content and students needs. The librarian contributes a knowledge of resources and technology, as well as teaching strategies.	He/she can reach out to grade levels, asking to join team meetings. At these meetings, the librarian should listen closely to the needs of the teachers and students.
LEADING	The librarian is instrumental in moving the school vision forward. He/she stays on the forefront of trends and has a love of learning. He/she leads by modeling best  practices and innovative strategies. He/she sets up the library environment so that it is the center of learning. Not only is it the place to find resources and creative ideas and to collaborate with staff members, but where staff and students turn for leadership in learning.	He/she can establish a professional learning network (PLN) separate from the school setting. Twitter is one example of a PLN where librarians can find and share ideas, practices, and strategies.
ETHICAL	The librarian seeks equal access for all, respects intellectual property rights, and is committed to intellectual freedom. He/she models and advocates these for both staff and students. For example, while collaborating on a research project the librarian infuses instruction on copyright.	He/she can commit to personal learning about equal access, intellectual property rights, and intellectual freedom. ALA has many helpful resources to support this learning.
REFLECTIVE	On a regular basis, the librarian reflects on his/her practices. Reflective thinking and self-examination takes place during and after instruction in the library. The librarian has many opportunities for instruction, both formal and informal, so the reflective process is continual. Many librarians are blogging as reflective practice.	He/she can commit to posting once a week on a personal professional blog. In this post, he/she can reflect on the week in his/her library - what went well, what needed improvement, what was unexpected, etc.

In which dispositions are you strongest? And, where can you improve? For me, I would like to focus on becoming intuitively collaborative. I need to do a better job of reaching out to grade levels and individual staff members. This is somewhat overwhelming to me, but I will start with just a grade level (or two) and go from there. Be on the lookout for a post on my successful collaboration (hopefully sooner than later!)

Katz, L. G., & Raths, J. D. (1985). Dispositions as goals for teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 1(4), 301-307.

Keeping our Children Safe Online

Media and Tech Specialists in my county are abuzz about an article in today's News and Observer - Mom says Wake schools not doing enough to control Internet porn, violence. As I read comments on the article and emails flying on our listserv, I can't help but to feel anxiety.  In my role as a parent and educator, it is my job to keep children safe, but more importantly to teach them how to be safe. Sometimes I feel that the easiest route with the internet would be to shut it all down. But, then I am reminded of all of the strong 21st century teaching and learning going on at my school. Our students are becoming collaborators, communicators, problem solvers, and critical thinkers...often with innovative uses of technology. Many are becoming independent and confident enough in their technology skills that they are applying their skills at home. While this is everything we hope to see, it comes with tremendous added responsibility for teachers and educators.

Step one in fulfilling this responsibility is for us to go where our kids go (online.) I strongly encourage parents to spend time with your children online. Ask them to show you all of the cool things learned at school! If he/she has an email account or uses social networking (Facebook, Google+, texting, etc.), periodically look over your child's communications. This is not being nosy, it is keeping our children safe while guiding them in making good choices. Trust me (and I speak from experiences), we can find many "teachable moments" as our tech-savvy children share their email communications, texts, and social networking posts.

It is also necessary to touch base on an important issue that escalates with our increased use of social media  - cyberbullying. We've all heard stories recently in the news (or in our own lives) about cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is the use of technology to tease, harass, embarrass, or threaten another person. It can include sending messages anonymously, spreading gossip via social networks or email, pretending to be another person, or sending/posting harmful messages.

As parents and teachers, what can we do to keep our children safe and to help them make good choices online? Let me share an analogy  - Think of water safety....When a child is an infant, the adult carries the child in the water. As the child grows, the adult teaches the child to swim, yet is always an arm's distance away. As the child grows to be a better swimmer, the adult moves farther away, yet is still at the pool with his eyes always on the child. We should do the same when teaching our children how to use the internet - We would never throw our non-swimmer into the pool and assume they could swim - yikes!
Additionally, whether or not we like the water, we know it's imperative to teach them how to swim.

There are many resources available to help our children learn to be safe online. Hopefully these are helpful to you ... 

Digital Citizenship Resources

I am thankful to be at a school where the staff strives for a safe environment, both at school and online. 3rd - 5th grade classes participate in lessons about digital citizenship - internet safety and cyberbullying - at the beginning of the year. Teachers reteach making good choices online as technology is integrated into much of our students' learning; we encourage parents to do the same by continuing to be aware of their child's activities online.

And, to my dear Underwood families....if you have any questions or concerns about your child's digital citizenship skills, you know that I am always available to talk. Together we can safely move our students through the 21st century! 

Promoting Creativity

I was recently asked if promoting creativity should be a goal of librarians. Yes, yes, and yes! Sir Ken Robinson's well-circulated TED Talk, Schools Kill Creativity, gets my juices flowing on the subject....

Robinson brings up many points about human creativity and our children's capacity to learn. We are curious creatures who like to learn. Robinson says that, although our intelligence is diverse, dynamic, and distinct, our education system does not support our intelligences. The system's hierarchy - math/languages, humanities, and then the arts is geared towards academia and academia only. Robinson's story about Jillian Lynn, who choreographed Phantom and Cats, emphasizes this. I wonder, how many students have I told to sit down or settle down? As librarians, we should rethink the traditional principles on which we educate our students. When researching a topic, do we encourage thinking outside the box in ways such as self-selected topics and student-generated guided questions? Do we allow our students to conduct a search for the impossible? Do we not only tolerate mistakes, but also guide students in reflective discussions of these mistakes? When thinking about creativity, I am reminded of Kiran Bir Sethi's words - "a shift from 'the teacher told me' to 'I am doing it." (To see Sethi talking about teaching kids to take charge, see her TED Talk at http://bit.ly/VqPTmo)We should not be spoon feeding information to our students - 1. they most likely won't eat or digest it and 2. this is not preparing them for the future. We do not know what specific information our children will need for the future, but we do know that they will need to be creative thinkers.

Why Am I Blogging?

Blogging is something that I've wanted to try for the past couple years, but I've hidden behind the "no time" excuse. Or maybe I just needed a kick-start? This kick-start came in the form of my MLS Internship portfolio requirement. And so my blogging journey begins...I recently spent a "grad day" (a day away from work and family to focus completely on assignment.) Using Blogger was a no-brainer - I am a faithful Google girl who likes to keep things streamlined as much as possible.  It took me about 2 hours to get the template and layout right. Then, another 2 to explore my favorite blogs for elements to use. This led to finally setting up Google Reader. Dance teacher/tech buddy  Rachel has talked about Reader for 2 years - wish I would have listened to her earlier. With my thousand ideas and Google Reader up and running, the fun began! At the end of the day, I had my basic blog set up including feeds from Google Reader, Twitter, Goodreads, Diigo, and Google Calendar - love it! So, the first unexpected benefit of blogging is the one-stop location for all of my PLNs.

Other reasons for educators to blog? Here are some quick ones off the top of my head...

• a place to think aloud
• to share ideas and beliefs
• to promote what you believe
• to be reflective of teaching practices
• to connect with other educators
• to collaborate 
• to house resources (This will be my next BIG step on this blog)
• to dream 
• to vent
• to toot your horn (important for those of us in librarian world)

I'm sure that this list will be more extensive as I continue along the journey. If you are interested in reading more in depth about why educators should blog, just Google it....there are thousands of results.

Speaking of the journey...I'm not planning on trying this out alone, so I'm on the prowl for willing coworkers to start blogging along. So far we've got Christine (literacy), Tanya (science), and Rachel (dance.) Be on the lookout for their blogs soon! Anyone else want to join us? Please feel free to use and comment on our training outline - http://bit.ly/VFMS44 Coincidentally, another requirement of my internship is leading a staff inservice. Looks like this blogging group will serve more than one purpose!

To end my first official post, I'd like to ask for your input on my initial attempt at setting up a blog. Specifically, what about my format is effective or what needs tweaking? Whether you are a non-blogger or a power-blogger, or somewhere in between, I am interested in your honest feedback. Constructive tips are always appreciated!