Teaching online

I have been teaching this tech class for a week now for Fresno Pacific University's Teacher-Librarian program.

I am so impressed with these students. It is a small class and entirely online, but I think that has been helpful in many ways. Students tend to be less threatened by what they say and how they say it in online classes, so they are willing to have real conversations about real issues.

Teacher Librarians being cut due to budget

“Research from eleven states and over 4,000 schools documents that credentialed LMTs raise achievement scores anywhere from 8-20%. Support personnel alone in an LMC do not raise achievement but credentialed LMTs do. Why? Because the LMT concentrates on teaching and learning rather than on managing a warehouse. When there is no LMT, achievement suffers – its people rather than just things that make the difference.”

-Loertscher, David V. with Ross J. Todd. Evidence-Based Practice for School Library Media Specialists. Salt Lake City UT: Hi Willow Research & Publishing, 2003.

Library Hero

If you would like to see one of my library heroes, see this week's CNN Hero. I know him (because he usually attends the Ethiopian Culture Camp that my family attends each summer). When he lived in the U.S., Yohannes was a children's librarian. See:

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2008/cnn.heroes/

Tom Nixon

Teaching them there librarians

In that last post, I mentioned what I would do if I were teaching a teacher-librarian credentialing course.

As it happens, I am.

But, Tom, you only started the program last year. How can you be doing that so soon? That is just so wrong!

Full disclosure: I am not actually teaching a library course. I am teaching the technology festival course (MCE-760/Curriculum Integration). In other words, I am teaching technology to teacher-librarians. That I can do.

And stop worrying about what I am doing, will you! I know I'm not ready to be teaching the library courses. :)

This is why it has been a little quiet around here lately. As it happens, I am teaching the very first course in Fresno Pacific University's brand-new online program. I also had the pleasure of developing the course. For those not in the know, often instructors teach online courses that they did not develop. That is significantly more common.

Why was I asked to do this? I am not sure. I have taught university classes before, but I also have some experience with online learning. Probably seemed a reasonable choice, I suppose.

Grant me a circulation desk

The Post Office closed today at 4:00 and I arrived promptly at 3:45 to mail off my application for the DEMCO/Betty Barkema School Library Improvement Grant.

When was it due?

April 30.

Yep, it was due today and I mailed it today. Thankfully, it just had to be postmarked today. The problem was one last letter of recommendation.

As for the process, completing the grant application has made me a better teacher-librarian. Really. What it took to pull it all together included creating a site library plan, a project description, multiple letters of recommendation, and creating a library advisory committee.

If I were teaching teacher-librarian credentialing courses, I would require that everyone complete this grant. You would not have to submit it (because it may not be appropriate for your setting), but the process was a learning experience all in itself.

I have asked for funding for a new circulation desk. The one we have is original to the school. My students deserve better. Sometimes the first step in creating a vibrant library program is just making it look like a vibrant library.

Finding your destiny (or is that Destiny)?

I spent last week going over to the dark side.

Yep.

I went to Follett Destiny training. Actually, I probably like it and I certainly think that it will be better than our older version of Alexandria.

The problems that I had and continue to have relate more to support by the district than any problem with Follett. Our district is doing a number of new and exciting things technologically speaking these days, so it is difficult to get staff time to pull it all together.

So I went to five days of circulation training and had no patrons. I still have no patrons. I also believe I discovered today that my scanner will not work with Destiny. Yes, it will read the barcode, but it will not correlate that number with the book.

And, yes, it will all work itself out.

What is a mashup? - ZDNet