Blog #7- Cyberbullying

Image by Freepik- Girl sad and overwhelmed by unkind comments on various digital devices 

The beauty and downfall of language is the power that is held within words.  As much as they can lift up and praise, they can tear down and degrade.  Ultimately, words are powerful weapons and should be handled accordingly.  Unfortunately, many people choose to use words to harm others.  This is something I am very familiar with and have experienced during my years as an educator.  Years ago, bullying was prevalent on the playground and I spent time in class teaching students about being kind, using words to help and inclusivity.  Each year I felt like the battle with bullying increased.  And as technology crept its way into our everyday lives, new forms of bulling evolved and cyberbullying started to impact my students.  I have helped students who were victims of cyberbullying through emails, chats and social media.  While bullying is bullying, cyberbullying was harder for me to identify.  I couldn't always see it happening, and as mentioned by Faucher et al "many targets choose to suffer in silence rather than report what they are experiencing" (2015).  As an educator, this meant that I had to start paying more attention to changes in my students' behaviors and have open conversations about what the types of bullying and build trust to let them know I was here to help them if they were victims of bullying of any type. 

Today, as a librarian, I continue to teach about and discuss cyberbullying with my classes. However, I often wonder if I'm effective enough.  I am always looking for ways to ensure that I am reaching all students and encourage them to be good digital citizens. This week's resources were helpful and eye-opening.  It inspired me to review my current resources and lessons on bullying, more specifically on cyberbullying.  One of the books I found during my searches this week that may be helpful for older students is Patricia Pollaco's book Bully.  It specifically deals with a student recognizing and dealing with cyberbullying via social media.  I believe that many of my 4th and 5th grades students might be able to relate to the characters and will hopefully identify strategies that they can use to help them in similar situations.     

Image from Amazon- Front cover of Patricia Polacco's book Bully.

Another idea from Faucher's 2015 article that really stuck with me was the analogy

"One analogy that is particularly illustrative of the range of impacts of workplace bullying is from Lutgen-Sandvik et al. (2007, p. 855). The authors compare the impacts of bullying to those of burns. First-degree burns (and low levels of bullying) are common, superficial, quick to heal, but prolonged or repeated exposure can lead to problems.  Second-degree burns (and more intensive, frequent, and persistent bullying) are more painful and require more intervention to heal. Third-degree burns (and escalated cases of bullying) can “result in deep scarring and permanent damage.”

For me, this is a wonderful comparison that is easy for students to understand.  Sometimes they don't realize the power their words have on others.  They fail to see that they can leave permanent damage to other's self esteem, confidence and self worth.  I believe that it is so important for all educators, regardless of position, to include some aspect of bullying (including cyberbullying) education into their classrooms.  This ensures that all students have exposure to and an understanding of what it is and how to prevent and respond to it. 

References

Faucher, C., Cassidy, W., & Jackson, M. (2015, August 27). From the Sandbox to the Inbox: Comparing the Acts, Impacts, and Solutions of Bullying in K-12, Higher Education, and the Workplace. Journal of Education and Training Studies, 3(6). https://doi.org/10.11114/jets.v3i6.1033

Blog #6- Social Media and the School Library

Thanks to this week's assignment, the existing Twitter page for my school library got a fresh look!  When I started as the librarian last year, the Twitter page was passed on to me.  Unfortunately, in the hustle and bustle of learning my new job, social media was not a top priority and the page sat unused until now.  Because it already had a good following, I decided to give it a fresh look and make it active once again! I used Canva to create a new banner that included our favorite quote in the library and kept our school logo as the profile photo.  

In the past this account has been used to share things happening in the library as well as other events in and around the school.  Students, families and teachers involved in literacy and learning have all be showcased.  I would like to continue this, but also want to include posts about books that we share with students each week.  I think that this would allow families an opportunity to discuss particular stories or topics with their students and perhaps continue to read and explore the topic at home.  

I know that social media plays a large role in today's society.  People use it as a source of information, inspiration and creativity.  I would love for the content on the library Twitter page to encourage families to read and discuss books, showcase all of the great learning that happens in the library and to help the community see that the library isn't always a quiet, independent space.  Many of our activities encourage collaboration, cooperation and self control- all of which are important lifelong skills.  As mentioned in Jan Wilson's article, Make Your Library More Visible,  "We have the opportunity to design innovative lessons by fostering collaboration and to show students how to present their learning in multiple formats."  The library Twitter page will be a wonderful place to show off all that we do! 

References

Wilson, J. (2017). Make Your Library More Visible. School Library Journal, 16–17.

Blog Post #5: Adaptive Technology Resource

    This week's topic and content hit really close to home for me.  Due to experiences in my own life, I have always worked hard to make my classroom, and now library, an inclusive space for everyone.  It has always been my belief that all students deserve a learning experience that allows them to experience success.  This might look a bit different for each person, and technology has certainly added some wonderful options to make it easier. 

    A few years ago, when trying to find ways to help one of my students struggling with reading and writing, I discovered Mote.  According to their website, "Mote is the audio toolkit for educators and learners across the world- integrated into the products you know and love" (Mote | Fast, Friendly Voice Notes & Feedback, n.d.).  This extension was easy to add and learn to use.  It allowed me to record voice snip-its of directions, questions or even extra hints or assistance and add it to assignments I created with Google Slides and Forms.  This allowed all of my students the ability to listen to the directions or questions if needed.  It proved extra helpful to my struggling readers as it gave them an added layer of assistance without needing me standing right beside them.  I also allowed students to type their answer and then record themselves with Mote reading their answer or providing further explanation.  My students who struggled with written expression found this to be especially helpful as it gave them the chance to show what they really knew without their spelling or writing errors being an obstacle.  Through the use of Mote, I began to see my students become more confident in their abilities and more willing to participate in class.  They also began to view their struggles as something they could work through instead of a brick wall that stopped them from learning like everyone else.  

                                                                          (What Is a Mote?, n.d.)

    The mote extension can be added through the Mote Homepage or the Google Chrome Web Store.  Once added, the extension can be used with a variety of Google programs including Forms, Sheets, Slides and Classroom.  I also love the fact that the students can hear the message, but also see the transcription.  Another great feature is that students have the ability to transcribe this into a variety of languages.  This makes it a great way to help ESOL students.  

    There are a lot of great resources available to help others get started with Mote.  Below are a few that I found to be particularly helpful.

https://www.eduporium.com/blog/rising-resources-mote-for-student-feedback/

https://www.educatorstechnology.com/2021/04/mote-new-way-to-add-audio-feedback-to.html

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL28_-psho_6SvB76A9ZstMKdhGRN340N2

https://shakeuplearning.com/blog/15-ways-to-use-mote-in-the-classroom-suls0107/

References 

Mote | fast, friendly voice notes & feedback. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.mote.com/

What is a mote? (n.d.). [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.mote.com/what-is-a-mote

Blog Post #4- Modules 5 & 6

    Last year when our Art teacher retired, she gave me a box of supplies she received at a conference but never had a chance to use.  I expected to see markers, paints or perhaps various other craft supplies that I could use in some of my storytime activities.  However, when I opened the box several days later, I was quite surprised to find eight Makey Makey kits!  While I had never used one, I had heard about them at various conferences and meetings in the past.  Despite my eagerness to learn more about them, they got pushed to the side so I could tackle book orders, book fair week and all of the other "back to school" items on my list.  This assignment allowed me to dig back into that box and learn more about these Makey Makey kits with the hopes of implementing them into the library lessons soon.

    According to one website, the Makey Makey kit can "turn everyday objects into touchpads and combine them with the internet. It’s a simple invention kit for beginners and experts doing art, engineering, and everything in between. With the Makey Makey, students can make any conductive material act as the input device for a computer. Because it comes preprogrammed, students with no coding experience can use it and learn to experiment with it as they start to learn coding." (MakeyMakeyK12.com - Introduction, n.d.) The Makey Makey uses the understanding of conductivity and circuits to help students control their computer using a variety of objects- bananas, clay, pencil lead, water, just to name a few! I can't think of a more exciting way to help students learn and explore how circuits work.

Product Explanation Video- ([Makey Makey], 2019)

        In reading about the different technology-enabled learning models, the RAT model caught my attention.  I like its simplicity when thinking about how the use of technology compliments classroom instruction.  In applying it to the use of the Makey Makey kits, I would say that it certainly falls into the Transformation category.  These kits allow students to take the basic understanding of completing circuits to create a variety inventions such as game controllers, musical instruments and even talking illustrations!  The possibilities are endless and the fun and excitement for learning and creating are sure to be bountiful.  

(R.A.T. Model, 2016)

  There are a lot of resources available to help educators use Makey Makey kits in a variety of grade levels.  I have linked a few below that I found especially helpful as I prepare to introduce them into our lessons.

Need help or want to learn more about the Makey Makey Kits?

Check out these resources by clicking on each photo.

References

[Makey Makey]. (2019, April 8). Makey Makey classic product video [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaqUM_mfzTA

MakeyMakeyK12.com - Introduction. (n.d.). https://sites.google.com/site/makeymakeyk12/introduction-to-makey-makey 

R.A.T. Model. (2016, June 24). Dr. Joan E. Hughes | TechEdges | Technology Integration Research. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20190612101737/https://techedges.org/r-a-t-model/

Blog #3- Technology Leadership

As technology continues to be an ever growing presence in our lives, we are constantly trying to figure out the best ways to effectively implement it into our daily routines.  Teaching is not exempt from this.  There always seem to be SO many new programs and resources introduced each year.  While this can be overwhelming, it is important to stay knowledgeable of all that is offered.  One way that I try to stay up to date is by reading various technology and education blogs.  While recently exploring Dr. Med Kharbah's blog, Educational Technology and Mobile Learning, I came across a review for an awesome resource called Pixton.  This resource jumped out to me as a great way to marry literacy skills (& various content areas) and technology.  It allows students to easily create their own characters, settings, dialogue and story line in a graphic story format.  Because students in my school are currently obsessed with graphic novels, I believe that this would be a great way to engage them across various content areas.  Pixton also offers a variety of lesson plans that teachers, and librarians, can easily implement with their students.  

Technology's place in education, and the library, is always evolving.  I find myself sharing more and more technology information and resources with the members of my school. Because of this, it is important that I have a good relationship with my Technology Learning Coach (TLC).  While she is the first line of communication for all things "techie", I also play an important role in sharing technology with the school.  Lois Wine (2016) states that, "They each bring special skills to a collaborative partnership, the school librarian as an expert on information literacy and the technology integration specialist as a technology expert".  Together we can provide a plethora of technology and integration information to our staff and students. 

"Libraries need to meet learners where they are, and where they are is on their laptops, tablets, and phones. To remain relevant in the lives of our digitally connected students, school libraries must be both available and useful (Boyer, 2016)". This quote alone explains why it is so important for librarians, teachers and TLCs to work together to educate our students. Our students are enthralled in technology on a daily basis. If we want to engage and excite them about learning, creating and growing, we truly have to meet them where they are technologically.

References:

Boyer, B. (2016). Meet your learners where they are: virtualizing the school library. Internet@Schools,

            23(1), 4+.

Pixton Comic & Storyboard Builder for Education. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2022, from https://www.pixton.com/

Wine, L. D. (2016, March). School librarians as technology leaders: An evolution in practice. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 57(2), 207–220. https://doi.org/10.3138/jelis.57.2.207

Blog Post #2- Digesting an Information Diet

Photo from pixaby.com

In today's society, information is constantly being thrown at us. News shows, magazines, podcasts, emails, radio segments, newspapers, social media- all sending various bits of information throughout our daily lives.  Because of this constant barrage of information, it is important for people to know how to properly take in and "digest" everything.  We should be able to sift through all that is offered and determine what and how we utilize the variety of info.

As a classroom teacher, I was used to helping my third graders gather research from resources I vetted and pre-selected for them.  I was controlling their "information diet" to ensure that they were getting real, genuine facts.  As an elementary librarian, however, I now realize that it is my job to help students find and identify these resources for themselves.  I am tasked with teaching them how to sort, verify and vet outlets of information to determine the difference between what is real and what is fake.  In Joyce Valenza's article for School Library Journal (2016), she mentions the need "to teach the important lessons of everyday civics for new consumption and production landscapes."  This can be a daunting task, as many students think that if they hear or see it on the internet or TV, surely it must be real.

One of the resources I have used to help teach students these important skills is Common Sense Education.  They offer great videos and lesson plans to use with a variety of grade levels.  Last year, I used the lesson below to help teach my 5th graders how to determine if a news article was from a reliable source.  In having genuine conversation with them, they had never thought to check for these things.  They had always just assumed that the information they read was correct.  With this mindset, they had no set information diet.  They were consuming everything as truth and therefore had no idea of how or when to apply it to their lives.

Even with the youngest students, I have started discussing how to properly research.  I worked with several 3rd grade classes this week on identifying reliable research sources and how to identify keywords that will return better search results.  Kreuger Library's video (2016) on selecting and using keywords is very similar to how I teach my students- except in a bit simpler form, of course.  This process really helps students understand the importance of using  proper and specific search terms.  I then go on to explain that once the results are returned, it is their job to figure out which pieces of information are going to be the most helpful for their specific needs.  While this can be a daunting task for 3rd graders, it is a skill they must be able to utilize.  Otherwise, they will continue to be overloaded with information and never know how to create their own "information diet". 

Because of the overload of technology and information present in our day to day lives, these skills are important for students to learn.  As an elementary librarian, it is my job to help students learn and implement the skills to help them develop a healthy "information diet".

References:

Krueger Library - Winona State University. (2016, August 19). Selecting & using keywords [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6kjt2Mt_4w

Valenza, J. (2016, November 26). Truth, truthiness, triangulation: A news literacy toolkit for a “post-truth” world. School Library Journal. Retrieved from https://blogs.slj.com/neverendingsearch/2016/11/26/truth-truthiness-triangulation-and-the-librarian-way-a-news-literacy-toolkit-for-a-post-truth-world/

Making A Connection = Making Things Better

During my years as a classroom teacher, the curriculum standards were always at the tip of my fingers.  And, even though they changed over the years, I considered myself to be well versed in them. After all, these state standards dictated what I was required to teach. They were my guiding path.  However, when I transitioned into my current role as an elementary school librarian, I felt a bit lost.  I knew about the National Standards put out by the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), but struggled to understand the format and was quickly intimidated.  As my first year progressed and I attempted to dig deeper into these standards, my email inbox began to fill up with information from the International Society of Technology in Education (ISTE).  Each new email invited me to conferences or seminars to learn how to use their standards with my students.  Was I supposed to implement both sets of standards?  To say I was overwhelmed was an understatement! 

In reading Courtney Lewis' article, "Collaborating to Communicate: Librarian Reading Groups and Understanding Standards", I began to realize that it wasn't just me that was feeling this way.  While she collaborated with other librarians in her area to break down and better understand the AASL standards (Lewis, pg. 38), I think it would be helpful to do the same with the ISTE standards.  Having a deeper understanding of both sets of standards, would help me, to better correlate and implement them.  While the AASL standards provide a path for librarians to follow when planning instruction, the ISTE standards focus specifically on implementing and utilizing technology.

As I further explored the various articles and resources, I found the Crosswalk for the AASL and ISTE standards to be very helpful in my quest to understand both.  Because there is a big push in education to implement technology, it only seems natural to use the Crosswalk to help align and implement both sets of standards.  This document would also be helpful to share and discuss with my fellow teachers (who don't seem to understand that librarians still have standards to follow) as well as administrators.  As Lewis points out, "Comparing one or two areas of the Shared Foundations in a discussion with your administrator shows how aligned the ISTE/AASL standards are under “Inquire” and emphasizes the importance of inquiry throughout the curriculum.  The number of empty boxes on the ISTE side of the crosswalk under “Include” can demonstrate school librarians’ emphasis on issues of diversity and inclusivity in our work (Lewis, pg. 42)".

Below are a few more sites that I found helpful in learning more about both sets of standards:

Resources

AASL. (2018a). Introducing the AASL Standards framework for learners. https://standards.aasl.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/AASL-Standards-Framework-for-Learners-pamphlet.pdf

AASL. (2018b). National School Library Standards crosswalk with ISTE Standards for students and educators. https://standards.aasl.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/180828-aasl-standards-crosswalk-iste.pdf

Elementary Librarian. (2018, July 13). Breaking down the AASL National School Library Standards. https://elementarylibrarian.com/breaking-down-the-aasl-national-school-library-standards/

ISTE. (n.d.). The ISTE Standards. https://www.iste.org/iste-standards

Lewis, C. L. (2019). Collaborating to communicate: Librarian reading groups and understanding standards. Knowledge Quest, 47(5), 36–43.

PA Farrington Associates. (2019, January 3). Thing 23: New AASL Standards. Cool Tools for School. https://cooltoolsforschool.net/new-aasl-standards-2/