In all the excitement toward the end of last week, I forgot to tell you that I did finish all of your RLP Drafts. I hope by now all of you have found the results.
Good news: everyone is basically on the right track. I had suggestions for most, which I spelled out in the feedback document that I uploaded back into the same dropbox area.
If your team hasn’t found this feedback yet, let me know.
You weren’t expected to pay attention to what happened with the Cohort 7 classes over the weekend – but this was a good demonstration of what would happen if there were some kind of emergency or reason that class had to be relocated due to weather, etc.
I’ve never had to cancel or change class due to gas shortages before.
I think our online Exhibition coming up Saturday is well-timed because of all of this!
Let’s reschedule our “test drive” of Wimba VoiceDirect for this Thursday (Oct 2) at 6pm. I’m sorry I had to change it last week – and I’m all recovered from what I had, thankfully.
I have a big pile of email today, which is normal for a Monday. I will work through it today, I hope. If you have questions about the Exhibition, feel free to ask.
Most important, remember to submit your link by Wednesday.
Have a nice week!
Here’s just a quick note that I have updated the Agenda and the Planner from Saturday.
On a whim, I turned the Agenda upside like the Planner – with the newest parts at the top, and the “done” parts at the bottom.
The Planner is very little different from what you saw Saturday.
Thanks for another pleasant class.
I hope to “talk” with some of you Thursday, 6pm – via Wimba Voice Direct. Like we said in class, this is strictly an optional trial run; if a few people are there, I can get an idea of how it’s going to work, and on your end, you can see if your equipment is compatible, etc. It’s no big deal if you can’t login.
It’s Thursday and I’ve done almost all the class preps. You will find that the agenda is complete.
Our special guest is Lisa Delgado, who will give us a view of life in an elementary media center. Like with Holly, you ‘re in for a treat!
As I was making all of my preparations, I realized that I WAY over-planned for Saturday. So: if you are finding that you can’t get enough reading done, it’s not all your fault. (On the other hand, if you’ve done much of it, it is not wasted – because we will pick up where we left off after the Exhibition, and you’re that much ahead.) In other words, don’t stay up all night tonight and tomorrow night trying to get that colossal reading list finished; hit what highlights you can and come to class fresh.
See you there – although I may have a last minute word or two tomorrow.
In response to a couple of questions, I’ve created an FAQ page pertaining to the Reading & Literacy Project and the Draft. Feel free to contribute questions (email them to me; I always remove identities unless requested otherwise).
Here’s another question that’s come in:
Q. How do I link up my brand new Assignment Page to the class list?
A. Send the link to Jim R.
A couple of class members have emailed about problems finding exactly which standards bits I want you to read. I’ll take this opportunity to clarify.
First, maybe the most important lesson is that these links go to huge mondo sites that are important and overwhelming. While I would never expect a SLMS to know everything about them, navigating them without trepidation might be a good goal! Unfortunately, these sites are always rearranging their living rooms – making it difficult to find things when a year has gone by.
Three clarifications:
1. SACS. This is our old accrediting body for the Southeast (the one Clayton County has come to such grief with). They have merged with AdvancED. This link takes you directly to the standards area; under that top link, browse/search around for any that relate directly to school libraries.
2. Georgia Performance Standards: On the GPS page, the goal is to be able to find curriculum-related standards. I don’t believe there is a discrete group of information literacy/media/school library standards anywhere. Get an idea of how they are organized and how to find any grade-level/subject-area standard.
3. Georgia State Rules: When you’re looking at the Georgia Dept of Ed site linked from YATK, the link seems to be broken. It would be worthwhile to explore the Ga DOE site if you have several (ahem) hours to fiddle with it. If you don’t have those hours, direct link to Rule IFBD is here.
Thanks to those who sent the questions!
About the Reading Project draft: If you have questions to ask, please do. When/if they seem to apply to everyone, I’ll post here, although I won’t publish who asked a particular question.
I know that the Reading project is appropriating all of your time right now. So if you haven’t checked up on the planner recently, I’ll just mention this now. In the Roles section, I read the Ruffin article – which deals with the question of what all you should do with technology as media specialist. Of lot of what is said is good, but I disagree with some of it, too – I made a 12 minute commentary and posted in WebCT. If this topic is of burning concern to you (beyond the Roles topic, which is important to all of us), give this a try when you come to that part of the list.
Two itty bitty announcements:
Thank you all for a wonderful class Saturday! I always forget to thank the numerous helpers – I will try to do better.
As usual on Monday, I’m far behind on weekend correspondence. Bear with me – I will try to catch up today. If you need me more urgently than that, use Skype or call.
As promised, I recorded my “talking head” points that finish out the Reading material. Go to the planner – instructions are there. This mp3 is 26 minutes, and I took my time saying all the things I think I know about reading. Those of you reading experts out there, please feel free to correct me.
I’d like to highlight another recording – Dr. Knapp’s lecture. It’s listed as optional. However, if you’re looking for an approach that can be managed from the media center, and has real potential to help desperately struggling readers who somehow missed the boat in the early learning-to-read stages, check this out. She is a colleague of mine in the EPIT department and this program has years of success behind it; it’s not commercial in any sense. She also talks a lot about the mentality of a kid who can’t read – important insights there.
Finally, here’s a tie-in from yesterday’s Macon Telegraph. Mr. Holmes is a highly respected member of our community and a successful businessman. I would have never guessed that he couldn’t read. It’s a nice story; I’m not sure it supports our thesis that you can’t be successful if you can’t read, but it does describe the hidden life of someone trying to thrive in today’s world with very limited reading ability. He is particularly brave to let such a story be published about him now!
Have a nice week – I’m sure I’ll have more news to share with you soon.
Tomorrow is shaping up to be interesting!
We will welcome Holly Frilot, our high school SLMS guest speaker, after lunch.
You will have group time. And too many topics to count on the agenda.
Food: it can be difficult to get collaborative lunch off the ground, and so we need to bring brown bags tomorrow.
Don’t forget your nametags!
See you there!
I hope you all had a nice Labor Day holiday.
I’ve been preparing for class Saturday, and here are some things I’ve done:
Although these articles are not assigned yet, they are relevant to your work, and I’m anxious to see if they work for you. You can find them in WebCT/6300/Readings.I’m not sure if there’s anything else I need to mention to you before class, so if not – I’ll see you there!
