Tech Tool to Engage Students and Benefit Teachers- That Most of Us Already Have Access Too!

Calling all teachers! As teachers, we all know that “it is essential for technology to effectively meet students’ needs and keep them actively engaged during instruction” (Smith, 2010). While perusing blogs this week, I came across one that instantly captivated my attention and seemed to engage students using tech in a way I hadn’t thought of before. If you do not follow Ramsey Musallam’s blog Cycles of Learning, I would highly suggest it for teachers and librarians. On September 10, Musallam posted a blog that is beneficial to all teachers who use Google for work or in the classroom. Check out his blog post below.  

Student Metacognitive Portfolios Using Google Sheets

Musallam also includes screen shots of the Google Sheets as seen below. If you go to his blog, his sheets link directly to your Google Drive, so you can add them.

Images: Mussallam 2019

Once in your Drive, you can create and play. I know the fellow teachers reading this are thinking of all the ways they can use this. If you are an ELA teacher in middle or high school, this would be a wonderful way to involve students in being active participants in tracking mastery of skills/standards, reflect on feedback and conferences, and keep a portfolio of their writing and reading for an entire school year. As teachers, we are always seeking ways to increase student engagement in the classroom. I believe student use of Google Sheets  with the teacher to create Metacognitive Portfolios is a wonderful way to engage them through ownership- after all they are stakeholders. This tool not only helps with grading and accountability for both the teacher and student, it would be invaluable with communicating with parents. If you check out the YouTube video by Musallam below, his enthusiasm about using tech in this new way is contagious. I shared Musallam’s blog with the technology coach at my current school. Since our teachers are Google trained and use Google classroom, she thinks we can take this and run with it. Musallam’s school doesn’t use Google classroom, which is why the students copy their sheets and send it to him. If you have a Google based school where students are one to one, this extra step gets totally eliminated! 🙌 We are going to present this at an upcoming professional development. Between our wonderful librarian, tech coach, and myself (literacy coach), we also have the opportunity to provide support for teachers in their rooms when they are figuring it out and creating. Look for a future post about how the PD went and teacher feedback!

Images: Mussallam 2019

   

When evaluating and critiquing Musallam’s blog entry Student Metacognitive Portfolios Using Google Sheets, I felt it could be a useful tool in the classrooms at my school due to the engagement and accountability factor (2019). With the constant pressure of test scores and knowing that “technology has been indicated as a catalyst for school reform,” this idea of using Google Sheets for metacognitive portfolios seems like a wonderful way to help with school improvement and State Report Card grade rating scores (Smith, 2010). Being at a school with a tech coach and a librarian who work well together and are both Google trained educators, this ticked another box on why this particular idea could be implemented at my current school. A big piece of the tech puzzle in classrooms is having PD for teachers and a tech coach and librarian who communicate with each other and support teachers after the PD is done. In School Librarians as Technology Integration Leaders: Enablers and Barriers to Leadership Enactment by Johnston, the relationship of the technology department and the librarian can be an enabler or barrier (2012). If “technology initiatives are about people- the people who plan with, teach with, and learn with the technology,” then teachers and students should always be what drives purchases and implementations (Overbay, Mollette, Vasu, 2011). Using Musallam’s blog about using Google Sheets for portfolios, puts the focus on the two people that should always be the focus at school- students and teachers. With teachers being trained in Google in most school these days, and many schools using Google Classroom with students everyday, this seems worth a try- making this tech idea from Musallam immediately useful. This tech approach to keeping students' portfolios using the tools already available to me in Google, is an immediately useful approach that engages students, as well as myself/teachers.

References

Johnston, M. P. (2012). School Librarians as Technology Integration Leaders: Enablers and Barriers to Leadership Enactment. School Library Research, 15, April, 1-33.

Musallam, R. (2019, September 10). Blog. Retrieved September 17, 2019, from https://www.cyclesoflearning.com/blog

Overbay, A., Mollette, M., & Vasu, E. S. (2011). A Technology Plan. Educational Leadership, February, 56-59.

Smith, D. (2010). Making the case for leadership role of school librarians in technology integration. Library Hi Tech, 28(4), August, 617-631.

Information Literacy, Technology, and Digital/Media: An Essential Interactive Trio

Reading about 21^st Century Learning is not something completely foreign to me as a teacher. Today’s educational standards were written on the premise of producing a 21^st Century Learner. A 21^st Century Learner encompasses many attributes that the career world is looking for in today’s working climate. However, when looking at the Framework for 21^st Century Learning in conjunction with the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education and The Liturgists Podcast Fake News & Media Literacy, one gets a deeper understanding about how all of these pieces fit together to produce the whole and why it is necessary to understand all components in order to produce a 21^st Century Learner that is savvy and creative enough to navigate today’s ever changing world. 21^st Century Learning, the Framework for Information Literacy, and the Liturgists Podcast demonstrate how information literacy, technology, and the modern digital/media landscape intersect and support each other, giving us the ability to be savvy learners and consumers in today’s world.

The commonalities of information literacy, technology, and the digital/media world in terms of a 21^st Century Learner, or rather a 21^st Century member of society, are built upon the foundations of creativity, inquiry, accountability, cooperation, and problem-solving, while being interactive with the communal and social environment within our direct (city/town/neighborhood), outreaching (state, country) and global society (world). Literacy is about a true understanding and the ability to interact with knowledge. Knowledge comes in many forms. Using 21^st Century Learning, the Framework for Information Literacy, and the Liturgists Podcast Fake News & Media Literacy as examples, readers can see that to be a savvy, integral, productive member of society, you must be literate in areas ranging from academics, to social/political issues, to technology, information, and the arts. In a world in which we are inundated with constant information at our fingertips, one must be able to learn, study, decipher, and question material with an unbiased eye to help us all hold each other accountable. The combination of these attributes is what leads us to have a more harmonious and impactful world for ourselves and others. It means digging deep within ourselves, through what we see and perceive, and deciphering the true from the false, the valid from the invalid. It begs the reflective question: How literate am I when it comes to information? What is my information diet?

This led to quiet an eye-opening reflection about my own intake of information. I realized that I tend to get my information from books, newspapers and articles through online resources (MSNBC, Washington Post, New York Times, our local paper, even Yahoo), sporadically watching the news, and conversations with people. Prior to the podcast and the readings, I knew how to check for validity after teaching my ELA students research for so many years. I know that there are attention grabbing headlines that are slanted and fabrications that are opinions passed off as news. When I was in SLIS 702 in the spring, I made a Powtoon on how school librarians can help students spot fake news, since the term has been so sensationalized. Through that I learned that there was still much for me to learn on the topic. One thing that the readings and listening activities in SLIS 761 did for me this week, was to remind me I have a ways to go with broadening my horizons with how I receive information. I have twitter as a requirement for classes this semester, but haven’t much taken the opportunity to discover information from it. I think the lack of social media outlets in my information diet is something I could work on. With this noted, I also realize that through those formats, I will need to be more diligent in fact checking and looking into sources. This was also the first time I have listened to a podcast. I know! Crazy! It was a wonderful car time activity, and I have since listened to  TED Talk Radio Hour How Art Changes Us. Just adding the simple podcast app to my phone has given me another avenue to receive and decipher information. For myself, I have realized that there are some avenues of information that are at my fingertips that I do not take advantage of, but I should! I think that I had become comfortable and complacent with the information diet I had, but like with all diets, with knowledge of information, your diet can change. I realize that as a school librarian, I am going to have to stretch out of my comfort zone to obtain a greater range of information, not only for myself, but for the students at my school.

Resources

Framework for 21st Century Learning. (2015). Retrieved September 9, 2019, from https://blackboard.sc.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-13049461-dt-content-rid-94287088_2/courses/SLIS761-000-FALL-2019/P21_framework_0515.pdf

"Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education", American Library Association,  

         February 9, 2015. http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework (Accessed September

         14, 2019) Document ID: b910a6c4-6c8a-0d44-7dbc-a5dcbd509e3f

Frameworks & resources. (2019). Retrieved September 9, 2019, from http://www.battelleforkids.org/networks/p21/frameworks-resources

How Art Changes Us. (2017). Retrieved September 12, 2019, from https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnByLm9yZy90ZW1wbGF0ZXMvcnNzL3BvZGNhc3QucGhwP2lkPTUxMDI5OA&episode=YmRlODhiN2ItMGNjNi00NjFkLThhYjgtYTQwNDJlYmQzYTRi&hl=en&ep=6&at=1568389435740

McHargue, M. (2017, March 07). Fake news & media literacy. Retrieved September 10, 2019, from https://theliturgists.com/podcast/2017/3/7/fake-news-media-literacy

P21 Framework Definitions. (2015). Retrieved September 9, 2019, from https://blackboard.sc.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-13049463-dt-content-rid-94287089_2/courses/SLIS761-000-FALL-2019/P21_Framework_Definitions_New_Logo_2015.pdf

National School Library Standards, ISTE Standards for Students & Educators, and the IB Program

     As I am currently studying to become a school librarian, the teacher in me is fascinated by the standards a librarian needs to follow. Being in education the past 18 years, I understand how standards are to hold us up to the highest degree of professionalism while focusing on the reason we are in education to begin with- the students. I was thrilled to find a link, compliments of my SLIS 761 professor Dr. Green, which was a crosswalk of the National School Library Standards and ISTE Standards for Students and Educators from AASL. As I was exploring the different domains and comparing the two, many terms jumped out at me. I decided to take the similar terms from each area and group them. After that, I went through to see what the big differences were between the two. I believe that there are more similarities than differences. When trying to contrast them, there were few things that stood out. The National School Library Standards are specifically targeting a school library, librarian, and students in terms of the role of a school library, while the ISTE Standards for Students and Educators focus more on the students and  educators in regard to technologies. However, as an educator I know exactly how important the school library and technology are to producing well-rounded students. The library is the heartbeat of a school, and technology allows students to have a farther reach in their inquiry and learning on a global scale. With that being said, I feel confident in saying that the National School Library Standards and ISTE Standards for Students and Educators complement each other in a way that allows educators and school librarians to best meet the needs of students in a holistic way.

     To put this theory to the test, I wanted to look at it through a school program that is close to my heart. In the May/June issue of Knowledge Quest, there was an article about the relationship of the AASL Standards and the IB Program. My daughter is currently in her second year of our school district’s MYIB Program. I wanted to see how my future job would support such a wonderful program. The Start of Something New: A Relationship between the AASL Standards Framework for Learners and IB Approaches to Learning by Calypso Gilstrap was a wonderful read that highlighted the global approach to teaching the whole child in relationship to their community and the world, and how a school librarian, through following the standards, helps support IB students and educators.

     While reading the article, I kept in mind the ISTE Standards for Students and Educators as well since through the crosswalk, I saw how supportive and necessary they are for school librarians when fulfilling the National School Library Standards. The article focuses on the IB’s Approaches to Learning (ATL), which drives the organizations educational philosophy and how strongly it correlates to AASL’s Standards Framework for Learners (Gilstrap 2019). “The five categories of ATL are 1.) thinking skills, 2.) communication skills, 3.) social skills, 4.) self-management skills, and 5.) research skills (IBO 2014, I)” (2019). When thinking about the five categories of IB, school librarians can see how the focus lines up directly with the National School Library Standards, which in turn lines up with the ISTE Standards for Students and Educators. Gilstrap goes on in the article to give ideas and tips to use with students in educators that are based on the National School Library Standards that go hand in hand with supporting IB’s five categories. As a parent of a current MYIB student, I can strongly agree that the 5 categories of IB’s ATL are the bedrock of the program. As a current educator and now LIS student, I can say with 100% certainty that the National School Library Standards and the ISTE Standards for Students and Educators are guidelines that not only support IB students and educators, but all students and educators to become global learners and communicators in our ever-changing world. 

IB Information

Gilstrap, C. (2019). The Start of Something New: A Relationship between the AASL Standards Framework for Learners and IB Approaches to Learning. Knowledge Quest, 47(5), 30-35.