Week Thirteen Reflections

LM_NET

            Shonda Brisco shared a great link on November 11^th that illustrated a great resource to help science out.  It was a link that showed the eye up close and personal and also a video of an eye dissection.  Overall, this was a great reminder that there are some amazing resources out there to help out those departments that don’t get as much love from the library and they are FREE!

            Anne-Marie Gordon replied to the discussion on November 11^th, about defining Fiction and Nonfiction in the library.  The discussion started because students were confused about why fairy tales were in the nonfiction section of the library.  Anne-Marie described how she explained it to students. She said that they had a discussion of how authors decide on what to write.  Those who come up with their own ideas belong in fiction and those who write about something that already exists go into nonfiction.  Since fair tales are passed down and not a brand new idea, they get a special place in nonfiction.

BLOGS

The Unquiet Librarian writes on November 18^th about “Information Literacy and Inquiry as Disruption to School Culture Oppressed by Testing”.  I was immediately drawn to this post because of my own struggles this year with authentic and meaningful learning vs. the all-powerful MAP test.  The Unquiet Librarian questions here in her post how librarians will play their role in literacy based on inquiry when students don’t have the drive for questions and original thought any longer.  I too am worried about students losing their drive for learning because we have tested it out of them. How much longer will the standardized testing craze go on?  How much longer can we let it go on?

Doug Johnson writes today, November 22, about the rewards and challenges that come with getting a big job done.  His school will be installing lots of new technology over the next two months and he already anticipating the struggles that will come along with it. True, you can’t give your staff new technology with out the complaints that will surely come along with it. There will have to be training sessions to support the different levels of abilities and support if for some reason something doesn’t end up working right.