Monthly Archives: May 2011
GLMA Summer Institute 2011: Sneak Peek Video
Don’t forget to register for the GLMA Summer Institute, to be held June 16-17, 2011 at Callaway Gardens! Georgia Media Specialists will be able to get together to work, learn, earn one PLU credit, and network with friends throughout the state! Take a look at our teaser video above (if you can’t access YouTube, view it here on Animoto).
New this year: All sessions are “Make it and Take it” so you will leave this 2-day event loaded with tools, tips, and tricks for jazzing up your program! See below for the approved speakers and topics for this event:
- Jerol Jean Smith: A Collaboratively Planned Unit
- Martha Powell: Using Microsoft Photostory 3 to Extend Literature Connections
- Elizabeth Friese: Creative Research Products
- Dr. Phyllis Snipes: How to Personalize, Professionalize, and Globalize… the Wiki Way!
- Beth Miller: Check! Reading Standard Done!
- Courtney McGough (GALILEO): Create Your Own Story with GALILEO
- Linda Martin: Book Trailers on Animoto: This Ain’t Your Mama’s Book Report!
- Ellen Gadberry: Reading is Thinking – Activities for Building Students’ Thinking Skills
- Susan Grigsby: Graphic Language (Arts) in the Media Center
The response has been phenomenal - rooms for Wednesday have been SOLD OUT so if you need to come in for Summer Institute the night before and don’t yet have a room, please get in touch with Susan Grigsby (see email below). Also, if you HAVE a room on Wednesday night and are willing to share with a colleague, let me (Susan) know and we will do our best to coordinate some roommate situations!
Finally, one of our vendors is providing participants with a reception on Thursday evening! This is the first time EVER and we’re excited to provide this meet-and-greet opportunity for Summer Institute participants.
Need another reason to sign up? Callaway Gardens is extending the special rate for anyone that wants to stay over on Friday night. Why not have your significant other drive up Friday afternoon and spend the evening watching the FSU Circus performance? Then you can spend a leisurely day in the Gardens on Saturday before heading home. Click here to register for Summer Institute NOW (the form is at the bottom of GLMA’s front page)!
We look forward to seeing you at the Summer Institute. If you have any questions, please contact Amanda or Kathryn in the Executive Office or the Summer Institute Coordinator, Susan Grigsby.
Submit Your COMO Proposal by May 31st!
The deadline for submitting proposals for the COMO conference is Tuesday, May 31.
You can submit proposals at www.georgiacomo.org
COMO Conference Dates: October 5 – 7, 2011 in Athens, GA
This year’s theme is “Georgia’s 5G Network: GAIT, GALILEO, GLA, GLMA & GOLD”.
Inspire or challenge others with what you love to do! Introduce, demonstrate, educate, or spread your passion to others. The COMO Conference Committee invites those working in school libraries to submit program proposals for the 23rd annual COMO library conference which is sponsored by the Georgia Association of Instructional Technology, the Georgia Library Association and the Georgia Library Media Association.
Betsy Razza, GLMA President
COMO Conference Chair 2011
Druid Hills High School
1798 Haygood Drive
Atlanta, Ga 30307
678-874-6335 or 6333
Summer Activities in GALILEO
Of course, we know students will be enjoying the outdoors for most summer days, but what about those rainy days when they’re stuck inside and parents need ideas for activities? GALILEO resources offer quite a few fun educational activities for students looking for something to do.
(Please remember that the GALILEO password for your school will be changed on May 17, so students will need the new password to access GALILEO over the summer.)
**Elementary Students**
Britannica Learning Zone (http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zelz)
PreK- 2nd grade students can find videos from around the world and reading and drawing activities.
Britannica Elementary (http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zebk)
Watch videos, investigate animals, and read about famous people. Find games and fun activities in the Learning Materials.
Book Collection: Nonfiction (http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zbnf)
Read about famous people, pets, pirates, dinosaurs, and more.
Magazines A-Z (http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?path=/magazines/&view=high-school)
Parents can help students find magazines with activities, stories, and other items, such as Highlights for Children, Humpty Dumpty’s Magazine, Jack & Jill, National Geographic Kids, Ranger Rick, Spider, Sports Illustrated for Kids, and Time for Kids.
NoveList K-8 (http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zkne)
For the kids that love to read, parents can find Grab and Go Book Lists to help their children pick out books during the next trip to the public library.
**Middle School Students**
Compton’s by Britannica (http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zebm)
Investigate important people and big events, keep up with the news, and watch videos. Find interesting science activities in Learning Materials.
Book Collection: Nonfiction (http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zbnf)
Read about celebrities, cars, sports, hobbies, and more.
Magazines A-Z (http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?path=/magazines/&view=high-school)
Find magazines in GALILEO, such as Boys’ Life, Calliope, Cobblestone, Girls’ Life, and Stone Soup.
NoveList K-8 (http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zkne)
Find more books like a favorite that’s already been read. Just search for a favorite book, click the title to see the book information, and then click Find Similar Books. Take the list on the next trip to the public library.
**High School Students**
Encyclopaedia Britannica High School (http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zehs)
Read biographies and learn about historical events, keep up with the news, read the Britannica Blog, and watch videos. Find interesting science activities in Learning Materials.
Book Collection: Nonfiction (http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zbnf)
Read about celebrities, cars, sports, hobbies, and more.
Magazines A-Z (http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?path=/magazines/&view=high-school)
GALILEO includes several magazines for teens, including American Cheerleader, BMX Plus, Dance Spirit, Discover, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, Teen People, and Transworld Skateboarding.
NoveList (http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zknl)
Find more books like a favorite that’s already been read. Just search for a favorite book, click the title to see the book information, and then click Find Similar Books. Take the list on the next trip to the public library.
As always, if you have questions or comments, please Contact Us.
Courtney McGough
GALILEO Support Services
Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia
Help with Summer Reading from NoveList
Research has shown that children who participate in summer reading programs in the public library avoid the summer learning slump — that is, the loss of reading skills we see in children who don’t read over the summer. Instead, children who participate in summer reading programs tend to start school a little bit ahead of where they left off in June.
To help, the NoveList team has put together book lists to support the 2011 Collaborative Summer Library Program. As always, there are different themes for different age levels: One World, Many Stories (children); You Are Here (teens) and Novel Destinations (adults).
In NoveList, you’ll find youth-oriented Summer Reading lists centered on these themes:
1. Type summer reading in the Search For… box on the homepage, and click Search.
2. From your Result List, click the Lists & Articles tab.
3. From the “Narrow Results by” section to the left, expand the “Publication Type” drop-down, and then select Feature Articles.
4. From the “Sort by” drop-down, select Date Descending to see the most recent lists supporting the 2011 Collaborative Summer Reading Program:
For Younger Kids: Summer Reading: Around the World with Reading is a fiction list featuring outstanding picture books where kids, parents, and pets travel through multicultural neighborhoods and around the world.
For Older Kids: Summer Reading: Life Around the World includes nonfiction books which give cultural overviews of life for older children of the world. Summer Reading: Open Up Your World with Reading lists fiction titles that will open the world to older children, creating global citizens along the way.
For Teens: Summer Reading: Life Experiences Around the Globe is a list of autobiographical books about early life experiences around the world. Summer Reading: Great Big World includes fiction titles encompassing realism, humor, mystery, adventure, historical fiction, and fantasy that will help teens traverse the globe through their reading.
Find additional Best Practices information in NoveList about summer reading programs by librarians working in schools:
1. From home page, click on Teaching with Books hyperlink on right panel.
2. Under “NoveList Resources” on the right panel, click on the Best Practices link.
3. From here, scroll down the results for two short articles specifically about summer reading, “Best Practices: Schools and Summer Reading” and “Best Practices: Summer Reading Lists and More!”
As always, if you have questions or comments, please Contact Us.
GALILEO Support Services
Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia
Article from NoveList Notes; appeared in the May 2011 Media Matters Newsletter
Image from cmcgough
Express Links for Databases Mentioned in this Post:
NoveList: http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zknl
NoveList K-8: http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zkne
Find All Your Express Links (what’s this?)
E-readers in the Library and Classroom: Kindles? Nooks? iPads? Who knows?
In the May 2011 issue of School Library Journal, the results of the annual technology survey were published. The survey reflected the rapidly changing role of technology in the school library. One of the hot topics on the survey was e-books and e-readers. About one third of the respondents already have e-books as a part of their collection and well over three-fourths of respondents plan to add e-books in the next 5 years. Even with that lofty percentage of libraries who plan to have e-books, almost half of the respondents said they have no plans or priorities for e-books in the next two years. The two main reasons people listed for not having e-books is lack of funding and lack of devices to support e-books. It’s also confusing and frustrating to compare Kindles, Nooks, iPads, and the many other devices to figure out which one is right for your library and which one supports which e-book format.
I’ll admit it. For the past three years, I’ve continued to try many technologies in my library and continued to spend the majority of my budget on print materials with little planning going into the e-book realm. I’ve watched as other librarians (Buffy Hamilton, Jennifer LaGarde, Kathy Parker, and more) have plunged into the unknown to be leaders for the masses on how to implement e-readers and e-books in the library. Over the past year, I’ve really focused myself on where I might go in an elementary library with e-readers. I’ve attended webinars, joined the edukindle ning, and extensively read the blogs of educators and librarians giving e-readers a try. During all of this, I finally started the process of planning for e-books and e-readers in my library.
To tackle the funding issues, I’ve written three grants (awaiting approval), submitted a Donors Choose project (you’re welcome to donate), and asked my PTA for support. When I started talking to PTA, I was energized by the amount of interest from parents to get e-readers into our library. They encouraged me to keep applying for grants but also to submit a proposal to PTA. At the May PTA meeting (which I was not even at), the idea of e-readers was brought up, discussed, and unanimously approved even before my official proposal was in their hands. However, they needed to spend the money that they allocated in this year’s budget, so my year of thinking had to finally mold into a real plan.
Here are some things I decided:
- We will start with 6 Nook Colors. Why Nook Color? Because it allows me to reach all of my student from preK-5th grade, is user-friendly with its touch screen, is more than just an e-reader, and it’s from a company that I can talk to locally. Barnes and Noble has been extremely supportive with every question I’ve had and have even offered to come in and help show students how to use the Nooks or let us borrow some Nooks to try out before we buy them.
- We will start out as book clubs/book groups before Nooks get checked out. These groups will allow me to show students the full potential of what the Nook can do while at the same time building some confidence and responsibility with the devices. Once I have several students who know how to use the devices at each grade level, I’ll begin checking them out for use within the school. At this time, I have no plan for sending Nook Colors home with elementary students, but if the program grows and we get some Wi-fi Nooks, this will probably change.
Here are some problems I had to work through already:
- Gift cards: Every person who uses e-readers in school has to work through this problem somehow. To purchase e-books they must be purchased on a gift card or credit card. Our district has a “no gift card” policy. My secretary and I had long conversations with our district’s accounting department and repeated the same information numerous times in different ways until we finally got approved to purchase a gift card. The key was that I promised I could show detailed receipts for each e-book purchased with the card. Another key phrase that I used was that the gift card was “strictly for e-book purchases”.
- Extended warranty/insurance: If you buy a Nook, Kindle, etc. as a single user, you can purchase an extended 2-year warranty that protects you against drops, spills, etc. However, Barnes and Noble will not sell you the extended warranty plan if your device is for multiple users. Their reasoning is that if you are buying 6 Nook Colors and paying $55 each for extended warranty, then you could have just bought another Nook Color. The manager of the local Barnes and Noble had conversations with the main office about this, but they were firm in their decision. This is one of the main reasons that I’m not ready to send a Nook Color home with elementary students.
- Credit Card: You do have to attach a credit card to your account in order to activate your account. Some districts use school/district credit cards. Others us credit card gift cards such as AMEX or VISA. At the moment, I’m using my own credit card to establish the account. Before you take a huge gasp at that statement, I’ll point out that another great feature of Nook Color is that you can set a password on the device that must be entered before a purchase can be made. This password needs to be extremely secure! Once you establish your account, you load up to 3 gift cards onto your account and e-books are deducted from the gift card first before your card is charged. It’s important to make sure that you always have a gift card balance before you make a purchase. The problem that I ran into right away is that the Nooks are automatically set to buy ebooks with one click. You have to go into settings and the shop menu to set the device to ask for a password. When I tested this out at first, I accidentally bought a book without having a gift card loaded yet, so I officially bought the first e-book for the Barrow library. It was only $6.99, but I won’t make that mistake again!
There is already a buzz of interest at the school about the e-readers. Teachers are asking what my plan is and are eager to send students to me. The special education teacher has started researching how these devices can support her students. The family engagement specialist is brainstorming how these devices might be used with parents in family engagement meetings. Teachers and staff are wanting to check out the devices to tryout for themselves too. When you launch into the e-book and e-reader world, it’s a huge plunge and many doors start to open that are unknown. Just know that when you make the decision, there are many people to network with, many conversations being made public online, and many resources to reference. It’s important for us to make all of our work public for one another to learn from, but with e-readers and e-books it’s even more important. When we are transparent about our work, we support the learning of our global community.
