August 2016 TL Announcements

You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.

--Clay P. Bedford

Think!

The Purpose-Based Library: Finding your path to survival, success, and growth --American Libraries

“The purpose-based library is not just about circulation, gate counts, and computer hours. It is about how you and your library affect people’s lives and therefore the community as a whole. This is your most significant competitive advantage over Amazon, Google, and Netflix.”

Consider the following questions as you read this article and post reflections to Comments:

• What is your library’s purpose?
• What are your library program’s competitive advantages?

Beginning-of-Year@BVSD

• Remember to run through the Beginning of Year list for Insignia.  

• To learn more about District licenced software including WeVideo, BrainPop, NoodleTools, and others, visit the Ed Tech Software page (bookmark it).

Welcome Aboard!

• Shauna Polson has joined the EdTech team as our newest Educational Technology Specialist. Read Shauna’s bio here.

• Please welcome Jessica West to our BVSD TL community. Jessica will be job sharing with Sarah Kirby at Heatherwood.

What to Know @BVSD this Month!

OverDrive Consortium Participation Deadline Extension - It’s not too late to join the BVSD OverDrive Consortium. Complete this form by EOD Sept. 15 and join the 14 BVSD schools that are building a shared ebook collection that will be available to all participating schools. If you have any questions or need clarification about this opportunity please email Zoe or Rae.


OverDrive Content Specialists will be on-site Sept. 7, 4 PM @ IT Copper, to provide an overview of the OverDrive platform, discuss content selection best practices, and take questions. This session is open to both current BVSD OverDrive Consortium members and those considering joining and want to learn more.

NoodleTools (NT) Single Sign On (SSO) is now operational. Please review ​How to access NoodleTools through Google Apps tutorial ​for detailed ​NT via Google Apps ​instructions​. Note the NT direct URL has changed so, please update any links you have to NT on library webpages or other documents with this address, https://my.noodletools.com/logon/gapps/landing/bvsd.org.

WeVideo is now available for grades 2-12. To learn more about WeVideo and how to access via SSO visit the WeVideo EdTech page.

In mid October Insignia will be providing us with a demonstration of their latest upgrade that will include HMTL5 support (allowing TLs to access Insignia’s Admin functions via Chrome/Chromebooks). Once we conclude that the upgrade is stable and seamlessly delivers HTML5 support we will release it to the TL community. Stay tuned...

• Customizing your OPAC - create a more relevant and branded search experience for your patrons.

• Map Editor and Locate It! - allows your patrons to see a map of your library, indicating where a certain book can be found.

• Projects in ILS and OPAC - allows you to create a collection of materials of all media types for patrons to use for projects.

Bi-Monthly Workshops

Thanks to all the TLs that have offered to host our Bi-Monthly Workshops. Hugely excited to tour these spaces which have all undergone extensive renovations and exemplify innovative learning spaces.

If you have already signed up to lead a workshop, thank you! If you want to lead a workshop but haven’t signed up please complete this form (still have open workshop slots). Bi-monthly workshops are just that, an opportunity to workshop an idea, project or lesson plan, goals, etc., with your peers, and tap the collective expertise and experience to think-out-loud and resolve an issue or bring an idea to fruition.

• September 13, Boulder High-- Parking at BHS can be very challenging so, please carpool to this meeting (seriously, carpool if at all possible)
• November 9, Whittier Elementary (yes, this is a Wednesday)
• January 10, Southern Hills Middle
• March 14, Sanchez Elementary
• May 9, Ed Center (End-of-Year Celebration)

Notes/Events/Resources:

• Dynamic Duo of Colleen and Aaron Graves, K-12 Media Specialists/Librarians are presenting a FREE webinar on, Makerspace Projects for School, Public and Academic Libraries September 15, 2016, 2:00 PM ET / 1:00 PM CT.
• Coming Soon -- The Return of LIBinars! As soon as we have topic details and dates confirmed we will pass the schedule along to you. If you have an idea for a LIBinar please let us know by completing this form. Don’t forget you have on-demand access to previous LIBinars via the BVSD Ed Tech YouTube channel.  
• Digital Shift 2016 virtual conference, October 19, 2016, 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM EDT
• If you are supporting teachers involved with National History Day be sure to tell them about Boulder Public Library’s (BPL) Research Rendezvous on Saturday Dec. 3 --click here for details.

"We Have Always Been Makers"

Makerspaces: An Innovation Renaissance

Based on the amount of conversation and discussion surrounding the maker movement you would think that creating spaces in our schools for students to tinker, experiment, build, create, and collaborate is something new in K-12 education. It isn't. 

I remember shop classes where my brothers built napkin holders, a ceramics/pottery class where I made an ashtray (yes, we made ashtrays for our parents whether they smoked or not), and Home Economics where I learned to sew and make Rice Krispie Treats. The maker movement and makerspaces is not a fad but an innovation renaissance; The rediscovery and reapplication of the once popular "learning by doing" process. 

Embedding makerspaces into our learning environments ensures students have equitable access to the tools, technology, and resources required to experience hands-on problem solving and is the actualization of the BVSD Success Effect: "create challenging, meaningful and engaging learning opportunities so that all children thrive and are prepared for successful, civically engaged lives." 

"We Have Always Been Makers"

Teacher-Librarians are uniquely positioned to lead this innovation renaissance:

"We have always been makers. Libraries have always been maker spaces. The tools change, but the core of who we are and what we do is the same.We are educators, enablers, equippers. We are a space to try new things, learn new things, and do new things. We are open doors and new opportunities. We are makers. We always have been. We always will be. Even when the terminology changes.  

--SLJ, 2015

We have put together a collection of K-12 aligned resources on the who, what, why, and where of the maker movement and how educators are integrating innovative spaces into their learning communities and library spaces.

Click here to jump start your maker movement research and learn how teacher-librarians and library spaces are leading this innovation renaissance.

Expanding Your Digital Collections - OverDrive

Based on the success of the OverDrive (OD) ebook pilot program (2014-2016) we want to expand adoption of the OD platform for ebook content delivery to all BVSD schools.

We know that many of you are actively building and or expanding your digital collections and partnering with a variety of ebook vendors including Follett and Mackin. OD is yet another ebook vendor to consider partnering with to accelerate your digital collection development efforts.

Working with OD, we have developed a participation matrix where schools contribute a dollar amount based on student population and commit to spending that minimum dollar amount during the 2016-17 school year. Each school will make their own content selections and share their content thus creating a combined ebook collection that can be accessed by all participating schools.

Participation is 100% OPTIONAL and will only be offered once a year. 

If you want to participate you must complete the OD Participation Form and submit it by this Friday, May 20 at 4 PM.

Important Participation Deadlines:

May 20 by 4 PM -- Complete and submit the OverDrive Participation Form

Week of May 23 -- Complete and submit OverDrive’s Participation Agreement (will be sent to you directly from OD)

Early to mid August -- look for invoice for full contribution amount from OverDrive

Participation Benefits

• Continue to access the strong ebook collection created as part of the pilot (maintain access to these resources).
• The more schools that participate, the larger and more diverse and appealing the collection which benefits students across all schools, large and small.
• Participating schools will make their own OD content selections and can continue to maintain other ebook platforms (e.g., MackinVIA or Follett Shelf).
• The collection is dynamic and titles can easily be swapped in and out to improve relevancy, applicability, and quality of OD collection.
• Schools that currently maintain OD ebook collections (non OD pilot schools) can continue to do so and will not be required to participate in this program and their OD content will not be included in the shared collection (if they so desire).
• *Participating schools can add content for just their student population over and above their participation minimum amount.
• Online collection is a catalyst for students to use their devices in a purposeful and meaningful way.

* Minimum $300 order is required to create an Advantage account. School will need to decide if Advantage content will be shared with all consortium members or be exclusive to that school.

May Announcements

"The library today is a place where knowledge is created and not merely consumed.”

--Laura Fleming (@LFlemingEDU), author of Worlds of Learning:  Best Practices for Establishing a Makerspace for Your School.

Think! Looking at Innovative Spaces

Innovate@BVSD check here for event details and registration!

Please join educators from BVSD and beyond at this two-day event, June 8 & 9, and kick start your efforts to create future ready, student centered, and experiential learning environments for your students.

End-of-Year@BVSD

• Teacher Librarian Celebration May 10, 2016 4:00 @BVSD Ed Center
• Please let us know if you are retiring, have celebrations you would like to share, etc. 
• Genreland raffle and prizes will be awarded. Make sure you fill out the Genreland form to be eligible!
• Please complete and submit the Annual Library Program Survey by 5 PM on Friday May 13. This is an opportunity for you to help us develop a more complete picture of your library program so we can more proactively support your efforts. Your participation is greatly appreciated.

• If you are attending ISTE be sure and stop by the ISTE Librarians Network playground on Monday, June 27th from 8:00 to 11:30 AM. Connect with school librarians and educators as they share their favorite tools and resources, and innovative technologies that support development of information literacy skills, and research and information fluency, as well as creativity and innovation. Complete this form if you would like to volunteer and share at the playground. Click here for more playground specifics. 

What to Know@BVSD this Month!

• LAC: We will have an elementary teacher librarian position open on the Library Advisory Council beginning fall. Please apply or nominate a teacher librarian colleague for this position! 
• Bobby Lehman is excited to be returning to the classroom in August at Crest View Elementary. In this transition, we are hiring a new EdTech Specialist--please pass this post along to interested colleagues! 
• Boulder Public Library's Summer Reading Program, Ready. Set. Read! is open to all students. Click here to download BPL's program flyer and poster.
• Coming this fall-- NoodleTools (NT) Single Sign On (SSO)! In early August we will share documentation and provide training on how staff and students will access NT and sync personal NT accounts to Google accounts. Stay tuned...

April Announcements

“The person you will be in 5 years is based on the books you read and the people you surround yourself with today.”

-the Goodwill Librarian

Think! Looking at Innovative Spaces

• How This School Library Increased Its Student Use by 1,000 Percent: To adapt to changing student needs, some school libraries are reinventing themselves as makerspaces, but this Ohio library took a slightly different approach. Now they’re seeing incredible results.
• 10 Trends Driving Successful School and University Design: See this photo gallery exploring the common threads of design embraced by schools and universities across the country
• 12 Major Trends in Library Design: Trends and ideas to consider as the physical space of our libraries evolve to accommodate both traditional and digital assets and continue to  provide space for collaboration, contemplation, group work, and research and technology instruction.

Insignia Info

• You can access your aggregate collection analysis in both Mackin and Follett Titlewave.  (You may have received confirmation emails about this.)  Feel free to log in to your accounts and check out your library statistics according to the Mackin and Follett standards.  Compare your library to a companion library within the district.  

Learning for You!

• Transform Your School Library (TYSL): Sponsored by your friends at Mackin with the goal of creating a forum where “like-minded educators who are excited about the transformation of school libraries can have an arena to work within and help to secure the future of school libraries and school librarianship.” Check out the discussion forum and the blog for timely conversations and insights from library thought-leaders.
• ISTE @Denver: WE ARE SENDING FIVE TEACHER LIBRARIANS TO ISTE (BVSD IT/Ed Tech is covering the full cost of registration)! Submit your interest to this form BY APRIL 8th @4:00pm and we will hold a raffle to select these five lucky attendees! If you are selected to attend, you are required to come back and share your learning through a teacher librarian meeting, libinar or other district professional development. We will notify ISTE winners the week of April 11th.

What to Know @BVSD this Month!

• Hello, I am Zoe Midler, BSVD’s new Digital Literacy Specialist. It’s wonderful to virtually meet you all.  I am a former Teacher-Librarian and Information and Learning Technology Director working primarily in a PreK-8 school in the St. Vrain Valley School District. I live in Longmont with my husband. We moved to Colorado from Central Illinois 18 years ago (Go Illini!). We have a son who is graduating from CU Leeds School of Business in May and our daughter will be a Junior at CU next year. My how times flies! I have experienced first hand the transformational wave of changes that are impacting K-12 education and in particular school libraries and the library profession. I am incredibly excited about collaborating with you all and supporting your efforts to successfully navigate these changes as you continue to add value to your learning communities as literacy and information professionals. To learn more about me please read my “official” Ed Tech Team Bio.
• LGBTQ Book Evaluation Work: Sign up if you are interested in being a part of the May 2nd work. Read the blog for more. Subs will be provided for this work!
• Genreland; What are you reading?! Make sure to fill out the form as you complete your books!
• The Annual Teacher Librarian Celebration is coming up on May 10th from 4:00-5:30 pm--look for more details in our May Newsletter soon!

Connect Beyond BVSD!

• Cecilia LaFrance (former Summit librarian) is an American Librarian Association Mover and Shaker!
• ALA Think Tank on facebook has public and school librarians sharing ideas and struggles.

LGBTQ Work @BVSD

As part of an effort to include a wide-range of diverse texts on the approved list in BVSD, the BVSD teacher librarian group is tasked with helping to evaluate books to submit for approval and add to the list. (Reminder: This list does not govern selection for a school library, this is for classroom read-alouds and assignments. For materials in your libraries--see this policy).

In order to understand and collaborate on this work, we are hosting an LBGTQ Book Evaluation Group of teacher librarians on May 2nd from 1:00-4:00 pm in the IT Copper room. (subs will be provided)

During this time, Bethy Leonardi and Sara Staley from A Queer Endeavor will provide a short presentation to help launch this work and provide context for evaluating these texts.

After this presentation, this group will explore a collection of picture books and complete the evaluation form for these books together as preparation for looking at longer texts over the summer.

During the summer, teacher librarians will evaluate a small selection of chapter/YA books and complete the form as necessary for approval to add to the list of books approved in BVSD. The summer work by this group of librarians will be compensated by the Instructional Services and Equity Department.

Once the lists have been updated, we will continue to work with ISE, our public libraries and outside funding resources to make these books accessible to more and more students. Look for more information for this in the fall!

Please fill out this form if you are interested in being a part of this work! A special thank you to Barb Miller who is helping to lead and inspire this initiative.

See this compelling article recently published in the Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults regarding the impact of this kind of work on LGBTQ students!

March Newsletter

Connect Beyond BVSD!

“For so many of us, books opened our minds to a world of possibility...millions of children in America don’t have that chance because they don’t have adequate access to the books they need to learn and dream…”

First Lady Michelle Obama, introducing the new Open Ebooks Project

OpenEbooks.net

Open eBooks is an app containing thousands of popular and award-winning titles that are free for children from in-need households. Children from in-need families can access these eBooks, which include some of the most popular works of the present and past, using the Open eBooks app and read as many as they like without incurring any costs. The goal of Open eBooks is to encourage a love of reading and serve as a gateway to children reading even more often, whether in school, at libraries, or through other eBook reading apps.

You can see how to get involved and if your school is eligible here.

Insignia Info

• Insignia is converting their ILS platform from Silverlight to HTML5 this summer.  This means you can do all of your librarian work from a Chromebook--good to know as you talk with your schools about Tech Tools. Training on Insignia will be scheduled for late summer, before school starts next year.
• Your Insignia Search page can be customized to act almost as a home page.  See the Insignia sample below. You can add online resources, projects, announcements, photos and videos of your students at your library. I have a great idea for a student driven mapping project for elementary level that can be linked with your catalog so students can find the exact shelf the book should be on! If you are interested in exploring with me, email Rae and let’s get something scheduled!

Learning for You!

• As BVSD continues to explore what innovative spaces look like for our students, check out this article that provides insight on emerging trends in library design.

• School Libraries of the Future: 5 Trends to Watch
• State Library Webinar: The Irresistible Library: Renovate and Rejuvenate

Comment on this blog post about the trends you are most excited for and how you see these impacting your current and future library space! Your name will be entered into a drawing at our end of year celebration to win some great prizes!

• The 2016 Highly Effective School Library Program Rubric is posted and ready for use as you begin planning for next year and your work as a teacher librarian. More information will be available from the state and we will have a specialized blog post in the near future about this revised program!

Grant Opportunities!

Did you know that there is a grant website curated by the BVSD Ed Tech Team and geared towards teachers and teacher librarians? Check it out! Included in this is information about a Google Community Grant--read on to see all that is available to you!

What to Know @BVSD this Month!

• Our March Teacher Librarian Meeting Tuesday, March 8th from 4:00-5:30pm @Escuela Bilingüe Pioneer Elementary
• Host: David Smith
• Snacks: Arlene Gregersen, David Smith, Becky Vancura *Remember to have your book talks ready for the group!
• Workshops!
• Secondary Research Roundtable facilitated by Jon Georgitis & Regina Hoskins: How are you embedding in research instruction in your school? What are activities, programs, lessons, etc, that you use as a secondary librarian? Come chat and share your ideas with fellow secondary teacher librarians.
• An Evolution of Digital Citizenship Workshop with Kim Butler: Come learn about how the DigiCiti project continues to evolve and how to implement digital citizenship lessons and ideas in your own libraries