good news story - literature circles in family management

One of the teachers at PGSS  recently implemented a Literature Circle study in her Family Management class. She used the following  novels that are focussed on the issue of date violence:
Bitter End by Jennifer Brown
Things Change by Patrick Jones
Dreamland by Sarah Dessen
Breathing Underwater by Alexandra Finn
Leslie's Journal by Allan Stratton
Beaten by Suzanne Weyn
She reports that she distributed the titles last week and already some students have read one of the books and are asking for more.

more considerations

It seems that every issue of the "Teacher-Libriarian" journal provides me with more ideas to explore. The December 2012 presented the following:

1. Interviews on educational change presented by Steve Hargadon
1. Kirstin Olson and her book Wounded by School 
1. http://www.stevehargadon.com/
1. http://www.futureofeducation.com/page/past-interviews
2. The Inspiring Middle School Literacy project  
1. http://www.teachersdomain.org

march 8 nid

 Workshop choices.....

 Morning - Online Educational Resources and Tools

Presenters: Steve Dotto, Lynne Massee-Danes
Lynne is the Director of LearnNowBC Steve and Lynne will lead a lively and useful exploration of many of the resources and tools available to educators in BC.
The session will focus on, but not be limited to the many tools, resources and features provided at learnnowbc.ca. It will be an engaging session with much sharing from the audience as well as Steve and Lynne.
Some critical questions...

1. What are the steps to easily accessing the learnnow.bc tools - particularly the online safety tools?
1. There is a plan afoot to have the SD57 students and teachers able to access these resources from one portal
2. How can we make this process more available and transparent for students and teachers?
1. The "Charged Up videos" for Math and Science and the "Success Checker" will be useful study tools for students and teachers
3. What support materials are available or need to be developed to ensure that these tools are effective in the classroom? 
1. Use of and access to the safety tools remains a challenge
2. Will investigate the preparation of a set of lessons using these resources for the Planning 10 classes
4. Where and how will these tools be implemented into the curriculum?

Afternoon - ProTECHtivity

Presenter: Steve Dotto
The fact is the pursuit of productivity is often the least productive time we spend, searching for the tools that will save us time, make us more efficient, and more current is one of the major time wasters today. Steve has created this workshop in which he shows the tools that work, and how to integrate them into your professional life.
Regardless if you are an iPhone, Android, Blackberry, or Windows Phone user, you will come away from ProTECHtivity with a better understanding of what apps work and how to fit them into your life.
Some critical questions....

1. Which productivity tools do I need? and why?
1. How to work smarter - workers check e-mail 40 times per day
2. Some tools to explore further:
1. Evernote - manage everything
2. Google forms
3. Drop box - dropbox.com
4. Asana - team project manager app
5.  Noteability - mark up .pdf documents

thought-provoking lists

On the "Your Committed Sardine Blog" created by Ian Jukes, Mary Ellen Tribby posted these lists of these "success indicators"...

Successful People
Have a sense of gratitude
Forgive others
Accept responsibility for their failures
Compliment
Read everyday
Keep a journal
Talk about ideas
Want others to succeed
Share information and data
Keep a “to-be” list
Exude joy
Keep a “to-do/project” list
Set goals and develop life plans
Embrace change
Give other people credit for their victories
Operate from a transformational perspective

Unsuccessful People
Have a sense of entitlement
Hold a grudge
Blame others for their failures
Criticize
Watch TV everyday
Say they keep a journal but really don’t
Talk about people
Secretly hope others fail
Horde information and data
Don’t know what they want to be
Exude anger
Fly by their seat of their pants
Never set goals
Think they know it all
Fear change
Take all the credit of their victories
Operate from a transactional perspective

Her challenge.... if you are ready kick up the success meter a bit, make a conscious effort to eliminate the traits on the bottome of the chart above.

nid february 1 2013 - more questions

•  Sessions attended:
• @ school - Google Docs - a great collaborative resource
• How will we have students use this tool  under the current FOIPOP regulations?
• @ the DLC - Learning Commons Team Learning Grants - some great work being done with this initiative
• How do we move towards this new paradigm?
• What will we be doing in a Learning Commons that wasn't happening in the library?
• @ the DLC - E-resources - some clarity around the access to these resources
• NFB - requires a teacher registration then playlists can be saved
• World Book Dramatic - good resource for Drama classes

virtual learning commons

1. An article by David Loertscher and Carol Koechlin called "The Virtual Learning Commons and School Improvement: in the October 2012 issue of the Teacher Librarian journal describes the development of a "Virtual Learning Commons"
2. These four videos describe the concept
3. A VLC template is  available here
1. This article encourages the use of Google Sites as a tool for the development of a VLC
2. These five main portals are included:
1. The Information Center
• somewhat like a traditional library home page that links users to a wide range of useful tools
• used as a "hook" to draw the user to the entire site
2. The Literacy Center 
• whole school culture is emerging around reading, writing, speaking, listening, creating, consuming, enjoying, collaborating and celebrating all things connected to literacy
• all school members are posting and responding to posts about literacy
3. The Knowledge Building Center
• the learning community - all colleagues are collaborating to create learning experiences that range from single class to multiples to global
4. The Experimental Learning Center
• the heart of the experimentation on school improvement including action research, grant projects 
• all colleagues celebrate successes and allows all to take risks
5. School Culture
• living school yearbook - home of sports videos, club activities, trips, performances, contest winners 
• THE place to check everyday to see what's going on

November 30 2012 NID Plan

Secondary TLs will gather at CHSS to explore the district's online database resources and plan and develop some guidebooks that may streamline and explain the access to these resources
My specific questions related to this activity are detailed on the 21st Century Learning page of this blog