Blog Archives

President's Address: Stepping Outside our School Libraries

5/1/2018

MSLA President Carrie Tucker is the Librarian at East Bridgewater Jr/Sr High School

This spring, as the inevitable senioritis infection takes hold, I’m tempted to join in. The year has been an extraordinary one. My school survived its NEASC decennial accreditation visit last month, and I am ready for kayak time.

Those of us in elementary schools or non-member secondary schools may appreciate a brief background. Every ten years a 16-person team of educators recruited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) descends upon each member school for an intense four-day visit. The team observes instruction; meets with parents, teachers, students, and administrators; reviews curriculum; examines student work; assesses core values; and more. It’s akin to being formally observed as a first-year teacher--for four days straight.

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2018 Conference Recap

5/1/2018

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Laura Luker is the Library Teacher at Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School in Hadley
and is the MSLA Executive Board Member responsible for Professional Learning.

Every year, I look forward the the MSLA conference as a time to network with colleagues, hear speakers and attend workshops, see the newest and best items that vendors have to offer, and head back to school with batteries recharged and new ideas in mind. This year was no exception. If you weren’t able to attend the conference, you can read about the highlights below and see photos from the event here! (Also, remember if you took photos at the conference, you can feel free to add them to the album above. We love crowdsourced photos!)

We kicked off the conference Sunday morning by continuing last year’s tradition of Ignite Talks. These short, pithy, talks are meant to ignite a spark in the mind of the audience, and this year’s presenters did just that. All three talks shared a common theme: the ways that librarians can lead the culture shift in their schools. Kate Powers talked about the power of apps used as tools and not just toys. Linda St. Laurent talked about leading the shift toward using technology in powerful ways. Finally, Emily Bredburg shared her knowledge of the Constructivist educational philosophy and student-centered learning.

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How a Meaningful and Personalized Mission Statement and Inquiry Skills Framework Can Breathe New Life Into Your School Library Program

5/1/2018

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Emily Houston and Kendall Boninti are the librarians at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in Cambridge, MA and they received a 2018 Web Seal of Excellence Award.

In the year and a half we have been working together in the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School Library, the two of us have sought to create a more equitable, accessible, and joyful experience for our students by making big changes to the physical space, programming, and the way we teach and collaborate with colleagues. After weeding and moving our print collection and revamping our website in the fall, we decided our next step was to formalize our mission and create a library learner competencies framework. We’ve already seen the impact that they have had on our program and we want to share our process with school library community.

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Elementary Column: Evolution of a Relationship with Twitter

5/1/2018

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Wendy Garland is the Librarian at Avery Elementary School, in Dedham.

As librarians many of us find ourselves operating in a vacuum. I am the sole librarian in my building. Our teacher colleagues have each other for support, but my colleagues are across town. Twitter has granted me the opportunity to connect with others, observe what they are doing, ask questions to the larger school librarian community, and grow as a professional. I attribute the growth in my teaching in large part to Twitter and the innumerable individuals that have influenced my journey.

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Special Legislative Commission on School Libraries: Next Steps for Advocacy

5/1/2018

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Judi Paradis is the Library Teacher at the Plympton School in Waltham
and a recipient of a 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Now what?

The Special Legislative Commission on School Libraries in Massachusetts wrapped up four years of work this winter. A report was submitted to the Legislature, and recommendations were approved by the Commissioners. Good news, right?

And it is! For the first time, we have:

Evidence we can share with decision makers about areas where equity is lacking in our school library programs
Recommendations that are specific, have the backing of the library and educational communities, and come with a timeline and steps for implementation
Allies! Commission members came from DESE, MTA, AFT, MBLC and the Legislature

And our recommendations will make infinite sense to school librarians and their supporters. Based on our findings, we are asking for:

Improved access to school librarians and school libraries
Improved access to information resources
Improved access to information technology
Improved access to funding
Improved access to instruction

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The High School to College Research Transition

5/1/2018

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Liz Percy is the Librarian at Westwood High School
and received a 2018 Web Seal of Excellence Award.

Yearly, as high school librarians we assess our 9th grade students’ entry level research skills, and focus on advancing their competencies through their four years with us. Yet, after our students leave us they go on to the world of college research. What skills should we emphasize to get them ready for life after graduation?

In 2010, having always had an interest in the research continuum, I posted a message to the Infolit listserv, asking college librarians, “What do you see as your college freshmen’s strengths & weaknesses? How can I better prepare my high school students for college research?” Apparently, this struck a chord, and I got a barrage of replies.

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Tech Column: How to Technify Your Reading Challenge

5/1/2018

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Margaret Kane Schoen is a Library Teacher at Newton South High School.

A Reading Challenge can be a great way to encourage independent or free reading in your school. At our school, we often tie our challenges to our House Cup contest, where homerooms compete to win points for one of the four houses in our school. We’ve tried several versions at our school: March Madness tournament of books, and a “shelfie” challenge where students submitted photos of themselves reading.

These contests have all been great ways to encourage reading and boost school spirit. When meeting with the House Cup team, I always try to see how we can use technology to spice up the contest (and make it easier to track and total our entries!).

This year, we wanted to encourage students to stretch their reading to new genres. We also wanted a way for the faculty to compete. We ended up with a category challenge: the library staff came up with 23 different categories of books (books set in the past, short story collections, memoirs, etc), and challenged the homerooms to see who could check off the most categories.

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Today the School Library, Tomorrow the World

5/1/2018

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Karen Sekiguchi is the Library Media Specialist at the Winthrop School in Ipswich
and received a 2018 Super Librarian Award.

For the first part of my career as an educator, I taught English as a Second Language in a variety of school and community settings. Now, as a school librarian, I have brought my interest in world cultures with me into my new role. Since becoming a librarian, I have looked for ways to connect students and teachers with peers in other locales, both near and far. Technology has made global connections possible in a way that did not exist when I started teaching. While my goal of reaching out to the world and connecting classrooms has remained the same over time, tech tools and social media have made finding and building those relationships possible in ways that were not available before.

For librarians interested in connecting their schools globally, many programs and resources are available, including both free offerings and those with a fee. Not only do these programs support and enrich the curriculum, but they also provide excellent opportunities to collaborate with classroom teachers. Currently, our third grade is participating in the ArtLink program run by Creative Connections, an organization in Connecticut. Our students have exchanged their art with schools in Uganda and Russia, and we have participated in three live video conferences with students in those countries. This opportunity was funded by a grant that I wrote with our art teacher, and it has been a true collaboration with the three classroom teachers, the art teacher, and the library. A similar program to ArtLink is Level Up Village, but the focus is STEAM instead of art. We are considering this exchange for next year.

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Academic column: Leveraging Substitutes to Teach Information Literacy Skills

5/1/2018

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Dr. Robin Cicchetti is the Librarian at Concord-Carlisle Regional High School.

One of my big takeaways from the MSLA 2018 Conference came from the session with Jennifer Jones (St. John’s Preparatory School, Danvers) titled "Strategies and Tools for future ready researchers". In this session the one idea that really caught my attention was utilizing teacher absences as an opportunity to teach information literacy skills.

In my school we have kept library statistics for the past ten years and there has definitely been a decline in classes visits. With the annual calendar increasingly squeezed by testing, the addition of an advisory program, and other activities that chip away at instructional time, research has taken a hit.

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Reflecting on a Journey of Social Emotional Wellness

5/1/2018

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Rachael Keller Bouhanda is the Library Media Specialist at Billerica Memorial High School
and received the 2018 Ellen Berne Pathfinder Award

Many of us are solo-librarians and perhaps have felt alone being in a unique position in the building. Personally as a mother of young children I have also felt alone and quietly suffered from postpartum depression off and on for the last five years. I have gratefully had many professional successes over the last few years, despite my personal obstacles. This topic tends to be taboo but, maybe you have also gone through the same situation or something similar; Know that you are not alone even though you may often feel that way. Realize that we are human and our physical and mental health are so important, remember to take time for self-care.

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Secondary Column: Always Consider the Source, Teaching Critical Thinking Skills

5/1/2018

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Zoe Keenan is the Library Media Specialist at Frontier Regional School in South Deerfield.

I can’t tell you enough how important critical thinking skills are in this day and age. These skills apply to all aspects of life from reading the newspaper or watching TV to having a conversation. In this day and age, we need to evaluate the information in front of us and ask questions to find its relevance, reliability and to understand the deeper meaning behind the resource. Teaching these skills, though, can be challenging in a world where classes are measured by assessments and data driven. How do we assess critical thinking skills when the whole process is about thought patterns and analyzing how people think? How do we teach these skills when we only have 45 minutes with a class?

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“Intertwining”: Purposely Adding a “Value” Concept into Information Literacy

5/1/2018

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Dr. Georgina Trebbe is the Information Specialist at Minnechaug Regional High School
and on the Adjunct Faculty of Library and Information Science at Simmons College.

Educating and supporting school information literacy growth can be challenging for school library teachers. At the forefront of introducing tools to improve student information literacy skills growth are school library practitioners who have developed models and methods to support both the student and content educators’ understanding of information behaviors necessary to locate authoritative and relevant information. Yet, with all of published research, anecdotal evidence, and academic achievements of school library professionals, there remains a lack of educator and administrator awareness for the skills and knowledge contributions a school library teacher provides a given learning community. Rather than continuing the disconnect, the idea of “intertwining” utilizes the concept of “value” as a common goal by which all stakeholders; students, content educators, administrators, and the school library teacher can center information behaviors. Intertwining value into, not only the information behavior expectations of a school library program, but also the entire school’s teaching and learning sets a stronger foundation for building a school-wide information literacy program.

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President's Address: Stepping Outside our School Libraries

2018 Conference Recap

How a Meaningful and Personalized Mission Statement and Inquiry Skills Framework Can Breathe New Life Into Your School Library Program

Elementary Column: Evolution of a Relationship with Twitter

Special Legislative Commission on School Libraries: Next Steps for Advocacy

The High School to College Research Transition

Tech Column: How to Technify Your Reading Challenge

Today the School Library, Tomorrow the World

Academic column: Leveraging Substitutes to Teach Information Literacy Skills

Reflecting on a Journey of Social Emotional Wellness

Secondary Column: Always Consider the Source, Teaching Critical Thinking Skills

“Intertwining”: Purposely Adding a “Value” Concept into Information Literacy

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Co-Editors
Reba Tierney and
Luke Steere

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Forum Newsletter

Co-EditorsReba Tierney and ​Luke Steere

Categories

Archives

Co-Editors
Reba Tierney and
Luke Steere