SLJ Article - Teaching in the Cloud

I am back! Another article for SLJ - this time on how librarians can support teaching in the cloud.  

I love writing for them. I will be speaking at the SLJ Leadership Summit about my Feed and Read for Sudan Project. 

Digital Storytelling Presentations

Here are a few links to various presentations I have done in the past:

ActivLoudoun Plus 2013
Loudoun County Public Schools
Storytelling in a Digital Age

VSTE Summer of Learning 2013
Shenandoah University
Storytelling in a Digital Age - Bridging the Gap

VSTE Digital Storytelling Webinar 2013
This was a live Webinar.

SLJ - Global Awareness: Ways to Engage Students in Global Thinking

Here is a link to an SLJ article I co-authored with Heather Flor of Sudan Sunrise. It discusses how librarians and students can support girls education around the world.

Another SLJ Article - Social Media Strategies 101

Check out my latest: Social Media 101 for the School Librarian

Another article for School Library Journal!

Yay!

SLJ Article - World Book Night and Social Media

Here is another article I wrote for School Library Journal about World Book Night and Social Media Strategies. YAY!

#WhyLib

I just came across the #WhyLib campaign. In honor of School Library Month, school librarians are sharing their stories on why they became school librarians through the hashtag #WhyLib. Neat.

I think I am getting in on this Twitter chat (or conversation, discussion, what have you) a little late, considering today is April 28th and School Library Month is almost over. Whatever. I never give up an opportunity to support school libraries and I want to try out Padlet.com by sharing my story there.

So, why did I become a school librarian? 

Well, for starters, my mother is a retired school librarian. She had a wonderful career. It was never just a job for her. She was always learning new stuff, teaching it to colleagues, writing articles, getting grants, classes, attending or speaking at conferences, helping kids beyond the scope of a school librarian (i.e. collecting winter coats for kids in her school), etc. Growing up, I always thought this was the standard of any one's life work: To be successful in a career you enjoy.

When I graduated from college with a Bachelor's degree in English and a strong desire to travel and see the world, I landed into a career in sales and marketing. Within a five year time span my college boyfriend (now husband) and I lived in San Francisco, Portland, Oregon and New York City, mostly to follow each other's careers and seek a new adventure. Each time I moved to a new city, I was quickly able to find a sales job of some kind - usually selling advertising. I enjoyed it and at times I did very well, but it always felt like a "job" and not something I could see myself doing for my entire life. During my 5 year sales "career" I was able to learn a little more about myself:  I like to help people. I like to learn new things. I am a good learner. I tend to take on leadership roles. I like to volunteer. I am interested in technology and not afraid of it. I like computers. I like change and innovation. I like to read, especially on airplanes, trains and subways, where I spent a lot of time.

One day I was job searching in NYC when I came across an ad to work at New York Public Library. I thought it looked like a cool job - something in Public Relations - and it required a Masters of Library and Information Science (or MLIS). I knew my mother had an MLS from Pratt Institute, so I checked out the website. I was surprised to find out how many opportunities there are for MLIS grads. Obviously there is school and public librarianship, but there was also so much more -  special libraries, law libraries, medical libraries, digital libraries, art librarianship, archiving, and more. It sounded really interesting so I applied and got accepted. I started library school the next semester.

I always joke around that during my three years of graduate (library) school, I was either pregnant or nursing. It's true. I had my two children during graduate school. By day I was a stay at home mom: volunteering by leading a story-time sing along at Brooklyn Public Library, taking the mommy and me swim lessons, and hanging out in playgrounds with other mommies and play-dates in Brooklyn. By night, I was graduate student extraordinaire: President of the Student Association, working as a grad assistant for the Dean Emeritus and the head of my department, eventually graduating with honors with a 3.9 GPA. While in grad school and as a new young mother, I quickly learned something else about myself: I love working with young people and I like to teach.

I decided to get the MLIS with Library Media Certification.  Fast-forward a few years and here I am, a school librarian in Northern Virginia. I love it.

School Library Journal Article - 15,000 Meals for South Sudan

Here is a link to an article I wrote for School Library Journal.

http://www.slj.com/2014/04/programs/how-a-virginia-middle-school-librarian-and-her-book-club-raised-global-awareness-and-provided-15000-meals-for-sudanese-students/#_

School Library Month - Thoughts

The following post is a submission I sent to my Alma mater, Pratt Institute, for a request for participation for a blog series in April in honor of school library month. It was published in April 2013. Here is a link to the Pratt SILS blog post:  Enjoy! 

When Pratt SILS asked the alumni to share thoughts on the importance of school libraries in honor of school library month, I was excited by the opportunity to share my thoughts on why school libraries are crucial for student learning.  Students in this country have the freedom to read and access nearly any kind of information they can imagine.  In order to fulfill their potential, students need to be able to think critically about the sources and types of information they seek.  As we learned in library school at Pratt, one of the most important responsibilities of school librarians like me is to teach this skill.  A school library should provide a solid foundation to prepare the next generation by fostering their curiosity in the pursuit of information, while teaching them how to effectively find and assess that information

            I am a librarian in a middle school near Washington, D.C.  In my library, I have the opportunity every day to teach students these crucial skills.  I teach lessons on open source versus authoritative source, advanced searching strategies, evaluating websites, plagiarism, citing sources, and copyright.  Working in collaboration with my school’s learning community, I develop and promote a collection of materials with the intention of pushing students out of their comfort zone so they can become better readers and learners.  I actively recommend books and materials to students and teachers for all reading levels and interests.  I emphasize the importance of sharing ideas and that students need to think for themselves and develop their own opinions.  I teach students how to use technology responsibly and creatively to source information and share new knowledge and understanding.  All of this is aimed at helping students develop their critical thinking skills—skills that are proven to impact student achievement and are directly correlated with my state’s curricular standards.

            These are my brief thoughts on why school libraries staffed by licensed library media specialists are so important to help young people reach their full potential.  School libraries and librarians are a necessity for our student achievement and are vital to our nation’s future.

Lauren McBride, MSLIS

Pratt SILS Alumni 2009

Licensed Library Media Specialist

Seneca Ridge Middle School

Sterling, VA

VATE Literacy Explosion! Glogster, Book Trailers and Book Jackets.

I've been working in collaboration with a 6th Grade English Teacher on a cool project that is part of a contest by the Virginia Association of Teachers of English (VATE) called the Literacy Explosion. Once the word got around that I was doing all kinds of fun technology stuff,  the teacher approached me and asked if I would be interested in working with her on this project. Of course I said YES!

According to the VATE website, this is a competition that celebrates and promotes the integration of literacy and 21st century learning skills. Students read a novel and then create a media literacy project based on that book - either Glogster, Book Trailer, Podcast, Digital Movie, Photo Essay or Book Cover/Jacket. We introduced the project by having students select a book in the library and then I gave an introduction to the six categories.  Next, we had the students narrow it down to three categories: Glogster, Book Trailers, and Book Jackets. Now we are in the phase where they are creating their project and so far it's been a blast (or should I say LITERACY EXPLOSION!?).

For the Glogster project, they are using ww to create a Glog, which is basically a web-based multimedia poster with images, text, sound, video, animation, links, etc. For the Book Trailers they are using PhotoStory 3 to create trailers and for the Book Jacket they are just using a template I created in Microsoft Word to create their Book Cover. Our school already owns PhotoStory and Word through their Microsoft Office package, but I had to purchase a subscription to Glogster EDU in order to get enough student accounts, and for all the bells and whistles. It was only $99 for the whole year though, for 200 student accounts, which was reasonable.

Although I was familiar with all the technology, prior to this project I had never used Glogster or PhotoStory to actually create something. As I started playing around with the programs, I found it to be relatively simple to use. With Glogster, at one point I had a question about adding student accounts and I instant messaged a customer service rep about 2 minutes before the class walked in and he helped me out right away. Crisis resolved!  For PhotoStory, I was introduced to the program in a district training seminar about integrating technology. I created an easy trailer in about 15 minutes. Done. Ironically, the book jacket in Microsoft Word probably took me the longest to figure out how to do, but once I decided to create a landscape template, it was no problem. Once I learned the technology, I taught lessons to the students on how to use the programs. Now it's pretty much just computer lab time- answering questions about citing music and image sources, trouble shooting technical questions, helping students follow the rubrics, etc. As far as the technology side goes, as usual, I have found that the kids are very good at figuring out how to use the programs and they enjoy creating the projects and taking ownership of their work. It's cool to watch and be a part of.


It's been a lot of fun and I would definitely recommend this type of project. Although the idea of taking on several different software programs at once may seem daunting, you will find that the students are more comfortable with technology than most adults and can figure out the problems on their own or just work around any issues.

Teaching Hurricane Sandy

    I teach at a middle school in Northern Virginia. Our schools were closed for two days because of Hurricane Sandy, but our county's damage was minimal (some roads were flooded, some power outages) compared to NYC/NJ/ Long Island and other coastal areas. We were lucky and returned to school with a delayed opening the day after the storm passed - Wednesday, October 31st.

    Shortly after Hurricane Sandy hit, the NY Times came out with this blog post about Teaching Hurricane Sandy: Ideas and Resources. Feeling inspired, I quickly edited my lesson plans for that week. On the Thursday and Friday after the storm, I was scheduled to teach an "Intro to Podcasting" lesson to five 8th grade Language Arts classes as part of my media literacy teaching. Typically in the lesson, I explain to students what podcasts are, how they can be shared, and we listen to a few examples of podcasts. After the lesson, they break up into groups and write a script for their own podcast based on themes related to a book they had read in class. Then they come back as a class, and record their podcasts on the library computers using microphones and Audacity. With this particular class the book they read was Flowers for Algernon. I decided for this lesson we would listen to NPR podcasts about Hurricane Sandy. I found several with a quick search on NPR. The students were really interested, and it was an opportunity to hear different perspectives and reports about the damage, and open up some dialogue about this type of media and the hurricane.

    I was also scheduled to do a bunch of Book Talks/Trailers with 7th Graders.  The SOL testing (we use Standards of Learning, not Core) has a large percentage of nonfiction to test for reading comprehension, so teachers want to see students reading more nonfiction, in addition to fiction/novels, etc. Bingo. I showed part of this video I found on YouTube from the Wall Street Journal, which triggered discussions and questions about Hurricane Sandy. I was able to teach students about the materials and resources we have in the library to answer their questions (i.e. nonfiction books about hurricanes, natural disasters, weather, etc.).

    As part of a school-wide program, I have a group of 12 students who I advise once a week for 20 minutes. As a side project, the students want to create a Graphic Novel using Comic Master, which is a free site I learned about at a VAASL Conference session on AASL's Best Websites for Teaching and Learning, presented by Heather Moorefield-Lang. The students plan to create the Graphic Novel and then print it, distribute it, and collect donations for Hurricane Sandy relief in return. We are just beginning this project and it will probably take a while since I don't see the students often or for a long time, but they are excited. I am letting them take the lead on this, so we will see where it goes. This is not a graded project.


How are other school librarians teaching students about Hurricane Sandy?

Inanimate Alice with 6th Graders

   At the VAASL 2012 Conference this past week I learned about this cool Australian Digital Novel Project, Inanimate Alice. Virginia Tech Librarian and presenter Heather Moorefield-Lang, introduced this website to a group of us in a session about AASL's 25 Best Websites for Teaching and Learning. As soon as I saw a little clip I knew my students would be interested and I couldn't wait to share the project with them. It's a free site. 

    Inanimate Alice is a digital novel about a girl named Alice who travels around the world with her parents. She uses a hand-held device to communicate with a stick figure she created named Brad.  The digital novel uses sound, animation and text to tell the story. It also requires the reader to interact with the story using the mouse. According to the website (InanimateAlice.com):

 "Inanimate Alice is Transmedia - designed as a story that unfolds over time and on multiple platforms, the episodes are available on devices capable of running Flash Player. Alice connects technologies, languages, cultures, generations and curricula within a sweeping narrative accessible by all. As Alice's journey progresses, new storylines appear elsewhere providing more details and insights, enriching the tale through surprising developments."

    Today I taught this as a lesson in the library to five 6th grade Language Arts classes. The class levels ranged from honors to special ed.  There are currently 4 episodes of Inanimate Alice and in the first episode about China, (which takes only about 10 minutes total to read with students) Alice and her mom leave their base camp in Northern China to search for Alice's father who has been missing for two days after working in the oil fields. 

   The students really enjoyed this episode. In the first class, I just played the video on the overhead and clicked through it myself, making the students read the text. They were an honors class and seemed to enjoy the book. I had multiple students ask if we can watch the next episode. In the other classes, I read the text in a read-aloud style, which was helpful for the ELL and Special Ed students. Throughout the story and after the story I asked students questions, some of which I found in the Teacher Resource Guides on the website. At the end there was applause in some classes, and every group was asking really good questions (Do they have cell phones in China? What time period is this set in? Is this free? Is Brad a GPS system or like SIRI? Can we watch the next episode?). Students described it as awesome, exciting, and more interesting than a regular library book. The teachers thought it was pretty cool, too. 
     
   I would recommend sharing this with your students and teachers.