December 2010 Volume 9 Number 5 Media Matters A newsletter for people who care about Library Media Programs Inside this issue: Guest editorial 2 Tanya Hudson 3 Georgia Reading 3 Association Conference Bullying resources 5 Young Audiences 5 Virtual Vendor 6 Fair Thanks SREB 6 GALILEO 7 Books make the 8 best presents More GALILEO 9 Hopkins 10 Elementary What bus do you 11 ride? Georgia authors 13 Media Specialists 15 Calendar 16 Exemplary Library Media Program 2011! Exemplary Library Media Program information will be available mid-December on the GaDOE website. Important information: Deadline for nominations will be March 11, 2011. Submit an application only if your program has been nominated in advance. You may nominate yourself or a parent, teacher, student, administrator, community member may nominate your program. The deadline for the narrative to be submitted is May 2, 2011. There are very few changes to the application process and the rubric, but there are some. (See below for some of the changes.) The economic situation has caused schools, systems and Library Media programs to face many challenges. The criteria for this award have not changed. If you feel your program is exemplary, but you have faced cuts in both personnel and budget, please include that information in your narrative and explain how your Library Media program is continuing to provide resources for academic achievement for the students and exceptional assistance for the staff. Continued on page 10 Holiday gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a patron, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect. Oren Arnold (with a few modifications) Media Matters Volume 9 Number 5 We will lead the nation in improving student achievement. 1770 Twin Towers East 205 Jesse Hill Jr. Drive Atlanta, Georgia 30334 Phone: 404-657-9800 Email: jserrite@doe.k12.ga.us Page 2 Guest Editorial Kristin Fontichiaro had, as always, an interesting and thought-provoking post in a recent School Library Monthly blog. She fears being a so-called Luddite because she is hesitating in embracing e-readers. Okay, first of all, just to get this out of the way, the real Luddites hated technology in general. Particularly machines that might cost people jobs. Now I know, I knowthere are those who think everything will go to electronic books, there will be no more paper books and libraries and librarians will be obsolete. That is a big bunch of hoo-ha and it's also not the point of this post. Plenty has been written on that. So I'm assuming the wonderful Ms. Fontichiaro was misusing "Luddite" to mean someone who is afraid or otherwise reluctant to embrace a new technology. I also think this idea is not true. Just because you are not an early adopter doesn't mean you're a Luddite (in either sense). Now, to be fair, Empowering Learners urges us to become exactly that: early adopters. But I think there is a range to that idea. I don't remember where but I remember reading a funny essay about regular vs. hybrid & electric cars. The writer went off on early adopters saying that the newer technology cars weren't worth the premium etc. But then he went off on the slackers who remained with the status quo and kept buying gas guzzlers. He ended by pointing out how we need both groups. If we didn't have the early adopters then things would never change and there wouldn't be enough innovation at a fast enough rate. But we also need the "regular" car-buyers to stick with the tried-and-true (and hopefully steadily improving) technology to fund the companies so they can afford to innovate. Continued on page 4 Cooperation ~ Have utmost concern for what is right rather than who is right. ~ John Wooden Page 3 Athens Media Specialist Cooks up Winning Recipe on Georgia Cooks TV Special Tanya Hudson is a media specialist at Gaines Elementary School in Athens. But she can now add cooking star to her title. She was one of three winners of GPB's "Secret Family Recipes" contest. Watch Tanya prepare her winning dish "Bourbon and Thyme Pear Pie" on the special "Georgia Cooks: Secret Family Recipes" Saturday, December 4 at 1:30 p.m on GPB. The show is hosted by celebrity Chef Marvin Woods. In addition to the special, Hudson's recipe is featured in the accompanying cookbook GPB's "Secret Family Recipes" which is available online at www.gpb.org/georgiacooks GRA 31st Annual State Reading Conference "Literacy in Many Languages" Date: January 23-January 25, 2011 Sheraton Atlanta 165 Courtland Street Click here to register Continued from page 2 Page 4 I think the same thing is true with the ever-growing list of advances in technology for school libraries. It's definitely in our best interest to remain current. I always try to disabuse my colleagues who try to label me a "techie." No, I don't know how to fix your printer. I just try to stay current. But staying current does not mean you have to embrace everything. You don't want to end up with the "Ready, fire, aim!" syndrome Doug Johnson often mentions at the Blue Skunk blog. It's good to remain both open-minded yet skeptical and make sure this new thing or website or whatever fits your population. But staying current doesn't mean we have to embrace every single thing that comes down the pike. E-books may make perfect sense to some populations. There are school librarians (most notably, our own Buffy Hamilton) piloting the use of these in high school settings where they may or may not make sense in the long run. Without pioneers like Buffy, we'd never know. The rest of us just need to keep up with what's out there and see what's working and what we might need at our schools. We also need to be ready when a new technology becomes more standardized so we're informed and ready when it becomes part of a district-wide retrofit. E-books are a long way from being of use in most elementary schools, but perhaps your population has good reasons for piloting the use of something like an iPad. Interactive whiteboards are cool, but they're not for everyone. Maybe your library would benefit more from a document camera and projector. Perhaps you prefer to use a wiki or other collaborative site rather than use social bookmarking. Not using a certain technology does not a Luddite make. That's called collection management and being a good steward of public funds. I think that's the key. Don't adopt a technology just because you saw it at a conference or someone sent you and article and it looks cool ("Ready, fire, aim!"). See what you and your school's needs are first, work with your committee, then see if there is any technology or resources that fit that need. Do your research, but don't be afraid to slowly try something new. Jim Randolph Partee Elementary Library Snellville, GA Want to share your thoughts, vision, ideas? Send them to jserrite@doe.k12.ga.us Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails, explore, dream, discover. Mark Twain Page 5 Bullying A team of Library Media Specialists compiled a list of useful resources concerning Bullying. The list can be found on the GaDOE website at: http://www.gadoe.org/sia_titleiv.aspx? PageReq=SIABully Additional information can be located on the Library Media page under Resources at: http://www.gadoe.org/sia_as_library.aspx or go directly to the link here: http://www.gadoe.org/DMGetDocument.aspx/Bullying%20resources.pdf? p=6CC6799F8C1371F6F3E032E3CA06314784BD4FAD7F21119EF7D347008E 42C6C7&Type=D And Then They Came For Me Georgia Ensemble Theatre Part oral history, part remembrance, James Still's play takes place in Amsterdam following the Nazi invasion of Holland. Based on Anne Frank's diary and videotaped interviews with Holocaust survivors Edmond Silverberg (Anne's first boyfriend) and Eva Schloss (her friend and neighbor), the play depicts the relationship of these three teenagers who lived in the same Amsterdam apartment building until the Nazis discovered them in 1945 and sent Anne to her untimely death in the Bergen Belsen concentration camp. This unforgettable story calls on every individual to remember the past and learn from it--or, in the words of George Santayana, be condemned to repeat it. The Georgia Ensemble Theatre of Roswell was founded in 1982 under the artistic direction of Bob Farley. Book this historically rich program today! Enthusiasm: your energy and enjoyment, drive and dedication will stimulate and greatly inspire others. Your heart must be in your work. ~ John Wooden Page 6 West Georgia Virtual Vendor Fair The School Library Media and Instructional Technology faculty in the College of Education at the University of West Georgia are planning to develop a wiki that will showcase media and instructional technology vendors and suppliers who support PreK-12 schools in Georgia. There is no fee for a company to be represented on the wiki and the wiki will provide another opportunity for companies to reach out to the PreK-12 schools. West Georgia realizes that creating wish lists for future purchases is an important planning activity. Budget situations in many of the school districts mean that school personnel are not able to attend as many conferences and vendor fairs as in the past. This wiki will help meet that need but will also provide an excellent resource for graduate students preparing to be school library media specialists, instructional technologists, and classroom teachers who serve as technology resources in the PreK-12 schools. The wiki will be designed to display and promote the types of materials and services available to support PreK-12 schools in Georgia. Information to be included on the wiki would be: contact information, a link to the company website, information about events, or flyers about new products or services . For more information please contact Dr. Dawn Putney at dputney@westga.edu Thanks SREB! Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction New York Times, Matt Richtel, November 21, 2010 You may have read this feature article about students distracted by technology in last week's N.Y. Times, but you may not have seen this summary video about those same students at Woodside High (CA). Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed, asks some leading questions in High School Students and Technology about this topic. The video: Fast Times at Woodside High: How Technology is Distracting Students. As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth. ~ Shirley Chisholm Media Matters Page 7 GALILEO and Digital Media Projects Best Use of GALILEO Resources in a Project Submitted to the Georgia Student Media Festival Use GALILEO in your student media projects and win a Flip Video Camcorder. Entries must make use of GALILEO resources and cite those resources in the bibliography or citations list. The resources available to K12 via GALILEO include but are not limited to the EBSCOhost databases, Britannica, the Digital Library of Georgia, the New Georgia Encyclopedia, and Oxford Art Online. Content includes images, maps, videos, diagrams, primary source material, and facts and background information. As media specialists know, GALILEO supports essential skills of information literacy, critical thinking, and copyright awareness. The "Where I'm From in GALILEO" lesson plan is a great standards-based activity to produce an eligible student media project. In this activity, a "Where I'm From" poem is composed by an individual or group about their town or county through an investigation of related resources in GALILEO. Once the language is finalized, the students compose a "digital story" of the words and related images. Visit these links for more information: "Where I'm From in GALILEO" lesson plan and instructions:http://help.galileo.usg.edu/ educators/where_im_from_in_galileo/ Georgia Student Media Festival http://www.gait-inc.org/GSMF/index.htm Interested in learning more about GALILEO? Visit these web pages for training information. Online training opportunities: http://help.galileo.usg.edu/librarians/training/ Self-guided and archived sessions: http://help.galileo.usg.edu/librarians/training/ self_guided/ Skill - A knowledge of and the ability to properly execute the fundamentals. Be prepared. Cover every detail. ~ John Wooden Intentness - Set a realistic goal. Stay the course. When thwarted try again; harder, smarter. Persevere relentlessly. ~ John Wooden Why Books Make the Best Presents! 1. Books don't need to be assembled before being given. 2. Books don't need batteries. 3. Books never come in the wrong color or size. 4. Books don't need to be serviced by a dealer. 5. Books don't need spare parts. 6. Books are easier to wrap then footballs. 7. Books look good with any decor. 8. Books don't need watering or fertilizing. 9. Books don't irritate your allergies. 10. Books don't go out of style. 11. Books don't get aphids or draw ants. 12. Books don't bark or need to be walked in the middle of the night. 13. Books don't stretch, shrink, or fade. 14. Books don't need extension cords. 15. Books won't scratch the coffee table. 16. Books don't get stale before they arrive. 17. Books never need ironing. 18. Books don't have zippers that break. 19. Books can be used over and over by many people. 20. When you are finished with a book, it is not empty. 21. A book is a gift you can open again and again and again. What was your favorite book you READ in 2010? Last year's list was so interesting and varied. It can be in any genre, any format, any age level, any copyright date...only rule is that you read it in 2010. Send your title to Judy at jserrite@doe.k12.ga.us It's a book by Lane Smith is published by Roaring Brook Press, New York Page 9 GALILEO Training Available The complete winter training schedule will be available soon, but here is a session to whet your appetite. Jason Puckett at GSU will present a session on Zotero and GALILEO: Citing Made Easy on January 12, 3:30-4:30 p.m. This session will be useful to everyone as Zotero is useful not only for research paper bibliographies but for any bibliographic management of resources, such as keeping up with resources that will be used in a presentation. Other upcoming events include several EBSCO sessions, the GALILEO Toolbar, HeritageQuest Online, and Legal Research in LexisNexis Academic. Get more information and register at http://help.galileo.usg.edu/librarians/training/ While you're at the GALILEO training site, check out the archived sessions available at http://help.galileo.usg.edu/librarians/training/self_guided/ These include sessions on Georgia Authors, Helping the Entrepreneur: Small Business Resources, Usage Statistics in GALILEO, LibGuides and GALILEO, and many more. If you have any questions, please submit a comment to GALILEO via the Contact Us form: http://www.galileo.usg.edu/contact Karen Minton GALILEO Support Services Library Services Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia 2500 Daniells Bridge Road, Building 300 Athens, GA 30606-3539 Alertness - always be aware and observing. Stay open minded. Be eager to learn and improve. ~ John Wooden Media Matters Page 10 "The Wild Underwater Zoo" is a digital magazine developed by Vicky Tettelbach's fourth grade class from Hopkins Elementary School in Gwinnett County. The project won the GALILEO staff prize for the best use of GALILEO resources in a student media project at the 2010 Georgia Student Media Festival. Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable. ~ Kenyan proverb Continued from page 1: Application must be submitted in Word, name the document your school name. For example: Clayton Elementary.doc or Inglewood High.doc The name of the school should be part of the footer or header on each page. Please read the directions carefully. Failure to meet the criteria or not follow instructions may result in your application being disqualified. Would you like to help read the applications? It is hard work but you learn a lot about your colleagues and finish with a plethora of wonderful ideas for your Library Media program. Riding the Bus Together: Nurturing Collaboration of Technology Services and Curriculum and Instruction (Reprinted with permission) by Bailey Mitchell More than ever, a school district's technology services and teaching and learning leadership need to work and plan collaboratively to ensure the instructional goals of a school system are realized and measured. Technology leadership can serve a strategic role in advocating for the relevance of key informational and instructional technologies that make up the core business of today's schools. You must understand, you are in a very powerful position that must demonstrate "value" to the instructional leadership. As technology leaders, we have a tendency to control the data, control the conversations and offer all of the solutions, essentially holding all of the cards. I have talked extensively about my role as Chief Technology and Information officer for Forsyth County Schools with my superintendent, Dr. L.C. (Buster) Evans: "You must have the ability to connect to the people networks and departmental silos. 'We are a leadership team of high performing "prima donas." The CTO has got to cultivate a continued "network" with key system leaders." Plan, Plan, Plan. For technology leaders who are not educators, the meaning of the teaching and learning initiatives and the data sometimes gets lost in the translation. So, we in technology must learn the vocabulary to understand and guide our work. Our teaching and learning staff have committed resources towards embedding a culture of "Assessment for Learning." This was quite successful and resulted in many strides in classroom assessment practices. There simply was not enough capacity to address benchmark assessment as well. Technology Services shepherded a prototype model of benchmarking at one of our middle schools using a paper to web tool to aggregate and disaggregate results. With evidence in hand, teaching and learning was convinced that the prototype would work. Through combining resources (both financial and human), the school system was able to launch a district-wide benchmarking in grades 3-8. The program expanded in the ensuing years and has become "mission critical" to our instructional program. Being a listener and "walking a mile in the other person's shoes. Technology leaders many times "know it all" and indeed, we stay up on the latest technology and have lots to offer. However, we must remain a service area at all times. Successful collaboration does mean we have to be willing to consider other points of view and be open to ideas from anywhere. A successful collaborative technology leader has to get ego out of the way. It should be more important to solve the problem, achieve the desired result, do the right thing, etc., than to "win the round." Continued on next page Media Matters Page 12 Our teaching and learning staff launched a new instructional framework called "Engage Me!" In considering ways to convey this information and model its use, the Teaching and Learning approached Technology Services for ideas. Because the Instructional Technology staff had the background knowledge of understanding the instructional framework, we were able to explain how the learning management system could be used to advance these ideas. Through this collaboration, we were able to both embed "Engage Me" into the core work of the school system as well as help our newly adopted learning management system, Angel, become one of the most highly utilized tools. Building trusting relationships Collaboration can only take place in an environment where trust exists. Strategic leadership means sharing the spotlight or even letting others have the credit along the way. It means disclosing everything not just selectively sharing information. It means creating an environment where colleagues come to know each other well. The relationship between teaching & learning and technology are essential to build engaging, personalized, 21st Century Learning Environments for our students. What is your district's messaging for teaching & learning and technology? Are you the stoplight tree or does traffic flow in the eyes of the board of education, superintendent, central office colleagues, building level leadership and teachers? What bus do you ride? None of us is as smart as all of us. ~ Ken Blanchard Page 13 Looking for Georgia authors? Let's take a look at a few of the resources in GALILEO that can help. Courtney McGough The New Georgia Encyclopedia offers articles about many Georgia authors. Just browse through the Literature section to General Topics to find an overview of literature in Georgia as well as a list of Georgia authors and Georgia works. Several articles include video clips of the authors as well as links to additional resources. Also, check out the 12 Great Works of Georgia Fiction feature for a quick list of famous works about Georgia. GeorgiaInfo also includes a Georgia Authors page. Some of these links go to the New Georgia Encyclopedia article, but some go to the author's site, while a couple of links, such as those for Sidney Lanier and Margaret Mitchell, provide additional resources. The Digital Library of Georgia is a good place to look for historical images and other items about Georgia authors. For example, a search for Joel Chandler Harris or Corra Harris reveals an image of the author's home and links to the full text of some of his or her works. The Reference Shelf section of the Digital Library of Georgia includes a short list of Georgia authors with links to their Georgia Writers Hall of Fame entries as well as the full text of a few chapters of Georgia Authors 2002: A Reference Work, which offers lists of nationally recognized Georgia authors, African American authors of Georgia, and Georgia authors who have published children's books. Other language arts resources, such as NoveList and Literary Reference Center, include information about Georgia authors, although there isn't an easy way to limit searches to Georgia authors. A search for an author name or title of the work in Literary Reference Center generally provides biographical information and reviews of works as well as literary criticism. In some cases, you may also find full-text classics, generally for works in the public domain. Finally, while you can't limit your search just to authors from Georgia, you can limit your search to works set in Georgia. Just go to the Advanced Search page, leave the search box blank, and type Georgia in the Literary Locale field (you'll need to scroll down to see it). Continued on next page Continued from previous page: NoveList also includes book reviews and recommendations for fiction by Georgia authors. Just search by the author or the title of the work to see these. Also, a search for Georgia will provide results that mention Georgia in the book information, and, by choosing the setting in the Location section on the left of the NoveList screen, you can further limit the search to places in Georgia. Finally, although these lists aren't limited to Georgia authors, NoveList includes a list of several Georgia book awards, such as the Georgia Children's Book Award for Children's Books and Picture Storybooks and the Georgia Peach Book Award for Teen Readers. Courtney McGough GALILEO Support Services Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia Article and search links may not work off site. Click the database name first for access. Express Links for Databases Mentioned in this Post: New Georgia Encyclopedia: http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=ngen GeorgiaInfo: http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=gnfo Digital Library of Georgia: http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=dlg1 NoveList: http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zknl Literary Reference Center: http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zblr Images from the New Georgia Encyclopedia Authors pictured from left to right: Flannery O'Connor, Joel Chandler Harris, James Dickey, Raymond Andrews, Margaret Mitchell, Anthony Grooms Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education; they grow there as firm as weeds against stones. ~ Charlotte Bronte Looking for Georgia authors? Try this: http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/ GeorgiaReferenceShelf/ GeorgiaAuthors2002.html?Welcome Page 15 Do you belong to GLMA, GLA, GAIT, AASL, ALA? Membership in a professional organization has many benefits and in these challenging times...joining at least one of your professional organizations would be an excellent idea. Library Media Specialist of the Year District Winners 2010-2011 District Heart of Georgia Middle Georgia North East Georgia West Georgia South East Georgia South Metro Metro Name Janice Mock Kathy Cranford Lisa Delgado Ginnie Walker Shelia Arthur Alicia Stratton Jill Rose School Montgomery County Middle/High Crawford County Elementary South Jackson Elementary Franklin Forest Elementary School Mamie Lou Gross Elementary Jackson Road Elementary Alpharetta High System Montgomery Crawford Jackson Troup Camden Spalding Fulton North Georgia Jennifer Parker Chestatee High Hall North Central Georgia Buffy Hamilton Creekview High Cherokee Coastal Georgia Denise Borck William James Middle Bulloch Be sure to let GaDOE know if you were chosen as Teacher of the Year either at your school or in your system. December 2010 Georgia Department of Education Su nday Mond ay Tuesday Nov emb er 1 0 S M TW T F S 123456 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Jan ua ry 11 S M TW T F S 1 2345678 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Wed nesday Thu rsday 1 2 Fr iday 3 Basketbal l David Macaulay: Birthday of created: 1891 1946- Jo s ep h Hanukkah Monroe Doct rine Conrad: begi ns. signed: 1823 1857-1924 Satu rd ay 4 1783: Washi ngton bids farewell to his offi cers Sherman' s March to the Sea:1864 5 Birthday of Chri stina Rossetti : 1830-1894 6 1884:The Washi ngt on Monument i n Washi ngt on D.C. is complet ed 7 8 1941: Pearl HarborBirthdays of Eli bombed Whi tney and Wi lla Cather:1873- James Thurber 1947 9 Birthday ofJean De Brunhoff :1899-1937 Joel Chandler Harris born: 1848-1908 10 11 Birthday of Melvil Dewey: 1851-1931 Birthday of Emily D ick in s o n : 1830-1886 1946: UNICEF founded 12 1980: Da Vinci notebook sells for over $5 mil lion 13 14 15 16 North and Sout h 1799: George Wa- 2001: Leaning Korea Signed shi ngt on Tower ofP isa Treaty of dies at Mount reopens after 11 Reconciliation Vernon years and and South Pole Reach- mil lions of Nonaggression: ed by Roald dollars in 1991 Amundsen:1911 renovations Arthur C. Clarke born: 1917-2008 17 1903: First airplane fl ys. Where? 18 1620: Mayflower p as s en g er s come ashore at Plymouth Harbor 19 20 21 22 23 Birthday ofEve Bunting:1928- 1963: Berlin Wall Curi es discovered 1956: 1st gorilla Avi's birthday: opened for first radium:1898 born in 1937- time captivit y Birthday ofJames Oglethorpe: 1696-1785 24 25 1881: Nobel Prizewinning poet Juan Ramon Jimenez is born Chri stmas 26 Kwanzaa begins 27 28 29 30 Birthday ofDiane 1793: Thomas 1890: Bat tle at Rudyard Stanley : 1943- Paine is arrested Wounded Knee Kipling born: in France for 1865-1936 treas o n 31 1999: Panama Canal turned over to Panama Birthday ofHenri Matiss e:1 86 9 1954 Initiative - Cultivate the ability to make decisions and think alone. Desire to excel. Failure to act is often the biggest failure of all. ~ John Wooden