Monthly Archives: October 2019

50 posts

Children’s Book Festival Author Peter Catalanotto

Check out Peter Catalanotto at the upcoming Children’s Book Festival held on November 2 at MCC in Henrietta.

Peter Catalanotto has illustrated 48 books for children, 18 of which he has written, including Emily’s Art, Matthew A.B.C., Ivan the Terrier, and Monkey & Robot. In 2008, First Lady, Laura Bush commissioned Peter to illustrate the White House holiday brochure. Peter currently teaches the first children’s book writing course offered by Columbia University and Pratt Institute. He has also visited over 1600 elementary schools in 40 states where he demonstrates his creative process from inspiration to final book. His newest book, Monkey & Robot, Friends and Neighbors, is due for release this month.

Peter is available to schedule school visits October 31st and November 1st. For details contact Wendy Petry.

Re-Imagined ESIFC Workshop Reflections

On Thursday of last week, we had the pleasure and privilege of spending the day with Dr. Barbara Stripling, Professor Emerita, Syracuse University, Former ALA President, and mastermind behind the Empire State Information Fluency Continuum (ESIFC).

Over the course of the last year, Barbara worked with a small team of librarians to go about re-imagining the ESIFC to adapt to our changing information infrastructure, and better align with our national school library standards, the ISTE standards, and the newest ELA content standards. While the Re-imagined ESIFC is very similar to the original version, we found some new aspects that covered topics such as design thinking, social responsibility, multiple literacies, and student agency.

The workshop began with the group brainstorming the changes that have occurred in education over the last ten years. Some of the responses included: 1:1 devices, makerspaces, and the downward slide in print book reading.

We then compared the ESIFC with the AASL standards, the ISTE standards and the Next Gen ELA standards. We examined the commonalities between them, and the unique features of each. This helped us gain an understanding of what is different in this re-imagined version and what aligns well with these new sets of standards. We dug into the framework, and the priority skills, and analyzed some of the new language that is embedded within it and what this new language means. The afternoon was spent personalizing our usage of the ESIFC for our schools. Librarians were grouped by grade levels, so even if they were from different districts, they still found that they had many of the same things in common.

The re-imagined ESIFC includes a large amount of graphic organizers (many are exactly the same), and keeps student learning at the heart of it all. The graphic organizers are licensed through Creative Commons, and can be used freely, and changed to suit your needs. All that she asks is that you credit the ESIFC.

Barbara is a joy to spend time with. Having been a librarian herself, she understands the daily life of a school librarian. Not only is she incredibly thoughtful and intelligent, she displays a soft-spoken humility and sense of humor. If you ever get a chance to see her in person we highly recommend you take the chance.

For more information, and links to the presentation and handouts, you can access the Monroe One ESIFC LibGuide.

Media Literacy Week is Next Week!

Next week is U.S. Media Literacy Week, hosted by the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE)! The mission of the week is to highlight the power of media literacy education and its essential role in education all across the country.

We will help you celebrate this important set of skills by providing you with resources and lesson plans to help you educate your students on how to handle the flood of information that hits them every day. We will include information on advertisements, stereotypes, and truth and bias. Check the blog daily!

Children’s Book Festival Author Jerry Craft

Check out Jerry Craft at the upcoming Children’s Book Festival held annually at MCC in Henrietta.

Author and Illustrator, Jerry Craft, writes the books he wishes he had when he was growing up. New Kid is a middle-grade graphic novel that has earned five starred reviews, including one from Booklist magazine. The book centers around seventh grader, Jordan Banks, whose parents have decided to send him to a prestigious private school where Jordan struggles to fit in.

Jerry is also the creator of the comic strip, Mama’s Boyz, and the middle grade novel, The Offenders: Saving the World While Serving Detention! (which he wrote with his two sons Jayen & Aren).

His website includes a 3 minute interview with him where he discusses his inspiration and how he got started. (Scroll to the very bottom of the home screen to find it.)

Jerry is available to schedule school visits November 4th and 5th. For details contact Wendy Petry.

Ada Lovelace Day

Today is Ada Lovelace Day! Born in 1815, Ada was a gifted mathematician and wrote instructions for the first computer program in the mid-1800’s. She is remembered for her work with Charles Babbage on the analytical engine.

To celebrate, read one of the many books about Ada Lovelace – Ada Lovelace, Poet of Science by Diane Stanley (available in our Overdrive collection), Dreaming in Code by Emily Arnold McCully, Ada’s Ideas by Fiona Robinson or Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine by Laurie Wallmark.

Then try Ada’s Poetry Generator, which teaches students how to program a poetry generator in Scratch.

October 7, 2019 Your Monday SLS Briefing

SLS Mini-Grants

The SLS Mini-Grant deadline was Friday, October 4th. The review process begins today, and the awards will be announced on October 15th. We are looking forward to reading them! If you did not apply for a Mini-Grant, and would like to volunteer to help with the review process, please contact Katie Bertrand.

October Workshops

Multimedia Content for your Classroom (WEBINAR)
Wednesday, October 16th | 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Monroe One BOCES Multimedia Service offers a wide variety of content and tools to enhance your teaching. We’ll explain how to access them and highlight our newest content in this hour long webinar update. This workshop is designed for teachers and librarians who participate in the Monroe One BOCES Multimedia Service. Click to register.

Create and Code Interactive Stories with Twine Series
(WEBINAR) Tuesday, October 29th | 3:00 pm – 3:45 pm
(IN PERSON) Wednesday, October 30th | 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm
(IN PERSON) Wednesday, November 13th | 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Learn how to create, code and share your own interactive stories using Twine! Marrying story development with coding, Twine provides an avenue to build rich narratives, while learning accessible, natural-language based coding.

This workshop series will start with a 45-minute webinar overview of Twine. A hands-on, hour and a half, in-person workshop will follow, with participants practicing key coding concepts and learning the foundations of creating interactive story games. The third session will be an hour and a half of facilitated work time, where attendees can practice their coding and plan a lesson with students. Click to register.

Video Production Tips for the Classroom
Wednesday, October 30th | 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm

This workshop was designed from my experience as an educational Videographer/Editor. This workshop will cover the basics of video production such as proper interview setup, green screen technology and basic production tips that teachers and students will benefit from. Please note that I will be demonstrating these techniques with an iPad. However, these tips and tricks can be utilized when recording on any video camera. Click to register.

 

Children’s Book Festival Author Alyssa Satin Capucilli

Check out Alyssa Satin Capucilli at the upcoming Children’s Book Festival held annually at MCC in Henrietta.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The books above are available in the Monroe One Overdrive account.

Alyssa Satin Capucilli is the author of over 100 books including Biscuit, the popular bestseller used to launch the My First I Can Read Series from HarperCollins. With over twenty-eight million books in print, Biscuit has been deemed a modern classic and has been translated into numerous languages worldwide. Other works include the Katy Duck series, the My First non-fiction photo series and numerous picture books.

There are lots of resources about Alyssa Satin Capucilli, including interviews, a book list, and audio excerpts on teachingbooks.net. If you do not remember our password, please contact me.

Alyssa is available to schedule school visits November 1st (Primary Grades). For details contact Wendy Petry.

 

 

Reflections on RRLC’s “We Need Diverse Libraries”

“Imagine a world where everyone could see themselves in the pages of a book.”

These were the first words of the presentation last Tuesday by We Need Diverse Books. They then asked us to close our eyes for a minute and think about what that would look like. What would you see or hear, and what would that mean for everyone?

The responses from the audience were, “More possibilities would be open to people”; “There would be more avid readers”; “People would know that their narratives are important as well, regardless of their abilities, of what they looked like, or who they were”; “There would be more diversity in careers, in life in general”; “We would see an increase in overall well-being”. It sounds Utopian, doesn’t it? This is within reach.

It can still be difficult to find great books that tell diverse stories, but it is not impossible. The folks at We Need Diverse Books have made it their mission to help us accomplish this goal. If you know where to look it will make your life easier. Some publishers offering diverse reads are:

On their diversebooks.org website is a listing of sites that provide diverse book lists. Under the Resources tab on their site, they also include a book talking kit.

Most helpfully, they have also created an app, currently accessible through your browser, called OurStory, which highlights books with diverse content and by content creators from marginalized communities. It is basically a database designed for you to find books for your libraries.

Look at our Libguide for more resources on diversifying your collection. *The page is currently under construction, so please continue to check back frequently.* Which reminds me: Diversifying your collection is an ongoing process. We live in a constant state of growth and change. Informally audit your collection and add to it frequently.

U.S. Poet Laureate: Joy Harjo

On September 19th, U.S. Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden, named Joy Harjo the Nation’s 23rd Poet Laureate. Harjo is a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation and is the first Native American to serve as U.S. Poet Laureate.

The Poet Laureate serves as the official poet of the United States, and is appointed annually by the Librarian of Congress. In this position, the poet is tasked with raising public appreciation for poetry writing and reading.

She succeeds Tracy K. Smith who served for two consecutive years.