The Unquiet Librarian

I have a marathon of grading tonight, so this will be a short post…I will try and blog more next week when summer school is over, and I can catch my breath. 

I just had to share with you one of the reading journals from one of my students, Bryan.  He is a student who has struggled with school, and as you will see below, he is a bit spelling challenged (he can never remember to hit F7 to spell check in the new Word 2007).   His reading journal is part of our Peach Book Project—my students got to choose any Peach Book nominee they wanted to read independently (they had class time, and I am very much an advocate of the Atwell mantra of “time” and “ownership”.)  Their task was to write 5 reading journals, create 5 multigenre learning artifacts, and to compose a final reflection essay we did today in the library (of course!) . 

As I said, spelling is not his forte, but he has worked so hard the last three weeks—he is not the greatest speller, but he tries, and that is everything in my book.  The emotion and heartfelt sentiments he expressed about his book, The First Part Last by Angela Johnson, literally brought tears to my eyes; I had recommended it to him, and as you can see, he took to the book like a duck to water.   To see any student, especially a tough guy like Bryan, react to a book like this….well, his post says it all.  Here is what he said in his final reading journal from our blog:

June 25 2008
The frist part last
110-end

this book had and surprising sad ending that almost made me cry. Bobby talks about heaven and he wishes that he could go back to all the places his friend thought was whack and at the very end he wished to hold his baby in his arms again. his grandmother witch its his mom only smiles at Feather when Bobbys not looking.

i loved this book so much it has been a wonderful book that enspired me in my life and if it hadn’t been for the peach book project i wouldnt have enjoyed the experince of getting into a book i liked. toward the end i was hoping it wouldn’t end. everytime i fliped a page i would get exictied because there would be more and more .THANKS MRS. HAMILTON! =)

I would consider this to be one of our greatest accomplishments in summer school!  Bryan D., thank YOU!

“I propose that we listen to the signals that come through the walls of our classrooms from the outside.”

Anne Ruggles Gere 

The value of social networking and its place in 21st century education was the talk of the town at last week’s National School Boards Association’s Conference in Nashville, Tennessee.  The association released a report, “Creating and Connecting”, that detailed the findings of a survey conducted by the association in conjunction with research firm Grunswald Associates that examined the use of social networks by school age children and the implications of those findings for public educators.  The study was comprised of three surveys: an online survey of 1,277 nine- to 17-year-old students, an online survey of 1,039 parents and telephone interviews with 250 school district leaders who make decisions on Internet policy.Here are some of the findings from this survey:

·          96% of the students surveyed who online access had reported they had used social networking technologies, which includes chatting, text messaging, blogging, and online communities like Facebook and MySpace.
·          81% of the students surveyed said they had visited a social networking website in the last three months.
·          71% of the students surveyed reported using social networking tools at least once weekly.
·          60% of students reported that they discuss educational topics on their social networks; 50% reported that they specifically discuss homework.

What do students use social networking sites and tools to do?
·          Posting messages
·          Sharing music
·          Sharing videos
·          Sharing photos
·          Building websites or online profiles
·          Blogging (1 in 6 reported adding to blogs they have created weekly); 30% of the survey participants reported having their own blogs.
·          Creating content

Students who identified themselves as nonconformists—students who step outside the rules of online safety and behavior rules—tend to be the ones who are the cutting edge of social networking.  Nonconformists tend to be significantly heavier users of social networking sites than other students. 

How do these facts relate to school district policies regarding access and the use of social networking tools and technologies? 

·          84% of school districts in the survey prohibit online chatting ; 81% prohibit instant messaging on school networks. 
·          62% of school districts in the survey do not allow participation in blogs on campus; 52% of the districts do not permit students to use any social networking sites at school.
·          School district leaders seem to believe that negative experiences with social networking are more  common than students and parents report. For example, more than half of districts (52 percent) say that students providing personal information online has been “a significant problem” in their schools, yet only 3 percent of students say they’ve ever given out their e-mail addresses, instant messaging screen names or other personal information to strangers.      Similar differences occur between districts’ beliefs and students’ and parents’ reported experiences with inappropriate material, cyber bullying and other negative incidents.  While many educators now require their students to use the Internet or have web access for assignments, school policies across the country do not show that administrative decision makers are convinced about the value of social networking technologies as effective educational tools.  However, the survey indicated that attitudes may be shifting; the following results may be hints as that policy changes could be on the horizon:  ·          District leaders say they hope social networking will help students “get outside the box” in some way or another.  However, fewer than one in three (29 percent) believe that social networking could help students improve their reading or writing or express themselves more clearly (28 percent).
·          Large proportions of district leaders say that a strong emphasis on collaborative and planned activities (81 percent), strong tools for students to express themselves (70 percent) and an emphasis on bringing different kinds of students together (69 percent) would be required for them to buy into social networking for school use. But most also would insist on adult monitoring (85 percent) and would continue to prohibit chat and instant messaging (71 percent) as conditions of social networking use in school. 

After reviewing the data in the survey, The National School Boards Association made the following recommendations in their report:
 ·          Explore social networking sites.
·          Consider using social networking for staff communications and professional development.
·          Find ways to harness the educational value of social networking.
·          Ensure equitable access.
·          Pay attention to the nonconformists.
·          Reexamine social networking policies.
·          Encourage social networking companies to increase educational value.  

How might the findings of this study and these recommendations affect our technology use in the Cherokee County School District?  What are ways we can harness the educational value of social networking?  We are already using del.icio.us, a social bookmarking service, as part of our pathfinders here at the Creekview High School Media Center as well as blogs.  We are also considering how we could establish a presence on Facebook and MySpace like many college libraries have already done in order to be more accessible to our patrons.  What do you, as students, teachers, and parents, see as the potential of Web 2.0 tools for learning and true educational value?  Do you feel the current use of Web 2.0 tools by CRHS is helping you learn?     

Check out this interesting article from The New York Times called “Spreading Out Homework So Even Parents Have Some.”  Damion Frye, an English teacher at Montclair High Schoolin Montclair, New Jersey, requires parents of his ninth grade students to participate in weekly homework assignments that mirror those he gives to his students.   Parents are given identical assignments as their children and asked to respond on a blog set up by Mr. Frye. 

The point, he said, is to keep parents involved in their children’s ’ education well into high school. Studies have shown that parental involvement improves the quality of the education a student receives, but teenagers seldom invite that involvement. Mr. Frye  decided to help out.

While a few parents have been resistant to the idea, Mr. Frye reports that most have eagerly jumped in and found the experience to be a positive one. 

Tracy Parsons, whose son Danny is the second of her two boys to be a student in Mr. Frye’s class, said that the weekly assignments had changed the way she approached homework with her children.  “In high school, to some degree you have to back off from homework, so they can gain independent learning skills,” Ms. Parsons said. But teenagers, she noted, “leave a lot out. You ask, ‘What’d you do in science?’ and they say, ‘It was fine.’”

While some educators caution against Mr. Frye’s policy of penalizing students’ grades if parents do not do their assigned homework, Mr. Frye reports that only one parent has flat out refused to participate in the three years of assigning parents “homework.”  He states that he is flexible and works with parents who may not have Internet access or who may have challenges dealing with language differences. 

What do you as teachers, students, and administrators think of Mr. Frye’s creative way of involving parents in homework as a means for involving parents to be involved in their children’s education?  The primary suggestion I have is that he have the students blog along with their parents rather than doing all the assignments in the traditional format of paper and pencil.  If students are having the opportunity to blog too, then perhaps more dialogue could be ignited between parents and students.

Let us know what you think!