AASL President's Program Addresses "What an Administrator Wants"
Scott Beck, head principal at Norman (Okla.) High School, will conclude AASL's Awards Ceremony & President’s Program taking place at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 24, as part of the 2017 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago. Beck presents nationally and internationally on educational issues. Past presentations include “Library as School Hub” and “Building the Eclectic High School” presented at the 2012 and 2013 High Schools that Work National Conferences.
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AASL President Recognizes Emily Sheketoff's "Ceaseless Efforts" with Crystal Apple Award
Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the American Library Association’s (ALA) Washington Office, has been selected as the recipient of the 2017 Crystal Apple by AASL President Audrey Church. The Crystal Apple honor is given at the discretion of the AASL President to an individual or group that has had a significant impact on school library programs and students.
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Draft State ESSA Plans and ESSA News Added to AASL Website
Several states have released drafts of their Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plans for public comment. AASL has added the plans to its ESSA webpage for discussion. In addition, AASL has added a page for the latest updates regarding ESSA. Check out the latest news and state plans and join the discussion today!
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Shannon McClintock Miller Named Spokesperson for Future Ready Librarians and Project Connect
Shannon McClintock Miller was named the new spokesperson for Future Ready Librarians and Project Connect. Miller has long been involved with Future Ready initiatives; she was the teacher librarian in the Van Meter (IA) Community School District for eight years. “As the K–12 teacher librarian at Van Meter, I knew that I could make a difference not only in my library but in the lives of all students, teachers, and my community,” Miller said.
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Jan Weigel Fights for School Library Positions
Jan Weigel spoke about the importance of school library positions at a board of education meeting earlier this month. "We should ... invest in what research says we need to do to improve and strengthen our libraries, not weaken them," Weigel told the board. "Waukegan students and community members deserve better than a silent crippling of what has historically been one of Waukegan's strength: its school libraries."
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Sandra Liacouras Receives Wallingford-Swarthmore School District’s 2017 Excellence in Teaching Award
Sandra Liacouras was selected as Wallingford-Swarthmore School District’s recipient of the 2017 Excellence in Teaching Award. The selection came after Liacouras was nominated by a fellow faculty member for “making a drastic change in the culture of the school.” “I hoped to have done that, but to be recognized for doing your job is overwhelming,” Liacouras said, all the more surprised as this is only her second year at Nether Providence Elementary.
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Cheryl Youse Receives GLMA-GAIT’s 2017 District Library Media Specialist of the Year Award
Cheryl Youse, library media specialist at Colquitt County High School in Thomasville, Georgia, received the Georgia Library Media Association and Georgia Association of Instructional Technology’s 2017 District Library Media Specialist of the Year Award. The district winners are now finalists for the 2017 Georgia Library Media Specialist of the Year Award, the winner of which will be announced during GLMA’s 2017 Summer Institute.
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Trump Orders Report on Federal Role in Education
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has 300 days to submit a report on the federal government's role in education policy. The directive comes under an executive order signed in April by President Donald Trump.
Revisiting Questions May Boost Test Scores
Elementary and middle-school students may perform better on computer-based tests if they are able to revisit questions they previously skipped or answered, according to a recent study by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The study considered tests taken by over 33,000 students in fourth through 12th grades.
Study Examines Myths about Girls and STEM
Introducing girls to computer science lessons in elementary school could help to build their confidence and interest in the field, according to University of Washington researchers in a recent study. Their findings show that if boys and girls have the same opportunities, they will show similar levels of interest in science, technology, engineering and math.
Novice Teachers Less Likely to Use Tech
First-year teachers may be less likely to use technology than educators who have been teaching for 11 years or longer, according to a report from Project Tomorrow. The annual Speak Up survey collected data from 37,000 educators.
Report Shows Benefits of and Barriers to Early STEM
Exposure to science, technology, engineering and math as early as preschool can yield long-term academic benefits, according to a report by researchers from New America and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. The report also reveals four barriers to integrating STEM in early learning.
Teachers Value Independent Reading But Lack Class Time for It
Nearly all teachers and principals believe students should have time for independent reading at school, yet only about a third of teachers set aside time each day for it, according to a recent survey by Scholastic. The report looks at how nearly 3,700 preK-12 teachers (including several dozen school librarians) and more than 1,000 principals answered questions about student reading and access to books.
High-School Graduation Rate Reaches 83.2%
The national high-school graduation rate was 83.2% in 2015, according to a report by researchers at Johns Hopkins University. Data reveal graduation gaps among some student groups, such as Hispanic students and those from low-income families.
How the Storytelling Format Affects Learning
The medium of storytelling -- digital versus an adult reading aloud -- may be less important than the content of the story itself, according to a study by researchers at New York University. The researchers considered learning trends among 38 preschool children.
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Resources for School Librarians
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How Hip Hop Fosters Student Engagement
Hip hop-based education can help connect students' interests and culture to the curriculum, library media specialist Joquetta Johnson writes in this blog post. Hip hop can be incorporated across academic disciplines, including math and digital citizenship, she notes.
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5 Ideas to Bring Creativity to Class
Creativity is essential to the learning process, asserts Kimberly Long, a reading and language arts teacher in a Lincolnshire, Ill., middle school. In this article, she writes about five strategies for reintroducing creativity in the middle-grades classroom, including the use of music and technology.
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Strategies to Support Question-Asking
In this blog post, Ed DeRoche, a former teacher and administrator, shares strategies for question-asking. He highlights the "Give It Five" model to support problem-solving and analysis.
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Tips to Help Districts Expand Technology Access
Education leaders in this article share four ways cash-strapped schools can provide students with internet access and technology -- at school and at home. Ideas include surveying students and parents to determine their technology needs.
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How to Teach Efficient Annotation
Students need to learn how to effectively and efficiently annotate text to avoid having endless, dense and difficult-to-read notes, educator and author Sarah Tantillo writes. In this article, she suggests teaching students to focus on the purpose of the text and its genre, and then create questions to guide their note-taking based on the type of text.
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Webinar on Changes to Title IV, Part A, SSAE Grants
Provisions in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017 made important changes to Title IV, Part A Student Support and Academic Enrichment (SSAE) Grant program. The Department of Education, Office of Safe and Healthy Students, with the National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments, invites you to participate in a webinar about these changes.
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Map for Future Learning Trends
Where will blended learning take students in the future? Education researcher Julia Freeland Fisher in this commentary offers five ideas, including "more student choice and responsibility for learning" and "personalized learning for every student."
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How to Prepare Teachers for Future of EdTech
A four-step process can help teachers determine the effectiveness of education technology, asserts education professor Candace Roberts. In this commentary, she shares the process, noting that such practices can help prepare teachers for technology that does not yet exist.
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5 Ways to Develop Critical Thinking Skills
Making individual, original connections to the concepts students are learning about can help develop their critical-thinking skills, educator Heather Wolpert-Gawron writes in this blog post. She shares five strategies, plus links to resources.
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Partnership & Collaborator News
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Discover New Resources on the Every Child a Reader Website
The Every Child a Reader website is a treasure trove of resources to celebrate books and reading all year round. Now is the perfect time to explore all of the fun resources you can use to celebrate books and reading with the kids in your life.
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