Things that stay with me

It's been a week since the IASL meeting, and I thought I'd write up just a few things that have stayed with me:

• Consider what are the "ambulance moments" at your school and put your focus there - ours might be going 1:1 and how to really use the laptops so they aren't just big flash drives
• We sometimes give credit to students when really, it should go to a computer programmer (Glogster) - strip it down and find what is the actual content and assess based on that
• Librarians are integral to Common Core implementation with its focus on critical thinking and reading and understanding difficult texts

1:1 conference is coming up this week and there are so many great programs, I have no idea how to choose! 

On Saturday, I finished two more classes toward my MLIS, Cataloging and Collections.  Frankly, not much in Cataloging will stay with me, other than perhaps it's really, really good if you can get the MARC records when you purchase books so you don't have to fuss with with it.  Oh and also that I'm really glad I'm not a cataloger!  But Collections was fantastic, and there's a lot that I'm taking away from that class:

• Teach on your feet, not your knees
• Your collection - be it crap that's outdated, books that are falling apart, or that it's limited to simple books that don't challenge students' thinking - sends a message to your students about what you believe they deserve - Consider the message you're sending!
• Diversity in the collection is so important - my professor told a story about a year her school got new textbooks, and on the first day, one little girl cut out a picture in the textbook.  She was asked why she did that, and she said it was the first time she'd seen a person who looked like her (she was black) in a book, and she wanted to take it home to show her mom.  It matters, and even if it's one student or none, it's a bigger world out there.  We owe it to our students to prepare them for it, including embracing a diverse collection.

Additionally, I need to figure out a good method of keeping all these types of things that I want to remember forever.  This noggin ain't what it used to be - I need a system!

Have a great week.