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" "We are excited to be able to provide this resource to schools across New York State, and believe it is the most accurate tool available for evaluating school librarians," stated NYLA Executive Director Jeremy Johannesen. The "School Librarian Evaluation Rubric" can be found online on the SED website at: http://usny.nysed.gov/rttt/teachers-leaders/practicerubrics/Docs/nyla-rubric.pdf The new evaluation instrument is aligned with Charlotte Danielson's Enhancing Professional Practice, the NYS School Library Program Evaluation Rubric tool, and goals of the Common Core Standards to increase rigor, relevance, and college and career readiness."

Carolyn Knight, Teacher in the Library and colleagues at Amesbury School, a new Year 1-6 school in Churton Park, Wellington talk about how their school library supports literacy and student inquiry.

"As a school leader who recently sold my community on the importance of moving to a one-to-one environment where every student has access to a web-based device, I believe strongly that our students will be more literate than students in other schools who do not have access to web-enabled devices. A look at the world outside of our schools and the technological resources being accessed in so many professions that allow people to work "smarter" is a clear indication of the track that our students need to be on in order to be able to function in the "real world." The biggest stumbling block in schools even if we can get the devices is the proficiency level of the adults in the building in utilizing the technology resources effectively. This is not meant to be an indictment of educators, but it is a critical question that we all have to look at, assess, and then move forward. Technological tools/resources can assist educators in some of our biggest undertakings (i.e. common core standards integration, teacher evaluation, providing relevant professional development, etc.). However, because so many educators in schools are not comfortable with the most modern literacy skills we are not able to make better progress."

"The School Library Designing site site invites you to explore how you can participate in school library designing - and why purposeful school library design is important. "

"School librarians bring pedagogical order and harmony to a multi-media clutter of information by crafting challenging learning opportunities, in collaboration with classroom teachers and other learning specialists, to help learners use the virtual world, as well as the traditional information sources, to prepare for living, working and life-long learning in the 21st Century"

"Evidence-based school librarianship uses research-derived evidence to shape and direct what we do. EBP combines professional wisdom, reflective experience, and understanding of students' needs with the judicious use of research-derived evidence to make decisions about how the school library can best meet the instructional goals of the school."

"The Learning Futures programme was established in order to find out more about how best to make schools more engaging places to learn. Engaging learning involved good leadership in learning environments. This document is well worth exploring as it positions schooling within a culture of 21c learning

"Mission 1) To engage millions of students in digital learning for mastering the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in school, college and careers in the global innovation economy. 2) To empower educators and school systems by enhancing their 21st-century capabilities and STEM learning and teaching opportunities. 3) To power up classrooms and turn them into networked design studios that motivate students to work harder and dig deeper into content and complex projects. Support for Globaloria is provided by forward-thinking government leaders, school systems, public, private, and corporate foundations."

In a recent webinar, more than 90% of school leaders responded that they were leading an innovative school as a result of the implementation of technology. At the end of the webinar, when polled again, only one leader claimed to be leading an innovative school. The complete reversal was due to a presentation of the Six Questions that you will read about in this article.   This list of questions was developed to help educators be clear about the unique added value of a digital learning environment.

"Margaret Kristin Merga outlines her compelling research into this area. Of particular interest is the role of librarians in schools in supporting struggling readers, as these students may be increasingly disadvantaged as they move through the years of schooling. Teacher librarians provided support by identifying struggling readers, providing them with age and skill-appropriate materials, undertaking skill scaffolding supporting choice, supporting students with special needs, providing one-to-one matching, promoting access to books, enhancing the social position of books and reading, reading aloud to students, facilitating silent reading, and preparing students for high-stakes literacy testing."

Provides principals and school communities with a best practice guide for their school library.

Students at almost 500 Australian schools are running Facebook pages dedicated to humiliating their peers.

"This presentation for school library professionals provides an update on what Australian school library professional associations are doing in preparing for the introduction of national professional teaching standards and identifying ways in which teacher librarians need to think differently, act differently and learn differently."

25 - 27 AUGUST 2013: Bialik College, in collaboration with the Harvard School of Education, is delighted to invite you to the 4th Cultures of Thinking Conference. The conference theme is: Telling Our Stories of Learning: Who are our students becoming as thinkers and learners as a result of their time with us? * How we can leverage the cultural forces that exist in our classrooms to constantly create an ever more powerful culture of thinking? * What are we doing as educators to provide rich opportunities for our students to develop as thinkers? * Who are our students becoming as a result of their time spent in this thoughtful learning environment? * Who are we, the teachers, becoming as a result of our time spent in this culture? How has it changed our role as teachers? * How can a culture of thinking be created, nurtured and retained across our classrooms, schools, and nation? The conference will commence with breakfast and a plenary session on the morning of Sunday 25 August. It will continue until Monday afternoon with plenary sessions with the Harvard educators each day and concurrent presentations and workshops with practising educators throughout the conference. Registration includes all plenary and concurrent sessions, breakfast Sunday morning, lunch and refreshment breaks on Sunday and Monday and a social function on Sunday evening. All sessions of the conference will be held at: Bialik College, 429 Auburn Road, East Hawthorn, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

"HOW will the way kids learn change over the next 10 years as new technology takes over in schools? Futurist expert Neil Selwyn from the Faculty of Education, Monash University, gives his predictions. "

"While we've witnessed many effective approaches to incorporating iPads successfully in the classroom, we're struck by the common mistakes many schools are making with iPads, mistakes that are in some cases crippling the success of these initiatives"

The final round of government funding is currently being distributed to schools all around Australia. So far over 967,000 computers have been bought, infrastructure built and (most) teachers up-skilled to benefit from the acquisition. But as the funds come to an end, many school principals are wondering if the process has been beneficial, and how can they continue to support and progress the Digital Education Revolution?

"The School of Information Studies (www.csu.edu.au/faculty/educat/sis/) at Charles Sturt University (CSU) is a national and international provider in the design and delivery of a comprehensive suite of courses in library and information studies. We face many challenges, and among these the latest one has been to respond to new media environments by expanding the scope of our services to the vitally important information professionals we know as teacher librarians."