The most fascinating thing to do is learning another dialect. It not just helps you take in another language ,but also makes you aware of a new culture associated with the language altogether.
The most fascinating thing to do is learning another dialect. It not just helps you take in another language ,but also makes you aware of a new culture associated with the language altogether.
Feed readers
are probably the most important digital tool for today's learner because they
make sifting through the amazing amount of content added to the Internet
easy. Also known as aggregators, feed readers are free tools that can
automatically check nearly any website for new content dozens of times a
day---saving ridiculous amounts of time and customizing learning experiences for
anyone.
Imagine
never having to go hunting for new information from your favorite sources
again. Learning goes from a frustrating search through thousands of
marginal links written by questionable characters to quickly browsing the
thoughts of writers that you trust, respect and enjoy.
Feed readers can
quickly and easily support blogging in the classroom, allowing teachers to
provide students with ready access to age-appropriate sites of interest that are
connected to the curriculum. By collecting sites in advance and organizing
them with a feed reader, teachers can make accessing information manageable for
their students.
Here are several
examples of feed readers in action:
Used specifically as
a part of one classroom project, this feed list contains information related to
global warming that students can use as a starting point for individual
research.
While there are literally dozens of different feed reader
programs to choose from (Bloglines andGoogle Reader are two
biggies), Pageflakes is a favorite of
many educators because it has a visual layout that is easy to read and
interesting to look at. It is also free and web-based. That
means that users can check accounts from any computer with an Internet
connection. Finally, Pageflakes makes it quick and easy to add new
websites to a growing feed list—and to get rid of any websites that users are no
longer interested in.
What's even
better: Pageflakes has been developinga teacher version of their tooljust for us that includes an online grade tracker,
a task list and a built in writing tutor. As Pageflakes works to perfect
its teacher product, this might become one of the first kid-friendly feed
readers on the market. Teacher Pageflakes users can actually blog and create a
discussion forum directly in their feed reader---making an all-in-one digital
home for students.
For more
information about the teacher version of Pageflakes, check out this
review:
Dear everyone - Here are some downloadable teaching resources of mine to check out. The top two websites use image cards to support writing - please share these websites with fellow teacher librari...
started by lizziechase on 09 Oct 12
no follow-up yet
without a strategic plan for a department, you cannot implement new initiatives successfully, nor can you plan changes or institute changes in thinking. Without a strategic plan, movement forward will always feel forced, slow and lacks critical conversations that must take place with all members of staff in order to have team “buy in”. In the formation of the strategic plan, it is the one time that all staff have input and can “own” the direction of the department as a whole.
As a library we are a strategic arm of the school, even if we are not mentioned directly, and if we are not mentioned directly, then that’s our fault for not doing enough to be important to the school plan.
Library strategic plan based on the goals of the school strategic plan
If you have a Library strategic plan that you wrote with your staff, but never talk to other departments about then how do you expect them to have “buy in”?
sent it to other Libraries or your personal learning network (PLN), then how do you know what you are missing that is critical Library functions?
no corresponding operational plan then you have not thought about how you are going to archive your goals in the strategic plan
if you do not review the plan with all your staff and see how far you have moved, then its just a bit of paper that makes you feel better and is not an item that you have action as a team.
ask everyone to write one goal based on the overarching goals setout in the School Strategic Plan. These are big picture statements.
highlight the main goals of the school strategic plan
1. Tell your team that you are going to need them to review and read the school strategic plan.
Each individual sent these through to the Head of Library who combined and sent these to everyone removing who wrote what.
this was the main opportunity for all staff to have a chance to contribute to the strategic plan and the direction of the library for the next three years.
As the Head of Library I undertook the role of reading each goal and combining some goals together to ensure they incorporated the essence of each team members thinking.
From these I started to break out these goals into articulated statements that specifically looked at the library and what this meant day-to-day.
the strategic mission statement needs to be written which sums up the overarching goal of the plan
Once completed you need to send these goals out to the team for comment and any aspects that need clarification.
Once the fundamentals have been articulated in the goals and then corresponding support statement as Head of Library I need to present these back to the Curriculum Leadership group for comment. In addition a meeting with individual departments needs to be conducted to hear what they require from the Library going forward over the next three years.
The plan is then reworked and specific items for each department are highlighted in a separate document.
Anthony Tony on 18 Jul 14The most fascinating thing to do is learning another dialect. It not just helps you take in another language ,but also makes you aware of a new culture associated with the language altogether.
