Workshop Descriptions Session 2

Melissa Jacobs, Polly-Alida Farrington and Nicole Waskie-Laura

There's no turning back! We love our mobile devices and apps, and they're not going away. Our students have them, we have them, and we need to figure out how they fit into the learning environment. Panelists will share their favorite apps and offer practical tips about putting them into action. Come discover how apps can engage students and support creativity, collaboration, productivity, and critical thinking skills.

Participant Takeaways

Have an understanding of how to curate and evaluate apps for teaching and learning; be familiar with AASL Best Apps for Teaching and Learning; gain practical knowledge on integrating mobile technology in the classroom, school library, and in their own professional lives.

Tara Phethean and Amy Kaplan

How do you create enthusiasm for reading? How do you get older kids pumped up about Summer Reading Lists? Kids telling other kids about books they love is a great way to do this -- kids are the ultimate booktalkers. The students’ video booktalks not only allow kids to talk books up to other kids, but the program that the librarians run attracts both avid and reluctant readers, and develops reading, writing, and presentation skills. Tara Phethean and Amy Kaplan have collaborated on the Briarcliff Video Booktalk Club for 7 years at Todd Elementary and Briarcliff Manor Public Library. This club won the Westchester Library System Cooperation Award in its first year. In addition to specifics about the club they will talk about the advantages of public and school librarian partnerships.

Participant Takeaways

How do you specifically make student video booktalks work? These presenters have experience taking a student’s enthusiasm and helping them translate that into a finished video booktalk. Participants will learn how to recruit kids to participate, how to help them write their booktalks, tips for making sure the videotaping is successful, as well all that librarians need to know about technology to bring the talks together on a DVD and online. They will show how this combination of multi-media and reading allows students to work on reading, writing, and presentation skills. They’ll also give tips on how to make your culminating “Premiere Party” a success!

Audrey Vernick

The Common Core’s emphasis on informational texts has led students and teachers alike to rely more heavily upon their public and school libraries as a source of quality nonfiction. This shift provides an opportunity for us to help young readers become actively engaged with quality nonfiction and use it to inform their own writing. Using her own books as examples, author Audrey Vernick will address how students can assess and create meaningful nonfiction.

Participant Takeaways

1. Identify strong, reader-accessible nonfiction picture books published in the last decade.

2. Lead young readers to utilize terms often reserved for fiction--point of view, sensory imagery, pacing, character development, setting, dialog--to assess high quality nonfiction.

3. Discover how tools acquired from reading nonfiction can be applied to student writing of meaningful autobiographies rich in social and historical context.

4. Encourage young readers to find the stories in their communities, to draw out their own town's local history by speaking with neighbors and relatives.

Tali Horowitz

In this session, join Common Sense Education to learn how to participate in national Digital Citizenship week, Oct 18-24, 2015, to nurture a positive culture around technology, including addressing cyberbullying and helping students become upstanders. Learn how to host a Digital Citizenship Week and to engage students, parents, teachers, and leadership in setting goals, developing the program, and hosting pro-social digital citizenship activities. Discover Common Sense's new free resources for schools and get ideas for your program.

Participant Takeaways

Participants will: (1) Recognize the benefits of digital citizenship week as an awareness and education campaign; (2) recognize topics to be taught and activities to be covered in digital citizenship week; (3) Sample lesson activities and interactives on digital citizenship; (4) Identify strategies to engage key stakeholders - students, parents, teachers, and school leadership - in planning the week and the school’s broader digital citizenship program.

Stacey Gerwitz, Julie Johnson and Laurie Struffolino

Rockin’ the Research- Molding and Developing Confident, Independent Researchers through Collaboration. Students do not become independent researchers overnight; it takes many research opportunities to bring students to a level where they are confident in their skills. With a yearlong focus on research skills, two 7th grade English teachers and a librarian came up with mini-projects that connect to CCSS while incorporating inquiry skills. The overall goal is confident and independent researchers.

Participant Takeaways

Participants will walk away with four, YES FOUR mini-research projects that can be adapted and used immediately at their school. There will be a folder containing all project supplements use in the library and classroom with each project organized separately. There will be essential questions, inquiry ideas, and suggestions on how to build collaboration. A flyer will accompany each folder with the benefits of collaborating that participants can photocopy and present to teachers after the conference. Emails from the presenters will be provided in case questions arise when they are back at school and collaborating with teachers.

Melissa Iamonico and Anne Jaffe-Holmes

Last year, the Greenburgh Nature Center obtained a grant to bring environmental education into R.J. Bailey, a 4th-6th grade elementary school. Through a series of happy circumstances, the library became the contact area for both the Nature Center and the direct instruction for the students. Each grade level is able to participate in a different project that is tailored to their area of exploration. The Greenburgh Nature Center and the librarian have worked closely together to create lessons and units for all three grade levels, and the Nature Center comes into the school twice a year to facilitate hands on lessons. In the meantime, the librarian teaches an inquiry-based curriculum on the topics that allows students to work on real world problems. At this session, attendees will learn about the program, hear about some of the successes and challenges, and hopefully walk away inspired to begin a program with a local organization in their area.

Participant Takeaways

Hopefully, participants will be inspired to attempt a project-based program in their own library.