WISELearn Digital Content Curation Training

Today I met with other educators from my area for a digital content curation training for WISELearn, a Wisconsin educator portal.  The educators were made up of different grade levels, content area, and positions in the districts of Dane, Green, Jefferson, Kenosha, Racine, Rock and Walworth counties in southern Wisconsin.

What is WISELearn?

WISELearn is a portal being developed by DPI that will provide all Wisconsin educators with a place in which to collaborate and learn and where they can find content for their teaching and their own development.

WISE Learn will provide a social networking platform to support professional learning communities and repositories of a broad variety of digital material related to educators’ teaching duties and professional learning objectives.  

Open Educational Resources, or OER, is one category of content that will live in WISE Learn. Our project involves beginning to build WISELearn’s OER collection.

Project Goal

Our collective goal is to build a high quality starter collection of teaching resources for WISE Learn. In particular, we interested in an OER collection

• That was curated by Wisconsin educators, who reviewed and offered guidance for using each item;
• That was vetted using criteria drawn from Achieve’s OER rubrics and EQuIP rubrics; and
• Whose items have been correlated to Hess’s cognitive rigor matrix.  

Ideally this portal will be released in the Fall of 2015.  Some of the curation has already been completed by a couple of CESAs (Cooperative Educational Services Agencies) already in Wisconsin.  The fact that many CESAs are collaborating on this brings a variety of grade levels and content area expertise to the table.

The term OER (open educational resource) can be defined as "a general term referring to teaching and learning materials that are freely available online for everyone to use."  The open movement is partly making materials available and sharable with limited restrictions.  All resources will be free and available for everyone.

Copyright is a huge issue when curating information.  With each resource we checked their copyright status and the policies aligned with the webpage we found the resource on.  WISELearn will honor the rights of authors and creators.  Curators of resources will identify the license associated with the resource.

For more information, go to: Copyright for Teachers or About Creative Commons

I won't say that this is an easy process, but the end result is going to be very beneficial to educators.  The process forces me to really look deep at the content and analyze what is there, how its used, the opportunities for deeper learning or critical thinking, and how it aligns to the CCSS (Common Core State Standards).  Questions were assessed using a rubric for how well the resource is aligned to the intent of the ELA CCSSs and what is the quality of instructional support materials, assessments, subject matter explanation, and student engagement.

The day itself allowed for a lot of collaboration to take place.  I think this is very valuable in the curation and assessment process.  Multiple viewpoints allowed for insights that one may not have gained on their own.  I know I value feedback on things I write before finally punishing them just because I worry I am not using the right words or if I am missing an important piece as an oversight.  This makes this a better resource in my opinion.

Keep an eye out for this great resource to be available this fall!


*definitions and screenshots from DPI WISELearn documents and training information.

Full STEAM Ahead!

It's been like Christmas for me the last few weeks as much of my new furniture and kits have arrived at my LMCs.  I love opening the different items for the kits and getting excited about my ideas all over again.  I have also been putting out the furniture as it has been arriving and listening to the kids as they get excited over it.  My favorite comment came from a fifth grade who said, "It's starting to look like a real library in here."  That sparked a good conversation about why it wasn't already a real library.  the biggest feedback I received is that it wasn't comfortable before to read.  We just had hard chairs and hard tables.

Today I was involved in a webinar done through DEMCO.  Amy Koester, the youth & family program coordinator at Skokie Public Library in Illinois, presented on "STEAM & the Maker Mentality for School-Age Youth".  This was one of the better webinars I have attended in awhile.  I got lots of useful information and was not overwhelmed with too much information.  Everything that was suggested was doable, the supporting information helpful, and the project ideas low-medium in cost.  All good and supportive in a public elementary school on a public elementary school library budget.  The best part is it will help when I address staff so that there is more buy-in.

I guess I should jump backwards a little bit to kind of explain what STEAM is and means.  STEAM stands for:

Since the the early 2000's, the focus on teaching arts and science together has been a hot topic.  Even Mae Jemison said in her 2002 TED Talk that "The arts and sciences are avatars of human creativity."  The ultimate goal with STEAM is to foster the open-ended exploration in the areas of science, technology, engineering, arts, and math.  We need to share with the kids that there is no one right way to do things which will help their problem-solving skills.  

For more on the history of STEM: http://www.iteea.org/Resources/PressRoom/AustraliaPaper.pdf

Amy shared some important reasons for why we should have STEAM in the library.  First and foremost, the kids love it.  They enjoy the time for exploration and personalized learning.  Also, literacy is multifaceted.  Other reasons are that we foster that lifelong learning in all ages and that interest is a powerful motivator.  Carl Sagan said, "Every kid starts out as a natural-born scientist."  Let's teach kids that it is okay to be daring, innovative, and to fail and try again.

Besides STEAM activities, adding the maker mentality to your LMC is also important.  The maker attitude allows for the exploration of new skills and to create something meaningful like a product or an experience.  Allowing for making in the library is a way of offering new programs and services, like STEAM it promotes lifelong learning, you can facilitate community engagement and it helps to put the library as third space (home, work/school, library).  They don't have to come to the library, they choose to come.  The best thing about having making in your library is that if you need to, you can really make it a low cost activity.  You don't need speciality materials or have a lot of experience to make.  You can also bring in community players to help facilitate the making workshops like artists.

Amy shared some go to resources that I encourage you to check out.  They help to give ideas or materials to make STEAM and MakerSpaces a part of your library.

Go-To Resources

• Books & Articles
• Janice Van Cleave
• Kids Can Press
• Gail Gibbons
• Steve Jenkins
• Melissa Stewart
• “Gaining STEAM” in LibrarySparks
• Blogs
• Abby the Librarian
• Never Shushed
• So Tomorrow
• Teen Librarian Toolbox
• Gadgets, Gizmos & Goo (G3): The Mad Scientists Club
• The Show Me Librarian
• Websites
• Steve Spangler Science
• Little eLit
• Family Engineering
• Start with a Book
• Wonderopolis
• Mixing in Math
• Bedtime Math
• Make It @ Your Library
• TinkerLab
• Pinterest

Let the Revamp Begin

Over the last couple months, quite a few things have inspired me to really put a focus on revamping my library spaces at both my buildings.  Although they function nicely, this is not what a 21st century library should look like.  I want creation stations, makerspaces, a revolving door of students eager to embark on inquiry, investigations, technology utilization, collaboration zones, and comfortable reading furniture.  I think by making the library (or soon-to-be innovation center) the hub and heart of the school, more classrooms would be open to shifting their outlook on teaching.  Students can no lose the chance to be collaborative, critical thinkers, or creative.  They should have choices,  essential questions to drive them, tools to create, and resources to answer their wonderings.  This is the way to we teach them to "learn to love to learn", as Kevin Honeycutt put it.

I was fortunate enough to take a day trip to visit some schools in Kenosha, WI who have already worked on making their libraries more of an innovation space.  I gained some wonderful ideas that I could take back to my buildings and implement.  Some of these ideas included moving the book shelves around to create nooks with furniture for independent work or collaboration, utilizing more technology with mobile devices and a green screen area, genre cataloging (at one building this would be ideal), and an open door policy where students can come down whenever their teacher gives them permission to explore or create.

From here my passion was furthered inspired by the project-based learning, innovation, and personalized learning happening in Finland schools.  Students were constantly investigating in areas that they could be comfortable in.  They were given essential questions to drive their inquiry and the time to really put their all into the topic, not just 30 min like the schedule says and then its time to move on.  Students could learn about things they were interested in too.

I took some time to focus on each space and what was best for my buildings in the beginning.  I know that at one building the students have a strong genre focus when it comes to checking out books in the library.  For this reason, I chose that building to be the one that I would catalog by genre in.  I shared the idea with my aides and other resource staff who are willing to volunteer their time with me this August to make this a reality.  I also know that at both buildings, buy in from staff and professional development on the space must happen.  I want everyone to enjoy this space, not just some.

I finally took the time to sit down with each of my principals and discuss my vision for these spaces.  I was met with enthusiasm and 'how can I helps'.  Talk about becoming excited.  I began scouring through some library resource catalogs to find options that fit what I was looking for.

Purchase orders were written for furniture that was mobile and comfortable.  I then visited sites like MakerShed and STEMfinity to get some good STEM resources that students could work with (and that were not consumables at this point).  I purchased resources for students to create with including textiles, paper, art supplies, and more.  I used Scholastic Dollars from my book fairs to obtain some science investigation tools and reading resources, as well as additional furniture.

Embedding the technology into the space is another goal.  I want to have mobile devices available for inquiry but also to make the space interactive with QR codes and Augmented Reality.  There will be spaces for a green screen and video camera to be setup, as well as a Mac or computer workstations available to them to edit or create presentations.  Science technology, like microscopes for investigation, and robotics equipment will be readily available to the kids too.

Lastly, I talked with my custodians about my vision for the layouts to make sure it was not only doable, but that they would be able to assist.  Both of them were on board with finding a time towards the end of the year to sit down, discuss, measure shelving, map a layout, and draw up a final plan.  I also am going to present at one of my buildings PTA meetings to see if additional funds or equipment could be donated to help brighten the space and provide additional resources.

I know this shift is not going to happen over night.  It's going to take a lot of hard work on my part, and a lot of support from staff and administration.  But I believe, just like the saying in a Field of Dreams, if you build it, they will come.

Inspired by Kevin Honeycutt

Our district was visited last week by Kevin Honeycutt, last year's ISTE keynote speaker, and if you haven't heard of him, I encourage you to check out him out.

I have been to my share of keynote speakers and district lectures.  There have been some that have left things resonating and others that I was bored to tears (I'll be honest).  This time, I couldn't help but be engaged and listen to every word.  The way Kevin gets right to your emotions was.... well I can't even describe it other than it reminded me why I chose to be a teacher again.  I was laughing and I had tears in my eyes all at the same time.

His talk made me actually Google search during our break to find the high school teacher that had the most profound impact on my life.  I remember Mrs. Buchheit as a woman who was a great listener, had the patience of a saint, promoted her lessons with energy and enthusiasm, and was there for you regardless of whether it was school related or not.  She is really the teacher that I can look back on and remember her face, her lessons, and her voice.  Mrs. Buchheit helped mold me into the teacher I am today!

His talk made me email that student that I know I reached, but has fallen by the wayside again, and tell him I'm still here and I still believe in him.  Over the course of this child's grade 3 year in my room, we moved from a setting where you didn't know what would set him off, to a child who worked for me and listened with great interest.  While in 4th grade he knew he could always come to me for help and guidance.  He often showed up before school to work on homework because he didn't have a home setting that made it possible.  I gave him a snack for the morning and mid-day because sometimes mom was too tired to make or send anything.  In fifth grade, I moved to a new district.  Not by choice but rather by circumstances.  I received this letter from him the day he found out I was leaving the school:

I still kept tabs on him, checking in every so often.  He would stop in to my friend's classroom in the building to call me or write me.  When he was having a particularly hard time, his teacher would call me and I would speak to him from my new classroom.  Eventually I found myself back in the same district.  We would send emails back and forth, but he was always vague about what was going on in his life.  The next thing I knew he was no longer communicating and through investigation I found that his mom had moved him south to be closer to his dad.  Not quite a year later they did return but this child has been on  downward slope.  It breaks my heart to know he is on the wrong path and that circumstances outside of school have lead to poor choices.  If anything that Kevin Honeycutt said really resinated with me, it would be that I can't give up on him, especially of everyone else close to him has.

Some of the best quotes and takeaways from today:

• If you don't care who gets the credit, you can make anything happen.
• Kids are learning on a digital playground and nobody's on recess duty.
• Write on your students' mind with permanent ink!
• Record your lessons and team teach with yourself.
• Don't let politicians sum us up. Tell the stories about your students, it's not bragging....It needs to be heard. Take charge! Get the word out!
• First generation to have global competition. How are you getting your students ready?
• Learn to Love to Learn
• It's okay to model that humans need to keep learning.... So if you're unsure of using tech in the class it's okay, let the kids help.
• Re-believe in your students! Make them feel valued!
• Kids come to us the best they can & sometimes it's not good. It's not our job to judge...
• They are all our kids.... Not just the easy ones!
• The most dangerous place to be in a school is alone.
• The world is changing, why aren't we?
• Worksheets on an iPad is moving sideways.... Move forward!
• Is your school global or snow global?

Bringing Augmented Reality to My Schools

Augmented Reality (AR) is something that I first learned about over a year ago at a Tech Ed conference.  I was intrigued by the capabilities and the engagement level I thought it would bring to my elementary students.  First off, I am sure there are many who are not yet familiar with this terminology.  The easiest way for me to explain it is that it is similar to scanning a QR code with your device and being brought to a webpage, picture, or video.  What is different with this is that instead you use an app to scan a picture (which you have already pre-determined) and it overlays with anything you want like a video, website, or even a 3-D character.  The benefits of this are that the students are associating a picture with part of what they are learning, or even that nothing extra needs to be created.  For example, take a picture of the cover of a story, overlay a video of the story being read, and now when the child puts the cover in their iPad window the story immediately opens and comes to life.

Here's an example of Augmented Reality being used with animal pictures to create the animal nose and a 3-D picture of the animal (almost like it is coming to life):

Slowly I began playing with the app Aurasma that allows me to do Augmented Reality.  I started by using books I had purchased for my 5 year old nephew.  I took snapshots of the covers and created videos of me reading him the story.  This way if he wanted to do his own bedtime stories with me he had that option with his iPad.  By doing these, I began becoming more comfortable with the tool.  I've always been a strong believer in playing with these new tech tools in my personal life first, usually with my nephew as my guinea pig, and then implementing them in my schools.  I had many great ideas for its use, but sadly I got pre-occupied with other things and the ideas never really came to life.

My time in Finland really rejuvenated these ideas and how they could really benefit students when used appropriately.  This is when my big idea hit.  One of my schools has adopted the Wonders reading program and started implementing it this year.  Each section, the students are introduced with a new theme and vocabulary words.  What better way to use Augmented Reality but to tie it to those.  My goal is to begin with Kindergarten and work my way up.  There are vocabulary cards in the supplementary materials that I can use as my pictures and then choose to tie it to a video, website, or 3-D character.  This, I believe, will also benefit are ELL students who may not have background knowledge in these areas.

Another area of focus is the theme of space.  This theme comes up in the 2nd grade Wonders curriculum, as well as the 3rd grade Science curriculum.  I have begun curating pictures of the different objects in our solar system and have started the search for relevant information and multimedia to overlay on these pictures.  When students get the opportunity to interact with what they are learning, the engagement level increases.  Augmented Reality does this. "Though it might be a buzz term in education circles, don't assume that AR is just another fad. After all, profound learning occurs when students create, share, interact and explain. AR not only changes the environment around children, it also allows kids to construct their own exciting learning worlds as small as the atom or as big as the cosmos."

The benefit of all of this is that I can also use the material I create as exploration activities in library (LMC), or soon-to-be Innovation Center.  This will provide the opportunity for students to investigate based upon interest in a topic.  I can continually build upon this as I listen to students' interests or other relevant topics.  I'd love to even tie it to some of our library books that are multicultural and areas of diversity.  What better way to build background knowledge.  The ideas are endless!

So check out this topic and give it a try.  I'll be sure to share some videos as soon as I get my students up and using AR!

Here is some information on Augmented Reality in education from some of my favorite blogs and resources; Edutopia and Two Guys & Some iPads:

Augmented Reality Brings New Dimensions to Learning

Meaningful Integration of Augmented Reality in Education

Goals, Connecting with the Community & the Innovation Center

Yesterday, we spent most of the morning discussing the GEC (Global Education Community) and how we move forward.  Our key focuses were on goals for the next three years, collaborating components, coordinating, research, resources and more.  Our teams brainstormed these topics to develop a plan and then shared as a group.  The big idea is that we need to get the word out about the GEC, grow our network, and continue the collaboration.  I continue to see more and more, how the work we are doing with this organization is really beneficial to our students' growth and readying them for life beyond school and in the workforce.  As a team of educators, we have really been able to come together and form a single vision of where we want to take this community.  Every member of this team sees the vast potential of the GEC in their schools.  Tis has the potential to take us to some great places!

We also talked a lot about not only just being globally conscious and connected, but also having ties to your own community. I feel like one of my buildings does an amazing job of being connected to the community, mostly through service projects that every grade does each year.  I will need to continue to focus on this critical part of creating a global citizen because it is often not sued enough or even let out.

I shared what Jefferson Elementary 2nd and 3rd grade students and staff did this year for the community.  They collected ingredients to create soup bags to donate to the local community food pantry called ECHO. The students learned about how food pantries work and help their community.​    Additional projects are happening by bringing gifts to nursing homes and globally by sending needed items to a school in South Africa. We also have community members join us for literacy nights, Junior Achievement programs, teaching topics like healthy eating, Parent Teacher Associations, and more. We encourage the community to come into our schools.

During the afternoon, we were able to visit the Museum of Technology - Tekniikan museo in Finland.  "The Museum of Technology is the only general museum of technology in Finland. The Museum of Technology highlights basic technological phenomena, technical inventions and industrial processes, and tells the story about Finland and the Finns."

This place was amazing seeing all the innovations that have come from Finland or that are apart of Finland's history.

Our main focus of this visit was the three different innovative learning activities that they are offering kids and schools.  The first one was an Innovation Game.  Before I played it I was skeptical of how it would work and promote critical and innovative thinking.  Once we began to play, then I say its potential for kids.  In my school, the students would need a facilitator so that they really play the game, but with that piece, it would really get them using some higher-order thinking.

The second activity revolved around younger kids.  A blanket was made that had many items hidden within it.  It also had some pictures that tied to the app Aurasma creating some Augmented Reality.  After the students have viewed what the pictures on the carpet took them too on the iPads, they had to  find the items hidden in the blanket and choose which ones fit with the Augmented Reality.  The last part of this activity was that each person shared a piece of technology that was important in their life. After sharing we had to create our own museum display, placing the items in groupings and displaying them based upon importance.

The last activity, I think the kids must have a blast with.  The activity is called TekGame.  "In the TekGame you'll score points by solving puzzles and brainteasers about the museum objects. Developing innovations requires both creativity and knowledge. In the TekGame Creativity Consultant Aimo and Engineer Iina introduce you to Finnish innovations and at the same time test you skills as an innovator. In the end you'll discover which area was your strength in the game – knowledge or creativity. Are you an expert? Are you bold enough to share your ideas with other players on the TekGame website?"  The entire game is played with a mobile phone (older model) and the use of QR codes setup at different exhibits around the museum.

**Moment to brag..... my team took first, being the most knowledgable and creative!  Go Team Old School (Kati and me)

I was highly engaged (and competitive) and thought this activity would really get my students interested in discovering information  They would get more out of research or exploration if it is made into a game.  This game me really fun ideas for what I could do for activities in the LMC (or soon-to-be Innovation Center) for students.  

Overall the day brought forward many great news ideas I am taking away as well as planning for the future.

U.S. Embassy, Innovation, and Collaboration

Yesterday morning I had the opportunity to visit the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki, Finland.  It was very interesting to see and hear what they had to say.  I guess the only things that I have ever known about embassies have been from movies.... It's a place to go if you feel threatened in another country and that they work as diplomats in discussions between the US and other countries.

I did have some takeaways from the presentations that they gave.  One program that the embassy is associated with is called ARC (American Resource Center) which helps teach American culture, history, and customs. "The American Resource Center seeks to further the understanding of America and its institutions. It specializes in providing the latest and most accurate information about the U.S. government and its policies, American values, history, culture and character."  They have some great databases and curated items available to the public.  Their elibrary is a great way to get access to great resources no matter what your study.

After the visit to the embassy, we returned to the University of Helsinki for some more collaborative work.  Professor Jari Lavonen spoke on assessment in Finnish schools. Teachers are trusted so no set assessments/standardized tests are given. There is a shift towards internal, teacher-conducted procedures like alternative and formative forms of assessment so that the aim is to improve learning.  I have always thought that formative assessments were more valuable than some of the summatives.  Formatives allowed me to look at where the students are currently at right away and determine if interventions are needed while the content is fresh.  It's difficult to go back at the end of a unit, after a final quiz, to focus on an area that the child is still struggling in.

The last half of the afternoon focused on tools to promote innovation.  We did activities with manipulatives, robotics, and ones that forced us to work collaboratively and think critically.  Critical thinking is an area of focus I feel sometimes is lacking in my buildings.  The children are not really given a chance to learn by solving problems.  Too often they just look to the teacher to have them give them the answer because they don't know how to problem-solve.  Integrating critical thinking in our classrooms is not an add-on but rather a mind shift.  Critical thinking and problem-solving is something students will come across in the work force so as educators it is our job to prepare them.

One of my favorite parts of the day was when I had the moment of down time and was able to talk to a few classrooms back at my school in Janesville.  It was fun answering the questions about Finland and discussing my work here.  The kids were fascinated and excited to talk with me.  I was able to share pictures to show them the similarities and differences between our schools and our cities.

I can't express enough just how amazing and valuable this experience has been.  I have so many great ideas that I can not wait to get back and implement.  The collaborative ties that I have already created is