Sonya's Teaching Blog

Reading Girl Code: Gaming, Going Viral and Getting It Done  was accidentally appropriate on my part, as May 11 was National  Girls Learning Code Day . This book was written by Sophie Houser and Andrea Gonzales and tells the true story of how they spent a summer learning to code with a  Girls Who Code  camp in New York City, created a game together as a final project, and experienced their game, Tampon Run , going viral and taking their lives by storm (the game was not working for me when I tried, but there is now a version for iOS included in the link). Girl Code  cover care of Goodreads . There were a lot of things I loved about this book. I love that it was a book written for teens, by teens. I loved that they speak so frankly about their experiences, including both the positive and the negative aspects of their experience. In addition to talking about coding, they discuss topics such as anxiety and impostor syndrome, trying to figure out what you want...

The last bit of my life has been spent creating a website designed for the absolute beginner to learn how to use a 3D printer for education. This project really challenged my skill set, but I am so glad I did it. Introducing: DIMENSIONS: Beginner's 3D Printing for Education This TED talk by Stephen Elford might help spark your interest in 3D printing in education. Creating this project really combined and built on many skills I have learned during the LIBE 477 course. I decided that the best way to make a tutorial on how to 3D print for teaching would be to actually go through the steps of trying to do it myself. One of the most important skills I built up during this course was how to develop, maintain and take advantage of my own personal learning network. It's incredible the help people are willing to offer if you just ask. A good friend has a 3D printer, so I enlisted his help to try setting up a print myself. He recommended software and helped me when I got stu...

Reading Dalton and Grisham's Love That Book: Multimodal Response to Literature , the authors describe using "glogs" as a response tool for students showing their learning from a piece of literature. Glogs are multimedia posters created digitally - they can contain images, graphics and text like a regular poster, but also video, audio, links or even 3D, virtual reality, or other manipulable features. A screencap of a glog that appeals to the geologist in me. Access the interactive version from Glogster here . They are meant to be interactive and give multiple ways to respond to an inspiration such as a piece of literature. More and more, teachers are incorporating student choice into projects they use to show their learning. I have particularly been inspired by author and educator (and one of my professors during my B.Ed), Jennifer Katz (2012) and her work in this area, as well as educator and advocate for inclusive education, Shelley Moore. Jennifer Kat's...

The following are two fictional examples of teachers in need of support to improve the implementation of reference resources in their classroom practices. Looking at each case carefully and using the Concerns-Based Adoption Model, or CBAM (from Loucks-Hoursley, 1996 ), I have outlined specific steps that can be taken to encourage these teachers to use the resources available more effectively. Typical expressions of concerns about innovations. From Taking Charge of Change  by S.M. Hord, W.L. Rutherford, L. Huling-Austin, and G.E. Hall, 1987. Typical behaviors at levels of use of innovation. From  Taking Charge of Change  by S.M. Hord, W.L. Rutherford, L. Huling-Austin, and G.E. Hall, 1987. Case Study #1: “Pat” Pat has been teaching Social Studies at the same high school for several years. Classes have an established routine of teacher-centered learning where the students fill in notes from PowerPoint presentations. Pat has decided to branch ...

What on Earth have I been learning? Image care of Britannica Digital Learning . Over the past few weeks, I have been delving into the depths of the internet to research topics that are important to those in the education field, particularly to teacher-librarians. School libraries these days are so much more than just a place from which to borrow books - more and more they are becoming a hub of activity in schools. They are places to learn and use technology, places to meet up and collaborate on projects, places to ask questions and to get unexpected answers. That isn't just the case for the students - it's a place for teachers and librarians to ask questions and to learn and grow as well. I certainly have learned and grown during my explorations. Studying ways to foster reading culture in schools and global access too books, I have notices some similarities. Everyone needs to have access to books that are culturally relevant and language appropriate. In a multicultura...

Being a Teacher-Librarian is a complicated task, one far more complex that it appears at first glance. Our job is not only to maintain resources and to promote a love of reading, but also to support the curriculum, offer students a gathering place, and support technology education in schools. Strong libraries with dedicated teacher-librarians are linked with higher student-achievement , but budgets to school libraries and teacher-librarian hours are being reduced across Canada . The timing for these cuts couldn't be worse with an explosive increase in technology in education and in the role of the school library. Considering these conflicting facts, the role of the teacher-librarian is becoming increasingly more difficult. When I was a student in the public school system, libraries were simple compared to today. Any school research or reading for pleasure was done using the books in the library, and once you knew how to use the card catalog  and the encyclopedias, y...

When it comes to technology, I am far from an early adopter. That being said, if I see something that I think will make my life easier or my teaching better, I'm going to jump on it. During my teaching practicum, I had been frustrated that I had no way to physically draw on documents that I was either creating as handouts or showing to the class on the projector. So when I found myself in need of a new laptop, I decided to get one with a tablet option and drawing tools. Until now, I had not learned to use it in any way other than as a conventional laptop. Now is the perfect time to learn, and I decided to document my process as an example of how I develop my own ICT skills as a teacher. Someday, this will be me. Image care of   Getting Smart . Initially in this process, I leaned heavily on my personal learning network. I asked fellow teachers what worked for them and consulted my many friends who work in IT for their advice. In the end, I wound up with a Lenovo Flex 5 ...

While researching the role that learning commons play in digital literacy, I decided to break the topic into several sub-topics. Those were as follows: What is digital literacy and why is it important? How can we teach digital literacy and what role can libraries and/or learning commons play in digital literacy education? What standards are in place for digital literacy education and how are we assessing students’ abilities compared with those standards? Of the three sub-topics, the most discussed appears to be the need for digital literacy and, to a lesser degree, it’s definition. There is no universal definition of digital literacy, but there seems to be a consensus that it involves two larger concepts, plus other peripheral skills. The main concepts are 1) how to use digital technology to find and use information and 2) how to use digital technology to create and share information (Heitin, 2016; ISTE, 2016; Media Smarts, n.d.). However, there seems to be a wide range ...

After some consideration, I realized that my previous research interest broke down into a few sub-categories. The first is on how technology is being integrated into libraries. The second is the definition of digital literacy. The third is on what are standards for digital literacy and how do we make sure students are reaching these standards. The following are just a few of the numerous sources discovered while researching these three areas. 1. Smith System (2019). Learning Commons: How Technology is Changing 21st Century Library Design.  Retrieved from  https://smithsystem.com/smithfiles/2016/01/06/learning-commons-how-technology-is-changing-21st-century-library-design/ Technology is already being incorporated into libraries and education to varying degrees. This article article discusses libraries are becoming learning commons and are incorporating more technology,  using a specific example of updating a library built in the 50’s. 2. Media Smarts (n.d.). Dig...

Since my own high school graduation almost 20 years ago, I have very little experience in modern elementary and high-school libraries, but what I have experienced has shown me just how much has changed in that time. Technology has taken a huge role in education and libraries are definitely reflecting that, with 3-D printers, video and sound editing setups, coding events, and programmable playful objects like Spheros and Ozobots. And that’s just what I have seen. I want to know what other roles technology might be playing in modern libraries. What skills do I need as a future librarian? What are the best ways to guide students through this world of technology, especially knowing that many of them may have more exposure to technology than I currently do? What are the best ways to learn alongside the students? What digital competencies are the most important for us to pass on to our students? How do we decide what makes something “important”? And how do we most effectively pass those ...