Purposeful Tasks To Keep Students Engaged Until The School Year Ends

Recently, I hosted a Facebook Live session for the Saskatchewan School Library Association.The broadcast, entitled Engaging Students, shared apps and sites to help keep students motivated as the year is rapidly coming to a close. The broadcast can be found on the SSLA Facebook Page. The accompanying slides are also available for viewing.

BUT there is MORE!! I have compiled a summary of each feature tool or app and detailed possible classroom uses! Click on the image to download the FIVE page Purposeful Tasks!

Upcoming Facebook Live Session

Save the date!

Carlene Walter is honoured to host Saskatchewan School Library Association's second Facebook Live session featuring technologies to help students reflect on and celebrate the end of the year. The fun starts on Wednesday, May 9th at 7:00 CST! 

To join, visit Saskatchewan School Library Association's Facebook Page! It is free!

Show What U Know

Honoured to be have been asked to host a Facebook Live broadcast for the Saskatchewan School Library Association. The broadcast is available on SSLA's Facebook Page.

The broadcast depicts 8 of my favourite must-have ed tech tools. The tools are free, user-friendly, and applicable for K-12 classrooms. 

The accompanying slides can be viewed below:

Digital Fluency Badges

Just added more badges to Saskatchewan School Library Association (SSLA)’s Digital Fluency Badges.70 different badges are available! In other words, 70 digital tools are awaiting for you to add to your repertoire.

I created this professional learning opportunity to allow busy educators to receive professional development when it is needed. Not only is the professional learning opportunity available anytime, anywhere - but it is customized to the learner. The learners chooses the digital tools and applications of interest or student need.

Each digital tool or application is described through text and supplemented with a video. Educational uses are detailed to help the learner visualized the digital tool's or application's possibilities. The digital tools and applications are categorized into broad categories so learners can search for what they want the technology to do, rather than search through an endless list.

The Saskatchewan School Library Association (SSLA)’s Digital Fluency Badges provide a professional learning opportunity in which learners earn digital badges through learning about technology tools and applications, and then apply the learnings purposefully to teaching practices.

Digital badges offer learners the opportunity to pave their personal learning pathways and leverage the potential for mastering digital age skills embodied in the ISTE Standards.

The current list of tools and apps have been detailed on EduClipper - a great curation tool featured as one of the Saskatchewan School Library Association (SSLA)’s Digital Fluency Badges.

 

Getting Started In The Profession

I was honoured to present to more than 150 beginning teachers today. The presentation shares ten essential web based technologies or apps for the classroom.

Summer Learning - Short Courses

The summer short courses are based on, and supported by, the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation. This program provides the opportunity for teachers to share their knowledge with colleagues who are want to learn new skills or may be starting a teaching assignment that includes areas that are new to them.

The Saskatchewan School Library Association (SSLA) invites you to join us for one-day workshops. The offered workshops include topics in a variety of areas:

Using Technology to FosterReading and Writing in the Middle Grades
Wednesday, August 6^th
Presenter: Carlene Walter

This workshop is designed for grade 4-8 educators and teacher-librarians who wish to explore how the thoughtful integration of technology can enhance students’ writing craft and foster deeper student comprehension. In this session, we will closely examine how digital technologies can positively impact students’ literacy skills, personal expression, and creativity, and facilitates collaboration.

Using Technology to Foster Reading and Writing in the Primary Grades
Thursday, August 7
Presenter: Carlene Walter
This workshop is designed for K-3 educators and teacher-librarians who wish to explore how the thoughtful integration of technology can enhance students’ writing craft and foster deeper student comprehension. In this session, we will closely examine how digital technologies can positively impact students’ literacy skills, personal expression, and creativity, and facilitates collaboration. 


Help! How Do I Get Started?
Tuesday, August 12^th
Presenter: Charlotte Raine
This workshop is designed for beginning teacher-librarians who are working in school libraries. The focus will be on the workings of a school library – from the basics of facilities management, organization, collaboration, collection development, to investigations on promoting information literacy, effective technology use, inquiry, reading, and high-yield instructional strategies. 


School Libraries in the 21stCentury
Wednesday, August 13^th  
Presenter: Carlene Walter
This workshop is designed for teacher-librarians who are seeking ways to enrich technology use in the school library or teachers wanting to create a technology-rich classroom. This hands-on workshop examines ways to enhance learning and deliver state-of-the-art service using current freely available technologies, including apps, web-based tools, and social media.  Micro-blogging, collaboration tools, social annotation, video production and hosting, image hosting, & presentation sharing will be explored.

Digital Skills and Literacy – It’s More than Tech Tools
Thursday, August 14^th
Presenter: Carlene Walter
How can we meet the digital skills needed by today’s students? How can we use technologies to align with curricula in order for students for our students to be digital fluent - to communicate, collaborate, curate, connect and critically think? In this session, participants will explore ways to infuse new technologies, including Web tools, social media and apps, into curriculum design.

SSLA Digital Badging

I am excited to present SSLA's Digital Badging professional learning opportunity, to be debuted in Fall 2014, to the Canadian Library Association (CLA).

SSLA Digital Badging Presentation to CLA from Carlene Walter

Digital Badging

The Digital Badging professional development opportunity is an initiative created by the Saskatchewan School Library Association (SSLA). The professional learning opportunity, which will debut in the fall of 2014, offers badges to participants upon completion of tasks. The tasks involve the development of digital fluency skills.

Digital fluency is the ability to use digital technologies readily and strategically to learn, to work, and to play, and the infusion of technology in teaching and learning to improve outcomes for all students (Saskatchewan’s Technology in Education Framework).

Participants will learn about technology tools and applications, when to use the tools to achieve the desired instructional and learning outcome, and even why the tools are likely to have the desired outcome. 

Earning digital badges is a way for educators to document their professional development accomplishments. Once a digital badge is earned, it can be placed on social networks, web sites, and portfolios as a detailed record of skills and accomplishments to various audiences.

The tasks encompass a range of digital literacy skills represented in the following model:

The earning of digital badges involves a simple four stage process:

On behalf of SSLA, we welcome the participation of educators! Together, we can pave a personal learning pathway and leverage the potential for mastering digital age skills embodied in the ISTE Standards and Saskatchewan’s Technology in Education Framework.

National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month!
I have compiled some ideas for celebrating poetry in the school library - Call 811! Poetry Emergency!

The word cloud of Langston Hughes' poem Dreams was created using Wordle.