The October 23, 2018 #KyLChat on the AASL Standards was hosted by Len Bryan, the library technical systems manager in Denver Public Schools. As it was getting close to Halloween, all the questions in the chat had a Halloween theme.

Collaborate:  What SCARY new collaborations have you created in the first few months of school? How have those relationships benefitted your students?

Cindy Hundley had a successful standards moment when one of her 5th grade classes chose to work together to create products for the global cause of clean water in South Sudan. She has also had several successful collaborations with 5th graders studying Native American housing, 4th graders creating Super Creatures and 1st and 2nd graders studying pollinators. Amanda Kozaka (School Librarian in a small 5-8 middle school in southern Maine) has been stretching her students’ curiosity and perseverance with Mystery Object challenges. She is also working with ALL Social Studies teachers in their classrooms and it is creating an “equitable and relevant instructional model for learning research skills.” Sydney Travis had success with a QR code scavenger hunt for “POE”tober. Amy Baker said that a flexible schedule this year has provided so many opportunities to collaborate with classroom teachers on amazing lessons and experiences. Amanda Hurley stated that collaboration with a science teacher on new NGSS standards for an upcoming unit has been a bit scary, but she is excited to collaborate more with the teacher. Deconstructing is so important! She is working with high school classes to discover human impact on the environment. Their culminating project will be students working through the scientific process to fix a problem.  James Allen reported that thanks to the library service menu created by Jen Gilbert they have had many collaborative moments. They started the first week of August and it’s still going strong. Half of Kate Osterloh’s ELA staff is new this year and she has been working with them.  Her next focus is going to be working with the science teachers. Shannon Bosley connected with teachers and paras through her sessions on Google Apps, helping them help themselves and their students. Nearly one hundred of Letitia Rudie’s 4th and 5th grade students between her two elementaries have signed up for Lunch Bunch book club and are begging to read the KBA books. Jessica Sparrow started doing Tech Tools Tip-Off on Fridays–20 minutes during plannings to learn a new tech tool. Rhonda Bell is doing Breakouts with different subjects this year–math, chemistry, social studies, family & consumer science. Amy Rogers Baker said that collaboration with the classroom teachers has provided opportunities for students to participate in interdisciplinary lessons, activities, and experiences and is providing students the opportunity to connect learning to real world experiences. Collaboration in Katie Newton’s district has lead to a Tri-School Read.  They are all reading Ghost by Jason Reynolds and creating a community of readers across the district. An officer from the soil conservation district visited Sam Northern’s library to help students understand the watershed/storm-water concept using an enviroscape. Erin Pifer has collaborated with the school resource officer to give digital etiquette discussions to 6th and 7th graders in correlation with Safe Schools Week.

Curate: what is your favorite FANGtastic curation tool today? Tell us how you use it to share resources with teachers, students, and your school community.

Sam Northern uses Symbaloo with his students, especially the elementary.  They have access to many sites with the click of a button. Heidi Neltner, another Symbaloo fan, has also been experimenting with using Google sites for curating specific topics. Cindy Hundley has been using Epic!  for creating mini collections for the different topics grade levels are studying.  The resources include books, videos, read-to-me texts, and audiobooks. Free for all educators! James Allen’s favorite tool is their library website.  Students and teachers know it is the place to go to find important resources curated by James and Jen Gilbert.  Christina Karvounis suggests using Padlet and Weebly for access to everything–card catalog, databases, curated linklists, and a blog for clubs. Amanda Hurley’s favorite curation tools are Twitter and IFTTT.  She has all of her “likes” go into a Google sheet so she can keep track of them in one place and make notes when she shares with others in her building or PLC. Sydney Travis is trying Wakelet, but also uses Symbaloo and Google Keep for notes. Jessica Sparrow started a Flipgrid for students and teachers to book talk books and in the future she plans to create QR codes to the Flipgrids and put on the books. Holly Hart uses the high school web page and her aides are using SMORE to create tutorials for our technology. Katie Newton says Google Calendar is winning for all things for keeping school wide information, office management and student conferences all in one place. Amanda Kozaka has been teaching students how to use curation features in Gale’s Research in Context database. She says it is easy to navigate and so useful!

Inquire: How are you inspiring learners to ask FRIGHTENINGLY deep questions and to share their learning products outside the classroom?

Heidi Neltner is working towards developing a few new #PBL opportunities that will be cross curricular and include the possibility for sharing at community events. James Allen challenged students to ask questions by supporting Genius Hour, PBL, Passion Projects, and content-specific assignments. Cindy Hundley shares work on YouTube, Twitter, and soon in their 5th grade newspaper. Amy Rogers Baker says this is the second year their enrichment students have participated in Genius Hour in the LMC. This year they have put an emphasis on asking driving questions which will impact communities outside the classroom and school. Amanda Kozaka stated she thinks students ask deeper questions when they know they don’t necessarily have to answer them. She focus on formulating questions as a skill distinct from finding information. Christina Karvounis gives students time to research in groups at the start of independent projects–talk out ideas, stretch thinking and deepen questions–then go independent. She has students create infomercials, short podcasts, models, etc. as product rather than paper/poster. Sam Northern’s elementary Research Ambassadors develop their passion project research questions after gaining background knowledge on their topic. Students create “open” questions for #GeniusHour that require a lot of investigation and information from multiple sources. Sydney Travis said that in Jefferson County, LMSs take the lead with their “backpack of digital skills.”  The #jcpsbackpack will prepare students to “think about their THINKING.” Students present and defend 5th, 8th & 12th.

Include – we are tasked with devising TERRIFYING learning opportunities that require learners to evaluate a variety of perspectives – how have you done this so far?

With Christina Karvounis’ youngest PK-K, after a read aloud they retell the story from a different character’s point of view and ask how it changes the outcome/narrative arc or feelings. Katie Newton collaborated with a Math teacher to utilize Fligrid. Students could then see each other’s answers and compare/learn. James Allen stated that experiencing, evaluating, sharing, and being knowledgeable of a wide variety of perspectives is achieved through access to varied literature, games, collaborative opportunities, and content-specific knowledge.  Heidi Neltner hopes that a #PBL project she’s helping @JESscience4 brainstorm leads to some excellent connections and various perspectives in fiction and nonfiction pairings for environmental impact  and privacy.

Explore: What GHOULISH activities or experiences have you created that help learners recognize their capabilities and skills that can be developed, improved and expanded?

Len Bryan tries to take research assignments up several notches as students move up in grades – requiring more sources, variety, and deeper analysis of perspectives. Amanda Hurley said when students type in a keyword in a database or Google and find thousands of hits they are overwhelmed. It’s a teachable moment to help them revise – in real time – their keywords and get better results. After studying theme using fables, Amy Baker’s third graders wrote twisted fables with a partner and then turned them into a digital story. Several groups required many drafts of the fable and digital product. Sydney Travis has tried Hyperdocs as a way to level up the engagement and capabilities of students and has offered an after school PD for teachers. After working on their PBL project, Cindy Hundley’s 4th graders have proven to themselves that they can conduct research, create a physical project, and a TouchCast video demonstrating and sharing their knowledge with a real audience. Makerspaces, according to Katie Newton, really works on “soft skills”–teamwork, leadership, voice tone, encouragement, sportsmanship. Students learn quickly how to play with each other and how to compromise with each other for the best outcomes. Shannon Bosley suggests sharing differences between Google and database searches as well as showing what Boolean strategies can do for results.

Engage: How have you structured your MACABRE learning environment for the innovative use of information & information technologies?  

Amanda Hurley will be implementing a video production area for students to use.  She posts curiosity questions from @Wonderopolis on running TV presentation to promote inquiry. She also tries to change out #HCMakes area regularly.  In Sam Nothern’s library (@sesmediacenter), there is an iPad kiosk, chromebooks, VR, a video production room, Lego wall, and shelves filled with BOOKS! Sydney Travis has been at her school for four years and has a supportive principal who has allowed her vision of a “learning commons” concept to take shape.  Gordon Herring suggests using the Follett Learning Google Chrome Extension so that students see the resources the school library has when they use Google.  Christina Karvounis has a research station with a laptop where students can freely access databases to satisfy curiosities in her  #globalstudies focus unit and then share discoveries in an upcoming morning announcement. Shannon Bosley is doing a heavy weeding to help allow for rearrangement and  re-purposing of furniture and space. She is working to expand “play” space with puzzles, coloring pages, sewing machine, and green screen.

As Len Bryan stated, there were “many terrific examples in [this] chat that prove the #AASLStandards are not so scary after all – they simply reflect and encourage the amazing work we all do in your libraries each and every day!” The next chat for #kylchat will be on November 9th as we discuss books, books, and more books!