DMHS Library Update

LA Times online free

2011-02-04T09:57:00.000-08:00

Here’s another free resource for your classes, the LA Times online seven days a week. The library has reserved 40 student accounts per period.

On any computer, at school or anywhere else, go to this web address: http://eedition.latimes.com/cgi-bin/cie.cgi . To try it out yourself first, under Student Login type Teachers Username: edlevin and Class Password: gosuns1. Then click on the picture of the newspaper to open the e-Edition of today’s LA Times, courtesy of the Times in Education Program and its sponsors.

If you want to use them in your class let me know, so that we can set up more accounts for other classes.

(Image from San Francisco Sentinal.com 2/4/2011)

Great History Resource

2011-02-02T12:08:00.000-08:00

I just received 56 beautiful new Salem Press History reference books FREE from LAUSD Library Services. Please come in and take a look. But those 56 volumes are just the tip of the iceberg of what is AVAILABLE TO YOU FREE online from the same publisher. Because LAUSD subscribes, anybody who logs on to the Internet from a computer on this (or any other) campus, has free full-text access to a wider range of Salem Press databases, all searchable from one simple screen. EVERY TEACHER OF HISTORY, ENGLISH, BUSINESS or other related field should take a look online, for resources for your lesson planning, or for having your students access specific material from school.
It’s online as part of the LAUSD Digital Library. Once you’re there click on Salem Press History. If you’re not already familiar with Digital Library, you can access it two ways:

1. Go to downtownmagnets.org->Academics->Library->LAUSD Digital Library, or

2. Go to lausd.net and click on Resources->Instructional Resources->Digital Library.

For now, here's the direct link to Salem History: http://history.salempress.com/

Once you are at Salem Press History you will see a list of “Reference set(s) currently available”. Note that there is a “+” to the left of each heading. Click on each plus to see which lists expand into multiple reference sets.

THE “FIND” BOX SEARCHES ACROSS ALL THESE RESOURCES WITH ONE KEY STROKE. If you get too many hits, you can also do carefully targeted searches using the Advanced Search.

Let me know what you find.

(By the way, I took the picture of the new reference books on the cart with the camera on my phone).

Statistical Abstract of the US

2011-01-07T11:08:00.000-08:00

Social Studies, Science, Business, Math (and other) teachers may be interested in the 2011 online Statistical Abstract of the US, released yesterday, Thursday, January 6. Let me know if you use it in your lesson planning.

http://bit.ly/eRsvqu

YouTube Unblocked (somewhat)

2010-09-22T14:01:00.000-07:00

Teachers -

Have you ever found an amazing video resource you wanted to use in your class but couldn't because it was only on YouTube and was blocked by the LAUSD filter? Well, I learned from Mr. Sanchez today (who learned it from Mr. Ifergan) that you can now access YouTube (and many other media resource sites) from school for 15 minutes at a time. You will be prompted to start an Authorized Override Session by entering your LAUSD Single Sign On password, obviously so ITD can have a record of what videos you watched. But hey, if you're using it for appropriate instruction in the classroom, this should be no problem. It also works for other sites they classify as Streaming Media or Media Sharing. It seems like a step in the right direction to me. If you try it, let us know.

New Free Resources

2010-09-13T12:27:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the first day of the new school year.

1. Poetry 180 is a wonderful resource that I found out about last week. The Library of Congress delivers “A Poem a Day for American High Schools”. Sign up at http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180 Everybody can click “Subscribe” and “Poetry 180”.

2. Karen Magee was looking for a social networking site that would be safe and secure to use with her classes. She found Edmodo (http://www.edmodo.com/), and says it really looks good. Try it out.

3. And, if you use RSS, consider subscribing to this blog (DMHS Library Update) for the latest on what's happening around the library and the school. If you don't know how, here's the Common Craft video introduction to RSS. http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english

Enjoy!

And don't forget to post a comment.

Welcome!

2010-08-30T11:16:00.000-07:00

Welcome students, teachers, parents,

administrators, staff, and Internet friends!

2010-2011 promises to be an exciting year at DMHS with so much to explore and so much happening, and of course the Library is no exception. As a library we always promote books and reading, and I'll be featuring some initiatives on that front shortly. For today, here are some powerful Internet and video resources I'd like to share with you:

1. As an International Baccalaureate Candidate School, how can we create a successful IB community? An innovative possibility is the development of Knowledge Building Centers for each classroom. Here's my initial draft. (The template is a public domain gift from Dr. David Loertscher). Using this template, the classroom teacher, his or her students, and the TL can collaborate on building knowledge about any topic they are working on, in their classroom, or from home or school. Note the link in the middle of the page, to share comments, questions, and tips about the assignment. I also have Dr. Loertscher's three books that provide background on how to implement Knowledge Building Centers.

2. Students are swimming in technology, but we don't yet have an organized way to guide them into these Internet-age Web 2.0 skills. Here's a wonderful, robust student tutorial from the California School Library Association that we could use .

3. But, realistically now, how many of us have been able to keep up with the emerging technology ourselves? Here's the CSLA self-paced tutorial for educators. It is a great schoolwide professional development opportunity. One of the many things I learned from it is how to build what is being called a Professional Learning Network. I stay informed about professional topics in education and technology using RSS subscriptions (Google Reader), online bookmarking (Delicious), and social networking (Twitter) Feels like a real "21st Century" way to learn and grow.

4. Another rich resource is the set of Research Skills DVDs for high school students I just received. You can see the product description of the six topics taught at http://tinyurl.com/2et64vw .

I look forward to exploring and implementing these resources (and many more to come) with you this year. My watchwords for the new year: enthusiasm, focus, and dedication.

Curent overview of the DMHS Research Process

2009-02-21T15:12:00.000-08:00

After the WASC visit on March 9-10 I'll be presenting an overview of the Research Initiative to the faculty, by Magnet. Go to http://dmhs.pbworks.com/ and click on the link for the "Current overview of project" in the bottom left corner of the page to see the PowerPoint presentation.

Humanitas overview

2009-01-18T13:09:00.000-08:00

I just looked at the Humanitas page on our WASC wiki.

I'm quite impressed by how ambitious the project is. I only participated in the research skills instruction, but looking at the materials posted for the two units that were taught, I want to help unpack the whole project so we can reflect on how it went, how to build on what was learned, and how to move forward. Aljean and Diana, I'll send you invitations to sign on to the WASC wiki so you have access to the online documents. Our discussion here on the Blog is on the open internet, so some discretion is advised.

Humanitas Unit first aftermath

2008-12-17T14:31:00.000-08:00

In the brief time since the lessons described in the previous post, three teachers have come to me asking for copies of the Style Manual. This is the kind of grass-roots, bottom up proliferation we want to see happen.

Partnering with Humanitas Honors English/World History Team

2008-12-06T16:03:00.000-08:00

Well, that was exciting! We just finished the Research Instruction component of this great collaborative unit that was designed by Aljean Ivory, Diana Lee, and Karen Magee.

I was just about ready to share two major resources with content-area teachers and their classes: the DMHS Research Process, and the DMHS Style Manual (not available on the Internet for copyright reasons).

And right at the point where I was looking for someone to collaborate with, all three of them came to see me after spending a day off-campus planning their Humanitas Unit on the Industrial Revolution. They wanted to know if I could quickly get them 200 copies of the DMHS Style Manual that I had just described to the English department.

They had decided they wanted me to teach the Research Process as part of this unit. Here's the Industrial Revolution Research Project assignment that Mrs. Lee gave in her Humanitas/Honors English 10A.

She also made extensive use of the DMHS Style Manual in her adaptation of the Research Project Steps.

Here are the PowerPoints of the three lessons I taught:

Identifying the Pieces of the Puzzle

2008-02-11T11:29:00.001-08:00

I need to make a brief report to the faculty about how the Research Process is coming. It's a first introduction, and I've got about five or ten minutes. In all honesty, I'm just at the stage of defining the pieces of the puzzle. In this moment, there seem to be about eight or nine pieces that somehow interlock:

1. History of the project (Sept. 2002-present)
2. Choosing one Research Process Model
3. How to add skills each year
4. The skill lessons
5. Connecting with the standard curriculum
6. Collaboration (Classroom Teacher/Teacher Librarian)
7. 21st Century Learning Standards

8. Layering in Additional Levels

Briefly describing these pieces, and the first attempts to put them together, constitutes a snapshot of how the project is developing. What can I concretely offer the teachers I'm presenting to? Maybe I should just ask them before I start to be on the lookout for any piece of this puzzle that would be helpful to them, either now or in the future. Is there anything they would like to see delivered immediately that would make their life easier? Let me know so I can accelerate that piece, and also use the input to make the curriculum itself a truly collaborative project. Be sure they have the URL of the Wiki and this Blog, so they can access, print out, and/or use anything they see that they want to use immediately.

Splitting the Wikis

2008-01-30T14:50:00.000-08:00

Hi! I think the presentation to the ILT went really well yesterday. One thing became clear to me -- the WASC Accreditation project and the Schoolwide Research Curriculum project needed to be split into two wikis, which I did today. The Research one is a public wiki. I made the WASC one private so we could conduct our business without publishing as we go. The separation was a little painful, and there is some recovery and repair to be done on both, but I think they will both grow to be more robust separately than they could have sharing the same space.

Update on the Research Process

2008-01-29T12:23:00.000-08:00

Hi! I'm doing a brief presentation about the Research Process at 3:15 today, for the Instructional Leadership Team.

I'll show them the four elements I'm trying to weave together, spend a little time on the WASC Evidence Room, and then mainly focus on the Research Process, since this is the Instructional Leadership Team.

Marshall McLuhan used to make a distinction between Hot and Cool media. Hot media fill in all the dots and come at you strong, not leaving much space for user participation. Cool media leave a lot of space for the "audience's" imagination. I offer this project as a Cool Medium, leaving space for your imagination to fill in what's missing.

I'll let you know how it goes.

A Plunge into Web 2.0

2008-01-05T15:10:00.001-08:00

It’s about seven weeks since the first post, below, and it’s about time to try the second. During the three week Winter Break (formerly known as Christmas vacation) that just ended I plunged into Web 2.0 with a vengeance. Some initial evidence can be seen in the margin of this Blog, under the heading “Ed’s Other Current Web Presence”. In addition to what's shown I also developed an iGoogle custom home page, as suggested in In Command by Williams and Loertscher.

But why? Beside the fact that it's fun to play, I try to keep it within a bigger picture.

As a reminder, the first posting was divided into four sections:
1. The Original Project
2. The Technology Dimension
3. Student Empowerment
4. Deep Learning

My plunge into Web 2.0 is within the domain of Section 2: The Technology Dimension. In playing with the technology I'm trying to make it work toward integration with the other three items: The Original Project, Student Empowerment, and Deep Learning.

The Original Project was to develop a school-wide research curriculum for DMHS. As I took this detour into Web 2.0, it quickly became apparent that the Wiki has great potential as a medium for collaborative effort. And with the help of Chris Hammer (see his comment to the previous post, below), I saw that there are really TWO major projects that could benefit from a tool for collaborative work. One is my original library project, and the other is the (much larger) project we face as a school: preparing for the WASC visiting team to return this year.

As the treasure to bring back from my three week "vacation", I offer this Wiki (click the DMHS Wiki link in the left margin, above). It's in a pretty early stage of development, but I consider it a prototype that embodies a vision that has huge practical potential for both projects. I'll be discussing it with colleagues over the next few days for input on how to maximize its usefulness. And the structure of the Wiki is the bridge to begin connecting all this to Student Empowerment and Deep Learning. Stay tuned.

Welcome to the DMHS Library Blog

2007-11-19T09:18:00.000-08:00

I just got back from the 2007 CSLA (California School Library Association) annual conference http://www.csla.net/conf2007/.

1. The original project:
Before going I knew I wanted to use the conference to gather ideas for my major project of developing a four-year research curriculum for the school (Downtown Magnets High School in Los Angeles). This is part of a schoolwide commitment to raise the level of rigor in our academic environment.

2. The technology dimension:
What I didn't realize until I had been at the conference a while was that most of the sessions I was drawn to were on the subject of Web 2.0, or School Library Learning 2.0, or closely related cutting edge internet application topics (wikis, blogs, RSS feeds, deli.cio.us, image & video sharing, etc.). I soon realized the connection between my research curriculum project and the new web applications I was learning -- as a result my goal coming out of the conference now includes utilizing these technologies in the curriculum.

3. Student empowerment:
Beginning to reflect on the conference one day after it ended, I realize that the two sessions that made the strongest impression on me emphasized student empowerment. David Loertscher (based on his work with Robin Williams) and Doug Achterman showed how to use iGoogle to give each student control over their own online academic workspace. Tom Holmes' metaphor of "The Hero's Journey Inquiry/Research Model" showed me that you can give students access to an empowering point of view as part of their research/exploration.

4. Deep learning:
A fourth strand came from the sessions of Rosemarie Bernier and, once again, David Loertscher, the dimension and importance of deep learning. Dr. Loertscher said "the product (of the research process) is the beginning of the learning experience, not the end". He says we should shift our emphasis to the stuff that happens after you find the information, the knowledge construction. The conclusion students reach in their research becomes the self-developed knowledge base for their next level of comprehension.

I will continue to work on developing a four-year research curriculum for our school. But because of the conference, it has been taken to another level. The first indicator is that one day after the conference, here I am sharing via a blog. There's space for you to comment and collaborate.

At the end of Dr. Loertscher's session, three of us decided that we needed to work together to capture and digest the vision we had been exposed to, and find a way to share it with the other LMT's in LAUSD, and with the staffs at our schools. I want to create a wiki asap so that we can begin a pilot project which we can use to articulate the future that we saw.

And I think I'll send an e-mail to the teachers in my school with a link to this blog.