LOEX 2019: The Information Skills Pathway

Here is the link to the slide deck from the LOEX presentation I gave along with my colleague Lane Wilkinson. Shout out to Lane for the amazing Photoshop work on the slides.

Setting the Course: Mapping Information Skills Pathways through the Majors

Email me at [email protected] or [email protected] if you want copies of any of the documents mentioned in the presentation (ISP proposals, lesson plans, marketing materials).

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Brick and Click 2018

My presentation at Brick and Click 2018 is up on Slideshare if you want to take a look.

3 Ring Circus: a model for understanding and teaching students about bias

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HCDE Librarians Institute 2018

Welcome Hamilton County school librarians! Below you’ll find the materials from my two presentations on July 24th. If you have any questions or need additional information don’t hesitate to contact me.

Slide Deck from Middle / High Presentation

Slide Deck from Elementary Presentation

Blank Lesson Plan Template

Sample Completed Lesson Plan 

Sample Problem Based Learning Unit

Suggested Reading List:


Buy In and Collaboration:

Oade, A. (2010). Building Influence in the Workplace How to Gain and Retain Influence at Work. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. (Available as an eBook through UTC’s catalog. Site visit required to download).

Young Entrepreneurs Council. Six Ways to Improve Collaboration (web article). Forbes.com  https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2018/06/14/six-ways-to-improve-team-collaboration-and-enhance-productivity/#2d26bb932037

Thompson, L. Creative conspiracy : the new rules of breakthrough collaboration. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business Review Press. 2014.

Critical Thinking Skills

The Habits of Mind Website:http://www.chsvt.org/wdp/Habits_of_Mind.pdf

A list of 16 problem solving, life related skills that are necessary to effectively operate in society and promote strategic reasoning, insightfulness, perseverance, creativity and craftsmanship.

Drapeau, Patti. Sparking Student Creativity: Practical Ways to Promote Innovative Thinking and Problem Solving. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2014. P94-116. (Available via TEL Gale Cengage Virtual Reference Library).

Sen, Shukdeb, and Sen, Sulakshana. “Connective Learning Pedagogy Enhances Students’ Academic Performances by Infusing Critical Thinking and Problem- Solving skills”. European Scientific Journal. Vol 11 (no 10) 2015. pp . 1-9.

STEM Techniques

Brunsell, Eric and Michelle A. Fleming. Engaging Minds in Science and Math Classrooms: The Surprising Power of Joy. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2014. (Available via TEL Gale Cengage Virtual Reference Library)

Developing 21st Century skills (Information Literacy) via STEMJobs.
http://edu.stemjobs.com/developing-21st-century-skills-information-literacy/

Getting Started with Team Based Learning (Via the University of British Columbia Centre for Instructional Support). Handout that describes how to set up a Problem-Based Learning activity https://cdn.ymaws.com/teambasedlearning.site-ym.com/resource/resmgr/Docs/TBL-handout_February_2014_le.pdf

Lesson Planning:

Arizona State Guide to Writing Measurable Learning Outcomes
https://teachonline.asu.edu/2012/07/writing-measurable-learning-objectives/

Silver, Harvey F., Strong, Richard W., and Perini, Matthew J. The Strategic Teacher Effective Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment. Alexandria: ASCD, 2007. (Available via TEL Gale Cengage Virtual Reference Library).

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TASL Conference 2017 – Collaborations between academic and school librarians

I’ll be speaking as part of a panel on the topic of collaborations between public, academic and school librarians. Below are links to my talking points, some examples of collaborations I’ve worked on and links to a couple of supporting materials you might find helpful or inspiring.

Speakers Notes

Examples of UTC / K-12 School Library Collaborations

The 16 Habits of Mind

Art Costa Guide to teaching Habits of Mind

Full text of Hillary Clinton’s Speech to the American Library Association, June 2017

I am extremely interested in partnering with other librarians to develop effective approaches to teaching these higher order critical thinking skills within the context of library instruction. Get in touch if you want to collaborate or have an idea you’d like to develop!

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LOEX 2012 – The RIBS Recipe

I led an interactive workshop at LOEX 2012 in Columbus, OH on May 5th. We learned about Bolman & Deal’s Four Frames of Leadership and then we built a “plate” of goals for growing and improving individual instruction programs in each of the four frames.

The slides are posted HERE complete with all of my speakers notes.

I also used a “menu” style handout to help participants choose which aspects of their program they wish to develop or improve within each frame.

The third component was the paper plate that participants decorated with “foods” representing their goals.

You can take a look at photos of some of the plates HERE.

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CALA Meeting – Using Humor in Library Instruction

I’m presenting a short session on using humor in library instruction at tonight’s Chattanooga Area Library Association. I only have 6 slides and they are all pictures, so I’ll write out some brief talking points here so the presentation on Slideshare has some context.

Laughter in the best medicine:
Laughing reduces stress, lowers blood pressure, improves breathing and produces endorphins. Humor will help both you and your students relax. Encourage it, embrace it; it’s good for you both inside and outside the classroom.

Humor is an icebreaker:
Humor breaks down barriers in the classroom. It removes the distance between instructor and student and creates an environment where students feel comfortable and will contribute.

Humor anchors learning:
Studies have shown students are more likely to remember material when it is presented with humor. Something silly or ridiculous generates a “stickiness” factor in your brain and you’ll more likely remember it later.

Never be afraid to poke fun at yourself:
Use librarian cliches, make fun of having to “shush” people, let them see your exasperation with database interfaces. It humanizes us to students and actually makes us more accessible to them.

Know your popular culture:
Most undergraduate students live in a different world form the one we live in. Knowing a little bit about what they are watching, reading and talking about allows you to incorporate entertainment value into your classroom content. Mine your student workers or the neighbor’s teenage kids for ideas. Gather intel to make your humor all that much more “relatable” to your students.

Make it a game:
Incorporating games into instruction changes the flavor and feel of the classroom drastically. Place students in teams and have them compete against each other. Time them. Cheer them on. Give rewards (candy) to students or teams who get the correct answer first.

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So we won this award…

I work in a fantastic little library with a truly inspiring and interesting mix of people. Not only are my colleagues outrageously talented, our merry little band is fortunate to be led by a Dean who thinks progressively, fosters creativity and lets us strike out and try new ways of doing things. Over the course of last summer, a team of 8 people from different departments around our library got together and brainstormed an idea for a video game to test student’s knowledge of “library geography”, i.e. where things are located. One of our faculty members was actually taking a game design course, so she lent her programming chops to the actual game design process, which is NO small task I might add. The rest of us took on all sorts of supporting roles and in the end what came together was pretty special. I’ll let you read the award write-up below for the rest of the story, but suffice it to say that these people I work with are good, REALLY good.

ACRL President’s Program Innovation Award

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Going home

I took my daughters to New Orleans for their spring break. We spent several days prowling around my old neighborhood, visiting places that were part of my daily life as a kid. We made a photo album on Facebook with a set of pictures we took. It was a lovely vacation, and a really nice chance to share my own childhood with my two dear daughters.

The Place Where I Come From – Photo Album on Facebook

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