The first blog post that caught my eye this week was at The Adventures of Library Girl. She is doing the 2000 Hours project this summer. She is keeping a log of how many hours she spends working on school-related material. It kind of makes me want to do the same. I have always said that there is a reason that teachers are not paid by the hour! I spend most of my free time working on school-related activities. I will admit, having a baby this year made me change my priorities, but I still put in too many hours! Next year, I will be the middle school library media specialist, so I am counting on long hours trying to learn the ropes!
Free Technology for Teachers talks about the Weaving History website. Of course, the history nerd in me was very excited about this! You can make timelines and maps. This is definitely a site to share with the social studies department!
Also at Free Technology for Teachers, I read the posting about the app, Mastery Connect, for the Common Core Standards. I have this app on my phone! It came in very handy last week at the CCSS workshop! I shared it with several other attendees, who all quickly downloaded it! I first learned about this app through a friend's Facebook status. She mentioned how much easier it made her homework. I was intrigued and downloaded it for myself right away!
The Daring Librarian has a post titled "Lady Gaga and Librarians Unite." I wasn't really sure what to expect from a post about Lady Gaga! The Daring Librarian answers a question about librarians being on the chopping block because they are more expendable than other employees. That question really hits home with me. I mentioned earlier that I get to be the middle school librarian next year (yay!), but it is POSSIBLY only a one-year gig (boo). Reason being, when the dreaded budget cuts of 2013 happen there is talk of the high school librarian taking over both libraries. It just floors me that a librarian position would be the first to go! I am going to do my best to fight for this position to stay, not only because I don't want to be stuck wherever they have a spot for me in the district if they cut it, but because it is what is best for students! I love the last line of this post, "We need to step up our game, get fierce, throw off the pumpkin sweater and be damn awesome at our jobs & fight the good fight! They're gonna take me out of the library by physically dragging me out of there! Booya!" That pretty much sums up how I feel about it too!
Bib 2.0 posted about Common Sense Media's 12 lessons on Digital Citizenship. If you haven't checked them out, it is well worth it! I only clicked on the first couple units, but I plan on going back to check out the rest. The lessons are geared for grades 9-12, but I am already thinking of adjusting them to work for middle schoolers.
I think all the extra hours are part and parcel of being in education. I certainly don't think most of us in education could ever be paid for all of the hours we work.
ReplyDeleteSo, how does MasteryConnect help you with the Common Core Standards?