Thing 23: New AASL Standards..

I have taken a few roll out workshops to dive into the new standards, but it is definitely overwhelming.  I really enjoyed seeing and reading Paige's article.  She has thinks laid out so well and the vocabulary ("power verbs") is wonderful to use when writing your own lesson plans or think about what you want the students to do.  I did have a chance to try her exercise as well where you look at what you currently do, areas i am "close" and what you need to work on...  for me I need to work on... "grow".  As much as I like the idea of reflection, I don't always leave enough time for the students to reflect on their own learning.  I would also like to expand our "global learning community" farther than our school or outside of a grade level.  I feel like something I can get done with my scholars groups as I see them for a larger chunk of time and they are usually invested and interested in what we are doing.  But I can't get every student in a similar place with some of these bigger tasks.  Seeing students k-5 is very different than MS or HS students.  I would like to see what a lot of the shared foundations and competencies really look like at the elementary level and for each grade level.  It is hard to say that "I do this" because it would only be a certain grade levels. Yes I expect more out of the 5th grade as far as the competencies and domains.... seeing lessons and how these look with younger students might make me feel a little more comfortable with the new Standards.

I loved seeing the curated list of tech links for the AASL Learner.  It is an amazing list.  I love the Best App list and the Best Website list for 2018 put together by the AASL too.  I know many of what they shared, but what is really terrific is the fact that they put little icons to show where in the new shared foundations they fit.  If they could sort by the shared foundations that would be even better!  Maybe next year! 

Nearpod seems to be at the forefront in the last year or so.  Our school district just bought into it and teachers and myself love it.  It has so many good features including pre-made lessons,especially the ones on Digital Citizenship, ways for only the teacher to control and keep everyone together as well as a feature for it to be student paced which would be great for centers or kids who finish early, etc.  Teachers can make their own and have collaboration boards for students to use all of the shared foundations.  Our district is also at the beginning of the push for Canvas which is a management system and helpful for curation, but has many features students can use at home and school.

As Librarians we are really good at the Inquire Foundation.  Over the last 10 plus years we have all put our heart and soul into getting our students to ask questions and wonder about things that interest them.  I used to like students to work on their own in the library for several reasons: I could see what they knew, where they were, and where they were going in their own work.  Over the last several years I have started to have the students collaborate, but it isn't always easy.  This year was the hardest with an environmental project I like to do with my 5th graders... between the amount of snow days, 2 hour delays, field trips, testing, kids sick on library day, students leaving our school, I found my 2 month long project turn into a 5 month project.  One inquiry project that I wanted them to collaborate on, turned in to torture for all of us due to the length of the project, kids leaving the school, and students not being friends with other group members and not wanting to finish the project.  We all started on a high note, but we all fizzled to the end.  If I could find a way to have them collaborate, inquiry and have a finished project to share and engage other students, but at a quicker pace instead of dragging on, I would love to try it.

Over the last year, I have been working on the explore foundation and sharing Growth Mindset activities with other teachers and students.  As well as the digital citizenship piece in the engage foundation.  Because I only see my students once a week for 40 minutes (if I am lucky), I tend to concentrate on one aspect or area, but I wonder if there is a way to include multi foundations with in a shorter project....  Collaborate seems to be a tough one to cover at the elementary level... although showing them resources for different projects or activities, maybe they can curate in their own life for things that interest them...


For my own reminders and having things in one place..
crosswalk with the ISTE Standards
crosswalk with future ready libraries