Tag Archives: Teaching

Are High School Seniors Ready for College?

Some rights reserved by Univers Beldbank
Some rights reserved by       Univers Beldbank

The ACT National Curriculum Survey is a nationwide survey of educational practices and expectations. Conducted every three to five years by ACT, the survey collects data about what entering college students should know and be able to do to be ready for college-level coursework in English, math, reading, and science. The 2012 ACT National Curriculum Policy report found that high school teachers think their students are ready for college, but college professors beg to differ. In fact, data showed that 89 percent of high school teachers report their students are “well” or “very well” prepared for college-level work in the subject they teach, while just 26 percent of college instructors say incoming students are “well” or “very well” prepared for entry-level courses. This discrepancy in perception has remained consistent to the 2009 survey results. An interesting dilemma for educators in both high schools and colleges! CMLE staff have noticed  a similar experience through our Bridging Information Literacy Across Libraries initiative work. We know that many high school media specialists teach information literacy skills, but somehow, some of the teachings don’t “stick” and students experience difficulty doing research, writing, and citing sources in college. Talking across library types can be a powerful beginning  to better understand this issue. CMLE will continue to act as a bridge for this conversation to happen between high school media specialists and college librarians. We also hope to include public librarians in future “Bridging” work too. We welcome your ideas for future programming in this area.

What Do Teacher Librarians Teach?

Some rights reserved by Roberto Verzo
Some rights reserved by Roberto Verzo

It is still April and a month long celebration of school media specialists, AKA teacher librarians. We received lots of positive feedback about our April 3rd  post on 100 Things Kids Will Miss if they Don’t Have a Teacher Librarian in their School so thought our readers may want more of the same. Never stammer if asked what you do….have your elevator speech ready! To help you formulate or flesh out that speech, we recently uncovered another great document authored by Dr. Joyce Valenza/teacher-librarian at Springfield Township High School in Erdenheim, Pennsylvania and Gwyneth A. Jones, teacher-librarian at Murray Hill Middle School, Laurel, Maryland. Check out their document, titled  What Do TL’s Teach?

Cultivate a Love for Reading!

Bookworm2.CollegeDegrees360
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Many book lovers could have easily contributed to this blog from Edutopia,       “Ten Ways to Cultivate a Love of Reading in Students”

The post was written by a teacher who lists 10 suggestions for how, regardless of the subject, a person can engage students and nurture an appreciation and ultimately a love of reading.

Then the question remains: Teachers and administrators, what do you do towards this end? Parents, how do you encourage this with your own children?

Two ELM Webinar Sessions

ELM

As part of an on-going series, ELM is offering the following webinars this March:

Intro to ELM for Teachers: English Language Arts [Session 4]
Tuesday, March 5, 3:30-4:00 PM
This 30-minute webinar will introduce the Electronic Library for Minnesota (ELM) and discuss ways English language arts teachers from across the state use ELM in the classroom. The session is geared toward classroom teachers looking for trustworthy online content to support classroom preparation, lesson plan building, and student projects.

Intro to ELM for Teachers: Education Professional Development [Session 5]
Tuesday, March 12, 3:30-4:00 PM
This 30-minute webinar will introduce the Electronic Library for Minnesota (ELM) and discuss ways educators from across the state use ELM to stay current in their field. The session is geared toward classroom teachers looking for education-related news, research, and best practices.

Free Language Materials

photo
Photo by Deb Craft

Deb Craft the Media Specialist for St. Michael-Albertville High School has free teaching materials titled, “El Chino De Hoy,” or “Chinese Today,” a bilingual edition Chinese with Spanish.  These brand new materials include workbooks, CDs (Levels I, II, and III) plus teacher manuals.  If you would be interested in any of these items please contact Deb directly by email at debracr@stma.k12.mn.us.