By: Laurie Katusin Swallen

Collaboration with teachers is obviously something librarians aspire to do more of, and it has been one of my goals.  In my building, it has been difficult to collaborate with the science department, and I decided to see if I could find some way to show them what we could do as a team.  When I heard that the biology teacher, Mrs. Rowbotham, was teaching The Hot

 Zone in her anatomy class, I was extremely excited and asked if there was a way we could collaborate on the unit.  Having never taught a novel, she was hesitant to add it to her curriculum, so I offered my support, and we have thoroughly enjoyed our team teaching.

Anatomy learned about viruses, so the topic of the novel was relevant and of interest to the students.  We sat down to discuss what her learning goals were and talked about how I might support those goals.  We also did not want to teach the book as an English class might, so we decided to allow for more autonomy for the students in how and when they read the novel.

I spent several weeks researching both the novel and Ebola.  I found a plethora of resources and shared all of my findings with Mrs. Rowbotham, our biology teacher.  Her enthusiasm about our collaboration only had me more excited when I was able to have a guest speaker from the health department come to share with our class.  He brought “space suits” and discussed his training.  The students asked many questions and a few even had the chance to try out the equipment.

We began our unit with an introduction to the author and photos of some of the real-life characters in the book.  I presented the author’s bio, while Mrs. Rowbotham shared her photos of the Ebola virus.

We assigned each section of the book to have specific due dates and only had a few discussion days, where students could refer back to questions I had put together based on research on the novel, or they could just discuss what they enjoyed about the section or questions they might have about why things happened the way they did.  This led to some very spirited discussions about viruses, the transmission of viruses, and current events.

Within our unit, we assigned a comparison/contrast paper of the symptoms of Ebola and another virus of their choosing.  Students used our INFOhio/Gale databases to research, and many even used books that I had pulled on many different viruses.   Students shared what they learned during class, and it even lead to discussions about Ecoli and swimming pools.

Overall, our collaboration has been a wonderful experience for me.  I had the opportunity to learn things about viruses that I would not have known if I had not immersed myself both in the novel and in the research.  In class, the discussions were full of information, and I enjoyed seeing the students in a different environment.  Mrs. Rowbotham and I are already planning to collaborate again—hopefully, by trying out an escape room. I look forward to many

more days of learning, sharing, and researching!

By: Susan Yutzey

Check your inbox, OELMA Facebook, and Twitter (@OELMA1) for updates on the 2018 scholarships and awards opportunities. Each week the Awards Committee will focus on one or more OELMA awards and/or scholarships, including a comment about the award and how it’s affected the 2017 recipient both personally and professionally.

The Awards Committee is pleased to introduce our newest member – Janie Kantner. Janie is in her 17th year as the library media specialist at Indian Trail Elementary in Canal Winchester Local School District. Janie is a passionate reader and her goal every day is to empower her students with a love of reading and a knowledge of who they are as readers. Professionally, she is most proud of her work making a fully flexible, true library learning commons environment work within the framework of our k-2 building. She adds –“Personally, I spend my time reading everything! When I am not reading, I am traveling, following my beloved Buckeyes in football and basketball, or getting my interior design fix through shopping and endless watching of HGTV!”

Cheryl Lorson, entering her second year on the Committee, is now the Co-chair taking over from Marie Sabol who served as Co-chair for two years. Cheryl is in her 14th year at Westfall Local Schools as a teacher librarian – most recently at the high school. She wears many hats in her district – INFOhio D/B ICoach, an Ohio Resident Educator Mentor, the Westfall Education Association treasurer, and a member of various district and school committees. She initiated and advises Battle Over Books and Book Club in the district at both the high school and middle school levels. She received a grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation and its renewal to start and continue the high school book club. Also received was one of the 2016 “Patterson Pledge” School Library Grants from James Patterson and the Scholastic Reading Club. This Partnership Grant allowed the district to initiate and continue Westfall’s family community book study. Cheryl quite enjoys seeing students so engrossed in reading and discussing books as well as collaborating with her local public library! Cheryl resides with Mark, her husband of 37 years, who teaches chemistry and physics. They have three grown children (two sons and a daughter), a daughter-in-law, and two grand dogs. Cheryl enjoys being with family and friends and reading with one of her favorite books being Andy Anderson’s The Young Traveler’s Gift. She also enjoys helping in church and camping, including visiting the 48 contiguous states along with the Canadian provinces from Nova Scotia to British Columbia.

By: Lori Lee, Library Media Specialist at Zanesville City Schools, OELMA Director Liaison to Teaching & Learning Strategic Committee

This year Zanesville High School and Zane State College partnered to be part of a pilot study grant provided by Jobs for the Future called the 12th Grade Redesign program. It is a cohort of 25 high school seniors who fit in the middle third of the population, didn’t score particularly high on the entry exams and didn’t fall within the financial criteria for other programs. These students would take a prescribe coursework first semester at Zanesville High School. Then, second semester they would attend Zane State College with some additional supports.

During the first semester at ZHS these students took college developmental math and English classes. In addition to these courses, a developmental research class was created. I was thrilled to be asked to develop and teach this class. When coming up with the curriculum and the pacing guide I turned to INFOhio’s Research 4 Success modules.

The progression of these modules was the perfect guide for this semester-long class. The resources are well chosen and supported my students on their understanding of the research process. Even though Research 4 Success appears to be designed for students to independently work through the modules, it was very easy for me to adapt the modules into whole class lessons and/or individual lessons which could be used in a blended learning environment.

Each module is divided into three parts: Learn, Practice, Master. In the beginning, I took many of the lessons within these and created assignments to post in Google Classroom. Some of these might include watching a video and then practicing a skill, like developing good research questions. I would create a Google Doc with the instructions and post it in Google Classroom where each student had his own copy of the document. Students would complete and turn in the assignment and I would provide quick feedback. My goal was to have several assignments posted so that students could move at a more personalized pace.

As the semester continued, I began to think about the design of these modules as a hyperdoc. So, instead of creating multiple assignments in Google Classroom I created a larger hyperdoc with multiple assignments embedded within it. All of the resources from R4S were part of the hyperdoc and students could do tasks within it. I utilized Google Slides for my hyperdoc instead of Docs. This provided more of the “module experience.” I also incorporated other tech tools, like Padlet and Flipgrid which students could share and collaborate with classmates. The speaker notes in Slides were also used as a place for students to put responses to videos and such. Once students completed the entire hyperdoc it could then be turned in via Google Classroom; and because Classroom was used to push out the hyperdoc, I could monitor student work and provide immediate feedback as students were working.

Overall, I received positive feedback from students on this research experience. Students felt they were truly immersed in the research process and they felt much better prepared for their upcoming college research.
Moving into next year, Zanesville is planning on offering this research course to any senior. My plan is to adapt each R4S module into a hyperdoc with feedback from the INFOhio R4S team. If you are interested in more details on how I used R4S and hyperdocs please contact me at llee@zanesville.k12.oh.us.

By: Susan Mongold, OELMA Vice President

Last May, Woodridge High School received a grant from the G.A.R. Foundation to purchase a variety of STEAM-based materials for students to use and explore. Our vision was to build a makerspace in our high school library media center that supported teacher and student led projects in circuitry, programming, engineering, robotics, video production, 3D printing, and digital design. Additionally, teachers could checkout the new materials to use in their classrooms. We were all very excited!

Before the school year began, I had already ordered most of the requested materials. During September, as each new item arrived, we invited students to play and explore independently in our new makerspace (located behind the large circulation desk, where we could be close by, coach, guide, and attempt to keep the kits in order). We had many students begin projects. They were filled with enthusiasm and curiosity.

However, we quickly learned, independent/small group exploration often fell short when there was a tough problem to solve. Homework and (mostly) socializing took precedence over project completion, and by the end of the month, we had a collection of unfinished projects and robots waiting to be programmed. Additionally, we learned that students did not seem too interested in a dedicated space in the library. Students want to sit with their friends and would often choose that over making and building. We knew we needed to adjust our approach. After some discussion, our dedicated space was to become a dedicated day – Maker Mondays.

The library team spent the remainder of the first semester talking up Maker Mondays to our patrons, hoping to build excitement and prepare students for the program change. During October and November, we began sharing all the activities we were planning. In December, the student aids helped us build a few EV3 robots, a bridge and a simple, solar-powered machine with the K’Nex kits. We then grabbed related print materials and other fun tech gadgets to be displayed in the hall showcase with a prominent “Maker Mondays – WHS Library – January 2018.”

As with many high schools, students really like coming to the library during study hall to socialize. Not to mention, teachers with study hall duty count on the library to help with population control. Since our plan was to open for makers only, we were under a lot of pressure to attract students and get this right.

On Monday, January 22, 2018, the WHS Library had its first Maker Monday. We decided to begin with K’Nex kits. We had smaller kits that could be completed in one period and a few larger ones, like the bridges and a roller coaster, that took longer to build. For the larger kits, we planned to have each period continue where the other left off.

The day started slow — scary slow. I had just my two aids during first period. We started on the roller coaster. Only two study hall students stayed second period. They continued to build the roller coaster. Thoughts of flopping began to fill my head, and I started to feel nauseous. By the end of second period, the roller coaster started to take shape. It looked interesting enough to turn heads in the hall and by third period, we snagged fifteen participants. They worked in small groups to build (or begin to build) a variety of items – scissors, simple machines, wheel barrels, etc. Each period thereafter had great participation. We heard some awesome comments too, like “This is really relaxing,” and my favorite, “This takes me back to a time homework didn’t matter, and we could just play.” By the end of the day, multiple small kit projects were completed and so was the roller coaster. The problem was, it did not work!

The next day, we opened the library as usual, but students were not ready to call it quits. Some were not ready to stop building. Others were determined to get the roller coaster to work. Teachers were excited about all the projects on display and quickly began brainstorming ways they could be more prominently displayed. (We have a levy to pass. We want our community to see all this cool stuff we are doing.) By the end of the second day, two bridges were built, but the roller coaster still did not work. It had a motor and the car was to travel up the very large hill, drop, and do a loop-de-loop before it started the process over again. They just could not figure out how to get the car to complete the loop. It continued to fall short!

By Wednesday, we had a third bridge built, and for the remainder of the week, students persisted with problem-solving the stubborn coaster, so did teachers, custodians, and administrators. It was an amazing display of critical thinking, collaboration, all those wonderful soft skills we look to develop. By the end of the week, on Friday, the last period of the day, I get a text with a video. They did it! They solved the problem. What a great feeling!

I am looking forward to many other Makerspace adventures, and so are the students. We have plans for duct tape creations, stop-motion videos, green screen productions, and 3D printing. We are not ready for every Monday to be a maker day just yet, and we are not certain that would be the best approach. Right now, they are fun learning experiences that break up the monotony of the school year and hopefully continue to inspire students to explore independently. I am also in search of some great ideas, so if you have a makerspace in your school library, please consider sharing your experiences here on the OELMA blog.

SAY YES TO THE TWITTER *

(*with apologies to TLC’s Say Yes to the Dress)

By: Kelly Silwani, Past President, Olentangy Local Schools

Episode Date: Spring, 2016

My slightly afraid of social media brain: “So, are you saying yes to the new Twitter account?”

Me:  (with my finger paused over the enter button) “Ummmmmmm, YES!!!”

**Hit the “enter” key and loud cheering and applause erupts. . .in my mind, at least**

And with that, way back in 2016, I launched my Twitter account @silwani4scifi with some trepidation and much enthusiasm.

Twitter.  People seem to either love it or are not sure how they should feel about it.  I was the latter.  I knew librarians and teachers that used it, but I didn’t really understand it and I wasn’t sure there would be a benefit. Many of my friends assured me that I could do as little or as much as I wanted to, and if I made my password super secure and not the word “password” I would feel better about hacking. (which is always a huge fear for me)

In March of 2016, OELMA held a free webinar to go over the basics of Twitter.  I decided to at least create an account and learn the basics.  The webinar leaders had asked us to come to the meeting with an account already created, which I did. The account was easy to set up, the hard part was coming up with a twitter name.  For the record, I changed it at least once at the beginning.  I also made the decision, from the beginning, that my Twitter account would be professional only.  I would leave the personal stuff on Facebook.

**Please see Angela Wojtecki’s blog post from December 2016 for more Twitter tools.  https://www.oelma.org/2016/12/ **

So now here I am over a year and a half later and exactly how do I feel about it?  I. LOVE. IT! No question it is a must have for me in the teacher-librarian world.  I’m able to easily connect with other library professionals and groups; much easier than with Facebook.  Did you just read a book that you feel everyone should read?  Authors love it when you tweet your stamp of approval and include them in the tweet.  Many time they retweet your comment and you instantly gain more followers.  I’ve been in PD sessions and using a common hashtag, participants have expanded upon ideas that they just learned.  I’m not joking when I say I feel empowered.  I’ve been able to share activities happening in my library and school.  Slowly, over time, my list of followers and list of people I’m following has grown. I’ve encouraged and helped staff members in my building use Twitter.  They love seeing pictures I’ve tweeted of activities we have collaborated on together.

Don’t be afraid.  I started out slowly, even locking down my account as much as I could till I could get the hang of it.  I eventually opened my account so anyone could follow me.  Don’t worry if you choose to do this too.  Twitter gives you the option to block people if necessary.  Currently, I follow company presidents, authors, librarians from all over the world, education professionals, speakers, public library groups, Library of Congress, NASA and The National Archives, school administrators from many different school districts and more.  The best part is that many follow me. What a great way to instantly spread the word about what we do and what we CAN do for our students.

Now to conquer Instagram. . . stayed tuned.

By: Lori Lee, Library Media Specialist at Zanesville High School

As a school librarian, I embrace my collaboration with teachers by curating content and developing inquiry instruction. One new educational technology trend is a Hyperdoc. The three teachers, Lisa Highfill, Kelly Hilton, and Sarah Landis developed the Hyperdoc model. They define a Hyperdoc as, a transformative, interactive Google Doc replacing the worksheet method of delivering instruction, is the ultimate change agent in the blended learning classroom. With strong educational philosophies built into each one, HyperDocs have the potential to shift the way you instruct with technology. They are created by teachers and given to students to engage, educate, and inspire learning. It’s not about teaching technology, it’s about using the technology to TEACH.

So, a Hyperdoc is really much more than a Google Doc with links. The focus is more on lesson design that allows for inquiry, collaboration, critical thinking, and creation. The Hyperdoc website offers great resources, samples, templates and ready-made Hyperdocs.

I have enjoyed creating Hyperdocs with fellow teachers. We typically begin by looking at the objective of the lesson and then choosing one of the templates. This helps to determine how students will learn. Part of this is also choosing which Google app will be used to bundle the Hyperdoc. Google Docs, Google Slides, and Google Maps are the most commonly used. Each one has advantages, but the powerful part is that all can be pushed out to students through Google Classroom. I am then able to curate resources and suggest other tech tools, like Flipgrid, Padlet or Canva that the classroom teacher might not be familiar with.

According to the Hyperdoc website, good Hyperdocs have the following:

• Creators deliberately choose web tools to give students opportunities to:
  • Engage
  • Explore
  • Explain
  • Apply
  • Share
  • Reflect
  • Extend the learning.
• Digital collaboration is choreographed that give every student a voice and a chance to be heard by their classmates.
• Critical thinking and problem-solving skills can be developed through linked tasks.
• Students have an opportunity to create authentic digital artifacts to show what they know and connect with a wider audience.

And the good news is you really don’t need to start from scratch. Templates abound. They are kinda fabulous for scaffolding inquiry and knowledge production.

I would encourage you to check out the Hyperdoc website and find a teacher to collaborate with. I think you will be amazed by the student engagement and the endless possibilities that Hyperdocs offer!

Deadline to apply: December 29, 2017, 11:59 p.m.
INFORMATION AND APPLICATION 

In July 2018, thirty-two participants from libraries around Ohio will gather in Columbus to participate in the Library Leadership Ohio Institute.  Library Leadership Ohio believes that leaders come from all types of libraries and hold various positions in the libraries they serve.  The 3-day workshop, facilitated by the Ivy Group, will form leaders who will work together for the benefit of all Ohio libraries and the communities they serve. The dates for the Library Leadership Ohio Institute are July 17-20, 2018, at the Quest Conference Center, Columbus.  The application deadline is December 29, 2017 and recipients will be notified by March 31, 2018. The registration cost of the Library Leadership Ohio Institute is $500.

OELMA demonstrates its support of Library Leadership Ohio by providing two $500 scholarships.  In order to compete for the scholarship, the applicant must be an OELMA member who has been selected to attend the Library Leadership Ohio Institute and is a licensed school library media specialist, currently employed at an Ohio school. The applicant must personally be responsible for payment of Library Leadership Ohio registration.  To apply for the Library Leadership Ohio Scholarship, please complete the OELMA online application form, and submit a copy of the Library Leadership Ohio cover letter and by 11:59 p.m. December 29, 2017, either online, snail mail, or hand-delivered.

In addition to the registration fee for the Institute, the recipient(s) of the OELMA scholarship will receive a framed commemorative certificate and recognition at the 2018 OELMA Conference Awards program. Recipient(s) are also expected to present at an OELMA professional development event (annual conference, MidWinter, webinar).

Looking forward to receiving your application for the Library Leadership Ohio OELMA Scholarship!

Deadline to apply: December 29, 2017, 11:59 p.m.

INFORMATION AND APPLICATION 

OELMA is pleased to announce that the “Make Leadership Your Superpower” Leadership Academy is the recipient of an LSTA Open Grant Proposal. Thanks to the LSTA Open Grand Proposal and the ABC-CLIO Leadership Grant, the “Make Leadership Your Superpower” will be a phenomenal opportunity for school librarians like you to #leadbeyondthelibrary. The day-and-a-half Leadership Academy held at the beautiful Deer Creek State Park (March 9-10, 2018) will focus on leadership from the perspective of the Highly Effective School Library Rubric (OELMA) and the Future Ready Librarian framework, specifically developing community partnerships, collaborative learning, and professional learning. Each participant will work with a mentor to develop a plan of action. Each participant will receive a stipend to help defray the cost of implementing the plan of action. Leading for School Librarians: There Is No Other Option (2017) by Hilda Weisburg is the required reading and is included. This all-expenses paid Leadership Academy is the opportunity of a school librarian’s professional lifetime. Opportunities to network, to learn, to grow abound. The OELMA Planning Team has moved the deadline to Tuesday, November 14, 2017 to accommodate the OELMA and AASL conference participants and presenters. Don’t put it off, talk to your administrator today about supporting this opportunity for you to #leadbeyondthelibrary.

5 Reasons I go to the OELMA conference every year…
By: Lisa Barnes Prince, OELMA Treasurer, District Media Specialist at Manchester Local Schools

It can be intimidating to get ready to leave my library for two days every October. I’ve never been fond of packing; hoping the library volunteers get the Chromebook carts out to the correct classrooms at the correct time. What kind of food am I going to leave for my husband (who doesn’t cook!) and son so they don’t starve while I’m gone? I know I’m going to miss my dog…These are just some reasons I might decide to save my sanity and not attend the OELMA conference. I never do that however and am always glad that I go…Here are some reasons:

1. Networking: We’re very lucky to work in our field and not so lucky at the same time. We all know that the job of a library professional can be a lonely one. Twice I have worked in districts that are so small that I am the only licensed librarian-the one I work for now included. It’s great to get out and meet my like-minded colleagues, authors, and exhibitors. All very important to a library media specialists’ position.

2. Professional Development: I have never attended a conference and not learned at least two things. I always find myself going back to my school and adopting something that I have learned either that year or past years. My fellow colleagues are very wise and are full of creative ideas. New this year at the conference is a live webinar hosted by INFOhio. This webinar will feature Elaine Fultz from Madison Local Schools as she talks about creating a reading culture in your school using INFOhio. I will definitely be attending this session and the best part is even the people that can’t be at the conference can attend as well!

3. Free Stuff: I admit…I love to get free stuff and there always seems to be a selection of great stuff on the exhibitor tables that I take back with me. Pens, pads of papers even candy. It’s all appreciated even if I carry it around and use it later in the future.

4. Friends: Again, we are so lucky to work in our field. I have colleagues that I also consider my friends and they are all over the state of Ohio. I only get to see some of them once a year, at the OELMA conference. Socializing with these people gives me a sense of belonging to a group. As Simon Sinek states it in his book Leaders Eat Last, being social releases our oxytocin or “chemical love.” This is the feeling that we get when we’re in the company of our most trusted colleagues or closest friends. My oxytocin levels are always at their highest at the OELMA conference.

5. Fun: Let’s face it we all love to have fun. This year’s conference is highlighting many fun events. From the pre-conference on BreakoutEDU by Angela Wojtecki and Trent Roberts to the fun librarian fashion show on Friday morning, there promises to be many wonderful memories made at this years’ conference!

See you all at conference!