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Scoop.it is like a gift that keeps on giving. I jumped into this content curation platform by following the usual suspect: Dr. Valenza. Her boards on  tools for teacher librarians and content curation were reliable places from which to launch my own investigations.

You can find my growing Sccop.it page at https://www.scoop.it/t/literacy-public-history-school-libraries

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American Association of School Librarians and Massachusetts School Library Association:  the leading  organization for school librarians &  my local affiliate (both divisions of ALA).

Association for Library Service to Children: a division of ALA that supports library service to children.

International Literacy Association and
Massachusetts Reading Association: promote traditional literacy skills of reading, writing, and communicating, but in innovative ways!

Young Adult Library Services Association: a division of ALA that supports library service to young adults.

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She makes data literacy exciting and relevant! The Supporting Librarians in Adding Data Literacy Skills to Information Literacy Instruction project provides a wealth of suggestions for helping students understand how to use data.

http://datalit.sites.uofmhosting.net/
http://www.fontichiaro.com/activelearning/
@active learning

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Not surprisingly, my connectedness scores were quite anemic! I used Klout.com to measure my online impact through facebook. My score? 10 out of 100 (the average score in 40). I actually had some fun with Klout, since it prompted me to identify some of my interests in exchange for recommending  "experts" to follow. Most of my initial suggestions have been newspapers, though. Social mention found one mention of me on Twitter in recent weeks. I am clearly more of a social media lurker than a poster. Perhaps I will set myself a posting challenge goal for 2018.

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Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults (published by YALSA)

Knowledge Quest (published by AASL; I had no idea how wonderful their blog was until this semester)

School Library Journal (the book reviews and broad range of bloggers are an unparalleled resource)

Voice of Youth Advocates (specializes in book reviews and advocacy issues pertaining to young adult readers and librarians)

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As I look back on my semester, I realize how diverse my network has become in the last few months. Although I cast a wide net when I first imagined this assignment, I found myself paying the most attention to just a few people and organizations. I discovered that I am more likely ( at this point ) to discover new connections through Facebook , although the discussions on Twitter are sometimes more current. I remain an active Twitter reader and a reluctant Twitter poster, in part because I feel like I haven't branded myself or my interests yet! Two of my nodes surprised me. First, I NEVER would have guessed that data literacy, as represented by Kristin Fontichiaro, would become a new passion of mine. I did my very best to ignore statistics as an undergraduate and early graduate student, yet now I am captivated by how we can use, read, and manipulate data -- and teach our students to so the same.  I am also really excited about the possibilities of global connections for librarians and their students. I want young people to learn as early as possible just how connected our world really is, and how they can use technology to foster those connections.

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HyperDocs is my new favorite lesson planning tool. I love the multimodal templates
teachersgiveteachers.net
https://hyperdocs.co/
#HyperDocs #Give1Take1
@TsGiveTs

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#infolit

#diglit

#medialit

#flippedclass and #flippedlearning
#AASLstandards
#istelib
#librarianproblems

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I love the range of bloggers on this site., as well as the fun reviews & discussions of children's and YA books.

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Launched by President Obama in 2014, the Future Ready initiative is intended to foster a culture of digital learning. School librarians should (and already do) play a vital role in this movement. I follow this group on Facebook, and I already have a long list of ideas to implement in my school library.

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An introduction to Future Ready Librarians and the connection to the Future Ready initiative at the Alliance for Excellent Education.

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A fantastic site for finding books that offer different perspectives. Every students should see him- or herself reflected in literature!

http://weneeddiversebooks.org
@diversebooks
#weneeddiversebooks

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Scott McLeod's blog and twitter feed (@mcleod)  focus on school technology leadership issues. He raises important points about how to advocate for technology in schools.

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This was my first AHA! moment of the semester. It's never too early for students to learn how to engage with technology and practice being good digital citizens. I am inspired by Cassidy's work and her desire to create global citizens.

http://mscassidysclass.edublogs.org/
@mscassidysclass

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Dear Readers,

Alright, alright!

I keep getting questions and emails asking why this classroom blog is no longer being updated. Clearly an explanation is in order.

First of all, thank you, thank you, thank you for your support of this blog. Your clicks (yes, we watched how many visitors we had to this blog) and comments made this space what it was meant to be-a place to share what was happening in our classroom and a place where my students could showcase their work and know it was being seen by others beyond our classroom. The children were also able to receive feedback from relatives, friends, former students of mine and from people they didn't know from places they would probably never see. We read each and every comment aloud together. Thank you for your contribution to our learning.

Now, about that explanation. Last June, I retired from classroom teaching. People always told me that I would know when the time was right to do this and they were correct. I did!

This change has given me the opportunity to put more time into other things that I love. It's a joy to be able to spend time working one on one with students learning to read. There was never as much time as I wanted for this in our busy classroom. It's also a delight to mentor teachers and to speak to teachers at conferences as part of their professional development. I have done this for several years, but I love that I now have more time to put into the preparation that I want to do for these sessions.

I speak about ways to connect your classroom with the world (such as this blog) and how those connections can help you to teach literacy and math. I also speak about using robotics with young children and about using iPads to create and learn. You can check out all my presentations and the resources I share here.

So, if you'd like to get together for a coffee, for a chat or for a conference let me know!

This blog and the thirteen years of student blogs the children created will remain online as an example of the power of connected learning and as a way for my former students to continue to access their six-year-old learning.

Thank you again for your support and for making this blog the community that it has been. It became more than I ever dreamed it could be.

Kathy Cassidy

What a wonderful time we had on our last day together!

Your browser does not support the video tag

Have a terrific summer.

This week we had several challenges involving Hot Wheels cars and Lego. From measurement to construction principals to aerodynamics and everything in between. So much problem solving. So much fun.

We used our SumBlox to help us make a lot of number stories about twelve. What stories can you make?

This week the students were hard at work on something special to give to their father or another special person in their life. They were bursting with pride about what they had created.

This was so much fun! The students were justifiably proud of their creations.

Posted in Arts Education, Classroom Life, Student Work

After watching the caterpillars grow and make their cocoons, we waited what seemed liked a very long time and finally all of the butterflies emerged. When the time came to let them go, all of the students read aloud a letter they had written to the butterflies.
Most of the butterflies were very cooperative and stayed around long enough for everyone to have at least one turn to hold them. I got pictures of as many of these wonderful moments as I could!

Check out our wacky hair styles.

For twenty three days we waited patiently while the pheasants grew inside their eggs in the incubator in our classroom. Waiting was not easy!
This week, they finally began to hatch. Several of the eggs hatched as the students watched-an incredible learning experience.
The chicks have been given to the Wildlife Federation who will raise them until they are able to look after themselves. Then, they will release them into the wild.

By now all the moms will have received their hand made gifts, so it's safe for me to post this picture of the students hard at work on their fancy hangers.
I hope your day together is wonderful!

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Dear Readers, Alright, alright! I keep getting questions and emails asking why this classroom blog is no longer being updated. Clearly an explanation is in order. First of all, thank you, thank you, thank you for your support of this blog.

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I had watched a few of Michelle's webinars at edweb.net before realizing that she was involved with our SL program at Rutgers. I appreciate her balanced approach to technology, and her hands-on expertise in integrating technology in the school library.

https://mluhtala.blogspot.com/
@mluhtala

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I enjoyed exploring Bookopolis so much that I created a tutorial!

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Bookopolis Tutorial RU 515 | Piktochart Visual Editor

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I wanted to call out this SLJ blog because of its focus on professional development for YA librarians. In addition to book reviews and program suggestions, there is a really interesting section on "teen issues."  I found several very helpful links here when working on projects for my YA literature class (RU548).

http://www.teenlibrariantoolbox.com/