The Final Reflection...or is it?
Over the course of the last few weeks of the course, I've found myself singing this line from a Semisonic song over and over again: Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end...
For me, the end of the class feels more like the beginning of my media specialist career than when I began back in the fall because now I've got such a better handle on what I'm doing -- or at least what it is I'm supposed to be doing. Initially, I think I was creating lesson plans without a very clear idea of where it was I wanted to take the students. Obviously I wanted to teach them to use the basic computer programs and learn to utilize the library's resources, but I didn't know how best to do that.
In the beginning weeks of the class, when we covered Eisenburg and Berkowitz’s Big6 and other information search process models, I thought perhaps that's where I want to lead the media center curriculum -- toward teaching the kids how to search, so they'll be armed with a useful template that helps them identify what it is they need and then take steps to get there.
But over the last couple of weeks, the focus on higher-level thinking questions and the upper levels of Bloom's taxonomy have really peaked my interest. I think it's the key to developing a library media program that works for the reality of today's society and economy, coupled with alternative and authentic assessment.
When my classmate Jane and I were working collaboratively on describing alternative and authentic assessment, we created a Prezi (with a link to a Voicethread discussion embedded in it). It struck me at the time how our presentation was a form of alternate assessment; Jane and I ended up with a finished product that called on us to use both our technological and collaborative skills and come up with an original end product. It became even more clear to me that it's the kind of thing I want to do in my media center. Of course I have to keep in mind that I'm teaching elementary students, but I also know that they're capable of doing some really wonderful things with the newer technologies.
As for my growth and thoughts about the course as a whole, it's been a difficult journey. Much of what I've had to overcome are my own insecurities about trying new things -- iMovie, Jing, Prezi. Once I felt more confident about using those programs, I then faced the insecurity of wanting to teach my students programs that I don't have total mastery of. Also, I think I resented being expected to do so much, reading the descriptions of media specialists who seemed to successfully teach their students the seemingly dull ISP models in amazingly innovative and engaging ways. At times it seemed too much. Over the weeks, though, and I'm not exactly sure how, I began to recognize that the ISPs and various applications and web technologies are just tools, and the core of librarianship is getting kids to actually think about what it is they want to know and how to find an answer, if one exists. And that's what drew me to teaching in the first place.
When I started at Barton this past fall, I felt very much like I was making it up as I went along. To some degree, I still feel that, but through my readings and discussions for this course, I have a much better idea of what should be going on, and a better idea of how to engage students in the reality of my day-to-day work in the media center. I'm proud of the progress I've made and feel that not only do I have a better idea of what's expected of a media specialist, but I am actually looking forward to the challenge of making that happen.
And I plan to keep reflecting as I go.
For me, the end of the class feels more like the beginning of my media specialist career than when I began back in the fall because now I've got such a better handle on what I'm doing -- or at least what it is I'm supposed to be doing. Initially, I think I was creating lesson plans without a very clear idea of where it was I wanted to take the students. Obviously I wanted to teach them to use the basic computer programs and learn to utilize the library's resources, but I didn't know how best to do that.
In the beginning weeks of the class, when we covered Eisenburg and Berkowitz’s Big6 and other information search process models, I thought perhaps that's where I want to lead the media center curriculum -- toward teaching the kids how to search, so they'll be armed with a useful template that helps them identify what it is they need and then take steps to get there.
But over the last couple of weeks, the focus on higher-level thinking questions and the upper levels of Bloom's taxonomy have really peaked my interest. I think it's the key to developing a library media program that works for the reality of today's society and economy, coupled with alternative and authentic assessment.
When my classmate Jane and I were working collaboratively on describing alternative and authentic assessment, we created a Prezi (with a link to a Voicethread discussion embedded in it). It struck me at the time how our presentation was a form of alternate assessment; Jane and I ended up with a finished product that called on us to use both our technological and collaborative skills and come up with an original end product. It became even more clear to me that it's the kind of thing I want to do in my media center. Of course I have to keep in mind that I'm teaching elementary students, but I also know that they're capable of doing some really wonderful things with the newer technologies.
As for my growth and thoughts about the course as a whole, it's been a difficult journey. Much of what I've had to overcome are my own insecurities about trying new things -- iMovie, Jing, Prezi. Once I felt more confident about using those programs, I then faced the insecurity of wanting to teach my students programs that I don't have total mastery of. Also, I think I resented being expected to do so much, reading the descriptions of media specialists who seemed to successfully teach their students the seemingly dull ISP models in amazingly innovative and engaging ways. At times it seemed too much. Over the weeks, though, and I'm not exactly sure how, I began to recognize that the ISPs and various applications and web technologies are just tools, and the core of librarianship is getting kids to actually think about what it is they want to know and how to find an answer, if one exists. And that's what drew me to teaching in the first place.
When I started at Barton this past fall, I felt very much like I was making it up as I went along. To some degree, I still feel that, but through my readings and discussions for this course, I have a much better idea of what should be going on, and a better idea of how to engage students in the reality of my day-to-day work in the media center. I'm proud of the progress I've made and feel that not only do I have a better idea of what's expected of a media specialist, but I am actually looking forward to the challenge of making that happen.
And I plan to keep reflecting as I go.
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