2015 - and a new school year.

Welcome back to everyone for 2015.  I hope you all had a nice relaxing break with lots of time spent with family and friends and are all refreshed and ready to go. And a big welcome to all our new staff as well - looking forward to getting to know you all.

Well, here we go - the start of 2015 and a whole new year of opportunities for books, and reading. How awesome is that? 

For the new staff - and a reminder for some of our previous staff - below is a list of some of what we can help you with. I put this list up each year, so if you go back through the posts, it is all there. Anything else? If there is something that you think we can help with, just come and have a chat. We have learned to be fairly good at pulling rabbits out of hats and we also like a challenge.

• Looking for a particular book or resource? Come and talk to us. We can organise an Inter-library-Loan or help you find where to purchase it.
• Resources: Books, DVDs, Magazines and Newspapers, iPad sets, Digital Cameras, Video Recorders, Computer Mice sets, Data Projectors, Teacher Reference, Board games, Chess sets, Kits........
• IWB area and a bank of computers, as well as laptops that are available to be booked for classes.  The Library laptop trolley is only to be used in the Library area, however.
• Help with research, proofreading of assignments, suggestions for books to read - we are your people.
• A place to display your amazing class work.
• Collation of websites for subjects/classes
• Booking sheets for: Library areas, F Block Laptops, Headphones, Ipads.

Students have a 2 week borrowing period while staff have a month. For most of the resources, we can adjust the loaning period for whatever is needed - at least till the end of term. However, this doesn't include the AV materials - that is a 1 week loan period only.

The big deal for us this year is the new way of using the DVDs.  No more borrowing a disk and playing it in your laptop..we have gone more upmarket and digital this year.  Thanks to Kate and her brilliant ideas, most of the DVDs are now on the server, and by following a few simple steps you can play it through your laptop without ever having to borrow a DVD again.  The school also now subscribes to TV4Ed so if there is a TV program that has been screened that you think would be handy with your class, please see me and I'll do my best to find it and and download it for you.  (All legal and allowed!)

Wishing you all a fantastic school year with lots of READING involved. Now carry on being awesome.

Websites of interest

I came across these websites on the Teacher Librarian's Listserv and thought that they may be of some use to class room teachers. They have been highly recommended by a number of teachers and library staff around the country, so are worth a look at least.

http://appsineducation.blogspot.com.au/ which is a site that looks at the apps on offer and posts a review about them. It says ‘One of the hardest things with using the iPad in the classroom is finding the time to go through all of the apps in the iTunes Store listed under the education banner. We have started to list some of the apps we've found under each of the Key Learning Areas.”

http://learningwithipads.blogspot.com.au/  - a blog by a Catholic school in Sydney about their experiences and ideas in using iPads with their students.

Well, last day of term is here and a weeks break is waiting for us all - but then Term 4 is looming on the horizon. 
So enjoy your week, relax, revive and of course, spend some time getting that life/work balance right and READING.

Research Project for iPads

A request was published on the teacher Librarians list-serv today, asking for anyone who has the time, to take part in a quick 10 minute survey examining teachers' use of touch technologies in education, including professional learning habits aas well as suggestions and tips for the effective use of iPads in education.

This is part of the TIPS2012 iPad research happening in West Australia.  You can find out more about the project as well as check out some great iPad resources by following this link:

http://tips2012.edublogs.org

If you have a few minutes to spare, and you are interested in contributing, you may like to take part in the teacher survey on the link below:

http://tips2012.edublogs.org/2012/04/07/contribute-to-ipad-research/

iPads and Scoop-it, Oh my!

Term 3, last year we posted links to various websites that we thought may be useful to teachers either in class or personally.

One of those links was to the scoop-it website. Scoop-it lets you be the curator of your favourite topic and enables people to follow topics, not people. It can also bring you content on topics that you have decided to follow. As the blurb says – what gathers people together are their passions.

Below is a list of scoop-it topics that may be of interest to staff members.

Take a look and see what you think.

http://www.scoop.it/t/all-things-ipad

http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-citizenship-in-schools

http://www.scoop.it/t/student-learning-through-school-libraries

http://www.scoop.it/t/social-networking-for-information-professionals

The link to the website is:

 http://www.scoop.it/

Have a great weekend.