Welcome to my Portfolio!

Hello! Please use this website to learn more about me, my philosophy of education, my professional qualifications, and samples of work throughout my time at the University of North Texas.

Samples of work and videos are available under the “AASL Standards” page, organized by each category of standards.

Musings on School Library Design

 

• Name of the school library: Stults Road Elementary School Library, Richardson ISD – the library I will start working at this school year.
• Five factors to consider in the redesign process:

1. Flexibility
   • One of the most common themes among the readings about school library design is the importance of flexibility in library spaces. Students, teachers, and library stakeholders have different purposes and uses of the library space depending on what they are doing, so the library needs to be able to adapt and rearrange to fit the various needs of its users (Foote, 2019). This comes in the form of more flexible seating and table arrangements, but also in the technology available and how it is organized (laptop cart vs. desktop stations, etc.).
2. Less is more
   • With space to work and flexibility of the highest important, sometimes a library needs to create space where there wasn’t space before (Rendina, 2015). This librarian shared how with so many books cramming her shelves that were going uncirculated, she made the decision to weed many reference books out in order to create wall and floor space to fit the needs of her students (Rendina, 2015). When space is limited, sometimes we must consider what is the most important in our library and what could possibly be eliminated.
3. 21 century ready – technology, computer carts, outlets, etc.
   • Many articles share this same idea, but our library spaces need to have the resources and design to support the use of technology (Harper & Deskins, 2015). For many libraries, this comes in the form of laptop carts, tablet devices, more outlets or charging stations, and more space to work and use technology collaboratively (Harper & Deskins, 2015). A huge part of the librarian’s role is to instruct and promote the use of technology, so our spaces need to reflect that.
4. Involve students
   • When considering a redesign of a library, it is important to involve students and their input in the process (Foote, 2019). Students, after all, are the ones who will be using the space the most, so it only makes sense to see what their thoughts and opinions are about the library space, in addition to getting data from them about how they use the space when going forward with changes (Foote, 2019). This also helps build a sense of community and collaboration between the students and the school, making them feel involved in the process.
5. Consider rearranging
   • While many of our shelves are loaded down with wonderful books, sometimes simply rearranging the furniture we have in the library space can revitalize it and bring new life to the library (Rendina, 2015). We may also wish to consider rearranging how the books are organized, like the library in Foote’s (2019) article who genre-fied the fiction section. Even when we aren’t able to get new items, sometimes reorganizing the way the library works in a strategic, thoughtful way can update it for the needs of its users.

• Description of the new redesign:
  • Right now, Stults Road Elementary’s library is like many school libraries with old, heavy wooden furniture and shelves that are not easily moved. The first thing I would like to do is update the tables, chairs, and shelves to lighter, more flexible arrangements that could be more easily moved and rearranged depending on the needs of the class. There are also currently no spaces designed for quiet, independent reading, so I would like to be able to create a space for students who want to read quietly.
  • SRE is also a rather small library physically, and it is crammed to the bursting point with books. I would like to weed the collection down to potentially eliminate some shelves and create more room for flexible seating and collaborative spaces, even possibly room for a makerspace. I would also like more wall space to display student work and bulletin boards for promotions and programs.
  • Richardson ISD has 1:1 iPads at the elementary level, so the large tables for desktop computers are no longer necessary. I would like to remove these tables and add more outlets and charging stations instead for students to charge their technology while working.
• A picture that best captures the redesign

(Torres, 2017)

 

References

Foote, C. (2019). Future ready library spaces. Knowledge Quest, 47(3), 8.

Harper, M. & Deskins, L. (2015). Using Action Research to Assess and Advocate for Innovative School Library Design. Knowledge Quest, 44(2), 25-32.

Rendina, D. (2015, October 27). How to Transform Your Library Space on a Budget [blog post]. Knowledge Quest. Retrieved from https://knowledgequest.aasl.org/transform-library-space-budget/

Torres, R. (2017, April 25). The upgraded Giese Elementary School library [digital image]. Retrieved from https://journaltimes.com/news/local/education/more-rusd-libraries-get-makeovers/article_b918930a-05a6-5466-b92a-1a7221d6f5a9.html

Curating Resources

When I first began this assignment, I was a little intimidated by the word “curation” and the idea of “curating resources.” I kept thinking, “but we’re school library majors, not curators.” But after delving into the topic a little more and getting a better understanding of the meaning of curation, I realized that this is something I have been doing a long time without even realizing it most of the time. Curating is simply thoughtfully selecting and collecting resources into one convenient location, which is what we do using bookmarks and numerous of online tools every day. Curating helps keep us organized, but it also is vitally necessary in the 21st century school (Clark, 2017). With so many schools using completely online resources like Google Drive, all student work and information is stored in the cloud, and keeping things organized is extremely important (Clark, 2017). Curation helps not only us as educators and individuals to stay organized online, but it is a vital skill that we pass on to our students to help them learn to thrive in an online world of the future (Clark, 2017).

For this week’s assignment, I chose to use Padlet as an online curation tool for Chrome Extensions. I’ve heard of Padlet, but didn’t have much experience using it before today. I found it very simple and intuitive, and it was easy to add a title of a resource, a short description, and the link, and then Padlet was able to use the exact appropriate picture every time. The only thing I didn’t like was the inability to organize or sort the resources in various ways; I had to manually move them around myself, but that was okay.

I decided to curate a small collection of Chrome extensions that would be beneficial to teachers and educators. So many school districts are moving to Chromebooks and some of us may be lacking the functionality of a regular computer, or may even be just trying to keep our heads above water learning how to use the technology. I was vaguely familiar with Chrome extensions before, but I’ve discovered some great extensions that really help me both in my personal and professional life, and ones that will absolute serve teachers and students’ needs. I hope you check them out and enjoy!

Chrome Extensions for Teachers

 

References

T Clark. (2017, January 9). Curation for Digital Learning [web log comment]. Retrieved from https://byotnetwork.com/2017/01/09/curation-for-digital-learning/

Reflections on Research in Academic Journals

1. What is the process for selecting and publishing manuscripts for each journal?

For School Library Research, manuscripts are reviewed through a “double blind” process which means neither the author of the manuscript nor the referee knows of the other’s identity or professional qualifications. Manuscripts are reviewed by three to five referees during the initial review and the review process takes eight to twelve weeks to complete. Referees are professionals in the academic library field and work together with the editorial board. Referees consider a variety of questions when reviewing manuscripts and authors may be asked to revise a manuscript multiple times before being approved by a majority of referees. Manuscripts must then be approved by the full editorial board before being submitted for publication. Manuscripts must be either research reports, conceptual essays, or literature review and proposal papers. Authors must follow APA formatting and School Library Research specific formatting and submission guidelines as well.

For Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, submissions are also reviewed through a double-blind process that can take up to three months to complete. The EBLIP Editorial Board has final approval on all submissions. Authors must follow strict EBLIP and APA formatting and all submissions must be reports of original research, review articles, reports of using evidence in practice, commentaries, summaries, classics, research in practice, features, news items, or letters to the editor.

2. Evaluate the publications for authority.  For example, what are the credentials of the editorial board members and/or advisory committees for each journal?

The School Library Research website lists both the current editorial board and the founding editorial board along with their credentials and backgrounds. All board members save one hold a Ph. D. School Library Research is also the official research journal of AASL. AASL is a professional organization for school librarians and is an affiliate of ALA. Both organizations are non-profit serving the purpose of furthering the profession of librarians. SLR is absolutely a trustworthy source for research articles.

Evidence Based Library and Information Practice is published by the University of Alberta Learning Services with the stated purpose of providing a forum for librarians and other information professionals to discover research that may contribute to decision making in professional practice. Their editorial board and contributors, including all peer reviewers are listed on the website alongside their credentials. Many include Ph.D’s, but not all. EBLIP is a trustworthy source as well.

3. Evaluate SLR and EBLIP as resources. What topics interest you the most? What research studies and articles do you want to read and why? Which ones relate to your present practice?  Select 2-3; provide citations  for the articles you want to read in a References section at the end of your blog post (APA-formatted).

I am hoping to work as a middle school librarian some day, so I am more interested in articles about this particular age group, and I’m also very interested in the use and application of technology in libraries, as well as graphic novels for adolescents. I am starting my first year as an elementary school librarian this upcoming school year, so I am curious about research at this age level as well. Through looking through their more recent versions, I seemed to find more articles interesting to me in SLR. EBLIP had a lot of research about academic and university libraries with less information about school libraries and younger students. ELBIP also has a much wider variety of articles and types of writing available in their issues, and they are published more frequently. I found the following articles to be most interesting.

 

Moeller, R. A., & Becnel, K. (2018). Drawing diversity: Representations of race in graphic novels for young adults. School Library Research, 21

Moore, J., & Cahill, M. (2016). Audiobooks: Legitimate “reading” material for adolescents? School Library Research, 19

Tewell, E., & Angell, K. (2015). Far from a Trivial Pursuit: Assessing the Effectiveness of Games in Information Literacy Instruction. Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 10(1), 20-33. https://doi.org/10.18438/B8B60X