Catching Up

Dear RASL,

Below you will find the meeting minutes for the March 31st meeting. Sorry for the delay. April meeting minutes have already been posted (see below this post).

RASL Meeting Minutes: March 31, 2009

1. Scheduling Questions and Concerns
-This part of the agenda was N/A since everyone in attendance will be graduating next month. Please see your adviser if you need assistance in scheduling classes or to be sure that you are on track to graduate.

2. Review of the Celebrating Teaching and Learning Conference by Dr. Gordon
-this conference is held annually in Manhattan and sponsored by PBS
-There were approx.8,000 attendees this year and Dr. Gordon recommends going next year!
-Panels, workshops, sessions
-Kenneth Robinson, a British professor based in Los Angeles spoke about the importance of creativity
-Dr. Robinson believes that education often prevents creativity
-He talked about visiting the school that Paul McCartney and George Harrison attended, where they were told that they weren't musically talented
-Discussed the question: "What are they doing wrong in schools so that creativity isn't being fostered?"
-spoke about Las Vegas as a "place of imagination": Americans take it for grated/see it as tacky
-education has taken on a manufacturing model: quality-control approach, thanks in part to standards-based education
-calls for a more organic model: combine emotions and intellect into education
-focus on divergent thinking
-by 13-15 years of age, only 10% of students in a study that the professor spoke about demonstrated divergent thinking
-we live in a culture where making mistakes is seen as "bad"
-school libraries are a place where we can encourage kids to embrace divergent thinking, explore their passions, and realize that mistakes lead to learning
-Go to youtube and type in "Ken Robinson" to see more about his creativity lectures

Other speakers:

-Erik Schmidt, CEO of Google also spoke (interviewed by Charlie Rose)
-1 day per week employees can work on whatever they want--creativity is an integral part of Google's work culture
-provide child care, casual working environment, encouragement to produce NOT pressure to produce

Joel Kline and Pedro Nagoaes "Closing the Achievement Gap"
-discussion about inequality in education
-idea of schools and society taking on issue of "what is education?"
-1 view: social problems are conditions of the environment that can prohibit/promote education
-other view: we have to cure poverty before improving education
"we have to teach children the way that they learn": focus on authentic assessment

Lucille Dewey: What Is 21st century education?
-concentrate on student outcomes
-use studies that investigate what works
-partner with states and look at states as warehouses for what works and what doesn't
-school reform is needed


Resources for Media Literacy:
-National Association for Media Literacy
-Journal of Media Literacy in Education
-Frankwbaker.com
-book: "Reading the Media" by Renee Hobbs


3. Revisions to the NJ Core Curriculum Standards by Dr. Todd
-SLMS are part of a working system: we need support systems to help us; these include: standards and assessments, curriculum and instruction, professional development, learning environments
-expectation that students will develop various skills
-The library is not specifically mentioned in the Framework for 21st Century Learning: it's our role to define our relationship to the vision
-framework provides us a vocabulary to define who we are and what our role in the school is


4. Elections will be held at our next meeting (date: TBA) so stay tuned!

In the meantime, if you're looking for jobs, check out:
BCCLS Want Ads
http://www.bccls.org/buckles/jobs.shtml

NJLA Job Hotline
http://www.njla.org/jobs.html