KASL

Sign the Petition

Share this link with everyone you know. KASL supports this petition for ESEA funding for school libraries. We need 25,000 signatures by Feb. 4 in order for this petition to reach the President's desk. An account must be created, and some people are having difficulty, so if the log in doesn't work the first time, please keep trying.  If you need more info go to the ALA site. Juanita Jameson, President

Student Achievement and School Improvement in Kansas

Kansas Association of School Boards has "published" Student Achievement and School Improvement in Kansas. The publication shares  current information on test scores, high school completion, preparation for college, adult educational attainment and more.


Diane Leupold
Coordinator of Media Services
Topeka Public Schools

Evaluating the Effects of Eliminating the Kan-ed Program

Gwen Lehman sent the KASL list this link to Reports Released at the Most Recent Meeting of the Legislative Post Audit Committee Kansas Board of Regents: Evaluating the Effects of Eliminating the Kan-ed. The summary report is worth a look. As Gwen says, ". . . interesting results and recommendations . . . ."

Conference Wiki Link

http://2012kaslconference.wikispaces.com/Home

Gwen Lehman developed this wikispaces link. It is permanently available under the Conference link to the left.

Make Your Library Special

Cindy Pfeiffer suggests watching the following three minute video. Her superintendent sent it out and told the staff to think of it in terms of how to treat students. Cindy says she now greets students by name every time they are in the library and that it makes a tremendous difference.

TED: Ideas worth spreading

Last week when I asked you to suggest web pages that you check every day for inspiration, several of you mentioned TED. Kay Hopkins says, "I am inspired and informed in unexpected ways by the people featured there."

Soon after, Seth Godin did a post about TED Conferences that begins, 

The TED imperatives

1. Be interested.
2. Be generous.
3. Be interesting.
4. Connect.

I had to laugh because I think I am WAY better at one and two than I am at three and four, which is probably why I'd prefer to lurk on the TED webpage than attend a conference. (MHouse)

Copyright Simplified by Seth Godin

I thought Seth Godin's post about copyright might be useful to some of us when discussing this issue with students and teachers. If any of you take issue with any of his statements, I'd love to hear about it in the comments.

Advocacy Made Easy Toolkit

You will find an Advocacy Made Easy Toolkit on the Colorado Association of School Libraries web site.  

The Advocacy Made Easy document "outlines a process to recruit non-librarians to speak to funding decision-makers on behalf of school libraries and librarians. You provide them with your success stories and they present them to the community." The Toolkit also includes tips for Media Advocacy: best practices for working with the media and a sample press release.

Find these great resources here: http://tinyurl.com/66x9dtx

Let's make 2012 a year of Library Advocacy!

Thanks,
Gail Santy

-- 
Gail Santy
Central Kansas Library System
Reference, Outreach Services
1409 Williams
Great Bend, KS 67530

The library identifies the needs of the community and then finds ways to help.

 

Common Core Standards Implementation Focus of KLFA Meeting

Implementation of the Common Core Standards (CCS) was a key focus of the Kansas Leaning First Alliance meeting Oct. 27, 2011.  KLFA work groups (Student Achievement and Professional Learning) devoted much of their efforts to plan for training of personnel in the field in conjunction with the Kansas State Department of Education.  The CCS training opportunities would start later this month and extend through next summer.

The Community Engagement continued their work in the development of their second Public Service Announcements (to see the first PSAs, click here). They are also strategically identifying additional partnerships that we might form.

The membership collectively tackled the evaluation of the KLFA Website using a Google Doc survey.  This data will be used to update the website. The Google Doc work also served as a professional learning activity for members.

The three groups work toward improving student achievement, strengthening the professional learning of educators, and engaging the public in school improvement and student achievement efforts. To focus their work, three general goals offer guidance.  They are:

• KLFA will broadly disseminate its work to influence practitioners.
• KLFA will increase its visibility among policy makers. 
• KLFA will strengthen and increase its organizational capacity. 

Almost 30 people from 20 of the member organizations were in attendance.  The meeting dates for the rest of the year are Jan. 5, 2012; March 8, 2012; and May 10, 2012.  All the meetings will start at 10:00 a.m. and will be held at KASB with the exception of the March meeting, which will be at KNEA.  KLFA will celebrate its 13th birthday at the January meeting.

For more information about KLFA, visit the KLFA Website and/or look for “Kansas Learning First Alliance” on Facebook.

Inside Out and Back Again

We at Valley Park are thrilled that the mother of one of our kindergarteners, Thanhha Lai, is the National Book Award winner in the Young People's Literature category for her book Inside Out and Back Again.

Ann Schuster, NBCT
Valley Park Elementary
Library Media Specialist
Blue Valley (KS) USD #229

"We live in a society bloated with data but starved for wisdom"- Elizabeth Lindsey