Innovation

Overview Think Box:  for a  wider view of innovation and its possibilities, consider this expanded role description that credentialed librarians might lead in your school.

Idea Think Box: The idea of Genius Hour and the Library Learning Commons make a perfect pair when a merge takes place in both physical and virtual library learning commons programs. Genius hour centes on self-directed individuals and groups bent on invention across any of the disciplines. Consider joining these ideas in your own school by learning more about “Cultivating Genius” by listening to the MindShift Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, NPR or wherever you get your podcasts.

Micro Documentation Think Box: Want to assess the impact of your library on teaching and learning? Teacher librarians who wish to document their contributions to teaching and learning in the school library learning commons will find a plethora of recommendations under six categories: literacies, information, inquiry, instructional design, technology, and expertise. Each group of measures is proceeded by a state of the art essay that describes best practices and the concept of the newest ideas in library learning commons implementation. Each measure is targeted at the learner level, the teaching unit level, or the organization level. And, the entire collection is prefaced by a brilliant essay by the late Dr. Ross J. Todd of Rutgers University.  Check out documentation measures at the learner, teaching unit, and organization levels. 

Book: Loertscher, D.. with Todd, R.J. (2018). We Boost Achievement:  Micro Documentation  Measures for Teacher Librarians. Salt Lake City, UT: Learning Commons Press. A free copy is available at davidloertscherlibrary.org under the “books” tab  and the year 2018.

Idea Think Box: Self-directed learners are best equipped to succeed and make a difference in the world. Does that statement ring true about the young people graduating from your school? For many, the emphasis of the past several decades has been to help learners meet standards and pass high stake tests. As a learner, I am rewarded if I master what teachers want me to learn and can demonstrate that knowledge at the same level as every other learner in the school.

Suppose our learners can master essential knowledge and skills, but at the same time are encouraged to take command of their own learning. In this book, Create by Design by David Loertscher the first half of the book is directed to teens of any age with strategies to take control of what they want and need to know and be able to do. In the second part, teens are led through the various steps of design thinking that would help the reinvent current systems and also invent new ideas that innovate totally new systems..

You can download a personal copy of this book at: davidloertscherlibrary.org. Please share pieces and parts of it with a teen you know and challenge them to take ownership of what they want to know and be able to do. And, ask the librarian and teachers you know to innovate by building the kind of learners ready to face a very uncertain future.

Reinvent Think Box: The fixed schedule for elementary school libraries has been a major barrier to the  move toward teaching and learning in the school.  In this article, Dr. Loertscher and a group of North Carolina elementary school librarians brainstorm ideas for reinventing the idea of the fixed schedule in the school. Ideas here could spur ideas for change in your own elementary school.

Reinvention Think Box: Reimagining the entire idea of the school library as both a place but also spread out across the entire school and into the home requires a visionary approach to education. On this website, find very different ideas that match the topics of the LIIIITES model, the organizational element in the ALIVE! Initiative.  Use this website as a starter of a major conversation by administrators, teachers, parents, and even learners as the idea of a giant learning community unfolds.

The School-Wide Learning Commons by David V. Loertscher and Fran Kompare 

21st Century Skills Think Box: Watch pediatrician, Dr. Laura A. Jana explain the importance of QI Skills and the role they'll play in the lives of children who will need to be prepared for jobs that don't currently exist.