Sharing Stories with Preschoolers

This morning I co-presented "Sharing Stories with Preschoolers" to a local High School's senior class. Aside from the fact that all of the students were taller than me ;) and the idea that there's always room for self-improvement (How can I be more inspirational and informative?), the presentation went well. The bibliography for this presentation can be found on my professional wiki under "Workshop Handouts."

Business and Professional Women's Organization

Last night, I attended my first meeting of the Business and Professional Women's Youngstown chapter. Though I am already connected to several professional women in the library and information science field, it was wonderful to meet other women within my own community from other professional backgrounds. I look forward to socializing within this group and learning from their leadership activities.

Websites for Those Working with Children

Puzzlemaker -- word searches, math squares, mazes, cryptograms

Teachers and Families Working Together -- preschool themes/activities, K-12 resources, parenting resources

Site of the Month Archive from kids.gov

Java Games and Puzzles -- daily chess problem and more

Flash games, web books (Diary of a Wimpy Kid ...), comics and more at Funbrain

Have You Seen ...

Have you seen this website?

Another piece of information I learned by networking at a conference.

Quotes

"A goal without a plan is just a wish." Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"Leadership is not just saying a scary thing ... It's [in] the person who backs them up." Connie Paul, Emerging Leader Program Facilitator

"The pooling of many viewpoints and thoughtful consideration of them is obviously what makes worthwhile any international meeting." Bookbird 4/1967 (16)

"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." from Rowling's Chamber of Secrets

Screencast of Science Through Stories

I still have some experimenting to do, but here is a decent screencast of my PowerPoint "Science Through Stories."

(I'm not sure how it appears on "regular" computer screens. You may have to scroll up and down a bit to see the whole slide.)

www.jingproject.com only allows 5 minutes of free screencasting, so I couldn't do a full audio presentation with it. I have a few other resources I'll try that might help me incorporate that aspect.

How Leaders Learn

"The true test of intelligence is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don't know what to do." John Holt in How Children Fail (205)

While Holt's classic title provides ideas for leaders who work with children, general concepts can be applied to all areas of leadership. In the section from which the above quote is taken, Holt suggests that success occurs when one meets a new situation or problem openly, utilizing the mind and senses of imagination, resourcefulness, confidence and hopefulness. When anaylzing these initial behaviors, he or she is willing to accept and learn from mistakes.


In this same title, Holt discusses "real learning" (136-7) which applies to students of all ages. Something is understood when:

1) one can state it in one's own words
2) one can give an example of it
3) one can recognize the concept in various guises and circumstances
4) one can make connections between the new concept and other facts or ideas
5) one can utilize the new information in various ways
6) one can foresee some of its consequences
7) one can state its opposite or converse

More Websites from OCTELA

http://flocabulary.com/ = "Flocabulary produces educational hip-hop music and engaging curricular materials to teach academic content for grades 3-12. The programs are proven to raise scores on state reading tests and are currently being used in over 10,000 schools nationwide."

http://www.schooltube.com/ = "...teachers and students share videos online."

http://www.teachertube.com/ = online videos and other resources for educators

http://rockhall.com/education/resources/lesson-plans/ = Lesson plans from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

http://namle.net/ = National Association for Media Literacy Education