Class 13

In class last week we chatted with Debbie Abilock about online evaluation for students.  In the midst of discussing TRAPS, Debbie asked us how young we should teach students about online website evaluation.  She also placed before us the idea of starting as young as 2nd grade, and asking these students to identify the WHO and WHY of a website.  Personally, I think this is a great idea.  Technology and the internet are becoming very prevalent, and students are going to need to know how to navigate and evaluate the internet.  If we start students as young as second grade to start evaluating websites, then these second graders will have a basic foundation upon which to build more complex concepts.  This way, as we also discussed in class, we can begin developing the second graders' understanding of terminology relating to website evaluation.

The second half of class we discussed budgeting.  One of the tips discussed was to make sure you always have a wish list handy, because if the principal has extra slush money, he may very well take it to the library, and you will have a day to decide what to do with it.  I thought it was interesting that school libraries tend to have the largest unrestricted funds in the school.  This means that librarians can be more flexible in spending, yet I wonder if at the same time it is more difficult for them to make purchases.  Say a librarian wants to purchase a few iPads for the library.  Will she have a more difficult time getting this through administration because it's a new idea that has not been implemented before in the school?  Finally, district-controlled money often needs to be spent by a certain date.  So basically budgeting keeps librarians on their toes.  They have to be 100% aware of how their money is coming and going.