Students are expected to be in class and participate in discussions on January 19 & 20; February 9 & 10, and March 8 & 9. Prior to the first class, Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning should be read and a written response prepared of at least 250 words. Additional readings and responses will be assigned from The Whole School Library Handbook and online sources for the remaining classes.

The three required projects will be due on February 9, 10 and March 8.

Attendance and Participation:

This is virtual course that is organized by modules. All assignments have due dates and late work will earn half points. Although students can work at their own pace, they are expected to participate in online dialogues according to the posting due dates and times; points are earned for timely participation only. Readings related to the online dialogues must be completed before entering into the discussions. Students’ comments and questions must reflect their engagement with the reading assignments. Students who fail to engage with the course materials and in the online dialogues in a timely manner risk being administratively dropped from the class.

Technology Tools:

Web 2.0 tools are integrated into this course. Students are required to use blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other Web-based tools to gather information, to interact, and to collaborate. Students are responsible for having the necessary Internet access and software required to use these tools. Utilizing Web 2.0 tools is critical for teacher-librarians who serve as technology stewards and may be technology tools integration leaders in their schools. If a student is concerned about the quality of his/her Internet access, he/she must communicate with the instructor about this within the first two weeks of the course.

Online Dialogues:

You will participate in at least one online dialogue each week. Each contribution to the dialogue will include a posting and a response to two or more classmates or mentors. In addition to dialogues held within D2L, we will use blogs or listservs. Practicing teacher-librarians from across the country will join the dialogues and serve as virtual mentors. There will be a total of 15 threads, one each week. For each thread, students will earn 3 points for the original posting and 2 points for up to 2 responses to colleagues (7 possible points each).

Important: The goal of the online dialogues is to build a virtual learning community and to learn with and from one another. In order to facilitate a dialogue, students are expected to participate in discussions according to a schedule. Discussion topics will be posted on Monday mornings. The initial response is due by 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday evening. Responses to our classmates and mentors are due by Sunday evening at 9:00 p.m.

Administrative Manual

This is intended to be a partner project. Students may choose to work alone with the instructor’s permission ONLY.

Describe the school community in which "your" library is located. (This can be real or fictional.) Note the grade-levels, enrollment by grades, number of classroom teachers and specialists, ethnic breakdown, geographic location, demographics of the community, principal economic base for the community, library budget, and anything else you think will have a significant impact on the school library media program.

In addition to this descriptive material, your administrative manual will include all of the following in this order:

1. Educational philosophy and school library objectives
2. Library Policies: Discipline, quiet study, circulation, scheduling, evaluation of library personnel, and use of materials and equipment (including an Internet Use Policy)
3. Library Services: Computer services, media production, classroom collections, book talks, storytelling, regular events, special events
4. Core Library Program: Marketing and advocacy for the library program, promotion of library materials and services, curriculum planning, student assistants, collaboration, inservice workshops for classroom teachers
5. Library Staffing: Provide a rationale and job description for each position.
6. Library Procedures: Selection, acquisitions, cataloguing, circulation, inventory (include step-by-step instructions where appropriate)

Think in terms of aesthetics; include appropriate copyright-free graphics. Think in terms of sharing this manual with an administrator or with classroom teacher colleagues. (Note: A selection policy would ordinarily be a major component of an administrative manual; it is not part of this project because selection policies are addressed in collection development courses.)

An actual administrative manual is a public document and as such, must be free of spelling and grammatical errors. Students will submit the components of the manual when each one is assigned. Students are expected to compile the entire administrative manual for their own purposes.

Collaborative Lesson Plan:

Students must design this lesson plan with a cohort from this course or with a currently practicing educator, classroom teacher or a teacher-librarian. Using state curriculum and information literacy standards, identify a learning objective and design a lesson plan to meet that need. Your plan must include opportunities for co-teaching as well as list the goals, objectives, standards, and resources to be used. (Benchmarks and a lesson plan format will be provided.) The instructor will provide examples.

Note: The instructor maintains the Southwest Children’s Literature Web site at: http://storytrail.com/SWCL/pages/main.html Students may choose to develop and teach a collaborative lesson plan based on an approved Southwest children’s or young adult book and add their work and those of K-12 students to the Web site.

Small Group or Partner Presentations:

There are two additional small group or partner projects that will be presented to the entire class via D2L. Since these are virtual presentations, the scripts are as important as the visuals in these presentations.

#1 - Library Marketing-Advocacy Tools:

This assignment will strengthen your understanding of the need for on-going marketing-advocacy to ensure a vibrant school library program. The tools may take the form of a brochure, a newsletter, a Web page, or other document. The marketing-advocacy tool should be added to the "Core Library Program" section of the Administrative Manual.

#2 - Open-Topic:

This assignment involves presenting an inservice workshop for classroom teachers any course topic, such as classroom-library collaboration, information literacy, intellectual freedom, specific research models or technology tools, and more. This can be accomplished with a PowerPoint presentation, a Web page, or using Web 2.0 tools.

Note: Students may elect to create an alternate assignment for the open topic. Attending and reporting on the August or October Teacher-Librarian Division meeting or attending and reporting on the AZ Library Conference are two possible choices. See the course module schedules for dates. All alternate assignments must be approved by the professor by the midterm.

Midterm and Final Examinations:

The midterm and final exams will be submitted to the course facilitator via email. Exams are individual, not collaborative, work.