Here is another bibliography of books about  teaching Visual Arts.

Visual_Arts_2009

TDSB teachers may contact the library at (416) 395-8289 to borrow.

Rowan

We have updated our ESL book bibliography, attached here FYI.  Note that it is deliberately brief since (1) bibliographies are probably the most boring thing ever invented in the whole world, and since  (2) it reflects our newest books only. We have many, many more books on this important subject.

ESL_2009

Rowan

From Judy A, one of  our fabulous reference librarians:

In the November issue of Educational Leadership there is an interesting article by Robert Marzano on teaching with interactive whiteboards. In it Marzano discusses the increasing use of whiteboards in the classroom and their effect on student achievement. His study found that using whiteboards was linked with a 16 percentile point increase in student achievement, with three features particularly related to achievement: the learner-response device, the use of graphics and other visuals, and the reinforcer (applications teachers can use to indicate that an answer is correct).

 The article also mentions potential drawbacks of the technology and suggests how teachers might use whiteboards more effectively.

 To obtain a copy of Marzano’s article or to find out more about interactive whiteboards, contact the library at (416) 395-8289.

 Judy Ameline, Librarian

Gains is a relatively new web page with strong ties to the Ministry.  It states that it is “built on the success of … [the Ministry documents]… Think Literacy Success, Think Literacy Cross-Curricular Approaches, Me Read?No Way, Leading Math Success, Targeted Implementation and Planning Supports, and Critical Learning Instructional Supports”.  It is very web 2.0 and encourages contributions from many sources.

It is a bit of “rag tag” fleet of stuff mainly to support Ontario secondary teachers of math, literacy and differentiated instruction with stated plans to continue to grow to support other subject areas. 

Literacy Gains includes among other things,  concise guides to listening, media literacy (I liked this one), critical literacy and metacognition.  Math Gains includes documents from a variety of sources and Boards, videos, Ministry documents, posters, software lessons (eg Geometers Sketchpad).  As my son would say “it is a bit random” BUT it does contain useful resources and is worth checking out.

A final comment: both the literacy and math gain pages include the following introduction “Reaching every teacher and student; gathering and sharing local evidence of promising practises; precisely personalizing instructional trajectories; harnessing collaborative technologies; establishing communities of practice at every level in the system”.   HUH? I am not sure what this means.  My recommendation would be to de-jargon and simplify this.

Rowan

The Ministry’s latest announcement is about putting together a working group to research integrating financial literacy into the Gr. 4- 12 curriculum.

We have a couple of new books on this:

1. Economics and personal finance education (2009, NBEA)
2. Fun with finance: Math + literacy=success (2009, Carol Peterson)
3. I’m broke: The money handbook (2009, Liam Croke)

And a recent article:

1. Tye, Peg. (2009, Sep/Oct.). The truth about kids and money. Instructor, 19(2), 40-5.

Contact the library, (416) 395-8289 to borrow any of these.

Rowan

Working Memory by Judy C (Reference Librarian)

Recently I was searching for information on  short term memory  and found the whole topic so fascinating that I wanted to share some of what I learned.

Generally psychologists use the term, working memory, to refer to the ability to both store and manipulate information over short time (few seconds). 

Working memory is made up of 3 components:

• Central executive, located in the frontal region, controls attention and higher level processes.
• Verbal short term memory (phonological loop),  located in the left hemisphere, stores all speech based information.
• Visuo-spatial short term memory, located in the right hemisphere, stores images, pictures and location information.

The central executive communicates with both short term memories and coordinates information, but the 2 short term memories are quite separate.  Therefore a person can have one short term memory that is much stronger than the other.

Each person has different working memory capacity, and children have less working memory than adults.  Generally a person can hold 6 to 7 units of information, and once the working memory is lost, it’s lost permanently.

Strategies to boost working memory:

• Chunking information – grouping units of information to create meaning
• Rehearsal – repeatedly saying it over
• Reduce distraction  – lower  background noise made up of conversation, white noise is not distracting

If you want to read more about the topic, you can contact the Professional Library for the “very readable” book, Working Memory & Learning: A Practical Guide for Teachers by Susan E. Gathercole & Tracy Packiam Alloway.

 Judy Chyung – Reference Librarian

PS:  this can be a serious issue with children because it is an ‘invisible’ disability and therefore it can take some time before it is recognized and diagnosed. My high school son has this: too much information can overwhelm and fatigue him (he’ll give up and put his head down on the desk); and I find that at the  secondary level many of the teachers have a strong subject specialty but they are not so great on implementing accommodations for kids.  Lets face it, most of the strategies listed by Judy benefit all students regardless of their abilities.   Rowan

Here are 4 new titles with attracative  covers (this is important not just for kids) and lots of classroom content:

• Fun with finance: Math+literacy=$uccess by Carol Peterson, 2009. Contains 12 readers theatre scripts, activities and flashcards, grades 4-6.
• Helping students with dyslexia and dysgraphia make connections: Differentiated Instruction lesson plans in reading and writing, by Virginia Beringer and Beverly Wolf, 2009. Includes main 4 units, each with many lessons; includes teacher material and student response sheets.
• The musical classroom: backgrounds, models and skills for elementary teaching, 8th ed., by Carolynn Lindeman and PatriciaHackett, 2010. Includes info on theory or philosophy of teaching music,  progressive activities for the different grades, model lessons, great bibliographies for each chapter.  This would be a must if you taught elementary music!
• Story starters and science notebooking:Developing student thinking through literacy and inquiry, by Sandy Buczynski and Kristin Fontichiaro, 2009. Grades 3-6. Includes fun units with titles like Magnetism: The Dance of  the Magnets or Temperature and Heat: The Porridge Case.

TDSB teachers can contact the library to borrow these: (416) 395-8289.

Rowan

We have 2 new books on this topic, very readable, with suggestions for the classroom teacher or special education consultant:

• Reaching and teaching children who hurt: Strategies for your classroom, by Susan Craig, 2008
• Lost at school :Why our kids with behavioral challenges are falling through the cracks and how we can help them, by Ross Greene, 2008

TDSB teachers may contact the Library to borrow, (416) 395-8289.

Rowan

TDSB has a research department that has many different responsibilities, one of which is to investigate, analyze and report on things pertaining to TDSB data and school/student programs, and to investigate education issues that  inform the board about best practices. It is serious research based on data, literature reviews etc.

Many of their reports are available on the TDSB web site <here>. They are buried deep on the web site, but you can click your way there: TDSB ->Top 10 side bar ->About TDSB ->Key Information -> Research -> Research Publications.

Check it once in a while  for newly released reports.

Rowan

Chris Spence, TDSB Director of Education, has been seen and heard on TV and Radio recently particularly regarding his recommendation that  TDSB create an all-boys school.

This is one recommendation amongst many that are included in a PowerPoint Report that was presented to the Planning & Priorities Committee on October 20th. The report will be presented to the Board soon.  The report is titled A Vision of Hope and is available on Chris’ Page on the TDSB internet site, under speeches. He creates a vision of what our schools can become to improve learning and student success, to become more caring, to reduce the achievement gap, to graduate students ready to participate in a global economy.

Some of the recommendations include:

• creating full-service schools (make the school a fully integrated participant in the community beyond just education, especially health);
• bringing 21st century technology and networking  to the schools and classrooms (if the kids are comfortable using it at home, it should be in the schools); 
• a single sex all boys school (if you have one for boys; you’re going to need one for girls);
• creating a parent academy (creating greater opportunities for parents to be involved with their children’s education);
• launching 8 ARC s=Accomdation Review Committee=school and program changes in location or configuration=school closure;
• making the schools greener, especially regarding energy savings.
• finding ways to finance programs by increasing attendance of international students, improving energy efficiency, and through property redevelopment.

Much food for thought!

Rowan