the big house library

dear teens and others,

despite mr. wade's and my last-minute efforts to collaborate on something cool, teen tech week sort of snuck up on us this year. we were both  super-busy with other school stuff and, to be honest, i get sort of tired of publicizing programs that only a few people pay attention to. i mean, in this case, plenty of students are in the library using technology regardless. i didn't need to make a big deal about it, and this year i didn't have the heart (or the budget) for it.

so, what did we do? well,  we did what we would have done anyway, only without the fanfare. no banners or fliers; nothing formal or fancy; just some simple electronic games and all-around good clean fun! :)
 

 
maybe next year we'll go all out with a tournament and prizes and a whole lot of hoopla. maybe not. the point of teen tech week isn't to get teens to use more tech. teens today practically eat tech for breakfast! the point of teen tech week  is to get teens to use libraries' non-print resources. and casa's teens do that everyday! :)

so, on that note, we say so long to teen tech week 2010 with a techy geeky song (or 10) from mr. wade via boingboing: popten's top ten geek anthems.

happy teen tech week to one and all! :)
 

"What is with the whole school turning, like, technologically advanced?" one Casa student asked recently. "Even Todd. We have homework for Todd online," she said. "I don't get it. I'm very confused."

This student was referring to economics teacher Todd Siders, who brought his Green Careers Pathway economics class to the library's new computer lab to discover the real and hidden costs of their ecological footprints.

In an online version of a traditional stations assignment, Todd's students calculated the costs of the various aspects of their lives -- driving, shopping, eating, drinking, smoking, etc. -- they listened to podcasted instructions, added their comments to a collaborative online message board, and reflected on their learnings via an embedded Google form. Here's a link to that assignment. It was very cool. :)
 

More and more Casa teachers are bringing their classes to the library and the computer lab lately. It's common for us to have 2 classes per period using the computers at the same time. It's also common for Casa students to have a couple of classes a day that use computers.

Casa teachers get that technology is a tool that their students need to be able to incorporate effectively into their curriculum, because it increases student engagement, which increases student achievement, which better prepares them for the college classrooms and and jobs can expect to encounter in 2010.

This is one reason why Mrs. Kelin Backman brings her English and Event Planning classes to the library to use our computers to do their work on Google Documents. Mrs. Backman would love to see Casa get class sets of the new Apple iPads. "They're awesome!" she said, "and there are so many applications for them in my classes."

 
It was one of Todd's and Mrs. Backman's students who made the bold comments at the beginning of this blog post. And after having back-to-back classes in the computer lab, I can understand why she wondered what was going on, why Casa was becoming so techy.

I was recording Mrs. Backman's commentary on the new Apple iPad video for a podcast. I recorded this student's comments as well completely by accident, and I'm so glad I did! To me, what she's saying is a sign (a very good sign, I think) of how far we've come and of where I hope we're heading. :)