Blog Post #6 -

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What is inquiry? Inquiry is defined as a seeking for truth, information, or knowledge. In the educational setting, it is described as the learner's desire to look deeply into a question or idea that interests him or her. As a result of this, the School Library Media Specialist is the person to help when students and teachers are working on class projects and/or research. Library Media Specialists teach students and teachers how to find reliable information from valid sources both online and in print. Teaching students the steps to determining which websites to trust for getting information. For example one way to determine if a website is reliable and has valid information is to check to see if the site has been recently updated. Sites that are recently updated are more likely to post information regularly and can be seen as a reliable source. For my three mini-lessons, the middle school computer lab will be used. I will focus on teaching middle school students how to differentiate between good information and sources and bad information and sources. Since students in middle school have to complete science fair projects each year, in the first lesson, I will get the attention of the students by asking them what they would like to do for their science fair projects. I would then give them an in-class assignment to search for 4-6 websites to find information about their science fair projects. Once, they have searched for sources I will then ask them out of the sources they find, which ones do they think has the most reliable and valid information. In the second lesson, I will teach them steps and guidelines to use when looking for sources to use for research and projects. At the end of the lesson, I will ask them to check the sources they previously found to see if they contain all the information in the guidelines for checking reliable sources. Once they determine which sources are reliable, they will tell why the other sources, if any, are not. For the third lesson, the students will complete a final search for information about their science fair topic. The teacher and myself will observe the students to make sure they are using the steps and guidelines given them to find valid information sources. Students will be able to ask any questions they have concerning searching websites and given immediate feedback.

Blog Post #5 - Reflection of Learning Goals

As I am introduced to new tools and technology, I am learning that I have a lot to become comfortable with using and ultimately introducing this 21st Century information to teachers and students. I consider myself technologically savvy especially when it is something that I am interested in knowing how to use it to benefit me personally. Over the last few weeks, I now know that I am not as technologically savvy as I thought. Throughout some of the assignments, I find myself struggling with how to approach what I am supposed to be doing. I find myself goggling what and how a specific part of the assignment should consist of. As a result, I know that my learning goals are on point because I am learning about different Web 2.0 tools I have never used or heard of as well as getting familiar and comfortable with posting and publishing a blog. Although I had a Twitter account prior to this class, I never really used it but now I have to post and/or respond to others tweets. One of the articles we read this week was about fostering and building a growth mindset. In the article titled Even Geniuses Work Hard (Dweck, Carol S.), the author stated, "there are two distinct ways in which individuals view intelligence and learning. Individuals with a fixed mindset believe that their intelligence is simply an inborn trait—they have a certain amount, and that's that. In contrast, individuals with a growth mindset believe that they can develop their intelligence over time" (Blackwell, Trzesniewski, & Dweck, 2007; Dweck, 1999, 2007). Of the two ways for individuals to view intelligence and learning, I consider myself to have a growth mindset. This is because I believe that we as a people never stop learning but you have to have to want to continue to learn and increase that knowledge over time. I know that having a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset is important in order to work in the fields of Instructional Technology and School Library Media Specialist. Both of these focus on the use of technology and being able to demonstrate and teach the various uses of technology for educational purposes as well as personal. Teachers and those in the education field that have a growth mindset will instill the importance for students to become lifelong learners in and out of school.