ISCI 720 - AASL Standards - Collaborate

 Collaborating in Elementary Education

For this interview, I spoke with a school librarian working at a public elementary school in Evans, Georgia serving approximately 750 students in grades K–5. The school population is diverse, including military families, a high ESOL population (Hispanic, Asian, and Indian students), and a mix of socioeconomic backgrounds, with a high population of upper income families and others receiving free and reduced lunch. The library program is funded through state and county support, which can only be used for books or technology, while collaboration with PTA fundraisers and book fairs provide more flexible spending opportunities. I asked this librarian to reflect on her experiences implementing the AASL Shared Foundation of Collaborate, which emphasizes learning through working with others, sharing ideas, and building understanding together. 

Interview Guiding Questions

1. How do you encourage collaboration among students in your library program? 

2. What programs or resources support collaborative learning? 

3. How do you collaborate with classroom teachers? 

4. What challenges do you face in implementing collaboration? 

5. How do language and student diversity impact collaboration? 

AASL Collaborate Standard in Practice

The librarian actively fosters collaboration through intentional group work and project-based learning. Students are placed in carefully designed small groups, often created in partnership with classroom teachers who understand student personalities, strengths, and needs. These consistent groupings allow students to build relationships and improve teamwork skills over time.

The librarian emphasized the importance of combining literacy with hands-on learning. They’ve recently been engaged in a robotics unit, and have collaborated with teachers to integrate writing activities into the program. Students practice persuasive or opinion writing about how robotics can be useful, connecting collaborative STEM work with literacy standards. Working on projects in teams and later reflecting on the importance of what they are doing encourages learners to work with others to deepen understanding and solve problems together. 

Looking ahead, the librarian plans to introduce book clubs and ongoing robotics clubs, which will provide additional opportunities for students to collaborate outside regular class time, though participation will be limited to smaller groups.

Tools to support Collaboration 

This library uses Beanstack, an online reading incentive platform that allows students to share their reading experiences with their classmates. They can compete individually or work in teams against other classes to meet reading goals. This program allows students to set individual goals for themselves and to work together to accomplish shared goals, which builds their collaborative skills. 

The librarian supports school communication and engagement through the Edlio website platform, managing the school website and social media. This role includes tracking communication with families, ensuring that families are also involved in the learning process and contributes to a broader sense of collaboration within the school community.

Challenges in Collaboration

One of the biggest challenges is scheduling. Students attend the library in rotations, often for nine-week periods with long gaps in between, which can make it difficult to practice collaborative standards over time. Teachers can schedule additional library visits, but if they are not consistent or choose not to utilize this opportunity, students may not be able to practice these skills on a regular basis. This also leads to inconsistent collaboration skill building across all classes, as some individual teachers take advantage of library services more than others. 

Language in Collaboration

The librarian noted that students tend to collaborate more effectively across language differences than adults, using gestures, peer support, and shared tasks to understand one another. While teachers may rely on tools like Google Translate, students tend to adapt quickly in group settings, highlighting the importance of collaboration in support of student learning. 

Personal Reflection

This interview showed me how working with teachers can be helpful in fostering collaboration skills in students by assisting with intentional grouping. Often teachers know how students work together better than the librarian, because they spend more time with them and know their personalities and needs. In the future, I will be sure to take advantage of teachers’ knowledge of their students to help support intentional groupings for collaborative projects as well as collaborating on aligning library lessons with those of the classroom to ensure that we are working together to support student learning.  I will incorporate collaborative programs like reading challenges or clubs. I can also see that in a public school setting, I will need to address potential scheduling barriers by advocating for more consistent library access. This may require collaboration with librarians across the school district to ensure that we are all working toward the same goals for our students.

ISCI 794 - AASL Standards: Include

Inclusion in Action: 

A Conversation with an International School Librarian in South Korea

To gain outside perspectives in the Include domain of the AASL standards, I spoke with a school librarian working at a private international school in South Korea serving students from Pre-K through Grade 2. The school community is highly diverse, with many students coming from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. This diversity presents a great opportunity to learn how this school emphasizes respect for diversity, equity, and the inclusion of multiple perspectives within the learning community. 

Interview Guiding Questions

The following questions guided our conversation:

1. What are some examples of the ways in which you are implementing inclusion competencies in your library program? 

2. Do you collaborate with teachers to support inclusive learning experiences? 

3. How do you create opportunities for students to share their own experiences and perspectives? 

4. What challenges do you face when implementing inclusion in your library program? 

5. What resources do you use to support inclusion and diverse representation? 

AASL Inclusion Standard in Practice

The librarian at this school acknowledged that when she first began working there, the collection lacked diversity, which she was determined to address. To support this goal, the school hired a part-time Arabic librarian to help expand the collection in both language and cultural representation since a significant portion of the student population was not reflected in the existing materials. This initiative aligns with the AASL competency that encourages learners to develop an awareness of diverse perspectives and to recognize cultural relevance within a global learning community.

What I found especially interesting was the school’s initial focus on acquiring picture books as part of their effort to diversify the collection. The librarian explained that picture books have a broad reach across the school community: older students can read them to younger peers, parents can share them with their children, emerging readers can engage with them independently, and students who are still learning English can rely on visual elements to support comprehension. Although chapter books were added over time, prioritizing picture books allowed the school to engage a wider audience from the outset. This approach helped to introduce important topics, such as neurodiversity, cultural identity, and diverse family structures, to the entire school community. 

Creating Space for Student Voice and Perspective

The librarian uses literature and activities to encourage students to reflect on their own identities and experiences. One example discussed was the book Adventures to School by Miranda Paul, which tells about the various journeys children take to get to school around the world. This relatable story helps to prompt students to share the differences and similarities in their own lived experiences, which might not come up in casual conversation. 

The school also uses Seesaw to prompt student discussion. For example, during a kindergarten unit on homes, students explored the question, what makes a house a home. This led to interesting discussions, especially in the international school setting where there are many students who live in one country while considering another place “home.” Others brought up the idea of having multiple homes, such as in cases of divorced families. These activities encouraged students to share their perspectives and listen to others, reinforcing inclusive practices.

An interesting challenge in this scenario emerged around language. In Korean, the words for “house” and “home” are the same, making it difficult to convey these abstract distinctions. This really showed how language and culture can shape understanding, and how educators must adapt their teaching to support diverse learners.

Collaboration and Resources

In this school, the library is not often involved in collaborating with classroom teachers; however, teachers do from time to time request the library’s help in acquiring resources and literature to support their units, such as books related to global issues and human rights. In these cases, the main focus has been to ensure that as many perspectives as possible are represented in the literature made available to the classrooms. 

The resources the school uses to support inclusion, include:

• Digital platforms like Epic and Storyline Online for greater access to diverse stories 

• Library displays that highlight inclusive themes 

• Kahoot activities to engage students with different genres and perspectives 

• Suggested reading lists to extend learning beyond the classroom 

Challenges in Implementing Inclusion

Several challenges emerged during the conversation. One of the most significant is language barriers, especially when introducing abstract concepts. Additionally, while international schools are often diverse, not all are equally open to certain discussions about culture or representation. The librarian shared her experience working in Quatar, where censorship or cultural norms were limited in what could be displayed or discussed.

Another challenge she mentioned was in finding ways to be sensitive while discussing student curiosity about differences. Young children often ask questions when they encounter unfamiliar appearances or cultural practices. While these moments can be potentially triggering, they are also opportunities for education and normalization through respectful dialogue, guided by a moderator (the teacher). 

Personal Reflection and Future Practice

One key insight I gained is the importance of intentional collection development. Not only do the materials introduced need to convey diverse perspectives, but they must also be presented in ways that benefit the community that will be using them. Picture books and those that prompt discussion worked best for this school community in the beginning.  

In my future practice, I will pay closer attention to the picture book collection, as I agree that they can be effective in introducing inclusivity to a wider range of students. I was also inspired by the idea of using student-centered reflection activities to help learners connect their own experiences to the experiences of others, fostering empathy and understanding.

However, this interview also reminded me that inclusion is context-dependent. Cultural norms, language differences, and school expectations all influence how inclusion can be implemented. As a future librarian, I will need to remain flexible and responsive to my specific school community while still advocating for equitable representation and inclusive practices.

 

ISCI 794 - AASL Standards: Inquiry

 

Inquiry in Practice

To learn more about the AASL Shared Foundation Inquiry domain, I spoke with a school librarian at an international private school serving approximately 600 students in grades 3–5 in Hong Kong. The library also has 2 assistants. The library plays an important role in supporting inquiry-based learning across the curriculum, particularly in science, social studies, and literacy units. Although the school has not formally adopted the AASL standards yet, the library program is currently undergoing curriculum review and intends to align more intentionally with AASL frameworks in the future. Many of the practices already implemented in the library strongly reflect the AASL Shared Foundation of Inquire, which emphasizes building knowledge through questioning, investigation, and critical thinking. 

Interview Guiding Questions

The conversation was guided by the following questions:

1. What are some examples of the ways you implement AASL Inquiry standards in your library                    program?

2. What resources do you use to support inquiry and research in the library?

3. How do you collaborate with classroom teachers to implement inquiry-based learning?

4. What challenges do you face when implementing inquiry competencies in the library program?

5. How do you evaluate whether inquiry-focused instruction is effective for students?

AASL Inquiry Standard in Practice

HKIS has a strong focus on inquiry-based learning.  Research units often begin with exploration rather than immediate searching. Students first interact with books and other curated resources related to the topic to build background knowledge. From there, they develop their own research questions, which becomes the starting point for their investigation.

This approach reflects the Inquire domain “Think,” where learners formulate questions about a personal interest or curricular topic and connect new knowledge to prior understanding. Students begin with ideas they are familiar with, then expand their thinking as they are introduced to new perspectives and information.

Some time ago, the school stopped allowing students to use open search engines because they had difficulty in identifying reliable sources. Instead, students learned to use school created databases and curated resources which helped them build foundational research skills; however, this approach led to gaps in knowledge as their sources were limited. Now the school is gradually reintroducing search engines through tools like Sooth, which displays bias scores to help students evaluate the credibility and perspective of online information.  The school also uses Flint, an AI tool that does not generate answers but instead helps guide students to ask stronger research questions. These tools support the inquiry competency that encourages learners to identify information needs and make thoughtful choices about sources.

Collaboration and Assessment

The library frequently collaborates with classroom teachers when designing inquiry lessons. Instead of having regular classes with each grade level for reading in the library, teachers schedule lessons with the library about inquiry based research strategies as the unit is being taught, to ensure effective time usage. Collaboration occurs most often in science and social studies. 

Assessment of inquiry learning is primarily conducted by classroom teachers, who evaluate how well research supports students’ projects. However, the library also uses informal strategies such as exit slips and Project Zero thinking routines to gather student reflections about their learning process. In addition, when students are found to not be regularly checking out books for pleasure reading, the library schedules one-on-one “book shopping” appointments where students are taught use their research skills to reflect on their own reading histories and interests to find literature that may appeal to them.

Challenges in Implementing Inquiry

The biggest challenges the librarian mention to collaborating with classroom teachers were teachers’ willingness and schedules.  She stated that the school day is very full, so teachers do not want to relinquish any of the time they have with their students, as well as the fact that the international school teaching positions are highly competitive, and therefore teachers felt threatened by anyone suggesting they might need help planning their units. 

Personal Reflection and Future Practice

I loved how this library’s approach to research lessons allowed for more purposeful instruction and time management with having classes only as needed and allowing students to use the library for checkouts during breaks, lunch, and during their classroom literacy lessons.  I also loved the way that students were introduced to information that gave them a shared foundation of knowledge upon which to build before the unit began.  This allowed them to formulate questions based on some background knowledge rather than having to figure out what questions they would have about a topic they knew nothing about. This school’s instruction strategies demonstrate that the library can serve as a central hub for inquiry learning, supporting both content-area instruction and students’ independent curiosity.

As a librarian currently without a library assistant, adopting this flexible schedule would allow more time for both information literacy instruction and allow the library to serve as the heart of the school, bringing fun events and an enjoyable space where students can enjoy being surrounded by others who love literature.

ISCI 761 Blog #6 - Sillhouette for Makerspaces

Makerspaces are an important tool to include in libraries, as they can bring people together in a warm, welcoming and collaborative space (Fontichiaro, 2019). As collaboration has become more and more necessary in business, it is important that we provide the environments that will encourage and promote these skills (Techman, 2014). 

Silhouette Cutting Tool for Makerspaces

Image Description: 4 multicolored models of

Silhouette cutting machine taken from Silhouette.com

Makerspaces are a fun and innovative way to support that mission and no tool is more versatile than the Silhouette cutting machine.  It allows users to cut out simple or intricate designs from a variety of materials like vinyl, cardstock, heat transfer paper, and sticker sheets. Users can create custom t-shirt designs using heat transfer vinyl, or print and cut their own temporary tattoos to support events like games, spirit days, or even academic competitions.

Image Description: Minecraft papercraft chessboard 

taken from Tektonten Papercraft Blog

Silhouette can also support building designs and games with fun patterns, available for free online, such as this Minecraft Chessboard Papercraft Pattern I found on Tektonten Papercraft.  Not only can patrons build the pieces together, but then they can also play chess together, which “helps children develop their cognitive abilities, their character and their competitive spirit” (Nanu et al, 2023). 

Best of all, the Silhouette supports both guided and independent learning. Whether users are following a step-by-step tutorial or experimenting with their own digital drawings, they can find everything they need to succeed with this amazing tool. 

Silhouette Mint for Makerspaces and Letterboxing

Silhouette also makes a stamp maker, called the Silhouette Mint. This is another amazing tool that can be used in makerspaces to encourage creativity as well as a healthy active lifestyle. Users can design and cut their own custom stamps to use for decorative artwork or even for participating in Letterboxing activities.

Image Description: Image of the Silhouette Mint

taken from Silhouette.com

For those of you who may be unfamiliar, letterboxing is an outdoor hobby that combines treasure hunting, puzzle solving, and hiking. It is similar to Geocaching, but includes an element of art and creativity. Rather than using geolocation as with Geocaching, Letterboxing participants follow clues to find hidden, weatherproof boxes that contain a rubber stamp and a logbook. When found, players stamp their personal logbook with the box's stamp and leave their own stamp in the box's logbook as a record of their visit.  Clues to find boxes can be found on letterboxing.org, and participants can even create their own boxes for others to find. 

Image Description: Stamp book with notes, custom stamp and pad

taken from greatpondtrust.org

Handcarving Stamp Tools

For your more hardcore patrons that want to participate in letterboxing activities, but find the Silhouette Mint to be cheating, you can also include hand carving materials in your makerspace.  Amazon offers a wide array of stamp carving kits by Speedball that you can have available as well. 

Image Description: Stamp carving set, containing carving tools, 

rubber, and ink rolling tools available from Amazon

Silhouette’s cutting tools are a fantastic inclusion in any library Makerspace.  Be sure to check them out!

References: 

Fontichiaro, K. (2019). What I’ve learned from 7 years of the maker movement in schools and libraries. Teacher Librarian, 46(4), (pp. 51–53). https://www.proquest.com/openview/d4605e88d35feb5262e45bcd336685db/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=38018.

Techman, M. (2014). Supporting Creativity in School Libraries. Knowledge Quest, 42(5), (pp. 28–30). file:///Users/gertrude/Downloads/EBSCO-FullText-07_25_2025%20(3).pdf.

Nanu, C. C., Coman, C., Bularca, M. C., Mesesan-Schmitz, L., Gotea, M., Atudorei, I., Turcu, I., & Negrila, I. (2023). The role of chess in the development of children-parents' perspectives. Frontiers in psychology, 14. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10330813.

ISCI 761 Blog #5 - Exploring Using Chat GPT for Tutoring

Image Description: AI Generated image of student with AI robot hologram 

tutor during a study session (Image from diamandis.com)

 

As I am not particularly experienced in using AI, I wanted to try out some of the features I saw in the lectures this week. This week, I focused on using ChatGPT as an AI tutor.  My daughter sometimes struggles in mathematics, and we have hired a tutor to come to the house to help her. It would be nice if she could have a tutor to help her when she is trying to do homework on her own when he is not available. I asked ChatGPT to help me with ratios, and it gave me an overview, and then asked me some sample questions. I thought it was very helpful in the way that it responded to incorrect answers by helping me see what I did wrong and then giving me another sample question to make sure I understood before moving on. I was pleasantly surprised when I asked it how to find greatest common factors for clarification of the directions when it was explaining simplifying ratios.  I thought it might forget the original prompt, but instead, it explained and gave me sample questions just as it had done with the original prompt and then asked if I had more questions or wanted to continue with the lesson on ratios. I think this could be a very useful tool for students. 

Image Description: Battle of the Books title with two jousting knights emerging from books

Chat GPT was also helpful for practicing for Battle of the Books.  I asked it to tutor me for Battle of the Books, and it asked for the book list, my grade level, and the date of the competition.  It gave me a weekly plan to prepare for the competition; however, the question format was not the format that we use for Battle of the Books questions.  I was able to ask it to adjust the format of the questions to fit our competition and it did, excluding proper names and asking in the format, "In which book did ___ happen", limiting questions to specific events, not overall themes.  It even gave me the option to find which specific pages events could be found in the book, if I included the edition of the book I was using.  Once I finished fine tuning the tutorial to ask the questions the way I wanted, it also allowed me to create a tutorial to share with my students and gave me a prompt to enter in ChatGPT to recreate the same formatting of questions for students to create their own tutorials using ChatGPT.  I think this will be an invaluable tool in my library to help me prepare students for the competition this year. 

In my experiencing practicing with these tools in chatGPT, I could definitely see some of the advantages that Schools that Lead (2024) referenced. The features were highly adaptable to fit my specific needs, were available right when I needed them, and offered immediate feedback so that I could understand my mistakes immediately and make corrections. I could also see how some of the drawbacks mentioned could come into play, though.  Some students might not have access to a computer or broadband services at home, which would give them an unfair disadvantage compared to their peers who did, as Aniya Green-Santos mentioned in NEA Today (2024).  Also, I could see there being some confusion if the AI tutored a student in a subject differently than the way the teacher taught it in the classroom. Additionally, I think that if students are not clear enough in exactly what they need to learn because they do not quite understand the subject enough to convey their needs in chatGPT, their results may differ from peers who are better able to work with the program.  Still, I think that there are some extremely promising features that can greatly help students, as long as there is a teacher available to help them learn how to use chatGPT effectively. Fortunately, there have been efforts made to assist teachers in preparing to educate students in AI, however there is still much to be done to ensure all teachers are on the same page, rather than leaving it to the teachers to tackle this task alone (Green-Santos, 2024). 

References

Green-Santos, A. (2024). Does AI have a bias problem? NEA Today. https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/does-ai-have-bias-problem

Schools that Lead. (2024). Advantages and disadvantages of AI in education. https://www.schoolsthatlead.org/blog/ai-in-education-pros-cons

ISCI 761 Blog #4 - Helperbird

Image from helperbird.com

Image Description: Image features an owl, which is the Helperbird logo, with the words "Helperbird, Read. Write. Ignite your full potential with Helperbird."

Helperbird is an amazing interactive digital tool designed to make websites more accessible and easier to read.  It allows users to change fonts, text sizes and spacing, colors, backgrounds, utilize text to speech, translate into a large number of available languages and so much more. Please take a look at my video about a great digital accessibility tool that you can use for free with your students:

Helperbird

Video Description: Blogger describes some of the free features of HelperBird and describes how users can download and use the free version of the application

Click Here to download the Helperbird extension for your computer

Click Here to access Helperbird's tutorials for utilizing its many amazing features

ISCI 761 Blog #3 - Supporting Students with Audio Enhancement Technology

Surely we've all had those times when we haven't been able to hear the instructor clearly in class.  It can lead to misunderstanding of directions or even an inability to understand the course materials. Audio Enhancement Technologies have been helping students learn in classrooms for years through whole classroom/school providers such as Audio Enhancement, Teq, and CCS Audio Visual Experts among others. 

Image Description: Image shows a teacher using audio enhancement while reading to students who are noticeably engaged, as several are raising their hand to ask or answer questions.
Image from CCS Southwest

Audio enhancement technology uses a microphone that is attached to the teacher.  It carries his/her voice to speakers that are strategically placed around the room to ensure that all students are able to hear the teacher whether they are in the front row or the back. Additionally, many of these systems are also equipped with a handheld microphone that allows students to respond to and ask questions while being heard clearly throughout the classroom, even if they are quiet or shy. In addition to ensuring students can hear what is happening no matter where they are in the classroom, teachers can also speak at a normal volume, reducing strain on their voice throughout the day.

See this technology in action in the video below

Video Description: In this video, Osceola County School District share how they are using Audio Enhancement in their classrooms.  
Subtitles available by clicking on the closed captioning (CC) option.

Technology such as this in classrooms in classrooms is important for a variety of reasons.  In addition to creating an accessible classroom that supports all students, this technology also follows the RAT (replacement, amplification and transformation) Framework for technology integration as introduced by Hughes et al. (2006).  

Replacement - Some providers of Audio Enhancement technology combine their service with visual recording as well, allowing for teachers to record their lessons to send to students to review at home. For some students, the inclusion of the ability to add subtitles to the lecture in addition to the audio visual elements will give them supports that they may need to be successful in school. In this way, the instructional method is not changed, yet the medium through which students can access the lecture can be changed to a more accessible format, should students need it. 

Amplification - When students are better able to hear the teacher in the classroom, it decreases the need for teachers to strain their voice or for students to ask teachers to repeat themselves, thus increasing the efficiency and productivity of classroom learning. 

Transformation - When students struggle to hear and keep up with the lesson, they may disengage from the conversation.  Likewise those students who are shy or speak quietly may be unwilling to raise their hand to be heard in class.  With this technology, more students are able to participate in the class, enhancing the discussion and bringing about perspectives and viewpoints that might not have otherwise been heard. Additionally, teachers have greater opportunities for group assignments or utilizing spaces in the classroom that might have otherwise been prohibitive due to inability to communicate from a distance.  This technology allows for more freedom of movement in the classroom, as well as increased engagement between students as well as with the instructor. 

If your school does not have this technology or cannot approve funding, there are a number of resources available to seek funding, such as GetEdFunding.com, the NEA Foundation and Teach.com.  Additionally, crowd funding might be an option with Donorschoose.org or adoptaclassroom.org

Individual portable audio enhancement devices are also available for purchase online from vendors like Amazon, Walmart, and other retailers. 

References:

Hughes, J., Thomas, R. & Scharber, C. (2006). Assessing technology integration: The RAT - replacement, amplification, and transformation - framework. SITE 2006 Proceedings (pp. 1616-1620).  https://web.archive.org/web/20211030191410/http://techedges.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Hughes_ScharberSITE2006.pdf