Evan St. Lifer
Deja vu! Gratifying! Those are some of the words Evan used to begin his speech. Thanked Brian Kinney, Rocco Staino, and all of the SLJ staff for organizing and putting on this summit in addition to their regular duties. Thanked Gail Dickinson for wrapping up the ideas from the entire weekend. Phenomenal ideas will come out of this. We have confirmed many of our ideas about the learner and how we impact the learner.
As people put dots on those ideas, he wondered what administrators, curriculum leaders, etc. would have done if they were putting on the dots. Would they have know what all those were? It’s also about process.
We need a framework. There are hints of a framework. Wiki’s, etc. We need to spend time on how to develop a framework to sustain and grow this. National clearinghouse is absolutely necessary. What is the next big thing in education? reauthorization of NCLB. *** We are due for a correction in education. **** Accountability is not going away from our schools, afterschool, etc. High-stakes testing environment is not just about the test. What will be the correction to NCLB? He believes 21st Century learning skills or something along those lines. Partnership for 21st Century Thinking Skills is out there (note that Julie Walker represents AASL there).
Rigor in everything we do.
How can we implement that?
Critical thinking piece.
Being creative. Out of the box. Teach kids to think. Love of learning. He has been working on afterschool programs in addition to library pieces. Light the fuse of being inquisitive. Afterschool people are having the same conversations as we are. California Prop. 49 to give $ to afterschool programs.
Not about search, it’s about context. Learning takes place out of the school. 24/7
Experiential piece.
Importance of other media.
Being where kids are. Live where kids live.
Provide the tools to allow for synthesis.
Better assessment and evaluation.
Scholastic thrilled to be here, advocating for us through School Libraries Work, state summits. How we can affect change? New York state was mentioned. (Tennessee also did a state summit Summer of 2006.)
