AASL webinar invites participants to join the Common Core conversation

CHICAGO — In a new webinar from the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), presenter Kristina Holzweiss will introduce participants to professional social networking using Edmodo and illustrate its use in establishing nationwide connections relating to the Common Core State Standards. The webinar, “Join the Common Core Conversation,” will take place at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. To register, visit www.ala.org/aasl/ecollab/upcoming.

Holzweiss will address the increasing need for school librarians to connect with one another, their colleagues, their students, their parents and other educators worldwide to keep the profession from becoming one of isolation. During the webinar, Holzweiss will demonstrate that while some social media platforms are powerful ways of staying connected on a professional level, with a Common Core community on Edmodo school librarians can extend their classroom beyond the book stacks, as well as collaborate with other educators who are also implementing the state standards. Edmodo was named as an AASL Best Website for Teaching and Learning in 2011, recognized for giving libraries and classrooms a safe and easy place online to connect and collaborate, offering a location to share ideas and content, as well as access homework, grades and school notices.

The webinar is open to AASL members and subscribers of eCOLLAB, AASL’s professional development repository. Registrations will be accepted until 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 27, and a seat in the webinar is guaranteed to the first 100 attendees. To register, visit www.ala.org/aasl/ecollab/upcoming.

AASL member since 2012, Kristina Holzweiss is currently employed as a school librarian at Bay Shore Middle School in Huntington, N.Y., after previously teaching seventh-grade English. Holzweiss holds both a BA and an MA in English, completed the Educational Computing from SUNY Stony Brook and received her MLS in Library Studies from CW Post. She has taught several in-service classes and is a certified Thinkfinity trainer, Intel Master Teacher, Glogster Ambassador and Edmodo Ambassador.

eCOLLAB | Your eLearning Laboratory: Content Collaboration Community, a repository of AASL professional development, provides members and subscribers with a central location to find and manage their e-learning as well as to connect with others in the learning community. eCOLLAB contains webcasts, podcasts and resources from various AASL professional development events, as well as access to a read-only version of the latest issue of Knowledge Quest. To begin utilizing eCOLLAB or to subscribe, visit www.ala.org/aasl/ecollab.

The American Association of School Librarians, www.aasl.org, a division of the American Library Association (ALA), promotes the improvement and extension of library services in elementary and secondary schools as a means of strengthening the total education program. Its mission is to advocate excellence, facilitate change and develop leaders in the school library field.