School Libraries in Action: A MASL Research Journal
School Libraries in Action: A MASL Research Journal
Volume 1 – Spring 2020
Bill Bass, Innovation Coordinator
Parkway School District
Bio: Bill Bass currently serves as the innovation coordinator for instructional technology, information and library media for the Parkway School District in St. Louis, Missouri and is the President of the ISTE Board of Directors.
During his over 20-year career in education, he has also held positions as a middle and high school English teacher, technology integration specialist, instructional coach and educational consultant. As a speaker, writer and professional developer, he focuses on systemic and sustainable integration of technology into classrooms at all grade levels and seeks to empower students and teachers with authentic learning experiences.
Bill holds a master’s degree instructional technology and a certificate of online learning from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, as well as a bachelor’s degree in English from Culver-Stockton College.
He has served as co-president of the Educational Technology Association of Greater St. Louis, an ISTE affiliate, and is past president of the ISTE Innovative Learning Professional Learning Network (PLN). Bill also is a member of the Midwest Education Technology Community (METC) leadership committee and a leader of the Google Educator Group of Eastern Missouri. He is an ISTE Certified Educator, a Google Certified Innovator, a Google for Education Certified Trainer, a Common Sense Media Certified Trainer and a past member of the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) Executive Committee.
Bill is often called upon to share his thinking as a speaker and presenter, and has been fortunate to learn with educators from around the world. He has also written numerous articles and book chapters, and has authored two books, From Inspiration to Red Carpet (2012), Digital Reading: What’s essential in grades 3-8 (2015), and Leading from the Library (2019).
Library Media Program Evaluation Guide Parkway School District in the Future
Bill Bass of Parkway School District discusses their district-wide library media program evaluation and how they used this process to identify areas for growth to fulfill Parkway School District’s mission, “to ensure all students are capable, curious, caring and confident learners who understand and respond to the challenges of an ever-changing world.”…(click on the title to read more).
Elizabeth Faron, Library Media Specialist
Stone Creek Elementary, Wentzville R-IV School District
Bio: Elizabeth Faron is an elementary librarian in the Wentzville School District. She is currently working on an educational specialist’s degree in the University of Missouri’s Information Science and Learning Technologies program. She is a member of the American Library Association and Missouri Association of School Librarians. Find her on Twitter @elizabethfaron.
Community Service in Schools – How Community Service Impact Students & Their School Environments
School systems and educators teach important skills; skill that will benefit students throughout their lives. Still, many students struggle to believe that their courses will apply to them. Students want to know why they are learning and how it will be used in the future and benefit them in their chosen careers. …(click on the title to read more).
Heather McCann, Adjunct Reference Librarian
Metropolitan Community College – Longview Campus
Bio: Heather McCann is an Adjunct Reference Librarian in the library at Metropolitan Community College’s Longview Campus in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. She provides reference support for student research and teaches library instruction classes. She graduated from the University of Missouri with a Master of Library and Information Science. She completed her undergraduate work in Elementary Education at the University of Central Missouri. Prior to her current position, she taught first grade in Kansas City.
Collaborative Learning & Group Behaviors During Library Projects – An Action Reasearch Project
This study looked at the role of group dynamics and behaviors when wanting to promote collaboration and content learning in library projects. The following five positive group behaviors was used to teach and then assess students for better collaboration: listening to others, providing reasons or evidence, sharing responsibilities equally, contributing to the project, and staying on task. Students were assessed on their content learning as well as on their improvement on those five positive group behaviors using a variety of methods including: teacher (librarian and library intern) observations, student surveys, student interviews, a project rubric, and tests on the content knowledge. …(click on the title to read more).
If you are interested in submitting your action research project to School Libraries in Action, please email Denice Adkins (adkinsde@missouri.edu). We will be happy to share author instructions and review your work!