Welcome to Web Tools for Schools!

My name is Franki Sibberson and I am a teacher-librarian in a K-5 school in Ohio. I am in my third year of this job.  Prior to becoming a teacher-librarian, I have 20+ years experience as an elementary teacher with experience in grades K-5. All of my work over the past 23 years has been in supporting students in their literacy development.  Recently, I had the opportunity to work on NCTE's focus group on 21st Century Literacies.  Our committee worked with NCTE's definition of 21st Century Literacies in order to create NCTE's Framework for 21st Century Literacies. This experience started my interest in the ways that the tools of technology are changing and expanding the ways we think about literacy.

Over the last few years, I have been playing around with lots of new tools and trying to learn about them myself.  I quickly found myself becoming more and more interested.  I have another blog (A Year of Reading) that I cowrite with Mary Lee Hahn. That blog focuses mostly on books and children's literature, but as we have both evolved as teachers, our blog has also evolved and I noticed I was thinking more and more about tech tools.After becoming a librarian, I looked hard for a Master's program that would support the kinds of things I was thinking about--one that matched my vision of what I was trying to create in our library. So, I am currently a student in University of Alberta's Teacher-Librarianship Distance Learning program and learning so much about the ways these tools can impact learning.

The purpose of this blog will be to focus on the way these new tools can be used in schools in authentic ways. I am excited by the new opportunities that new tools provide for student learning.  But, I also think it is a challenge as educators to make sure the tools are aligned with our beliefs and knowledge about the ways students learn.  This blog will be a space for me to share my own learning and thinking about the role of these tools in elementary schools.