Please submit your name if you support the addition of a Futurists Interest Group (described below) to the Colorado Association of Libraries. Only CAL members are able to support this initiative by signing this online form.

Purpose

The Futurists Interest Group (FIG) would prepare CAL members to take advantage of tomorrow’s opportunities to vitally serve their communities.

Context

To address the rapidly changing world – technological, social, and otherwise, the Futurists Interest Group (FIG) would engage in future-focused content from a broad spectrum of fields and consider implications for libraries. The FIG would function as a think tank: tracking trends, addressing issues relevant to Colorado libraries, and sharing their knowledge with members and member organizations. This interest group would fill a gap because we have no other systematic strategies or consistently offerings to support CAL member in this arena.

FIG Strategies

• We will vigilantly track emerging trends across many sectors and disciplines.
• We will offer opportunities to library leaders and staff to embrace change through a mindset of proactive adaptation.
• We will develop scenarios, cast predictive frames, and provoke discussion to prepare libraries to be future-ready.
• We will provide opportunities to strengthen the future of libraries in Colorado through speakers, workshops, publications, and conference activities.

Hello Yes on 73 Steering Committee partners,

Colorado voters came out in record numbers this election. While we did not succeed in passing Amendment 73, we sent one, clear message: We need to invest in our students, our teachers, our schools and our communities.

I know -- and I hope you do, too -- that this has been an historic election for public education. And we couldn’t have done it without you:

• You helped us reach 112 endorsements from a group of diverse and inclusive organizations across the state
• You helped us get the support of over 120 school districts and/or BOCES  — covering almost 90% of Colorado students
• You wrote over 60,000 postcards to voters
• You knocked on nearly 120,000 doors
• You spent countless hours phoning and text banking literally hundreds of thousands of potential voters

Together, we have changed the conversation. We’re tremendously proud of the two-year, community-based, grassroots effort that put Amendment 73 on the ballot. Every time our coalition faced a hurdle, we persevered and became stronger. And we aren’t giving up on our goal to make sure every kid has the education and resources they deserve.Please sign up to keep informed as we move forward:

 Keep fighting ?

The fight for an equitable school funding system that provides for the needs of EVERY student is not about one night or one year. It’s a movement that will grow, broaden and deepen until we’ve made our vision a reality.

Together we’ve accomplished so much. Can you take a minute to make sure we can stay in touch?

 Stay in touch!

A sincere thank you for everything,

Eric Rothaus

Campaign Director

Yes on Amendment 73 - Great Schools, Thriving Communities · 2253 S Oneida St, Suite 202, Denver, CO 80224, United States 
This email was sent to anna@yesonamendment73.com. To stop receiving emails, click here. 
You can also keep up with YesOnAmendment73 on Twitter or Facebook.

K-12 Cross-Curricular Teaching in Health and Science, Yes You Can!

Collaborations aren’t always easy – they require clear communication, negotiation, shared vision, resources, and time. But the investment can pay off big, especially in the classroom. Over the years educators have learned that cross-curricular collaboration can lead to deeper learning providing the student with understanding, as well as knowledge and skills.

K-12 cross-curricular collaboration in the health and science content areas might seem daunting, if not impossible, but the National Library of Medicine (NLM) has created a wealth of resources to help teachers and school librarians accomplish this.  NLM learned from focus groups, discussions with teachers at conferences, and those who have collaborated with NLM that time is a premium and that any resources should meet the needs of students.

Teachers articulated a need for a reliable and safe places to go for content, plain language text to meet the varying student reading levels, and lessons plans that relate to concepts within their curriculum. In order to address these needs, NLM identified subject matter experts to create lesson plans, curricula, and activities rich with the right types of materials, in the right format, and at the right readability level.

NLM K-12 Resources

Educators from the disciplines of health education, history, literature, science, social studies, and technology collaborate with NLM to develop content and standards-aligned content. The free resources created from these collaborations address learning outcomes, as well as help students expand knowledge, cross-curricular literacy, and higher ordering thinking skills outlined in the K-12 Common Core Standards.

Lesson plans promote critical thinking and problem solving skills. Teachers can adapt all or parts of the lesson plans. Online activities engage students in problem solving and discovery-oriented tasks. Other resources assist in expanding a student’s understanding of the content. Many of the resources and databases can be used by students to further research in health and science topics. All come together to create an authentic learning opportunity in a project-based learning environment.

During a presentation of NLM exhibit resources at the 2017 Colorado Science Teacher’s Conference I asked participants to indicate which content areas they felt would align for collaboration based on the learning about the following five exhibits. Overwhelmingly, they saw potential to connect with exhibit with a majority of the content areas.

Cross-Curricular Teaching in Action

In 2015, the MCR covered a story about high school librarian Peggy Cummings, and her successful cross-collaboration with nearly every content area teacher at the school using the NLM “Every Necessary Care and Attention: George Washington and Medicine” exhibit. The exhibit explores the health and safety issues Washington faced in his personal, political, and military life. 

Teachers embraced Cummings enthusiasm and many took on the challenge to integrate the rich history of the exhibit into their curriculum, and together developed “Essential Questions” for various academic areas. Students were also enthusiastic about the cross-collaboration finding ways to creatively recreate a colonial experience through food, music, literature, and art.

Cummings pulled together resources for teachers to tie the exhibit into their class curriculum, for example comparing the modern day Ebola epidemic to Smallpox. Reflecting on elements that helped her program’s success, Cummings came up with a few tips:

• Have the backing of who’s in charge
• Have authority, there are a lot of nitty-gritty decisions you need to make
• Plan ahead
• Publicize ahead
• Learn as you go
• Ask for help and cooperation
• Pace yourself, it will take extra time
• Smile and enjoy

The NLM online exhibit program has a wealth of resources for cross-curricular collaboration. In addition, there are many other resources NLM has developed specifically for the health and science classroom that include great videos, games, activities and experiments for all ages.

Resources:

Environmental Health Student Portal (https://kidsenvirohealth.nlm.nih.gov/). Safe and useful resource for students and teachers in grades 6-8 to learn how the environment can impact our health. Explore topics such as water pollution, climate change, air pollution, and chemicals. VIDEOS, GAMES, EXPERIMENTS

K-12 Science and Health Education Resources (https://sis.nlm.nih.gov/outreach/k12.html). Free reliable resources to help introduce, reinforce, and supplement education programs.

K-12 Web Resources for Your Science Classroom PDF (https://sis.nlm.nih.gov/outreach/teachersflyer.pdf). Handy flier with resources for biology, chemistry, forensic science and medical technology, genetics, environmental health science, health careers, and how to evaluate health information tutorials.

NLM Exhibition Program Online Resources (https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/about/exhibition/education-resources-all.html). Find a variety of resources appropriate for elementary, middle and high school. Lesson plans and online activities make it easy to supplement and enhance the classroom experience as well as explore cross-curricular collaboration.

NLM K12 Science Education Twitter Feed (https://twitter.com/nlm_k12?lang=en). Follow @NLM_K12 for the latest news and information on authoritative, free resources to use in the classroom.

NLM’s Online Playground: K-12 Science and Health Education Resources Webinar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4SvTjrQPB4). This one-hour instructed webinar will introduce free K-12 resources from the National Library of Medicine (NLM). Resources span a variety of subjects including biology, health professions careers, environmental health, general health, and genetics. NLM's new interdisciplinary online exhibitions will also be featured.

Further Reading:

“Deeper Learning: Why Cross-Curricular Teaching is Essential” - https://www.edutopia.org/blog/cross-curricular-teaching-deeper-learning-ben-johnson

“Making Time for Cross-Curricular Collaboration” - http://blog.thinkcerca.com/making-time-for-cross-curricular-collaboration

“What are the benefits for teaching and learning of cross-curricular work using thinking skills, techniques and language?” - https://goo.gl/xvgqTr

-D. Abbey, NNLM Colorado/Community Engagement Coordinator

This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine, under cooperative agreement number UG4LM012344 with the University of Utah Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library.

CASL & CAL Say Yes to Amendment 73

Have you heard the news? Every senate district across the state recently submitted signatures to the Colorado Secretary of State's office to officially place Initiative 93, also referred to as the Great Schools Thriving Communities Ballot Initiative and now officially known as Amendment 73, is on the 2018 ballot! 

Amendment 73 will raise $1.6 billion a year in additional revenue for Colorado's public schools. It does not mandate how those funds are spent so that local school districts get to decide where resources are most needed. This means that school districts could potentially choose to use these additional funds to help pay for school libraries and school librarians. As Buffalo School Superintendent Rob Sanders points out, "It isn't a one-size-fits-all solution. It recognizes the values and priorities of unique communities across the state." 

Colorado Association of School Libraries, in conjunction with the Colorado Association of Libraries, formally endorses Amendment 73. We ask for your support, as members of CAL, to help spread the word about this Amendment. We encourage you to do your research and read up on the Amendment. Here are two great resources to educate yourself:

The Great Schools Thriving Communities website at www.greatschoolsthrivingcommunities.org
Read the Colorado Association of School Boards Q&A on Amendment 73 at www.casb.org/Page/709