Jean Darnell: Awaken Librarian!

Welcome to my Back-to-School Leadership and Advocacy post! I am super excited to present to you some ways to get your students involved in the censorship battles across America. This post is written in conjunction with the wonderful Da'Taeveyon Daniels, winner of the Sam G. Whitten Award for Intellectual Freedom this past year at the 2024 Texas Library Association Annual Conference: Here's a bonus for you, Da'Taeveyon has written a Top 5 List for Student Advocacy to educate and elevate student voices in leadership. As student activists, advocates, organizers, and storytellers, we play a crucial role in shaping the future of our communities and our country. If you're just starting in student advocacy, especially in the fight against book bans, here are five essential tips to help you take a leadership role and inspire action. 1. Educate Yourself and Others Knowledge is power. Start by understanding the issues at hand—why are books being banned, who is aff

Whew! In less than 2 weeks, I will begin enjoying my much deserved SUMMER BREAK! My website will be on hiatus, unless something EXTRAORDINARY happens! But before I go, I want to share how we will prevent the "summer slide" in reading. Please check out Beanstack , as my district will use this to track our summer reading goals. There are more details located in this newsletter below: Summer Send-Off Newsletter by Jean Darnell

Well, well, well...it seems my friends in Canada appreciate me. 😂 In all seriousness though, THANK YOU to the Mitch and Leslie Frazer School of Education for Ontario Tech University for the opportunity to present to their faculty and students via their AI in Education Conference last night. It was a wonderful opportunity to engage the viewing audience on how I incorporated "investigative journalism" into understanding and creating AI policies. In case you missed the opportunity, here's a video recap: And because I love my viewing audience, here's a copy of my slides presentation: P.S. If you enjoyed this video, then please reach out to me via email or my LinkTree information in the upper left corner, just below my picture. You'll also find my prices for consultant work . I'd be happy to coach your campus or staff on incorporating AI into your educational systems. I'm ready to share the knowledge and my expertise at making learning fun and

If you attended our Texas Library Association's Decloaking Wakanda: Creating Space for BIPOC Nerds, then here's our collaboration Wakelet for creating "comic themed ideas" in your library. This QR code will take you to the Wakelet to add your information. And because I'm an AI nerd, please take a look at this Microsoft Image Generator in the style of Black Panther's Wakanda! Here are my beloved results: OR...do you perfer me as Black Panther in Charlie Brown style??😂 Regardless, here's a free bookmark! Decloaking Wakanda Bkmark by Jean Darnell We began with a "Wakanda Forever" salute, and we must end with a new addtion: #TXLA24 Wakanda Forever Salute!!! WAKANDA FOREVER!!! via GIPHY P.S. Please give my son some love because he etched out this picture of Black Panther (still in progress) for art class and I think he's doing a fine job! 🥰

Hey Y'all, We made it to April! I promise that this newsletter is less ADVOCACY and more light-hearted fun compared to last year's newsletter . The content is still relevant, so please take a look. I've had a busy year advocating for libraries as the 2023-24 Intellectual Freedom Chairperson. Plus, I've invested in myself this year, regarding teaching other educators how to EMBRACE and ELICIT some of the traits of Artificial Intelligence (AI) . I'll be presenting at the end of the month in Ontario, CA about the wonders of AI and how educators can use it to an advantage in their classrooms. In doing my research, I found these statistics alarming: This data tells me that I have A LOT of work to do in order to bring folks into the "Age of AI Enlightenment!" Stay tuned...😅 Until then, please enjoy this newletter below, click here , if you prefer the PDF. April 2024 School Librarian by Jean Darnell P.S. I just recently learned this AI D

Hey y'all. I've done some digging into our internet behaviors and how AI is learning our behavior online. Introducing Online Disinhibition Effect (ODE) , which in a nutshell is how differently we behave ONLINE versus IN REAL LIFE. Here's a more formal definition . Or you can watch the video below, as it's quite informative. Have you ever said something to a stranger online that you wouldn’t IRL? It could be because of the Online Disinhibition Effect. Find out more in this lesson + #AbovetheNoise video by @KQEDedspace for 11th graders. https://t.co/YxIa7jjiDB #K12 #digcit pic.twitter.com/o4z5xFYUEi — Common Sense Education (@CommonSenseEd) September 11, 2019 Part of my role as a librarian is to offer resources and lesson ideas as it relates to digital citizenship and online behaviors. This is the reason why I chose ODE to investigate. Online coversations are different from direct, face-to-face conversation in the following ways: 1. You can SEE each other