January Newsletter: Education Program

The Gottesman Libraries Education Program informs students, faculty and staff about the latest thinking in education, in ways that engage members of the community with one another and with a broad range of educational experts. The program also provides understanding of work being done throughout the college.

Read more about offerings in January!

Tours

Welcome Spring Semester students! Please join us for a virtual tour of the Gottesman Libraries in which we'll highlight key services and resources available to you as you begin your studies and research at Teachers College. From workshops on topics of enduring relevance, to assistance through virtual reference and chat, to millions of scholarly works at your fingertips, we welcome you and wish you every continuing success in your educational journey.

Please rsvp with your details and we'll follow up with a link to the tour.

Tuesday, 1/12, 4-4:45pm

Wednesday, 1/13, 12-12:45pm

Thursday, 1/14, 11-11:45am

Friday, 1/15, 2-2:45pm

Workshops

Regularly scheduled instructional offerings include workshops, tours, orientations, and course-specific instruction in coordination with staff and faculty of the College.

New Student Orientation, Friday, 1/8, 4:15-4:45pm

Welcome new and returning students! Come join us for a helpful introduction to resources and services of the Gottesman Libraries. We'll focus on remote offerings and present numerous options as you begin the Spring Semester at Teachers College -- online support and chat; research consultation and workshops; sponsored events and activities of the Education Program; invaluable e-collections and digitalized materials; paging and pick up; digital delivery, and more.

This 30 minute workshop is co-sponsored by the Graduate Student Life and Development and includes a slide with highlights. Rsvp's may be directed to GSLD.

Research Basics, Thursday, 1/21, 2-3pm

As Scrabble is a word game where players build upon a board using letters, so is research a process in which you build upon concepts and ideas utilizing published literature on a topic or given topics. This workshop covers research basics, from using the catalog, to finding full text, through to mastering federated searches. We will cover research tools and strategies, including Boolean operators and tips and tricks to facilitate a successful search. In the process we'll illuminating the usefulness of different approaches while helping you discover what may work best for you!

Please rsvp in advance and we'll follow up with a link to the session.

A-Zotero, Wednesday, 1/27, 3-4pm

A-Zotero introduces you to citation management so you can manage your bibliographic references, an important part of the research process. Available as a Firefox plugin as well as a standalone version, providing browser extensions for Firefox, Chrome, and Safari, Zotero allows you to collect, organize, cite and share your research sources and enables the download, capture, and indexing of full text from PDFs and websites. 

Please rsvp with your details and we'll follow up with a link to the Zoom session.

News Displays

Need to keep current, look to the past, teach a topic? The Everett Cafe features daily postings of news from around the world, and also promotes awareness of historical events from an educational context. Be sure to check the Cafe News postings on the library blog.

Galileo Discovers Jupiter's Four Moons, Thursday, 1/7

Wikipedia Debuts, Friday, 1/15

Inauguration Day, Wednesday, 1/20

National Geographic Society Is Founded, Wednesday, 1/27

Book Displays

Staff Picks: Transfiguring Bilingual Education, January-February

Only in recent years has the focus of teaching bilingual students shifted from a reductive emphasis on making them proficient in English to a more comprehensive approach designed to help them flourish in both their languages. The term ‘emergent bilinguals’ brings the two languages into balance and assigns them equal value. This approach tries to reverse the harming effect that schools in the United States historically have had by viewing English as the all dominant lingua franca and not recognizing the importance of students’ native languages. This contemporary understanding incorporates multiple layers, considering cultural background, socioeconomic aspects, parent interaction and all factors that are part of the educational development of a child. The books selected in this collection have all been published in the last ten years and are based on this progressive approach. There is a spectrum of different focuses within this collection, although the fundamental subject is bilingual education for children. Some books specifically discuss strategies for engaging parents from diverse backgrounds, others look at the topic from a stance of applied linguistics, yet the goal of all is to provide ideas and methods to tailor the classroom experience to best meet the needs of bilingual students. The hope for this collection is that the books curated will be inspiring and helpful resources for educators at all levels. 

-- Clara Ruiz, Library Associate

Staff Picks is curated each month by the Gottesman Libraries' staff to highlight resources on educational topics and themes of special interest.

Everett Cafe:

Coming Together: Post Election, through mid-January

The 2020 huge and historic election records the highest number of popular votes; oldest person to win the presidency; and first woman and first woman of color elected as Vice President -- a remarkable achievement in a nation beset by deep political divisions; mounting civil unrest over racial injustices; continuing global pandemic; major economic downfalls; and serious climate issues on all levels -- physical, social, and emotional. Temperatures are running high, with Democrats celebrating the Biden-Harris victory, and Republicans alleging voter fraud, ignited by Trump's refusal to concede the election, as the world tunes in.

The United States is moving forward into a new year and new era, however we cast our votes, and it's fitting to take stock through reading and deeper conversation about the political process, meaning of democracy, and other influences shaping our health as a nation. Coming Together: Post Election invites us to reflect on this unprecedented time, while encouraging greater unity in the sharing of our concerns and challenges as educators and citizens, despite whatever political differences we may have.

Warping the Future, mid-January through February

This book collection is part of "Warping the Future", an interactive exhibition that explores the connection between the history of crafting and the history of computing. It displays books that fit within the themes of:

• History of weaving: touching on the art of craftsmanship, exploring societies that pioneered on this practice and how that shaped the materials and tools used, from the first weaving looms to the creation of the Jacquard Loom. 
• Women’s work: from Ada Lovelace to every woman that played a vital role in the field of computer science, paving the way to all technological advances nowadays.
• Computational algorithms and machine intelligence: how the history of weaving and the history of computing are interconnected, and how weaving patterns talk to programming languages. 

These books are primarily by women writers and artists and include a variety of formats such as historical, autobiography and conceptual pieces. Works are available for research and inspiration, some onsite, and most of them online at the Gottesman Libraries at Teachers College at Columbia University. 

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At the Everett News Cafe, you'll find a new book collection every few weeks that relates to current affairs, education, or learning environments.

Exhibit: Warping the Future, rescheduled for 2/11

Warping the Future: How Craft Led To the Digital World As We Know, is an interactive exhibition that explores the history of crafting and the history of computing. It is presented in three stations: "Humans as Machines" exploring the history of weaving by interacting with a variety of looms, including the backstrap loom, warp-weighted loom, tapestry loom, floor loom, and Jacquard loom; visitors will learn about the origin of weaving, how ancient societies used them and which materials they weaved with. "Humans Automating Machines" delves into the "punch card way" as the core intersection between programmed computers and looms; visitors are exposed to the origins of programming by learning the logic behind the punch cards. In "Machines as Humans", viewers can search for curated collection of projects that illustrate more contemporary connections between ancient and new technologies.

Francesca Rodriguez Sawaya is a Peruvian creative producer and educator based in Brooklyn, New York. Francesca is a Lead Teacher in NYC First where she develops curriculum, manage a Maker Space and teach STEAM related subjects to low income communities. Her workshops include Creativity Lab at Brooklyn Museum and Tangible Data in Ahmedabad, India. Francesca earned an MPS in Interactive Telecommunications from Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, a BA in Communication from the University of Lima, and a Diploma in Audiovisual Education from the University of Salamanca.

Renata de Carvalho Gaui is a Brazilian designer, artist, and creative technologist based in Brooklyn, New York. A "jill of all trades within art, design, and technology," Renata has engaged in numerous projects with positive educational impact, including Beyond Punch Cards, Weaving to Code, Coding to Weave; and The Art of Living, the 2018 Myers Fund Art Commission. She holds an MPS in Interactive Telecommunications from Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, and a BFA in Design and Digital Media from Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro.

The virtual exhibit uses augmented reality and launches February 11th; the physical exhibit, planned for Offit Gallery, Third Floor of the Library, will open in mid-March.

Guest talks with participating artists will be conducted Thursdays, 4-5pm via video conference on the following dates: February 4th, February 18th, and March 4th. More details are coming soon.

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Made possible by a trust founded by Colonel Eugene Myers, which funds art education initiatives at Teachers College, the Gottesman Libraries Art Commission has brought relevant art content to the patrons of the Gottesman Libraries for many years. The aim of the Gottesman Libraries Art Commission is to create art experiences in the library that present themes of education, learning, and libraries through innovative work. In the last few years an effort to incorporate interaction and technology has been made in order to expose audiences to ideas and methods that are not part of traditional educational curriculum.

Highlighted Databases: Art and Art Education

In January we highlight databases that offer research resources in art and art education to help prepare art educators, teacher educators, and leaders in visual arts education, as we support the building, conservation, and promotion of the library's art collections and initiatives. Read more on the library's news page.

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To request disability-related accommodations contact OASID at oasid@tc.edu, (212) 678-3689, or (646) 755-3144 video phone, as early as possible.