Uncategorized « BoyerBookends

It has Been awhile….. Sorry

September 28, 2024 2:38 am / Leave a comment

It has been a few years since we have updated and used this blog. It is time to return and use it. Best Wishes, TSB 9/27/24

Habit Forming

January 17, 2020 1:50 pm / Leave a comment

Barbara’s January thoughts about teaching children…

“To truly get better at learning, in or out of school, it is not about speed, but depth.” George Couros

“Drip by drip, day by day. Habits lead to commitments and commitments create learning.” by Seth Godwin. Falling behind vs. streaks

Forming habits is a popular topic in our culture of “pop-up”, “trending now”, and “Twitter” philosophy and politics. Both posts from the popular bloggers George Couros and Seth Godwin, speak to the importance of slowing down and practicing it right over and over and over again. Consider students’ need

of slowing down to get better at forming good habits. It is in the little things that create big differences. For example, our attention to cleaning up after an activity in class, or putting away equipment at recess, or cleaning the table (and below the table) in the dining hall, translates to remembering to take care of one-self and others. Slowing down to form good habits of self management (in the little things children CAN control) is critically important to developing a mindset of self care and independence for the ever increasing complexity of life as they grow older.

BWB

Time has been Flying

June 7, 2019 2:13 pm / Leave a comment

June 7- Time has flown as we look back at it. While we were in it, we were not so sure…. Well it is nearly done. Only 5 days of school left at SAS. We are finishing packing out of apartment and library. Completing up the last minute things such as phone, banking, wechat, twitter accounts and all the rest that one has to do when one moves on to a new job. We had our last library party yesterday with our staff and parent volunteers. Our parent volunteers have been the best. Their work in the library for the last many years provided us the opportunity to try many new things such as combining the HS and MS Fiction collections, “Generizing” the fiction collection, increasing our Chinese collection, and much more.

Below: The SAS Pudong Secondary Library Staff, Parent Volunteers, Students, and Friends – Thanks for a Great Last Library Bash!

SAS Library Family and Friends

For us, it has been a good, long run at SAS, but we are ready for a new chapter. A Big Thank You! to SAS Pudong for supporting us for the last 11 years. Both our children have graduated from SAS Pudong and moved back to the States for their education/jobs. The support received from SAS provided us great opportunities to follow our educational passions in areas of Library Networking in Shanghai and beyond, working with MS, ES, and HS robotics both at school and through out China, and developing our professional sides so that we are ready for the next challenge.

Our Next Chapter is AISR. We are AISR- Saudi Arabia bound. Barbara will be Assistant Principal in the Elementary School. Tim will be back in HS Science teaching IB Nature of Science courses and Robotics Courses. We are looking forward to the new and different challenges. Over the short summer ahead, we will do some retooling and updating of this blog space so we can better document our time ahead. Hope in time that this site will become what it always should have been, a place where we place our education thoughts, dreams, successes, and of course failures, because no matter what the level, we all learn best when we have a chance to learn from our failures.

So Best Wishes to all, BoyerBookends is Saudi Bound!

It has been awhile….

March 3, 2019 9:48 am / Leave a comment

From Tim Boyer – Mar 3, 2019

Sorry, it has been some time since we have put content up to this blog. It has been a full and eventful year so far for 2018-19. Lots of changes. The biggest change is that Barbara and I will be moving on from SAS Pudong to ASIR in Saudi Arabia. More later for this.

This year we have concentrated on the following:

Start of School – August 2018
Start of FLL Robotics at SAS – August 2018
Working with ACAMIS Robotics August 2018 – September 2018
FLL Workshop for the new “Into Orbit” Season
Getting New Jobs for next year – Attended GRC and Search.
We Got NEW JOBS! – Barbara will be Elem Vice Principal at AISR and Tim will be teaching HS with some Robotics Classes. We are excited about the return to Saudi Arabia for our next School Year and the opportunities it holds.
ACAMIS Technology Conference at WAB in Beijing October 2018
Working toward FLL Regional at CISS in Shanghai – in December
Working toward the FLL Final Tourney at SCIS in Feb 2019
Attending ACAMIS Leadership Conference at SCIS-PX Mar 2019 where we presented ACAMIS Robotics
Lots more to happen this year as we look forward to heading home for the Summer and being back in the North Carolina Mountains….

Working with NoodleTools with MS Leadership Conference Librarians

April 15, 2018 8:09 am / Leave a comment

Tim Boyer presented a workshop presentation on “Using noodletools to Support Student Research and Writing” at the EARCOS MS Leadership Conference on April 14th.

Presentation PDF can be found under the Presentation tab on this blog

TSBoyer NoodleTools EARCOS MS LC Pic

Headed to ECIS Library Triennial 2018

February 3, 2018 3:18 pm / Leave a comment

Barbara and Tim Boyer are headed to ECIS Library Triennial 2018 in Chennai, India Feb 16-17, 2018. We are looking forward to presenting on the topic “FIRST Robotics in the Library: Why Should a Librarian be Involved?“. We will be talking about how librarians can be instrumental assisting students further their work in robotics.

Our Presentation Description–With all the hype about makerspaces, how can robots in the library really be part of a library program? Learn about the international program of FIRST and how librarians can provide opportunities for students to be inspired in science and technology. The FIRST Lego League and the Junior program will be discussed in their connections to inquiry and authentic research skills. Students are judged on their ability to present their research in a creative format and citing your sources is key. Librarians can lead the way in bringing robotics to your school and the presenters can show you how! You do not need to know how to program a robot to start this program at your school.

We are working to upload presentation materials to this blog site.

Welcome Back to School SAS

August 6, 2017 11:23 am / Leave a comment

August 6th- Welcome back to School!. Monday new and returning teachers will pour into to SAS Pudong Campus to get the school year started. While new teachers and admin have been on campus for the last week, tomorrow everyone will be together for reunions and new beginnings as we get ready for students. On Aug 10th, the Secondary Library will have a table out with the rest of the various organizations to help new students and parents connect into school. Classes will begin on August 14th. While it is hot an humid outside in Shanghai, the Secondary Library’s air con is working so come and cool off in the library, checkout all the new books that came over the summer and let the library staff help you start your year off right with that perfect end of summer-start of school read.

Checkout the Library QR Codes below for quick access to important Library links.

See you real soon in the Library! (tsb-8/6/17)