School librarians are currently exploring the use of computer simulations to teach information skills. Many school librarians are using an innovative, computer simulation platform entitled School Library Sims Laboratory. School Library Sims Laboratory is a three-dimensional, computer simulation platform for information skills development (grades 1-8). Within volume 1 of the School Library Sims Laboratory platform, first and second grade students learn information skills as they complete simulated life science activities. This book guides school librarians through the effective implementation of simulations. This book serves as the only official source for lesson plans, simulation guides and handouts designed for the simulations that teach grades 1-2 information skills within life science content. For each learning simulation, the author presents quick-start lesson plans, simulation walkthroughs and SimDocs. The quick-start lesson plans provide school librarians with a concise overview of the learning simulations. The simulation walkthroughs are detail articulations of the learning simulations. The walkthroughs allow school librarians to gain a detail understanding of the simulations without playing them. SimDocs are learning and assessment documents that accompany each simulation. Much of the learning and assessment activity occurs within the simulations; however, SimDocs ensure that school librarians have the opportunity to evaluate and record key moments of student learning.

This book considers the diffusion and transfer of educational ideas through local and transcontinental networks within and across five socio-political spaces. The authors examine the social, political, and historical preconditions for the transfer of “new education” theory and practices in each period, place, and school, along with the networks of ideas and experts that supported this. The authors use historical methods to examine the schools and to pursue the story of the circulation of new ideas in education. In particular, chapters investigate how educational ideas develop within contexts, travel across boundaries, and are adapted in new contexts.

More than just a compendium of management theories, this book provides much food for thought that will help readers gain important insights into their own roles as school library managers and leaders.

Curriculum Materials Collections and Centers: Legacies from the Past, Visions of the Future captures the evolution of the education collections and services integral to teacher preparation. Edited by Rita Kohrman, education resources librarian at Grand Valley State University, the book provides practical applications for curriculum material center (CMC) operations that focus on the fundamental needs of students, faculty, and current teachers.