Rambling Reflections

I have soooo enjoyed this assignment. To be honest, I was familiar with many of the activities that we did, but I appreciated the chance to remember the activities, AND to look at those activities from a new perspective... in the library, rather than just in my classroom. I think it might be fun to look back at all the activities and evaluate their usefulness, while setting some goals.

FLICKR- I really enjoyed this app. I especially enjoyed the fun ways to manipulate the pictures, without spending a lot of time and effort on editing. I strongly believe that many of us are visual learners, and the more visually attractive I can make my webpage, the more students will interact with my site.

WIKIS- Of all the things that we looked at, wikis are my least favorite. I absolutely see how it can be incredibly useful to a group of adults, in creating an active, vibrant page. As a librarian though, I find them hard to set up, and I would never allow students onto the site without screening any and all information. Besides, I am much more familiar with webpages, and prefer those. Having said all that though, I though the wiki worked very well for our class, and when we are done, I hope to have time to help build the other wiki page, with database links.

SKYPE- I really enjoy Skype, I have used it many times before. to be honest however, this is the tech thing that is most intimidating for me. The thought of approaching authors, running into tech troubles, dealing with sill questions from kids... it all makes me nervous! And yet, I recognize that those experiences would be so powerful for so many children. This will be at the top of my list to try, especially since it makes me so nervous.

MASH-UPS! Nothing but good times! I still feel like this little puppy, or rather, I wish I could sleep like this puppy! :)

DIIGO- Maybe I am not as tech savvy as I thought I was. I also am a little overwhelmed by Diigo, but this seems to be really cool and a great way for managing the internet... I need to practice with this and put it to use... I wonder if I could use it on my webpage...hmmm.

TECHNORATI- I think this would be great as a tool in a library. I wonder about placing it as a homework help. I am currently teaching a research paper, and I don't let my kids use blog entries. I seem to remember that there were blogs that are credible, so maybe that would make for an interesting lesson on website validity.

BLOGS: Such a great resource of information. I think they are great for giving feedback and reviews of books for students. And I also think they are excellent sources of information for me as a librarian. I love Google reader and the fact that I can get quick easy updates on new topics.

TWITTER: OK, this is the piece of social media that I would love to harness. I'm not sure that is possible because it is a two way street, and many people are not on twitter. However, I ADORE the short bursts of information! In my world right now, I don't have a ton of time to read about new information, or continually go to blogs or news stories, or whatever it is. Twitter allows me to get quick information, in tiny bites that allows me to decide if I want more or not. I also love the idea of using language in a powerful way... how do I get my message across in 140 characters? Who knows, but its gonna be fun! I hope to use twitter for scavenger hunts, book reviews, and many other fun uses! Wish me luck!

VIDEO: This is the one piece of tech that I am not quite sold on. I know from experience that it takes a TON of time to make a video. And especially as a teaching tool, I'm not convinced it is worth the effort. However, I think there are many great videos that are already made that I can utilize in my library. Our school librarian actually wants to make a composite video of book trailers and have that running continually in the library and I think that is an awesome idea. In one of the libraries I visited, the librarian makes a quick video from images of book covers, and runs that in his library. Both great ideas with minimal work... that's my idea of using video!

PODCASTS: I think this is a great example of collaboration. Working with an english teacher, this could be a great writing and speech activity. BINGO... collaboration achieved!

WORDLE: I love, love, love this! I already use it in my English classroom for book reviews. Another great example of reading and writing collaboration!

GOOGLE DOCS: Ok, this is probably my new favorite tool. I have an activity that I have been doing for years, while I teach the Holocaust. I give the students over 30 questions and have spent hours compiling the data. NOW, I can use a google survey and have the data compiled for me! AWESOME! I also can have students electronically upload assignments! DOUBLE AWESOME! So glad to have learned about this! :)


Really, I enjoyed this assignment so very much! There were other things I learned about, like Pinterest, QR codes and Library Thingy and I am sure there is so much more to know! Good times! I know I will be coming back to my blog to remind myself of all the cool things! LOVE IT!!

Google Docs

Wow! Google Docs could be my new favorite thing! I LOVE the survey form, especially since it coalates all the data for you! I do an activity in my class when we study the Holocaust, and I ask each student approximately 30 questions, and for years I have been compiling the information by hand. NO MORE! Next year, I will put the questions on a survey form and watch the miracle of my organized data unfold! Love it, love it, love it!

My survey questions focused on book series, and I asked people why they kept coming back to book series. I know that for myself, I have favorite authors and characters that I return to over and over again. With the exception of one person, all the other people responded that strong characters were the factor that brought them back to series, and I would have to agree. I sometimes find myself wondering what a character would be doing today, or how they solved a problem that was not answered in the book. I think that is the mark of a good writer, someone who can bring me back again and again.

My last question asked what their favorite series was, and I am excited to look up the series that I am unfamiliar with! Overall, I really loved this segment of our wiki assignment!

Question Question Question

Here is my survey, thanks for participating! :)

Wonderful Wordle

One of my favorite tech things of all time. Period. 

The Podcast Principle

Week 12: Thing 17

I haven't listened to many podcasts, which is funny, because I am an avid audiobook listener. Part of the reason is because I don't have a new ipod which will play the podcasts... that tells you how old my ipod is! Hahaha! I really found the slave narratives at the Library of Congress compelling. The gentleman that I listened to was the grandson of a man who was enslaved by Thomas Jefferson. As I listen to podcasts like those, I feel horror and fascination all at once. I really appreciated the fact that the LOC provides a transcript... that makes it much easier to find a compelling segment in a larger podcast to share with my students. The ability of technology to connect us to the past is really quite amazing.

The library podcast that I found is called The Fireside Chat. This is a podcast produced in Australia by teen readers, for teen readers. I listened to several podcasts and enjoyed them very much. The format was a little unexpected, because I expected to hear teens reading a script they had written in their English class. But rather, it was an interview format. The interviewer is very energetic and very kind and very good at drawing out the teenagers. Some of the "chatters" were very quiet and had to be drawn out, but the interviewer was very good at that. I really liked that format because it was good interaction. I think it would be fun to have a book review panel at a middle school to review books... if you could figure out a way to control the "talking over" that often happens with teenagers, it could be really fabulous! It would be fun to share those on the school website, or on the library website.

Tempted: a review by Tamara

Book Magic

Week 11: Thing 16

I really loved this video, it reminded me of the magic of libraries. I grew up in a relatively poor family, and the library was my escape. My mother used to take us there on hot summer days, and I would walk into the cool, air conditioned library, and immediately head into the stacks. I would walk the aisles and browse the shelves and collect books as I went. I have clear, vivd memories of checking out so many books at one time, that I could barely carry them out to the car. It became our weekly ritual.

I love the music and the art work, and the books that were picked to showcase. It intrigues me that I don't I know all the books that are in the video. In my mind, my library will be a place of magic, a place of fun, safety, excitement and most of all a place that loves, loves, LOVES books!

Twitter Nation

Week 9: Thing 15

I have some experience with Twitter, and really love the clever way that 140 characters forces people to write. To be truthful, Twitter is also full of idiotic information, but for the most part, I do appreciate it as a form of communication with parents, and patrons. I currently Twitter for my school, @ButlerMiddleUT,  my principal asked me to start after we lost power, and the phones went down, but all the teachers still had cell phones. We thought it would be a good way to keep in touch with parents in case of emergency.

I have my own Twitter account, @5guysnme,  but I just use it to follow other organizations, I never tweet about my personal life, that does not interest me.  Lastly, I just started a Twitter account to match my blog, @TheLibraryMama, as part of an assignment for JaDene's class. I thought it would be fun to start a Twitter campaign to get teachers to come to my library, so I embedded that account widget into my blog.

The downside of course, is actually getting people to follow your Twitter account. Currently, our school only has 50+ followers, but I find that it is a great way to send out reminders to the community. As a teacher, I appreciate the brevity of the messages sent, and so I think it would be a great way to give gentle reminders to the teachers at my school about the ways that the Library can help them!

Another great thing I use Twitter for is to get messages from Education groups and sites that can help me in my classroom. I follow groups like Discovery TV, Edutopia, ReadWriteThink, and Canyons School District. I find that is a great way to keep up with the latest and greatest, but it doesn't take a lot of my time.

I also think it would be REALLY fun to run Twitter scavenger hunts or contests in the library! But that would take some SERIOUS creativity and so I will put it on my list of things to do, when I am actually in a library!

Tweet on People!!!!

Blog Bonanza!

Week 8: Thing 14

I found some really great blogs using the Top 25 Librarian Blogs, and I added them to my Reader along with other blogs from our class!

Social Networking Librarian

I really enjoyed this blog, and I hope it will be very helpful! I am discovering that I am not very talented at  figuring out new ways to use new functions. For example, until I am comfortable with a new app, I continue to use it in the way that it was designed... I am not very good at thinking up new uses for existing apps or programs. Because of that, sites like this, that are full of new ideas are exactly what I need.

I especially liked the post about QR codes. I have no idea how to use those, and yet in the last 2 weeks I have seen at least 4 or 5 posts about using QR codes. So I found that very helpful.

I also liked the post on using Pinterest in the library. The post talks about using Pinterest to create visual lists showcasing the events, books and collections that you offer in your library. This also dovetailed nicely with an article I just found called 20 ways Libraries are using Pinterest right now.

Great blog!

Kiss The Book

This is the blog by Cindy Mitchell. I chose to highlight this blog because I like the books that she reviews for middle school aged kids. The other truth of the matter is that I teach in a very conservative community. I have looked at blogs like Reading Rants made by librarians in other parts of the country and sometimes the content they choose is too controversial for my students or my own children. I feel like Cindy Mitchell does a nice job at choosing books. I know that I will need help picking books for my library.

School Library 2.0

Week 7: Thing 12

I really enjoyed this article Library 2.0. We got to Skype with Bob Berkowitz from the Big6, and he argued that technology is just stuff and he is not required to teach that in the library. He said that IF the technology teaches something than that is great, but he argues that we should not be teaching technology just for technology's sake. I understand that viewpoint, and I worry about using tech, and losing the "thinking skills" in the pursuit of technology skills. And yet, I think learning will get to the point that technology MUST be used, and so my job as a librarian-teacher is to find technology that teaches THINKING skills, not just tech skills.

I loved this quote "Redefining the school library is not a response to some inherent failure on the part of the institution. It’s an opportunity for library professionals to engage in some exciting activities that will enable our institutions to remain effective in the midst of fast-moving technological change". I completely agree with this, and I believe that refusal to change or integrate, or even slow change will endanger our profession, AND the learning of our kids. 


For the most part, I loved the suggestions in this article, and I wanted to make a list of the great ideas that I could use in a library.

• Library Thing: suggests that this can be used to have struggling readers create a booklist and give feedback on the book, to help the teachers understand the relationship that struggling readers (or any readers) have with their books. This can help strengthen the teaching/learning interaction between student and teacher.
• Book Talk: This is REALLY cool, kids can phone in their reviews on books. TEACHING THOUGHT: students would need to write their reviews first... to insure learning and thinking.

This is an important point to remember, especially given my "struggle", questions and concerns with technology.

"On the face of it, we’re talking about using blogs and podcasts. The heart of the concept, though, is not about the tools, but rather the communities and the conversations that they make possible."

• "Library Powered" stickers instead of Intel Inside stickers. LOVE IT! (needs to be catchy though)

Final important quote:

"It’s all a part of helping students become literate users of information in order for them to have successful careers in school and beyond. Remember that for some students, a rich school library experience may be their only library experience. Let’s use every opportunity to help our students engage the joy of reading and the power of information."

Considering the article and the overwhelming nature of technology, I think it will be important as a librarian to set a few clear goals, in terms of collaboration or technology and the library, and then focus on choosing technology that will support those goals. If you want good readers, then choose tech that will support that, like blogs, or book talks or book trailers. If you want students to become literate and finding information, then you would use Diigo, Noodletools, Pioneer and Google Docs. If there are no clear goals, it will be difficult to sustain any effort in a long term manner.

Great article with great information and great ideas! :)

TechnoWHATi???

Week 7: Thing 11

I had never heard of Technorati, but it makes complete sense that a service like this would exist. The first thing that I found interesting was that most of the MomBlogs that I read are not at the top of any list I could find, which makes me question what happens to blogs that are not logged with Technorati? Is there a service that actually just ranks blogs, that are not registered? And what actually constitutes a blog... I saw that Huffington Post counts as a blog... really??? That seems so commercial and so not a blog.

So I found a couple of interesting things from Technorati. First of all, except for Huffington Post, I was only vaguely familiar with one or two other blogs. Second, I noticed that education was not one of the top categories that was listed. Then, even when I did a search on education, I found very few blogs that were actually on education in the sense of a school, the term education seems to be used in a very broad sense.  Once I did a search on "teachers" in blogs, that narrowed down my choices to blogs that I was more interested in. I also did a search on "edutech" in blogs, which had a nice turnout, but searching for "edutech" in posts, only produced 2 results.

I also noticed that the majority of blogs in the top 100, seemed to be on entertainment, gaming and politics. Sometimes when I do searches like this, I realize why the rest of the world thinks that we are mindless idiots. The things we pay attention to! Ugh! I wonder if we do that to alleviate stress from our actual lives... hmmm.

One last question... who decided that Technorati was an authority? :D

Diggin' Diigo

Week 7: Thing 10

Diigo sounds pretty cool, and a great way for managing internet information! To be honest, at this point it is a little bit overwhelming, but only because we have been learning about so many great tools, that it is hard to think about how to use them all! :D

Five Fab Ways to use Diigo

• The most obvious way is to teach kids how to use diigo when researching. I imagine that kids could use Diigo as their research tool, and then create another final product, whether that is a paper in Google Docs or a Prezi. I didn't actually sign up for Diigo, but I wonder if there is a way to manage all the sticky notes... they could substitute for "old school" notecards. That would be cool! :)
• Library promotion: what a great way to highlight information that would benefit all the teachers in school. Articles about new tech, great teaching practices, library functions and many other things could be included in, or become the Library newsletter!
• Diigo would be a phenomenal way to teach kids to interact with informational text! I imagine that you could do some great collaboration with science, english and history! 
• Think-Aloud: one technique for teaching reading is to model what you are doing as an interactive reader. The act of reading is very invisible, and struggling readers often don't realize how they are supposed to interact with the text. Diigo is a great tool to "model" a think-aloud for the students.
• BOOK CLUBS! Now, I am not sure about all the logistics, but wouldn't it be great to have an online book club that could make interactive comments with the text as they were reading along! That would be REALLY interesting... readers always react in different ways to different parts of the text!

MashUpMania!

Week 6: Thing 7

There is no personal experience behind this image, none whatsoever at all! 

Skype Me!

Week 5: Thing 6

I have actually used Skype before. My family lives in Hawaii, and it has been fun to hook up with the cousins! :) We also used skype this last summer when my son's best friend traveled to Paris for a month, and they were missing each other! What a fun experience that has been!

I enjoyed reading about the many ways to use Skype in the classroom. I even noticed that Skype has a page where teachers may post their Skype projects and request help from other Skype users. The other page that I thought was really helpful and insightful was the 50 ways to use Skype in the classroom.

During this whole assignment, one thought has been recurring for me. I am so surprised and impressed by the many ways that people utilize technology. I feel like a complete DIGITAL immigrant! :) I consider myself fairly tech literate. But I realize that I have no idea how to think creatively and out of the box with technology. As an example, I recently downloaded a book on our Ipad for my little 2 year old. I was so surprised to see that not only did it read to my son, but every other page was an interactive educational game. Really?? I had no idea Red Riding Hood could be educational.

On the Skype idea page, I saw the suggestion to use Skype to include a sick student who was unable to come to school. Wow! What a great idea! In my mind, Skype  was for author visits or talking to other classes. They also suggested that parents could skype with classes to see what their students were doing. Another great idea! I look forward to being in a library and having the flexibility to really incorporate and create unique learning opportunities!

Wiki Wonder?

Week 4: Thing 5

I watched the CommonCraft video on Wiki's, which I really enjoyed... that is a great series of videos! I keep wanting to use one of those in my own class. I love the combination of low tech and high tech in the videos.

Anyway, I found the video very helpful. I actually played around with a wiki, before I set up a class website, and I did not enjoy it. I did not really like the "look" of the wiki.. it is just not that inviting to me. But that is a really minor point. My biggest worry about wikis are that kids can post, and edit the page. I didn't feel as if the site was very protected, which may or may not be true, but it just made me nervous enough that I actually never opened it up to my students. So instead I just set up a webpage.

I spent sometime checking out many of the educational wikis that were showcased, and I can see how they would be helpful. One of the wikis that I saw was about teaching history. They had topics about AP classes, elementary classes, important people, US history and world history. I could see that it would be really helpful to many educators. I also thought it was cool to know that it initially started out as an activity for a university class and then expanded to include educators from all over the world.

I also looked at a few wikis that were created for school libraries, and I liked how they could set up online book clubs and book reviews that the students could participate in. I did notice that many of those pages though, had very little activity. I could not tell if that was because I was not a member, or if it was because it had not been maintained and supported. Either way, I thought it would be important for a visitor to the site to be able to see what was going on, because that would encourage them to join the wiki.

Even though I saw some cool things, wikis are still not as appealing to me as many other websites.
But thats OK, right? To each their own! :)

Picture This!

Week 3: Thing 4
I really enjoyed the Flickr experience! I got a little over excited and uploaded a bunch of my own pictures to Flickr, but it was fun. I chose to include this library photo.

OK, OK, so it is not really a library. But when I think of my ideal library, this is what I most often see in my mind, and this is what appeals to me the most, even in a school library. I LOVE the fact that all the books are facing forward! Yes, I know it is totally unrealistic, but it appeals to our visual natures! 99% of the time I pick up a book because of the cover. I only borrow the book if the story sounds apealing, but I always pick it up based on the cover. And the comfy chair... talk about Library Love!!

On a totally unrelated side note, I did this mash-up of my son before I realized that my picture had to be about a library... and since I am the Library Mama, I'm gonna include it anyway! :)

Seven 1/2

Wow, what a great set of habits! Some of these are familiar to me, others- not so much.


 "Begin with the end in mind"
 I struggle with this habit. Mostly because I often don't have the time to figure out the end before I actually have to get started on the project/assignment. I tend to live my life from one deadline to the next, out of necessity, and so I don't often have time to build the whole goal. I have learned to have a simple goal in mind, and then to be flexible in the final product, whatever that might be. I have learned that if I get too attached to the details of the picture in my head that it causes me a lot of stress. On the other hand, if I am open and flexible, I can adapt as I go, while still heading in the direction I want to go.

"Accept responsibility for your own learning"
I'm not sure entirely what this means. Does it mean that I am responsible to create learning opportunities for myself and follow through? Does it mean that I should be responsible enough to accept the consequences of my learning decisions? Does it mean both?


"View problems as challenges"
I am very good at this. One of my strongest self-labels is "problem-solver". I don't like to spend a lot of time whining, although I must admit, I make VERY GOOD USE of my whining time! :) But really, my first reaction to any problem is "What do we do next?" And when I work with my students or my own children, thats my first question... OK, what can we do about it? I spend a LOT of time thinking about solutions, whether it is with teaching, or organizing my house, or being a Mom. I am ALL ABOUT the solutions.

"Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner"
I also consider myself a competent and effective learner... unless of course it involves math. In that case, anything could happen!

"Create your own learning toolbox"
I am also a strong proponent of the toolbox. In my classroom, it is my stated to goal to send kids off to the next grade with a set of tools they can use in any classroom. For students, this includes outlining, flash cards, reading comprehension and many others. For me, my toolbox includes talking to team members or experts. It includes searching the internet for information that I need to solve my problems or complete my tasks. And it involves hard work and organization.

 "Use technology to your advantage"
In my school, I am considered as one of the teachers that can "do tech". I answer a lot of questions, and teach a lot of professional development classes. I also try to learn a new tech something and incorporate it into my class every year. This year I am learning to use clickers, Edmodo, my interactive whiteboard and NoodleTools. Funny thing happened this Christmas though... I went from being the tech person in my house to losing my spot... in the past 6 months my husband has acquired both a touch-screen phone and an Ipad. I, on the other hand, am still left with my Blackberry and a laptop. My 2 year old gets annoyed, because none of my screens will move for him, AND I don't have Angry Birds. I'm not enjoying my demotion! :)

"Teach/Mentor others"
I do this all the time. I do this for my 8th graders, for my school faculty, for my District, for my own kids. It's how I roll.

"Play"
I am horrible at this. ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE. I enjoy a good laugh, and I actually know that they are essential to my sanity. But, I am not good at playing. That's why I married my husband... he is genius at play, and my kids are grateful! :)