http://metcalf.intand.com/index.php?type=reports&action=show&id=27
So after our last class and hearing the rave reviews about Diigo, I decided to use this as my last tech entry. The above link is something I used Diigo to bookmark-it's personal, but it worked.
I really struggled to use this at first because I was using my iPad. In the library I carry my iPad a lot throughout the day, so I thought it would be a great app to have and use. Initially I struggled to get the web highlighter to upload which was REALLY frustrating!! After what seemed like a million tries to get the highlighter to work in my safari browser, I finally had to ask my husband to help me-that part was annoying!!!
From the iPad app standpoint I think it was really hard to get Diigo ready to use. There are directions but they are not (in my opinion) easy to follow. As a user, you cannot keep the directions on the screen while following the steps-now maybe it's just me (and I readily admit to this as user error!), but it was frustrating when I could not get the app to work. Once I got it up and going, I used Diigo to do bookmarking for a few personal things like the above link to my daughter's volleyball schedule. I also bookmarked ABC Family's Christmas t.v. schedule as well.
As a resource I can see how this will be useful when I am exploring blogs, reviews, and other online information for the library. I do not understand when I will use the highlighter function so I would like to explore that further. I also am struggling to figure out how to use Diigo on my MacBook so I am planning on devoting more time to this as well. I just don't think it is as easy to use as Evernote and Pinterest.
Will I use it regularly? I'm not sure. I don't really care for Diigo as much as other tools as I said above, but I know that my fellow classmates love it-maybe I am doing it wrong?
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Sunday, November 11, 2012
The Unquiet Librarian-Reading Journal
http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com
This week I landed on the blog called The Unquiet Librarian which is written by Buffy Hamilton-a librarian in Georgia. I chose this blog to explore because I liked the name-it is catchy and intriguing. I needed something fun to explore.
I did a lot of exploring on this blog. I read an article about choosing an eBook platform for the K-12 school library, explored personal information, an article about a library on wheels, and then I stumbled on slides from a recent presentation that Buffy did as a keynote speaker at a conference in North Carolina. The power point was AMAZING!! While I am sure it was much cooler to actually hear her present with the slides, I still learned a lot from the presentation and was able to make connections with recent discussions from our own class.
The resource was good. I enjoyed the library on wheels article (something that we could incorporate with our 5-8th grade students at study hall time so that they have an opportunity to get books!!) and I REALLY enjoyed the presentation that I found. I did not care for some of the guest posts-they did not apply to my age of student and were not as interesting as other articles I read. The site is user friendly-although there were a few dead links that need to be fixed. I will return to this blog and will also be passing it on to the 7th and 8th grade team at our school. I want to share the power point presentation slides because the presentation touches on standards based grading which is being utilized in our building. I know that these teachers are looking for supportive evidence that they can use to share with parents as our building transitions to a new style of grading, and this information would be most helpful to them. I will also be creating a "pitch" in regards to a library on wheels for study hall times. I'm not sure how that would really work, but I think it is a cool idea and one that I will be pursuing. I am going to add Buffy to my RSS feed so that I can continue to follow her.
I learned a lot from the content on this blog. As I shared above, I learned how easy it would be to put books on a book truck and wheel down to a study hall room where kids are under utilizing their time. Since we do not see the 7th and 8th grade students for fixed library times, I think this would be a cool way to stay in contact with the students, present them with an opportunity to check out books, and could encourage those readers that are slipping away to grab a selection and try something new. I also took notes on the presentation that I've been writing about in my entry. Buffy has so much information that is applicable and immediate that I will be going back to review this entry again. I took notes on the idea of enchantment and how it is the sustained voluntary delight that is mutually beneficial-if the students are enchanted with reading/research/what they are learning, then they see the benefit of learning, engaging, etc. I noted Buffy's ideas that relationships are the cornerstone of libraries and that the library is the shared story of the human experience. I thought a lot about our last class and how technology is a piece of this human experience-but not the overall arching role that is played in a school library. This led into a section that I took notes on regarding participatory learning. Buffy took this idea of learning and noted that school librarians can be the "catalyst to spark larger change in a learning ecosystem:-how cool is that? I could go on and on with all that I learned! It is worth a peek! I am going to do more research on the idea of participatory learning, engaging students, and the role of the librarian as the catalyst but looking at the blogs of R. David Lankes and Henry Jenkins. Both of these men were on individual slides and as I read the entries that Buffy had posted, I realized that taking the time to read these would be worth it.
Even though Buffy is a high school librarian, the information shared on her site is applicable to all grade levels. I really learned a lot-more so than any previous blog that I have visited. The information here got my brain working and wondering-how we can make our school library better? How I can become more involved with my school's ecosystem? What can I do to create that sense of enchantment within our students?
Definitely good stuff here!
This week I landed on the blog called The Unquiet Librarian which is written by Buffy Hamilton-a librarian in Georgia. I chose this blog to explore because I liked the name-it is catchy and intriguing. I needed something fun to explore.
I did a lot of exploring on this blog. I read an article about choosing an eBook platform for the K-12 school library, explored personal information, an article about a library on wheels, and then I stumbled on slides from a recent presentation that Buffy did as a keynote speaker at a conference in North Carolina. The power point was AMAZING!! While I am sure it was much cooler to actually hear her present with the slides, I still learned a lot from the presentation and was able to make connections with recent discussions from our own class.
The resource was good. I enjoyed the library on wheels article (something that we could incorporate with our 5-8th grade students at study hall time so that they have an opportunity to get books!!) and I REALLY enjoyed the presentation that I found. I did not care for some of the guest posts-they did not apply to my age of student and were not as interesting as other articles I read. The site is user friendly-although there were a few dead links that need to be fixed. I will return to this blog and will also be passing it on to the 7th and 8th grade team at our school. I want to share the power point presentation slides because the presentation touches on standards based grading which is being utilized in our building. I know that these teachers are looking for supportive evidence that they can use to share with parents as our building transitions to a new style of grading, and this information would be most helpful to them. I will also be creating a "pitch" in regards to a library on wheels for study hall times. I'm not sure how that would really work, but I think it is a cool idea and one that I will be pursuing. I am going to add Buffy to my RSS feed so that I can continue to follow her.
I learned a lot from the content on this blog. As I shared above, I learned how easy it would be to put books on a book truck and wheel down to a study hall room where kids are under utilizing their time. Since we do not see the 7th and 8th grade students for fixed library times, I think this would be a cool way to stay in contact with the students, present them with an opportunity to check out books, and could encourage those readers that are slipping away to grab a selection and try something new. I also took notes on the presentation that I've been writing about in my entry. Buffy has so much information that is applicable and immediate that I will be going back to review this entry again. I took notes on the idea of enchantment and how it is the sustained voluntary delight that is mutually beneficial-if the students are enchanted with reading/research/what they are learning, then they see the benefit of learning, engaging, etc. I noted Buffy's ideas that relationships are the cornerstone of libraries and that the library is the shared story of the human experience. I thought a lot about our last class and how technology is a piece of this human experience-but not the overall arching role that is played in a school library. This led into a section that I took notes on regarding participatory learning. Buffy took this idea of learning and noted that school librarians can be the "catalyst to spark larger change in a learning ecosystem:-how cool is that? I could go on and on with all that I learned! It is worth a peek! I am going to do more research on the idea of participatory learning, engaging students, and the role of the librarian as the catalyst but looking at the blogs of R. David Lankes and Henry Jenkins. Both of these men were on individual slides and as I read the entries that Buffy had posted, I realized that taking the time to read these would be worth it.
Even though Buffy is a high school librarian, the information shared on her site is applicable to all grade levels. I really learned a lot-more so than any previous blog that I have visited. The information here got my brain working and wondering-how we can make our school library better? How I can become more involved with my school's ecosystem? What can I do to create that sense of enchantment within our students?
Definitely good stuff here!
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWEekO4ufwM&feature=related
Alright. I should probably be ashamed to admit this, but here goes. I honestly have never gone to YouTube to...well just go. Sure I have gone to upload my Faces of a Librarian project; and yes I went to see an uploaded video of my daughter being serenaded by seventh graders last year-but I always thought it was..hmmm....a waste. A bunch of weird, inappropriate people who were posting stupid videos of stupid stuff.
So for my technology posting this week, I decided to put myself out there and visit YouTube to see what it was really about. Why did I choose this optional tool? Because as I stated above, it's about time to check this out. Would it have value beyond my prejudicial mindset? Or was I pretty spot on with my assumptions?
From an entertainment standpoint, sure I liked it. Seeing Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake do the history of rap on late night TV was fine by me. Did I like all of the other links that popped up on the right hand side? Did I appreciate the sexual innuendo and profanity that were shown in the comments directly under the video? Not so much since my kids were sitting by me when I went on the site. The search tool was a good way to quickly find videos that I could view. But again, even when I searched "innocent" videos like animals, babies, etc. there were still vulgar comments and images that came up. I'm sure that doesn't happen every time, but it seemed like it did happen a lot-which is one of the reasons why I haven't really made YouTube a habit.
From an educators point of view I was still skeptical until I used the search bar. I found a really cool video for Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus (the above link) that I will be using with the preschoolers that I work with. I also found a cool Will-I-Am video with Sesame Street characters that I will use as well. I also know that my colleague has used YouTube when showing informational videos on Olympic athletes and history.
The site is user friendly. I didn't see any tutorials but also didn't need one. I will go back and explore more videos using the search option-but I am not sure I feel comfortable letting my own kids just search the site without supervision. I do think that my original opinion is still pretty spot on-it isn't that I think the entire site is "bad", I just think it stinks that so many inappropriate images and language pop up.
I will use YouTube with my students in a very controlled way. I will seek out the videos that I think are applicable to my classes and then have them ready to show prior to class. I know that my colleague has done this very think with her students and it has been successful. I think that YouTube does have value but still think it is disappointing that there are such obvious ways that kids can read inappropriate language (even under the Will-I-Am clip there were comments using profanity), see images that are unnecessary, etc. when innocently searching.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
School Library Monthly
For this reading journal, I chose to read the paper version of School Library Monthly (Volume 28 Number 6 March 2012).
The librarian that I work with has several back issues of this magazine that she has put out for us both to read and discuss-I love that aspect of reading and then talking about what I like and what she likes.
I read the entire magazine in two sittings. The first part of the magazine did not hold my attention as well as SLJ or the Horn book. The month I read had articles such as Lesson Study for School Librarians, Using Web 2.0 Tools with Young Researchers (something that my colleague does with 3rd-6th graders frequently), an already outdated review for the Nook Color, A School Library Work Plan, and my favorite-Hosting a Family Read-In. There were also book reviews that included a "spark" addition where teaching tips and/or books to partner the selection with were included.
This magazine as a resource does not rank as high for me as those I have previously reviewed. While reading the articles I just didn't feel that spark of excitement that I have felt with the other journals/blogs that I have enjoyed. What struck me with this resource is that today (October 2012) there were articles that were already outdated. The article on the Nook Color was already old-new technology has taken its place. How interesting that if a library would have purchased this device for student usage to see that there are newer tools that have been produced a mere 7 months later. I did enjoy the article on being a story teller and loved the hosting a family read-in article. If I had the opportunity, I would absolutely offer that type of program for our students and their family members.
I did learn some interesting information from the content in the article entitled: A School Library Work Plan. The author of this article suggests using the word "pilot" when presenting strategies/programs/or an innovation in the library. This article encouraged the administrator/librarian relationship due to the lack of exposure pre-service principals have in their coursework. This article gave tips on creating a plan to best use your time as a librarian and broke it down into educational and instructional roles. It was a concise article that was very helpful in the management of the library as a whole. I also enjoyed the content of the family read-in article. I am always so excited to work with others in educating them about our library! I enjoy having parents come in and see what we are doing with their kids during the school day-how cool would it be to have a read-in as an evening activity!! While this article seemed to be for older kids, I would like to dig deeper and see if there are schools that have done something similar with lower grade students. Maybe even pursue this idea and make a "bedtime" story night at our library? It would be a lot of fun-pull a bunch of "quieter" selections and have families come in to enjoy some stories. Or just pull books and read at their leisure.
Overall I would not subscribe to this magazine. While I am sure it is suited for many, I did not find it to be as engaging, or as exciting as other materials I have seen. The reviews were not as detailed or as helpful as those in SLJ and the articles were no better than those I have seen in SLJ either-if I had to purchase one as a professional development tool, it would be SLJ over SLM.
The librarian that I work with has several back issues of this magazine that she has put out for us both to read and discuss-I love that aspect of reading and then talking about what I like and what she likes.
I read the entire magazine in two sittings. The first part of the magazine did not hold my attention as well as SLJ or the Horn book. The month I read had articles such as Lesson Study for School Librarians, Using Web 2.0 Tools with Young Researchers (something that my colleague does with 3rd-6th graders frequently), an already outdated review for the Nook Color, A School Library Work Plan, and my favorite-Hosting a Family Read-In. There were also book reviews that included a "spark" addition where teaching tips and/or books to partner the selection with were included.
This magazine as a resource does not rank as high for me as those I have previously reviewed. While reading the articles I just didn't feel that spark of excitement that I have felt with the other journals/blogs that I have enjoyed. What struck me with this resource is that today (October 2012) there were articles that were already outdated. The article on the Nook Color was already old-new technology has taken its place. How interesting that if a library would have purchased this device for student usage to see that there are newer tools that have been produced a mere 7 months later. I did enjoy the article on being a story teller and loved the hosting a family read-in article. If I had the opportunity, I would absolutely offer that type of program for our students and their family members.
I did learn some interesting information from the content in the article entitled: A School Library Work Plan. The author of this article suggests using the word "pilot" when presenting strategies/programs/or an innovation in the library. This article encouraged the administrator/librarian relationship due to the lack of exposure pre-service principals have in their coursework. This article gave tips on creating a plan to best use your time as a librarian and broke it down into educational and instructional roles. It was a concise article that was very helpful in the management of the library as a whole. I also enjoyed the content of the family read-in article. I am always so excited to work with others in educating them about our library! I enjoy having parents come in and see what we are doing with their kids during the school day-how cool would it be to have a read-in as an evening activity!! While this article seemed to be for older kids, I would like to dig deeper and see if there are schools that have done something similar with lower grade students. Maybe even pursue this idea and make a "bedtime" story night at our library? It would be a lot of fun-pull a bunch of "quieter" selections and have families come in to enjoy some stories. Or just pull books and read at their leisure.
Overall I would not subscribe to this magazine. While I am sure it is suited for many, I did not find it to be as engaging, or as exciting as other materials I have seen. The reviews were not as detailed or as helpful as those in SLJ and the articles were no better than those I have seen in SLJ either-if I had to purchase one as a professional development tool, it would be SLJ over SLM.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Wikispaces
For my tech journal entry this week, I chose to explore wikispaces. I chose this particular tool because even though it is required, it just so happens that I heard several teachers talking about their "wiki's" this week and I was intrigued.
Initially when I went to the site I wasn't impressed-it was okay. But then I signed up for the educational wikispace and was pleasantly surprised!! I REALLY like how it (by choice) walks the user through the set up. For someone like me who isn't confident in technology use, it was an easy way to get my wiki set up!!
While you will only find my rough set up at the above link, what was cool was how easy it was to get this wiki up and going. The tutorial literally walked me through everything.
For fear of sounding stupid, I will admit that I am not sure how I am to use this exactly. Yes I see that you can collaborate with this site, but I am still feel unsure-so this would be what I need to research more. Would this be a way to plan our literacy lesson if I had to work with a colleague that was outside of my building? Something to think about. I know that in the past, our jr. high teachers used a wiki to house curriculum content, homework assignments, updates, etc and it worked nicely for the parent/student/teacher communication.
I definitely used the start up tutorial and will go back and view the additional sources as well. I think the online support is very helpful, and I like how there is a tool bar in the upper right hand corner that is easily accessible.
I think I would use this tool if doing a collaborative unit with a teacher on something like informational literacy. It could also be used to collaborate with a librarian at a different school on a variety of topics like the Monarch Awards-maybe a few school librarians could track the favorite book for their school and then see what a multi-school vote would be? My question still is can this be used like a blog? I don't think the purpose is to be used to simply update or present information-again, this is something I need to explore.
The visual part of me does like how there is choice for background color, font style and layout.
I think overall I prefer the Weebly over the wikispace-but again I am thinking that they are to be used for two different types of communication. I can see that I need to familiarize myself deeper with the wikispace.
Using these different technologies has been helpful-especially since there are so many that I am totally unfamiliar with!!
Sunday, October 14, 2012
The Jackpot-or Horn Book Online (Reading Journal)
http://hbook.com
For this week, I chose to look at the Horn Book (online version) and was NOT disappointed!!! Let me begin by saying that this is my favorite resource that I have looked at so far. This resource has been created to provide parents, teachers, and librarians (public and school) with recommendations for good children's and YA literature (their mission statement). I chose it because it was on the list and had been discussed in class-it sounded interesting.
I spent a lot of time browsing this site! I read information on choosing books which included reviews and author's questions; using books for libraries (this focused on public libraries but was still full of excellent information!); under creating books I watched the making of the Freight Train app (super cool!); and under the interview tab I selected 5 Questions with Roz Chast to preview.
My favorite articles were: What makes a good dystopian novel? And the making the Freight Train app. All of the articles I read were VERY helpful-there are a variety of book reviews, app reviews, and ideas for instruction. I enjoyed the author interviews and the publishing section as well. There was nothing on this site that appeared to be useless or lacking. It is very practical and I have bookmarked it to use in the future. I will absolutely use this with my students when it comes to purchasing, reviews, and educating myself.
I REALLY needed to read the article on dystopian literature. Right now I am struggling with YA fiction and this was excellent!! The article defined what dystopian literature is, the four criteria of what makes a good dystopian book, and then gave book reviews on good books. Reading this one article gave me the structure and a background knowledge of a genre that I don't know much about. I can take this knowledge and immediately apply it in our library-I like being able to use information NOW. I will continue to use this resource when I have questions, or just to keep up on what is out there. I also like how Horn Books has a clear mission and their entire site upholds their statement. I will continue to come back to this site and actually liked it more than School Library Journal.
For this week, I chose to look at the Horn Book (online version) and was NOT disappointed!!! Let me begin by saying that this is my favorite resource that I have looked at so far. This resource has been created to provide parents, teachers, and librarians (public and school) with recommendations for good children's and YA literature (their mission statement). I chose it because it was on the list and had been discussed in class-it sounded interesting.
I spent a lot of time browsing this site! I read information on choosing books which included reviews and author's questions; using books for libraries (this focused on public libraries but was still full of excellent information!); under creating books I watched the making of the Freight Train app (super cool!); and under the interview tab I selected 5 Questions with Roz Chast to preview.
My favorite articles were: What makes a good dystopian novel? And the making the Freight Train app. All of the articles I read were VERY helpful-there are a variety of book reviews, app reviews, and ideas for instruction. I enjoyed the author interviews and the publishing section as well. There was nothing on this site that appeared to be useless or lacking. It is very practical and I have bookmarked it to use in the future. I will absolutely use this with my students when it comes to purchasing, reviews, and educating myself.
I REALLY needed to read the article on dystopian literature. Right now I am struggling with YA fiction and this was excellent!! The article defined what dystopian literature is, the four criteria of what makes a good dystopian book, and then gave book reviews on good books. Reading this one article gave me the structure and a background knowledge of a genre that I don't know much about. I can take this knowledge and immediately apply it in our library-I like being able to use information NOW. I will continue to use this resource when I have questions, or just to keep up on what is out there. I also like how Horn Books has a clear mission and their entire site upholds their statement. I will continue to come back to this site and actually liked it more than School Library Journal.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Weebly (Technology Journal Entry)
http://www.weebly.com/weebly/main.php
This week I decided to kill two homework birds with one adventure-taking a look at Weebly. Above is the link for my professional portfolio that is only in the initial stages of completion-i.e., I had no idea what I was doing and just played around!
I chose this tool because I had no idea what Weebly was and thought I would check it out. Honestly, I liked the name-it sounds cute.
I liked the following about this tool: the tutorial options is awesome-it is helpful to get started, it is relatively user friendly (see my dislikes), and it has a lot of design options. I used their free stock pictures to play around with my heading graphics and they are decent. I will probably upload some better pictures as I realize this is a professional portfolio-although the Mr. Potato Head does make me smile.
I did not like the lack of direction once you get past the initial "home" page. I had no idea how to create the tabs on my site for my project-i.e. I didn't get how someone would click to get to my resume or professional philosophy. I did play around and figured it out, and maybe I am missing additional tutorials, but it was a bit confusing to get started. I currently also cannot figure out how to change the text font-I realize it isn't a big deal, but as I have shared before-this makes a difference to me! If people are going to be looking at this, I want it to look really good.
I could not figure out how to change the text font and will return to explore this as well as adding additional graphics to the page. I have some images from Pinterest that I would prefer to use so I will take the time to figure that out. I did enjoy the ease of getting started-again I do think that Weebly is user friendly overall. I did appreciate the initial tutorial but again wonder if I am missing additional tutorials that would enable me to personalize the site a bit deeper. I will also be exploring that as well.
I would totally use this with students/parents/administrators to communicate the goings on of my library!! I would request that this site was provided on my school's homepage for easy access and would update it weekly with pictures, book reviews (from myself as well as guest bloggers-students, teachers, administrators), special events, and maybe even spotlight certain genres. There are so many things that I could do to inform the school culture of the exciting happenings in the library-this is an easy and free way to publicize the fantastic things that are happening. I would even post how the space is being used-in my case posting pictures of ISU students who are using the space to work on research projects with students, pictures of chess club practice-anything that gives the library excellent press.
I really like Weebly and will definitely be using it to create my Professional Portfolio project.
This week I decided to kill two homework birds with one adventure-taking a look at Weebly. Above is the link for my professional portfolio that is only in the initial stages of completion-i.e., I had no idea what I was doing and just played around!
I chose this tool because I had no idea what Weebly was and thought I would check it out. Honestly, I liked the name-it sounds cute.
I liked the following about this tool: the tutorial options is awesome-it is helpful to get started, it is relatively user friendly (see my dislikes), and it has a lot of design options. I used their free stock pictures to play around with my heading graphics and they are decent. I will probably upload some better pictures as I realize this is a professional portfolio-although the Mr. Potato Head does make me smile.
I did not like the lack of direction once you get past the initial "home" page. I had no idea how to create the tabs on my site for my project-i.e. I didn't get how someone would click to get to my resume or professional philosophy. I did play around and figured it out, and maybe I am missing additional tutorials, but it was a bit confusing to get started. I currently also cannot figure out how to change the text font-I realize it isn't a big deal, but as I have shared before-this makes a difference to me! If people are going to be looking at this, I want it to look really good.
I could not figure out how to change the text font and will return to explore this as well as adding additional graphics to the page. I have some images from Pinterest that I would prefer to use so I will take the time to figure that out. I did enjoy the ease of getting started-again I do think that Weebly is user friendly overall. I did appreciate the initial tutorial but again wonder if I am missing additional tutorials that would enable me to personalize the site a bit deeper. I will also be exploring that as well.
I would totally use this with students/parents/administrators to communicate the goings on of my library!! I would request that this site was provided on my school's homepage for easy access and would update it weekly with pictures, book reviews (from myself as well as guest bloggers-students, teachers, administrators), special events, and maybe even spotlight certain genres. There are so many things that I could do to inform the school culture of the exciting happenings in the library-this is an easy and free way to publicize the fantastic things that are happening. I would even post how the space is being used-in my case posting pictures of ISU students who are using the space to work on research projects with students, pictures of chess club practice-anything that gives the library excellent press.
I really like Weebly and will definitely be using it to create my Professional Portfolio project.
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