TeacherTube-Librarian of the 1960s

Aren't we glad libraries are not like this anymore. I remember the shushing and the old confusing card catalogs. And I still loved the library, weird, huh?

Thanks, Vaughn, for walking me through how to get the movie and writing all in one post.

I Am Blessed!

Yesterday was my last day of the college class I took during July. For our final we just reflected on the class and what we had learned, etc. etc. Neat final, huh? Anyway, during the reflecting, several of the other students started talking about how they are treated in their schools and how their schools treat their paras. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. They said that in their schools the paras are treated as if they don't have a brain. They are the lowest on the totem pole, and the teachers throw their degrees in the faces of the paras. I realized how blessed I am to work in Spring Branch ISD (none of these work for SBISD). I have never been treated this way. I'm sure there are some teachers who feel like the ones I heard about, but from what I see at our school, all of our paras are treated with respect and as a vital part of the school staff. Sure, those with the degrees make the final decisions, but they don't throw their degrees in our faces and they do give us credit for having a brain. Thank you SBISD for recognizing that just because we did not go to college it does not mean that we are not intellegent.

Sharing what I used

I was asked to share what I used in my college class from my Library2Play experiences. I had to write a paper on a social relevant topic and I chose to do it on banned/challenged books. I made this mosaic for it. The center got cut off. It is the poster that was used a few years ago for banned book week. I will try to also post the picture of the whole poster. The book covers around the center are all books that have had complaints filed against them.

Thing # 20 One more time

YEAH!!! I GOT IT!! Can you tell I'm excited? Thanks for your help, vmb. Is it OK that it's a post by itself? That's the only way I could get it to work.

Thing # 20 Revisited

Thing # 23

Nothing like cutting it close, huh? This has been an interesting journey. I have learned so much that I feel slightly overwhelmed. It’s still going to be a few years before I get my classroom, but I am keeping all my notes to refer back to because I found several things I want to use.

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey? The image generators, LibraryThing, and Nings were my favorites.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? This program has helped in that it has given me exposure to more online tools than I would have found on my own.

Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? I used one of the tools for the college class that I am taking. One of the reasons I am taking this now was that I was told it might help me during my last year of college as I start to do more lesson plans.

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? I can’t think of anything you could do differently. You were there when we had questions. You were supportive.

The only big problem I ran into was YouTube and that may just be user problems. I am still working on it.

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate? Definitely.

How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote 23 Things learning activities? Slightly overwhelming, but worth it!

Congratulations to all those who finished!!

Thing # 22

I am excited about Nings! This is a great place to interact with peers on a professional basis. It will be better than having one of your students stumble on your FaceBook or MySpace page. I will be joining some of these groups a little later. My high school is setting up a group so I will definitely be joining that one.

Thing # 21

Oh my gosh! Downloading this video was easy! Too bad YouTube wasn't this easy, maybe I wouldn't have gotten so frustrated. I made two videos. The first one was made from pictures I took off the internet for a class project and it turned out terrible. The pictures were fuzzy and it was hard to tell what they were. This one did much better. I didn't put anything fancy on it like music or anything. That's a skill to learn later.

I can see using this to do reports. Much better than the student standing in front of the class reciting "Hi my name is _________ and I am going to tell you about___________." And much better than teachers having to listen to it 20 times. It will also be fun to make videos of field trips, or students working on projects, or just snapshots of students to place on a class wiki for parents to see.

I really liked this one!

Thing # 20

I had a blast looking through YouTube and TeacherTube. I didn't spend a whole lot of time here, but it was fun while it lasted.

It would take a long time to find the videos you wanted to use in your classroom, but once you found them it could really enhance your lessons.

I found two videos that I wanted to share with you, but I can't get them to download. One is about a bug who goes to the library (a PSA about summer reading). The other is about a Super Librarian. I keep getting a message that there is an error on the page. I'll have to e-mail someone for help. Meanwhile, on to the last three things.

Thing # 19

Wow! This will definently save time as opposed to wading through Google search returns.

I explored Geni, a family tree maker. It would be great, except that you can’t list very many siblings. I have five siblings and it wouldn’t put them in order and it threw one of them over to my husband’s side. He has 4 siblings; I wonder what it would do when it ran out of room there. Do they still do family trees in school? With so many stepparents and half-siblings and a sprinkling of unknown fathers, how do you handle that?

I noticed that LibraryThing only got an honorable mention. What’s with that?

Not quite sure how I would use it yet. I'll have to think on that one and check out some other blogs to see their suggestions.