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.

Thing # 18

I looked at the tutorial for OpenOffice, but I didn’t want to download another thing to my computer.

I liked Google Docs better. There are not as many options for fonts and font sizes. This would be wonderful for students – they don’t have as many options to play with when they are supposed to be typing. I also liked the idea of having access to the documents from anywhere without having to keep up with a jump drive.

Thing # 17

http://rollyo.com/editroll.html?sid=431038

I hope I got this right. This is a link to the search roll I did for butterflies. This is a great tool to keep kids off the unrelated pages of Google while doing research.

Thing # 16

I have used a wiki before so this wasn’t entirely new to me, but setting up my own will be a different story. Besides using wikis for educational purposes, I thought that it would be a great way to organize class parties and field trips. Parents could get on and sign up for what they will send and who will attend. It would also be great for our PTA to set up one to help organize the carnival we do every year. They could also set up one for the popcorn sales.

Thing # 15

Libraries should have always been 2.0, but whether or not they have been is probably as varied as the librarians themselves. I feel that the library I work in is pretty close. At our school, we have taken suggestions from students about books to buy. The teachers and staff are welcome to give suggestions about what they need to implement their lessons. If the teachers will let her know what they are studying, our librarian will find ways to reinforce their lessons. She is always looking for ways to implement technology in a meaningful way. So, yeah, I feel like we are 2.0.

I really liked what Michael Stephens said about Technolust. He cautioned against having technology just because it is cool or because of the status of having it. He feels that the technology should “…meet the needs of the user in a new or improved way.”

Richard Anderson’s article concerned me at first. I had to take another look at it to make sure I read it right. At first it seemed that he was saying that there was no longer a need for a library collection or a need to teach research skills. On my second reading, I came to the conclusion that he meant that the reference collection may no longer be needed. I can see that. The web has so much more, and the information is updated more regularly than the library collection. I also decided that he didn’t say not to teach research skills, just that it does not need to be as focused as in the past. I’m still not sure about this. There is so much out there that students need to be taught how to filter through all of it to find what they really need. Of course, he is a college librarian. By then they don’t need that kind of instruction like elementary school children do.

Thing # 14

There was a big difference in the number of hits I got between a regular word search and the more specific blog and tag searches. Good thing to know when you are looking for something specific and don’t have hours to sort through everything.

I look at the popular blogs and searches and tags. Nothing jumped out at me, but I don’t have the time right now to fully explore it.

Tags are great to help find what you are looking for fairly quick. They will be a great help when I am looking for sites to help plan my instruction.

I am a little confused at the moment. Is Technorati about the same thing as del.icio.us?

On a side note: I used a mosaic maker for a project I had to do in my college class last week. I wouldn’t have known about this cool tool if I hadn’t been a player here. Thanks.

Thing # 13

I can see myself using del.icio.us to find lots of resources to support the curriculum.
I did some exploring and added a few sites to my list and I added a few of my browser favorites to my list. I know I’ll be adding lots more once I graduate and start teaching. It’s really easy to do with the buttons right there on the toolbar.

Thing # 12

Two things that I think are important about commenting on blogs are to leave a meaningful response and to be courteous.

I have visited several blogs while playing this summer, but I don’t usually leave a comment because I haven’t felt like I had anything meaningful to contribute. According to the articles I read, it is OK to just leave a “Nicely done” comment as long as you really mean it. I’ll try to be more responsive from now on.

I did run into a few blogs that I really wanted to leave a rather sarcastic response to, but that gets into the being courteous part of it. You have to word your comments very carefully so that they express your difference of opinion without making the blogger think you are telling them that they are an idiot for what they believe. It is especially important to choose your words carefully since your tone of voice and facial expression cannot be heard or seen. What you may mean to be a joke may be taken seriously on the other end. Thank goodness for emoticons.

I’ll have to get back with the blogs that I post on. The last time I tried doing a search on Google for blogs to look at I didn’t have much luck.

Thing #11

I cataloged 5 of my books. I would like to go back and do more when I have some time. I looked at some of the groups. There was one that I would like to join at some point, but I don’t feel like I have the time to be an effective member right now. I added the blog to my RSS reader.

Professionally it will be a great resource to find books for my classroom as well as books to support the curriculum. Personally, it will help me to keep track of what I have read and what I want to read. I was tempted to sign up for some of the early review books, but again, I don’t have the time to devote to such an undertaking right now.

I read a few of the other blogs about LibraryThing to see what others thought about using it for. I saw a suggestion about students using it to share what they are reading. It would be a great idea to start a group for your class, or for students in the whole school, to write reviews on what they have read. In the library we are constantly being asked to recommend books for our students. This would be a good place for them to go see what others their own age recommend.

Thing # 10

I found this little guy in Kid-Friendly Image Generators.

Classroom: These are great tools to give the kids an option for graphics besides Kid Pix or just copying a picture off the internet. They have to use more creativity to come up with a caption to put on the signs. The problem I see is that there is so much that they will take forever picking what they want.

Library: Use them to make signs for new books, or popular series, or labeling shelves.

I went to a few image generators on Google search. I didn't like them as well as the ones that are listed in Library2Play.

Thing # 9

I explored all of the search tools except Syndic8. I didn’t find any of them more helpful or more confusing than the others. I found one more blog to add to my list. I guess this is an evolving thing that will grow with time and expertise and life situations.

Thing # 8: RSS Feeds and Readers

RSS Feeds and Readers are lifesavers for those who keep up with lots of different sites and blogs. I had some trouble when I tried to find blogs outside of the ones suggested, so I just stayed with ones listed on Library2Play. I didn’t have trouble finding blogs to subscribe to, I had trouble finding a blog that I wanted to subscribe to. I will have to play around with the search for blogs more, maybe it will get better.

What do I like about it? It’s a great way to keep up with all the blogs and news stories you look at all the time. It will save lots of time going to just one place instead of having to open and close several websites.

How might I use it? School: I could get my students set up with blogs and have them do their journals on their blogs instead of in notebooks. Then I would subscribe to all of their blogs. That would save me time in flipping through journals to find the latest entry and I could access it anywhere without having to lug all those notebooks around.
Personal: About the same thing, except that I would add blogs from friends.

How can libraries use them? Set up a school library blog for students to comment on books they have read. Librarians could use them to keep up with the latest news in the library world.

Thing # 7

I didn’t know that all of that was out there on Google. I made an iGoogle page, but I don’t know how to make it to where others can see it. It would be fun to have a class homepage that the parents could access. We could add sections for a class calendar, homework, and just general news about what we are learning. I also put some entries on the calendar, but I didn’t really want to make it available to the whole world. If I understand Google notebook, this would be a great tool for doing research. No more making sure the students have paper and pencils to take notes with.

Thing # 6

I played around with mappr, jigsaw maker, and the trading card. With the diversity of our students, mappr would be a great way to show the class where everyone is from. They may be surprised by how far away some of their classmates used to live. Students could make their own trading cards to introduce themselves to their classmates. It was really pretty simple to make. I didn't put a picture of me on it but if I made one to share with my class I would. I tried to make a jigsaw puzzle, but it didn't work right. It just looks like a picture of a jigsaw puzzle.

Thing # 5

There are some amazing photos on this site: almost too many. It takes a long time to look through the ones that come up in a search. I had to make myself stop looking around and refocus on getting this thing done. I'm already running behind. I looked at several blogs and a lot of you are far ahead of where I am. I'm glad we have until August to get this done.

It took a while to figure out how to put the picture on. I hope I can do that again.

Thing # 3

Setting up the blog was easy, well, except for deciding on a name and an address. I had no idea so I finally decided to look up the day I was born (yes, they had calendars back then) and came up with Tuesday’s Child for the name and the pb in the address stands for Primitive Baptist, my religion.

The avatar was a little more complicated. Making one was easy; getting it on my blog was not so easy. I don’t know if I misunderstood the directions, or if there is a step missing, or if my blog setup was not like the others. I finally figured out that I had to click on one of the boxes marked “page elements” to get the list to add an html/java script box. Then I put the HTML of the avatar in the wrong box and it told me it was too long. I finally got it done. Isn’t it cute? I wish I looked that good.

Are we having fun yet? It’s been educational that’s for sure. Let the fun begin - right after I do some work for the college class I am taking. Have a great weekend!

Thing # 2

My easiest Habit is #5: Create a Learning Toolbox. I have been blessed with super supportive family, church, friends, and co-workers. Without them I couldn’t continue my lifelong learning. I am apprehensive about new technology sometimes, but I am a quick learner and adapt fairly quickly. Starting this blog is a little scary for me, but I think it will be fun.

My hardest is Habit #4: Confidence in Myself. I have this wonderful support system, yet I am seldom confident in my own abilities. I almost always second guess myself. I hate to speak up in class because I am afraid of being wrong.