Ana

A New School Year

I'm always excited about the start of school, and this year there are many new additions to our library to be excited about. Our new SmartBoard was installed just a few weeks ago. It was part of our library lessons this first week. The SmartBoard was a new experience for the children in pre-k and kindergarten. Their eyes danced as images and words appeared and disappeared. I'll be exploring different ways to use this incredible tool.

Last spring I noticed an article in the New York Times describing the renovation of some children's libraries in the Bronx. The talented artist, Christoph Niemann's creation of a "Book-Toothed Dinosaur" captured my attention. When I wrote to him to tell him how much I loved his mural, he generously offered to allow us to make a print so that we could enjoy his work in our library, too. Long time Parish teacher, Marilyn Calwell, provided for the printing and framing as a retirement gift to the library. You'll smile when you see it...look closely!

Back to School Display

In her book, The Book Whisperer, Donalyn Miller wrote about our reading roots. She included a quote from William Wordsworth.
What we have loved
Others will love.
We will teach them how.
Our back to school display in the library includes pictures of teachers and staff reading books that were important to them as beginning readers. It is fun to see what books led to the book lovers that we all became.

Flip Video Camera

The Flip video camera is going to be fun to use! It seems to be very easy to maneuver, and the picture is pretty good quality. I love how quickly the videos can be saved and shared. The Flip will get a lot of use this year!

Animoto

I am finally experimenting with actually making a video with Animoto. This tool has been so easy to use. I need to make sure to take more pictures this year. I took a webinar class offered by Discover Education this week. They have a huge library of pictures that would be great for classroom teachers to include in Animoto videos to go with units of study.

Doug Valentine's Videos

When I first found this site, I didn't bookmark it (I mean Delicious it), and then I couldn't find it again. I raved about it over lunch with my friend, Barbara, and she found it. She was as excited as I was about the creative and motivating possibilities that this technology could provide. After I commented on his blog, Doug wrote back to me with information about the tools that he uses for animation. I'm hoping to keep in touch with him. He's close by (in Melissa ISD) and is obviously an exciting, talented, and fun elementary librarian.


Find more videos like this on Texas School Librarians

Thing 23: Summarize Your Thoughts About This Program

I’ve reached Thing 23! I know that I’m not finished learning about all of these "things." I’ll be going back to explore them and making plans for ways to use and share what I’ve learned.

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey? I’ve enjoyed so many of the exercises! My favorites include the image generators, Delicious, LibraryThing, and creating videocasts. I know that these will all be part of my plans for this year.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
This program has cemented my belief that there is so much to learn and discover in the world. Learning is what makes life exciting and each day a new day.

Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I was surprised at the number of people who are involved in Library 2.0. I’m taking away a hope of strengthening this community of support. Every “thing” that I explored provided something unexpected and helpful.

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
I loved the concept of this program! Everything was presented so thoroughly. There were a couple of links that didn’t work for me, but other than that, I can’t think of any way that the program’s format could be improved.

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate?
If another discovery program like this was offered in the future, I would love to participate. Please let me know if this happens! I like the idea of maintaining this blog as an educational journal and sharing it with my colleagues.

How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD ?

One word to describe my experience with the 23 Things learning activities would be “ENERGIZING!"

Thank you so much for your help and for providing this opportunity!

Thing 22: Nings

I liked the Teacher Librarian Ning. I found a group of Elementary School Librarians and several groups interested in Web 2.0 in the library. I liked the shared ideas and the support that the members offered to each other. I can see that a Ning would be a good tool for groups with an interest focused around a specific topic. We could use a Ning among our faculty centering on a teaching or curriculum concept of interest to, not only share experience and knowledge, but strengthen our community.

Thing 21: Podcasts and Videocasts

I agree that the possibilities for using podcasts and vidcasts are endless. I was thinking about some of those possibilities as I was trying to get to sleep last night. I know that I'll be experimenting with Photostory and Audacity for the rest of the summer so that I'll be ready to go with some fun projects when school starts. This Photostory is about a reading program for Parish students in kindergarten through second grade - "The Panther Paw Award" which is modeled after the Bluebonnet Award. The goal of the program is to encourage Parish students to read and explore a variety of recently published books and to provide the opportunity to discriminate among the books in order to identify favorites. Parents are also encouraged to join in the fun with their children and to read some of these books together at home. There were 20 titles on the 2008-2009 Panther Paw Booklist. Any child who read or listened to at least ten books was able to vote for his/her favorite one. Watch the Photostory to find out which book was the 2009 pick!

I'm still working on my vidcast. It is not showing the first page first when it is uploaded...although it does show the correct first page on my computer. Ideas?

Thing 20: YouTube, TeacherTube and Zamzar

I loved this video. I think that it will be a great introduction to the book and to the study of alphabet books. YouTube and TeacherTube offer so many opportunities to make lessons exciting. At our school, I can ask to have access to YouTube for specific time periods.



This video from TeacherTube made me excited about having a SmartBoard in the library this year. A goal for this year...post a video on TeacherTube using our new Flip camera.

Thing 19: Web 2.0 Awards List

Web 2.0 awards list had some of my familiar and favorite sites and some that were brand new to me. I already am a big fan of Del.icio.us , thanks to Thing 13. I have plans to re-introduce this site to our teachers in August. I think that most of them are probably like me… they’ve heard of it, but didn’t realize how easy it is to share and use. MothersClick is a site that I sent to my daughter and a teacher at school who are expecting their first babies. I think that it offers a great support and network for new mothers. Upcoming will keep me informed about events planned close to home. I really liked One Sentence. It is about boiling down a story to its bare essentials and telling it in one sentence. I think that it would be a fun challenge in a writing classroom. The site that I am most excited about is Biblio. Teachers often ask about out of print books, and now I’ll know just where to look!

Thing 18: Online Productivity Tools

I registered and explored Google Docs. I started out with the tour and then browsed the template gallery. I made note of several of the templates that might come in handy in my own personal life. The wedding spreadsheet might be helpful with one daughter’s spring wedding plans. The Baby Feeding Diary and Baby Soft Album might be fun for the daughter expecting twins in the fall. I think that Google Docs offers a great opportunity for sharing information for collaboration. I’m so used to using Microsoft Office that it would take some time to feel my way through the online tool. It would be great to be able to access documents from any computer. I know that I will be giving Google Docs some more attention.

Thing 17: Rollyo

Rollyo was completely new to me. At our school, we work to designate sites for our younger students' research, but Rollyo makes it easy. I started a searchroll for the 2nd graders to use when they study insects. http://rollyo.com/bmaher211/insects_by_maher/ I’ll definitely share this new discovery with the other teachers...especially those in upper grades! The TeacherTube video was a great help! Thank you!

Thing 16: Wikis

I’m so glad to be learning more about wikis. I know that there are so many different ways that they could be used. My first thought is to create a wiki for the teachers to comment on the book that is our “all staff summer read.” I think that we could have a professional development wiki going all year with things to read and share thoughts about. Meetings are often tricky to schedule, but this would allow communication on each teacher’s own timetable. Others have mentioned using wikis for sign ups, etc…great idea! I’d like to add a wiki for parents and students to comment on our “Panther Paw Books” (modeled after Bluebonnet.) There are just so many possibilities!

Thing 15: Library 2.0

Libraries of tomorrow will look different from libraries of today because always learning means always changing. I work with young children, so I believe that in five to ten years there will still be picture books, puppets, and a rocking chair for storytime in our library. Library 2.0 does not mean that we abandon treasured experiences that hold value for our children. But, in the very near future, there will also be a SmartBoard, more computers, and a way for the children and their parents to connect with the library and interact with each other from home via blogs, podcasts, etc. Library 2.0 means that even the youngest children are active participants in their learning. With greater participation comes greater opportunity. To me, Library 2.0 means that we discover and learn new ways to meet the needs and fuel the excitement for learning of the children in our care.

Thing 14: Technorati

Technorati is really packed with information and opportunity! I spent more time searching this site with less satisfying results than from others that we’ve explored. I don’t see myself using it as much as de.licio.us as a search tool for my work. I think that there might be particular topics that I go there to research. When I entered the phrase “School Library Learning 2.0” in the keyword search there were 1123 posts. When I used Blog Directory the number dropped to 66. When I searched under tags, the number was 28. I’m so glad to learn about tags. It is a feature that I will definitely be using (my own and those created by others) now that I’ve discovered their value. I looked at the Technorati’s popular blogs, searches, and tags. A lot of people like to read about celebrities!

Thing 13: Delicious

I have had a Delicious account for almost 2 years, but I’ve never really explored or used the site until now. I found a couple of good videos on YouTube that were helpful in learning how to navigate this tool. I’m trying to get the Delicious bookmarking buttons to appear on my browser. Using the tags, I found several terrific sites for the library. It will be so helpful to have all of the sites that I refer to in one place. I checked out Digg and Furl, but for now, I see myself using Delicious. I don’t know that I’ll be able to use it with students in my early childhood setting, but it will be a terrific way to share information with other teachers.

Thing 12: Creating Community Through Commenting

Thing 12 has been the most challenging for me so far. Commenting takes me out of my comfort zone. I do recognize the importance of participating in the community building purpose of blogging, though, and I will work on making this part of my regular practice. I agree that comments need to be meaningful and sincere.
It was fun to read some of the blogs in the Library2Play community. I learned a lot and left several comments. I found a blog about “twins and multiples.” After making a couple of comments, I sent the site to my daughter who is pregnant with twins. I also wrote a comment on a Canadian teacher’s classroom blog (http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1337) that I have been reading (lurking) for a couple of months. She has been inspiring me, and I finally let her know that.

Thing 11: LibraryThing

I’m so happy to learn about LibraryThing. I’ve started putting the books that I’ve read recently on my list. Several of the groups looked interesting. I especially like the recommendations/reviews part of the site. I know that we’ll be checking there when we are trying to decide on a title to choose at our book club meetings.

Thing 10: Online Image Generators

I loved Thing 10! It was fun to poke around and play. There is so much to discover. Wordle (http://www.wordle.net/) kept me busy for a long time. I just kept thinking of different things to try. I will make a wordle with a book during storytime and put it on the SmartBoard. I will definitely use Badge Maker (http://bighugelabs.com/deck.php) this year. I think that the library volunteers would feel very welcomed if they have their own badges to wear when they come to help. The second grade teachers will enjoy using Map Maker (http://bighugelabs.com/map.php) when they study the Civil War, Westward Expansion, or Immigration. Teachers could use the Captioner (http://bighugelabs.com/captioner.php) and Comic Strip Generator (http://www.comicstripgenerator.com/) in countless ways. I’ll go back to Thing 10 throughout the year next year!

Thing 9: Blogs and News Feeds

The search tools were all fun to explore. Edublog was the easiest for me to use. I added a couple of feeds from the nominees/awards lists to my reader. I also found a great teacher’s blog that doesn’t have a feed but is very inspiring! Topix was more confusing for me to figure out and maneuver through. There’s so much there. I know that I’ll be spending much more time searching through these tools.

Thing 8: RSS Feeds

Before I began Thing 8, I had never heard of RSS or readers. I love this tool, and I’ll be spreading the word about it to my friends at school. There are a few blogs that I really like to follow, and I used to go to each one on a regular basis to see if they had updated. I think that Google Reader will save me hours. I found a few new blogs to add to my reader including A Library By Any Other Name. Readers offers teachers, librarians, and anyone involved in education so many opportunities to learn and to stay connected to others who are learning. I’ll be watching my reading list for ideas to try in the library, new books and ways to use them, and ways to connect technology with the library and the classroom.

Thing 7: Google Tools

I now have an iGoogle page. I'm still playing with the gadgets and moving them on and off my page trying to decide which ones to keep. I added a link to my blog and a feed to a blog that I follow. I have the Dallas News, gmail, YouTube, and a daily joke. I shared a virtual pet gadget with my daughter who has always had a monkey on her Christmas wish list. I haven't used Google advanced search before now, but it sure makes finding specific information on the web much easier. I set up Google alerts for children's books and school libraries. I'll be excited to read what comes from those. There is so much more to Google than I ever imagined!

Thing 6: Mashups and Third Party Sites

There are so many things to explore...the hours slip by! It was fun to play with Mosaic Maker. I’m going to try to use that for a birthday card this week. Trading Card Maker has so many possibilities for our early elementary library. I made one featuring my cat, Moo, who would have loved to spend his days on some reader's lap in the library. I think that I’ll use that tool this summer to make cards with student photos and their recommendations from their summer reading. I’ll display the Trading Cards with the books. The kids will love it!

Thing 5: Explore Flickr

Flickr kept me busy for hours. I was introduced to this site last year, but have never really explored it until now. I was amazed at all of the photos available. There are pictures to go with almost every unit studied on our Pre-K through 2nd Grade campus. I chose to include the picture of the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in my blog because it looks just like a photograph that I took there a couple of years ago. I'll be visiting Flickr a lot!

Thing 4: Register

Done! I'm registered and ready to begin this adventure.

Thing 3: Set Up Blog

I have been wanting to create a blog for a long time. It was much easier than I thought it would be. I'm looking forward to exploring the Blogger site and trying out some different layouts. I had fun working on the avatar. She looks a little bit like me...on a good day.

Thing 2: Lifelong Learners

I enjoyed reading about the 7 1/2 habits. I know that they are all important habits to develop. The easiest one for me is probably accepting responsibility for my own learning. I do enjoy learning new things and finding ways to stretch myself. I am energized by reading, trying new skills, and comparing thoughts with colleagues. For me, the most difficult of the habits is number 7 1/2…PLAY. I often have a long list of things that I should do that I put ahead of things that I’d like to do