Jane the Teacher Librarian

Moving On?

2009-08-12T23:42:00.000-07:00

Here's a heads up for anyone reading this that I am going to put this blog on hiatus for a while. I have just started a new blog - http://tlintheclassroom.blogspot.com - that I want to try to focus on, at least for right now. So, please visit me there :)

Time to move on...

2009-06-27T07:15:00.001-07:00

I titled my last post "It is the best of times, it is the worst of times." The last several days has definitely felt like the worst of times for me personally. My job as teacher librarian at Lindero Canyon Middle School is now over, and I learned Wednesday afternoon that I wasn't offered one of the new media specialist jobs in its place. Having given my all to my school library for seven years and built a program of reading and enrichment and of information literacy, research, digital citizenship, and integrated technology instruction that I believe was outstanding, made that decision feel devastating. As of today, though, I am honestly starting to feel, instead, that it was a blessing in disguise. My future right now is very uncertain --- will I work as a language arts teacher at my school, integrating all my library and tech expertise for my students and continue to enjoy the comraderie of my language arts teacher friends, or will I find a school library position elsewhere where I can begin a new adventure sharing my passion for libraries and all my library and tech skills? That, I don't know right now. However, I now welcome either of those prospects, and honestly believe that either of them will be a better use of my skills than I would have in the new positions where I would have been stretched so thin between different schools that I would have been unable to fully develop the kind of programs I would want to at any of them. If you are reading this, please cheer me on to my new tomorrow :)

P.S. In any case, this summer will include lots of time planning for CSLA as Conference Chair and as incoming Southern Section Chair. I'm so excited about both!

It is the best of times, it is the worst of times

2009-05-25T13:35:00.000-07:00

I can't believe another school year is almost over. Just three and a half weeks left! Here are some great things that have happened this year:

The library is busier than ever with student visits, projects, and great new books.
We moved to a temporary library during campus construction. We're pretty cramped for space and I have no office, but nice things about it are that I am always out in the library to work with students, the computer lab is now next door, and I am getting to mingle more with a different group of teachers who have rooms in my building.
Our district got a fantastic EETT (Enhancing Education Through Technology) federal grant that funded two class sets of laptops, headphones, and responders for our school, along with teacher training. Jani Nelson and I were chosen to be the two tech/mentors for the school, helping teachers and students to take advantage of this new equipment. That means that I have benefited from additional training, got to go to CUE for the first time (which was terrific!-I'm definitely hooked), and am having a wonderful time working with teachers and students using the laptops for enriching projects and activities.
I've added two new responsilities with CSLA: President Elect of Southern Section and Chair of the 2009 Conference scheduled for November 19-22, 2009. Please put the latter on your calendar. It's going to be great!
I got to present at the Ventura County Office of Education Library Conference, our district Staff Development Day, the CSLA Annual Conference, and CSLA's Southern Section Spring Workshop.
I got an iPhone, and also joined the cloud computing world. I love it!
We just finished a great book fair, had a great author visit with Jennifer Anne Kogler in December, and are looking forward to hosting author Neal Shusterman May 27.
Did I mention that I love my job working with students and teachers on reading, research, information literacy, and technology?

Here are some very sad things that have happened this year:

The state of the California budget is a disaster, and education, as well as many, many social services are suffering and appear bound to suffer even more.
Our district has decided that teacher librarians as we know them are no longer needed. Instead, the six TLs in our district and the two teachers on special assignment for technology are going to be replaced by three new positions that will somehow do the work of both. What that means is that three people are going to need to try to cover the work now being done by eight hard working people. While I am, of course, mourning the loss of my job which I love, I am most of all mourning the loss to our students who will no longer have on-site teacher librarians to help them become critical thinkers, enthusiastic readers, skillful researchers, and ethical digital citizens and users of information. This comes at a time when our children need help with these skills more than ever. I'm still waiting to know how these new positions can be expected to fill this void, and what my own job will be next school year. Stay tuned.

2008-12-14T17:34:00.000-08:00

I wanted to share my experience with a visit by author Jennifer Anne Kogler to my middle school on Friday. Jennifer recently published her second book, The Otherworldies. Jennifer is just 27, a recent Princeton graduate and currently a student at Stanford Law School. She knows how to relate directly to students and engage them while promoting the joy of reading, how writers can get ideas and successfully complete writing projects, and issues of plagiarism. She had all our students enthralled throughout her talk and keen to ask questions during the Q & A portion. Many of them even lingered afterwards to get in one more question. I would highly recommend her as a guest author for other schools. Please feel free to write me back for more information. You can get in touch with Jennifer and learn more about her at her website at http://www.jenniferannekogler.com/.

Here’s a little more on her book: In The Otherwordlies, Fern is a seventh grader who has always been a bit different and something of an outcast. Her family, though, including her popular twin brother, have always supported her and tried to make her feel “normal.” Then, one day she discovers to her shock and dismay that she is actually adopted and is an otherworldly, the “PC” term today’s vampires use for themselves. She finds herself immediately placed at the center of an age-old struggle between two warring vampire groups. The book is not only a real page turner; it also ponders issues of bullying, being an outsider, what constitutes family, and how who we are is based on our choices, not our background.

21st Century Skills VoiceThread

2008-12-14T17:28:00.000-08:00

One of the questions we keep getting asked when we advocate for the importance of strong school libraries for our students is "What do teacher librarians do that classroom teachers don't already do?" and "what role do teacher librarians play in technology?" In an effort to answer these questions, the other teacher librarians in my district and I created this VoiceThread message:

We emailed a link to this message to all our district teachers, staff, administrators, and board members. We plan to do more advocacy efforts, so anyone reading this, please offer your input on what we can add, improve, etc.

Conference Days 3 & 4

2008-11-24T15:40:00.001-08:00

As I feared, I just couldn't keep up with all the activities at the conference and blog them at the same time. So, here's a brief catch up.

On Saturday morning, I attended George Pilling's wonderful session on "Storytelling to Meet the Standards." What a great storyteller he is! I do booktalks at my library, but I have always felt too inhibited to be a storyteller. I really went to the session just to treat myself to hearing some good storytelling. Well, I came away convinced that I am just going to have to overcome my inhibitions and build stories into my lessons, since they truly are the best way of getting my students involved and paying attention. Wish me luck! I also got lucky --- I won George's generous "door prize" of one of his storytelling CDs. And, I was the winner bidder for his other CD at the Silent Auction! And, on the subject of storytelling, I also treated myself to a couple of Joe McHugh's books. I have the Thanksgiving week off, and plan to enjoy a lot of storytelling :)

I also attended the session on "Online Reference Books" and got some good ideas on how to better promote my ebooks. At Vicki Plefka and Joanne Ligamari's "Picture Books, Novels, and Google Tools" session, I learned how to do "lit. trips" projects using Google Maps and Google Earth. I'm definitely going to work on convincing a few teachers to let me help them incorporate these exciting mapping tools into class projects.

For the last concurrent session of the day I had the great treat of facilitating Tammie Celi's "Just Dewey It!" presentation. She not only gave us all tips on how to teach students about the Dewey Decimal System, she also staged an incredibly entertaining and funny performance of "Dewey Dewey." How lucky her students are to have her as their TL. Mark Bobrosky was also great as Melvil himself. :) Here's a slideshow:

Sunday morning I attended the Curriculum Committee meeting. This committee can play such an important role in helping us show the world the value of what we contribute to the curriculum. The committee is open to new members. Do consider applying to participate. After the committee meeting, I split my time between two of the several sessions I really wanted to attend: "Good Slick Stuff to Do with Photoshop Elements or iPhoto" and "M-Learning: Learning on the Go." That's the one frustrating thing about CSLA Conferences --- too many choices! I did get a lot of good ideas from both the sessions I attended, despite the frustration of not being able to be two, three, or four places at once.

The finale of the conference was the authors and illustrators brunch with a moving presentation by Rosemary Wells, and a great finale it was! She moved us all with her messages about how incredibly important it is to read to children, her reading of her Yoko book with its anti-bullying and tolerance messages, her account of her forthcoming book about Lincoln's sons, and her overview of Red Moon at Sharpsburg with its portrayal of the true devastation of war. I have been meaning to read Red Moon at Sharpsburg, and am now placing it at the very top of my "must read" list.

I can't give enough thanks to the conference committee, ARC staff, and everyone involved in putting on the conference this year. You all did a fantastic job. I am so glad I have this week off and can take some time to absorb all the wonderful ideas while they are fresh and make action plans.

Conference Day 2

2008-11-22T06:57:00.001-08:00

What a wonderful and full day Friday was! It started with the opening session, and a very entertaining and thought-provoking session by storyteller Joe McHugh. He talked about the difference between mythos (sensory, emotional, holistic, immediate, participatory, and tribal) and logos (symbolic, analytical, sequential, nationalistic) learning and thinking. Both have value, but an overabundance of one or the other isn't good. We as librarians can help to keep a balance between the two.

The concurrent first session I attended was a talk by super advocates Pam Oehlman and Sandy Patton on "Advocacy 101: Using Your Voice to Give a Shout Out for Your School Library Program." They have done an outstanding job in Long Beach USD building support for the their program. We got some excellent tips on how to build relationships and advocate for our own school libraries. They will be posting their handout. Their superintendent, a great school library supporter, was the recognized administrator of the year at our Legi Lunch following the session.

At the Legi Lunch, our lobbyist Jeff Frost gave a report on the sad state of finances in California but reminded us that we need to get to know our new legislators and let them know what we do. I'm going to send a letter of congratulations and greeting to my new State Senator Fran Pavley as soon as I get home!

After lunch I attended the Good Ideas! Session and heard some great lesson plan ideas from this year's Good Ideas! winners.

Then, on to my session: "Connecting with Students Online is Easy Using VoiceThread." Thanks to everyone who came! I had a great time talking about my favorite Web 2.0 tool. Here's a link to the handout. What I forgot to say at the end of my session was what I plan for my next VoiceThread project. It's going to be a personal one, scanning a family photo, and giving an account of each of the family members. Then, I'll share it with other relatives to add their accounts. My other idea for a professional VoiceThread project is to put together a set of images depicting various 21st century skills our students need and each of the librarians in my district will participate in telling teachers how we can help their students achieve these skills. (I figure if I write my plans here I'll feel more oblidged to get them done :) ).

Both Gale and Nullmeyer had very nice receptions early in the evening. Thank you!

The last great event of the day was the Presidents Reception. Joe and Paula McHugh put on a wonderful, fun old time radio show. I was on the sound effects crew led by Paula. We had a ball making all sorts of sounds, and listening to the actors read their parts was lots of fun. I can't wait to get the recording.

I did take a few photos, but will have to post those later. On to Day 3.....

Conference Opening

2008-11-20T22:05:00.000-08:00

The CSLA 2008 Conference opened tonight. Here's a photo of Connie Williams, the new state president, and Jane Ritter, Conference Chair, cutting the ribbons. Yeah, sorry. I know it's fuzzy.
Here they are in the exhibit hall:

Here's the poster display I put together for how to form a book cart drill team, with Pam Oehlman, the new Southern Section President, who was also one of the "California Girls" team members:

The concurrent sessions start tomorrow morning, and I'll be doing my session tomorrow afternoon. I'll try to post tomorrow night about the sessions I attend.

CSLA Conference 2008 - I've Arrived!

2008-11-20T07:01:00.000-08:00

I arrived in Sacramento last night for the CSLA Conference. As you can see from my post below, I haven't blogged in ages. But, I decided to spring for Internet access in my room and am going to try to share some of the highlights of this conference since I know there will be many. The CSLA Conference is always a wonderful opportunity to retool with great new ideas and skills, hear wonderful speakers and authors, and network with wonderful school library people.

If you are at the conference, please consider attending my session on Friday at 3:30 on "Connecting with Students Online is Easy Using Voicethread." Here's the "commercial" I created for the session:

Also, please check out the Poster Sessions in the Exhibit Hall. I put together one on "How to Form a Book Cart Drill Team." After the "California Girls" represented CSLA Southern Section at the Book Cart Drill Team Competition at ALA last summer, CSLA wants to put on a competition at next year's conference. The poster display is intended to encourage interest and provide information about how to form a team.

I'll be attending the CSLA State Board meeting all day today, so won't get to any of the workshops, but will be at the Exhibit Hall for the opening of exhibits at 6 PM tonight. I'll try to post a report tonight or tomorrow.

I'm looking forward to seeing old and new friends here!

Book Cart Drill Team Video and article

2008-07-16T12:36:00.000-07:00

I've been promising a video of the "California Girls" Book Cart Drill Team routine. We are expecting a professional video from DEMCO which I might swap out with this one when it comes. In the meantime, here is the video shot for us by super teacher librarian Rosemarie Bernier from Hamilton High School and edited by me (my first attempt using iMovie!) You can view it here, but might prefer the "high quality" option you can select if you go to this YouTube site link.

Also, check out the great article that Tammie Celi, our team member from Columbus Middle School, submitted to the Daily News and they published in their valleynews.com online edition.

More photos from the Book Cart Drill Team Event

2008-07-05T10:55:00.000-07:00

ALA Conference

2008-07-03T20:04:00.000-07:00

I got back Tuesday afternoon from five days at the ALA (American Library Association) Conference in Anaheim. What a wonderful experience – full of great sessions, terrific exhibits, tons of free books and ARCs (Advanced Readers Copies) for me and my library that I can't wait to read, a chance to visit with old friends and meet new ones, and an unforgettable experience performing with the “California Girls” in the Book Cart Drill Team Competition event. There's an overwhelming amount of material to cover, but I will try to at least touch on some of it here. Highlights of the conference for me included:

The Advocacy Institute on Friday, June 27. Hearing and meeting the “Spokane Moms” who have done such a terrific job of advocacy for libraries in Washington State was a real treat and so inspiring. We have just got to figure out how to clone their program in California! And, they are very ready and willing to help us do just that. We just need to find our “moms” (or dad?). It was also terrific having three CSLA people on the program --- Sandra Yoon, CSLA President, Connie Williams, CSLA President Elect, and Sandy Schuckett, one of CSLA's most illustrious advocates/activists. Please visit this wiki page for my summary of some of the great things I learned there. And, if you were there, or you have ideas, please do feel free to edit the wiki page and add what I missed, etc. I am happy to report that my school board did not cut any teacher librarians for 200-2009, but I know we still have our work cut out for us to avoid cuts next year. We need to convince all the players how, as Sara Kelly Johns stated at the institute, "“If you want students to have 21st century skills, you need 21st century libraries with librarians.” Here are just a couple of the photos I took at the Institute:

"Spokane Moms" Lisa Layera Brunkan, Denette Hill, & Susan Burney with CSLA President Sandra Yoon and President Elect Connie Williams

Sandy Schuckett, Retired LAUSD Teacher Librarian & CSLA Advocacy Guru

Participating with the “California Girls” in the Book Cart Drill Team Competition on Sunday. Ten of us had a ball organizing our team representing CSLA, Southern Section. We did it to publicize CSLA for other conference goers, to have fun, and to highlight the fact that, while the reading we promote and the information literacy skills we teach in our school libraries are crucial for 21st century learners, we also make reading and learning library skills fun for our students. In case you're wondering whether we won, the answer is no, but that was never really the plan. Since we drew a group from a big geographic area, we were only able to have two practices before we arrived in Anaheim, and our goal was just to try to be in sync and have fun. We were just all so glad that we got through the routine without a disaster :) and that the crowd enjoyed it! Many thanks to Demco for sponsoring this, and congrats to the winners. It was great that the only other school library group, the Bibliotechies from St. Margaret's Episcopal School, won third place! I'll post a video of event and a slide show of photos as soon as I can, but here are a few photos for now, courtesy of Joy Millam:

Here's the team forming a big star.
Here's part of the team doing a small star.

That's me, swinging my bikini top at the end
Book Cart Drill Team members posing after the event with other CSLA members

Attending Gale's event at the Grove of Anaheim with The High Strung Band. My Gale rep, Mason Golden, was nice enough to invite the entire California Girls team to attend this event Sunday evening after the book cart drill team competition. Eight of us were able to attend. We loved the band and had a wonderful time!

Some of our group dancing at the Grove.

Some of our group (Yvonne and Pam's husband Bill) on stage with the band.

Attending the the Odyssey Awards and Printz Awards. It was a real treat to hear great audiobook narrators and producers at the Odyssey Awards Sunday night and speeches by great authors at the Printz Awards on Monday night. Next time (if there is one), I have to get to the Newbery/Caldecott Awards banquet, which I hear was also wonderful.
Attending Greenwood's Pop Culture Night at the Lucky Strike Lanes on Saturday. Here's a photo of Roza and me with “Joan Rivers.” Many thanks to Greenwood and to my rep, Scott Bloom, for the invitation. Here's me with "Joan Rivers" and Roza:

Speaker California Teacher of the Year for 2007 Alan Sitomer's presentation about how to reach reluctant readers. He had some great ideas I plan to use next year in my library.

Visiting all the exhibits and getting tons (actually EIGHT bags!) of wonderful ARCs (advanced readers copies) and published books. Many, many thanks to all the exhibitors who were incredibly generous. I thought the most creative booth designs were Demco's and The Wizards of Coast (who also gave out some wonderful free books and ARCs). Here's a photo of Roza, Nancy, and me at the Demco booth:

And here I am with Christopher Paul Curtis, one of my favorite children's/YA authors:

Stay tuned for more photos and a video of the book cart drill team soon!

School's Out!

2008-06-23T09:15:00.000-07:00

Time flies, and it's been another month since I last posted. School is OUT, and I even finally got my library annual report done!

Unfortunately, though, I can't just drop everything and go into vacation mode, since I am now anticipating the district Board Meeting tomorrow (Tuesday, June 24). The action at the last finance committee meeting was very positive; the two board members asked our superintendent to take teacher librarians off the cut list. However, in the Board Meeting Agenda, there is a counter recommendation to have each of us teach two classroom periods. That would effectively reduce the time we have to be librarians by half, and would mean that students in classes that met during the two periods we were in classrooms would never have access to our library teaching. I am hopeful that this recommendation will not be approved by the Board, since it would seriously hamper what we can do to help students and teachers at each of our schools. I know this is late notice, but I invite anyone reading this to come support us tomorrow!

ALA starts this Friday! I am very excited about all I'll be doing there. I will start by spending all day Friday at a pre-conference Library Advocacy Institute. Then on Sunday is our Book Cart Drill Team routine. Please wish our team luck! Here's our T-shirt design:At the conference, I also plan to check out library furniture companies for our new school library, attend sessions on a large variety of topics that will help me improve library programs, get lots of free books (there are supposed to be a ton of ARCs - Advanced Reader Copies -- given out in the exhibits area), and have lots of fun hanging out with library friends :)!

Catching Up Again

2008-05-23T05:42:00.000-07:00

It's been ages since I posted here. I didn't really expect anyone to be reading this after I completed SLL 2.0 last summer, but with the new Classroom Learning 2.0 and people from my district and school participating, I guess I should try to update it a little.

I've been keeping very busy both at work and with CSLA (California School Library Association) activities.

At work, we just finished a busy book fair, and, before that, had a wonderful author visit with Lisa Yee. She has written four great books for middle school students --- Millicent Min, Girl Genius, Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time, and So Totally Emily Ebers -- and has several new books in the works. The students were really taken with her lively presentation, and she had a lot of great advice about how to write. After a large assembly, she did two small question and answer sessions, and I was really pleased with our students questions.

Another notable event at work was getting our new Alexandria library software. The catalog is now online so students and teachers can access it from a web browser. It isn't available outside of our district network yet. I hope that will happen before the summer.

I have also been trying to keep up a booktalks blog that I link to from my library page. I want most of the booktalks to be done by students. I've had some enthusiasm, but want to get more students to follow through and record.

The bad news at work is that the district is considering cutting teacher librarian positions. All six of the TLs in my district have spent an extraordinary amount of time of late advocating for our positions. Teacher librarians help students become critical thinkers, enthusiastic readers, skillful researchers, and ethical users of information. Study after study demonstrates the link between credentialed school librarians and student achievement. It is so difficult for me to understand how, even in times of dire budget problems, we can consider cutting back on this. In a recent speech to the Board, I concluded that "The library is no longer merely a physical location where students come to get books. Instead, the library extends far beyond its physical walls to offer students and teachers access to research databases, other quality online websites, interactive online tools, and – coming later this month - our library catalog -- from any computer with internet access. As it does so, students need guidance from professional information specialists in how to navigate this new domain and use what it offers efficiently and responsibly. Please do not deprive our students of this needed guidance in information literacy at a time in the evolution of online information and technology when they need it more than ever before."

So, with all of this going on, I thought of giving my Avatar a sad, or even angry, face. Instead, I decided to get her ready for the beach. Why? Well, I'm attending the American Library Association annual conference in Anaheim the end of June, and I got the nutty idea that CSLA Southern Section, which I have been serving on the Board for as a Region Rep, should enter the "book cart drill team" competition at the conference. Definitely a nutty idea, considering that I am not musical or coordinated. But, I sent out a call for participants, and we are having our first team rehearsal this Saturday! Wish us luck. We're going to do a routine to the Beach Boys California Girls. If you wonder what a book cart drill team is, go to youtube and search for "book cart drill team" for some examples.

So, I don't know where I'll be working in the fall, but I am very excited about attending ALA. I am always so energized by the CSLA conferences and workshops I attend, and I am sure I will find ALA an incredible event, too. To finish catching up on my CSLA activities, my co-Region 2 Rep, Judy Davidson, were responsible for coordinating the presentations at the all-day CSLA Southern Section Workshop March 1, and were able to assemble a wonderful assortment of speakers. Jim Duke, our Southern Section President, did a terrific job of leading the whole board in making the day a great one. Then, at the end of March, we organized our own Region 2 morning workshop with three great LAUSD TLs -- Marc McPhee, Mark Bobrosky, and Karen Gonzalez -- giving us tips on organizing our libraries and our professional lives. I am so grateful to CSLA for all it has offered me in professional development, networking, volunteering, and friendship opportunities. I wouldn't be half the teacher librarian I am without it. So, even with my future uncertain, I have taken the step of agreeing to run for President Elect of CSLA Southern Section. The ballots will go online June 2. I believe I am running unopposed, but, if you are a CSLA member, please vote for me!

Catching Up

2007-11-25T14:50:00.000-08:00

Goodness! I don't really think that anyone is out there reading this, but I did had the idea that I would keep up posting on this blog after I completed the tutorial, just as a way of reminding myself of new ideas, new tools I learn about, and goals I have. It's been almost three months now.

Well, it's been a very busy fall at work, but I have managed to take advantage of some of the new tools I learned about and experimented with, and have plans to use more. Here's some of what I've done:

I've gone wiki crazy!
The first one was a tutorial for Eighth Grade students doing History Day research. That one also included experimenting with my first Google Custom search engine. (I liked Rollo, but think students are more into the "brand name" and I also like not having any ads.)
I created another very simple wiki as a pathfinder/links page. I have various links pages on my school website created with Dreamweaver, but decided that a wiki one would be easier and more flexible (updatable online, not just on my home computer that has Dreamweaver, and available for collaboration with teachers if they are interested.)
I created yet another wiki after I got inspired at AASL to organize my professional life and keep track of conference handouts, links, etc. in an easy-to-access way. I invite anyone who might read this to contribute to it. The password is libraries.
I created a wiki for my co-region rep and I to use to plan the presentations for the CSLA Southern Section Workshop in March.
And finally, I just created a wiki for my library book club.
I used some ImageChef images in my library brochure.
I added a www.slide.com slideshow to my library website.
I've started using Google Calendar for my library schedule as well as for the school calendar I maintain for the school website.
I created a Google group for the librarians in my district to keep track of our emails and archival-type documents. (We talked about either a wiki or a blog, but it seemed like a goup would allow for both the email saving and doc saving options we wanted.)

While at AASL in October, I got a lot of additional inspiration to take advantage of more technology to enhance my library program. I have been wanting to create some online book talks, and decided to try voicethread.com, which I learned about from Joyce Valenza's session, for them. I just added the first one to my library webpage, and plan to create more and have students create more for CYRM books and other books they like.

Unfortunately, I had to leave the CSLA conference early Friday morning when my husband got ill, so I missed most of the conference. Since I was poster sessions chair, I did get to see and benefit from all those outstanding ideas as they were being set up on Thursday (see my slide show of the posters), and I've also been reading CALIB emails with links to some of the session presentations. One by Miranda Doyle especially inspired me to make my library web page more interactive. I am working on a list of items I want to add to it. So far, I added my first voicethread book talk, a poll, and I have plans to add changing book images with LibraryThing (as I have already added to this blog), to embed the library news blog (instead of just linking to it), and a few other items.

Week 9, Thing 23

2007-08-04T14:02:00.000-07:00

This has been a great program, and I am very grateful to the CSLA team for putting it together. Here are my answers to the survey questions:

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey? I liked so many of them. I think one of the most fun was Image Chef, and I've already taken advantage of it to make a couple of images I inserted in my library brochure I give out each fall. I really liked all the online graphics generators we explored. I was also especially happy to explore del.icio.us and start using it on a regular basis. Becoming more aware of many possibilities with wikis was also great.
How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? It made me aware of a number of new tools, and greatly added to my planned "to do" list. For example:
1. I plan to use wikis (with which I had no previous experience) for a forum for my book club and to set up pathfinders for research projects. Even though I do already have a website for my library, I think the wiki medium will be more flexible and easier to work with than updating webpages in Dreamweaver and will allow for teacher participation. I am going to have to do some more research to decide which wiki software to use.
2. I have started maintaining website links in del.icio.us, and think that will work better moving back and forth between my home and work computers.
3. I plan to take advantage of the different online graphics generators to liven up my library orientations.
4. I plan to learn more about creating podcasts and have students make book recommendation podcasts in the fall. I might also try to create a podcast as part of a self-running orientation for students who come to our school after the beginning of the school year.
5. I did already have a librarything account, but I want to add more books to it and take advantage of its feature to display books on my website and my blog.
Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? Even though I had already used several of the tools in the tutorials, I was surprised how much more there was to learn about them. I was also surprised how many great tools there are out there. Some I had heard about but not had a chance to explore yet, and others were brand new to me.
What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? I thought everything was great. What I never did get to do enough of, though, was check out other participants' blogs. I dipped into a number, but am sure there's a lot of great stuff out there I missed. Perhaps one of the "cheerleaders" could bring some of the top examples to our attention as we work through the tutorials. Also, when I received comments in my blog, I would have liked to have had those peoples' email so I could easily write back and thank them. Perhaps next time we could be encouraged to share emails.
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 CSLA learning activities? Energizing.

Week 9, Thing 22

2007-08-04T13:22:00.000-07:00

Wow! I'm almost at the end here! I enjoyed exploring all the audiobook and ebook options. I have a small collection of audiobooks on tape and CD in my middle school library, and I have been trying to add to the collection and promote them since I think they are a great option for ELL students and struggling readers. They aren't as popular yet as I would like, but those students who have tried them almost always come back for more. They are also a great option for those of us who like to listen during long car drives! I will try to take advantage of some of the free options I explored.

I am a little dubious as to how many people can read a long book as an ebook. I know when I tried ebook textbooks for a couple of classes, I regretted not getting the print book. I just wasn't comfortable reading at such length on the screen, and I found it hard refind passages I needed to reread or quote for a report. I guess it depends how long it is and what type of book it is. They are good to know about for finding passages from classics and, possibly for those students who want only to deal with online, not print.

Week 9, Thing 21

2007-08-04T13:07:00.001-07:00

I've been exploring some of the podcast offerings, and am amazing at all that's available. I did recently get an ipod for the first time, and my daughter introduced me to itunes. I got the ipod to listen to music and books when I walk or drive by myself. This wealth of offerings will also allow me to listen to news, the latest Harry Potter talk, lesson ideas, and more. I'll have to walk and drive more to get them all in!

I haven't visited the links to how to make podcasts yet, but really appreciate that the CSLA team has assembled these tutorials, since it is my goal to try having students create book talk podcasts this coming year.

More on Week 9, Thing 20

2007-08-04T13:02:00.000-07:00

Well, I don't know how I did it, but I just discovered that my blog posting of the Harry Potter/Pride & Prejudice video also showed "Introducing the Book" without my intending it to. I honestly don't remember just how I got the html that did that. I do know that those are the two videos so far I have added to "favorites" in YouTube. I think I have now fixed it, but will need to be very careful if I use this imbedding facility for anything else in the future. I wouldn't want my students to see every video I might have chosen to save as a favorite!

Week 9, Thing 20

2007-08-01T16:51:00.000-07:00

I have had some fun searching around YouTube. I love "Introducing the book."

Here's a fun one for those of us who love both Harry Potter and Jane Austen:

I would like to try to start incorporating short videos into library lessons. We all know students like getting to watch movies during class. With easy access to videos on all different topics, I need to try to take advantage of that. I also just got a new MacBook for work and understand it has a video editing feature which should make it feasible to show just clips from videos when I don't want the whole video. I want to explore how that works.

Week 8, Thing 19

2007-07-29T20:06:00.000-07:00

Library Thing is really great. I had set up an account a while ago and started using it to store book talks for recent books I've read. I also started adding books I've heard about that I want to read or get for my library. I didn't, though, initially take the time to find out about all the great freatures like displaying book covers on a blog or web page. So, I think I'm going to have to find somewhere else to store the books I want to read or consider adding to my library, since I like the idea of adding the Library Thing widget to my library page as a way of showing what I recommend. I've added a display to this blog for starters to try it out. (You can see it over on the right, below my Avatar.) So many options! Perhaps I can set up two different Library Thing accounts - one for books I've already read and one for books I want to read. So many choices...

Week 8, Thing 18

2007-07-29T15:27:00.001-07:00

Below is the I sent document I sent as a draft posting to my blog. Pretty cool - everything came through just as I had it in the docuemnt:

I am trying out Zoho, a free online word processor. It is incredible all the free tools available online. I like the cute emotions icons, like this one -- . It seems to have just about all the features you would need, at least for basic documents. For example, here's a table:

Heading 1	Heading 2
text 1g	text 3i
text 2	text 4

I can see that this could be really useful for sharing or collaborating in the future. For example, I recently drafted a proposal for new library software that all the librarians in my district submitted to our administrators. I created the Word doc, emailed it, then compiled all the comments and changes. I could have just created it in Zoho, and let all of them make the changes directly.

Week 7, Thing 17

2007-07-28T16:27:00.000-07:00

I really like how the School Libary Learning 2.0 team put together all the links to curriculum ideas for the different types of technology we are studying on the calcurriculum wiki. I did make a small entry in the sandbox and I found a suggestion for using wikis for book clubs and I added a few ideas to it. It felt really strange making changes on a page that wasn't "mine." I guess that's just something that I'll have to get used to if I'm going to use wikis :) !

Last school year, I started using a blog as a supplement to my library web page for events, hours, a few book talks, and book club meeting announcements. Now that I have explored wikis a bit more, I think a wiki would work better for some of this. I think I will try setting up a wiki for the library book club and use it for the book club meeting announcements, but also encourage the members to discuss books, add book reviews, and suggest and vote on books to read and discuss.

Week 7, Thing 16

2007-07-27T16:53:00.000-07:00

I read most of the links about wikis and was impressed by all the different ways they are used. The St. Joseph County Public Library Subject Guides are especially impressive. I'd like to promote the idea of using them for class research projects. Last spring, one of the language arts teachers and I collaborated on a project that had students contributing to a blog. I would like to explore whether a wiki might work better. I have two big questions, though, that I guess I'm going to have to do more research on:

What are the different options for free wikis, and what are the advantages/disadvantages of each? I didn't find a list of options in any of the resources. (Maybe I missed something.)
How, if we use a wiki for student input, can we control any inappropriate entries by students?

So, I guess I have my work cut out finding the answers to these questions :) !

Week 6, Thing 15

2007-07-27T15:10:00.000-07:00

Library 2.0 is one of those concepts that, one minute I think I have a good grasp of, and the next minute I think I really have no idea. I guess that's because Library 2.0 is really a moving target. There is always something new. As much as I try to keep up with all the new technology options that could help me do a better job serving my students, teachers, and parents, I never can. For each new tool I learn about, I find out about two or three more I haven't had time to learn about. This School Library Learning 2.0 tutorial has been wonderful in giving me a great boost with Library 2.0, but it's also making me all the more aware of how much there is out there that I'd like to learn about because it could help with the way I serve my users. I know logically that I can never master everything, but I have to do what I can to keep current. Otherwise, I'm in danger of failing to see when and how the library must change if we are to serve our users properly. I was taken with Rick Anderson's "icebergs" analogy - if we don't keep current and open-minded about how and what the library is and does and what we as librarians do, we will fail to be the guides to this ever-changing world of information and access we owe it to our patrons to be.

Week 6, Thing 14

2007-07-17T16:50:00.000-07:00

I spent some time today exploring Technorati. The suggestion to try searching for "School Library Learning 2.0" different ways was certainly a good one - the results were different with each type of search. One of the challenges I face with the students I teach is that so many of them try just one search of our catalog, databases, or anything we recommend, and give up when they don't get immediate results. For those students who will listen, I think one of the best pieces of advice I give them is that, if they want good results, they have to be detectives and do at least three or four different searches trying different terms and methods. I know I've wandered here a bit, but I think the advice holds with Technorati - to use it effectively to find something, you have to be prepared to do a variety of searches.

I have liked learning about a variety of tools that use tagging. I can't really see any disadvantage to tags, just advantages. To me, they seem like the current equivalent of catalogers' subject headings, but more free form. I like having books organized by Dewey, but you really need the subject headings or keywords you get in the catalog to make them accessible in a variety of ways. Likewise, the tags used by tools like Technorati and del.icio.us allow for finding sources a variety of ways.

I don't see becoming a regular user of Technorait right now (I already subscribe to more blogs than I really have time to read), but I like knowing about a tool I can use to find blogs if I ever want one on a specific subject. (And, I will remember to search a variety of ways :) ).

Week 6, Thing 13

2007-07-16T19:59:00.000-07:00

I have heard of del.iciou.us before, but hadn't had a chance to check it out. I had a great time! I really like the concept of being able to access my bookmarks from any computer (it's sooo frustrating knowing I have a site bookmarked at home but have to do detective work to find it from work, or vice versa). I also really like the use of tags (or, to me, keywords) that lets you find a bookmark multiple ways instead of the traditional hierarchical arrangement that limits each bookmark to one spot. It's like finding a book with keywords.

I definitely want to try to transition to using del.icio.us as an alternative to my regular bookmarks. I even saw that you can import bookmarks from your browser. The only problem with that is that I have so many old bookmarks - I would want to do a good edit/delete before I just imported everything to del.icio.us. (Another project! :) ) I also want to try using a set of del.icio.us tags for research project recommendations. I have a school library website where I add pages with links for class research projects, but I think using del.icio.us could enhance that, so I am definitely going to give it a try in the fall.

One of the libraries that use del.icio.us tags I checked out and really liked was the San Mateo Public Library. They have prefixed each tag with the high level Dewey classification, then grouped the tags under the classification number. So, you can look at the list of tags on the right side of the screen by Dewey classification category. Very cool.

Getting ideas from others....

2007-07-14T21:20:00.000-07:00

I was reading Rob Darrow's blog, and he referred to Kim's blog that has a very cool slideshow. So... I tried creating my own for my daughter's graduation. What fun. Thanks to both Rob and Kim.

Well, I had the cool slide show in here, then I realized that I shouldn't have pictures of people online without their permission. So, I've deleted it from here, but I had a lot of fun making it!

Week 5, Thing 12

2007-07-13T22:44:00.000-07:00

I visited Rollyo, and loved how simple it was to create my own little searchroll. I made one for the different sites I have listed as good sources for primary source research for my 8th grade students doing History Projects. Here it is:

I think these Rollyo searchrolls could be really valuable to add to my library webpages for different topics or themes. My only objection is all the interspersed ads. I wish I could have the same thing without the ad listings.

Week 5, Thing 11

2007-07-13T22:35:00.000-07:00

Well, I know the tutorial said to start exploring just one site, but I couldn't help dipping into a number of them. And, yet again (my fault, I know :) ), I got overwhelmed. For example, Care2 is a wonderful concept, working to get people to advocate for important causes. But, I felt like I could spend the rest of the day (or my life?) signing the different petitions, and still feel guilty that I exited without "finishing." There is so much great, worthwhile, and just plain fun stuff on the Internet, but I also sometimes fear I'll never get away from my desk!

Week 5, Thing 10

2007-07-13T16:50:00.000-07:00

I loved Image Chef and had a lot of fun trying some of the different templates. You can see one here. I also added one to the blog just above my avatar. (I want to make it smaller - I'll have to work on that.) I think I will try adding images like this one to my library blog, which I use for reporting library events, hours, book club activities, etc. It would jazz it up to have a fun image in each posting.

I also really like Comic Strip Generator. I like the idea given in the tutorial to use comic strips for directions. I was also thinking of trying to incorporate some into my library orientation. Last year I created a PowerPoint presentation to go along with my orientation talk, and I tried to include some fun images and sounds. I plan to go over it this summer and try to spice it up a little more. I think comic strips could help with that.

One thing that I can see will be a challenge will be keeping track of all these good tools we are learning about in this tutorial. I am constantly learning about new ideas but it is sometimes a little overwhelming trying to keep track of and remember them all. I keep thinking I need a new way of organizing things, but part of the problem is not just the quantity, but the fact that they are in different forms - emails, websites, files, paper.

Week 4, Thing 8 & 9

2007-07-06T15:34:00.000-07:00

I already had a Bloglines account, and have used it to keep feeds of a number of librarians' blogs. In order to learn something new, I decided to try Google's Reader. I just started using Google Calendar to update my school's calendar on our website and liked it, and have also been using Google Blogger, so thought I would try another Google tool. I'm also thinking of going with an iGoogle page as my home page. I'll be a complete Google junky before I know it :). But, I'm going to keep both Bloglines and Google Reader going for a while to decide which I prefer. I am also going to try subscribing to some news feeds, since I've really only used Bloglines for library-related blogs so far. (One of my goals for the summary is to keep up with the news better. Maybe this will help.)

Since I maintain my school's website, as well as my library website, I'm thinking that I should next figure out how I could make these sites have feeds so readers could subscribe to them.

Week 3, Thing 7

2007-07-06T13:34:00.000-07:00

It was hard to decide on just one technology topic! A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky to receive a new MacBook from my school district, which I got to bring home and play with to get acquainted with over the summer. The district recently passed a bond fund for technology needs, and is "rolling out" "presentation systems" consisting of a MacBook, Elmo document camera, projector, and DVD player to each teacher. Altho my first two computers years ago were an Apple 2 Plus and a Mac, I've been living in a PC world for a long time now, and need to get back up to speed with Macs.

Well, my new MacBook is pretty cool! I've got a lot I haven't yet explored, but so far I love the Phone Booth, and can see that being a fun way to incorporate photos into both lessons and student assignments. And, the zoom in feature will be terrific when I'm giving a lesson using the computer and a projector and want to focus on something on the screen. You just move the cursor to where you want to zoom in, then press the option key, the apple key, and the + keys together to zoom in. You keep pressing those three keys together to zoom further and further. Then, to return to normal, you press the option key, the apple key, and the - keys to zoom out.

Week 3, Thing 6

2007-07-03T15:58:00.000-07:00

I have to admit, all the options for doing things with Fickr are a little overwhelming! One I would like to try is http://flickrslidr.com/ which lets you display a Flickr slide show on a webpage. I have a slide show on my website that I created with Flash. However, since I generally update it with a new photo only about once a month, I find it difficult to remember everything I need to know to make it work right, so it can be slow and tedious work. Using a Flickr slideshow might be easier.

Week 3, Thing 5

2007-07-03T15:05:00.001-07:00

summer door
Originally uploaded by janethelibrarian

Happy Summer! This is a photo of a summer reading door sign my school's "school service" class made for my library door a couple of years ago. They made new door signs periodically for special events, seasons, and so on.

I am posting this photo since it is one of the few I have that doesn't include people, so doesn't require that I get their permission. Doing this exercise is making me realize that I would really like to be able to post more photos on my library website and blog, but am going to have to work on setting up a system for getting permission from people when I take photos of them.

Week 2, Thing 4

2007-06-26T13:50:00.001-07:00

I just registered my blog with the CSLA team.

Week 2, Thing 3

2007-06-26T13:39:00.000-07:00

I just created my Avatar. I first heard about Avatars from Jackie Siminitus at the CSLA conference last November at the Technology Committee panel. I have been curious about them since then, but haven't had a chance to try making one.

It took me a few tries to get the Avatar modifications working, possibly (altho I'm not sure) because I had pop-ups blocked. After I got it to work, it was fun looking for different hair, clothes, etc., and trying them out. As you will see in my Avatar picture on the blog, I am wearing a READ shirt. I love making READ posters, and I was inspired to get going with Week 2 today when I read Jackie Siminitus's CALIB post today about the virtual READ T-shirts. So, thank you, Jackie!

Week 1, Thing 2

2007-06-26T12:47:00.000-07:00

I found the 7 1/2 Habits slides interesting, altho (being a bit of a rebel at times) I wasn't willing to actually create a written contract with myself. I also had a little trouble deciding which items were hard and which were easy.

I decided that #4, having confidence in myself as a competent, effective learner, is fairly easy for me, since I take on a lot of new things to learn all the time and usually don't have too much trouble succeeding in learning what I want to.

#5, create your own learning toolkit, is probably the hardest for me, not so much because I can't come up with or find tools, but because I always have a lot of trouble organizing tools in a way that keeps them tidy and easy to find when I need them. (I'm a pile person, and constantly having to sort thru piles to find what I need. On the computer, I can never decide the best way to organize my files.)

#7 1/2, play, is also a hard one for me. I generally feel like there are so many things I must do before I can allow myself play time.

Hello

2007-06-26T12:40:00.000-07:00

Here is my first posting. I'm very excited about CSLA's new Web 2.0 tutorials program, and I'm very happy that I have more free time during my summer break to work on it. I have already created several blogs, but still have plenty to learn about them, and there are a lot of other tools covered by this tutorial that I haven't yet tried (including some like Rollyo I've never heard of).