Catching Up Again

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.