Surviving Day One

Well, I survived Day One of elementary school. After teaching high school for eight years, it was really different. I tied a lot of shoes today and escorted many kids to the restroom. Some had this school thing down--others had the "deer in the headlights" look. All in all, it was good. Tomorrow, I will have classes in the library by myself. I am going to go over basic rules and procedures. I also will show this video I found on Teacher Tube.

The Next Step...

OK, I have finished my summer classes and have 15 hours of my master's degree complete. Now what? Well, I will begin my new career as a librarian. Starting Monday, I will officially begin this adventure. Am I scared? Yes....terrified. I'm sure things will be fine, but after teaching high school for eight years, it is a bit intimidating to go into an elementary school. My library is great and my principal is very supportive. What more could I ask for? Right now, I just need confidence....well, I have a few days to find it.

Thing 23 - Summary

Check this out...I am finished with my "23 things"!

1. My favorite discoveries during this journey were, of course, all of the fun applications. I loved the Big Huge Labs website and the mashups. I also enjoyed putting together my PhotoStory and seeing the result of my work. I feel that I will be able to use these things in the library and the students will enjoy them.
2. This program has really opened my eyes to the world of technology in the classroom. As a teacher, I did not use too much technology. Now I see that I have been missing out! Working through this program has given me the drive to keep up to date with technology. I plan on further investigating all of the tools I've been introduced to.
3. The most surprising thing was acknowledging that I CAN be tech savvy. I must admit that it takes practice, but I now know that I can do this and put together some amazing things.
4. This program was very easy to use and the directions were well stated. The most frustrating thing about this program was that some of the information links did not work. Otherwise, it was very user friendly.
5. If there were another program offered like this, I would definitely participate. The "23 Things" program was helpful and I learned much more than I thought.
6. EXCELLENT!

Well, here I am at the end of this assignment...what now? One thing is for sure...after all of this work, I am definitely going to keep blogging. This will turn into my library blog and my educational journal. I'm excited about posting all of the fun things and challenges I encounter this school year as a "new" librarian.

Thing 22 - Nings

The Teacher Librarian Ning was really helpful. I was able to look around and get ideas for bulletin boards, lessons, etc. As a new librarian, I would need something like this to get another person's perspective or just to grab a new idea. I also looked at the Texas School Librarian Ning. This is helpful for book reviews and I liked that it is specifically geared towards librarians in Texas. There seems to be good information about TLA and issues that libraries are having in our state. These resources would be good for networking and getting support from others in the same profession.

Thing 21 - PhotoStory

Wow! I really enjoyed putting this project together. I used PhotoStory and put together a video about our family trip to Alaska 2007. I had been meaning to do this for a while. Time flies, huh?This video really made me want to go on another "big" vacation--maybe next summer. I hope you enjoy this.

Thing 20 - YouTube, Teacher Tube

I explored YouTube first to see what I could find related to library characters. I came across tons of videos from Dr. Seuss films. My favorite is The Cat in the Hat Song from the film. I remember seeing this a long time ago and thoroughly enjoyed viewing it again. I would like to use this next year when we are celebrating Dr. Seuss. I think the students would really enjoy it!

Next, I explored TeacherTube. This site is great to get ideas and some inspiration for making some simple videos. I downloaded a video on Agent Codee Books, Library Agent. This was comical because this special agent is fighting to promote reading and literacy! This is a great idea for elementary or middle school librarians to come up with their own character and make a video series to teach students about libraries.

Thing 19 - Web 2.0

The Web 2.0 awards site was great because it had all of the best tools on one webpage. It was easy to look around and click on the familiar ones and explore the unfamiliar. By far, Library Thing is one of my favorite. As I posted before, I plan on using this to help organize the library at my daughter's preschool. I have figured out how to use the catologing tool on that site. I also saw Flickr on the award list which is another favorite.

One of the new tools I looked at was Amiglia. This site helps one to build a family tree online using pictures and videos. It's kind of like an electronic geneology guide. I thought this would be good to use since I have a large family and we are spread out. Amiglia could help us stay in touch and see each other's families. One other that I liked was iFoods (Look and Taste). There were some really good looking Mexican food recipes that I would like to try. I might be able to do this when I'm not so busy blogging!

Thing 18 - Google Docs

I am really impressed with Google Docs. I really like how many people can have access to the same document. This could be helpful in meetings or gathering information for meeting or projects. Google Docs is more productive and is a big time saver when multiple people need access to the same information. One good feature are the templates that are included in the software for each document type. I would use this, but would still use Microsoft Office for all of my other needs.

Thing 17 - Rollyo

Rollyo is a great tool to use in the library. I like how I can set up specific search topics and the students will have access to only the websites I set up. This will be very helpful in an elementary setting because the students should not feel overwhelmed when conducting research. I set up a Searchroll on "Library Characters". I specifically did this for myself so that I can have access to these websites without having to go and look for them again on my new computer at work. Now I can get to them from work, home, or my laptop.

Check out my Searchroll at

http://rollyo.com/dsummers/library_characters/.

Thing 16 - Wikis

What is a Wiki? That is exactly what I thought when I sat down in Dr. Bishop's LLLS 6336 class three weeks ago. I had no idea what one was or how to use one. Now that I know, I'm thinking I really could have used these when teaching my classes in previous years. I'll be a librarian next year, so I'll definitely be using information like this make things fun in the library. I particularly liked the teacherlibrarianwiki. There is tons of useful information on this wiki and is going to be very helpful to me. I also liked the BookLoversWiki created by Princeton Public Library. In looking through the categories, I had no idea there was a "Chic Lit" category. The books look like fun reads... Now that I feel more comfortable working with wikis, I will be using them often.

Thing 15 - The Future of Libraries

Technology is updated everday, so it's only reasonable to think that this evolving technology will be part of education from now on. As librarians, it is our responsibility to keep up with the trends in order to make learning fun and innovative for our students. I would like to think that this will not mean students won't be drawn to books. Every child loves to be read to--if children are read to, they will grow up to be readers. As a reader, I like reading interesting facts and looking up things on the web, but nothing compares to sitting down and getting lost in a good book. Yes, technology will be part of the library, but I don't think that the need for books will be obsolete.

The video, "A Vision of Students Today", really hit me hard. I was kind of sad to think that this is the way it really is for students today. With all of the electronic devices they grow up with (video games, iPods, iPhones, dvd players) they expect EVERYTHING to be technology based. Who wants to learn off a chalkboard? I can't even remember the last time I saw one in a school.

Thing 14 - Technorati

I first explored Technorati while completing Thing 9. I found it useful to search for library related material. As I previously posted, I searched library orientation videos and was able to view a few. I'm planning on coming up with my own library video for the beginning of the school year. Some things I liked about it were the news feeds and information. (Even though some of the news posted is scary.) Some things I disliked about it were that it seems like there are just random topics that seem to be popular. It is a good tool if you know what to look for and how to look for it. This would bring me to the importance of tags. Not only tagging information, but tagging it correctly, benefits the users and makes things just a little easier when your searching for something specific.

Thing 13 - Delicious

Delicious is definitely a good way to keep all your "favorite" bookmarks at hand no matter what computer you are using. I really liked exploring some of the different websites I frequent just to see how many other had it tagged on their account. This is definitely a practical way to keep track of information and be able to access it.

Teachers and librarians can use this site for research by setting up tags that relate to certain subject areas. As the video displayed, it is a convenient way for teachers and librarians to share information on academic topics and areas of interest.

Thing 12 - Creating Community through Commenting

It is important to be able to communicate effectively if you choose to comment on a blog. The two most interesting topics on this "thing" were that the blogger should invite others to make comments. In doing this, the blogger needs to make sure that the information is appealing to read--in other words, the writing needs to be good and capture the audience. I find that as I am working through the "23 things" I am learning how to do this. The other topic that was interesting to me was being able to make a name for yourself as a blogger or a commenter. I understand that some people prefer to use an alias and there is a good reason why. In this day and age, people are paranoid about their identity. I think that if one chooses to use an alias it should be tasteful and inviting.

Upon searching for blogs that interested me, I stumbled upon a blog for kids activities and great information for moms. http://www.blisstree.com/playlibrary/ This has information from nutrition tips to back to school ideas. This is definitely something I would use. I also found the Money Coach's Blog at http://themoneycoach1.wordpress.com/. I was really looking for low cost vacation ideas, but this site looked interesting. There was information on buying cars, houses, and ways to save money. I'm really going to explore this one further.

Thing 11 - Library Thing

Library Thing is going to be very useful for me to catalog my children's books at home. This will will be helpful just in case I need a book from my home collection for something I am doing at school. I am really excited because I would like to help my daughter's preschool catalog thier books. They really don't have a system and are constantly getting book donations. This would be useful for them to keep track of the books they have in their small library. I added some of my favorite books to Libary Thing and am going to explore some of the groups more. This may lead me to some great reading!

Thing 10 - Online image generator

I love the online image generators. They are a bit addictive. I really enjoyed creating a word mosaic using Image Chef to create it at http://www.imagechef.com/. I am most proud of the trading card, which I had a lot of fun doing. I created the trading card at http://www.bighugelabs.com/. Both of these sites have tons of fun things to do using pictures. Users can also use photos from the creative commons section of Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/. I got my Batgirl picture in the trading card from Flickr, creative commons. You know, Batgirl really was a librarian! I can use these tools in the library to make posters, signs, and use images for different lessons.

Thing 9 - Useful Library-related Blogs and News Feeds

Finishing Thing 9 was useful to make more sense of Thing 8. (Confusing enough for you?) In other words, it was good to learn about searching for more relevant blogs to add to my Google Reader. Technorati was really useful to me because I could actually type in specific blog topics. I was able to find some video samples of library orientation videos. This gave me lots of ideas to create my own video for the beginning of the school year. Sindic8 was a bit more confusing and looked really intimidating. I liked Topix.net for news feeds. There was a variety of news from entertainment to politics. I will definitely use these.

Thing 8 - RSS

Honestly, I had never used an RSS before. It seems like it is a very useful tool. I see myself using this in the future because I frequently find myself visiting the same websites day after day to check on information. This will definitely be a timesaver for me. On my Google Reader, I added some useful blogs, focusing on information from School Library Journal. I'm hoping that by using this, I can keep up with some good information. This tool would be useful for administrators because it is a big timesaver--it makes sense to have the information come to a person, rather than the person searching the same sites over and over.

Thing 7 - Google Tools

I really liked exploring Google Tools. I particularly like the Google Calendar. There is a feature that will allow me to connect my calendar to my iPhone. The information on either device will be recorded both on the computer and my phone. This will be very helpful, being that my schedule is hectic. This will help me get away from recording my events using paper and pen. The other tool I was really interested in was the Google Advanced Search. I found it interesting to get the detailed information quickly. I also really was excited about being able to find PowerPoints. Great tools!

Thing 6 - Mashups

I had a lot of fun playing with the mashups. I couldn't decide what I wanted to do. I thought about using the Warholizer, but noticed that so many others had already used it. I really wanted to make my own trading card, but could not find the right picture. I decided to look at the other options that Big Huge Lab had to offer. I used a picture of my daughters and made a sketch out of it. This picture was taken on Cinco de Mayo and they were going to dance ballet folklórico at their school. (I made their skirts--they picked out the colors for the material and ribbons.)

Thing 5 - Flickr

I was surprised at the amount of photos in the creative commons section of Flickr. I enjoyed searching for different types of photos but selected this photo of a butterfly. I love butterflies and thought this photo was beautiful. Teachers and librarians would be able to use photos of insects during a science lesson. I thought I might be able to use pictures of the different stages a caterpillar goes through before it becomes a butterfly and tie it into "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", by Eric Carle.

Thing 4

Registering my blog: It was really easy to do this. I was able to e-mail my information and get a response back the same day! Now, I'm ready to play!

Thing 3

I really enjoyed creating the blog and making my avatar. It was a little difficult because I wanted to add lots of things to my avatar. I decided to keep it simple and keep it relevant to my career. It was a good experience but I was a bit irritated with trying to get my avatar to show up on my blog.

Thing 2

I really enjoyed learning about the 7 1/2 habits. I would say that the easiest of the habits for me is habit #7. I love teaching others and really enjoy it. The most difficult for me is habit#3. It is really hard for me to view problems as challenges. I need to do that more. It would definitely change my outlook on things.