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!