Henry's Freedom Box

Last Wednesday was an exciting day for some of our students. New desks arrived for several of the classrooms! I love to read Henry's Freedom Box to the students and try to find a box that is big enough to fit a student so they can climb inside after we have read and discussed the story.

The desk boxes were available so I decided to read the book ahead of my usual schedule. As you can see five students fit quite well. Even though the activity is fun the book has a powerful message that makes even young students think about our history.

Lesson 10 The Learning Process I would like to maintain my blog and keep up with the others on the list but my dream would be to have a blog for our school library. We already have a school web site so I would have to talk to our technology person and ask if we could somehow put something together.
These past two lessons were hard because school started and meetings and day-to-day responsibilities are starting up again.
I devoted a couple hours one evening to study all the resources that were given. The one thing I did notice is that I am doing some of the suggested things but not using the Internet. For example, I have my list of favorites in an order that it is very easy for me to keep track of what is going on instead of using the RSS. My biggest challenge will be to change how I am doing things and evaluate my time management. My immediate goal is to pay more attention to the emails I receive from the state library with the continuing education opportunities. I do appreciate what I have learned from this course and hope to make advantage of the courses that continue to be offered.

Lesson 9 Wikis Two years ago a teacher in our school had a short in service on technology and signed all of the teachers up with wiki. I don't think any of us understood how to use it and we didn't. I was frustrated because this teacher doesn't answer his telephone or use email anymore but he encouraged using the wiki system which I didn't understand.

I envisioned wikis as a replacement of email instead of a web-site where you could edit things. I have an completely different idea of wikis after studying this lesson.

I did get a bit sidetracked on this lesson. I found information about visual thinking strategies and also leaned about one library which is starting a "text a librarian service." From looking at the wikis it appears some large libraries are very community minded and one library even offers Star Bucks coffee.

The video we watched did not give me the large scope of how a wiki system can be used. I think I will have to change my mind about wikis. I did not have a very positive impression of wikis.

The one thing that still challenges me is what system do we use? Our school has a web site that most parents use. Do we also start a blog, a wiki or join face book? Will the people in our school community want to check something besides the school web site? Does it make a difference if your library is a small school library? I appears to me that large metropolitan libraries are using the newer technology. Perhaps larger staffs make a difference.

Lesson 8 Tagging,.....social bookmarking
I have such mixed feelings with this lesson! For several years I have used the favorite button on my Internet Explorer setting and just lately I sorted all of my favorite web sites into different files. I have an author file, library file, quilt file and others that pertain to my personal and professional life.
I set up a delicious account but it does not look simple to me. I like the concept because with this I could work from different computers. I will have to do some more studying if I am going to get proficient in using delicious.

Lesson 7 Social networking
My college friends were the first ones to ask me to join them on Facebook. Gradually I added cousins, nephews and nieces. It is fun to look at pictures and videos. I often send pictures along with emails but will probably do more of that on Facebook.
I am thinking about a Facebook account with our school library. First of all, are schools agreeing to a library blog, Facebook account, my space account if they already have a web site? Facebook might be a great communication tool if students would like it. I guess if they made the choice to join the information would be in their face. Again I have to think beyond my usual way of communicating.
I would love to know what other librarians are doing with their libraries with this new technology.

Lesson Six This lesson is stretching me. I wanted to do something practical so I decided to set up a calendar where I could schedule some of my tasks that are in my job description. Last week I contacted the local newspapers to send the newspapers subscriptions on our first day of school. I wrote that on the calendar. I will be scheduling other tasks for the weeks to come.
I don't know if I like going to the Internet to do this but maybe I can use this to work with other staff members and my library committee. It would be easy to make changes that might occur and use the input from others as we could all be viewing the calendar at the same time.
I could probably spend quite a bit of time studying the different applications that are available.
Right now with school starting I am busy but will try to remember that some of these documents could be useful in different settings.

Grateful for a Rainy Day!

Lesson 5 Scene Two Internet Video
It rained most of the day! If it had not rained I don't know if I would have accomplished this part of the lesson. I mow grass several hours a week!
It was easy to find a video but I tried several times to post it. I finally went to Blogger Helper and printed out two sets of directions. Having directions in front of me was a great help.
I found that I couldn't make any comments in the blog once I had pasted the video on the blog site. I did not take very much time to see if I could do it differently because I was afraid I would lose the video!
I do have one question. Are we allowed to copy anything off of YouTube?

Super Librarian!

Podcasts

Lesson 5 Scene One
I have not used podcasts and so have been learning quite a bit from this lesson. I did have some frustrations and did get into some sites that I did not appreciate.
I went to Podcastalley.com and searched for Library podcasts.
The Library Channel was quite educational. This Week @ Your Library is a weekly ad for the Mississippi State Library. The five minute podcast was an ad for their library which is very active with contests, historical displays and workshops that are offered daily. Library Lady Audiobooks offered the reading of Annie of Green Gables, Huckleberry Finn, and Pride and Predjudice. The Library Lady Audiobooks could be useful if a teacher had assigned those books to be read. Perhaps a student with reading difficulties could read along with the audio lady.
I do not understand how to add the RSS feed for a podcast to my blogline account.

Group Pool Pictures

Lesson 4a--Flickr Continued
Several pictures of the younger students in our library were posted in the SD Libraries group pool at Flickr. I didn't set up my account with our school name so they are under loisjo.
It was interesting to look at the other pictures posted there.

Trading Cards

Lesson 4b Trading cards
I could make a trading card but could not get it to be posted to my blog. I am curious how librarians use this feature. I am hoping it will get explained or I can learn from other blog sites!

I grow flowers easier than posting them!

Lesson 4b I am stuck. I don't know if I understand what I am doing or am suppose to do with this lesson. My computer also does not seem to cooperate today. They recently put in a new fiber optic line and my web sites come in slower than before. :(

I can find a picture I want and store it on my computer and retrieve it that way. As far as getting a picture from flickr directly, I have not mastered that. Also I am not understanding trading cards.

The picture of the dalia is from flickr. I love flowers and have my own flower garden but just don't take pictures as beautiful as the pictures that I see on Flickr.

Reading Inspiration

I enjoy being a K-12 librarian but find that every student has a different level of interest in reading. The two students pictured are in third grade.

The past few years our school has participated in a Prairie Readers reading contest. Each class is given a list of ten books to read and each student is expected to read each book. At the reading contest questions are asked about the books and points are acquired.

The girl pictured always had the books read in several weeks but then she would read the set of books again!

Next year we are going to have her start reading the set of books later. Once the student begins reading the contest books we prefer that they don't get other stories mixed up with the ones on the reading list.

Brooklyn is always an inspiration. She loves to read! Her inspiration paid off! Her group read all the books and won second place at the contest.

Flickr Lesson 4A

I did establish an account with Flickr. Now I have one more address and password to memorize!
I am excited that Flickr can store my pictures but after reading Jamie's recommendations I might want to check out other web sites. I have quite a few pictures on my computer. Putting them on Flickr might make me evaluate them and delete pictures that are similar. I would like to organize them by years or events. I liked the way you could make sets with a descriptive label. I tried to crop and use the other features. I did tag a few pictures "SDLibraries". However, my account name is not my school name so maybe I should have made a school libary account.
I am learning new things!

RRS

I have learned new information as last week was the first time I had heard about RRS on a relative's blog. I still have to digest the information as to how to use it. I subscribe to some web sites who send emails to me on a regular basis so do get some current information I want by that method.
I did go to the Goggle Reader and subscribed to a few blogs and websites. I will have to get in the practice of going to my Goggle Reader instead of viewing my favorite blogs on line to see if there are new enteries.
I found the Google Reader quite simple to use but will need to review the tutorial.
I still have to think of specific ways to use this new technology in my library setting and hope I can get some ideas from other librarians.

Twittering

I decided not to create a Twitter account today. I did read about the man who caused the firemen to search for him. I think students should read that same account! I am on Facebook and am a bit curious as to the difference between the two.
Perhaps our school could use twittering to find certain books. We enter a reading competition, Prairie Readers, each year. We often need 4-6 copies of a book. We can buy them from Amazon too but I am curious if Twitter could help. Often teachers are looking for books on certain topics. I don't know for sure if Twitter would be of help with that or not? I am not so sure how much our local community members use Twitter.

Lessons Learned

Thankfully I have gone from frustration to satisfaction and the habits we learned in Lesson One fit very well.

Before I started the blog I had in mind what I wanted the blog to include. I have several relatives who have some attractive sites. I had pictures in mind. (Habit #1)
I was tempted to call my niece and ask for help but decided I better do this myself. (#2) Finding the best template was a challenge. (#3)
It took a few hours to gain some confidence. (#4)
I learned to keep trying the previews and settings to get the effect I wanted. (#5)
I will start to think of a plan to use this blog with my students. (#6)
I will have to learn a bit more perhaps to teach others. (#7)
Making some changes with colors and fonts will be my time to play. (# 7 1/2)

Learning Curves

This experience may first of all be a lesson in perseverance in learning new technology terms. The page is not exactly like I would like. I can't seem to find a template that would make the picture I want to use the correct size. Either I get a huge picture that fills the page or a small picture at the bottom. I may have to work on that.

Can I do this?

I do not know if I will be successful. This is time consuming!