Not 2.0 but a great experience

When I began to plan what the library experience would be for my students this year so many (actually too many) ideas raced through my mind. I had signed up to be part of a district committee that was concerned with improving what we did with the arts in our schools. We had one meeting at the end of last year and will meet again soon. I really wanted to find a way to bring the arts into the library in a concrete manner.
So I decided that once a month I would introduce the students (through a mini lesson) to a famous artist, composer, musician, or performer. This past week was my first venture into this project. My choice to start.... Beethoven! And what serendipity that he made the news a couple of days into the week (http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2007-08-28-beethoven-doctor-death_N.htm?csp=34 ).
I see all grade levels during the week from K to 5th and tailoring a lesson to appeal to that broad of an age group is not something I try too often. But I had committed to this project so I forged ahead. I started out by asking if they knew who Beethoven was. It was not surprising to get the following answer from almost every class, "Beethoven's a big slobbery dog." I shared some brief facts about Beethoven and then I played Beethoven's 5th Symphony and asked them if they recognized it. Most of them had heard it before (it's in Disney's Fantasia). We talked about how he could write music for so many different instruments. And then I played Moonlight Sonata (my favorite). I told them that I thought it was a very sad piece of music.
I finished up with the very funny "Beethoven's Wig" by Richard Perlmutter. If you have never heard or seen this book/cd, I highly recommend it. I ended the lesson by asking them what they thought of when I said Beethoven now and no one said a slobbery dog!
The best review of the week I got was an email from the mother of one of my third graders. "Yesterday Kent got home from school and could not stop talking about the music he heard in the library. Could you please let me know what you were playing so I can try to find it for him?"


Next month...Georgia O'Keefe!

Now what?

It was nice to get the congratulatory messages from the SLL2.0 cheerleader squad on finishing the course. I really have appreciated the encouraging words throughout the process.

But what now? Where do I go? It was nice to have some with the map in their hands, someone who could be the GPS voice telling me to turn here and that there's a rest stop there.

I decided to take a look at the folks who have also completed the experience to see what others have discovered along the way and what I can use.

My first stop was at http://slimlibrary.blogspot.com/ . I was pleased to see an entry about Voice Thread. I have just heard about this tool through our district technology wizard who is holding a workshop on it this month. Of course I travelled to the Voice Thread site to explore (http://voicethread.com/ ) and after spending some time there my mind started racing with ways I could use this in the library.

One of my challenges as the Library Media Technician is being in two places at once. I immediately thought that I could use this to create a lesson a teacher could use in the lab while I was in the library. It's the next best thing to cloning yourself!

I also thought about the research reports our fifth graders do each year. I have seen great students who are well prepared but, who fall apart when they do a power point presentation. Voice thread would allow them to record their presentation.

I have a child in kindergarten this year. What could his teacher do with voice thread? Well, they have been studying sunflowers and painting beautiful pictures of them. (This is the one he brought home today!) She could scan the paintings and then record the children telling about sunflowers.

First graders at my school learn a poem a week. Take a picture of a different child each week and have him/her recite the poem. It would make an amazing Open House presentation.

In the library I can invite students to create digital book reviews and use them as commercials when classes visit.

Now I can hardly wait for the Voice Thread inservice. My mind is still racing. Thank you, Slim Library ( http://slimlibrary.blogspot.com/ ) for this find!

Week 9 Thing #23!!!!!!!

I made it! September 1st is still a couple of days away and I have finished this journey. I started back on May 11th after the CCCOE training on 2.0 and that motivated me to take on this task. It has not been without the bumps in the road, the potholes and the detours. Like so many women today, I'm a working mom with a busy life outside of school. I work at a year round school in a twelve month position so my "summer" break was three days at the Fourth of July. To say that I feel a great sense of accomplishment for finishing on time is an understatement.

I have enjoyed this experience and reccommended it to those I work with. I have introduced several of the tools to others on my school's staff and plan to continue to do so. I've used the things I learned both professionally and personally to enhance projects that I'm working on.

My favorites? del.icio.us has made my life so much easier. And I even got my family hooked on using it. Now, no matter what computer I'm using, I have access to my favorite sites with ease. Flickr and the image generators have been so much fun and a very easy way to share pictures. Zoho will also be something I take to the teaches as an option for students.

I liked the format that CSLA used for this "course". I think for me, dividing it up into 10 or 12 weeks would have made it seem less rushed but I did take a few weeks off here or there. I think one of the big plusses for me was the work at your own speed format.

I'm going to keep my blog going. One of the benefits for me personally has been to remind me how much I enjoy the writing process. It has been fun reading the comments left by others too.

I would definately "sign up" again if you offered a second trip down the 2.0 road.

My one word summation ... it was a "trip"!

Week 9 #22 ebooks and Audio Books

I like audio books. The same desire to read just one more page before I turn off the light is what makes me take a little longer to find a parking spot while I listen to the rest of a chapter in the car.

My family used to camp a lot. My dad, a fan of the old time radio broadcast, would bring along a cassette recorder and we would sit around the campfire or in the tent and listen to "The Shadow" and "Mystery Theater." I loved them. Audio books are reminiscent of those old broadcasts. And, depending on the skill of the narrator, they can be just as theatrical.

They are also a great resource for that reluctant reader, the ELL student, and the struggling child. An audio book reveals the magic of J.K. Rowling and Cornelia Funke to the 5th grader who is still at a third grade reading level. It lures a child who only checks out Goosebumps books to the worlds of Poppy & Rye and Henry & Ribsy. And once you've got them...you've got them!

eBooks are another story. I checked several different eBook sites. I noticed The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards on eBooks.com and it made me a little sad. This was a book I truly devoured and I thought how much I enjoyed turning those pages, carrying the book around with me and passing it along to a friend that I thought might also enjoy it.

You trade that away with an ebook, I think. I want to feel the cover in my hands, see it sitting on the table silently urging me to finish the task at hand so that I can pick it up and see what's going to happen next. I found one of my childhood favorites at Project Gutenberg, Five Little Peppers Grown Up. ( http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=7498 ). The good thing I can say about an ebook is that you very well might find a book that is out of print. But still, I'd rather find it in a used book store or on ebay.

So if I was casting a vote, audio books would be the hands down winner. (I know there are eBook fans out there...I'm just not one of them.)

Week 9 Thing 21 Podcasts

That's Little Lightning visiting the Matterhorn in Switzerland!

Podcasts are an useful tool in the classroom and the library. It opens up the world to students. A podcast can bring an author into the library when the budget can't.

I found a storyteller named Mr. Howerton who tells Kipling's Just So Stories. He has a great voice. As I listened I instantly thought of one of our third grade teachers who uses fables and trickster tales throughout the year. I will be sharing Mr. Howerton's site with her soon. I subscribed to the RSS feed for this site. It's located at http://mr_h.podomatic.com/ . This was found in the Educational Podcast Directory. In Podcast Alley I found Learn Out Loud which has Aesop Fables podcasts. The site for this is http://feeds.feedburner.com/AesopsFablesPodcast .

Even though Itunes has been around for a while, I think the use of podcasts in the classroom and library is still in its toddler stage. There is a great potential here for distance learning. I think the classroom experience for students who are homebound or hospitalized could be enhanced through a podcast.

On a more personal level, what a great way for grandparents who live far away to read a nightly bedtime story. Or for a parent who is out of town to share that favorite book with a child.

Week 9 Thing 20 You Tube

I am not a You Tube newbie. I have explored it before. One of my favorite finds was a video of Kristin Chenoweth singing "For Good" from the Broadway production of Wicked. I love the variety you can find on You Tube and I have even thought once or twice about posting my own video contribution, but I haven't been brave enough to follow up on the thought yet.

One of my favorite components of You Tube is the "Related" side bar that leads you to other videos on a particular subject.

I chose this video from an old (vintage?) Reading Rainbow episode. Aside from the obvious dated styles it is fun and offers a great message. Hit play and "check it out".

I enjoyed the "Grand March of the Librarians" more than "March of the Librarians" but I am going on an intense exercise program before the CSLA conference in November. Are we all really that physically out of shape? I definately want to be one of the "hipsters" and not a "tote puller".

Week 8 Thing 19 Library Thing

I enjoyed Library Thing. It wasn't my first visit there but I had not established an account before. It's a little like snooping around someone else's bookshelf. You always discover some treasure hidden away between a classic and a biography.

I chose to list the 9 books that were left off my last Follett shipment for whatever reason. Some were out of stock and some were not yet published. I thought it would be interesting to see what others thought of those books. I found that all 9 of them were on the book lists of others, although, only one had a discussion attached to it.

I did think of a couple of possible uses by the staff at my school. Teachers always have their favorite books for certain units. Library Thing might be a good way for them to organize and share their lists with each other and with their students.

This is one of those tools that I think takes a good deal of exploring to discover all of the education connections attached to it.

Here's another picture of Little Lightning. This was on this summer's visit to France (We have a very well travelled staff!)

Week 8 Thing 18

What a great tool! Often I will work on a document at school and need to continue at home. I am hesitant to trust the durability of a flash drive and find myself emailing the document as an attachment instead. Zoho eliminates that. I was also impressed with how easy it was to use. I used it to work on this year's library handbook. This is something that I give to teachers at the beginning of each year. I have included a link to that document in the title of this entry. Just click on "Week 8 Thing 18".

I immediately saw the benefit to students. This year we asked that all fourth and fifth grade students have a flash drive to use. This way they could carry information from the classroom computer to the lab to home. Great idea in theory....not as great in practice. Since each student purchased his/her own, there were many different brands. Some loaded easy. Some were a nightmare. Also, having a 10 or 11 year old having to be responsible for this item's care has already proved hazardous. They are kids and kids play hard. The chance for a damaged flash drive is imminent. We have also already experienced documents that are created on word processing programs not compatible with our school computers. Let's face it, not every home computer has been updated! The result is a frustrated student who worked very hard on a report that can't be opened.

Enter Zoho! A student could work at home. Save the document and open it from any online computer .... the one in the lab, the classroom, home, daycare, or wherever. This would be a lifesaver for those students who shuffle back and forth between divorced parents.

Yes, Zoho is a definite find. I will be demonstrating this at the next teacher inservice. Thanks!

By the way, here is the latest picture of Little Lightning, our school mascot who is travelling around the world with staff members. This time he is enjoying watching the gondolas load in Venice.

Lightning

All last year I had a poster (compliments of Compass Books) taped to the wall of the checkout desk. It was a map of the world. My students loved looking at it. Because we are a year-round school, our very well travelled staff take many interesting trips during the year. I thought it would be fun for the students to see where we were going so I asked the teachers to take our school mascot, Lightning the Leopard, with them. I went on EBay and purchased several small beanie type leopards. I chose this size because they could be packed and take up as little amount of room as a pair of socks. I asked the teachers to take digital pictures and send them back to me. I moved the map to a wall and I'm adding the pictures as they come in. When I learned about Slide I thought it would be fun to try.

So far Lightning has travelled to New York City, Seoul Korea, Russia and Australia.

Techno Teachers

I thought I'd follow up on my comments about the technology inservice and lessons I did with the teaching staff at my school. The format was that I did three one hour sessions. Initially, I worried about not being able to fill the time. Pshaw! I ran out of time each at each session.
I have learned so many new things but I wanted to limit what I imparted this first time so as not to overwhelm.
I began by explaining del.icio.us and shared my personal experiences with it. As I mentioned earlier, the teachers received laptops that day and several of them mentioned that they had not been looking forward to redoing their bookmarks. When they learned that del.icio.us could keep track of them they were thrilled. One teacher did express concern about anyone in cyberspace able to see what you tag. The "do not share" feature was very welcomed.
All of our teachers are required to maintain a website and our district uses TeacherWeb. We've been using this for about three years and I spent some time going over some tips on working on their pages. http://teacherweb.com/CA/Laurel/SchoolHomePage/SDHP1.stm
The last part I tried to fit in was tips on their Ed1Stop pages. Our county portal had just discontinued linking to BrainPop for a variety of reasons and some time was spent on discussing alternatives they could use. We use United Streaming Video and Groliers Online and I talked about those features as well.
In upcoming staff meetings we will spend a little bit of time on mini lessons. First up is teaching how to use the calendar option and reminder feature in Microsoft Outlook. Also, in the near future I will be sharing image generating with the fourth and fifth grade teachers and brainstorm ideas on how they can use them in the classroom.

Week #7 Thing 17

I've given some thought to this posting to a wiki idea and I can see the value, especially in the upper grades. There are many, many options for its use. In an elementary school classroom a fourth or fifth grade teacher could set it up for students to enter comments on group research topics. I found it very easy to post to the CSLA sandbox and as long as there is an option to monitor the posts I can see it used to the benefit of our digital natives.

In my library I think this would come in handy as a place for students to post comments about books they are reading. A digital book club could spring out of a wiki. They would be an excellent vehicle for GATE students.

Another suggestion might be for the California Young Reader Medal committee to establish a Wiki with this year's choices and open it up to students and educators to respond and comment. Teachers and Librarians could submit suggestions (because you know we all do it differently) and the students could offer their opinions on characters and plots. Authors and illustrators could also be offered a platform through a CYRM wiki.

On a side note . . . I held my technology lessons with teachers at our opening day inservice (our students returned to school on July 11th!) and their favorite item was Del.i.cious! They all were receiving new laptops (courtesy of a very supportive principal) that afternoon and the idea of "portable" bookmarks" was a hit. At today's staff meeting it was heartening to see each of them with her laptop open and taking digital notes. Along with our site technology rep and the district technology educator we will be doing a mini tech lesson at every staff meeting this year. Like I wrote before .... we have a very supportive principal!

Week 7, Thing #16

English poet, Alexander Pope, wrote, "A little learning is a dangerous thing (An Essay on Criticism, 1709). That was my initial feeling about Wikis. My bias went so far as to convince the fifth grade teachers at my school to steer their students widely away from them as a research tool for students.
Because of this adverse opinion, I really felt that I needed to visit all of the samples in this exercise and give it close scrutiny. I think I was looking to validate my prejudice. My opinion of their value in student research has not changed. But now I can see that there is a place for the "wicked" wiki in the world even if it isn't my world.
The slide show created by Meredith Gorran Farkas, Norwich University, is an excellent tutorial for those wanting a clear picture of what a wiki can be used for. She also sums up, in the very first slide, the pros and cons. If you haven't already looked at it, I recommend you do (http://meredith.wolfwater.com/cil06/).

Safe Blog Sites For Students

This isn't one of the "things" but as I delve into this process I am trying to find ways to use what I'm learning at my school site. I would like to set up a blog site for my schools library. My dilema is that, even though I really like the ease of blogger.com, the "Next Blog" feature makes it inappropriate for student access. One suggestion from a trusted district tech guru was www.imbee.com . I would love suggestions of any others.
(The photo is our school mascot on a visit to NYC and the library!)

Week 6 #15

Before this year I don't think I had thought too much about 2.0 and what it meant for libraries. However, this entire school year has changed that for me. I began hearing it associated with school libraries at the CSLA conference in November and continued through this adventure. I like the idea that the library changes with the times. It isn't just a recepticle for what is past, but reinvents itself as new ideas come along.

In the OCLC article by Dr. Wendy Schultz (To A Temporary Place In Time) there is a quote I love. "Libraries are not merely in communities, they are communities: they preserve and promote community memories; they provide mentors not only for the exploration of stored memory, but also for the creation of new artifacts of memory."

Our students are definately digital natives. We need to provide libraries that speak their language and materials that appeal to them while, at the same time meeting the needs of curriculum and learning styles. But we can't throw the baby out with the bathwater. So the task for school library staff is to embrace the features of 2.0 while continuing to encourage (and sometimes even coax) books into the hands of children.

What will my school library look like ten years from now? My hope is that it will still be filled with children eagerly reading...delighted faces discovering exciting new worlds on the printed page AND the computer screen.

Week 6, Thing 14 Technorati

I looked up School Library Learning 2.0 on Technorati and saw my desk photo there. That was pretty cool considering that they are looking at billions of posts a day. I feel a bit honored to be included.
I am attempting the "claim your blog process" so here goes:
Technorati Profile

I peeked and saw that I was able to successfully add the favorite button. Whoo-Hoo! I finished the process, created my bio and added a new photo.

Tagging was new to me and I certainly like the aspect of being able to set them up to meet my individual needs. I have used del.i.cio.us quite a bit and have already told others about it. I am planning one of the inservice sessions for the teaching staff when they return in July and tagging is at the top of my list of things to share with them.

Week 6, Thing #13

Yeah! Something I think I will use effectively. Social bookmarking is a handy tool for everyone. At my school level it is a great way for students and staff to have access to bookmarks wherever they are and whenever they need them. So often teachers go from classroom to lab and have to recreate their favorites for students to use. Del.icio.us is the answer to that problem.

Personally, I have already been using it. I use several different computers (at my desk, in the lab, my laptop, my home PC and one at family's business) and have often searched for something I have bookmarked only to realize it wasn't saved on the particular computer I was on at the time. This feature has already saved me time.

Setting up an account was fairly simple and after rereading the directions (novel concept!) I found the icon on my tool bar and all was good.

I enjoyed peeking into other people's bookmarks and found some interesting and useful sites. Thanks for sharing this great time saver.

Week 5, Thing 12

The custom search is an excellent tool for elementary school. Our district restricts students from free range surfing the Internet while at school. Students are supposed to only use sites that have been preselected by their teacher. Our teachers have all created Teacher Web web sites and all have an ED1Stop account where they can create custom listings for students. We also subscribe to Grolier Online for students to use in school and at home. Although Rollyo seems to meet the needs, I think that the choices we have already put in place are good for us. In fact, when creating my search roll for this assignment I just cut and pasted the links I already had on my library website. Here is the link to my Rollyo search for Animals: http://www.rollyo.com/search.html?q=zoo&sid=292698 .
Moving along to week 6...

Week 5, Thing 11

I guess you just can't love everything about this course. This exercise was that for me. I looked at every one of the sites and really wasn't enchanted with any of them. The one I chose to follow up on for this exercise was http://www.43things.com/tag/family. On this site people list the things they want to accomplish. I started my list.

I also joined a Library 2.0 group on Ning. I didn't see anyone else who appeared to be an elementary library worker there.

One thing that I am a little wary about is giving too much personal information out, including my email address. Both of these experiences required listing my email address. I felt like I needed to create a new email address just for these "accounts" so I signed up for an additional Yahoo email.

It was nice to have the "play" activity prior to this one. I'm looking forward to moving on to something else.

Week 5, #10 Image Generators

Well, how fun was that? I'm afraid I'm a little tardy with this blog because I was having too much fun with the image generators to take the time to write. I tried all different kinds. I emailed them to my friends. I wowed my children. I even skipped lunch to play around with them. At the foot of my blog you can find my license plate. Both the lunch bag and license plate were created at http://www.imagechef.com/ . I also had lots of fun with the visual poems feature. This could be used successfully in the classroom, giving students a creative way to display their writing. I spent a lot of time going down the list at http://generatorblog.blogspot.com/ . This would be a fantastic resource for teachers but there are some links that are adult so I wouldn't send students there. Instead, I would select a specific generator for students. I must admit to sending out several emails using http://www.kakomessenger.com/ . You'll love Humphrey and Gina.
Thanks for the "recess".

Week 4, Thing 8 & 9

I was oblivious to RSS before this lesson. I wonder why? I am an avid online reader of news sources and I never noticed that little logo in the corner. After this lesson I went back to the newspaper sites I use and, sure enough, there was the RSS logo.

I created my reader in Bloglines. The feature that appealed to me the most was being able to set up playlists that were customized. I'm still sloshing my way through using it, but I can see the wisdom of having all of my news sources in one handy location. As far as using it in an elementary school setting, I could see the value of setting up specific playlists that tied into a certain unit of study. But, like most of the internet, there would need to be definite adult supervision.

I did a little sleuthing using the various tools and found that the Google Blog search and Feedster were my favorites. I think one would have to limit their search time because you can certainly get carried away with the many avenues the searches open. I have already added several sites to my Blogline and will probably need to do more.