ISLMA Conference Blog

For my last reading journal, I looked over the ISLMA Conference 2013 session handouts. Looks like there were many great sessions, and it would have been hard to choose ones to visit. Hopefully, in the near future I will be having to make those hard choices. I did like the wide range of topics that were being presented. It appears that librarians from all levels can find good sessions to attend.

I chose “Connecting with Comics” as my first session choice. As I looked through the power point, I really saw a great form of literature that gets forgotten. I think so many students could connect with the reading of comics. These also would be great for struggling readers. My second session choice was “Blogging the Bluestems!”. I really liked this idea of helping to keep the students engaged and accountable for the reading of the books. I think this idea could work for the Bluestem, Rebecca Caudill or Lincoln state award books. The third session I chose was the “Top Ten Reasons to be a School Librarian”. This session seemed to be a fun look at why to be a Media Specialist. Having a sense of humor is so very important in any work role, and I liked how she shared many perspectives as to why to work in a library.

Some questions arose when I read through the handouts and watched the powerpoint. The first question is why should the comics be separated from graphic novels? Maybe as a progress through my courses this will become more clear. Another question that I have is how long to keep the blog running? Should it start when the state awards are announced? I really look forward to attending the conference in person and actually networking with others in the field as that is so valuable.

Chrome

For my technology exploration, I decided to choose Google Chrome. Princeton Elementary District 115 that I work for replaced two labs this year with Chrome books and has encouraged all the staff to transition from Microsoft Word to Chrome. I have used Drive some this year, but wanted to see what else Chrome has to offer.

I first took a look at the Chrome web store. There are so many apps to choose from as well as varying cost. I concentrated on adding some apps that are free to try with my classes first before investing any money. The two that I thought would be the most beneficial to my classroom were Quizlet and Road to Grammar. I feel like I can use the grammar for my students in English. Anyway that you can enhance grammar learning in a fun way is more productive. Quizlet will be used in any class that I have. Currently, teaching the rotating nine week classes that vary in subject matter or in my literature or english classes Quizlet could be a quick check of understanding as in a review or a more formal evaluation.

I also looked at Drive a bit more closely. I have typed many documents, but I was looking for some other features that I use with Microsoft. I do not see an ability to make labels. I do make a lot of labels for different things at work and at home. I do not like that this feature is unavailable. I really like the fact that all work is automatically saved which is wonderful for students. This year due to some wiring issues at our school, we have had many power glitches, but thankfully with autosave no one has had to re-do any assignments.

I will use this tool in the future as I see my school district going in this direction. I think using the many features in the library would also be beneficial since there are so many useful tools. I feel as if Google keeps adding and changing which is exactly what media centers of the future will do as well.

I read an article from the September 23, 2013 issue of The Journal titled “13 Great Twitter Chats Every Educator Should Check Out” by Susan Bearden. I chose this tool from a suggested list on the ISLMA website. I picked this particular article as I wanted to learn about another use for Twitter.

The article discusses the opportunity to connect with colleagues worldwide with the usage of Twitter. Users seem to be passionate educators that are willing to share ideas, resources and give inspiration to each other. Tweetchat is suggested as a possible tool to use. Participants can follow without tweeting or when comfortable chat with the others. Many of the chats are archived since it can be hard to keep up. There are nine popular chats listed. The article also talked about how these chats are a great way to build your personal learning network.

I really enjoyed discovering this resource. There were many topics to choose from for reading. I think this journal could be beneficial for anyone in education. The idea of chatting with colleagues worldwide is amazing. Learning from others in the “trenches” is so valuable to anyone in education. Creating a large PLN is also a very important resource in the ever changing technological world. As educators and role models, we must never forget that we are life-long learners.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2013/09/23/13-twitter-chats-for-educators.aspx

Prezi Experience

I chose to explore the technology tool Prezi. In the past, I have created Power points and this year we are using Google which has led to me using Google Presentation. During our Milner scavenger hunt, I was amazed by the Prezi that we watched and became interested in learning more about the tool. The only thing that I really did not like about the tool was that to get more options you have to pay to use it. I really like free things :)

After setting up an account, I thought about something to create. Since I am working on Friendly Letters in my English class, I decided to make a Prezi with the five components. First, I chose a theme. I then began to add the required information for the Friendly Letter set-up: heading, salutation, body, closing and signature. I added text and photos to the Prezi. I did keep thing pretty simple as I was just exploring the tool. I used the prezi to review the letter format. My background knowledge with other presentation technology made this process easier. 

I feel like this tool will be very valuable to my students this year as well as in the future. Currently, you can use this tool for free. This tool can be used for a variety of projects, overviews of information or reviews. I think the visual moving of information is quite appealing to students in this digital world. As a future Media Specialist, this will be a great tool to share with staff and students. A Rebecca Caudill presentation of the current years list of books may be a great way to share a brief synopsis of each title. 

Journal 10

I read “The Privacy Problem” by Helen R. Adams. This article was from the April 2011 School Library Journal. I chose this article since it was from the suggested reading list and we have not formally addressed privacy yet in class.

Privacy is defined by Merriam-Webster as freedom from unauthorized intrusion. The 1974 Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act protects confidentiality of all student records (Adams 35). These rights include the records of what students read in the library. This is practiced throughout most of the United States. Librarians have always had special relationships with their patrons. They are there to guide them to what they are interested in reading about, and uphold the strictest confidentiality.  

Student confidentiality and privacy has been a focus in my school district the last two years. Our principal has reminded staff on numerous occasions that it is not acceptable to have students pass back graded papers, have students share grades allowed or grade other students papers. To me this has always seemed like a slap in the face. I truly can not believe that I work with people that are educators and they don’t understand the FERPA act! Everytime you go to a health care provider they inform you of the act. Why are we not informing our students and parents of these rights too?

As I venture into a career in the Media Center, I realize that there is a fine line for privacy. I know that there is the need for help from teachers and parents in getting lost books returned and how do you do this without informing them of the book that their student/child has? A few great suggestions came out of the article such as: not letting student helpers run the circulation, fold or staple overdue notices, do not label books with reading levels, do not group books by reading level, delete circulation histories, and be proactive to educate other stakeholders.

Pinning it

Pinterest is the technology tool that I chose to explore. I have been curious about Pinterest as I have heard many colleagues, friends and family talking about lots of ideas that they have seen and used. Creating a Pinterest account was easy to do. I simply signed up with my email address. I followed four simple steps and then started searching for interesting things to me. I did need to confirm my email account as well. On Pinterest, I started searching for library bulletin board ideas and I "pinned" two that I liked. There was a huge variety of bulletin board and display ideas. I think this will be useful in the library as well as in my current teaching role. I also looked at young adult book ideas. I always like to see what others recommend. Next,  I looked at language arts teaching ideas as well as technology. I can see that this can be a good tool for both my professional life and my personal life. There are tons of ideas that have been shared. I think this tool will have to be explored in more depth and quite frequently as it is filled with so many ideas and seems like it is updated often. I am guessing this tool is blocked at my school since most social networking sites are. I am not sure how I would use this tool with students. I think I would use this tool for the students. Many of the ideas of bulletin boards, lessons, technology ideas can be presented and shared with classes. I feel this will be true in the media center as well.

Pinterest

To weed or not...that is the question

I read the article "Crying Over Spilled Milk" by Gail Dickinson in the Library Media Connection April/May 2005 issue. After our class discussion from a few weeks ago, I became interested in the weeding process. I never had given much thought about what should happen to books when they are no longer being checked out. 

The author defines weeding as, "the ongoing process of removing resources from a collection." Librarians have the job of adding and removing from collections. Weeding is one of the many professional responsibilities that librarians have. Weeding should be done throughout the year. The author suggests to weed fifteen minutes a week as everyone can spare that amount of time as well as it is a great routine to get into. 

Gail Dickinson included two acronyms for weeding: MUSTY and CREW. From reading this article I do see the importance of weeding. I plan to use the MUSTY tool as a weeding guideline. I also will use the suggestion from the librarian that I interviewed for the Collection Development assignment she said that she started with sections of the library. I think the thought of weeding an entire collection is overwhelming, but broken down into chunks it seems like it could be more manageable. I am concerned about administration not being supportive of weeding especially with budgets so tight. My biggest fear is that I will weed something that is important to a staff member.