One Last Thing...

I really enjoyed this Learning 2.0 project. I feel this task was so practical and I learned so much that I know I will be able to employ in new ways in my future library.

Perhaps most importantly, I learned that I can figure things out on my own. There are so many great online resources and one of the areas we've addressed in this class is being a continual learner and self teacher. I feel much more comfortable in tackling what I know will be an ever-changing technology arena.

I also hope to be able to teach my students some of these newfound skills. And my guess is that they will actually end up teaching more to me than I could every hope to impart to them.

Wordle of ReesReading.blogspot.com

Podcasting (Not a flyfishing term)

I've used podcasts a little bit in my classroom in the past. Grammar Girl is a pretty well known Podcast and I used it a time or two to help me explain tricky grammar concepts. (I also listened to the ABC show Lost's podcast when this program was at it's height.)

I came across a podcast that features winners of the Isinglass Teen Read Award Nominees and winners. This award is designed, nominated, voted on, and awarded entirely by teens in New Hampshire. I get the impression it's similar to the Beehive Awards here in Utah. I like that these are books that have already been vetted by our target audience and I like podcasts, because they allow me to multi-task. For example, I can write a blog post about podcasting while listening to said podcast. 

Here's the link to listen to booktalks on the award's nominees and winners:

Teen Read Award Book Talk Podcasts

Doll Bones by Holly Black | Book trailer

A  middle-school librarian friend of mine recently posted this book to her suggested titles list and it struck my attention, so I found a book trailer for it. I love creepy stories, kids seem to love creepy stories. This trailer could certainly be a bit more detailed or engaging, but it does provide at least a certain level of creep factor. Can't wait to read it!

Tweet!!

Ahh. Twitter. I've heard a lot about Twitter, thanks to my younger students and their shorter attention spans. To be perfectly honest, I have avoided the Twitter subscription deliberately because I'm already on Facebook more than I would like, and I have felt I don't need one more social-media distraction stealing my time.

Nonetheless, for the sake of my future school library I have bitten the proverbial bullet and have become a Tweeter. Sort of.

The set up is quite easy, though it did take me a while to figure out how to get a Twitter widget onto my blog. I added a widget at another phase in the Learning 2.0 journey, but just couldn't remember how I did it! Luckily, there are tutorials for EVERYTHING, so in relatively short order, the problem was solved.

I can see the advantages of using Twitter as a school librarian. Perhaps primarily is that teenagers are using it more than Facebook, so if it's teenagers I want to reach, well, when in Rome...

School Library Blogs

These assignments take me so much longer than they should, only because I get so wrapped up in surfing around to cool sites and finding fun tools. It's a good problem to have. Using my newsreader of choice Feedly, I was able to find a lot of great new blogs, some for professional use and some for personal interests. 

Here are a few that piqued my interest in regards to library media:

• Book Riot

This is from their "About Me" page, in order to give you a sense of what this book review blog is all about: 

Our Beliefs

1. We create.
2. We always prefer the book to the movie.
3. We riot as a team.
4. We geek out on books, embarrassingly so.
5. We’re leaders.
6. We practice charity.
7. We miss our subway stop cause the book is that good.
8. We are non-traditional.
9. We believe in family (bookshelves and cats count).

I like their quirky nature and out-of-the box mentality. 

• Library Stuff

This is a site with articles about new technologies and staying on top of professional development in the field. Always learning--Always growing. 

One more, although I found many I hope to check in on whenever I can: 

• School Library Monthly

Here is a nice descriptor I found in the information they provide to potential advertisers: 

SLM content offers an instructional focus for school librarians. Each SLM issue has several feature articles and specific columns that help school librarians rethink, reenvision and reimagine their programs and instructional practice. For example, Library 2.0+ gives practical guidance in use of online tools for instruction and professional development; Active Voices offers support and guidance for readers as they work to lead advocacy efforts for their programs; Key Concepts provides orientation to key concepts in education and instruction; and Notes from the Field offers a forum for
sharing ideas and best practices. Timely Topics offers articles that focus on literature themes, recommended book titles, and links to instruction, as well as extensive lesson plans and strategies for inquiry. Other columns address leadership, current research, trends and issues, professional development, and issues related to privacy and intellectual freedom.

All of these columns seem like they will be very helpful in helping me to stay innovative and on top of best practices.  

Technorati

I could spend hours on this website if I allowed myself. Technorati is a blog search engine. It allows the user to search blogs, but also specific blog posts. What I found particularly interesting, however, was looking through the site's "Top 100," which lists (obviously) the top 100 most frequented blogs. It also charts which blogs are rising and falling in popularity. Probably not surprisingly, celebrity, political, and techie blogs seemed to dominate. I did come across a few new blogs that I'm excited to start following with more regularity.

I did a few searches on random topics I'm interested in to get a feel for the site. I searched "school libraries" in the "blogs" search category and found a handful of great blogs published by librarians or educational groups. Yet to me it was also interesting to search this same topic in the "blog posts" category because it gave me the perspective of what people are saying about school libraries outside "the biz" (outside the profession--just articles or posts from the general public). I think it's important to not get too stuck in our education bubble, but remember to get a perspective from people who aren't frequently reading educational articles or understanding the issues from an insider perspective.

I also searched "Utah runner" and found...absolutely nothing on the topic. I did find a great blog about trail running in the Wasatch Front, which is something I'm interested in getting in to, but there are no blogs, at least according to Technorati that features running specifically geared to Utahns. Very interesting. Maybe there's a market here. I may decide to become a part-time blogger. Watch out Huffington Post.

Here's a link to the site:
Technorati

Diigo!

I'm excited about discovering this new site/app Diigo. It allows users to bookmark cool or useful sites, but much more than that, it allows them to highlight, take photos, make sticky note additions, and save pages without fear of having the link broken in the future (it's saved as HTML and a picture, so it won't disappear months or years down the road).

Everything is saved in the cloud (like Dropbox for those of you familiar with this site), so it can be accessed from any computer or electronic device. Handy!

Click here for a super easy, super fast download:
Diigo

Here's a short explanatory video/tutorial (the same clip is available on their homepage).

Poking and Prying with Purpose

Ft. Vancouver High School Library Media Center 09, a photo by WA State Library on Flickr.

This wall stands out to me not only because I like the idea of having inspirational, literacy-focused quotes around a library, but because it's also a reminder of my role as a teacher of research and info technology skills.

7 1/2 Habits of Lifelong Learning

Learning has always been a key component of my life. This is not to say I have always been a perfect student or that my brain power is any stronger than most; I only mean that I love to learn and I have always valued the importance of knowledge.

When I was a student, school was always my first priority. Getting good grades was always important because I wanted to go to a good school. When I finally graduated from college, then, I was left with a bit of a void. What do I do now? Learning had always been such a big priority, without courses and assignments in front of me, I eventually found myself feeling a bit of a hole.

It didn't take me too long, however, to figure out that for me I had to find something new, on a continual base, that I was learning or trying to get better at. For me, this has been a continual process of hit and miss. I try some things, like crafting (e.g., scrapbooking, crafty wood project things) that are usual epic fails and that I've learned I just don't really like doing despite the fact that many of my friends do enjoy this, and then there are other things that I've discovered I thoroughly enjoy and seek to learn more about (e.g., running, exercise, photography, library science).

One of the listed habits in the "7 1/2 habits of a Lifelong Learning" piece was that it's important to have confidence in one's ability as a lifelong learner. This is something that I wasn't always very proficient at. I tried a few things, didn't like them, and started to develop the mentality that I was in a rut and that learning new things should take a back seat. Now, though, I've realized that it's more a matter, for me, of finding "what sticks"--finding the things I DO enjoy and moving past the ones I don't.

One thing I need to work on however, is having a more solid end goal. I often start things on a whim and I need to be better in many instances on thinking through the end product a little better before jumping in with both feet, or having more of an end goal in mind.

Learning, however, even when it ends up being something that one doesn't ultimately pursue for very long, is always good. I feel it's a process of continually bettering one's self because that process makes us happier, more well-rounded people. That sounds like a great end goal.