Thing 30: Final Reflections & What’s Next?

Thing 30: Final Reflections & What’s Next?

     Even though my five lessons are done, I thought I would add a few comments here under the final reflection.  I wish the year had allowed me to do all ten, but the five lessons I chose were great for me.  

     From the lessons I chose, I gained experience in working with Google communities which was good for me because we are pretty much a Google school. The ELA teachers are also very happy when I find other resources for them and share these in a way with which they are also getting better. On a side note, I have also begun some serious curation using Pearltrees which was a tool I looked briefly at last year and wanted to get back to. I have and am doing some resource gathering that I feel will benefit my teachers quite a bit. 

     I also have been using Evernote and its tools more and more to gather and store information I want to get back to later. I hope to make a few more infographics now that I have my first one done.

     Lessons 23 ~ Makerspaces and 26 ~ Take the Lead are the two that I hope I will continue to work on the most. I need to get more students involved with the makerspace. I did ask them what they would like to do and learn. I got some good responses that I want to follow up on and that will take some planning and time. It will be one of my major goals for next year - get more kids into and using that space. Lesson 26, though, has given me several ideas for ways to promote the library to all my stakeholders, but especially to students and parents.  I think I have lots I could be doing to reach out to my clients. Pleasantly, most ideas I have are not too time-consuming and are going to follow Heidi's short and simple rule. 

    Professionally, I have added several groups and people that I follow, either via FaceBook, Twitter, or Google +.  I have "listened in" on a couple new Twitter chats and done a couple more of the edWebinars.  I feel that I am keeping much more abreast of what is going on in this profession by simply reading and watching the social media of which I am a part. I also have worked hard to retweet and share items of interest to people who follow me. I am a die-hard edutopia fan!

     My biggest challenge this year was finding the time to get my tasks accomplished. Often, like now, I found I had to work late into the evening to get my work finished.  

     I do love working this way ~ at my own pace and in my own time. I love the articles you collect for each lesson. Reading through your suggested readings in one of my favorite parts of Cool Tools. However, I am not the greatest at setting aside time, but I still like this set up anyway.  :) I like that fact that at the beginning you list each lesson. That was how I decided to participate once again for the third time.  The best thing is that I feel like I have truly added to my tool belt and am prepared to lead students and teachers to some of these tools with a feeling of knowing what I am doing. 

     All in all, this has once again proved very beneficial to me and to my library.  Thank you so much for continuing to do this, Polly.  It is so worthwhile!

Thing 26: Taking the Lead: Connecting with your Stakeholders

     I watched the webinar called Your Stakeholder Connected Librarian Toolkit by Heidi Neltner. 

     I read the following articles:

• 10 things classroom teachers need to know about modern school librarians 
• Four Ways To Advocate for School Libraries
• School Libraries Transform Learning 
• Study Ties College Success to Students’ Exposure to a High School Librarian
• BFTP: What does a good library tell you about a school?
• Inviting Legislators Into School Libraries by Debra Kachel

     I watched/looked at the following:

• School Libraries Matter: The Changing Role of the School Librarian 
• Presentation on ways to Market Your Library and School 
• 10 Ways Librarians Can be a Marketing Genius Like Lady Gaga from gwyneth jones ~ I wasn't going to go through this, but one I started, I loved it. So much great information in nice short little snippets!

     I subscribed to Connected Principals.

     I am now following Heidi on Twitter.  

     After reading, watching and looking over the list of above resources, I am excited to have some time to plan over the summer for next year.  I feel that I am doing okay with reaching out to my teachers and administrators, but there are some simple things that I could still do - more of the "this is what I can do or have for you" type of things. I want to use Piktochart more and learn about Canva and Powtoons. As far as my student stakeholder groups, I want to get better information from the kids themselves so that I can better meet their needs and, more importantly, their wants. The parent group is the group that I may need to really target. I do have a fairly good following with the library FaceBook page, but I want to do more with getting information to parents to help their kids with research and information-finding. 

     Based on the notes I have from the webinar, I know I need to create short and simple messages that are direct and consistent with my programming. By adding visual elements to whatever I use to reach out to the different stakeholder groups, the products will be more appealing and more easily understood. One concern I have is that here in New York State where teachers are using the EngageNY modules, it seems like library use has dropped in several grades where there used to be a lot. I need to convince teachers that I can help them with what they have to do more than ever.  I think that through Heidi's webinar I have picked up several ideas for reaching my staff. I am excited about that - flyers, infographics, etc. that show what they can find, do and use in the library.  
     The one thing I don't have and just can't come up with is my own "elevator speech".  I would love to hear several from librarians who have come up with one.  But, I do have lots of ideas. And, for now, that works for me.  I did really enjoy this lesson, I learned a lot, and I think it will be one that I continue to really work on next year. 

Thing 24: Infographics

Infographics

I originally had this post filled with all that I had read from the Cool Tools suggestions - at least ten articles and several videos. I also had done a lot of research on digital citizenship which I am not going to be able to re-do.  I do not know what happened as I was just copying and pasting a statistic. This is crazy but I just zapped all my research and everything I had done to this point.

For now, I will just add the articles that I need to use to finish:

Cyber Bullying Statistics 2014 from NoBullying.com

11 Online Privacy Statistics You May Not Know from A Secure Life

NEW STATISTICS ON CYBERBULLYING, ONLINE SAFETY from Third Parent

11 Google Tricks That Will Change the Way You Search from Time December 8, 2014

Be a good digital citizen

FACTS & STATS: ACADEMIC INTEGRITY IN HIGH SCHOOL

Thing 23: Makerspaces

     I have been interested in Makerspaces for quite a while now. My library isn't perfect as far as layout, but I want to give it a try. Hopefully, working on this lesson will help me to get it going.

     The first thing I did was to read through the blog post and watch the video:

What is a Maker or Innovation Space?

Next, I read the article: 

Stop, hey, what’s that sound… Maker Spaces are Going Round

I liked several of the points in the article because I realized a space doesn't have to be too tech-heavy. I can start simply and feel out what students and staff would like.  :) That sounds good.

     I have picked my space - the study room off the library and have had one wall painted with Idea Paint so that it is one large whiteboard. See the picture below which is its first creative use.  :)

Drawing by Alyssa Sta. Ageuda, CPCS student

   

  I participated in the edWeb webinar, February 17th by Leslie Preddy called:

 Makerspaces: The Now Revolution in School Libraries!

I enjoyed that hour and spent a lot of time jotting down ideas as she presented.  Again, it made me feel like I can handle this by starting small-ish and working my way along. 

     I have decided to email teachers about the supplies I am getting together so they know. I will also ask about ideas they have for using the space and what I can help with to get their ideas into actions. I will also email the same information to my middle school and high school students. My plan is to also ask for donations of certain items for upcycling and recycling purposes. But, I am waiting on that until I better understand how much use the space may get.  I am also working on developing a Google form to get information about what the school would like as far as guided  offerings in the space.  That I will send out as soon as our mid-winter break ends. 

     I pulled out an old large metal cart that will serve as our storage unit and bought 12 plastic bins that will sit nicely on the shelves. As far as materials, I have gotten lots of art supplies, markers galore for the whitewall, wikki stix, a 3D pen and filament, small spirographs, a makey makey kit, several units of littleBits kits, and lots of legos.

      Next week, I am starting (I know, whack me on the head, another online course when I can't even keep up with this one...) a free online course in littleBits use and creation (http://littlebits.cc/invent-anything ) called "Learn How to #Inventanything" so that I can show my kids how to do this. I am very excited about learning enough to get the kids going.  

    I have purchased several books on Makerspaces and Tinkering and will have those as references when needed.  I also hope to create several pathfinders on topics that our students are interested in once I send out my Google form to them. last, I will add to my whitewall a "wish list/what I want to do" corner so the kids can make suggestions and give feedback as they work.  There will also be a supplies used area.  That is it for now!  :)

           Thing 22: Create a Resource Guide

    After reading the material on the Cool Tools post, I decided that I would try to do this using a tool that I had not worked much with before ~ that eliminated ScoopIt and Pinterest where I already have curated lots of materials and continue to gather great stuff for my teachers (the links go to my boards). Both of those collections are very general and for any and all teachers. 

Here is how things went.

Step 1: Audience

     It took me a while to decide for whom I should create a resource guide. I thought my ELA people, who are good library users and quite open-minded about trying new things, would be a good choice. I am focusing on the middle school/high school teachers for now (that is grades 5-12). 

Step 2: Tool for sharing

     I ended up deciding to set up a Google+ Community. We are a Google school; and even within my small ELA group there is a wide range of comfort levels as far as technology. I decided to go with what they know (or know better). Another factor is that it is easier to find information that we read.. First, there are not as many posts to deal with and to try to recall. Second, the community's posts are searchable. That little tidbit I didn't even know about until Polly mentioned it to me ~ thanks for that!!  :)  And, third,with Google+ it is easy for us to comment on each others posts, if the members choose to do that. The members of the group can also share,too. It does not all have to come from me.  Right now, the community is a private one, but I am planning to change it to public community just to see what the difference is.  

Step 3: Resource Gathering

     I am constantly watching Facebook and Twitter posts for educational resources for all of my staff. I have professional accounts for both to make it easier to find and follow what I want.   For the past few weeks, I have been more conscientious about keeping an eye out for ELA materials. Although I found some, I ended up going to Edutopia and Educational Technology and Mobile Learning and even Googling some resources to start.  Once you find some, then BOOM - off you go and there are lots! 

Step 4: Share, Promote, Maintain!

     Once I made my decision about the tool to use, I emailed the people and asked them if they would be willing to do this. With Google Communities, people are invited to be members. Next, I set up the community called Engaging ELA and invited the participants to join. All have done so. Twice, I have sent out an email with a message about adding some new resources. We are now on a mid-winter break and I may not hear much.  With most of the blogs and other such things I follow, there are "share" buttons to quickly and easily share information to Google (or Facebook or Twitter). Once there, I just click the Community that I want to share it with (as opposed to sharing it with one of my Circles) and the resource is posted.  I am trying to remember to add hashtags to the posts so they are even more easily searchable.  That takes practice!  :) I will invite you, Polly, to the group so that you can see what I have shared so far.  

     Hooray, I am done with this blog post and now will just be maintaining my Engaging ELA guide!  

     

Thing 21: Productivity Tools

     Things have just been hopping! It is January and I am just getting start with the first item, #21, in Track 3.
     As I have been reading over the material for productivity tools, I thought I would make a list of those I really want to use to start. Then I will trim the list to two.

• Tweetdeck ~ Very similar tool, helps you see your social media streams all in one place. Tweetdeck is desktop-based rather than web-based. Recently purchased by Twitter.
• Workflowy ~ Keep Workflowy open in a browser tab – add, delete, organize ‘to-do’ items very easily.
• Evernote ~ Not specifically a bookmarking tool, but it can serve that purpose. If you’re already using Evernote as a note-taking tool, make sure you add the WebClipper to your browser so you can save web pages too.
• Clearly ~ This tool is a one of my personal favorites. I hate pages with tons of ads. Clearly strips out all the advertising clutter so you can view pages without distraction. It installs a handy button on your toolbar and all you do is click the button to reformat the page. Highlight text on the page and Clearly sends the document and your highlights to your Evernote account. This tool is amazing!
• OneTab ~ Too many open tabs? Add this Chrome extension and save all your open tabs into a simple list. It will speed up your browser!

Article to read:

18 Productivity Apps

(Hooray!  I am glad to get started!!)

     Evernote

     I read the above article and decided to focus on Evernote to start. I set up several folders and then began to experiment with Evernote's Web Clipper and Evernote's Clearly. I am loving using them both. Because of this, my folders in Evernote have been tweeked and changed. That will probably happen more often. I have added the Web Clipper and Clearly tools to all my browsers so that can read, clip, and save whatever I need to and I can do it faster than before. What a find! 

     Today as I was getting set to start my day, I found that Knowledge Quest's "Technology Tuesday" tip features these tools. This article focuses on using these tools (plus a couple of other tools, too) with students for close reading. I can't wait to share this idea with some teachers whom I think will be really excited about the idea.  I am including a link to that article below:

Technology Tuesday – Tools for Close Reading

   


      I also have read about and started using Tweetdeck. I love Twitter and I use it most to share resources, ideas and professional education articles with my administration and teaching staff, who are also big on Twitter. Twitter seems easier to pick out and see the good stuff with Tweetdeck. I am hoping to see if others use this tool and if there are any tips for this tool, too.  So far I like the layout and design, but I had thought I could add things like my Google + and my Facebook accounts to it, kind of like Hootsuite. That does not seem to be the case. At least, I can't figure it out if there is a way.

     Those are the two tools for this session that are working well for me.  At last, I have finished my first session!! Not too bad, it is only February 10th.  :(

Thing 20: Tools for creating websites, pathfinders, portfolios and more

      I started Thing 20, like I did the others, (but in that it is a crazy time of year, maybe with a little less enthusiasm) and read through and checked out the links. I kept thinking about what I could do. I would read, look at the examples, work on my own projects and just couldn't come up with an idea. I had a teacher who wanted to start a project and I just wanted to get this done. Then, I thought just try combining the two - use the project and get Thing 20 done. 

     That is what I did. I decided to give Smore another look. I clicked around and figured I could use it as a sort of pathfinder. It took me more hours than I originally thought it would, but I like the end product and so does the teacher. Monday, I will email it to the kids and we will be off. 

    Here it is. It doesn't look quite the same as it does on the web page; but you can get the idea. It was actually fun to do. I used a few resources I hadn't before.  I like the look better than the Weebly look, I think.  I could not figure out how to format my works cited, but at least I included it. 
     I will be happy to get opinions. So, let me hear what you think, please.  I am happy to say I am now DONE!!!  :)