Thankful

Things I am thankful for this year:
1. Staying in Katy (and not having to move)
2. Support of my family at home when I have lots of school work to do!
3. Great people to work with at Meadow Wood!
4. Good health for all those I love and care about.
5. My faith - that it is still strong and carries me through each day.
6. The love and understanding of my husband
7. Students who are willing to learn
8. Enjoying the challenges of my job
9. Finding time to spend with my friends
10. Other people's babies! :)

Life after Ike

There needs to be a t-shirt or a stamp that I can show to everyone that says,"It's all Ike's fault!"

This year will never feel normal thanks to the interruption of Hurricane Ike about a month ago! Houston was hit pretty hard, and many of my students, family, and friends were without power for over 10 days. (Luckily where I am in Katy was well protected and we had power throughout. I had power guilt and found myself offering help to anyone I could get in touch with.) It was quite an adjustment, to say the least! We were out of school for 7 days, and when the kids came back it was like starting the school year over again. Their lives were different, and it affected them in many ways. During that first week back I turned out the lights to get their attention, and I quickly turned them back on as I noticed the panic in their eyes. They didn't always have the words for it, but they were deeply affected. My class is still working on telling their story to get their emotions and experiences on paper. Many of them saw destruction in their neighborhoods, but so many more helped family and friends clean up fallen trees, leaves, and branches. It made them appreciate things, become aware of the worries in the world around them, like the fear of something like that happening again, and needing to be prepared. So in many ways I am thankful for Ike in showing us that we can live without the conveniences of the 21st century and simply enjoy one another's company, but even so, it's still all Ike's fault!

Thoughts on how we treat others

I am taking a "Multicultural Education" graduate class this summer session, and it's got me thinking! In our online "discussions" we have talked a lot about how our classrooms need to reflect the world, and we need to be teach more tolerance so that the stereotypes, ignorance, and hatred will have a chance to come to an end. It has made me be more conscious of how I treat people of different cultures that I come in contact with. I try not to be so quick to get frustrated when I can't understand the checker at the grocery store or the customer service rep on the other end of the phone. I try to use my "active listening" and repeat what I think they say, enlisting my patience and requiring me to be attentive to the person.

This class has also made me more attentive to issues of other cultures in the media. Two sites I would like to share are:
1. The Houston Chronicle columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr. has ran several pieces on the good things going on in the African-American culture: "What_Works"
2. The Heineken Ad - I am not a beer drinker, but I love the idea behind this ad! If everyone could see that we are all just people who want to enjoy life! Share_the_Good

I hope this leaves you inspired to make just a little change!

Dog Days of Summer

Most people would say that I have 2 more months of summer vacation, but if you are in the field of education for very long you know that is not true! So, in essence, half of my summer is over just like that! It's amazing how helping with vacation bible school, taking statistics, and trying to keep 2 school aged kids busy makes the days fly by! On top of all that we've had swim lessons, trips to the pool, family get togethers, and movie outings.
Movies have to be my favorite summer passtime! My husband and I saw the "Indiana Jones..." movie and were a bit disappointed in it. It was a fun movie, but lacked some plot elements. We took the kids to see "Kung Fo Panda" and "WALL-E". Those were fun movies to see! Enough tenderness, action, humor, and excitement to keep us all attentive (and cheering at the end). What made all of these movies fun to see is that they were digital showings. So, no fuzzy blips across the screen as you watch the movie! It is fabulous, and probably the only way I'll get my husband to take me to a movie from now on! And now that we've exhausted the new movie choices, we will partake in the "Summer Movie Club"s at our local theatres. Both Cinemark and AMC_Theatres have fun selections. At this point in the summer anything that is inexpensive and gets us out of the house is great fun!
The next best thing about summer is that I get to read book for fun! I have already finished 4 novels and have started 2 others! This is amazing as I have had to read statistics everyday for the past 2 weeks too. Check out the new addtions to my bookshelf! I reccommend them all!

Thing #21: Podcast

I have been trying out Photo Story at school with my fifth graders. We are learning that the Civil War was one of the first US conflicts documented by photographers. So we have been looking at the stories we can tell using pictures as our backdrop. Here's one that I made to show how something simple can be powerful.

Thing #23: Comments

It sure was easy to get lost in these discoveries! I would find myself delving into all sorts of fun and interesting places! I have learned so much about what is really out there on the world wide web. Before I started, there were Things I had never heard of, or had heard mention of them but had no idea what they were! Now I have tried some of these weird Things and like them! Plus, I feel confident enough to share my knowledge with not only my students, but teachers and my family as well! Thanks for making this available so that I could learn how to be a part of the cybersphere in a more meaningful way! I can't wait for the next installment!

Thing #22:Ning

People keep finding new ways to connect! I remember when I was so excited to have a Pen Pal from another city! Now I can just click, and instantly I can be connected to a group of people who have my same career, interests, and concerns, but may be miles away. I see myself using a network like this more so than My Space for professional connections. I have been a part of Scholastic Teacher Exchange for several years, and look forward to finding a librarian Ning that suits me as I learn all about this profession! What I have loved most is being able to post a question and within no time people have respond with wonderful suggestions and ideas!

Thing #20: Teacher Tube

Currently my students and I are learning about the Civil War and playing with Photo Story, so this video was perfect!
I love how many digital videos are available through different avenues. However, it's sometimes cumbersome to go through the volume of results, and then sort through the ones that are actually made by children. It's great to have places for students to "produce" to on the internet, but sometimes I think it would be better to have a separate place for students' work. A few sources about digital storytelling are Center_for_digital_storytelling and UH-Digital_Storytelling. I have had lots of fun learning how to make digital stories! They are so simple, but can be very powerful! It will be something I try to introduce my students to every year from now on.

Thing #19: Campfire

I am not a frequent instant messenger or chat room person, but I have been trying to think about how to incorporate this type of communication in my future library. I viewed the tour video for Campfire, an instant messaging for groups website. You set up a password protected page, and up to 60 people at a time can be in a "room". The neat thing about it is you can share files, links to websites, and images as well as "talk" to one another. I'm wondering if this would work as a "homework help" or "virtual reference desk".
Something fun I tried was One_Sentence, which as it's name suggests is a website of one sentence stories. Talk about getting to the gist of a story! What an exercise of word economy! It was fun to browse and read the things people have shared in just one sentence - from the touching to the humorous thoughts. The best way to find something on a particular topic is to go to the "stories" tab and find the tag cloud. I like this one about kids "Asked by my small daughter, 'How long does a clock take?', I had to wonder." Aren't those little grown-ups just amazing? (I submitted one, but won't know if it's posted until I get the confirmation email.) Update: Here's the link to my submission: http://www.onesentence.org/stories/2112/ Enjoy!

Thing #18: Online productivity tools

I used Google docs on a project for one of my classes. This again made sharing the workload so much easier. We were each able to work on parts of our assignment when we had time, without having to email updated versions to one another, or arrange to all meet at one place to get it done. That is the main advantage of online tools - ability and ease of sharing them! Another great feature is that you can then publish a Google doc to the web, like we did for our
webquest. I also like that you can access them from anywhere - no matter whose computer you are using! I'm not sure I trust them for all my documents, but for things I might need elsewhere, it might be handy to be able to login and see it wherever I go!

Thing #17: Sandbox

Such great comments and suggestions to play with in the Sandbox! I latched onto one, and I am going to have to make it happen! Someone suggested making a wiki for teachers to post books they use for teaching reading and writing skills. That would be great! And it could be organized by grade level, so other grades see what has been used in the past and try to find new books so as not to keep repeating the same book over and over. Also, I thought content pages would be helpful. I love teaching math, science, and social studies through informational picture books! It would be such a great resource for teachers to be able to access, contribute to, and use in a very real way! I will add a link when I establish the wiki, or find one that has already been started! Keep playing everyone! :)

Thing #16: Wikis

Wikis are so cool! It's so much better than you email me, I email my friend, and so on and so on. With a wiki everyone has access to the same information at the same time, and it's all in one place! I used one for a group project so that my partners and I could post things we found to use in our presentation. It made it so much easier to keep track of what we still needed, and who was doing what. Then my husband's family was trying to organize things for a family get-together, and the email trail was getting to be ridiculous, so I offered the idea of a wiki and everyone loved it! Of course there were those who felt un-techno-savy who needed email reminders, but for everyone else it was great! They were even able to post pictures for a PowerPoint someone was putting together to show at the party. I was so proud to be able to educate my in-laws and make their coordination so much easier!
Plus, there are so many great things to use a wiki for in the library! Here are a few: have teachers post websites, rubrics, lessons, worksheets to share; have students post book reviews under genre headings; students can share the best websites to find information for projects or topics of interest; parents and teachers can use a wiki to communicate needs, concerns, suggestions, or help. I love all the wikis out there about libraries and books! My favorite link I found was to the Guys_Read website. Sometimes it's hard, being a female teacher-librarian, to figure out just what a 10 year old boy might want to read, but this place takes care of that for you! The hardest part about all the sites out there is that I don't know when I'll have the time to peruse them all, and where I will keep track of the ones I like! I guess I'll add them to my "delicious" page for safe keeping!

Thing #15: Library 2.0

As a library school student, I must admit that I started this journey because I really love sharing books with students! So thinking about the library changing from what I knew as a child to what it will be when I have one of my own makes me a little nervous. However, much of what I have learned this semester reminds me that books are great, but students really connect to the digital world. It's strange to me. I don't particularly enjoy sitting for hours in front of the computer, but boy is it a great way to connect and learn! I struggle with what to embrace. I think I have decided that I will love both the print and the digital elements of my future library. You just can't have one and not the other!
The writers of the OCLC newsletter had some great thoughts on the impact of Web 2.0 on libraries. I think what I will remember most is that we are truly a service to our students, and we must meet them where they are. If they are longing for the perfect book to fall in love with and read from cover to cover, or if they need a biography, or want a video clip we must be ready and willing to match what we have to what they are looking for. I will still be in the business of developing a life-long learner, so I must use the tools I have and share them with all I can - students, teachers, parents, and more!

Thing #14: Technorati

I love that they designed this website to search the "voice of the people", and not the mass media! I am sure there are plenty of people voicing their opinions on lots of things I would love to know about! (Good books, good movies, good parenting, good food...) It will be fun to dig through them all to find the ones that speak to me. Plus I am beginning to see the power of tagging, and just how helpful it can be to allow someone to find what you have to say.

Thing #13: del.icio.us

I really like this website! I have made del.icio.us a place to save websites my class at school will be using for a Civil War project. I like it because even when I add more sites I can have my students search for our topic and the websites I have saved will still be there for them. Plus I love how easy it is! The buttons on the browser make it great! When I see a worthwhile website all I have to do is click the button and type a few tags and it's saved! This will be a fabulous resource to use!

Thing #12: Rollyo

That was the most frustraing assignment so far! It took me several tries to get the Rollyo search bar onto my blog just right, plus it didn't even recognize my blog as a website to search. I guess when I have more websites that I rely on for their information and insight, I might find this tool more useful, but for now I think I'll stick to Google for my search needs! However, I did make my Rollyo "mommy friendly"! I put my favorite teaching and parenting sites on it. They are all quite creative and clever, so I love looking at their suggestions for my everyday problems.

Thing#11: Library Thing

I think as a librarian this is one of the most interesting sites I have been exposed to so far! I love keeping up with current young adult fiction, so I think this will be a great resource. Plus it will help me answer the question "What should I read next?" since it's reccomendations will be based on what I have read in the past. How fun is that?!

Melody's Musings

Thing #10: Image Creators

How cute! I love ComicstripGenerator because it is so fun and easy. I like that you can search the images and find one that is just right! Students would have fun making up quirky things for their favorite characters to say. What a great way to get creative juices flowing! Plus, they even have superheroes - who doesn't like that?!

I also made an ImageChef picture in honor of Earth Day. That was fun! I think LA teachers could use this to help students make an easy shape poem. Use it for Poetry Month! :)

Kids love the images that surround them, and would love the chance to create their own to show their creativity as well as demonstrating the skills their teachers want them to practice. This would help spice things up in the classroom as the springtime doldrums set in.

Thing #9: Finding your wise circle

The trouble with blogs is that everyone thinks they are an expert and that everyone should listen to them! The great thing about blogs is that your thoughts might matter to someone, and through this great tool your voice is heard! So, how do I choose who to listen to and who to pass up? If I don't find the right bloggers, I may end up missing out on something that could really impact me.

So how does one navigate through what people put out there? If I'm looking for a blog, I think Google Blog Search is the easiest tool out there. It finds blogs that relate to any topic you can think of. I found so many great blogs about being a mom that I'm going to have to go back later and pick my favorites! Check out Vanessa Van Petten's Best mom blogs posting!

For professional blogs, I turned to the EduBlog award winners to start. I found: Tipline and
TechLearning to add to my RSS feed. Each of these blogs adds a new tip each day which I thought would be wonderful resources that I could read at my leisure as compared to a listserv which would inundate my "in box". I also found that SBISD's very own Vaughn had won "Best librarian/library" award! She IS fun to read and always has something valuable to say. Way to go Vaughn!

It seems as though it will be an ongoing search. As I read more blogs, I figure I will find more people - and blogs - I like and trust.

Thing #8: RSS feeds

Who has been keeping these things a secret?! How much fun is it to have the news and blogs you want to keep up with in one place? So much fun! I love it!

In my own life, I am going to subscribe to my brother's blog so I don't have to keep checking to see if he's added anything. He has such dry humor. I love to see his take on life now that he's over 30 too! I have also added some librarian blogs and ... and an American Idol "news" feed. I do need a little bit of gossip, plus how else am I going to know what my fifth graders are talking about on Thursdays?

For use by a librarian, I would think an RSS link on the library website would be great. Especially great if teachers have students blogging book reviews or hot topics. What a great way to share what's going on at school!

Thing #7: Google

Who knew that Google had so much to offer! I played with the iGoogle tools and had lots of fun setting up my own webpage. I loved the "To Do" list! I may even be able to convince my husband that this should become our homepage! That way if I don't want to know what Brittany Spears is getting into trouble about today, it won't come up on my screen! Plus, I think my husband will really like the comics that can be added to the page. He's a fan of "Calvin and Hobbes" and misses seeing them in the paper every day. A daily dose of the funnies is good for the soul, I say! Also, I can add the food for my soul by having the daily Bible verse added. The best thing is that we can add or subtract things depending on what we are interested in at the time. When March Maddness is happening, we can get college basketball info, but when it's over we can take it off until next year. But by far the coolest thing about my igoogle page is that the theme picture changes with the time of day!

I also set a Google Alert so I can keep up with the "American Idol" buzz that I miss by going to night class! This feature I can see being used by high school students who are researching a current event. News articles can be sent straight to their email and eliminate searching endlessly for applicable items.

I will have to spend more time playing with the other features another time. Who knows what else I will find to use creatively with my students!

Thing #6 : mashups

Wow! There's a plethora of crazy stuff people are dreaming up out there! And it's really cool to play with them all. Although, I have to admit, I had a tough time getting the mosaic to work at first. So I took a deep breath, walked away from the darn computer, and came back after lunch to a much more cooperative computer. Click here to see the mosaic I made of my niece emily .

I think there are many possibilities to using mashups in the library and beyond! The fun tools in Flickr had so many ways that students could use their creativity to illustrate something for an assignment. And Flickr will even supply them with the photos to use, so not having the right picture or a digital camera can not be used as an excuse! I love it! For example, through the tags and groups a student could find pictures to illustrate the parts of a story including emotions portayed by main characters and the theme of the book. They could put it into a "pocket album" or create a trading card for each story element. And who wouldn't love to make a magazine cover to illustrate some personal achievement or even design one about a country of study or an event in history. The ideas just keep coming!

The only thing I would need to do would be to play with and make sure I know what I'm doing before I let the students loose. (Even though some students may be able to figure it out faster than I can right now!) These tools would definitely put some creativity back into the technological projects students are producing these days.

Thing 5 - Flickr

This is a neat website for shutterbugs! It is fun to see pictures other people have taken. I loaded several photos, and it was very fast! The tag feature is neat because you can view pictures of subjects you are interested in quickly. The baby tag is cute! I like the social aspect of the website, too. If you join a group then you can discuss your shared interest in photography as well as other topics. I looked at the library groups, and there are some great photos there! When I go to set up my library, it will be a great pool of ideas. I like the 365 project. What a wonderful idea of how to document what goes on in libraries on a day to day basis.
I think I will still use Snapfish to upload and order prints from because I like how the photos can be organized in albums. I like sharing with my friends and family on the site, too. For now, I will just experiment with Flickr and see what it's all about.

Thing 3 - Blog and Avatar

I have wanted to set up a blog for awhile now, so I'm glad this challenge forced me to do it. It's easier than I thought it would be! I had fun playing with my Avatar, too! I had never heard of it before, but like what I created. It will be fun to play with all the options as the seasons, as well as other things, change.

Thing 2 - 7 1/2 Habits

Being a life long learner is an important part of being an educator, and I enjoyed the opportunity to reflect on what successful learners do. I could probably grow stronger in each of the habits shown, but the one that is easiest for me right now is being a confident learner. I truly enjoy learning new things and I know that when I put my mind to something I will do a good job at it. The habit I think is the hardest for me right now is setting goals. I often bite off more than I can chew, and it's hard for me to break things down into attainable parts. Luckily that is one of my husband's strong points and he helps focus me on what is at hand. I have so much to learn from him in that area. :)