Thing 19 REVISED: Social Reading & Book Stuff

Another THING packed with great resources and information! After browsing through the information topics, I decided to explore a few of the resources that particularly stood out to me. I began by reading Edudemic's article "10 Websites to Help Students Connect with Books". I found it so helpful that I tweeted it out to my followers (MCSDlibrary) so that others may also explore some of the sites.

After that I checked out the Reading 2.0 LibGuides site - but I found it to be overwhelming. Too much information in all those tabs made my head spin. I'm sure it's a great resource, and if I have an afternoon to spend browsing through it sometime, I will likely re-visit it.

I spend a fair amount of time looking at the International Children's Digital Library. I love the philosophy of this website, and shared it with my colleague at the elementary level so she can add it as a resource on the District's elementary library webpages.  I also shared it with my Middle and High school foreign language teachers, and two of the three wrote back almost immediately thanking me for sharing the great resource with them.

Some of the resources in this THING were already familiar to me: Overdrive and GoodReads. However, both are things I've just barely touched the surface on.  I have the overdrive app on my iPhone and have knowledge of its use through our local public library system.

For the purpose of this activity, I chose to dig deeper into what GoodReads has to offer. I was intrigued with the idea of creating the widget to add to my library webpage and using it to make book recommendations. I spent some time researching how exactly to add a widget, and determined that it will require the assistance of my tech support guy.  Hopefully he will teach me how to add widgets on my own. I look forward to learning how to use the GoodReads widget on my webpages to make recommendations. Neat idea!

Thing 19: Social Reading and "book stuff”

At the time I'm writing this blog entry, Thing 19 seems to be missing as a link on Track 2 course page. I searched back through my e-mails from Polly and found the notice that Thing 19 was available, and saw from the name that it had to do with social reading and book stuff.

Since I'm not sure exactly what the activities were, for now I am going to write about what I currently do for social reading, etc.  Later, should I see the Thing 19 once again listed and accessible, I will revise/add to this blog with an update.  I was just concerned about not getting credit for all 10 things, and wanted something listed for Thing 19.

For social reading, I'm interpreting that to mean a combination of professional, online, and collaborative reading. Time seems to always be tight, but I find that waiting in my children's parent pick up line is the ideal time to get caught up! I always have a copy or two of School Library Journal, Tech & Learning, School Media Connection, or something similar on-hand in my car.  Right now there is a pile of magazines in my back seat with dog-eared pages waiting for me to come back to them and implement their great ideas!

I've also become a more dedicated Twitter user - following education and library-minded folks and organizations mostly. I use it as a means of sharing news and events in the school libraries as well, and several colleagues have joined, allowing us to use common hashtags for school-related info to keep our online community accessible.  This also allows for a collaborative aspect to take place outside of the classroom - sharing comments and reading each other's events, whether in district or with colleagues around the county, state, country or beyond - definitely something I consider "social reading".

Thing 20 Final Learning Activity

FINAL LEARNING ACTIVITY

1: What did you learn?

I have used SO MUCH of what I learned through Cool Tools! I am fortunate to teach two pass/fail courses in which I have much freedom to try out  new things. My 6th graders love the variety of activities I offer them - all thanks to the new discoveries I make through this online course. Sometimes I have a list in my planbook for ideas to "check out later" because there are so many I am interested in!

I learned that I'm just not an RSS feed kind of girl... this is the second attempt I've made at subscribing to some feeds and I find myself usually deleting the digest e-mails I receive. I don't know why this sort of thing just does not appeal to me.

2: What’s next?

As mentioned above, I have a list of things I want to refer back to and try out with my classes in the future. Projects often take longer than I initially anticipate, so I have a "waiting list" of activities to try out - especially the Web 2.0 type of tools. I love that sort of thing!

I also have plans to share some of these cool tools with my administrators and colleagues. We have a great new system set up in our District that allows teachers to voluntarily lead workshops on our Superintendent Conference Days. Other teachers can then pick and choose which workshops appeal to them the most.  I've begun going through the "Cool Tools" to create PD sessions to offer to my colleagues.  I've already taught one which focused on eBook resources.

My other primary thought / concern is access to this course's materials - once the course ends, I am hoping I can still access theses "things" and lists of ideas. Please tell me this is so!

3: Did you like learning this way?

Yes, I really thrive on this style of learning. Not only can I access the course at my convenience, but there is so much flexibility in activity choices that there is really something that appeals to everyone. I love the great variety of tools I was exposed to, and am already looking forward to doing Track 3 next year :-)

Thing 17: DIY - You Pick!

Such as fun "thing"... although too many fun things to explore and choose from after browsing through the "Top 100 Tools for Learning" and "New Tools" articles & links!  Several items caught my eye and were jotted down on my "check these out later" list, but I decided to focus on one in particular.

I've heard my students talking about Kahoot, so when I saw it appear again on these lists, I decided it was time to check out this new tool. What a pleasant surprise! It was super easy to create a free account, and I was able to make my first Kahoot in one sitting! I did spend some time browsing other people's public Kahoots on my topic (Digital Literacy) to see what they had done. I decided it'd be a great tool to use for whole class reviews, so I created one for my 6th grade class at https://getkahoot.com/

I'm not sure if you can view it if I'm offline, but students would go to https://kahoot.it/#/ and enter my game pin # on their own individual devices (phone, laptop, etc.). I used our class laptops when I did it.   At the time I am typing this blog, the pin # is 204834. I'm not sure if this changes each time I launch my Kahoot or not.

This was a GREAT experience all around. Students logged in to my game fine, and loved playing it so much they were begging for more questions! I can't wait to create more Kahoots for my classes, and am considering having students make their own Kahoot as an assessment tool they can administer to each other via whole class activity. Definitely a way to engage the whole class!

Thing 18: Online Learning & DIY PD

As I prepare to write this "Thing 18" post, I just realized I never posted my "Thing 17" blog entry, so that will be coming soon - just out of order. Oops!!

For Thing 18, I will be blogging about a couple of different things. I often register for webinars that allow me to watch the webinar at a later date at my convenience. The most recent webinar I did this for was the "Follett Community webinar, Keeping a Seat at the Table with Google" on March 22nd. I really enjoy these opportunities, although I do not generally receive in-service credit or compensation for this sort of professional development. These are for my professional growth and help me maintain a finger on the pulse of my profession.
 Additionally, I have recently completed two NYSUT online learning programs. I did apply for and will receive in-service PD credit for each of these online courses. The first was called "Sparking Student Engagement, which consisted of the following:

Course Description

In this course, participants will implement and evaluate various instructional strategies such as project-based learning and active learning to promote engagement and participation in the classroom. This course's content aligns with the following framework component: 2b: Establishing a Culture for Learning.

Learning Outcomes

In this course you will:

• Identify the importance of rigor and relevance within your content and as it transfers/applies to a practical classroom setting.
• Explore instructional strategies that actively engage students in the learning process.
• Discover the impact student engagement has on student learning.

The second NYSUT online course I recently completed was called "Types of Learning Activities" and consisted of the following:

Course DescriptionThis course focuses exclusively on types of learning activities that promote deep learning aligned with the goals of the lesson and allow students to exercise some choice. This course's content aligns with the following framework component: 3c: Engaging Students in Learning.

Learning Outcomes

In this course you will:

• Reflect upon current learning activities and levels of student choice.
  
• Explore various types of learning activities that align with lesson outcomes and promote deep learning.
  
• Analyze learning activities that emphasize depth over breadth.
  
• Implement strategies for students to exercise choice, make modifications, and serve as resources for other students.
  
• Evaluate the effectiveness of different learning activities and opportunities for student choice in achieving instructional outcomes that promote deep learning.

And lastly, I just began an intensive online course as part of my IB (International Baccalaureate) training for my high school. I had 7 activities to complete for Module 1 (due tonight). There are several required components and pieces of information that I am asked to create and share. This course will continue for over a month well into April.

I DO believe online professional development options are a good way to learn. For me, the ability to log in at my convenience and work at my own pace make the experiences supremely beneficial. I don't feel rushed, and can take notes or create products that make sense for me. As for trust and accountability, most online PD opportunities require some component of interactiveness, so the accountability factor is a minor concern - requirements are either met or not.  I suppose there's always the chance someone else is taking the class, but that's a lot of effort to get a few hours of in-service credit, and what's in it for the person doing the course without getting credit? The trust component is a bit less black and white to me.  I know that I've personally expended a varying degree of effort on different online PD courses I've taken. Depending on the course content and the reasons I'm taking the course, I sometimes find myself doing minimal work requirements, yet other times going above and beyond to truly embrace the content when I feel it's meaningful and relevant to my own classroom and library.

I assess the success of the PD and my level of learning based on whether I actually use what I learn. The NYSUT courses I completed were more like "busy work" to me - as I mostly was asked to reflect on and "regurgitate" work I'd already done and projects I'd already taught.  On the flip side, the IB course I am currently taking has consumed my thoughts - my mind is swirling with ideas for ways to implement the IB program in my high school library and support the teachers and students this fall. I feel more vested in the IB course.

Finally, I would be remiss to omit this Cool Tools course itself!  I did apply for and plan to receive inservice PD credit hours for this class.  This is another that I spend more time on because I feel engaged with the content. The flexibility we have to choose and complete learning activities that are most meaningful to us make this course invaluable. I use SO MUCH of what I learn through our "Things" tasks, and the resources we are provided with are literally endless! Wonderful!

Thing 16: Digital Tattoo & Digital Citizenship

I really enjoyed exploring the many resources provided for Thing 16 - almost too many to choose from! I will definitely be re-visiting some of them in the future. I watched both videos and found the mind reader video very powerful. I plan to use it with my 6th grade Digital Literacy course and pause just before the tent wall is dropped. It will be interesting to see what the students think is going on, and whether they correctly guess what is really happening behind the scenes. I also watched the common sense media video but didn't find that one as moving.

Another resource that I found particularly interesting was the poster found in the Edudemic article. In fact, I plan to print and post the poster in my school library, and also tweeted it out to my Twitter followers on @MCSDlibrary.  Edutopia also had an excellent list of great resources that I plan to re-visit. I found the idea of an analog Twitter wall a great idea to use with younger students not yet active on social media.

I spent quite a bit of time exploring the resources for managing screen time. There was a sub-link to a site that had downloadable screen time templates to use at home with my own children. My 8 year old would be on his devices 24/7 if allowed, so I plan to modify those templates and implement them in my personal life!

The other major amount of time for Thing 16 was spent exploring the Google Digital Literacy & Citizenship curriculum. As I read through it, I became more and more inspired, and am now updating my own Digital literacy course curriculum to include the Google program. I loved the emphasis that having "digital literacy skills" is not the same thing as being "digitally literate". What a great concept to share with administrators, too!

One Digital Literacy resource that I already use but was not included in this "thing" is the Everfi Ignition digital literacy program. I started using it with my 6th graders last year, and find it to be quite effective with students. Individual logins are created for each student in my class, which they then use to access multiple digital citizenship modules. It is a self-paced course that provides me with quiz grades from each module. There is a culminating game activity in which each student plans a concert simulation for the school. I use this as a competition to see which student can sell the most tickets to their concert (the better they do in the modules, the more tickets they sell). Kids respond well to this program.

Overall, another great "Thing" full of excellent resources I plan to implement and/or refer back to.

Thing 15: Web Presence

What perfect timing for Thing 15! One of my professional goals for this school year is to make my library webpages more dynamic and pleasing to the eye in hopes of raising usage. I was already familiar with the top 3 suggested sites: WordPress.com, Blogger.com and Weebly.com

WordPress was introduced to me at a conference I attended some time ago, and although I created an account, I never used it.  Blogger is what I use for this blog, and I have a working knowledge of how it works.  I used Weebly extensively as the web-editer of a non-profit I volunteer with... so these were not new for me to explore.

HOWEVER.... I am one of the lucky few librarians (it seems) that CAN edit and manage my own library webpage. Considering my professional goal, and the task at hand for Thing 15, I decided to take the initiative to learn how to update my own library webpages (for real!) for my thing 15 project.

I contacted my tech support guy at OPALS (my library webpage provider) and set up a couple of webinar training sessions with him to learn the "ins and outs" of my webpage. I knew there was a lot I could do, but just hadn't made the time to learn how yet.

After the webinar sessions, I played around with what I had learned and began updating my Middle School library webpage. After a few minor "goofs", I was able to start updating the site with my own design plan - I learned how to add items, move items, re-size items, add web links, you name it!

Since I manage two buildings, it's easy to see the change in my page.

I've gone from the District-issued generic site still visible for my High School at:
 http://www.millbrookcsd.org/highschool/library

to my new and improved OPALS version, now active for my Middle School library and viewable at
http://mms.dboces.opalsinfo.net/bin/home

My Middle School page is still a work in progress, as I want to add more student content as well as images, but I feel it's much better than my old page!  Next up will be the update/migration for my High School page to OPALS as well.

I think it is crucial for library's to have a web presence. Students expect it. They look for resources online, and want that instant availability they've grown used to. My goal for my library webpages is to be informative, visually appealing, and at the forefront of student & faculty thinking when starting a project.

As for a professional portfolio, the way I organize my teaching materials could be easily manipulated into a portfolio. I use keynote presentations for most lessons and units of study, so I could easily pull highlights from each of my courses to compile an electronic or printed portfolio. I could also upload the files into one online source if I chose to.

Thank you, "Thing 15" for motivating me to finally get my webpage updates underway!

Thing 14: Media Skills

Wow! I could have easily spent double time on this "thing" - so much great information and tools to try out! I started by browsing through all of the content to get a feel for what Thing 14 was going to be about. I checked out the "Copyright Friendly Toolkit" which I will definitely keep handy as a reference. Then I played around with "1 second Everyday" and found it to be an interesting concept; so much so that I even tweeted about it through my @MCSDlibrary Twitter account. Unfortunately, even though I downloaded the app on my phone, I haven't kept up with it. I'm wondering if will still work even if I use it simply as "1 second on days I remember!" :-)

From there I played with the Animated GIFS. I read/viewed the "10 GIFs to Learn Something" link and was amazed by the animations there - especially the formation of the human face! Very cool! I tried to follow the "Easiest Way to Make A GIF" directions on my SmartPhone 6, but didn't have the same version/tools as in the demo. I did end up learning how to make a slideshow with music right on my cell phone though during this activity!

I also ensured that I know how to take a screen shot on my MacBook Pro as evidenced below. This has come in handy a few times already, including just this morning when my Assistant Principal inquired about pricing for some books vs. eBooks. I used the screen shot feature to snap of photo from the vendor website to include with my response.

The last thing activity I actively played with was the Pablo image link. I liked it immediately after browsing through some of the others on the list because it looked easy to use, was free, and didn't require me to make an account to utilize and download. I selected a dog photo from their image library, and added one of my favorite quotes. I then played with text size and location to create the image you see below. I will definitely use this with my 6th grade classes.

Overall, I found Thing 14 to be super informative and entertaining both. Many of the suggestions in this thing can be incorporated into my classroom. I can't wait!

Thing 13 - RSS Feeds

For Thing 13, I was at first reluctant to dig too deep into RSS feeders. In the past I haven't really made use of them at all, although I did have some basic knowledge of what they were.  However, as I watched the video and read through the "How to Use RSS Feeders" article, my interest began to be piqued.

I decided to download the Feedly app on my Smartphone and created an account. I added the CoolTools blog to it, and then - while looking at some of the other sample libraries and how they use blogs, became inspired to start my own library blog! I set it up and posted one simple introductory posting to get started. I have a call in to my library automation tech support to add the blog/RSS feed to each of my school library's webpages as well. It is my goal to use my blog to let students know about new books, special events, book clubs, and more! You can see my initial blog at http://mcsdlibrary.blogspot.com/ and I hope to make it a dynamic site by the end of this school year.

Feedly seems super easy to use on my iPhone. I downloaded the free app and added the Cool Tools RSS as well as my own new blog mentioned above (to see how it works when new posts are added). I started exploring some other blogs and sites from the Thing 13 recommended lists, but want to be selective in what I start subscribing to, so I'm going to continue browsing for ones I really want to follow, rather than picking some randoms. My intent is to use Feedly, and not just set up the account to play with for this course. I think I am really becoming a believer in RSS :-)

Thing 12: Collaborating, Connecting, Sharing

For Thing 12, I browsed through the list and decided to look through a few that were new to me. Some I've used while others I've never heard of.  My school district has recently adopted Google Docs, so I have some basic knowledge of that and how to share content. However, I decided to take it a step further and have students in my classes create content using Google slides and share their projects with me. I had no prior experience doing this, and was thrilled to discover how easy it was to have students share projects and have them displayed through my account for projecting onto the SmartBoard. No need to switch laptops for each presentation like Keynote! Awesome! I didn't really find any "cons" of using the Google suite of apps yet. I will definitely continue to use it and have students share their projects with me for easier presentation experiences.

I had some prior knowledge of slideshare, but when I saw how Polly embedded on it so easily on a webpage, I decided that I will use it in April during National Library Week to feature a slideshow of special Library Week events. Last year I tried to create a video on my MacBook and post it to my webpage, and ended up requiring the assistance of my Technology director. Slideshare will hopefully make it much easier to share!

Also completely new to me was the "Today's Meet" app/website. I went to it and typed in a test message... although with nobody else to meet with at the time, I was unable to get a full picture of how it works and looks.  However, based on the description and the fact that I didn't need to create an account to use it, I plan to further explore this site in my personal life and see if it's a good platform to conduct Board meetings for a nonprofit I'm involved with. It could be the perfect solution for folks who can't physically be at the meeting. I'm not sure how I'd use it with students, other than introducing it to them to use for their own project collaborations.

My favorite "new to me" item on this list was the MakeUseOf.com site. What a great compilation of "Best of" apps, websites, and software. I started looking through it, and each general heading then has links organized by topic, type, or platform in a very graphically pleasing, easy to navigate manner. I liked it so much that I even shared it via my Twitter account (MCSDlibrary).

My second potential favorite might be the appear.in tool. I looked at it, but didn't use it yet. Instead, I forwarded it to my son and asked him to test it out with his friends and let me know how it works. I'll have to report back on it once I have his feedback :-)

I love the great ideas this course provides, and Thing 12 was full of great new ideas for me, many of which I plan to investigate further.

Thing 11: Coding

Time to get started on Track 2! Although I am just beginning now in January, I enjoyed browsing through the ideas and resources for Thing 11: Coding. I DID do the Hour of Code with my 6th grade classes, so I decided to reflect on how that went. I registered as a site coordinator and allowed my students in my 3 classes to work on the Hour of Code tutorials during our class time. They LOVED it! Something new I learned as the week was drawing to a close, was that I can actually have students create accounts and log in to complete much more in-depth tutorials (21 hour programs). I think that next year I will expand my Hour of Code activity to include that component, and possibly offer extra credit to students who choose to complete the extra tutorial outside of class time. I think many would do it just for fun! I initially had no idea that component existed!

I think it is important to include coding in schools, and not just as as elective or club. So many of my students commented on how much they enjoyed coding, but never thought they could do it. Without the exposure to coding (if even just as one unit in a computer course), several students may not realize how much they enjoy the process... or even realize it's something within their realm of possibilities.

I enjoyed browsing through the list of resources in the "50+ Tools to Learn to Code" article, and appreciated that many of them are free! I bookmarked the site and plan to look at some of the suggestions more closely in the future - and will share it with my school's code club advisor.

I also wanted to explore something new, so I completed the tutorial for the Mozilla Thimble. It was confusing at first, but quickly became intuitive and easy to manipulate. I did not sign in and create an account, so I was unable to publish the result of the tutorial, but I did see how easy it is to change color, font, font size, images, upper/lower case letters, and justification of content. I find it very interesting to gain this added understanding of what goes on "behind the scenes" in computer software.

Now on to Thing 12!