Thing 36 - Web Presence (New for 2017-2018)

Thing 36 - Web Presence (New for 2017-2018)

As I read through the updated assignment for thing 36, I  thought about my use of Blogger (which I use for this course) and Weebly (which I’ve used in the past in my personal life). Both are straightforward and easy to use, andI like both equally.  It’s great that II can continue adding to the same blog via Blogger for each new session of Cool Tools. It’s very useful to have this a reference for myself when I want to revisit the tools I investigated in each of the “things”. I looked at some of the examples and particularly liked how The Brown Bag Teacher used her site to both explain how to use it while also showing examples of how it actually looks. Great visual!

My District uses Google Classroom but not Google Sites for individual teachers. I looked at some of the examples to see how they might be set up.  The Sunset Reads site is a great idea, and ideal for club announcements. As advisor for both my school’s Yearbook Club and Book Club, I might try my hand at setting one up in the future.

I didn’t spend much time on the Professional Portfolio section. I know it’s a good idea, but at this point in my career I have a system for keeping track of my APPR materials. I have a folder in my gmail set up where I organize messages for each category, and a folder in my Google Drive where I keep documents I may want to access later.

My main focus for this “thing” was the LibGuides. I had touched on them during my first thing (Search Tools Ninja) and Polly’s comment about them being further explored in thing 36 brought me here next. My District purchased a subscription for each of our four buildings, but so far I am the only library media specialist to tackle them. As soon as I get more comfortable I will teach the HS media specialist. Personally though, I don’t see the need for them at the elementary level, and will likely not renew for my K-5 buildings. But for secondary level grades and collaborative projects with core area teachers, they are super! I was amazed to explore some of the LibGuide examples and see one for Empire State Information Fluency Continuum , which provides support resources to SLS Directors integrating the use of the ESIFC and Common Core Learning Standards. What a resource! I am going to figure out how to add that to a new link on my page for “librarian resources” for future reference.  

LEARNING ACTIVITY
The Science7 teacher asked me to do a research project on the elements and periodic table with her classes the week we return from break, so I decided to focus on creating an official libguide for her as my thing 36 learning activity. Last year when I was first introduced to LibGuides I had tried replicating one on my own website without a LibGuides subscription. The result was okay, but nowhere as polished-looking and easy to use as the official site that my District now subscribes to. Check out my finished product for this year at https://millbrookcsd.libguides.com/elements and you’ll see a decent collection of resources for the project.

Thing 27: Teaching & Learning with Primary Sources

Thing 27: Teaching & Learning with Primary Sources

As suggested in the introduction, I got started by watching the very helpful  Primary and Secondary Sources Explained video.  The example of the Great Storm made it easy to understand the differences between primary and secondary sources. This would be a great video to use when introducing (or reinforcing) this concept with older elementary/middle school students.

Selecting which articles and digital collections to explore was at first overwhelming - so many sounded good that I wasn’t sure where to start, so I decided to just jump in! I liked the sound of “classroom-ready” in the description for Engaging Students with Primary Sources so I decided to start there. Of course, little did I know it was a 64 page PDF document I was choosing to “jump in” with!  But it was excellently organized and easy to understand; I could easily scroll to pages that were most relevant. I liked the “strengths and limitations” listed for each type of source, and most sections included links for actual primary source resources.  I downloaded a copy for future reference as well.

    Next I read through the article 5 Online Activities for Teaching With Primary Sources for ideas I could use with my Middle School classes. Author Richard Byrne actually provides links to his class handouts and worksheets, so these activities are literally ready to use! Sadly, the article’s link to “Historical Scene Investigation” is no longer active, but I plan to see if I can find that resource on my own.

    The third and final article I read was 10 Resources for Teaching With Primary Sources written by the same author as the article above and featuring the video featured at the very beginning of this “thing”! Links to resources such as the World Digital Library and LC’s Student Discovery Sets are provided. Like the article mentioned above, a couple of the links included in this article are no longer working (such as  National Archives Experience Digital Vaults) , but overall this is a really nice collection of go-to resources for teachers.

    Next it was time to explore some of the Digital Collections listed! I decided to click through all of these to see how they differed and which ones I felt would be most Middle School student friendly.  I began with Digital Public Library of America and as I continued going through these links for various digital collections, an idea for this “thing’s” learning activity came to me. I decided to create a “Primary Sources” resource tab on my library webpage for use by both teachers and students. (Must say I was very pleased with this idea!).

    After curating the logos, links and descriptions, I was able to put together a decent looking resource which can viewed by clicking on the green “Primary Sources” tab on my website at http://mms.dboces.opalsinfo.net/bin/home . I also shared some of these resources with my grades 7-12 social studies teacher and have been receiving notes of thanks from many of them. Thanks for another great “thing”!

Thing 26: Note-Taking Tools

Thing 26: Note-Taking Tools

After reading the introduction to this thing, I took a moment to reflect on my own note-taking skills. I tend to mark up written materials with my notes (on the hard copy paper) and then rewrite them while typing into a digital document. This helps me organize my notes as I go. I was very interested to investigate some of the note-taking tools being introduced through this “thing”.

To get started, I read through the article Laptops Are Great. But Not During a Lecture or a Meeting . It made several great points in support of not using laptops during lectures, especially at the high school and college level. It makes sense to me, because how can students be listening, assimilating, thinking, AND typing all at the same time without some of the meaning being lost or forgotten? Also interesting to me is the concept of “visual pollution” and how one person’s use of a laptop can take away from the learning experience of a student not using one.

The quick reference guide Note Taking Tips for Different Learning Styles is a helpful reminder to me as a teacher to encourage my students to take notes in different ways and use techniques that best support their learning styles. And of the 5 tools evaluated in The Best Note-Taking Apps of 2017 , I had only heard of one (and never used any of them).

LEARNING ACTIVITY

Next it was time to explore some of the suggested tools. Since I’ve “adopted” many aspects of Google apps, I decided it made sense to check out Google Keep. I had never heard of this before. Scrolling through the main page of “Keep”, I was amazed to see that it seems to meet many needs that I’ve been thinking about. You can add photos, notes, and audio, and Keep can be used to help with things such as the examples on the webpage:
    1) Need to remember to pick up some groceries? Set a location-based reminder to pull up your grocery list right when you get to the store. Need to finish a to-do? Set a time-based reminder to make sure you never miss a thing.
    2) Share your shopping list with family members and watch the items get checked off in real time
    3) Quickly filter and search for notes by color and other attributes like lists with images, audio notes with reminders or just see shared notes. Find what you're looking for even faster, and let Keep do the remembering for you.
    4) Keep works on your phone, tablet and computer. Everything you add to Keep syncs across your devices so your important stuff is always with you.
    After watching the Tutorial at  https://youtu.be/TLvU2SWFZZA , I decided to download the Keep app on my iPhone and try it out, as well as experiment with it on my desktop Dell computer. It seems super easy to use, and has many features that make it enticing. Since I’m not already familiar with EverNote, but do enjoy the Google Suite of apps, I am thinking that Keep may become a regularly used tool for both school and home use. I can imagine using it for school when I want to keep a quick note about a particular class or class period; maybe something pertaining to a student in that class. Also, as the Library Media Specialist, I think this might be a great way to keep track of my book recommendations for my library regulars. Right now I simply jot down book titles that I think certain students might like on random sticky notes or in my planbook. I’m thinking that by using Keep, I can create a separate note for each of my frequent visitors and easily add book suggestions to their particular note as I come across them. That way the list of titles will be easy to access and reference when the student comes in. (Right now I have to search for where the sticky note landed or flip through my planbook to find the page I wrote my suggestions down on.)  So I can see this as being a great timesaver!  I also love the collaborative, real-time feature, and can see myself sharing notes with my husband for to-do lists and shopping lists, etc.  Helpful both at home and school!  I’m so glad I was introduced to this new Google feature I had never heard of.