2018 Thing 2: Student Blogging & Writing

I've run a Teen Writers' Workshop off and on for since 2012. The first two years were very active, and the students were productive. The group tapered off after that, and only this year did I have students who were interested in participating. They're seniors, so we'll see if I can stir up interest again next year. Anyway, I'm intrigued by the idea of having the group blog their writing, so I signed up for an account with "Write the World" that was listed in the Resources on the Cool Tools site and requested a group. I'm excited to get this started with my teens! 

I think "Write the World" will be a great platform for the group because they are used to working with technology and it will give them practice writing for an audience. I think it will be important for them to receive peer feedback as well, especially since a couple of them are not comfortable reading their writing out loud to the group. I know they want approval, but they also value effective feedback. 

The writing prompts on "Write the World" will also be beneficial because we all have times when we struggle to come up with something to write. The prompts will help me facilitate the writing process for them by helping them jump start writing and loosen up the creative part of their brains. Who knows, maybe they'll get to the point where they want to take their writing to a more public forum, especially as they head into college. I believe that blogging will be an invaluable tool and outlet for my students to use as they develop their individual voices. They can use their blog as a digital portfolio of their writing, and watch it improve over time. I hope they learn to make it a part of their daily writing habit.

Leadership Reflection: Communication Strengths & Weaknesses

13 September 2018

We take communication for granted, believing that just because we know how to talk means me know how to get our point across. I say something, the other person responds, therefore we're communicating. If only it was that easy. It’s the person with a growth mindset who realizes that they don’t know everything, that they can always improve their skills in every aspect of their lives. I know I communicate better in writing than I do in person. When writing, I can take my time, pause when I need to in order to think about what I want to say. I can go back and edit what I've written, and then send it when I'm ready. Not so when communicating verbally. And that is where I need to improve. I know I don't always use the strongest vocabulary when speaking. I also know I have to be aware of my body language, facial expressions, and tone when speaking. When talking with friends, there's less pressure to communicate correctly the first time, because you can always clarify and then they let you off the hook if you got it wrong the first time. Not so in a professional setting. There is usually more on the line, such as when making a request of your supervisor or interacting with a member of the community. You have to be so careful that you don't offend, anger, or look stupid. I know I need to be able to control my emotions when I find myself in a stressful communication situation. I do take criticism well, but it also depends on how the criticism is delivered. Some are more tactful than others, but I don't get to choose how they convey their message. I only get to control how I react.

Thing 3: Photo Sharing, Editing and Fun

I'll admit it. When it comes to photos, I am very disorganized. I don't work with them often, except to share family photos on Facebook. And I'm not very creative when it comes to editing them. So, this task was a challenge for me.

I decided to play around with Photopin. I wanted to search for book cover images of Battle of the Books titles, so I could post them on my library webpage. I was actually disappointed that I was not able to find all of the titles I need. And then when it came to including the attribution...well, I'm not sure I did it correctly (which may be due to my frustration with working on the wiki platform more than anything else). I only chose a couple to include there for now. I may work on this more over the summer.

http://graybodley-library.wikispaces.com/Battle+of+the+Books

I definitely think I'll end up using one of the photo sharing sites eventually, in order to store the pictures I have taken, and will continue to take, of events and displays in my library. Battle of the Books is an obvious choice for me, but I know other ideas will occur to me.

Thing 2: Online Communities and Personal Learning Networks

I'm a Twitter veteran, so I explored some features that I either hadn't know about (Twitter Advanced Search) or have been wanting to try for a while (HootSuite).

With the advanced search option in Twitter, you can enter a variety of search criteria, much like you can in a search engine's advanced search window. I searched for librarians in my area. When you select to narrow by "People," you find others who have identified themselves as librarians in whatever area you choose. I found a couple more people to follow that way. This feature is a great option, and has the power to create some really awesome learning communities right in your own back yard.

I've used TweetDeck for about a year, but now I'm exploring HootSuite. HS is a bit more involved, but I like how you can view Twitter Profiles more easily here than in TD. Still, when I'm just browsing through my Twitter feed, I prefer the actual website because I can go at my own pace. The feed in TD goes way too fast to do that.

I've enjoyed some Tweetchats as well, especially #tlchat and #edchat. You meet some great people in these virtual chats, and come away with some great ideas and advice.

Twitter is one of my all-time favorite social media sites.

Thing 6: Curation Tools

I. Love. Pinterest. I really do! I've used it for probably over a year now, and at one point I became very addicted to it. I started out using it for personal reasons, finding great ideas for my home, my kids' rooms, hairstyles, etc. Then I realized that I can use it to gather information for work. I now have boards for promoting books and reading, display ideas, authors, etc. Just recently I looked for ideas for March displays (aside from the usual St. Patrick's Day) and pinned a few of those. Pinterest is my go-to tool for fresh and interesting ideas for my school library.

I did play around with Learnist a little. I think I might explore this more as I get closer to the end of the year and begin thinking about lessons for next year (especially orientation). I think it would be fun to put together a few learning experiences for students, especially those who may have missed a lesson, or for homebound/alternative ed students.

Diigo is another tool I went back to explore. I don't think I would use it directly with my students because I already have several links for them on my website. However, I would use it to gather additional websites, that I can then add to my library's website. It's a great way for me to organize sites for review, before placing them for others to use from my site.

This was great fun!

Thing 4: RSS, Personal Home Pages and Feed Readers

Way back when (July 2012) when I learned that Google was doing away with its reader and hence the iGoogle option, I wondered what I would do. Then I saw a post by The Daring Librarian (Gwyneth Jones) on Protopage so I thought I'd give it a try. I haven't used it much until now. I do like the way it looks, and adding RSS feeds is similar to iGoogle. I arrange my feeds by category in columns, which helps me stay organized. I will have fun playing around with finding different feeds and tweaking the page.

Thing 1: Blogging

Welcome! I'm not new to blogging, but this is my first foray into using Blogger and into blogging as a school librarian.

I am starting my 15th year as a high school librarian in Oswego County (hence the "Snow Belt Librarian" title!). I'm taking part in the Cool Tools program because I feel I need to gain a better understanding of the resources that are available to us as teachers, and to figure out how I can use them in my career. I know that many of my students have already explored many of the online tools, so I want to know what they know, so that we can engage in many of the activities together. However, I struggle with how to implement some of the tools (e.g. blogs) with students at the high school level, either because I don't see them as much as an elementary librarian does, or maybe teachers are already doing activities and haven't included me, or just figuring out the logistics of allowing the student body to participate. I need ideas on how to do this!

I enjoyed reading the advice of the bloggers listed in the Introduction. In fact, I've been following Gwyneth Jones' blog for about a year. I'll be adding Joyce Valenza's blog to my list of "must reads" as well. The "7 Things..." resource is one I'll be visiting again as well.

So much information! Now, to find the time to peruse it all...