Month: August 2010

Stop the madness!

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I feel like I’ve been sucked up into a tornado or something. The past few weeks have been CRAZY. Last week was my first official week back to work. It was also my first week of the fall semester for grad school. My week consisted of work, homework, sleep, repeat. It’s going to be tough finding a balance this year and it’s something I’m really going to have to work at. I’m determined to keep up with my blog — that’s a priority for me. It’s going to be a struggle to keep up with my social media addiction (I didn’t even sign on to Twitter until half an hour ago!!) and I’m pretty sure something’s going to give. My only plan at this point is to take my vitamins, so I’ll let y’all know how that works out 🙂

I was pretty much a magician (with a lot of AWESOME help) and got textbooks passed out in two days. There are still some textbook issues to be resolved, but you know how that goes. Today was my first day to see classes and all went well. My plan is to post my lesson descriptions on Thursdays, so we’ll see how that works out. I figure I’m going to have to set some type of schedule for blogging.

I have three books for my YA self-challenge that I haven’t posted about yet. My descriptions shall be brief. Here goes:

Right before I went back to work, I wanted to read some high-controversy books. “The Golden Compass” by Philip Pullman was the first one I read. I took this book on our trip to North Carolina. My sister-in-law saw me reading it and said that her mother-in-law sent her an email a while back saying to boycott this book and it’s movie because it was anti-Christian. My opinion after reading it? It’s a FANTASY book. So many people flip out over the Sci-Fi and fantasy genres. I personally love them. And I’m a Christian. I just don’t feel like everything I read ties in directly and overwhelmingly to my personal faith. But to each their own. I thought it was a good book, but I’m not rushing out to devour the next in the series or anything.

So for a different type of controversy, I re-read Judy Blume’s “Forever.” Judy Blume is my hero. She does an unbelievable job of portraying teen love and sex in a novel that can clear up misconceptions and stress the realities of sex without being preachy. This book is timeless, and teen girls will forever pass this book around in secret, because it’s that great. And yes, I did use the word “forever” on purpose.

“Mockingjay” by Suzanne Collins was my gift to myself for surviving the first week of school. I inhaled this book this weekend. I know I’ve said it several times before, but the Hunger Games series is unbelievable and you must read it. The writing and the world she creates is Harry Potter-level good. Blows that vamp stuff out of the water. But that’s just my humble opinion. Read it for yourself and let me know what you think.

Go!Animate ROCKS :)

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I’ve just started playing around with Go!Animate and I’m having a blast! It’s unbelievably easy to use and really so much fun. I did end up buying some GoBucks so I could make my character look like me and so I could download my videos. I’m going to have to cave in and do GoPlus+ soon so I can upload my own pictures for backgrounds. The possibilities are endless with making library promotional videos using Go!Animate.

Thinking about how far I’ve come with video creation in the past year is pretty amazing. I started using PhotoStory last fall to make videos for the library. A few months later, I started using MovieMaker to make Wednesday’s morning announcement videos for my school. I got a Flip Cam and started incorporating video clips into my movies. This spring, I bought my MacBook and recently started playing with iMovie (which is SO much more awesome than pain-in-the-butt MovieMaker). Now I’m feeling like a rockstar while playing with these cartoon animations. Here are my first two creations…enjoy!

Back in Business!

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So Monday was the first day that I was able to get back into the library! I haven’t been able to go in the building since the last day of school. The new roof, new AC and new ceiling/lighting are in and fabulous. Here’s what I walked into at about 12:30 on Monday:

I let myself hyperventilate for a few minutes. Then my mom arrived and started cracking the whip. Honestly, I would be pretty much useless without my mom. She had a crew of our friends come in to help and we were able to get so much accomplished on that first day. All of the library books were outside in the hall:

My AMAZING Scholastic Book Fairs rep hooked me up and let me borrow some cases for moving out and storing books over the summer. This really was a life-saver. I cannot imagine how things would have gone if we hadn’t been able to use these cases. We got down to business and got everything unloaded from the cases in about 4 or 5 hours! By the time we left the library at about 6:30, this was the way things looked:

Pretty amazing, right?? We got everything else moved back in yesterday. Everything is put away except for the STUFF with problems that I have to deal with in one way or another. And I haven’t touched my desk yet. I’m very happy with what’s been accomplished and it wouldn’t have happened without my amazing volunteers!

I think we might actually be ready for the start of school next Wednesday…wow!

The Kid-Tech Conundrum

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My hubby and I just got home (about 10 minutes ago) from a trip to North Carolina to visit his sister and her family. I got to love on my beautiful nieces and enjoy the amazing scenery of NC.

I couldn’t resist sharing a picture of myself with these two little cuties!

So the beautiful 4 year old is very inquisitive and quite brilliant (I’m completely unbiased, of course). She saw me snapping some pictures with my iPhone and she wanted to give it a shot. She caught on immediately and proceeded to take about 100 pictures. Then she wanted to know what else the phone could do, so I showed her how to navigate it and showed her how to find the few games I have. She was completely hooked and played on it until the battery ran down. That night, I sent out a tweet asking for game suggestions for kids. I got some great responses (how did I function before my PLN and Twitter??) and downloaded several. Being the fun aunt, I was able to spoil her and let her have lots of Fruit Ninja game time. And I was completely and utterly amazed at the speed with which she picked up on mastering iPhone use. The love that she quickly formed for the iPhone really got me thinking…

I completely believe in finding a healthy balance with technology and your life. Do I actually put this into practice? Not really. Technology is one of my passions and I let it have more than its fair share of my waking hours. However, I (usually) know when to stop, unplug, and spend time with loved ones and doing non-techie things that I love. All in all, it’s my responsibility as an adult to be a good steward of my time and manage my technology usage accordingly. I’m not a parent, so at this point in my life I have influence with my students and their tech usage but I am not wholly responsible for a child. Just a few days ago on the plane ride to NC, I was behind parents who brought their two children on a flight with no form of entertainment. My immediate thought was, “If I have a child, we will have an iPad for times such as this.” It’s so much fun to see what kids can do with technology, so how could giving them an iPad NOT be a good thing? After seeing how absorbed my niece became with the iPhone, though, I’m having to think about this in a different way.

First, how do we help our own kids (or help other parents help their own kids) learn to be balanced in the amount of tech time they have? We all know kids who are obsessed with/addicted to video games, the internet, texting, etc. Everything else in life becomes secondary. Obviously, allotting certain amounts of time for tech use and time for non-tech activities is a must. But how do you get them to see the importance of unplugging and enjoying other activities?

Second, how do we as educators teach technology within a context of balance? Is it one of our responsibilities? Is it something we can/should realistically incorporate into our lessons and activities?

This is something that I really haven’t given much thought to before, but I can see it becoming a major issue as time goes on and technology imbeds itself into our lives even more. So what are your thoughts on this? Please share!

AND tomorrow I should be able to get back into my library after nearly 3 months of renovations. If you have any shelf elves or magic library dust, please overnight that to me — I’ll need all the help I can get with a week to move back into the library before school starts!

One Semester Down (5 to go)

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Yesterday, I submitted my final two assignments for my two summer courses! I’m quite proud of myself for surviving my first semester of grad school. I’m working to earn my Masters in Educational Technology Leadership from NSU. My program is 100% online. I took several online courses during my undergrad program, so I sort of knew what to expect. A lot of people think online classes are easier or require less effort. Obviously, those people have never taken an online class before. Both of the classes that I took this semester were very intense. I’m really loving this program and feel like I’m getting just as much out of it as I’m putting in.

One of my courses was called “Technology Leadership in Schools.” This was a great first course for me to take because it really focused on the different roles of a technology coordinator. I wrote a research paper on assistive technology that I really learned a lot from. Another assignment had me research and write a grant proposal. I decided to write mine for gaming in the library, and I plan to actually apply for it within the next few years.

My other course was “Advanced Telecommunications and Distance Learning.” I really enjoyed this course and learning about the many ways that distance education can be incorporated within a school district. My favorite project was one that I was able to use for an assignment in both of my courses: creating an online course. Eventually, I plan to set this up on my district’s Moodle site used for professional development, but you can also view it on my Wikispaces page.

I love what I do and I know that this program is going to teach me so much that I can apply in my school. I’m looking forward to my next two courses, even though I’m very nervous about keeping up with everything with the crazy start we’re having to this school year. It’s going to be very challenging, that’s for sure! In the mean time, I’m going to enjoy my vacation next week, then come back and dive into the chaos that will be moving back into the library.

I finished two more books for my reading challenge, first was My Life in Pink and Green by Lisa Greenwald. Anyone else amused by the fact that “green” is in the title and author’s last name?? This is a cute, girly book. It has a cute girl power, even a kid can save the world theme. Plus, it made me want to get a facial and buy some new make-up. It took me a little while to get into it, but it ended up being a good story.

When I got the email from my public library that this book was ready for me to pick up, I literally jumped in my car to go get it! Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins is an AMAZING second novel in the Hunger Games series. My husband even noticed how quickly I got sucked into this book. He kept trying to talk to me about it and I almost lost my temper…I just wanted to find out what happened to Katniss!!! I cannot wait to get my hands on the next book in this series. If you haven’t read these books, you need to. Immediately.

Kira-Kira

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Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata is a beautiful, heartbreaking novel. It tells the story of the close relationship shared by two Japanese-American sisters. Their family must move from their home in Iowa to a hatchery town in Georgia. The story, told from the younger sister Katie’s point of view is easy to relate to. Katie feels inferior to her smart, beautiful older sister even though they have an amazingly close friendship. When her sister becomes terminally ill, Katie battles through a range of emotions as her family tries to make sense of their tragedy. This is a beautifully written story. It was as good as I expected it to be with it’s gold Newbery Medal on the cover, even! Definitely one I’ll recommend.

Fairest

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Here’s book 5 of 20 in my reading challenge! Fairest by Gail Carson Levine

This morning I finished reading Fairest. It’s a cute fairytale story of a girl who lives in a kingdom where singing is at the center of everything they do. Aza has an incredibly beautiful voice, but she does not have the physical appearance to match. She finds herself in a situation that brings her into the royal court, where she befriends the new queen. However, things get complicated when the queen uses Aza’s amazing voice to deceive those within the castle. Naturally, drama ensues. This story is quite the page turner and even has the sappy love story to make any girl swoon. For a while, I wasn’t sure how I felt about the “I’m ugly and want so badly to be beautiful” theme, but it worked itself out in the end. Definitely a story to recommend to the girly-girl tweens, it’s one that they’ll love!