I love Google. People get all bitter because Google is so successful and, well, HUGE. I’m not bitter. Especially since I really want my district to take advantage of Google Apps for Education. I’ve been wanting this for a while now, but wasn’t sure how to go about starting this movement. I use Google Docs (particularly the forms feature) for everything. Recently, my teachers started using Google Docs for it’s collaborative features and they love it too! SCORE!

So this week, some things went down, we got our feathers ruffled, and I was able to pool some teachers together to get something started to try for change. After a meeting and some valuable conversations, there is a group of us that are hoping for the opportunity to get access to Google Apps for our teachers and students. How great would that be?!

This is all still in the very early stages. I am hopeful that we will be able to help our district move forward so that we can prepare our students in ways that they deserve. I work with unbelievable teachers — they could teach effectively with zero resources. However, they deserve the opportunity to teach in completely innovative ways, and I want to help them get there.

So this post is sort of vague and hopeful, but I felt like I should document where things stand right now.

Also, if you have resources that you think would be helpful (pros/cons to using Google Apps for Education OR anything that could provide a similar alternative), I would be extremely appreciative!

 

This was an incredible week! I had more classes booked than I have any other week so far, which made me immensely happy. But the best part was that the visiting classes weren’t just doing library circulation and rolling out…teachers had me introducing their students to tech tools that I shared at the petting zoo and they want to use in their classes! SUCCESS!

Voki is a big hit, since it’s so quick and easy to use. Our 8th grade ELA classes have been working on their poetry unit, so several teachers are using Voki to have students create avatars to read their original poetry. One class completed their Voki’s with me in the library, and we had a blast! They had so much fun creating their avatars and using the text-to-speech option to have their poem read by their characters. They were so proud of and impressed with their finished products!

I also had one of my favorite teachers (that will be my roommate for ISTE!) come with her class to the library computer lab to create Go Animate cartoons using their vocabulary words. With a little more practice, they will definitely get the hang of using Go Animate and I know they will create more great cartoons!

I have four days of science classes scheduled for Glogster projects next week, too.

That’s a whole lot going on, right? It’s what I’ve dreamed of! I knew I needed to start keeping up with these great products that our students were creating with these awesome (FREE!) tech tools, so I created a new wiki. I’m wiki crazy, so sue me. I’ve professed my love for Wikispaces over and over, and I will continue to do so. This latest wiki will serve as a place to display and store examples of our students awesome web creations. You can check it out here, on the CMS Student Work wiki. I’ve already put a few samples under the Voki and Go Animate pages.

There was lots to be proud of this week. I’m proud of and grateful for my coworkers who are embracing my craziness and jumping on board so quickly. I’m proud of our students for the work they’re doing and the creating they will continue to do. I know that even more success is in our future.

Happy Birthday to ME! Yes, I scheduled my “Library Petting Zoo” on my 26th birthday…because I wanted it to be like a party! And it was! It was such a great day.

The original date for this was set for last Friday, but a “snow” day (there was not even a hint of snow, but it was cold) put a stop to that. So I rescheduled. I totally stole this idea from the awesome E-literate Librarian, whose blog I adore. When I read about her Petting Zoo, I knew I had to do this! Everyone was intrigued by the name. And then they reminded teachers on the morning announcements, so all the kids thought there were going to be actual animals in the library. I know I’m crazy, but they must think I’m COMPLETELY nuts (and I’m okay with that). I had quite a few laughs over their reactions.

I got lots of birthday love from both teachers and students, and my mom even made great snacks for me to share with visiting teachers. I really wanted to draw them in because I’m desperately trying to drum up library business! They all know that I’m a techno-geek, but today they got a real taste of what I’m into. I think some great collaborative projects are going to come out of conversations and ideas shared in the library today, and I couldn’t be more thrilled.

I had to have some animals in my zoo, so I kept this Glog up on my projector all day. All of the animals were animated, so it was very cute!

I just got in some great content-related graphic novels that I ordered from Scholastic with our Book Fair profits, so I put those out on display.

I had four stations set up with laptops and my tutorial comics with four fun, easy, free, teacher-friendly tech tools. We “petted” with Glogster, Animoto, Voki, and Mixbook. The first three have great resources and areas specifically for educators. I’m looking forward to working with the teachers on projects featuring these tools. I already lined up a poetry project using Voki and a project on the rock cycle using Glogster. YEA!!! Although I’m not a Mixbook expert, I used that one because I could “sell” it to everyone — including any non-instructional staff that stopped in. I have a feeling several grandmas will be using Mixbook to make a brag book.

All of the resources, links, and comic tutorials I created are here on my presentation wiki. Feel free to use and share!

I also had our available Flips and digital cameras out to pet and remind teachers that they are available for them to use.

The cake balls and king cakes provided by my wonderful mom (and #1 volunteer) didn’t hurt, either!

Several teachers mentioned that they would be interested in having more activities like this and other more in-depth sessions over the summer. YEAH!! I’m pumped! I love my job and I’m so excited about what’s to come 🙂

I’m still adjusting to the different pace in my new position. After a few years of running on HIGH all the time, it’s taking more than a little getting used to. Also, there’s fact that it’s past the middle of the year, teachers are feeling overwhelmingly busy, and state testing dates are quickly approaching. So they aren’t exactly beating down the library door. The good thing is that I’m really getting a chance to make my changes and do my version of weeding. This library will be moving to a new school within the next year or so, and I don’t want to pack up and move the old junk. The librarian before me inherited a overwhelmingly junked up collection and did quite a lot of weeding (for which I am extremely grateful!).

cc photo by Rishabh Mishra (possible248)

I’m a pretty hardcore weeder, though. I actually attended middle school at CMS myself quite a few years ago, and I was even a student library worker there. There’s an embarrassing amount of material that was there when I was a student there. Heck, there are quite a few encyclopedias from before I was born. So a couple of things have happened in this world since I was born, right? Yeah, that’s what I thought. And, oh yeah, we have World Book Online now, along with quite a few databases that can give the same (but actually current) information. Needless to say, I’m getting rid of A LOT of outdated reference material. I actually feel guilty about this weeding, just because of the sheer bulk of it. I’ve also started going through the fiction section. Books that haven’t been touched since my district broke apart from another district 3.5 years ago. Books with weird looking, outdated technology or sci-fi things on the cover. No 13 year old in 2011 and beyond will consider reading this stuff. I should be able to donate a lot of it to the classrooms. The remainder will have to find its final resting place elsewhere.

So, friends, when did you finally let go of your old, dusty, outdated encyclopedias? Anyone else inherit a library with a similar collection? Are you like me, looking to keep up your collection by making sure it’s fresh (and not dated and moldy)? Weeding can be, overwhelming, stressful, and cathartic all at the same time…but it’s definitely a good thing!