Saturday
Having an 8:00 a.m. session in Ontario means getting up on Saturday at the regular weekday time. The session, “Improving Communication through Google Groups and Google Calender,” was worth getting up for. The presenter got his master’s from Cal State the same year I did. He is very knowledgeable about tech matters. We were all interested enough that the session went 20 minutes overtime. I’d like to use Calendar for the library, so that teachers can see what times are available for bringing classes to the library. Google Groups will be useful for both teachers and students.
I think you ladies might have enjoyed the next session, entitled “CSLA Student Showcase”. We were introduced to the Winner twins. They are 13 year old girls who have dyslexia. When they were younger, their father challenged them to try the most impossible thing they could think of, so they wrote a book. It won several awards, and they have written the second in what is to be a six book series. They also write songs and they performed two of their songs. Their slogan is “If you can dream it, you can write it.” It was very high energy.
The next session was very different. The presenter shared the results of her research for her dissertation on the question “How Are School Libraries Meeting the Needs of Latino Students?” One of the findings was that having a library staffed by a certificated teacher-librarian was one hallmark of higher performing school schools. In other words, librarians make a difference.
Between sessions I had been visiting the exhibit hall. This break was the last time it would be open and there was a drawing for door prizes. I won some software. It is also the time when the book sellers offer discounted or free books so they won't have to ship them home. I bought a few books for our library.
The last session of the day was “Practical Steps to Citations and Notations”. As promised, it was full of practical aids to helping students learn how to take useful notes and do correct citations. The presenter also gave us handouts that included information on the newest MLA format. All of this is information that will help me help our students do better work and be more prepared for college.
In the evening I attended a chocolate tasting event held by ProQuest, a database company. That provided the appetizers to the CYRM awards banquet. (You will be learning more about this award next semester.) When we went in, there were four free books on each chair. Among the people at my table were two authors and the Cathedral librarian. Besides the excellent meal, the highlight is the introduction of one of the award winners by a student and the speech by the winner’s author. This year’s primary picture book winner was Stanley’s Wild Ride by Linda Bailey. She gave a delightful talk accompanied by PowerPoint.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
CSLA 2009-Friday
Today’s activities go from 8 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. First off was the General Session where everyone is together. Several awards were given, sponsors were recognized and the new state officers were installed before the main speaker was introduced. Ellen Siminoff, who was involved in the early days of www.latimes.com and www.yahoo.com and is currently the president and CEO of Schmoop.com, spoke to us about “The Great Online, Where Young Minds Roam Free”.
Following some exclusive exhibit time (read “time to shop”) we had the first of the nine concurrent sessions. These are times when we each had to choose from 10-12 speakers giving presentations on topics of interest to librarians. Some common subject areas are curriculum, technology, literature, library management, advocacy (PR is part of this), diversity, and collaboration. Most of them are only offered during one concurrent session, so hard choices have to be made.
The first session I attended was “New Technology for 21st Century Libraries and Classrooms”. This was an overview and helped me refine my choices for later sessions. Some of the technologies introduced will be showing up in your curriculum next semester. Additionally, there was a brief talk on copyright as it applies to digital media.
The second session I chose was “Building a Virtual Learning Commons Using Moodle and Web 2.0 Tools”. Moodles are shells for presenting classes online. Many college courses are offered using this type of format. A student can log in anytime and anywhere there is Internet to access assignments, links to resources, discussion boards. Some of my classwork for my library credential was presented in this type of format and all of my daughter’s classes are done this way. (She has never set foot on the campus in
For the third session I went to “Using Web2.0 to Enliven Projects”. In one hour, the presenters went through an incredible number of useful (and mostly free) websites for doing great looking paperless assignments.
The day ended with the President’s reception. There was food, more awards and entertainment. Camila Alire, president of ALA, was there to bring greetings from the national organization. The entertainment was songs rewritten with library related lyrics and sung by a group of librarians augmented by a few students from Hamilton High School Academy of Music. They sounded very good. An honorary life membership award was given to a man who has been a life-long advocate for school libraries. So ended the second day of the conference.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
CSLA 2009-Thursday
Greetings from the California School Library Association (CSLA) conference in Ontario , CA
The first session I attended was “New Trends: The best in YA Literature” presented by Michael Cart. Every year he reads hundreds of books for young adults (that’s you) and share information about them with the rest of us. He talked for two hours and only got through half his list of good books published in 2009. Look for some of those titles to turn up on the shelves of our library.
The second session, “Reinventing a Library Practice Cutriculum”, presented by Mark Bobrosky, gave me some good ideas for assignments that I can use in our Library Science classes. Many of them will help you with your research skills.
After that session, there was a break, before the opening of the exhibit hall. 
This is where the various vendors and special displays are located. There were representatives of companies that sell books, software, library furniture, library t-shirts and other things. The first night some of the vendors sponsor food stations, so you can get enough to count as dinner while you browse. Many vendors also have candy, pens, or other small giveaways to encourage people to stop and talk to them. The winners of the poster contest were on display. Our own M.S. in first period got an honorable mention. Finally, to show that even librarians can be silly, there was a library cart drill team contest. One of the teams wore cow costumes and has carts named things like the “Moobery awards”. Everyone seemed to enjoy the lightheartedness of the event.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Sunday, November 23, 2008
CSLA 2008-Day 4
Sunday morning began with committee meetings, so those of us who aren’t on committees got to sleep in. The first regular session began at 9:15. I had chosen Good Slick Stuff to Do with PhotoShop Elements, iPhoto, and Picassa (Beyond the Basics). It was just starting to get interesting when I had to leave for an overlapping session, because I had volunteered again as facilitator. The description of Virtual School Librarian, Are You Ready? was :
“Soon there will be job descriptions calling for virtual school librarians. This session will discuss the job description and characteristics needed for such a position. Join in the discussion to define the role and expectations for a Teacher Librarian who will only interact with teachers and students online.”
This is an interesting area for discussion. What do you think the librarians of the future will do? How does this relate to our ESLR about becoming a life-long learner? What will your children’s experiences of libraries and librarians be?
The conference ended with a celebration of books and reading. The author/illustrator brunch brings together librarians with the authors whose books we share with our patrons. Each round table for 10 people has a seat reserved for an author or illustrator. When you choose your seat, you don’t know who will be at your table. Author Pamela Turner sat at our table. I had not heard of her before, so it was interesting talking to her. She has written 4 books. Almost all of them have some tie to animals. (You’ll get to see her newest book, because each author brings a copy of one of their books which goes to the person whose birthday is closest to his or her own. I was closest.) The main speaker was Rosemary Wells who has been writing for children from preschool up for over 30 years. She was passionate about the importance of libraries and librarians, the value of reading for all children, and issues related to war. Many of us received advanced reader’s copies of her newest book, which is about Abraham Lincoln from the point of view of his sons. After the brunch ended at 1, there was an hour set aside for librarians to get books signed by the authors. I didn’t stay because of the almost 400 mile trip home and concerns about getting caught in the tule fog in the Central Valley.
See you tomorrow.
“Soon there will be job descriptions calling for virtual school librarians. This session will discuss the job description and characteristics needed for such a position. Join in the discussion to define the role and expectations for a Teacher Librarian who will only interact with teachers and students online.”
This is an interesting area for discussion. What do you think the librarians of the future will do? How does this relate to our ESLR about becoming a life-long learner? What will your children’s experiences of libraries and librarians be?
The conference ended with a celebration of books and reading. The author/illustrator brunch brings together librarians with the authors whose books we share with our patrons. Each round table for 10 people has a seat reserved for an author or illustrator. When you choose your seat, you don’t know who will be at your table. Author Pamela Turner sat at our table. I had not heard of her before, so it was interesting talking to her. She has written 4 books. Almost all of them have some tie to animals. (You’ll get to see her newest book, because each author brings a copy of one of their books which goes to the person whose birthday is closest to his or her own. I was closest.) The main speaker was Rosemary Wells who has been writing for children from preschool up for over 30 years. She was passionate about the importance of libraries and librarians, the value of reading for all children, and issues related to war. Many of us received advanced reader’s copies of her newest book, which is about Abraham Lincoln from the point of view of his sons. After the brunch ended at 1, there was an hour set aside for librarians to get books signed by the authors. I didn’t stay because of the almost 400 mile trip home and concerns about getting caught in the tule fog in the Central Valley.
See you tomorrow.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
CSLA 2008-Day 3
The brisk 4 block walk from the hotel to the convention center was really needed to have me awake for this morning’s 8 a.m. concurrent sessions. I leave it to you to figure out why I chose one titled School-to-Work Connections for Student Library Staff: Running an Academic Library Service Course at Your Library.
Then more exhibit time and more books bought.
It takes many people doing different jobs to make a conference like this one go smoothly. One of the jobs done by volunteers is facilitating sessions. This involves introducing the speaker, helping with handouts and getting the techies in to help if there are problems with the technology. I facilitated the session Making Connections with Teachers and Students. Although it was listed for 4-6 grades, the presenter was very high energy and I got some tips that will help me collaborate with teachers at our school.
At lunch I took my food across the street and walked around the Capitol grounds. There are many trees, monuments and squirrels. To the right is part of the firefighter memorial. On the way back, I saw a small group of people carrying signs about peace and equality. Little did I know that there would be a large demonstration going on while we were in our afternoon sessions.
Inside the convention center, all went on as usual. The next session was Beyond the Traditional Library Orientation. What I found interesting was that at the presenters’ school, all students had to pass a library literacy requirement in order to graduate. I’ll tell you more about that next week.
Between the last two sessions, was the final exhibit time. Some of the book venders do not want to have to ship books home, so they may give them away or reduce the prices. I got 4 free books that I will give to the elementary school. I also got 2 sets of Chicano history and literature books for half price. These will be immediately helpful to Mrs. Bravo’s and Mr. Calzada’s classes.
For the day’s final concurrent session I chose What Does the Research Tell Us about Working with Latino Students in the School Library? The presenter is currently working on her doctorate and she shared information from her research. Some of what she had to say fits in with the article you are reading.
The afternoon ended with the membership meeting where we divided into regional groups to brainstorm ways to improve the CSLA. Our group from Los Angeles county had a lot to say.
The evening ended with the California Young Reader Medal Award banquet. The award is always given to a winning author or illustrator by a student. This year it was a 17 year old girl who spoke about 2 of the winning books. She introduced the featured author, Gennifer Choldenko. Ms Choldenko won the award for a book called Al Capone Does My Shirts. (If you never heard of Al Capone, you might want to Google him.) In her talk she told what books inspired her as a child and what inspires her to write the stories she writes for children. It was an interesting evening.
Tomorrow: 2 more concurrent sessions and the author/illustrator brunch.
Then more exhibit time and more books bought.
It takes many people doing different jobs to make a conference like this one go smoothly. One of the jobs done by volunteers is facilitating sessions. This involves introducing the speaker, helping with handouts and getting the techies in to help if there are problems with the technology. I facilitated the session Making Connections with Teachers and Students. Although it was listed for 4-6 grades, the presenter was very high energy and I got some tips that will help me collaborate with teachers at our school.
At lunch I took my food across the street and walked around the Capitol grounds. There are many trees, monuments and squirrels. To the right is part of the firefighter memorial. On the way back, I saw a small group of people carrying signs about peace and equality. Little did I know that there would be a large demonstration going on while we were in our afternoon sessions.
Inside the convention center, all went on as usual. The next session was Beyond the Traditional Library Orientation. What I found interesting was that at the presenters’ school, all students had to pass a library literacy requirement in order to graduate. I’ll tell you more about that next week.
Between the last two sessions, was the final exhibit time. Some of the book venders do not want to have to ship books home, so they may give them away or reduce the prices. I got 4 free books that I will give to the elementary school. I also got 2 sets of Chicano history and literature books for half price. These will be immediately helpful to Mrs. Bravo’s and Mr. Calzada’s classes.
For the day’s final concurrent session I chose What Does the Research Tell Us about Working with Latino Students in the School Library? The presenter is currently working on her doctorate and she shared information from her research. Some of what she had to say fits in with the article you are reading.
The afternoon ended with the membership meeting where we divided into regional groups to brainstorm ways to improve the CSLA. Our group from Los Angeles county had a lot to say.
The evening ended with the California Young Reader Medal Award banquet. The award is always given to a winning author or illustrator by a student. This year it was a 17 year old girl who spoke about 2 of the winning books. She introduced the featured author, Gennifer Choldenko. Ms Choldenko won the award for a book called Al Capone Does My Shirts. (If you never heard of Al Capone, you might want to Google him.) In her talk she told what books inspired her as a child and what inspires her to write the stories she writes for children. It was an interesting evening.
Tomorrow: 2 more concurrent sessions and the author/illustrator brunch.
Friday, November 21, 2008
CSLA 2008--Day 2
Today began with the first general session. These sessions are held in a large hall, so that anyone attending the conference may come and get inspired. The speaker is often not a librarian, but someone who is an enthusiastic supporter of reading and libraries. This year‘s speaker was Joe McHugh, a professional storyteller, author and public radio producer. His talk was titled Slaying the Gorgon: Storytelling and Media in the Electronic Age. In a humorous and well-paced presentation, he reminded us that we need to be concerned about who controls the stories that our young people use to build their world views.
After the general session, there was what is called exclusive exhibit time. This is time set aside so people can visit the exhibits without feeling guilty about missing sessions. I purchased some books and videos and picked up some more candy for you library science students.
Next was the first of the concurrent sessions. Out of twelve different topics to choose from, there were 4 I wanted to go to, so the hardest part was choosing which one to sit in on. I finally selected the session on a world lit reading program presented by a teacher and a librarian from the Toronto (Canada) French School. Some of the books on their list are also used in our school.
All that and it was just time for lunch.
In the afternoon I had to make some more tough choices. First I went to a session called How Science Fiction Taught Me Physics, Psychology, and History Among Other Subjects. I was hoping to pick up some ideas to share with teachers of those subjects. While interesting in other ways, the presentation didn’t include any specific details about the connection between sci fi and the subject areas. Sometimes titles are misleading. The last session I attended was exactly as described--ideas for leading the faculty in learning about Web 2.0 tools using Classroom Learning 2.0 (http://classroomlearning2.blogspot.com/). Extra credit will be given to anyone who checks out the blog and writes up a paper on why we should do some of the 23 activities as part of our class.
In the evening there were several receptions. I attended Gale/Cengage reception. There were gift bags for those who had RSVPed (oops-I forgot) and appetizers for all. In addition the company previewed their new online database.
Tomorrow: More concurrent sessions and the CYRM award banquet.
After the general session, there was what is called exclusive exhibit time. This is time set aside so people can visit the exhibits without feeling guilty about missing sessions. I purchased some books and videos and picked up some more candy for you library science students.
Next was the first of the concurrent sessions. Out of twelve different topics to choose from, there were 4 I wanted to go to, so the hardest part was choosing which one to sit in on. I finally selected the session on a world lit reading program presented by a teacher and a librarian from the Toronto (Canada) French School. Some of the books on their list are also used in our school.
All that and it was just time for lunch.
In the afternoon I had to make some more tough choices. First I went to a session called How Science Fiction Taught Me Physics, Psychology, and History Among Other Subjects. I was hoping to pick up some ideas to share with teachers of those subjects. While interesting in other ways, the presentation didn’t include any specific details about the connection between sci fi and the subject areas. Sometimes titles are misleading. The last session I attended was exactly as described--ideas for leading the faculty in learning about Web 2.0 tools using Classroom Learning 2.0 (http://classroomlearning2.blogspot.com/). Extra credit will be given to anyone who checks out the blog and writes up a paper on why we should do some of the 23 activities as part of our class.
In the evening there were several receptions. I attended Gale/Cengage reception. There were gift bags for those who had RSVPed (oops-I forgot) and appetizers for all. In addition the company previewed their new online database.
The second reception was the President’s Reception. This is sponsored by several publishers of children’s books. In addition to a gift bag of books, we were treated to desserts and a live old-time radio theatre production directed by Joseph McHugh. It was a lot of fun to watch, because the voice actors were some of our fellow librarians.
Tomorrow: More concurrent sessions and the CYRM award banquet. Thursday, November 20, 2008
CSLA Conference-day 1
Greetings from Sacramento. It is a beautiful fall day here. Sacramento has many trees and the sidewalks are strewn with colorful, crunchy leaves. Today I registered and attended two 2 hour workshops and the opening reception at the exhibit hall.
The first workshop, given by David Loertscher, a professor at San Jose State University, School of Library and Information Science, was titled "Linking into the Center of Teaching and Learning--21st Century Style." He has many idea about ways to make the library a place where teachers and librarians work together to create a learning commons where students are challenged to use higher level thinking skills. He was very enthusiastic about using technology to make that happen.
The second workshop was "The Best of the Best: What's New in YA Literature" by Michael Cart, a nationally-known author and lecturer, who spoke for 2 hours about books published in 2008. He had more on the list to talk about, but ran out of time. I made lots of notes on my copy of the list and will be looking for some of the books to add to our collection.
In the evening I was present for the opening night reception at the exhibit hall. There were food stations serving sandwiches and vegetable platters for people attending the conference. The food is courtesy of the exhibitors. The variety of exhibits is similar to the ads you saw in the School Library Journal. There are publishers and book sellers, library furniture companies, schools of library science, automation system companies (like Follett, which sells and services our Winnebago Spectrum system), subscription services, Internet content providers, and representatives from related organizations like California Reading Association and the California Young Reader Medal program. 
Tonight was a scouting expedition. By that I mean I walked through and talked to a few people to see what was there, but I didn't spend anything. Many of the exhibitors put out bowls of candy to attract people, so I have started a collection to share with my library science students. (Another favorite form of librarian bait is pens. My collection is growing.)
Another exhibit was the winners of the poster contest. The top winner was an eighth grade girl. Her theme was "Set yourself free @ your library." You can see her poster to the right. I'll share the pictures of the other winners when I get back.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Prelude to CSLA Conference 2008
This is addressed to my library science students. I will be thinking of you and am looking forward to good reports about your hard work and good behavior while I am away at the conference. This year's conference will be in Sacramento. While you are reading the article on Latino librarians, I will be attending workshops designed to make me a better school librarian. I plan to bring back lots of good ideas, some good books and a few other goodies from the conference. Check back in over the weekend to see what goes on at a professional conference.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
CSLA Sunday
Sunday's schedule started with the last two concurrent sessions. At 8 in the morning I was in "Creating a Library Website to Teach Information Literacy." This was a different way of using a library website. The presenter advocated linking to other sites which already had good uup-to-date link lists on topics of interest to our students. Her library website is located at http://hamilibrary.com/.
The last session I attended was "Building Bridges between Picture Books and High School Curriculum." The presenters had many ideas for using picture books to introduce subjects studied in high school. I have a hand-out with some of the titles they suggested.
The conference ended with one of my favorite parts of the conference--the author/illustrator brunch. The line for it was already long when I got out of my last session. Everyone wants to get a good seat, but you don't really know what the best seat will turn out to be. The tables are numbered and the numbers are randomly drawn to determine which author or illustrator will be seated at your table. Our table got Mike Thaler. You, like I, might not recognize the name, but you have probably all encountered one of his books. He wrote a whole series that began with The Teacher from the Black Lagoon. The speakers for the luncheon were Pamela Duncan Edwards and Henry Cole.
They have worked together as author and illustrator on several books. Their stories about how they came to create books were amusing. They ended their presentation by having Mr. Cole draw a picture while Ms Edwards read their new children's book, The Old House. Look for the picture when you view the PowerPoint in class. Finally, the day and the conference were at an end. As a parting gift, we each got to choose a free book for our library. I'd show it to you, but someone has already checked it out.
The last session I attended was "Building Bridges between Picture Books and High School Curriculum." The presenters had many ideas for using picture books to introduce subjects studied in high school. I have a hand-out with some of the titles they suggested.
The conference ended with one of my favorite parts of the conference--the author/illustrator brunch. The line for it was already long when I got out of my last session. Everyone wants to get a good seat, but you don't really know what the best seat will turn out to be. The tables are numbered and the numbers are randomly drawn to determine which author or illustrator will be seated at your table. Our table got Mike Thaler. You, like I, might not recognize the name, but you have probably all encountered one of his books. He wrote a whole series that began with The Teacher from the Black Lagoon. The speakers for the luncheon were Pamela Duncan Edwards and Henry Cole.
They have worked together as author and illustrator on several books. Their stories about how they came to create books were amusing. They ended their presentation by having Mr. Cole draw a picture while Ms Edwards read their new children's book, The Old House. Look for the picture when you view the PowerPoint in class. Finally, the day and the conference were at an end. As a parting gift, we each got to choose a free book for our library. I'd show it to you, but someone has already checked it out.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
CSLA--Saturday
Saturday morning we started off at 8 with concurrent sessions. The first I attended was "Books, Blogs, and the Ties that Bind." Library science students, are you interested in helping set up an online book club? If there is enough interest, we'll do it. The next session was "School Library Learning 2.0: California's Summer Fun." This was for the people who participated last summer in a self-paced online course on web 2.0 for libraries. It was fun to see the faces of the people we knew only by screen names. I signed up to be a cheerleader for people who take the course this winter. My final session for the day was called "Booktalks: a Blueprint for Building Readers." I served as facilitator for the session. (That means I introduced the speaker, made sure people got handouts, gave the presenter a gift from CSLA, and collected evaluations at the end. If there had been any technical problems, it would have been my job to get help.) Booktalks are one of the skills we will be developing in the spring semester. The presenter also had a handout on books for people who liked A Child Called "It." I frequently get requests like that, so now I have ideas for my next book-buying expedition.
Speaking of buying books, I bought the CYRM books for both primary and young adults, as well as some others that were just too good to pass up. There will be cataloging to do when I get back to school.
Later in the afternoon we gathered for the membership meeting. This was a chance for members to express concerns and get feedback from the officers. The day ended with the CYRM Award Banquet. The speaker was supposed to be Karen Hesse, whose books some of you have been reading. She was unable to attend, but the illustrator of her picture book for older youth, The Cats in Krasinski Square spoke to us about how she and Ms Hesse collaborated on the book and how she did the research for the book. It was an interesting evening.
Speaking of buying books, I bought the CYRM books for both primary and young adults, as well as some others that were just too good to pass up. There will be cataloging to do when I get back to school.
Later in the afternoon we gathered for the membership meeting. This was a chance for members to express concerns and get feedback from the officers. The day ended with the CYRM Award Banquet. The speaker was supposed to be Karen Hesse, whose books some of you have been reading. She was unable to attend, but the illustrator of her picture book for older youth, The Cats in Krasinski Square spoke to us about how she and Ms Hesse collaborated on the book and how she did the research for the book. It was an interesting evening.
CSLA Conference-Friday
I forgot to mention yesterday that at the exhibit hall the poster contest winners were on display. I am sorry to say that none of our poster were awarded a prize, but I was happy to see that the quality of the winners was so high.
The day began at 8 a.m. with a general session. This is where the new officers and the conference sponsors are introduced. The guest speaker, Paul Janeczko, a well known children's poet, spoke about the importance of getting children excited about reading. After an exclusive exhibit time (That means that we didn't have to skip something else to visit the exhibit hall.), The concurrent sessions began. There were many different sessions to choose from in each time slot. For session A, I chose the California Young Reader Medal 2007-8 Overview, because those are the books we read to the kindergarteners in the spring and because I would like to get the high school students reading the books on their level. Next, I selected a session on new ideas for library orientation, but it was full, so I ended up in a session titled "Web 2.0 Tools--Podcasts, Blogs, RSS, Wikis, and More!" The presenter was in my master's class and always has useful ideas. The last session was "Library Website 2.0: Developing Interactive Websites for Teens"--more good ideas to play with. No conference would be complete without food. I had lunch at a local restaurant with one of my school library mentors: she was the person who first got me started about getting my library media credential. The day ended with the President's Dessert Reception. The food was good and it was a good opportunity to network with other school librarians.
p.s. Remember the raffles? I won the last Harry Potter audibook. a 17 CD set.
The day began at 8 a.m. with a general session. This is where the new officers and the conference sponsors are introduced. The guest speaker, Paul Janeczko, a well known children's poet, spoke about the importance of getting children excited about reading. After an exclusive exhibit time (That means that we didn't have to skip something else to visit the exhibit hall.), The concurrent sessions began. There were many different sessions to choose from in each time slot. For session A, I chose the California Young Reader Medal 2007-8 Overview, because those are the books we read to the kindergarteners in the spring and because I would like to get the high school students reading the books on their level. Next, I selected a session on new ideas for library orientation, but it was full, so I ended up in a session titled "Web 2.0 Tools--Podcasts, Blogs, RSS, Wikis, and More!" The presenter was in my master's class and always has useful ideas. The last session was "Library Website 2.0: Developing Interactive Websites for Teens"--more good ideas to play with. No conference would be complete without food. I had lunch at a local restaurant with one of my school library mentors: she was the person who first got me started about getting my library media credential. The day ended with the President's Dessert Reception. The food was good and it was a good opportunity to network with other school librarians.
p.s. Remember the raffles? I won the last Harry Potter audibook. a 17 CD set.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
CSLA 2007-Ontario, CA
It's been a busy and productive 2 days so far. Thursday afternoon I attended 2 workshops. The first, on Collaborating with classroom teachers, covered research and practical ideas for creating better assignments for students. The second was about creating an effective library websites. Both of them were full of good ideas that I can put to use when I get back to school. I hope my library science students will get involved in the (currently non-existent) library webpages. The evening was devoted to the opening of the exhibit hall. A corporate sponsor provided food and live music as we browsed the various exhibts. To get an idea of the variety of the exhibits ask to see the PowerPoint presentation when I get back to school. Many of the exhibitors gave out candy to encourage you to slow down and hear their presentations. Many of the vendors also asked for contact information in the form of raffle entries. (More about that next time.)
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Week 9, Thing 23 --Summing Things Up
It’s been a busy nine weeks. My stated goal for the journey was to have the sense that I am not three steps behind the students when it comes to Web 2.0. I think I am gained on them. Although, with mash-ups and evolving technology, I may always be one step behind, I feel much more comfortable with the concepts and vocabulary. Some of the things I enjoyed playing with, like the image generators, probably won’t replace the tools I already use. Others are new tools in the arsenal against ignorance. Looking at my previous posts, I can see where each new tool caused me to rethink a task that the students or teachers perform. Some of them, like my library science students’ procedure books popped up multiple times as I tried new tools, so I will need to assess the differences in how each one could be used before I finalize the assignment. I will also need to present changes to our tech coordinator and administrative team, so that I have backing for having students on “social” networking sites and can be sure that we don’t run into blocks on the system.
I appreciated learning some new tools for my own continuing education. Both writing my own and reading other people’s blogs challenges me to look at new ideas. The RSS feeds will continue to keep me updated on developments in the library field. The discussions about tagging have me thinking about the way students deal with knowledge, making me more open to looking at searching in different ways. LibraryThing may lead to my finally getting my books organized and deciding which books no longer match my interests and should be passed on to someone else.
One thing I hadn’t thought about before starting was that my spell checker needed educating as much as I did. I wish I had kept a list of the words that I added to the dictionary.
I liked the format of the program. Dividing the Things into 9 weeks made it easy to monitor progress and was a motivator for keeping with the program. Having over 3 months to pull the 9 weeks from made it less stressful and allowed for vacation breaks or just unexpected events. Having the September 1 deadline encourages me to finish. There were times when I was slightly overwhelmed by something new, but there was a lot of encouragement available. One of the best parts of the format was that it gave me a framework to work from. I had been to excellent sessions at CSLA Conferences where enthusiastic presenters introduced blogs, wikis and podcasts, but it wasn’t until I did the 23 Things that I could understand and appreciate the value of these web 2.0 tools. When you decide to offer another discovery program like this, I will definitely want to participate. The 23 Things gave me an excellent way to model lifelong learning for my students.
I appreciated learning some new tools for my own continuing education. Both writing my own and reading other people’s blogs challenges me to look at new ideas. The RSS feeds will continue to keep me updated on developments in the library field. The discussions about tagging have me thinking about the way students deal with knowledge, making me more open to looking at searching in different ways. LibraryThing may lead to my finally getting my books organized and deciding which books no longer match my interests and should be passed on to someone else.
One thing I hadn’t thought about before starting was that my spell checker needed educating as much as I did. I wish I had kept a list of the words that I added to the dictionary.
I liked the format of the program. Dividing the Things into 9 weeks made it easy to monitor progress and was a motivator for keeping with the program. Having over 3 months to pull the 9 weeks from made it less stressful and allowed for vacation breaks or just unexpected events. Having the September 1 deadline encourages me to finish. There were times when I was slightly overwhelmed by something new, but there was a lot of encouragement available. One of the best parts of the format was that it gave me a framework to work from. I had been to excellent sessions at CSLA Conferences where enthusiastic presenters introduced blogs, wikis and podcasts, but it wasn’t until I did the 23 Things that I could understand and appreciate the value of these web 2.0 tools. When you decide to offer another discovery program like this, I will definitely want to participate. The 23 Things gave me an excellent way to model lifelong learning for my students.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Week 9, Thing 22
Looking at the Gutenberg Project was both fun and frustrating. The link from the 23Things list didn’t work (I did this Thing in July), but I am assuming the result of a Google search was the same site. The concept of putting out-of -copyright material online where it can be freely downloaded and read on a computer has the potential for saving people (especially students) money and being ecologically sound. On the day’s Top 100 list was a book, Encyclopedia of Needlework by Thérèse de Dillmont (131), which I have in my personal library. As an illustrated volume, it seemed like a good test of the download process. The first download I tried was a format that my computer didn’t recognize. The second was HTML and worked great: a file of images and the document itself worked together to create a lovely copy of the chapter on macramé. It was, however, only a chapter. After trying some other options, I downloaded the zip file. It turned out to be the whole book plus an image file with all the images, but they didn’t integrate when I tried to read the book. This, of course means that I will need to do further research.
On LibriVox I listened to the beginning of Oliver Twist. It was really easy to access the file and the reader for chapter 1 had a pleasant voice. Audio books are a big help to students who are ELL. Some of our teachers have been reading parts of the lit books to their classes. Assigning students to access books and listen as homework, would free up class time for discussion and analysis of the story.
I’m all in favor of free resources and I know that my students will like the idea of being able to read and listen to free copies of books.
On LibriVox I listened to the beginning of Oliver Twist. It was really easy to access the file and the reader for chapter 1 had a pleasant voice. Audio books are a big help to students who are ELL. Some of our teachers have been reading parts of the lit books to their classes. Assigning students to access books and listen as homework, would free up class time for discussion and analysis of the story.
I’m all in favor of free resources and I know that my students will like the idea of being able to read and listen to free copies of books.
Week 9, Thing 21 Podcasts
My first stop was the Yahoo tutorial. It made working with podcasts sound less scary. I almost downloaded the Yahoo Music engine, but my daughter told me that she had never need to download software to listen to podcasts. It turns out that the Windows Media Player already on the computer worked just fine. Having not a lot of time to waste on junk, I went straight to Educational Podcast Directory. The site is very basic. I clicked on Information Skills. There I managed to still waste time by looking at entries for baby names and polymer clay, before following the Open Stacks link to find that its subtitle was Promoting information access and literacy for all. There I hit the jackpot with “Uncontrolled Vocabulary,” a podcast series (podseries?) on current topics in libraries as suggested by blogs and articles in the news. I am listening to edition #9 right now. The topics are interesting and one of the participants authored the article We Asked for 2.0 Libraries and We Got 2.0 Librarians, which I had read for an earlier Thing. Another thing I liked about Uncontrolled Vocabulary was that the blog that the podcast is attached to gave a link list to the articles that were being discussed. Anyone interested in submitting a blogpost or news article for inclusion in future podcasts can send the link to del.icio.us with the tag unvocab, which is an interesting use of social bookmarking. Adding the feed to my Bloglines feeds was simple. I guess I will need to invest in an MP3 player next, because this would be good for listening to on my commute.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Week 9, Thing 20 You Tube
Having frequently received links to videos, I found it interesting to see where they came from. I looked at several on You tube. Some were not worth the time I spent looking at them, but they’re like potato chips—it’s hard to stop at one. The one I’ve chosen to include in the blog is “The Adventures of Super Librarian” created by the librarians at McCracken County Library, which I found by following a link from Conan the Librarian. I liked the humorous way it promoted the library and seemed like something that my students could create. I’ve also been enjoying Doug Valentine’s videos which I encountered at the TeacherLibrarianNetwork.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Week 8 Thing 19 LibraryThing revisited
Having already set up a LibraryThing account for Thing 11, I went back to catalog some more of the books laying on my end table. I wish it were as quick and easy to add titles to my OPAC at school. Also, after some of the other apps that use tagging, I could appreciate that it allowed multiword tags. A nice improvement would be if the auto complete feature recognized commas as signaling a new tag and showed its suggestions for each tag you began typing like it does in labels on Blogspot.
This time around, I checked out some of the “unsuggestions”. I was amused to see that about 10% of the books on the list generated for one of the books in my collection were ones that I had read and enjoyed (granted some were years ago) and still have in my house. Apparently people who knit aren’t supposed to like science fiction (among other things).
This time around, I checked out some of the “unsuggestions”. I was amused to see that about 10% of the books on the list generated for one of the books in my collection were ones that I had read and enjoyed (granted some were years ago) and still have in my house. Apparently people who knit aren’t supposed to like science fiction (among other things).
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Week 8, Thing 18
This document was created using Zoho. It was not hard to do. The buttons are almost identical to the ones in Word, so it felt familar. One difficulty I encountered was when I was playing with buttons and accidentally toggled the HTML and, not knowing what I had done, couldn't get anything to work. I also created a chart which picked up the background on the text just before it and wouldn't let me change that color, except a cell by cell. Inserting a picture
Publishing to my blog was easy and I was able to shrink the picture here. but then I lost it and the page had errors. This is annoying, but not fatal if all you are doing is text.
I keep saying this, but I think this is perhaps the best way to go with those pesky WASC docs that require input from various people. It was easy to put a note on the document and seems easy to set up as a shared document.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Week 7, Thing 17
Playing in the sandbox—would have been more productive if I had something specific in mind, but I could see how easy it is to edit a wiki. To be comfortable setting up a wiki, I think I need to just do it, so I am looking at the possibility of a family event planning wiki with my 20-somethings.
I went to post one of my ideas for using web 2.0 on the Calcurriculum wiki and realized that the ideas that seemed so clear when I posted on my blog were too vague to be useful, so I had to go back and clarify them in my own mind before posting them on the wiki. Collaborating on wikis might encourage that same kind of self-editing in students, too. Once an idea seemed ready, I went to the site and uploaded my idea. I found that the formatting needed to be cleaned up when I pasted the idea I had copied from a Word document. This was easily done, because all I had to do was paste it in the pop-up box and let the program reformat it to match the other entries. I found I had somehow inserted my idea at the top, causing it to become the page heading. This was also easily corrected, because deleting what I had accidentally put in restored the page's proper heading. All together, it was not an intimidating experience and I will repeat it when I get my next good idea. I will also go back when I have time and read the other entries more carefully, because the ideas looked useful.
I went to post one of my ideas for using web 2.0 on the Calcurriculum wiki and realized that the ideas that seemed so clear when I posted on my blog were too vague to be useful, so I had to go back and clarify them in my own mind before posting them on the wiki. Collaborating on wikis might encourage that same kind of self-editing in students, too. Once an idea seemed ready, I went to the site and uploaded my idea. I found that the formatting needed to be cleaned up when I pasted the idea I had copied from a Word document. This was easily done, because all I had to do was paste it in the pop-up box and let the program reformat it to match the other entries. I found I had somehow inserted my idea at the top, causing it to become the page heading. This was also easily corrected, because deleting what I had accidentally put in restored the page's proper heading. All together, it was not an intimidating experience and I will repeat it when I get my next good idea. I will also go back when I have time and read the other entries more carefully, because the ideas looked useful.
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