Wikis

Okay, I have been on Wikipedia but hadn't spent much time until I had the assignment. I also liked the Kearns High Library Wiki. It had information the students would want for research and information. It was easy to use, organized and a cool looking, sparse site. There were search engines and I liked Creative Commons for pictures as well.

For some reason the Amelia Evans wiki for me came up as a list. The best practices wouldn't come up at all, so I changed browsers and still no luck. I am interested to learn more but not sure how I will incorporate wikis in my library. I have no time for necessary jobs like overdue slips and book repairs so whatever I do will have to be streamlined and really useful.

I also created my own wiki but can't get the instructional videos to come up. They do and I click the arrow then they go dark for hours and never load. My dh upgraded to the highest speed internet this weekend so I could get them to run and it still won't work so I will have to attack it later.

This is my little cutie and she was Bella before the Twilight thing so don't beat me up over that please. No way are the two related. The page is hand painted and has some digital scrolling. It is a bit dark, sorry.

This is the Bellingham Public Library in Washington and I love the limited color, the organization and the amount of books. There is also a lot of seating and that is very cool at a library.

I like the wide aisles too.

Children should be able to navigate the library in my world so the easier and more interesting it is to them the better in my estimation.

I used to use Flickr and Photobucket a lot. I wrote articles and have had a few photos and some of my artwork published locally and nationally so it was fun to play, resize and modify my work. I am a time waster when it comes to technology. For a while I scrapbooked digitally and that is fun. I spent longer than when I did it by hand though changing backgrounds and once uploaded so many free fonts that I overloaded my hard drive. I now have a backup hard drive. With the demands of work and school I have set a bunch of that aside while I finish my master's degree and actually may take next year off. I am really exhausted and cranky. Jen and I were laughing about the exhaustion thing at class for a moment.
Demi Moore looks tired to me and I don't think her situation is funny. She is exhausted however and has a personal assistant, cook, gardener, maid and many others I am sure. Jen and I have work, school, four kids each and I can't get enough sleep to feel refreshed so I guess I need to work harder at it. (Resting, that is...)

Edublog awards, angry librarian and more

The edublog awards are interesting. I went through the different winners blogs and laughed at the cool ideas they came up with. My personal winner is:
http://mediaspecialistsguide.blogspot.com/ Her blog is more resources for a librarian. I liked the daring librarian blog too for her teen-focused ideas. The best part though on mediaspecialistguide's site was the video at the bottom about shelving...

I have explored letting students shelve. I taught one this week and let her shelve. What a mess. It took so much time to clean up her mess. I am not a strict librarian. My time has been spent in elementary libraries so I get that little kids want to look and try to shelve. I may try to train another student later on but this was definitely a bust as far as letting her shelve.

We also tried letting students check out and that will also no longer happen. We only have one computer with our Alexandria system and one scanner so we can't really do the self-check in/out. It works at other schools however.

Selena's blog was interesting about wikis. Didn't know that the name came from Hawaii. All things in Kaysville flow back to the big island, except me and I volunteer to go. I would prepare on my Hawaii wiki and report on my journey on my blog...

Thanks to Selena who visited the Oquirrh Mountain Charter Library and helped process books. She is a superstar!!!

Loved everyone's blogs and Anne thanks for posting all the links for us!

Blogs...

I started early into the blog scene but was saddened when they turned out to be snipe spaces and peoples personal soap boxes so I don't spend tons of time with them now. I don't have time to spend because I am at school and I haven't found a lot that work for what I need.

After reading the teacher's experience with students I think that a blog could be interesting for students who are older and could write one. For myself and my students, I think it would be a great way to add to the information at my school and let teachers know about books and resources coming in.

I taught about public pioneer at the beginning of the year and suddenly teachers were asking for the login and they had no idea it was accessible for us and existed. So I will probably start a work blog and let it be one step toward collaboration.

I would also like to do book recommendations for parents and students.

My 7 1/2 Habits

I like the 7 1/2 habits and have considered that they are things I want to work on as the class progresses. I would like to grow and improve as a teacher librarian.

Begin with the end in mind... I know that I use this in lesson planning. I also used it as I got on the path of getting a license and endorsement a year and a half ago. I am excited to complete the program and finish the practicums.

Accept Responsibility for your own learning... I think that I have done this since I started. I went into apply to get a license and a week later I was in school. It has been a real financial strain for us but I received 4 scholarships that have paid for the equivalent for my endorsement and I feel really blessed that I received them.

View problems as challenges... I don't usually adhere to this one. I usually view problems as overwhelming and challenging. I sometimes feel punished when I have challenges. I had a challenge as I started my licensure. I ended up taking an extra class that has really motivated my creativity and through that class, I received my scholarships. Sometimes detours are nice and I need to be more grateful and remember that.

Have Confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner ---this is another line related to problems as challenges. When I came back to school after a 15 year absence, I didn't have any confidence and the program honestly didn't instill any either. I had a great mentor that showed me that I can do it and a really supportive husband. I can do it. I am grateful for both of them.

Create a learning toolbox-- this is an interesting directive and for it I spent the weekend working on my two portfolios. One for the library and one for my teaching, though I see myself as a teacher in both.

Use Technology to your advantage--this is one I am learning and should improve over the course of this class. I took a similar class recently and learned to use whiteboards and go webquesting which I like very much.

Teach and mentor others-- well this one is my whole world. I am really grateful there is such great literature and I love working with children. I love the kids in my schools, the kids I am working with in my practicum and my own four, who are awesome. We have a bright future with such smart, motivated people.

Play-- I would rather play than anything else. I love to do so many things and the library is where I go to learn them, sharpen, improve and inquire about them. I recently learned to quilt. I love photography and am learning a little French and drawing.