Who's been reading?

Ok, I know we have been very busy with so much going on, but I hope you have been reading! We will start reviewing all the books on our list. Share your thoughts and questions you have about any of the books. Which were your favorites? Which ones did you start and not finish? Why did you not finish them? We'll be meeting more often so that we will be ready to compete in the spring.

These are the last two books I have read!!

The latest

I just finished Brothers, Boyfriends & Other Criminal Minds by April Lurie. What would it be like to live in a neighborhood where many of your neighbors are involved with the Mob in New York? Your brother attracts their attention, you receive money - alot and you are trying to find yourself as a 9th grader and having a boyfriend. It reminded me abit of Son of the

Mob. Both are good reads. What do you think?

Welcome Back!

Welcome back Dragon readers! I'm looking forward to hearing about what you have been reading during the summer. Are you ready to begin preparations for the contest? If you know of some other students who might be interested, bring them to our first meeting. Listen to the announcements for the day.

I just finished reading Taken by Edward Bloor. What would it be like to be rich, living in a gated community with guards and have training on what to do if you are kidnapped? That's what life is like for Charity until she really is kidnapped and her life changes.

Breaking Dawn

Ok, group, I've started to read Breaking Dawn. I'm curious to hear what you all think of the book. I've been hearing pros and cons. I know you are ready to see the movie Twilight! Right?

What are you reading?

Here are the NTB books I've been reading.

Thing 23 - I made it!

I wasn't sure at times if I would make it through everything, but I was determined to finish and when I became frustrated I stepped away and came back to it with a clearer head for learning!

There were many things I enjoyed learning about: I was thrilled when I added my avatar, something from Teachertube and the podcast. I liked learning about Flickr and Del.icio.us and the options that are available through Google. Now my blog will be more interesting and draw in the students and staff.

It has helped me with developing another way for me to communicate with my book competition team and other students about books I am reading and books they are reading. It offers a 24 hr way to share our information with each other. I am also hopeful that this will get more students involved with sharing and pull in reluctant readers to share also. I see the blog expanding to meet the needs of the team and others.

The unexpected outcomes for me was to complete everything. I'm still working on adding speech to my podcast and when I accomplish that I will post the updated version. I will then feel that I have completed everything. I was excited when I was able to add my avatar and then deflated when I removed it and had to go back and refresh how to put it back in. I know that I will continue to review the 23 Things so it will come easily to me. I must remind myself to not give up, just step back, take a break and then try again. I would have never finished otherwise.

The main thing I would change is perhaps breaking up the 23 Things in half as it is time consuming. It might not seem overwhelming if it was divided up so that if one became discouraged we would be more likely to go back and try again if we knew there wasn't so much to do. Once half is completed then folks might be more likely to go on and finish the final part of the 23 Things.

Yes, I would like to participate in more activities like this program. I would like to see how others are using their blogs in their libraries and classrooms, plus what else I can do to make it more inviting so more will participate in my blog.

My learning for the course I would say is - Hang in there, the results are rewarding!

I am glad this was opened up to others outside of Spring Branch. Thanks!

Thing 21

Here is Thing 21. I did not have a microphone on the computer I have been using. I used Photo Story 3 to do my creating. Now that I know the basics, I can do more for my next podcast. Photo Story 3 was very easy to use and I will try using a microphone on my next project.

Thing 22

I've skipped number Thing 21 for abit as I'm having a hard time getting signed up to Switchpod. I'll try again later.

Nings, I like them. I signed up for middle school librarians and YA lit in teacher librarian and middle school in Texas librarians. I can discuss with peers problems or successes I am having with my age group, discuss books which may or may not be appropriate for our age group. I like being able to discuss with librarians in our state and across the country. It nice to hear the positive and negative and read that others are having the same problems as me! They will definately be used,as I have put them in my del.icio.us list so I can access them anywhere, anytime!

Now back to Thing 21! Wish me luck!

Thing 20

I did it!! It wasn't as complicated as I was making it. It does work for me to back away for it for awhile and then come back and look at it again!

Thing 20 - Life As We Knew It

I have been exploring Youtube and Teachertube. I had fun looking up to see if my school was on either and then I looked at different subject areas. I did find our drumline and karate group on Youtube! On Teachertube, I looked up various subject areas and found some fun things for history and math. I also looked at book promotions and found the video I hope I will get on my blog. I've been having difficulties doing that. First, I lost my avatar! I had to go back to Thing 3 and review how to save it again on my blog. I obviously need to practice adding video, pictures, and slide shows more so that it will be second nature to me! Since I know I am making progess I haven't given up. I know I can do it, so I take a breather and then come back and it falls into place.

Thing 19

Two sites I liked with Awards 2.0 were Mango languages and Farecast. Mango helps a person to learn and language and has ESL programs which could be used with students. I played with learning Spanish. It will say the words outloud and give explanations as to tenses. I only did the first lesson, you have to log in to receive more. I needed to pay attention as it would give you a sentence in English and Spanish and then only give you one English word and ask for the Spanish counterpart. This program would be useful for me and others who would like to learn a language and also for students who are learning English.

Farecast was interesting as I put in two cities and it will search several sites, Expedia, Hotwire and others to look for cheap flights. It came up with some very expensive flights for these times. I could use this personally, but students can use this as we have a group who prepare a presentation on visiting another place in the world. This gives them the ability to see how expensive it is to fly to various places by having the obtion of Farecast looking at several sites to get the best deal.

Both will be sites I will be using in the future, personally and professionaly.

Thing 18

I used Google Docs since I already had a Google account. I like the doc feature as I can now put items in it and then access it from wherever I am and not be concerned with losing my traveling disks I carry around. This allows for more freedom and ease at creating new documents, spreadsheets or power point activities. I am looking forward to using it more this coming school year.

Thing 17

I've been playing with Rollyo and can see where it can be used to organize sites I visit frequently or not so frequently. I can organize them by various topics, i.e. health, genology, reference and so on. This would give me easy access to get to them without having to read through a bunch of information through Goggle. I would be using those sites which I like best. There seem to be many of these organizaltional helpers now which is good, but it also means that I would be losing some good places to look at if I only use them. I believe we need to be able to have the organization, but we should also not forget to go out there and see if there is something better. It is always changing and I know that is hard to be to try and keep up everything as I don't want to sit at the computer very long to check out what is new.

Thing 16

I have had a good time looking at and getting familiar with Wikis. I have been learning alot with 23 Things. It has been good to have the summer and time to sit down and work through the 23 things and do more planning for the school year incorporating what I have been learning in my lessons. A coouple of Wikis that caught my attention are: http://teacherlibrarianwiki.pbwiki.com/ and http://instructionwiki.org/Main_Page They both have helpful information and ideas. Atomic also has some good slide shows which I can use to show staff and students what they can do with Inspiration and other programs. I was leary of Web 2.0 as it seemed so overwhelming, but thanks to you all, the things are letting me explore and opens my eyes to even more I can do in my library for my students and staff. Thanks.

Thing 15

It is hard to shift directions when libraries have been the source of information in the same way for decades. We need to change and must be flexible. We must ask for help from our students. They can show us and help us learn and become comfortable with Web 2.0 to better our libraries and ourselves.
We need to take classes and network with others and practice, practice, practice all the new ways to obtain information and organize it. I tend to get overwhelmed with all the changes, but I need to learn to embrace it and ask for help. I need to do that by challenging myself in using Web 2.0 in my library.
I have to think outside my box and ask for help, reading and practicing what I am learning over, and over again. I need to ask questions as that is what will help me learn and not to worry that I am not as current as others.
Leaning about 2.0 and using it will make a better library for my students and better communication between my users and myself and the world.

Thing 14

I spent much of my afternoon playing with Technorati. I looked at blogs, posts and tags and found with the various searches I did, I found more under posts, next came blogs and then tags. Tags were more specific concerning the various subjects I looked at which ranged from libraries, reluctant readers and my hometown! I like having the different options of searching so that if I want to go specific, I can. I like being able to tag as I can then group my interests and be able to go back after a month or two and review them. It helps me organize the web.

Thing 13

I have been looking at del.icio.us, furl and ma.gnolia social bookmarking sites. Anything that can help me orgainize and group like topics together to make my life easier, I am for. I set up a del.icio.us account and started grouping information I use at home and work. Now I won't have to look and look for some sites I do not use often. I can see using this with students by giving them specific sites from which they must do their research. They will have the opportunity to not be overwhelmed by information which will help them look for just what they need from the sites they are given. I also like being able to use any computer to get to my favorites. It saves time and I can I also see what others have found on related subjects and add their bookmarks to mine. I great way to share.

Thing 12

Two of my favorite blogs are: http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/ and http://professornana.livejournal.com/. The first one is by Doug Johnson and the technology and library information is very, very helpful. The second is done by Teri Lesesne. I have attended many workshops which has done and I always come out enthused and knowing more about what books the kids may like. She is also good about sharing information from conventions. I appreciate going to their blogs and getting a heads up so that I can do further research on books and technology relating to the library.

Thing 11

Library Thing is an interesting site. Not only can I get cataloguing information for books I have, but I can also see comments from others and discuss the books. An online book club! There are many groups listed which gives me the opportunity to talk with others from all over about like interests in book genres. I can learn from other young adult readers/librarians books my kids at school might enjoy and then add them to our library. The information is so broad you can look and discuss what I might want to order for the library along with books I might personally want to add to my collection at home. Yea!! I'm enjoying this one!

More Thing 10

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/ This site is easy to work with. I again found that if I saved the image to my desktop, I could then copy in the blog. I'm still working on how to add it my html. This site has many, many options from name tags and maps to CD covers and picture cubes. Great fun for all! Making picture cubes in math class is one example as to how these can use. Of course, maps can be use in Social Studies and History. The mosaic is a good way for students to make a travel guide.

Thing 10

Putting pictures from Image Chef is very easy. I can use this site in my presentations and students would also have fun using it, especially for Valentine's Day and school projects. http://www.imagechef.com/ Remember that if you download more than one picture to click on the size you would like before you download it! I didn't do that as you can tell. The first one came in as medium and I had to make it smaller.

Thing 9

My favorite were Edublogs award winners. It was nice to see that some I had liked were in their award winners. I also liked Atomic Learning. The tutorial are easy to understand and helpful. This is something I can use at home and work. I was unable to get into Syndic8.com. Technorati uses subject headings for their blogs which helps narrow down the search. The more I explore it does get overwhelming, but I can see where I can use the information. I need to keep reviewing it all so it will become a habit.

Thing 8

I enjoyed exploring Google Reader and learning how it works. It's a bit overwhelming to understand but I can definately use it at home and work. I can set up news and blogs so that their information comes to one source which will make it easier to review material from all. I can then share that information with coworkers or put it to use in my library with my students. I'm looking forward to using it more so that I can be more proficient using and sharing it.

Thing 7

I had fun playing with the different aspects which Goggle has to offer. The calendar is a good way to keep track of things along with sharing it with others. Google Earth is a great way to show students different parts of the world and even their city as many have not gone further than their neighborhood. They can see visually places and get a good idea of where places are located and that there is a difference in a city, state, country and continent. Notebook will be way that I can keep ideas for lessons and pictures and other items I can use with that lesson.

Thing 6

I had fun with playing cards using pictures I have from the library. This would be a good way to advertise the library around the school and with parents by having students, staff and parents on playing cards. I can use this now and in the fall.

I enjoyed the mosiac as there were different ways to make them. I can use them to show students how to do them and use the mosiacs in the library to promote different areas of interest.

These are fun sites and most useful to all.

Thing 3

Setting up the blog isn't very hard or doing the avatar. I did have problems getting my avatar on my site. I finally did it!! I just have to not get frustrated and take my time.

Thing 5

What do you think about being able to select a book from a vending machine? It could be a way to get books into more hands. They could be placed in all kinds of stores with varities of book genres or by genres of who most frequents that store. The cost of each book could hold folks back so that would have to be researched. It's an idea that just might work!

7 1/2 habits

I believe the hardest habit for me is to view problems as challenges. I tend to get frustrated when there is a problem. I have found that if I take a step back and think about it I can usually solve the problem. But if someone comes to me and says they need an answer to a problem right now I usually spend more time solving it due to the pressure of it needs to be done right now or yesterday to satisfy someone other than me.

The easiest one is learning how to use technology to help me in the library and in showing others what we can do with what we know.

High school

Just checking on my former students now high schoolers! I hope you are having a good summer, visiting family and friends and perhaps doing some reading! Keep in touch with us! Ms J

How is the reading going? So far, I've read: All the lovely bad ones, Feathers, Go big or go home, In the cards: love, Middle school is worse than meatloaf, Peeled, Reaching the sun, Schooled, Tales of the cryptids, The Wall, Zen and the art of faking it and Revolution. Here are some things to think about: In Reaching the sun - what is wrong with Josie? There are two books which deal with communism? Which books are there and where do their stories take place? What is communism? What was the outcome in each book? Where in the United States does Go Big or Go Home take place? Why do tourists go to that area of the country?

Keep on reading. See you all in August! Ms J.

Posting comments

Ok, gang. You can post comments and not use your name. You may use your initials or your first name and then at the bottom of the comment page click on anonymous and it will appear under comments.

Now we will be getting ready for next year. Those of you who will be going to high school can keep in touch with us. Those of you here for next year, begin reading and we all can share comments about the books with each other. Happy Spring!