Thing 30: Reflection

Thing 30: Reflection
I do like learning this way however at some points I wish I had someone by my side showing me how to do it. Most of the time I can figure out why a program doesn’t work. I’m the don’t look before you leap type of person so I usually just leap then read a little about a project and do it. That does not always work out well for me. I found myself frustrated because I saw other people have cool stuff and I was still trying to sign up for stuff. At other times I was just disappointed in the program or app that I was using that it didn’t live up to my expectations.

Time is always a challenge. I had so many different ideas swimming around in my head that would make feeding time at the shark aquarium look clam compared to my brain. It has been a year of change for our district. We have been moving away from Outlook and Office products to Google for Education.

So when we started with productivity tools I started really learning a little bit of what google has to offer. Hopefully our school will offer PD for google technology. Many of our teachers are on board already. To change mid-year (Chrome Books) is a great thing when you have a willing staff like ours. Teachers have been great sharing what they have learned with others and me. The place where I learned a lot about apps and extensions is from Thing 25 which I shared with my faculty. But what I am still learning on an almost daily basis is apps from my students. When I’m using Google Docs my students have helped me format and share. It’s great to be in one part of my library sitting down helping someone and I have another student with a quick question they just send to me or share their work with me.

I just learned Cite this for me which is a Google app. The problem I had was it added extra things on my browser that I didn’t really want. One of my students suggested adding the Cite this for me app. It’s a good app but I’m always telling my students to check the format to make sure it does cite using the proper format.

I have students using Pocket to store all formats of information. It has helped students when they don’t remember where they found things. So this I will continue to use.

Thing 22: Create a Resource Guide has been my favorite activity. I tried Tackk to see how easy it was. I signed up for an account. It is easy but I’m not really as impressed as the video showed it would be to use so I ditched it. I LOVE SMORE here is the link of my final one that incorporates some fun stuff:
https://www.smore.com/96e9b
I am also using Giveaway of the Day. It’s easy to sign up for and is about trial/free versions of products available. It isn’t a tool but a website to learn about new things.

I am just starting to learn about Makerspaces and how they fit into my library program.
I was working all the time with teachers doing research and hands on activities. That is when I decided to put paper, magazines, glue sticks, markers, and colored pencils on my Creativity Table. I left it there since summer school and kids just continue to use it, mostly for projects, but some just to have something to do. TinkerSpace: Library Learning Commons by Rachelle Doorley is an interview with Shannon Hyman of Kaechele Elementary School in Virginia. Great article

Next I stepped into infographics to learn about how to mislead the viewer to believe that data is actually portrayed. Actually the article was: Infographics Lie. Here’s How to Spot the B.S. actually shows how to spot the graphics that are meant to mislead the viewer into believing the data is accurately portrayed.
I have some ideas about creating charts for book displays about movies versus books. I will put all the books and movie blurb in my display but I want to take it a step farther and send it out to my students in a form of a piktochart to compare and get feedback. I did a couple during the year but it didn’t fit into the project like I thought it would. I ended up just using it as an introduction to the lesson on renewable energy. https://magic.piktochart.com/output/4780130-renewable-energy

Power Up Your Browser I think can change daily so it was another I want to try them all but needed only a few. I used readability and then I loaded Awesome Screen Shots which killed my browsing speed. Like I said I just learned the Cite this for me on Monday.

I have learned that I can connect so much better with my students (as stakeholders) now that we have the ability to instantly connect with each other via Google. I have spent more time communicating with the student body as well as individual students. I learn about the books they read and want to read. I found out what they want me to teach them through Google Forms (another one of my favorites.)

One article that stood out for me was the post “10 things classroom teachers need to know about modern school librarians. Some things I do to promote my library are open it up for meetings and events. Many times there is not a choice so we make the best of it and use it as an opportunity to promote ourselves. The BOE meets there on a regular basis so we display student work and have organized book displays. We also have student resources clearly labeled on shelves for all to see. We now have a Maker Spaces table which we just created this year. We have posters of student learning objectives and of web site evaluation. We use the library itself as a promotional tool. We show how students are succeeding by showing student research in the library and the process they use through library instruction aids. I am learning how to reach out to more to others which is just another growing process.

Many times teachers (stakeholders) will ask about a project I did with another teacher that they saw in the library. This is a great conversation starter. We also have K – 12 department head meetings in the library which gives me the opportunity to show off the high school library program.

When it came time for me to pick something to learn I decided to turn off my computer and go into the woods, sit under a tree, and watch grass grow as I read Walden. As I was sitting there just living the experience a peach fell on my head and I decided I would try PhotoPeach as an activity. Actually I have been reading Walden which is a great book, but a peach didn’t really fall on my head.

So I tried PhotoPeach because it had the Animoto style to it. I like it a lot. I like Animoto too since teachers can sign up 50 students as an educator. It is still quirky because students have to email the link to the teacher. I did try some other things but I wanted to stay focused on two things.

What’s Next? Keeping up With Trends and Emerging Technology
The NMC Horizon Report: 2014 K-12 Edition examines emerging technologies for their potential impact on and use in teaching, learning, and creative inquiry in schools was a wealth of information. This project I watched videos and read many articles.

Classrooms have everything students need to complete assignments. Basically there are no excuses like “the dog ate my homework” because it is completed in the cloud. There has been so much transition in the past five years with the technology in our district ranging from a small amount of PC labs to classroom sets of Chrome Books using cloud technology. I find myself re-inventing my role as LMS. I go into classrooms to do some basic instruction. I also go into the classroom to see the final product and I see virtually where our students are working various things.

I tried my hand at student response and struggled a little. TodaysMeet I signed up to use hopefully use this for my students. I was confused when I signed up for it so I closed my account. Padlet was frustrating at first but once I got it so people could post then I have been talking it up to the teachers.

Unfortunately this is the busiest time of year for us and getting responses is difficult. So I also use my Google forms and email to contact both student and staff. I will continue to become more experienced in some of my new favorite tools: Smore, PhotoPeach and Google. I send out a Smore once or twice a month and I think that it helps that they can have something that highlights something they can use easily.

My final Smore tying it altogether for my teachers. (Minus a great Animoto) https://www.smore.com/w43ss

Thing 23: Makerspaces

Another important thing about MakerSpaces I though of after I published my post was what does the maker experience? As I thought about it creating something is a good experience cognitively and emotionally. If we actively engage both the right and left hemispheres of learners brain then creation has a purpose. I am a photographer, when I have time. When I take the right picture, (no Photoshopping) I feel accomplished. When the students create something the get in touch both mentally and emotionally with their product. It might sound weird but we all have an emotional brain and rational brain. When I see some of my photographs framed I think my brain joins together into a wise mind. It’s a different way at looking at creating.I see it both rationally (the how to) and emotionally (the why). They are just my random thoughts I had.
By the way I have some students that are just starting to ask about what we have the space. It’s just the beginning.

Thing 23: MakerSpaces

Thing 23: Makerspaces

This is a challenge for me because I am just starting to learn about Makerspaces and how they fit into my library program. So it will be a step by step process for me. I am currently reading some articles to help me understand how my students can benefit from it. I am planning on emailing my faculty to find out who uses it in my buildings.

I attended a conference this past summer called “Engaging Students with Cognitive Purpose.” We read an article by Dinah Zike “Teaching with Foldables Science.” The article was about how to use foldables for science that helps students organize arrange and also display information. The purpose of using foldables was because our learners are not one dimensional. Many of them are tactile and kinesthetic as well as visual learners.

As a result of this conference our district has “Engagement Boxes” that faculty members can sign out for classroom use. I went to see if they had anything else that I could use for my space. Basically it was a plastic box with scissors, glue or markers, (I don’t remember) and sticky notes of different colors. So back to my library I went to see what else I could add to my Creativity Table. Teaching summer school, right after this conference, I decided to make a Creativity Table. I was working all the time with teachers doing research and hands on activities. That is when I decided to put paper, magazines, glue sticks, markers, and colored pencils on my Creativity Table. I left it there since summer school and kids just continue to use it, mostly for projects, but some just to have something to do.

I have the following link on my library web page that helps students to learn about what type of learner they are:

What’s your learning Style http://www.educationplanner.org/students/self-assessments/learning-styles.shtml
and Multiple Intelligences
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/

This helps students understand what their prominent learning style is. It helps me as a librarian to remember that one size doesn’t fit all.

So, I seem to be all over the place with this topic. Chaos is my learning style so jumping around on this topic works for me.

I read many of the articles on Makerspaces and found three that helped me understand the idea better

Makerspaces in the School library learning Commons and the uTEC Maker Model by
David v. Loertscher, Leslie Preddy, and Bill Derry helped me to understand that students are already makers of information. One thing that stood out to me in that article was these spaces allow the students,” to take command of their own learning.” Another part of that article was that student work and research needs to be displayed. Fortunately, I have great teachers that want to use my library to show off their student’s work, especially since the BOE meets there.
TinkerSpace: Library Learning Commons by Rachelle Doorley is an interview with Shannon Hyman of Kaechele Elementary School in Virginia. This article had lots of pictures of the use of her space. Even though it is an elementary school I learned about organization. I think I could use some of the old cafeteria trays from college to have on my table for organizational purposes. I like her idea of students having all the responsibility including clean up in order to have the privilege to continue to use the spaces.

Making inside the space and outside the box by Joyce Valenza I learned that it’s about the freedom to choose what the students learn. It puts learning back into the student’s hand where it belongs. One quote from the article I am going to use in my library is, “you have been given the tools to get started but where you go is up to you.”

So people from school don’t really have Makerspaces. Many have boxes of things they use for certain projects so I asked for some supplies and have been adding them to my space.
I don’t truly have a deep understanding of the space in my library but I am will to try to continue. As I walked by a couple of students I saw Maker Camp on their computers. I asked them if they knew anything about them. They did not but the best part of this is that their science teacher encouraged them to look at Google Science Fair. On that site was Maker Camp https://www.googlesciencefair.com/en/participants/maker-camp. I was encouraged by what I saw. This link https://plus.google.com/communities/107377046073638428310 has awesome stuff about what has been done by students. I think everyone should check out that site.

Okay, so back to my library. We decided to name our tables “Make it Space” with a sign that says “Need something to do? Make It.” We have cloth old Game magazines and are getting more buttons, yarn and I am putting some old library things out there for students like borrow cards and book pockets. The other thing I am putting there is paper clips because who doesn’t love making paper clip necklaces. My students stand at our circulation desk and string together paper clips so it makes sense to add it to the Make It Space table.

It is a work in progress. Here are some pictures of our table. I did bribe some students to pose.

My future Maker