TLDE

The Many Things I Learned in This Class

Tools:

We learned about many tools in this class. However since I have to choose two I would use I will say TitleWave is my favorite. I will definitely be using TitleWave in the future. It is an excellent way to look up new books to consider for the library and read the reviews. I love how you can even limit the results by the amount of reviews. Another tool I liked in class and plan to use in the future is edWeb.net I had no Idea what it was before this class, however I signed up for it when we did the first part of the webinar assignment. I am simply amazed at all the different communities I can join, and information that is readily available. I feel this is a tool I learned from this class that I will use in the future to help me grow with my professional development. I plan on attending as many webinars as I can, and exploring the many ways technology has changed the education world for good.

Method:

For this class I joined the learning community of edWeb.net. I feel this is an excellent resource and I plan to continue following it. I am looking forward to attending the webinar about using iPad Apps in the classroom, and many more in the future. This is a great source and I have joined the Champion Creativity community and receive weekly updates about what is new. Although I haven’t replied to any of the posts I have learned quite a bit, and I look forward to the collaboration I will receive when I am out of college and have my own position and real-world experiences. I will also use Twitter to expand my professional learning network. When I started this class I had not intention of ever having a Twitter handle. I now see how it can be beneficial. I chose some great people/organizations to follow. Whenever something happens that effects the library community it will immediately be put on twitter and now I can access that information. I don’t know what the future holds, or what great insights we will have as a people. But with the instantaneous Twitter and the in-depth edWeb, I will be well informed of all the changes.

Application:

One of the tools we used that I definitely still want to play around with is the website. I want to explore the different options about how to create a website in more detail. It is an excellent idea to have comprehensive site linking fellow teachers to important information. This would not only make me a leader in my school but it would also help them (and myself) work to be the best we can be. Another feature I have come to love is Bag The Web. I have used a few private bags to hold website links and information for other classes this semester. I would have never known about it, if it were not for this class. This will be an excellent way to send research to a fellow teacher or student. “Oh you need information about whales for your class? Let me get back to you with a bag of websites and organizations.” I simply send them the link to my bag and they can look through it. This too is an excellent way to share what I have learned. Because I have my class information in special bags, I can go back an look at it whenever I want.

I chose to follow a variety of people to enhance my Professional Learning Network. I actually chose some library groups and some education groups to support my emphasis. One group/person I chose to follow was the Scholastic Teachers. They “like to talk books, education trends and life as an educator. A second group/person I chose to follow was Librarian Chat. This Profile, run by a district coordinator for a library system, gives links to moving stories of libraries fighting for their existence. Third, I decided to follow I Love Libraries. This page is, “supporting one of our nations most valuable resources”. It is a wealth of knowledge pertaining to libraries across the United States. Fourth, I simply decided to follow the American Library Association (ALA). I felt this was an important move because I assume almost all librarians are followers of ALA. Finally, I followed LJ’s infoDOCKET. This is another library journal, however this page has a great amount of information on recently passed laws and court cases pertaining to libraries. All in all, I have a lot of information coming my way, and I love it!
The first tweet I retweeted (I don’t know if I did it correct but it showed up) was from Scholastic Teachers. They tweeted, “ [Sponsored] Complimentary webinar on using social media and digital resources in the classroom. 3/25 at 4pm ET.” I found this interesting and I am almost wanting to switch and watch this as my webinar assignment. I also retweeted I Love Libraries post about the Sacramento Public Library accepting donations of prom dresses and distributing them for free to neighboring schools and students in need. I think this is one of my favorite stories, because the library is stepping up to a need in its community and filling it. Libraries are community centers. My third retweet was, again, something I found exciting. Ebsco launched a new online catalog, Orbit. This is something I will have to look into further to see how it can help me on research in my classes.
To begin, I chose #LibraryGirl, because that is the name of my favorite library blog. I do not suggest it for the class. Although there were some good posts about female librarians taking care of the libraries they tended, there were just as many if not more #s for a girl who went to court for pleasuring herself in a public space (the library) and ended up with a job at playboy. I haven’t found a way to block these yet so for the time being I am just ignoring the unrelated posts. (I just thought you should have warning if you decide to check it out) This lead me to simplify with #library. Here I found many fun posts. I spent quite a bit of time looking through the photos of different libraries and how they fit the tastes of where they were. After this I searched #books which lead me to a different group of people (this is where I found Scholastic Teachers and decided to follow them. In the end, I discovered that slightly altered #s could lead you somewhere completely different.
LJ’s infoDOCKET, (2015, March 20). Ebsco launches orbit. Message posted to https:// twitter.com/infodocket
Scholastic Teachers, (2015, March 20). [Sponsored] complementary webinar. Message posted to https://twitter.com/ScholasticTeach
ilovelibraries.org, (2015, March 10). Sacramento public #libraries. Message posted to
https://twitter.com/ILoveLibraries

“The Adventures of Library Girl” at www.librarygirl.net is an independent blog and beneficial for a number of reasons. As a future school librarian many of her posts are extremely helpful and full of good ideas about how to run a school library. I especially like her post from September 1, 2014, “The Art of Listening”. I was a good idea to give out post-it notes to the teachers in her building and learn from them what they wanted in their library, what would make it a worthwhile part of their instruction time. “Library Girl” is written by Jennifer LaGarde, “an Educator on Loan for the NC Department of Public Instruction”. She is a traveling librarian who works with school officials to create 21st century school libraries. This blog will benefit me and my patrons because many of the posts are concerned with bridging the gap between school librarians and classroom teachers.
LaGarde, J. The adventures of word girl. Retrieved from http://www.librarygirl.net

“Library Stew” at librarystew.blogspot.com is an independent blog and one of my favorites. I very much enjoy the many decorative ideas for her library during the holidays. Kathy is a “school media ‘goddess’” and teaches in an elementary outside of Atlanta, GA. I enjoy her bolog because a lot of it is about how to invite the kids in and get them to start reading. Anytime I can find a fun way to get students excited about reading and going to the library, I think that is beneficial for me and them.
Kathy. Library Stew. Retrieved from http://librarystew.blogspot.com