There are two selection tools that I like the best. I like School Library Journal for how all around helpful it really is. I like this journal because it has a nice mix of professional articles and interesting topics as well as great reviews for new and upcoming books. I really loved the starred section in the back of the journal for easy reference and I love the in depth reviews and synopsis' of the books. It seems like it would be very handy to have with you at any given point and time. I also like the catalog Capstone. It's big and bulky but there are so many titles in it. My two favorite aspects of this catalog is that it was broken down by dewey system and that it had the barcodes in the catalog so that if you had an account all set up it was easy to make your "wish" list. I also really like the pictures of all the books in this catalog. It made it really appealing and I took more interest in the books.
My web page is coming along much better this week. I finally have a design layed out and I feel like I actually know what I'm doing and can manuver my way around it pretty quickly. I feel like I have too much that I want to put on it but I just don't know how to go about doing it. I'm working on dwindling down my big ideas and focusing on getting all the necessities first. The most difficult part of it for me right now is figuring out databases. That's something I'm not super familiar with so I'm hoping I can find a few more to put on.
The three-year plan is coming along a little bit slower than the website. I've got all the information I need but and just trying to figure out how to go about putting it together. I'm sure once I really get into it I'll have many questions then.
I think the best way to promote a library is to get as involved in the school as possible. The librarian I am "working" with actually takes field trips with various classes in the school that fit in with curriculum standards. I think that's a great way for the librarian and the classroom teacher to work together and it shows kids that the library isn't just a library, but that there are more real world concepts out there that fit into the library scence. I also think that starting library specific activities are important in promoting the library to the school. Setting something up such as an art and author fair would be a great way to get children excited to use the resources provided through the library.
This week's class has really just stressed the importance of never giving up especially in my professional life. There are times that I have no idea what to do but with all the databases and tools that are out there it just shows to keep searching and the answers will show up in due time. This week I gained a much better understanding of what full processing is and why it's important. I also never realized what a great database Badgerlink was. I've used it before but never really went in depth to it. It was actually really fun to play around with it and get to know the inner workings of it.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
12.8.10
I think that Badgerlink is an awesome resource to have in a library. It would be a great resrouce to help students with their research projects. It seems pretty straight forward to use. I remember using it when I was in school and it was always pretty easy. After playing around with it some more I've decided I really like the KidSearch function. It would be especially great for elementary children. Everything was very kid friendly and really easy to navigate around in while providing correct informaton. Badgerlink would be great to have becuase a library could really cut down on the amount of newspapers that they subscribe to. It would be nice to have a single copy of a few papers, but money could definately be saved by using Badgerlink for newspapers. It could also be more cost effect to use almanacs or dictionaries with Badgerlink instead of having many copies in the library and having to update way to often.
The school I am working in right now currently using Destiny as another one of their databases. I'm pretty sure I've never used Destiny but after playing around, it seems like a realy neat thing to have in a library. There are a ton of different links to go off and and gain information from. From Destiny there are links for all sorts of other sites. Some of the sites that are included that I found interesting are World Almanac for Kids, National Geographic for Kids, Create a Graph, Almanac-Fact Monster, KidPort Reference Library KidsClick!, and PBS Kids. I'm not really sure on databases that would be helpful. I'll look into other blogs to get ideas on what would be great to use.
After looking through a variety of selection tools I think I would love to use Capstone as one of my resources for my library. I really enjoyed the layout of it and the ease of looking through it. It was very user friendly and had so many options to choose from. The School Library Journal is another one that I would enjoy using as a resouce in my library. I liked the Starred books section at the end. It seemed like a great resoures to know you were getting the best of the best. I also liked that there was a vareity of book reviews as well as a bit of professional education articles throughout the journal.
After reading about formats that are found in the library and exploring a few libraries in the past few weeks I've decided that I really love the library that I am "working" with at this time. Before starting this class whenever I would go into the library I always thought it looked nice and colorful and a happy place to be. I never looked at what was really going on in it. Now, I look at it and I see amazing displays for the "theme" of the month, toys and kits to go along with the books that are displayed, and a variety of posters and art work being displayed all over. Someday I'm hoping to be in an elementary library. I would love to have a library similar to the one that I am working with now. I would love to encorporate more technology somehow into my library. I think ebooks would be amazing to have in my library. I don't think there would be a huge need for them in an elementary school setting, but it would be nice to have for older elementary school children.
Louis Question:
This week's activites have caused me to take a look at my "quiet" area in my after school program. I've been paying a lot of attention to the book selection and content of the books, other materials that are present in the area and I'm currently updating a bunch of aspects of it to make it more "kid friendly" and appealing to be there. I went through all the books on our shelves this week and did a weeding type thing of my own. It was a bit refreshing getting rid of old books that I've never seen a child read before and replace them with one that that they want to read and enjoy reading.. This week I've learned that I need to put myself out there and ask for help when I need it. I know I'm not in a library so I don't really know what is going on, but I have to ask in order to learn. I have also learned that there are so many resources to help pick out books. I talked to the librarian at my school and she provided me with so many resouces. It was really fun reading through all of them and learning from them.
The school I am working in right now currently using Destiny as another one of their databases. I'm pretty sure I've never used Destiny but after playing around, it seems like a realy neat thing to have in a library. There are a ton of different links to go off and and gain information from. From Destiny there are links for all sorts of other sites. Some of the sites that are included that I found interesting are World Almanac for Kids, National Geographic for Kids, Create a Graph, Almanac-Fact Monster, KidPort Reference Library KidsClick!, and PBS Kids. I'm not really sure on databases that would be helpful. I'll look into other blogs to get ideas on what would be great to use.
After looking through a variety of selection tools I think I would love to use Capstone as one of my resources for my library. I really enjoyed the layout of it and the ease of looking through it. It was very user friendly and had so many options to choose from. The School Library Journal is another one that I would enjoy using as a resouce in my library. I liked the Starred books section at the end. It seemed like a great resoures to know you were getting the best of the best. I also liked that there was a vareity of book reviews as well as a bit of professional education articles throughout the journal.
After reading about formats that are found in the library and exploring a few libraries in the past few weeks I've decided that I really love the library that I am "working" with at this time. Before starting this class whenever I would go into the library I always thought it looked nice and colorful and a happy place to be. I never looked at what was really going on in it. Now, I look at it and I see amazing displays for the "theme" of the month, toys and kits to go along with the books that are displayed, and a variety of posters and art work being displayed all over. Someday I'm hoping to be in an elementary library. I would love to have a library similar to the one that I am working with now. I would love to encorporate more technology somehow into my library. I think ebooks would be amazing to have in my library. I don't think there would be a huge need for them in an elementary school setting, but it would be nice to have for older elementary school children.
Louis Question:
This week's activites have caused me to take a look at my "quiet" area in my after school program. I've been paying a lot of attention to the book selection and content of the books, other materials that are present in the area and I'm currently updating a bunch of aspects of it to make it more "kid friendly" and appealing to be there. I went through all the books on our shelves this week and did a weeding type thing of my own. It was a bit refreshing getting rid of old books that I've never seen a child read before and replace them with one that that they want to read and enjoy reading.. This week I've learned that I need to put myself out there and ask for help when I need it. I know I'm not in a library so I don't really know what is going on, but I have to ask in order to learn. I have also learned that there are so many resources to help pick out books. I talked to the librarian at my school and she provided me with so many resouces. It was really fun reading through all of them and learning from them.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
12.1.10
I have not yet gotten a chance to set up a titlewave account. My plan is to do that by the end of the week. I think it's a fantastic tool to use as a library media specialist. My favorite features were all the charts and graphs that were able to be reproduced at a simple click. For me I find it easier to look at a chart or graph and figure things out, so this will be great to use someday.
I'm not sure what full processing is at all. I'm going to guess and say that it's when you order a book and it comes with all the barcodes and lables and such on it already and in the account ready to be shelved when you get it. I'm not really sure, but that is my guess as of now.
My library web page is coming along slowly. I have ideas of how I want it to look, but having troubles figuring otu how to make it look that way. I'm still working with google, but I think I might try something different soon. It's frustrating not being able to get it the way I would like it to. I know I'll get it done and it will look fine, but getting to that point is a slow process right now.
The district that I am going to use for my three year improvement plan does have a selection policy for materials. It seems pretty specific and covers a variety of areas. Every policy comes back full circle to the mission of the school and the district. The part I like about the policy is that is provides publications from which the district will gain their knowledge and information about books and materials. I would rate the districts selection policy as ok.
My three year improvement plan is getting off to a slow start, but I'm starting to make progress. Since I'm not in my own classroom I've talked to the principal at the school where one of my after school programs are held and she is fully supportive of me using the library and any of her staff. I feel like now that she is on board with what I need to do I can really start focusing on getting everything I need done. I'm in the process of using google forms to put my surveys together for some of the kids and the staff.
At the Milwaukee Public Library I found out...
1. It used to be the public museum.
2. The children's section offers various programs at all of their outlying branches. The different programs seemed really neat and the Saturday program at the main library seemed like it would bring a lot of people in.
3.Lables and signs make a big difference. The children's section was huge, but the signs really helped to find everything easily. It made it really helpful.
Two things I really liked about the Strtich Library...
1. The help desk. The fact that you can call in to the desk or do an online chat with a reference person was really nice.
2. The interlibrary loan through difference locations. Also, that they will mail you your material or email you a copy of a article if you need it.
I'm not sure what full processing is at all. I'm going to guess and say that it's when you order a book and it comes with all the barcodes and lables and such on it already and in the account ready to be shelved when you get it. I'm not really sure, but that is my guess as of now.
My library web page is coming along slowly. I have ideas of how I want it to look, but having troubles figuring otu how to make it look that way. I'm still working with google, but I think I might try something different soon. It's frustrating not being able to get it the way I would like it to. I know I'll get it done and it will look fine, but getting to that point is a slow process right now.
The district that I am going to use for my three year improvement plan does have a selection policy for materials. It seems pretty specific and covers a variety of areas. Every policy comes back full circle to the mission of the school and the district. The part I like about the policy is that is provides publications from which the district will gain their knowledge and information about books and materials. I would rate the districts selection policy as ok.
My three year improvement plan is getting off to a slow start, but I'm starting to make progress. Since I'm not in my own classroom I've talked to the principal at the school where one of my after school programs are held and she is fully supportive of me using the library and any of her staff. I feel like now that she is on board with what I need to do I can really start focusing on getting everything I need done. I'm in the process of using google forms to put my surveys together for some of the kids and the staff.
At the Milwaukee Public Library I found out...
1. It used to be the public museum.
2. The children's section offers various programs at all of their outlying branches. The different programs seemed really neat and the Saturday program at the main library seemed like it would bring a lot of people in.
3.Lables and signs make a big difference. The children's section was huge, but the signs really helped to find everything easily. It made it really helpful.
Two things I really liked about the Strtich Library...
1. The help desk. The fact that you can call in to the desk or do an online chat with a reference person was really nice.
2. The interlibrary loan through difference locations. Also, that they will mail you your material or email you a copy of a article if you need it.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
11.17.10
I have recently just started my library media website. I'm using the google sites and right now I'm just sort of playing around with all the interesting things you can do with it. I've been looking around at other websites and I've seen a lot of things that I find are great to have present on the site. One of my favorite things is having a counter that shows how many people visited the library and how many items checked out weekly. I definitely want to add that to my site. There was also a school that included all these links for citation help. I think that would be a great thing to add to my site also. I'm still trying to a get a feel for my layout and where I want everything to go. I'm really nervous to start putting things in, but I think tomorrow will be my night to do it.
Before the reading and class I had no idea what a common school fund was. It's an odd was to fund a school but a really amazing way also. It was really interesting to see what CSF money can buy and what it can't and the stories that went along with it and how other teachers want to use that money. It's pretty awesome that there is a fund out there just for libraries because it's such an important aspect of the school.
"Make a difference in the lives of students and positively affect their learning." Making a difference is the one of the goals of being a teacher. The actions that a teacher portrays inside the classroom can really affect a child and their behavior and attitude. As a teacher you always need to be on your "A" game and leave the negativity at home, because for some children the school day is the highlight of their day perhaps due to their home life or other extenuating circumstances. Being a teacher there is a short amount of time each day to reach out to a child and make a difference. It's my job to do that to the best of my ability each and every day.
After reading the book and the discussions from class this week I have realized that there is so much more to being a library specialist then I ever imagined. There seems to be so much more behind the scene activities that I hadn't realized. I love that there seems to be so many options as a library specialist. I like that as a library specialist you have to follow the policies and procedures but you can also update them and make them more of your own at the same time.
At this time I don't have any other questions. I'm just trying to take everything that we learn in each and every day. I find the readings to be extremely enjoyable. The discussion that occurs during class is really helpful. I know I don't have much to say during class, but without being in the library I'm not really up to date on everything that is being discussed. Right now it is most helpful for me to sit back, listen, and absorb everything that is being said. I'm learning a lot from everyone in the class.
Louis Question: This class has really opened me up to using google docs. I've started doing all of my work using google docs and I'm going to be using google forms later this week and put a survey together for work. I'm excited to try to figure it out and see if I can get it to work. This week I learned about the common school fund which is so interesting. I thought the most interesting part about it was that private schools can technically use the money but it's difficult to go through all the hoops to get to it. I also learned that being a library specialist is no simple or easy job. It's going to take a ton of work and dedication to learn everything there is about the job, but in the end will be well worth while.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
11.10.10
Google tools that are interesting to me at this time are google docs, google blogger, and google maps. It's difficult getting used to using google docs. I'm so used to word and saving everything then emailing it to myself and so forth. I am looking forward to the convience of having everything stored in one place and being able to pull it up from any computer at any time. I'm looking forward to using google blogger and learning how to use that. I've never really blogged before or read other blogs so this will be a new experience. It will be nice to have a place to write down various thoughts and questions whenever I need to and once again have it accessable from any computer and at any time. I love using google maps. With the job I have right now I travel a lot form one location to another. It's such a great way to not get lost.
I am currently not using any of the google docs in my professional life, at least I wasn't until I started this class. Currently I am working at the YMCA. We definately are not using google docs. We are stritcly using Microsoft Word and we save everything to the hard drive. It makes it somewhat difficult because we always have 10 different versions of the same piece of information floating around our office at any given time. Google docs is something I would definately like to start implementing in our office. I am lucky that I work with such great collegues that have been with the Y for years. We are always bouncing ideas off of one another and we are provided with many great training opportunities, usually on a weekly basis. I currently am not in a traditional "classroom" but I am running afterschool programs which is almost like a classroom of it's own. I'm fortunate to still get to teach children a wide variety of life skills and learning skills in a fun presentable way. I have my own group of children that I work with each and every day and we work as team to get things done. Whether we are trying to solve a problem that are group is struggling with or if we are brainstorming activities for the upcoming weeks, we are always working as a team. Our program doesn't have a lot of technology built into it at this time. That is something that I would love to bring into our program.
I've discovered that PLN's are crucial aspects of staying updated on new ideas while at the same time a great place to "not feel alone." They are great places to realize that everyone has difficult days and successful days and that all the days combined help make your job successful. If i were to join or work with one PLN I would love to work with CCBC. I currently work with school age children and literacy and literature is huge in our program. CCBC is in town for me and I've used them on occassion. I have had nothing but gerat success with CCBC and the people working there are some of the most helpful people I have ever had the pleasure to work with.
It is absolutely important to have a Library Media Center Web Page. In my opinion the web page is what is going to help get children and families interested in visiting the library. I almost feel that it is more crucial for families to have access to the web page. This is where they should be able to find information on upcoming events, materials that their children will have access to, and other aspects of the library.
Louis Question: This class has shown me so far that I need to get out of my comfort zone and try new things. I've been so complacent in my life and sticking with the same job for years and using the same computer programs that I've become to comfortable with my life. The past two weeks have shown me that there is a whole lot out there and to try something new. This past week I've been working on getting more comfortable using the new google tools that I am unfamiliar with as well as talking co-workers into trying these tools, and I've began searching for "teaching' jobs again. This week I have learned that there are so many resources out there to try and that no matter what your profession is, there is a PLN for everyone. I've also learned that google has amazing features that I never really realized and I can't wait to use them all.
I am currently not using any of the google docs in my professional life, at least I wasn't until I started this class. Currently I am working at the YMCA. We definately are not using google docs. We are stritcly using Microsoft Word and we save everything to the hard drive. It makes it somewhat difficult because we always have 10 different versions of the same piece of information floating around our office at any given time. Google docs is something I would definately like to start implementing in our office. I am lucky that I work with such great collegues that have been with the Y for years. We are always bouncing ideas off of one another and we are provided with many great training opportunities, usually on a weekly basis. I currently am not in a traditional "classroom" but I am running afterschool programs which is almost like a classroom of it's own. I'm fortunate to still get to teach children a wide variety of life skills and learning skills in a fun presentable way. I have my own group of children that I work with each and every day and we work as team to get things done. Whether we are trying to solve a problem that are group is struggling with or if we are brainstorming activities for the upcoming weeks, we are always working as a team. Our program doesn't have a lot of technology built into it at this time. That is something that I would love to bring into our program.
I've discovered that PLN's are crucial aspects of staying updated on new ideas while at the same time a great place to "not feel alone." They are great places to realize that everyone has difficult days and successful days and that all the days combined help make your job successful. If i were to join or work with one PLN I would love to work with CCBC. I currently work with school age children and literacy and literature is huge in our program. CCBC is in town for me and I've used them on occassion. I have had nothing but gerat success with CCBC and the people working there are some of the most helpful people I have ever had the pleasure to work with.
It is absolutely important to have a Library Media Center Web Page. In my opinion the web page is what is going to help get children and families interested in visiting the library. I almost feel that it is more crucial for families to have access to the web page. This is where they should be able to find information on upcoming events, materials that their children will have access to, and other aspects of the library.
Louis Question: This class has shown me so far that I need to get out of my comfort zone and try new things. I've been so complacent in my life and sticking with the same job for years and using the same computer programs that I've become to comfortable with my life. The past two weeks have shown me that there is a whole lot out there and to try something new. This past week I've been working on getting more comfortable using the new google tools that I am unfamiliar with as well as talking co-workers into trying these tools, and I've began searching for "teaching' jobs again. This week I have learned that there are so many resources out there to try and that no matter what your profession is, there is a PLN for everyone. I've also learned that google has amazing features that I never really realized and I can't wait to use them all.
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