There were two things that really stood out for the arcticle discussions. The first was that as a library media specialist it really is important to educate the teachers in the building about all the online databases and other reference materials that are present. In order for teachers to teach their students about the reference materials they first must feel comfortable using these materials. The other information I really enjoyed was the musty technique when looking at materials and trying to determine whether to keep them in the library or get rid of them.
In the school I am working with there isn't a lot of talk about "digital footprints." The students do use the computers a good deal but mostly for writing papers and research. The students seem to know how to navigate computers well enough but I have honestly never heard any of my students speak of facebook, myspace, etc, Granted the students I work with are only in elementary school; it's still pretty amazing considering these sites seem to be out there everywhere. Throughout the week I think I am going to "poll" the kids in my after school program and just see exactly how much they use the computer for and what purposes they are using it for. I'm excited to see the results!
My internet log is coming along nicely. I have a number of sites already picked out and I just need to review them. I am planning on focusing on fourth grade science especially weather and land formations.
I've narrowed my library visit down to two libraries. I will either be visiting the Verona Public Library or the middle school library in Verona. I'm not sure which one yet, but I'll decide by the end of the week.
I am currently job searching at the moment. After watching the digital footprint video, class has encouraged me to take a closer look at my facebook page and make sure it is nice and clean it up a bit. I'm pretty confident my page is pretty good, but I'll take a closer look just to make sure after reading all of the statistics on the video. Class this week just reinforced how important it is to make sure you are leaving a clean "digital footprint" out there and reference collections seem to be an ongoing task/struggle for library media specialists to figure out. This meaning whether to get rid of reference materials, whether to keep materials, what databases to use, and how to make sure people know how to find what they are looking for.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
1.19.11
My understanding of reference materials so far suggest that they are dictionaries, encyclopedias, thesauruses, world books, atlases, etc., and various online databases. They all constain a lot of information.
At this time I don't have any questions or comments. I'm positive that as the class goes on I will have a ton of questions reference methods.
Louis Question
We talked about starting internet logs during class. For my teachers in my after school program I started my own "internet log" for them to use when looking for activities for their groups. I think it will be helpful for them to have a listing of various sites to check out. This week I also learned that I'm not familiar with badgerlink at all. I've spent a lot of time working around with it and trying all of the aspects that are provided on it. It will definately be something I have to keep using and become more familiar with. I've also learned that I need to become way more familiar with various internet databases. Hopefully that will happen throughout this class.
At this time I don't have any questions or comments. I'm positive that as the class goes on I will have a ton of questions reference methods.
Louis Question
We talked about starting internet logs during class. For my teachers in my after school program I started my own "internet log" for them to use when looking for activities for their groups. I think it will be helpful for them to have a listing of various sites to check out. This week I also learned that I'm not familiar with badgerlink at all. I've spent a lot of time working around with it and trying all of the aspects that are provided on it. It will definately be something I have to keep using and become more familiar with. I've also learned that I need to become way more familiar with various internet databases. Hopefully that will happen throughout this class.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
01.12.11
I honestly started this class without any expectations. I really didn't know what to expect and was going to be happy with anything that I learned. I started just ready to try a new experience and I've been pleasantly surprised with everything so far.
I really loved putting my website together. It was a huge challenge, but a ton of fun to do. It was nice to challenge myself to learn something new and create something from scratch. I think the experience will help in the long run in many aspects of my professional life. Titlewave is another thing I learned about and think will be extremely helpful to use. I enjoy looking at the numbers and comparing the data. It's a great way to analyze the library collection. I also enjoyed putting the three year plan together. Even though it took a ton of time and energy it allowed me to understand the school better and the resources that the school has to provide. Even though I've only scratched the surface of the school and the district, I understand it better but have a long way to go to learn everything I need to. It will always be an ongoing learning proces.
Since I came into the class not knowing what to expect, the class definately fulfilled my expectations. I feel like I have grown professionally and my understanding of the field has improved dramatically.
I definately think Chris was very accessible. I used google docs for the first time ever this class and in the beginning I had no idea what I was doing with it. I appreciate that she never got frustrated when I would email over and over again to make sure she had received my assignment.
I think the assignments and the course work was very appropriate for the class. All the assignments related to the topics really well and I thought they were spaced out nicely. It was nice that everything wasn't due back to back; that there were weeks in between due dates. I do wish that we could have had a little bit more work time during the class periods.
I feel like I have learned a great deal over the past few weeks; more than I thought I was going to. It was an enjoyable experience and it's given me things to contribute to my professional life. I also enjoyed having the beginning of each class period as a sharing session to talk about highs and lows from your professional life. It's a great way to start the class and get to know a little bit about what is going on in other libraries.
I really loved putting my website together. It was a huge challenge, but a ton of fun to do. It was nice to challenge myself to learn something new and create something from scratch. I think the experience will help in the long run in many aspects of my professional life. Titlewave is another thing I learned about and think will be extremely helpful to use. I enjoy looking at the numbers and comparing the data. It's a great way to analyze the library collection. I also enjoyed putting the three year plan together. Even though it took a ton of time and energy it allowed me to understand the school better and the resources that the school has to provide. Even though I've only scratched the surface of the school and the district, I understand it better but have a long way to go to learn everything I need to. It will always be an ongoing learning proces.
Since I came into the class not knowing what to expect, the class definately fulfilled my expectations. I feel like I have grown professionally and my understanding of the field has improved dramatically.
I definately think Chris was very accessible. I used google docs for the first time ever this class and in the beginning I had no idea what I was doing with it. I appreciate that she never got frustrated when I would email over and over again to make sure she had received my assignment.
I think the assignments and the course work was very appropriate for the class. All the assignments related to the topics really well and I thought they were spaced out nicely. It was nice that everything wasn't due back to back; that there were weeks in between due dates. I do wish that we could have had a little bit more work time during the class periods.
I feel like I have learned a great deal over the past few weeks; more than I thought I was going to. It was an enjoyable experience and it's given me things to contribute to my professional life. I also enjoyed having the beginning of each class period as a sharing session to talk about highs and lows from your professional life. It's a great way to start the class and get to know a little bit about what is going on in other libraries.
Monday, January 10, 2011
01.05.11
Webpage features:
-Jenny's - I really loved the library thing where the books were displayed out and switched out every 15 seconds or so. I thought that was a great feature to have and would keep students interested and on the site longer to see what was up next.
-Dan - Shelfari - I liked that it allows you to see book reviews and it's another great way to view books and get more of a visual on what you want to read.
-Kari - I like that the district takes part in classroom connections where all the resources link back to one place. I think that's a great way for families and students to be assured to get all the information necessary to succeed.
-Brian - Atomic Learning - It seems like a "new' way to view things on the internet. It seems like it would engage students interest and make them want to learn more.
-Megan - Ideas Project. This seems like such a great way to get students to open up their minds and be creative.
-Alyca - I really liked the Wix website that was used. It seemed like it had a lot of layouts and graphics to display. This would be a great site to have students use for web projects.
My three year plan is done as of now. The most difficult part in the whole plan was just not being in the library and becomiong familiar with the library and the resources that are offered. I had a great librarian to work with so I think the plan will be alright. I feel though that if I had been able to have access to all of her accounts and an endless amount of time where I could work with her and "shadow' her and just have access to the library whenever I wanted it would have turned out much better. Either way by completing the project I have a much greater understanding of the amount of time 'weeding" takes and what to look for and the amount of time it really takes to find new, quality books and other resources to add to a library.
I think the age of your library is a great way to evaluate your collection. Materials need to be recent and make students want to read the books that are in the library. I also think that looking at check out history is another great way to evaluate your collection. If students aren't checking out a book there must be a reason. I've seen a couple of reports of collection mapping for the school that I'm working with. I've seen a titlewave report and a bound to stay bound report. It was interesting to compare the two reports and to see which company suggested certain books and what resources weren't recommended. I think it's important to do collection mapping and I will plan to do it when I'm in my own library.
The most critical learning network that I have developed throughout this class is the librarian at the school I am working with. I really don't think I would have been able to do much for this class without her. She has been such a supportive role throughout these past few weeks and is always offering guidance and support. Everyone in the class has also been a great learning network for me. I enjoy sitting back and listening to everyones comments and struggles and hope that some day I'll be able to have my own struggles to share when I finally find my own library.
(Louis Questions:)
This week's class, and the class in general has made me feel more comfortable stepping out of my comfort zone and doing things that will benefit me. Talking about how library media specialists need to show they are important to the school and fight for their job is exactly what I am feeling with my current job at the time. Over the past few weeks I have been making it known that I'm an asset to the company and letting people know all the great things that I do. I definately think the class has helped open my eyes to this. This week I have learned that there is always room for improvement. I thought my website was pretty decent, but after looking at everyone else's I wanted to add so much more and knew that if mine was a real website I would never be done. I also learned that it's great to collaborate with others and to bounce ideas off one another because that is when great ideas come about.
-Jenny's - I really loved the library thing where the books were displayed out and switched out every 15 seconds or so. I thought that was a great feature to have and would keep students interested and on the site longer to see what was up next.
-Dan - Shelfari - I liked that it allows you to see book reviews and it's another great way to view books and get more of a visual on what you want to read.
-Kari - I like that the district takes part in classroom connections where all the resources link back to one place. I think that's a great way for families and students to be assured to get all the information necessary to succeed.
-Brian - Atomic Learning - It seems like a "new' way to view things on the internet. It seems like it would engage students interest and make them want to learn more.
-Megan - Ideas Project. This seems like such a great way to get students to open up their minds and be creative.
-Alyca - I really liked the Wix website that was used. It seemed like it had a lot of layouts and graphics to display. This would be a great site to have students use for web projects.
My three year plan is done as of now. The most difficult part in the whole plan was just not being in the library and becomiong familiar with the library and the resources that are offered. I had a great librarian to work with so I think the plan will be alright. I feel though that if I had been able to have access to all of her accounts and an endless amount of time where I could work with her and "shadow' her and just have access to the library whenever I wanted it would have turned out much better. Either way by completing the project I have a much greater understanding of the amount of time 'weeding" takes and what to look for and the amount of time it really takes to find new, quality books and other resources to add to a library.
I think the age of your library is a great way to evaluate your collection. Materials need to be recent and make students want to read the books that are in the library. I also think that looking at check out history is another great way to evaluate your collection. If students aren't checking out a book there must be a reason. I've seen a couple of reports of collection mapping for the school that I'm working with. I've seen a titlewave report and a bound to stay bound report. It was interesting to compare the two reports and to see which company suggested certain books and what resources weren't recommended. I think it's important to do collection mapping and I will plan to do it when I'm in my own library.
The most critical learning network that I have developed throughout this class is the librarian at the school I am working with. I really don't think I would have been able to do much for this class without her. She has been such a supportive role throughout these past few weeks and is always offering guidance and support. Everyone in the class has also been a great learning network for me. I enjoy sitting back and listening to everyones comments and struggles and hope that some day I'll be able to have my own struggles to share when I finally find my own library.
(Louis Questions:)
This week's class, and the class in general has made me feel more comfortable stepping out of my comfort zone and doing things that will benefit me. Talking about how library media specialists need to show they are important to the school and fight for their job is exactly what I am feeling with my current job at the time. Over the past few weeks I have been making it known that I'm an asset to the company and letting people know all the great things that I do. I definately think the class has helped open my eyes to this. This week I have learned that there is always room for improvement. I thought my website was pretty decent, but after looking at everyone else's I wanted to add so much more and knew that if mine was a real website I would never be done. I also learned that it's great to collaborate with others and to bounce ideas off one another because that is when great ideas come about.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
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