Back to School

Tomorrow I head back to work and will start working on a new blog and wiki that is supported by my school district. Our library blog for our students is up and running AnyKindofBook . We wil use our work in progress library wiki for our staff.

Creating a Book Cover...

The idea of creating your own book cover came from 100ScopeNotes - Check out all the other ones at Create Your Deput YA Novel Gallery .  I tried my hand at it after seeing an example on Oops...Wrong Cookie. I think this would be a great idea for a contest! It was very easy do as I used Picnik to edit the original picture online.

Thing #23

Yea! I am done. It has been a lot of fun and my husband will be glad to get to use the computer again! Well maybe... I have learned so many new things that I want to explore further, and have so many new blogs to follow, he may have to get his own computer.

1. Some of my favorite things that I learned would include, setting up a blog, mash ups and image generators, Google Reader and all the gadgets, making and uploading a photo story to a blog.
2. This has course had made me more aware that I can learn new things and can continue to learn new things throughout my life. Got to keep the mind challenged or it will go stale!
3. One unexpected outcome was that I became more comfortable blogging and commenting on other blogs.
4. This program was great and thank you again for offering it.
5. Yes, I would absolutely do another program like this again. Will you be offering Library2PLay2 11.5 or something like it next summer? I ran out of time to do it this summer!
6. I learned so much and look forward to sharing the knowledge with others.

Thing #22 Ning

Wow, another totally new idea that I had never heard of before. I can see this being a good tool for teachers to use to discuss and collaborate on ideas. The national level ones such as Educator Ning and Teacher Librarian Ning have more information and more people for different feedback. But the local Texas School Library Ning is nice because it is smaller and the issues are more closely related to what I deal with on a day to day basic. Another ning I found that was very interesting isClassroom2.0

Thing #21 Pod Casts and Video Casts

I have been waiting to try this out. This is my first attempt at a book talk using PhotoStory3. Be sure to turn up the volume as the microphone on my home computer doesn't record very loud. I did not include music as I didn't have any that was not copyrighted to use in a project like this. I hope to expand my skills with PhotoStory and Animoto to make more book talks to place on our school blog and to include the in the BookTalk Wiki started by Theresa Stuaffer.

Thing #20 YouTube and Teacher Tube

I searched both YouTube and TeacherTube for the same thing on several topics, including Library, cold war, cheating... My results were quite different. A cold war search on On YouTube resulted in several 1950 propaganda commericals and other historical videos. On TeacherTude the same search presented student made videos on the topic. I must admit the videos on You Tube are much more fun to watch then that ones on TeacherTube.
YouTube Video: Here is one of the Cold War videos I found on You Tube. And now, thanks, to Zamzar, I can take a YouTube video and download or copy it's URL and change it into another usuable format for free.



TeacherTube Video: I saw this video "Before He Cheats - A Teacher's Parody" awhile back on YouTube and tonight I found it again on Teacher Tube. This will be a fun video to share with my staff. Side note: Have you every done a search on YouTube for "cheating"? You would be amazed at how many "how to" videos are out there!

Thing #19 WEb 2.0 Awards

I looked through quite of few of these sites. I didn't really see much that I would use in the library but I did find a few to share with my staff. I will use the Web 2.o Awards site to find a fun link or two to send out in our Library newsletter throughout the school year.


1. LuLu Book Publishing, make your own photo album, calendar, cookbooks.


2. Oddle Sorta like a Craiglist


3. UrbanSpoon Find a good restaurant and make a review.


4. Twitter - Had to look into this one as it has been in the news this summer. I signed up for it but not quite sure how it all works.I don't think teens are using it as much as they have Facebook.


5. Pandora Internet Music - awesome make your own radio station!



6. Netvibes or Pageflakes like iGoogle. Great idea to put everything in one place. Especially for those who have a lot of different accounts, etc.

Thing #18

I am impressed. I downloaded Open Office and it is very similar to Microsoft Office. I work at a school were I feel safe to say that only a handful do not have a computer at home. BUT... many do not have Microsoft Office so the students can not finish a Power Point or a Spread sheet at home. Here is something that these students can download to their home computer and use.
Google Documents is another option that our students should be familiar with as they prepare for college. If the students have a Google account they make and save PowerPoint's and spreadsheets to use anywhere there is a computer. Plus there is the added feature of collaboration on a document between team/group members. I also looked through some of the templates and found one for a family budget plan that looks like something I have tried to make myself but with little success. I will definitely spread the word to our teachers and staff about both programs and through our school's e-news to our parents and students.

Thing #17 Rollyo

At first I wasn't sure this was something I would use but then I watched the video by the L2P player . His explanation was easy to follow and now I can see how teachers can use this in their classroom. I don't think I will use it for personal use but it would be easy to set up a search roll for a class or group of classes that were doing research in the library or lab; especially if the teacher(s) want their students to use several specific websites. Check out the search roll I made titled " Career Research 1. "

Thing #16 Wiki

I have played around with a wiki a couple years ago but never got it operational. After reading the information and examples provided through this assignment I can see all the different ways to use wikis in the classroom and for professional use too. I found several wikis about libraries and teens that I added to my Delicious account. I added a comment to the Sandbox on the SBISD Wiki and read through how others feel about this assignment and program.
I am a little overwhelmed on all that is offered and need to work through which format is the best for keeping my staff and students informed. --- a website, a blog, a wiki, or a combination of one or more of these things! I am afraid I will run out of time to keep everything updated! I do think I would enjoy the challenge of working on a collaborative wiki for the librarians in our district and training them on how to use it.

Trying out a Free Poll Maker and It Works!

What would you like to see more of in your library? » create online polls
Tags : books comptuers resources

Ok I am getting goodor just lucky as I was able to add this Poll as a post and directly to the blog but didn't get it to work like I wanted too on Facebook. Not bad two out of three....

Thing #15 Web 2.0

Rick Anderson Director of Resource Acquisition,University of Nevada, Reno Libraries has some great points in his article Away from the Icebergs .
1. Do we still need all those books "just in case" or can we find the information through different sources? I believe there will always be a place for books and but they are not going to be the main source of where our students will find information in the future. Part of me wants to students to find at least on source in a book as they research because I know all the good sources that are on the shelves. ( I purchased them when opening the library four years ago) I also know that very soon those books will be out of date and I will be directly students to online souces, that are more current, easier to access, and cheaper to keep current. These same books are also what makes my library look so good as they are aesthetically pleasing to the eye but soon may be gathering dust on the shelves. So in the future how much do I weed?
2. Can we exist as the library that offer services only to those who walk through the doors? The Web 2.0 makes us look at how we present information to our patrons. We can not just sit back and wait from them to walk through the doors but provide access at the very place that high school students spend time--on the Internet.
3. Can we do this without the training necessary to make us the teachers and instructors that help our patrons find the information they need? Because our profession deals directly with information, we need to be a life long learner. We need to continually learn the new skills that are necessary to teach and instruct our patrons and students on how to find information through the many different resources available through the internet.


Michael Stephens discusses the roles of a Librarian in his article Sharpen these Skills for Librarian 2.0 As I learn more about Web2.0 this summer, I am beginning to understand how different my role as a librarian is changing from when I started 10 years ago. We need to embrace the changes in technology so we can connect with our users. In this article Michael challenges us to set a good foundation and mission for our libraries and not get side tracked by all the different technologies available. Choose what will work for our library and work quickly to put it into play. We can't take months to decide what we want to do or let road blocks deter us from completely our mission. I like how Michael describes a Librarian 2.o as a librarian that "understands that the future of libraries will be guided by how users access, consume and create content." and "will help users become their own programming director for all of the content available to them"

Thing #14 Technorati and How Tags Work

I search School Library 2.0 in Technorati by tags and by a general blog search. Under the tag search I found 28 hits with most going to 23thing posts but under the exact phrase blog search I came up with 120 hits. I still had a hard time searching and understanding this website. Right now I don't see it as something I will use. Tagging I understand as it is a great way for the individual to sort information. I can also see how it is something that the search engines are starting to use. But how much of it is going to money driven as in companies purchasing tags so their name shows up the most? Does that defeat the purpose of pure tags by people who are truly interested in a same thing?

Thing #13 Tagging and Social Bookmarking

I have heard of Delicious before but never taken the time to check it out. It was very simple to down load my favorites into my account. I have been finding a lot of great sites to share with my staff in the fall and now I have an easy way to access all my saved websites when I get back to school. It is definitely a great place to help you keep organized with the websites that you discover and what to use in the future. Tagging was easy to do and I can see why it would be a good thing to have if you have hundreds of saved bookmarks. I don't think this social bookmarking is something that teachers should use with students but is more for a professional level from teacher to teacher. I can see this coming in handy for students that are doing research on the web (if they can't find it in the databases first, of course).
I discovered another social bookmarking site called Diigo.com. Along with the bookmarking you can search the web, join groups, add sticky notes, and highlight web pages like in Furl. With both networks my accounts are still private, as I am still a little gun shy on putting my information out in the public. But if I had to choose, I would feel more comfortable using Delicious rather than Diigo.

5 Card Flikr and More

I am totally going to be the 2.0 nerd. I found this today while listening to a presentation that was a link on my Library 2.0 Google Alert. The presentation Welcome to the NECC Library Learning Tools BYOL Smackdown! was actually a wiki! The video link is an hour long with several different librarians presenting different technology based programs to use in the library and schools. One of the presenters talked about Five Card Flickr and I had to try it! You choose five pictures and tell a story about them. What a great project for High School Creative Writing class. I will have to check to see if it is accessible at my school but if not the students can do it at home and print it out or sent the link to their teacher. Here is the story I made up. "What a Day" http://web.nmc.org/5cardstory/show.php?id=969
Here are a couple more links i checked out and I have only listened to the first ten minutes! Piple.com -- http://www.pipl.com/ A people search deep into the net that finds your visual footprint. You will be surprised what is listed! Also a cute video "My Hope" for students to let them know what the next generation will think of their MySpace.

Think #12 Creating Community Through Blogging

Blogs are great. I love reading them to find information and but haven't use them as a place to have a conversation with a group or to add input to a discussion. After reading the articles in this assignment, I realize that I need to take the next step out of my comfort zone and start commenting.


As far as commenting on others in the Library2Play...there are so many... I am a little overwhelmed on where to start. Time has been a factor on reading the blogs -- it's summer vacation and I have a thousand projects started around the house-- and everyone is at different stages. I just need to find a couple to follow...


The post Edubloggin Etiquette: Student Blogging on Drape's Takes : is a example of how questions posted on a blog will lead to a good discussion. I went to the blog post to find information on this subject but instead I found questions only. The answers to the questions came from the those that posted comments. If no one had commented then the discussion would have ended..The people who posted comments where the ones with the information!


Another thing that I just realize is that you should and can comment back on responses to your posts. Sorry to those who have commented with a question on my blog. I will go back and check my comments today.

Thing # 11 LibraryThingy

I have seen this on the blogs of participates that are farther along than me and was ready to add it to mine! I plan is to have a school library blog for students to read reviews, watch video book trailers, and find links to places where they can find more books to read. Library Thingy will be a great feature to have on this blog as it will give students a place to read reviews about books and find suggestions on what to read next.

Thing #10 Image Generators

This image and the one in the previous post (Thing#10 Image Chef) was made with Image Chef . I found it very easy to use and can see myself using this website to add a little fun to our news letters, announcements, and signs. Unfortunately, I can not load them onto our website.


I was excited to try out Wordle.net as one of our English teachers assigned her students to use this website. The students copied one of their essays into Wordle so they could have a visual on which words they used the most. I did the same with my blog site but could not figure out how to save it to post.

But I did find this link to a great way to use Wordle in the library next fall. I was reading the Wordle Blog and found this post about how the Kaimuki Public Library is using Wordle in a contest called Be Creative: Play Worldle . They post a Worlde using words from a book and the patrons submit the title and author's name for a change at winning a prize.


Another image generator I tried out for this section was the Comic Strip Generator. Again I can use this with our library communications.

Thing #10 Image Chef

ImageChef.com Flower Text

Thing #9 Blogs and News Feeds

Wow - I am overwhelmed. There are so many blogs and so much information out there! I can see why it is so easy to spend hours reading blogs and trying to keep up on everything. I did like the article How to Create your Circle of Wise on Cool Cat Teacher Blog. It was a great introduction to how to choose what blogs to read and subscribe too. Looking through the different search tools listed, I found that Technorati and Syndisc8.com were very easy to use. I did not care for Topix.net. I added several educational blogs that will be great to pass on to my staff along with more Library blogs that I hope to find time to read!

Thing #8 RSS Feeds

This is what I have been wanting to learn how to use and did not know it! There are so many great blogs and websites out there that I love to keep up on but did not have them organized in one place. It was fairly easy to set up a Google Reader and I know I will find myself checking it regularly for new information. I already have folders for personal and school links!

This fall, instead of sending out an email newsletters to my teachers, I would like to set up a blog that I can share information with them as I learn it. The contact would still be through email to the blog link, but everything would be in one place so they can read as much as they want each time they check the blog. I would include a link to my shared posts through Google Reader. Of course this will work better I our district starts allowing accessing to Blogs! Does anyone else do something like this with their staff?

Reading about Twitter on Vacation

I spent the weekend in Washington DC area with family. (Picture was taken in Dupont Circle at the entrance to the Metro)It was nice to get away from the heat in Texas. While there I read an article in the Washington Post by Susan Kinzie about using Twitter in the classroom at the college level. Some Professors' Jitters Over Twitter Are Easing . I can definitely see how this can be used at the high school level too. Since the students are using this form of technology why not teach them to write what they mean in 146 characters or less. One of the science professors in the article used Twitter as a way for her students to communicate quickly what research they had found on their different topics.

Thing #7 Google

I like Google to use as a search engine and recommend it my students. I looked over Google Scholar and will add this to our list of search engines as it will be great for our AP and HOSA classes. I use Picasa for my personal picture editing program and really enjoy it. iGoogle was had fun to set up and I will use it at home but don't see a way at this time to use it at school along with some of the other Google applications. The new Google Earth 5.0 is great. You can use older pictures of the same place plus the Ocean has been added! I can see this being incorporated into some of our classes

Thing #6 MashUps Etc.

I took way to much time checking out all the things you can do with pictures! I can see us using all these and more applications to customize pictures for digital book talks. Below are several I played with this afternoon on pictures from my own collection and from Flickr.

Mosaic Maker

WarholizerCelebrity Pics (Dumpr.net)Bead Art

Thing #5 - Flickr

I have looked through Flickr before as my daughter-in-law has an account for her photography business. I would love to use some of her pictures but they are not available through Creative Commons. It was fun searching the different catagories for pictures I can use in my future digital book talks. I finally decided to find a picture we could use in our 9th Grade Jeopardy Orientation Game . This one will be great as a "True /False" question. -- False - We do allow water in the library!

Thing #4 Registration

Registered today!

Thing #3 Avatar Update

My Avatar works! It wasn't my computer it was the operator ( shucks!). As I was looking through the other player's blogs I found several with avatars that were working so I did what any kid would do and I started pushing buttons. I clicked on tools under the avatar square and then the Rich Text button and then save. And Presto! It appeared!

Thing #3 Blogs and Avatars

Making an Avatar reminded me of when I used to play paper dolls growing up. It was so much fun to try on all the outfits, I must have saved a dozen different avatars! I think I uploaded it correctly but I an not sure, as I can not see anyone's avatar on my computer today. It was working yesterday but that was before my husband cut the DSL cable last night when raising the sprinkler heads in our yard! Yes, after two trips to Home Depot the cable is fixed....but no avatars today!

Thing #2 Life Long Learners

I did it! I made a blog and now I am writing my first post! I read through the 7.5 Habits Of Highly Successful Learners http://www.plcmc.org/public/learning/player.html and most of them I can relate to fairly easily and see myself doing. Having the self confidence to be a effective learner is something I sometimes struggle with. Will I be smart enough? Can I figure it out? Can I come up with a name for this Blog? I tend to worry about the little things and not concentrate on the end product. As I work through these 23 things, my goal is to think positive and start small. The easiest thing about being a life long learner is accepting responsibility for my own learning. I guess I learned this through the examples my father set for me growing up; something I never really thought about until now. My dad who is 85 years old, naturally accepts responsibility for his own learning. If something needs to be fixed he finds a way to fix it. It may take several tries and he may get frustrated but he never gives up. When he discovers his answer, he is always excited about what he has learned -- the frustrations and joys-- and can't wait to share what he learned with other people. I wonder if the kids today, give up too easily because we haven't taught them that learning is their responsiblity?