A Teacher-Librarian’s First Contact with Teachers

I’ve been thinking about emailing my colleagues at my new school a welcome back/collaboration letter. I am hoping that this letter will plant the seed for collaboration growth. Most importantly, I am hoping that my new colleagues will see me as approachable, organized, and professional. I decided to create the letter using Comic life to show that I am technologically savvy. Since I am new to the teacher-libraian role I would really appreciate any feedback regarding the letter prior to emailing it out. Please be brutally honest!

Bookmyne: Your School Library On The Go

Yesterday I attended a workshop called New Teacher-Librarian Day, presented by my school board’s library support team. The purpose of this  workshop was to assist new teacher-librarians in beginning their new role, look at library related issues and school library management.

At today’s session a great app calledBookmyne that allows you to connect to your library anywhere in the world was shared. Does your library use SirsiDynix Symphony? If so, this is a must have free app for you. Bookmyne is “the best library mobile app, hands down”. Using Bookmyne allows you to access your library’s catalogue, put books on hold and renew them. The barcode scanning is the coolest feature in this app. You can take a picture of the resource’s barcode to find out if your library carries it or which other libraries near you do. This feature will definitely prevent you from buying a book that may already be in your school’s library. With Bookmyne you can also access suggested reading materials via Goodreads, best-seller lists and reviews.

Organize Internet Content with Pocket

Are you ever on Twitter retweeting tweets when you see an interesting link to remember or to read later? Or do you find yourself always checking your history to try to remember where you saw that great article? I found myself constantly doing both until I discovered Pocket. With Pocket I am able to send articles, videos, and much more  from various social media platforms to one location that is assessable from any device. Now I am able to save anything on the web, store it, and easily rediscover it later.

We are always finding interesting content all day long and often don’t have time to read it right away or don’t know how to organize and remember what we read. Take anything you find online and save it to your Pocket so that you can view it whenever you have more time. Once the files are saved in your Pocket you don’t even need an internet connection to view them. Another great feature with Pocket is the ability to create tags for your articles. What a great way to keep all of your content organized!

Apps such as Twitter, Flipboard, Pulse and Zite make it super easy to save to Pocket. Without using these apps you can simply email the link or pin to your Pocket (add@pocket.com) to store for later viewing. Pocket also integrates withBuffer, Evernote, and Box.

Teacher-librarians are constantly given loads of information and remembering everything doesn’t have to be so overwhelming anymore. So, fill up your Pocket today!

Build a Rockin’ Library Volunteer Program

The other day I attended another free webinar called How to Build a Rockin’ Volunteer Program, presented by Michelle Luhtala, Head Librarian, New Canaan High School. I found the webinar on the EdWeb.net.  The purpose of this webinar was to assist librarians in getting more work done in less time by utilizing parent and student volunteers. Michelle Luhtala shared with us the importance of having a volunteer program and what her volunteer program looks like at New Canaan High School by sharing with us the New Cannan High School Library Volunteer website.

At the start of the webinar Michelle recommended two great reads. The article A Tale of Two Students and the book Growing Schools: Librarians as Professional Developers. Michelle ended the webinar by talking about workflow. She mentioned how to organize the loads of information teacher-libraians receive using various tools such as: Flipboard, Pearltrees, IFTT, and Evernote.

Click HERE if you’d like to check out the recording of the webinar.

QR Codes are “Highly Versatile”

My Fur Babies

Blog hopping helped me quickly discover QR Codes and now I have been seeing them everywhere – even on bananas. My last QR Code post was about ways teachers are using them in schools and classrooms to engage students. To further explore the possibilities of QR Codes I ordered the book QR Codes for Dummies byJoe Waters. My favourite part of this book was discovering how versatile QR Codes are. Joe Waters mentions how they can even help you find your lost pet. I know my blog is supposed to be about my experiences as a teacher-librarian but I thought this was just worth mentioning (my dogs are my babies). I almost lost my dog last summer and it was the most scariest experience of my life. It’s unbelievable how many pets get lost per year and the small percentage that actually find their way back home. QR codes may actually help solve this problem.  Now QR Codes can be added to your fur baby’s collar that links to a free online pet profile webpage onPetHub.com. Check out the video to see how it works. The coolest thing about this is that if someone scans your pet’s QR Code, you will receive an email notification that can potentially track the scanner’s location using the GSP in their smartphone. Whoever came up with this is an absolute genius!

Collaborating Around the Globe with ePals

Today I attended a webinar called Introduction to ePals, presented by Steve Hodgin. I found the webinar on the Global Education Conference Network.  The purpose of this free webinar was to provide an overview on how to collaborate with other classrooms across the globe using ePals Global Community, and learning about the key features and functionality.

ePals is a social network that has been created for Kindergarten – Grade 12 learning. This network provides teachers and students with the ability to learn by connecting with other classrooms around the globe. Writing emails, sharing projects and accessing content and lesson plans are just a few ways to facilitate collaboration through ePals Global Community. This network is a great way to learn about different countries while enhancing technology skills at the same time.

Next week, I will be attending the second session, ePals 101, which will focus on integrating ePals into the classroom while providing a safe and secure learning environment for students. Please check back next week to see how you can use ePals as an instructional tool in your classroom.

I am excited to give the term “pen pals” a new meaning in my school by allowing  my students to participate in the largest social learning network.

QR Codes are Everywhere

Clever Cupcakes

It’s so fascinating to go blog hopping to see all the ways that educators are using Quick Response codes (aka QR Codes) to support and promote learning. Since I have found so many great ways to use QR codes in schools, I thought it would be great to highlight 10 genius examples.

1. Accessing the Library Catalogue – At Grayslake campus library all you need is your smart phone and QR code reader to access the library catalog in the book stacks. College of Lake County

2. Book Reviews – Bacon lover, Chris Hyde, has his students create book reviews onto a blog which are then turned into QR codes and placed onto books in the school library. Bacon Bytes Blog

3. Links to Book Trailers – Check-out the books on display at NHS High School Library. Just scan the QR code to access book trailers via YouTube. NHS HIgh School Library

4. Scavenger Hunts – The Daring Librarian, Gwyneth Jones, created and shares a QR code scavenger hunt that can be used in the school library for ESOL students, special education classes, library orientation, and for just about any other subject. The Daring Librarian

5. Meet and Greet Tours – During Mrs. White’s meet the teacher night she created a self guided tour of her classroom for her parents and students. Mrs. White’s 5th Grade Class

6. Parent Communication – Heather Kaldis shares how QR codes can be used during Open House to establish teacher-parent communication. Pencils, Paper and Pixie Dust

7. Showcasing Students’ Work – The Nerdy Teacher, Nicholas Provenzano, shares his students’ work with a display case and QR Codes for all to see. The Nerdy Teacher

8. Interactive Bulletin Boards – Richard Byrne engages viewers into the “digital world” by using “QR codes, a puzzle, and an iPad.” Free Technology for Teachers

9. Test Reviews – Kudos to Mrs. White and her wonderful ideas on how to use QR codes effectively in the classroom. Her Grade 5 class reviews math skills using iPads and QR code created worksheets. Mrs. White’s 5th Grade Class

10. Math and Literacy Stations – Mrs. Wideen’s Grade 1 students use QR codes for addition, substation, word problems, reading and writing every week during math and literacy stations. Mrs. Wideen’s Grade 1 Blog

Happy Scanning!

Back to School with Tagxedo

I absolutely love the idea found on Chad Lehman’s website using Wordle with his library students on the first day of school. Students created a word cloud with words of things they can do in the library. Instead of using Wordle though I would use another similar tool called Tagxedo. Tagxedo not only creates a word cloud out of the text you provide but it “turns words — famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes, even your love letters — into a visually stunning word cloud, words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of occurrence within the body of text.”

Another great way to use word clouds in the library was found on Tara’s blog. She broke students up into small groups and had them list their favourite book titles or series.

Below is a Tagxedo made out of my blog.

Collaborate with Wallwisher

As I have been researching ways to use technology in the library, I came across a really cool website called Wallwisher. ”Wallwisher is an Internet application that allows people to express their thoughts on a common topic easily.” Two things I love about Wallwisher is that it’s super easy to use and it is another great way to establish an interactive community.

To help you get started with Wallwisher, I decided to create  a comic tutorial using Comic Life to show you how.

To get a better feel of what Wallwisher is and how it works visit my Wallwisher wall. Please feel free to create your very own post-it note with any ideas on how Wallwisher can be used in the classroom or library and stick it onto my electronic wall. 

Blogging in the Classroom

As a new teacher-librarian, technology has become an integral part of my role. Although I am comfortable using it, there are many new aspects that I need to become familiar with. So as I am new to this role, I have decided to learn about and begin to use blogging in the library to form an interactive community.

Since I am a bookaholic, I purchased a book called Blogging in the Classroom. After reading the book and doing some additional research on blogging, I wanted to start by creating my own blog.

I am excited for the start of the school year to allow my students to communicate with each other and to create their own publishing space with information and ideas that they want to share with others.

Here is a picture of the book: