Thing 26: Taking the Lead

What an amazing webinar!!  I came away with several practical ideas that I will spend the next couple of weeks implementing.  These ideas all strengthened concepts and projects that I have been contemplating already.  It was very useful to breakdown the stakeholder groups and think about what is important to each group specifically.  I have recently written a mission statement for the library, and this helped me work through strategies for sharing that message with different stakeholders.  Last year I began a library Facebook page, which has given me an opportunity to reach more stakeholders, although I still struggle to "get the message out".  This weeks topic has allowed me to identify a variety of ways to do that purposefully.
We are working on doing some structural redesigning of the library space, and I just finished a survey to ask students what they would like to see in their learning commons- now I just need to find the right venue for sharing it with students.  I want the library to reflect a learning commons, where students are encouraged to think critically, work collaboratively, experience creativity, and be engaged in lifelong learning- this is my elevator speech!
Some of the practical ideas that I got from the webinar, and the articles, are listed below:

• Create shelf dividers using old VHS cases- I will do this primarily to break up the Nonfiction section.
• Use shelf markers with pictures on them to indicate where popular series are on the shelves.
• Embed a Symbaloo on our Destiny Homepage with additional resources and tools.
• Reinstate my teacher newsletter on a regular basis- my goal is to send one out every 2 weeks, and our district instructional technologist is going to send one out on the opposite weeks.
• Institute "Power Lunch" times for informal PD with teachers.
• Create a 1 Book- 1 School graphic for our "School Wide Read" program (which is in it's 2nd year).  I would like to get this done this week, as we are having our end of year program next week, so it would be nice to incorporate the graphic there.  I would love to have this be student created, but I don't know if there is time for that!
• Communicate with parents on a more regular basis- 7th grade orientation, newsletter updates, information sent with report cards.
• I would especially like to get information out to parents about summer reading and also invite them to follow the Lake George Library Facebook page to stay in touch with what students are doing here.

Thing 25: Power Up Your Browser

Browser Settings
I was actually somewhat skeptical about the usefulness of exploring the browser settings, but was pleasantly surprised about a few things that I know I will use.  The first thing that I had fun playing with were the themes.  This was a good discovery, because I realize that students spend lots of time playing with this, and I had never really taken the time to find out how they were making these changes.  There wasn't a library or book theme though!  This could become a huge time waster too- I found myself getting lost in the search (so easy to get caught up).
The next setting that I found very interesting was with the "Advanced Settings" under "Privacy".  This is something that I will share with students when I am teaching about filter bubbles and the effect of your search activity being tracked.  Tracking the effectiveness of this "Do not track" option will be interesting.  It had a disclaimer that different websites respond to that request differently.  Good to know about!
The final setting that I found interesting was under "Downloads", and I'm glad to know where that setting appears now.  When I download things they automatically go to my "Downloads" folder, but I know that I have seen other people unable to find things that they downloaded because they didn't know where it saved.  Knowing where this setting is, I will be able to help people with this dilemma now, and it is always nice to be able to give people an answer to their questions.

New Extensions
I have used extensions in the past, but did some exploration to try out some new ones.  I know that I have gone through and deleted extensions in the past because they were slowing down my browser, so I am anxious to see what happens with these.  I just added ones that are connected to tools that I use frequently:
Pinterest- This one I have already used today, finding immediate use for it, as I am always adding things to my Pinterest account.  I think I had this in the past, but it was one of those I disabled when my browser was moving slowly.

PicMonkey- This is such a great and easy to use photo editing tool.  I am not sure that I need an extension to grab pictures and open directly into PicMonkey, but the option is interesting.  I will keep it on for awhile and see if I find it useful.


AccessGrid- This provides a drop down grid with easy access to letter accents, which I am always struggling to remember.  I know that I will be using this- simple but helpful extension.

EasyBib- This one has the most direct application for student support and instructional purpose, because our students use EasyBib throughout all grade levels.  I like that this extension helps them identify both the credibility of the site and opens a pop up window to create the citation while still on the website.

Thing 24: Infographics

The tools that I have enjoyed using to create Infographics in the past are easel.ly, piktochart, and recently Canva.  I typically visit each one once I have gathered information and brainstormed a concept for design, to see which one has the best templates, tools and icons/ images for the task.
Although I have tried other tools, these ones have given me the best options both for creating and sharing (which is often the more difficult component).  Other tools have made it difficult to transfer the finished Infographic to other place.  It is so frustrating to me when I have put lots of time and energy into creating something and then am unable to download or freely share the finished product.  I often run into this challenge with students as well, who are asked to create something and then print or copy and paste the finished product, and the tool does not allow for this.  I highly recommend testing the "share" functionality of any Infographic tool before dedicating time to creating something meaningful.
Although I have made many infographics in the past, for purposes ranging from advocacy to professional development to teaching I would like to get into making them more interactive, adding layers to the information provided.  Towards this end the blog by Jennifer LaGarde, 27 Ways to Make This the Best Year Ever was very inspiring.  So, I decided to make my WISER infographic interactive using ThingLink.  I use this infographic both for PD with teachers, and as a teaching tool with students learning inquiry skills.  Below is the new version, which includes interactive links- videos, narrative descriptions, and Web 2.0 tools to use during the implementation of the Inquiry process.  I am excited to use this new tool, and hope that it will add layers of meaning for both students and teachers.

Thing 23: MakerSpace in the Library

This is the purpose statement that I wrote this fall, as we kicked off a MakerSpace in the library here at the high school.  I started out in the fall by placing challenges in the MakerSpace, which students could work on at their leisure.  Challenges have ranged from "What can you make out of Duct tape?" to Lego challenges to Origam
i, and lots in between.  While we have continued to provide these self paced challenges, we have added Maker Monday times when we provide some instruction on more in depth projects.

I worked with a small student advisory team to brainstorm different project ideas,
wanting to cover STEAM topics, with varying levels of technology.  Students have also been instrumental in sharing their expertise in the MakerSpace.  I really
envision this as a student run area, with me serving mostly as advisor, and providing the materials and support for what they want to create.

I have been very excited by the range of students who have come to use the MakerSpace.  It has been a space where students of all ages can come together and be creative.

I feel like we are still very much in the learning stages of this MakerSpace venture, so the resources this month have been invaluable to me, adding to my repertoire of project ideas and resources.  The Tinkerspace blog has some especially helpful ideas for organization.  This will increasingly be an area that I explore, as we grow and have more supplies to manage.

Thing 22: Creatively Shared

Thing 22 led me to try out a lot of new tools!  At first I thought I would get less out of this, because I have done a lot of resource sharing and I love my Feedly already.  There are so many possibilities though, and I had a lot I've been wanting to share from conferences this year, so it was good timing.
I had so much fun creating my Tumblr blog, but unfortunately it doesn't look like I will be able to use it academically because it is blocked at school, due to the inappropriate content, which I haven't found a way to block.  I'm disappointed about that, because I loved the display and ease of sharing multiple media types.  I am Co-Leading a PD course on Teaching Leadership in which we are talking about new literacies, and blogging was one of the topics this past week, so I had hoped to share Tumblr as an option to use with students, but think I will hold off until we figure out a way to limit the blogs "pushed" to you.
I was able to immediately implement edshelf though, as I needed some updates to my webpage.  I created a collection and embedded it right on my Instructional Resources page.    I love it when it loads well.  There is so much purpose and potential, however it does load slowly and sometimes not at all.  I'm excited to use this the next time I do an in depth inquiry project with students.  I plan to create a collection, embed it on my web page and also print out a poster with QR codes to the tools.
While I was working on my website I also discovered Tint, which creates a feed widget to embed on your website from social media sites.  I wanted to have my library Facebook page display on my website homepage, so I could easily keep them both updated, because I have been struggling to keep my webpage fresh this year, with all of the other things on my plate.

Finally, I created a resource for teachers to share some of my conference reflections from this past season.  In the past Ihave used Smore for this purpose, but when I went to create this one it told me that I had already used my flier credits, and would have to purchase more.  This was disappointing, but gave me the motivation to use Canva for a new purpose.  Canva is a tool that I discovered earlier this year, and have used it to create posters for events in the library and for PD opportunities.  It was a little awkward to use as a newsletter, because it didn't have templates created for this purpose, but in the end it came out okay.
Once again Cool Tools has pushed me to "Stop planning and start creating" with new tools and for new purposes.  Thanks for the inspiration and motivation!

Positively Productive: Thing 21

There were so many great tools to explore in this first thing that I have spent way more time on it than I expected.  There have been both personal tools discovered, and tools that I can see using with my students.
The tool which I am most excited about using personally is Workflowy. I am a big fan of list making, but now that I live mostly in a digital world I struggle between where my lists are and where I am working.  Although I wish they had a mobile app to make it totally available I can see myself using this consistently to stay organized.  I have created three list categories to start with (Work, Personal, and Church).  I have already been using and loving the work category.  Personal would be more accessible if there was a mobile app, because I would use it "on the go", but I can still use it for project management in my life.  I am excited to start using the collaboration aspect with our Curriculum Team as we plan professional development.
I also explored the Buffer App and One Tab for my own organization, but they did not seem as appropriate for my needs.  With One Tab I didn't like the way the tabs collapsed into a list- what I would have loved would be to collapse them into "Sub-Tabs), although I understand that probably wouldn't have the same impact on computer space saving.  The Buffer App made me feel guilty that I don't have more social media posts lined up to share!
The tools which I am planning to implement with classes are Scrible and EverNote.  I have explored EverNote several times in the past for my own organizational needs, and it just has never clicked and felt natural, but I see real potential for it in two places within curriculum.  The first is as a portfolio for seniors, which is a concept that I have been discussing with our Advanced Government teacher, and which I would love to see used across curriculum areas.  The other teacher I would like to use this with is our 7th grade math teacher, who would like to create an interactive math lab notebook.  I think a lot of the functionality, and flexibility of what you can gather within EverNote will be useful for each of these purposes.
I am really excited about using Scrible with our 10th grade English teacher, who does a lot of close reading and annotating activities with students and has been looking for a versatile and flexible tool to use for these activities.  Scrible could ultimately be useful for any students doing extended research.  The functionality of these tools are so practical that I can really anticipate sharing them with many teachers, and will most likely share them at our next professional development.

Hunger to Learn

I am so excited to be back in Cool Tools, with opportunities to learn and explore in new ways.  This class has been great for me in the past, encouraging the application of a variety of tools that I wanted to use "someday".  Well, someday is here again, and I can't wait to get started!!

From my past participation with Cool Tools I was able to build my knowledge and experience with Blogger (among other tools), and now I use it with students.  In fact, as I write this post, I am getting ready to work with tenth grade students to create their own blogs.   We will use these blogs for sustained writing projects on their own topics of interest.  We implemented this ongoing project last year, with some exciting results.

This year I have a group of book club participants who would like to consistently provide book reviews for their peers, and the obvious answer for this is to create a Library Blog, with shared authorship.  There are just so many possibilities for shared learning experiences!