Prezi for Presenting Author Research Utilizing Glogster

Glogging with Jerry Spinelli: My Online Interactive Poster About Him

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Portrait of an Author: Jerry Spinelli

Biography of an Author: Jerry Spinelli

 

Jerry Spinelli was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, in 1941. Before becoming an author, Jerry dreamed of being a cowboy and then of becoming a major league baseball player. His favorite book as a kid was Barbar the Elephant. He had his mom read it to him many times. After his dad published his poem about football in a local newspaper, Jerry decided he liked writing enough to do it full time when he was in the eleventh grade.

Getting his English degree from Gettysburg College, Jerry became a magazine editor. Every day at lunch, he would shut his office door and write for an hour. Jerry’s first four books for adults were not published. His first published work was about a young teen.  Instead of being disappointed, Jerry loves being a writer about kids for all ages.

Jerry’s wife, Eileen, is also an author. They write in separate rooms, but show each other their work when they are finished. Jerry calls Eileen “his first editor.” She helps him when he has problems with a story. They have six children together and twenty-one grandchildren! They now live in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Some of the inspiration for Jerry’s stories comes from his childhood, as well as his children’s childhoods.

Jerry has written a variety of fiction books about kids and teenagers. Milkweed, one of my favorites, takes place during the Holocaust and took him over a year to write. I personally love this book, even though it makes me cry, because it is very touching to read about this horrible time in history through a child’s eyes. Somehow, Jerry keeps that sense of innocence throughout the book. Other books, like There’s a Girl in My Hammerlock, are about sports like wrestling. This is another favorite of mine, since I enjoy the humorous situations and the personal strength in the main character. Jerry’s first pet, Bernadette, a rat, makes an appearance in this story about a tom girl who tries out for her school’s wrestling team.

Jerry won a Newberry Award for Maniac Magee, which is still taught in some schools. He has written over thirty books and plans to continue with his love of writing. When asked to give advice to young writers, Jerry says, “Write what you care about.” His other hobbies include playing with his grandchildren, playing tennis, picking berries, reading, riding trains, and listening to country music.

 

Adlit.org. Meet the Author: Jerry Spinelli. Online video clip. Youtube, 24 Jan. 2011. Web. 15

May 2014. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv8uUevERTE>

Jerry Spinelli.  Random House. 15 May 2014. <http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/catalog/

author.pperl?authorid=29311&view=sml_sptlght>

Jerry Spinelli Interview Transcript. Scholastic. 15 May 2014. <http://www.scholastic.com/              teachers/article/jerry-spinelli-interview-transcript?pImages=n&x=89&y=15>

Spinelli, Jerry. FAQ’s. Jerry Spinelli’s Website, 2012. 15 May 2014. <http://www.jerryspinelli.

com/newbery_004.htm>

 

Final Presentation on Prezi- Rhonda, Are You There?

Here is my final for my class about the collaboration between teachers and teacher-librarians. Finally done!!! I was so proud and making my presentation on Prezi.com was rather simple... until I somehow had text on the background. What did I do?! Finding help for this was like finding a diamond in the desert sand. It. Just. Wasn't. Happening. Ugghh... Finally, something must have worked, because the text wasn't showing up anymore. The mysteries of Prezi... Oh, well, at least I'm done!

Dying Out?

A Dying Breed

Commenting on other peers' blogs led me to a link that Eddie had found:  How To Survive the Zombie Librarian Apocalypse.

The Adventures of Library Girl

Being essential, rather than expendable, is essential with all the budget cuts. Although librarians might be in shortage in the future, I know plenty that have been moved to classrooms. Glad to know someone is addressing this and fighting the good fight!

Thing #23: Congratulations

All Done

Or is this simply the end of the beginning?

A couple of my favorite activities were discovering how other school librarians were incorporating ideas and technology into their work and libraries (Joyce Valenza and the Mighty Little Librarian, to name a few), as well as the fun exercises, like making trading cards. Completing my 23 Things blog has taught me two very important lessons: 1) Exploring technology is vital to being a school librarian, since you have to expose your students to ALL emerging tools on the web, and 2) Technology and using the Internet is usually not hard, but it does take time and trial-and-error. If those are the only things I take away, I am much richer as a teacher-librarian-to-be and a teacher. I was surprised that when I started really knocking out my posts on my blog, I almost didn't want to stop. I started doing two-to-three most days in the end, but getting in the groove was the hardest for me at first. Once I did, I found blogging and exploring to be really enjoyable. In order to improve the 23 Things blogging exercise for the future students, just make sure that links are all up-to-date and add any important trends in the library world. Time permitting, I would definitely want to participate in a program like this. Having a due date does make completing it more of a priority, but I did learn so much doing this. As a librarian, continuing to blog would be something great to show prospective employers as a portfolio. However, my tongue-in-cheek humor might not always be appreciated. Describing my experience in one sentence: As a librarian, the only way to create life-long learners is to BE a life-long learner.

Now, I get to comment on my peers' blogs. I'm excited to see what they've discovered....

Thing #22: Your Turn

My Turn!

I chose to explore word clouds for the part of my blog. I love the integration of generating a visual using words. Although I know most people at my school use Wordle, I wanted to try something with more shape options. So, I chose Tagzedo instead. There are many pre-set shapes for layouts, fonts, and color themes. You can print out your word cloud, save it to your computer, or even make a product (like a tee) with your word cloud. How could I use this? Well, this would be a great exercise in the library about using personality traits o describe a book character, vocabulary words that fit a continent, or even a poem about the first days of school. For mine, I chose to describe my dog, since he's become a big part of my blog. Thanks for the inspiration, Charlie!

Charlie's tail is shorter, but otherwise a good likness

Although I love this idea, I think this is a bit beyond my realm. This blogging librarian created her OWN word cloud using a Cricuit machine that is owned by the school (lucky!). With sticky vinyl sheets, a leveler, and some help, the Mighty Little Librarian created something any librarian would envy... Sigh. What will these amazing librarians think up next?!

Talk about amazing. I want to be in her librarian! Can I be her student?

Thing #21: Online Image Generators

Trading Card Maker

My Super Dog



There are many online image generators out there, but my favorite is Trading Card maker. It's easy to upload a personal phot and create a title, subheading, and description of your superhero. I would love to use this with kids in the library by having them make their own trading cards of their own using their school photos or other personal photos. Or we could do author trading cards. We could print them out, laminate them, and post them around the library. Maybe even have a scavenger hunt for the students! It could turn into a fun lesson that isn't too hard for students to use and has a variety of uses. Here's a great sample class lesson using Trading Card maker for historical buildings that are either local or scanned from books.

Thing #20: Recess

School is out!

 

Time to explore this awesome LiveBinder, created by my professor,  Ms. Rippy. It's a wonderful resource for any teacher, but especially librarian-teachers. There are links to about a zillion pages, such as educational applications, blogs, specific area content, and ways to integrate technology into the classroom (QR codes anyone?). I love the idea of using books or other attractions in the library with QR codes. I found QR Code Generator through Google, but on the site was the option to make your QR code with a picture through a link to Visual Lead. Who could resist that? Problem is you must use either a Google+ account or Facebook log-in. Luckily, I have both. You have the option to buy an upgraded link of the QR code (WHY?!), but all I needed was to keep my pretty QR code, luckily. Would I use it again? No. Took too much time and wasn't that amazing in the end. Idea sounds better than reality. A simple QR generator is fine, but it was kind of fun to see a QR code with a picture...

QR Code for My Blog

Another one of my favorite links I found through the LiveBinder is WordFoto. You can take any photo and add words. The photo remains, but the words are integrated, keeping the shapes and colors. My only complaint is it is only available on Apple products, and most schools use Windows, simply to save money. I don't even have an iPhone. :( However, this is a wonderful idea and could be a fun project for students in the library! It does make a photo worth a thousand words, pardon the cliche. One thing I would have to caution the students about is using just one or two words. The more words used, the more unique and intriguing the photo becomes...

WordFoto courtesy of Michael M. White

Thing #19: Mashups

Mashing It Up

Created by www.ioexception.de

Mashups are applications through sites like Google, BigHuge Labs, and Flickr that take two or more web applications and allows users to mix them together. BigHuge Lab's homepage even says, "Home of fd's Flickr Toys," and "Helping you do cool stuff with your digital photos since 2005." I used the Mosaic Maker on BigHuge Labs to make a small mosaic of my pup. Although I used images on my computer, I could also have chosen images I uploaded to my Flickr account.

Charlie in 2012

Although I have already written about using the Trading Card Maker, I would also love to use Bookr in my library program. It's an online applicationt that allows anyone to create a storybook (or photobook as the site says) using creative common from Flickr, or non-copyrighted, pictures. Students could write about themselves- their families, hobbies, or futures. It wouldn't be hard for them to upload pictures and it would a) give them a chance to write,  b) practice writing proficiently on the computer, and c) search through the sea of creative commons pictures.

By the way, every Super Librarian needs her own library trading card, courtesy of the Trading Card Maker. Here is my wonderful creation...

Be amazed, be astounded, be afraid

Thing #18: Shelfari

Shelfari

Shelfari is a great site linked with Amazon, my go-to favorite online book store, that allows you to search for books to read, books you are currently reading, and book you've read. It reminds me of Goodreads, because when you put your book on "your shelf," it allows you to write a review and rate it out of five stars. For blogging, I like Shelfari, because you can insert your bookshelf as a widget, or gadget, to your blog as a nice visual. Mine as on the right-hand side! It also allows you to use your Amazon.com account. For personal use, I will continue using Goodreads, though, because I have been using it and am part of the Librarians That Read Group.

Thing #17: Ning

Ning

Teacher LibrarianNing Homepage

Ning is like a professional Facebook. It allows people in a certain field to create a circle of "friends" (Ning refers to this as a community) in order to share ideas, photos, videos, tutorials, and web postings. I personally chose Teacher LibrarianNing, because it gives me a great glimpse of what I could use Ning for in the future. Hosting a site comes at a cost on Ning; the basic price of a monthly Ning membership is $25. Wow! Ummm... even with online administrative support, what ordinary teacher librarian could afford that? However, joining Ning is free, so I was able to sign up easily. I plan to use Ning to gain lots of ideas. As a librarian, you are almost always the only one in your school doing your job. You might have a few collaboration meetings within your district between librarians, but that might not be enough to form a working relationship to answer your questions. Ning allows this working collaboration to be formed and allows you to ask questions, such as how to collaborate with teachers effectively, in a safe manner. Now, onto more Ning exploring...

Thing #16: Video Sharing

YouTube, I Tube, We All Tube?

Personally, I love YouTube. It's amazing the number of videos available. At home, I have lately started watching documentaries and even movies on this free service. For a librarian, using YouTube is like Utopia. Finding book trailers, author interviews, and other books video resources is very easy. The only downside to using YouTube, or for educators TeacherTube and SchoolTube, is wading through all the many videos to find what you want. Searching for "school librarians" led me to many videos that weren't necessarily about school librarians. My search led to many videos that weren't just about school libraries, but public and the future of all libraries.

Since I love TED talks and have watched quite a few of them, I was disappointed I didn't find a YoutTube video about school libraries. I did find a great video about budget cuts that are leading to the lack of trained librarians and the closing of libraries in schools. Students and a teachers, plus the librarian, acted out what happens when libraries in school disappear... Very eye-opening!

Thing #15: Podcasts and Vidcasts

Podcasts & Vidcasts,

Oh my!

Video blogging with Windows Photo Story was very simple. Downloading the program was simple, typing captions over the photos was easy, choosing transitions was just as fast as it is in PowerPoint, so the only seemingly long task was choosing the music in the program. Not bad! Saving it wasn't hard either. Until... I tried to upload it on Blogger. Not good. 

I started wondering why this simple Windows program wasn't uploading! Why me? Why now? What did I do? Then, I realized. Although I had saved the files in both formats, I hadn't completed the story process! Seriously? I guess this is why 90% of technology problems is usually user-error. Shucks!

I would love to teach this to kids in the library. This could be a prelude to a family ancestry project or any kind of research process. I love looking for new clues about my ancestors, so I chose my mom's Italian grandparents. I have a lot of cool old black-and-white pictures my mom inherited that I scanned a couple of summers ago. Bellissima!

 

Thing #14: More Online Applications and Tools

Prezi 

One of the teachers at my old school had done a presentation with Prezi, so I forgot I actually had an account with the online application. It's basically like a PowerPoint, but ends up looking cleaner. When you look at a Prezi, it looks like an outline with boxes or visuals. As you present each slide or box (they are called frames & arrows in Prezi), that particular one is zoomed in. Some people like Prezis, because they are more interesting than the bells and whistles in PowerPoint, which often become overloaded with information. The downfall to Prezi is that sometimes the zooming in and out can make people dizzy (like me!). 

My favorite part of Prezi is you end up making your point with fewer words than in PowerPoint. No need to read it to your audience, as they can read it themselves, hopefully. Here's a sample Prezi of my journey to becoming a school librarian:

 

Thing #13: Online Applications and Tools

Online Collaboration

Online document sharing is something I have heard about, but never used. Basically, instead of emailing links of attachments, such as Word or Excel documents, they are locate in one central location online. Meaning it doesn't have to be housed on just one computer, but can be accessed by anyone the sharer chooses (there are privacy settings available) from any location with an Internet connection. Anyone with access to this account would be able to upload their own information and files, as well as edit anything for collaborating. It reminds me of iTunes Cloud, where you can access your iTunes music (theoretically) from any location. Without the collaborating, of course. I did, however, attend an education conference in 2009 and met some teachers from Klein ISD. One shared with me how all their students had laptops and took notes for classes, even in junior high, on Google Docs. Although I was intrigued, it seemed like a far off idea for my district, since we didn't even have student computers then...

Now is a different story. I was a able to create a Google Docs account with a few files for this class. As a librarian, this would be invaluable. A Google Docs or other type of collaborative sharing application online could be used in a variety of ways: book suggestions for future purposes, ideas about policies and library usage, questions about the research process or other library concerns, or other suggestions for the library by students. These are just a small idea of where this could lead... 

Thing #12: Microblogging

Tweet, tweet

 

So, in addition to re-joining Facebook, now I'm tweeting. Hello Twitterverse! What next? Being so mainstream is hurting my individual spirit and street cred. Seriously, though, Twitter is a short, succinct way of getting library information out there (policies, services, links, author sites, blogs to read, etc.) in a timely fashion. Being limited to 144 characters means you are micro-blogging on Twitter. My favorite thing to do? Search hashtags and retweet. I found some wonderful information about school librarians, like what a school loses (students on the losing end... again!) when there isn't a library professional anymore. Other conversations that I had to retweet for my mass following (coming after you, Justin Bieber with your zillions of followers): Public School Librarian responds to New York Times Op-Ed piece that students are not widgets, School Librarian discovers fake Blake poem, and Author Anthony Horowitz says students should spend at least one hour of quality reading time (reading for pleasure) with a full-time school librarian.

That is what I discovered in just twenty minutes! I think I found a new home on the Internet, and it gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling. A librarian's dream! If we could use Twitter in my school library (per adminstation approval), I would tweet regularly at least once a week about upcoming author visits, book awards, featured book and author sites, helpful sites for researching, policies in the library, and any pertinent news like check-in dates. The ideas are actually endless, really!

Thing #11: Play in the Sandbox

Sandbox

I'm pretty sure I had this sandbox as a kid...

Playing in a sandbox in regards to wikis is an area on a wiki site or page that is just that: for fun. It allows wiki users to collaborate for amusement and learning purposes, as well as experimentation. On the PISD Library Group site, there is a wiki. Under the 23 Things heading, I was able to add my own blog to the growing list of PISD librarians and library science students. 

As far as discoveries, I added Joyce Valenza's wiki for the Springfield High School library to the list of found sites/ tools. It's an amazing example of how a school wiki can look and function! I would love to attend one of her workshops one day...

Thing #10: School Wikis

Wikis

 So much for ALL of the Intenet being posted in ink, as I posted before. Wikis, such as Wikipedia, are continuously changing sources of information. Blogs, on the other hand, are permanent. Once a person blogs, nobody else can change that information. Same goes for blog comments. Although anyone can change the information on wikis, some people create wikis that require passwords for users limiting the number of users, say for a class like my own. Using wikis in schools is an interesting concept, since it often involves student collaboration. It's a great way for teachers to monitor student note-taking, the posting of student information, and gathering all of this information in one place. Wikispaces, like PBWorks, is a free wiki website that allows educators and others to create a group space for classes or libraries.

I visited all of the wikis listed and found most to be rather sparse on postings and information. Hmm... One I found on the list of more examples of school wikis was Bookleads, a blog by Joyce Valenza. She is a teacher-librarian, so I was interested to see what she had posted. However, the library information wasn't even actually posted on the wiki! Instead, updates were found on Young Adult Lit for PA. I became very confused, because the YA Lit Guide Author was not Joyce. However, she was the workshop author. Clicking on her blog link led to... her wiki for Springfield Township High School Virtual Library! Detective work pays off. :) It has won numerous awards, but the homepage alone is truly impressive. Using Glogster, Joyce created a visual homepage with clickable links for students. Amazing!

My inspiration, Dr. Valenza

I love this format and plan to use it when I have my library! Thank you, Joyce.

Thing #9: Useful Library Blogs

Finding Blogs

 

I personally like finding new blogs from the blogrolls, or blog links, on the blogs I found on Edublogs. However, Heyjude didn't have a blogroll and the MoxieLibrarian hasn't updated their blog in almost two years. So, it was back to the search engines of the blogosphere!

Entering "best librarian blogs" into the Google Blog search engine led me to The Top Fifty Librarian Blogs. Although many of the blogs are by public librarians, they still have pertinent information in the field of library science. Worth more than a glance! One of my favorite just-for-fun blogs from this post was Librarian Trading Cards.  Depicted are real librarians on a trading card (using a photo and a few words), plus an interview by the blog's host(s) of the librarian. A couple of these superheroes, I mean librarians, have their own blogs. A fun way to engage random people in the world of media specialists. Some are nominated by colleagues, which makes me wonder who I could butter up now...

Another nefarious school librarian lurks

Another randomly fun blog is by a school librarian, Judging the Books, making fun of random book covers. We've all seen a great book with a hideous cover and wondered briefly, "Who thought up that monstrosity?" Now, we can get another person's perspective. All in good fun, of course. Now, this blog unfortunately hasn't been updated since 2009! Uggghhh. I might have to take up this needy cause myself...

Another point for the new technology goddess! I love the use of the RSS button located handily on my Firefox browser for subscribing to new blogs. I had been using Internet Explorer, but considering it kept crashing on me, I finally made the switch to Firefox. So, not all of the concepts of this browser, trusty steed though it is, are familiar to me. Installing the RSS button was quite simple and now I don't have to pick a blog reader, since mine automatically defaults to iGoogle.