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