Q: What are you interested in learning about? What do you want to get out of this class? How do you think this class will help you in your future profession?
As you know, I have jumped right into a new profession of school librarianship this year. (And what a crazy year it has been--but we'll save that for another post. Or maybe not.) With this career change comes more learning and more school to get my teaching license and School Media Endorsement. I told my administrators when they hired me that I had the library portion of the job down, but that I'm brand new to the world of teaching and education--luckily, they they saw in me some innate ability to teach that I am just starting to see in myself and have been very supportive of me while I work towards "getting it."
I believe that in addition to the day-to-day classroom experience that has been invaluable last year, this course, Education Psychology (for which I am writing this and several future posts), will be a major puzzle piece towards "IT". I am so green, I really had no idea what the content of this course would be. I believe some part of me actually thought that it would (perhaps psycho-analyze would be a strong term, here, but...) help me figure out what is going on in my students brains in order to deflect their tactics of getting off-task, talking as soon as everyone is finally listening, and rocking in their chairs. I am joking--some. So, I am excited that this class will perhaps offer some insight to these behavioral issues, but much, much more--including classroom management, how students learn, different teaching methods, praxis practice and more information on the self-evalutation portion of my four evaluations a year! I am also very jazzed to decode some of the professional language that pervaded me at every staff meeting, PE, and pre- and post-evaluation conference this past year: for example, "transfer" and "summative" and "formative evaluation." Yep, I think this course will be very enlightening not only for the classroom and students, but the culture of schools.
Let's get started!
Monday, June 3, 2013
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Micro-blogging is legit
I'm officially going to bring this blog out of its coma with micro-blogging. It is alive!
Monday, August 16, 2010
Birthday Booty!
My DH gave me my birthday present this morning. He totally surprised me by getting a Nook e-reader. I have a Nook, I have a Nook, I have a Nook! I've been talking about wanting one "someday" for some time. I guess all my hinting paid off. Obviously, I just took it out the box and left it to charge this morning, so I can only tell you what I'm excited about. Ahem:
1. It's the Wifi version which was cheaper than the 3G and I don't need to be able to connect at all times to download books and media. But I can still connect at all AT&T hotspots and, of course, anywhere there is free wireless.
2. I can borrow OverDrive books from the library! My biggest issue with the Kindle was having to *gasp* BUY books from Amazon.
3. Popular Science just ran an article about how to hack the nook for things like a Twitter feed. Word.
4. It will sync books to my iPhone... soon they will have a page sync feature so each device will know where I left off.
5. I can "lend" books in my library to friends. Now, I just need another friend with a Nook to let the sharing begin!
And there is more, but those are the highlights. Lot's of reviews available out there too, if you're in the market.
As a librarian I feel I have to defend my love of the physical book. It hasn't gone away. But now I can reserve room in my carry-on for things like shoes and a change of clothes instead of books.
1. It's the Wifi version which was cheaper than the 3G and I don't need to be able to connect at all times to download books and media. But I can still connect at all AT&T hotspots and, of course, anywhere there is free wireless.
2. I can borrow OverDrive books from the library! My biggest issue with the Kindle was having to *gasp* BUY books from Amazon.
3. Popular Science just ran an article about how to hack the nook for things like a Twitter feed. Word.
4. It will sync books to my iPhone... soon they will have a page sync feature so each device will know where I left off.
5. I can "lend" books in my library to friends. Now, I just need another friend with a Nook to let the sharing begin!
And there is more, but those are the highlights. Lot's of reviews available out there too, if you're in the market.
As a librarian I feel I have to defend my love of the physical book. It hasn't gone away. But now I can reserve room in my carry-on for things like shoes and a change of clothes instead of books.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Copyright
Copyright knowledge is one of those things for me that is in the category of "Use It or Lose It." I am often guilty of wanting to put my hands over my ears and sing "LA LA LA LA" to stay ignorant of what people are doing with the articles that they request once I order them.
Other times, I just arch my back and hiss "That would be copyright infringement!" as a gut reaction. Then after I think about it and review the wording of the law and guidelines, I often think that I may have overreacted... Just maybe.
Today I discovered this very informative video from the Copyright Clearance Center. They managed to keep it short (7 minutes), informative (not confusing), and interesting (Mostly because they didn't skimp on production. It features high-quality, good looking animation.)
Next time you get stuck on a simple copyright question check it out:
"Copyright Basics - The Video" can be found here: http://216.183.190.29/
Other times, I just arch my back and hiss "That would be copyright infringement!" as a gut reaction. Then after I think about it and review the wording of the law and guidelines, I often think that I may have overreacted... Just maybe.
Today I discovered this very informative video from the Copyright Clearance Center. They managed to keep it short (7 minutes), informative (not confusing), and interesting (Mostly because they didn't skimp on production. It features high-quality, good looking animation.)
Next time you get stuck on a simple copyright question check it out:
"Copyright Basics - The Video" can be found here: http://216.183.190.29/
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Zotero to the rescue!
One of my major lifelines to other librarians is a local consortium of health science librarians. We meet every few months and often bring in wonderful classes from the National Library of Medicine. When not taking formal classes, we teach each other. Last week I learned about Zotero- a free, open source citation manager (like End Note) that works directly in your browser. Right now, it is only Firefox compatible, but they will be releasing a version for IE, and other browsers soon.
It works as a citation manager, but also as a really comprehensive bookmarking system. A few of its virtues: you can archive PDFs and Web pages, you can share collections of research sources with others (great for collaborative projects), export nice looking reports of resources, and import/manage citations in Word.
It can pull details out of just about anything- PubMed, Amazon, newspapers, google books, to name a few. Obviously, I am just learning about this, but have downloaded the extension to start using while I pull research, cull resources for requests, and find items of interest as I browse. I already want to upgrade to the new Beta version! Zotero has really good documentation on their website, so I'm confident I can find my way around.
Happy citing!
Monday, January 26, 2009
PUTTING THE NETWORKING INTO SOCIAL NETWORKS
Twitter is the new tool in my 2.0 trunk that is getting me more involved online. My husband, one of those people who was online when it expensive as hell to have a home connection (and almost unheard of) when there wasn’t much to do online beyond text based newsgroups, often says to my question “Who is that?”, “Oh a friend I know from channel so-and-so.” (aka, a guy he knows from an online chat room.) For a long time, I really didn’t understand that. I mean, I understood the logistics of logging on and chatting with familiar faces, but I didn’t really understand how trust and friendship could evolve between people who were essentially strangers.
As a librarian, I often refer people seeking support and information to these resources for the purpose of interaction, yet I have preferred to remain uninvolved myself. By uninvolved, I really mean that I have not formed relationships and I have not networked. Not on Sparkpeople.com- the social weight loss and fitness site I log into regularly, not on Facebook or MySpace, not on LastFM, not even on blogs I read religiously. I’m like an invisible, anonymous, online wallflower.
Until recently, my online habits really consisted of the occasional comment on a blog, posts to list-servs, plotting my own online identity, and communicating with my colleagues and friends. Yes, it is quite easy to be 2.0 with just your friends or even just yourself. Even as I write this, I wonder if I’m the only one who will read it.
Well, as it happens, Twitter has allowed me to seek out, introduce myself (by way of "Following" and a direct message) and get to know people from around the globe. Not that I’m not still being a wallflower elsewhere, but I am having fun and widening my cyber social circle one tweet at a time. And I finally understand how my husband can really call his online acquaintances friends.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
TOOLS OF TELECOMMUTING
My organization has started some new and wonderful things for its employees—flexible scheduling and telecommuting. More and more organizations are adding this benefit to help people save money on gas, spend more time with their family, and, in general, add to their quality of life.
But how can a solo librarian telecommute, you ask? Well, I may not get much cataloging or shelving done on the one day a week that I’m home, but I am able to do just about everything else. Still, in order to be successful, I needed a few weapons in my arsenal of home-based technology, which I’ll gladly share with you:
Let me explain further on those last two.
The first thing I noticed about my workflow, was that it really suffered when I was trying to sort or search through our web-based e-mail client (Outlook). Basically, these functions on the web-based version are null and void. For now, I have been creating special top-level folders for e-mails that I need to refer to in the near future. I have also been more diligent about adding people to my address book, rather than relying on sorting and finding the last e-mail I received from them (come on… you know you do that too.) I am now investigating a POP option to forward all of my e-mails to a free web-based account, such as Gmail.
Now, the phone. Yes, people still need to be able to reach me via phone. Although I do a lot of internet based reference, on occasion, people like to be able to call me. Go figure. I am lucky enough to have a home phone in place, an office who’s telecom system can transfer to outside phone numbers, and caller ID that even tells me that I’m receiving a call from work. (It’s weird to be answering the phone at home saying, “This is Molly, how can I help you?” So far, I haven’t greeted a telemarketer that way, but I’m sure my time is coming.)
But what if you don’t have a home line? So many of us don’t anymore… and perhaps like me, you don’t want to use your cell phone minutes. Or maybe you are like my co-worker who literally lives in the woods and gets no cell phone reception and so she relies on an old-fashioned phone line. But she also can’t access her wireless connection in her house, (because the trees are too full in the summer, of course) so she has made an office for herself in another nearby building. This means that somethin’s gotta give- in one spot, she doesn’t have a phone, and in the other she doesn’t have internet. Her solution? Skype. The internet-based phone/video system. (I KNOW you've heard of it.) Now she has a phone wherever she has internet. I think she pays a small fee to be able to call non-Skype phone numbers, but it’s worth it to her, and we have a local phone number that we can reach her on too.
So there you have it. I was going to add "printer" to the list, but honestly, I haven't used mine yet. I generally e-mail myself a copy of whatever I've been working on at the end of the day.
But how can a solo librarian telecommute, you ask? Well, I may not get much cataloging or shelving done on the one day a week that I’m home, but I am able to do just about everything else. Still, in order to be successful, I needed a few weapons in my arsenal of home-based technology, which I’ll gladly share with you:
- Computer
- Internet Access
- Document editing software (remember Google docs, or one of the many shareware options available if you don’t have Office or Works at home)
- Friendly web-based e-mail client (no, really.)
- Telephone (really? why would I need one of those?)
Let me explain further on those last two.
The first thing I noticed about my workflow, was that it really suffered when I was trying to sort or search through our web-based e-mail client (Outlook). Basically, these functions on the web-based version are null and void. For now, I have been creating special top-level folders for e-mails that I need to refer to in the near future. I have also been more diligent about adding people to my address book, rather than relying on sorting and finding the last e-mail I received from them (come on… you know you do that too.) I am now investigating a POP option to forward all of my e-mails to a free web-based account, such as Gmail.
Now, the phone. Yes, people still need to be able to reach me via phone. Although I do a lot of internet based reference, on occasion, people like to be able to call me. Go figure. I am lucky enough to have a home phone in place, an office who’s telecom system can transfer to outside phone numbers, and caller ID that even tells me that I’m receiving a call from work. (It’s weird to be answering the phone at home saying, “This is Molly, how can I help you?” So far, I haven’t greeted a telemarketer that way, but I’m sure my time is coming.)
But what if you don’t have a home line? So many of us don’t anymore… and perhaps like me, you don’t want to use your cell phone minutes. Or maybe you are like my co-worker who literally lives in the woods and gets no cell phone reception and so she relies on an old-fashioned phone line. But she also can’t access her wireless connection in her house, (because the trees are too full in the summer, of course) so she has made an office for herself in another nearby building. This means that somethin’s gotta give- in one spot, she doesn’t have a phone, and in the other she doesn’t have internet. Her solution? Skype. The internet-based phone/video system. (I KNOW you've heard of it.) Now she has a phone wherever she has internet. I think she pays a small fee to be able to call non-Skype phone numbers, but it’s worth it to her, and we have a local phone number that we can reach her on too.
So there you have it. I was going to add "printer" to the list, but honestly, I haven't used mine yet. I generally e-mail myself a copy of whatever I've been working on at the end of the day.
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