Sunday, July 26, 2015

Thing 2: Photo Fun

Unfortunately, this thing wasn't as much fun as I had hoped. I chose Google+ to download a few photos from our recent vacation in Canada.  I tried this platform because I'm familiar with other google functions and it made sense to learn a bit more.  Well, choosing the photos and downloading them wasn't a problem.  But when it came to transferring them to my blog, I was stuck.  It then became an exercise in frustration.  In the end, few good "things" did come out of it.  I explored every possible link associated with Google+ and Blogger and learned many of their capabilities! Thank you, Polly, for figuring it out.


Now for some practical ideas and thoughts for using digital photography in the library.  For Children's book week or National Library week, I always wanted to do a bulletin board with photos of all faculty and staff reading their favorite children's book.  What a great project for library club students! I could also post them to my library website or to the OPAC bulletin board.  It seems like using digital photography has a lot of possibilities and it got me wondering...do libraries or schools have classroom sets of digital cameras?  Is there grant money out there for such a purchase? How much would this cost?  I hope you"ll leave a comment about this.  


Monday, July 6, 2015

"Thing 1: Blogging"

 I did it!   So, here is my story...and I'm sticking to it.   The assignment asks to tell a little about ourselves.  I will begin by saying that I am an old school librarian...not necessarily "old" but "old school".  I don't usually jump into something new with both feet.  I need to take baby steps, slowly, and I need to understand all the details first.

I love being a librarian.  I love having my own library..actually two!  I love working with elementary kids and teaching.  Having a demanding schedule makes the job much more difficult. There never seems to be enough time to administer the library, to work on collection development, or to plan creative library lessons.  But I keep a positive attitude and start each day hoping to make a difference!

There are a few reasons why I am taking this program.  First, the timing is perfect. Summer is ideal, no other work pressures to worry about.  Second, I like the idea of going at my own pace.  I can work on it everyday, or not.  I am going on vacation next week and can take it along, too. But most importantly, I hope to learn about tech tools and to be in the comfort zone by the end.

This first lesson was good.  I've been thinking about getting my kids to blog for a few years now, but wasn't quite sure how to get started.  So important to talk about cyber ettiquette first.  I like the idea of making a "poster paper" blog and having the kids add comments with sticky notes.

OK..I'm hitting "publish" now...here we go!