Con-tech-ted

ontheshelf4kids is con-tech-ted in many different ways.

Image courtesy of www.flickr.com/photos/qthomasbower 

Twitter
Through twitter, a professional learning network has been established.  Furthermore, parents can follow ontheshelf4kids on twitter as we tweet about our daily do-ings in the library.

del.icio.us
Delicious is a bookmarking site where we have begun to collect a variety of websites sorted by tags for use in the library, by teachers, students, and parents as well.

diigo
Diigo serves essentially the same function as Delicious but has further capabilities such as adding highlighted areas to text on webpages, sticky notes to annotate, and more - both Delicious and Diigo have the function of creating groups as well which will serve well for connecting our library to other libraries which might benefit from sharing in our list of links to resources.

flickr
Flickr is a site to collect photos.  I became inspired when searching for creative commons licensed photos using a search for library.  I came across a colleagues' collection of photos of school library displays and decided I would like to share display ideas as well.  I have to check into sharing photos including students as to our photo release form, or I can edit the photos so that students are not discernible in the photos.  But I can definitely see the applications for using flickr and also for teaching students about using creative commons licensed images through this site.

Facebook
ontheshelf4kids also has a facebook presence.  I plan to utilize this as one more tool to reach out to families, students, teachers, and others to publicize the great happenings in our school library.

Library Thing 
Library Thing is a site to showcase the books in your library.  Using this site we can create widgets to create flash files of book covers for the side bar of the blog.  You can also write reviews and interact with the collection in other ways.  I'm still thinking about how to best use this tool and decide if Follett Destiny might have some of the same features.

Blogger
Clearly, we are here on blogger.  I haven't even conceptualized the entire scope of this blog just yet.  I plan to use my school website blog as well and may reserve this blog for professional sharing.  It may also be a jumping off point for student project blogs that may appear separate from this title.  I plan to use our school website blog to share about specific happenings with classes and offer students the opportunity to blog about their experiences during library lessons.  I'd like for this blog to have a specific format, but don't want to limit myself to just sharing book reviews, or technology integration ideas.  I want this blog to be VERY open ended, but I'd like it to be organized and reliable as well.  Any feedback is welcome.  I was thinking there may be a rhyme and reason to daily posts, like Tech Tuesdays, or Fiction Fridays.  This is still a brainstorm in its infancy, but hopefully it will flesh out quite nicely.

Time Ticks On
July is almost done and August will be here much too quickly.  Summer reading is in full swing here (a post I plan to share shortly).  I am attending many professional learning opportunities in August and plan to post more about each as well as the preparations that will be happening in our library.  The first day of school will be here before you know it!

Image courtesy of www.flickr.com/brenda-starr

Big Plans

Our school is undergoing a major construction project and I've been fortunate to witness the progress on my visits into our school's library.  Fortunately the library is still air conditioned!  I've been in the process of organizing and moving in my (considerable) stuff.  Hopefully I've got the "right stuff" for the job.  I've also been busy going through back issues of "School Library Journal" and "Library Sparks" to spark my imagination in planning for some fabulous lessons to engage students and keep the enthusiasm strong as we enter a new school year.  I'm excited to welcome 4th and 5th graders into our school for the first time in my career at Pine Road, though I've taught this group way back when they were in 1st grade.  I'm looking forward to my new position as a specials or "encore" teacher and the opportunity to see all the students in the school and see them grow and change throughout their six years of elementary school.  Hopefully I can help to support their growth in reading and technology as well as actively integrating all the curricular areas.  Like the title of this post indicates, I have big plans.  I've been over to HV's public library to meet with the new interim children's librarian to work on setting up a back to school read aloud.  Since I just can't wait for the first day, this will give me an opportunity to start a little early.  This also opens the door for communication and collaboration between the school and public library.  I've been up to visit an independent book store to possibly supplement our book fairs at school through Scholastic and I've begun to brainstorm effective ways to reach out to collaborate with teachers and encourage their input for selection of new materials for the LMC.  I have ideas for classroom management in the LMC and strategies to keep things running smoothly.  I have plans to incorporate more storytelling features, i.e. felt board, magnet stories, puppets, and more.  Using Library Sparks' Guide to the Twitterverse, I quickly populated my twitter feeds to follow many authors and other applicable tweets.  Similarly, I've utilized their webliographies to investigate suggested sites to populate my del.icio.us account.  I've signed up for several of the IU and SD's workshops subsidized by a grant to learn more about technology tools that I'm not as familiar with: Moodle, Safari Montage, and others.  And, as is always the case with technology, the more things change...the more they change, so I went to a workshop on a topic I thought I was fairly well versed in and learned a ton!  Being out on maternity leave for one year can really leave you in the dust!  More on Smart Notebook 10 to come in a future post.  For each of these workshops and topics, I'll post a lil' something.  Looking forward to jumping in feet first to the school library blogosphere.  I'm here to make a splash!