knitting librarian

This post is kind of silly, since I have been blogging for about 2 1/2 years, but here’s my blog! I’ve added an avatar which is new (to the blog) but has been a part of my Yahoo! Messenger for a while now.

I can’t seem to register with SLL2.0 because of a server error. Have any of the rest of my SLL2.0 buddies had luck with this? I think it might be because the summer is over and that’s when it was originally scheduled for registration.

Helene Blower’s Seven and 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners:

• Habit 1: Begin with the end in mind


• Habit 2: Accept responsibility for your own learning


• Habit 3: View problems as challenges


• Habit 4: Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner


• Habit 5: Create your own learning toolbox


• Habit 6: Use technology to your advantage


• Habit 7: Teach/mentor others


• Habit 7 ½: Play

Being responsible for my own learning probably comes easiest to me—I suspect this is true for many of my school librarian colleagues. Because we work in isolation, it’s easy to get lost in the faculty professional development shuffle. Our district tries hard to provide development activities for all employees. Because there are so many of us and we have such diverse needs, my professional learning opportunities are limited to what’s offered to others. Frequently, I attend trainings on how to use applications that I don’t have access to (such as SASI, our student management system). Last year we had a training on reading in the content areas—much to the chagrin of some of my co-workers who attended the same training in three different locations. To learn the things I need to know to do my job effectively, I must be responsible. I’m a member of several listservs, attend trainings provided by my state organization, and someday I hope to be permitted to attend our state school librarian’s conference—our district limits the number of people in a department who are permitted to attend any one conference. I won’t permit these types of limitations from helping me to engage professionally, so I seek other avenues of learning. SLL2.0 is a perfect ProD activity for me because I’m able to do it on my own time and to learn as much as I choose. I’ll be glad to share my learning with colleagues when we have the opportunity.

The most difficult of these habits for me is viewing problems as challenges and learning opportunities. Particularly if challenges are technology-related, it is easy to become frustrated. As we continue through the 23 things, there will be more that I will have to do at home and less I can work on during my time at school. I know that some 2.0 tools like YouTube are blocked by our district’s filter. (Ironically, students can still stream video on sites like NFL.com because that’s not the site’s lone purpose.) I understand that some people in my building have been given access to override the filter and I hope I’m able to secure a username and password to do the same.

I love that Habit 7.5 is Play: each day when I pick up my son from daycare/preschool, I ask him what he did. His answer never varies, “Just play all the time.” My aunt was the education coordinator for the Head Start side of this agency. They use the Creative Curriculum. I complained to her (not that I thought that AJ wasn’t learning, but that he didn’t think he was learning anything) and she reassured me that it was important for him to think that he is playing and that learning isn’t necessarily work. So, everyday when I ask him what he did at school, I’m glad to hear his “played all the time” response, even though John and I habitually mouth the answer to one another as he’s saying it. Play is important—and he is learning!

When I read about School Library Learning 2.0 on LM_NET at the start of the school year, I was excited to delve a little deeper into the Web2.0 world. I’m already a blogger, although not a very habitual one. I use several 2.0 tools already, but I’m sure that I’m not using them to their fullest potential. I want to use them more effectively.

I believe that lifelong learning is a skill that everyone needs to be successful. I hope to instill that value in both my children and my students. I’m pleased to have found a group of like-minded individuals through the power of the Internet. We’ll be working through the 23 Things as a group and be able to support and help each other through the challenges we might face.

When I shared my professional goal with my principal, he was pleased and excited. I’ll paste that goal here so others can see what my plan is:

I will learn about Web 2.0 tools that are part of the power of the Internet. The California School Library Association has created an online tutorial called School Library Learning 2.0 which I will complete to expand my current knowledge. By nature, the Internet is now a social link. I will work with JaKay, a librarian from Albany, OR, as we go through the SLL2.0 tutorial and will discuss what we are learning and how we can use the tools with our students. I will be able to share my knowledge with students and faculty to assist them in using tools like blogs, Flickr , RSS, tagging, wikis, online productivity tools like Google Notebook, and online sources of multimedia (podcasts, YouTube, TeacherTube, eBooks.) I will blog about what I’m learning and can share those posts with you to demonstrate my knowledge and growth.
I will also be reading Teri Lesesne’s Naked Reading: What Tweens Need to Become Life-long Readers and reflecting on how I can apply her thoughts on creating readers to our students. JaKay will be reading this book with me and we will discuss it through email and/or comments on each other’s blogs. I will document that on my blog and share my plans with the administration and the Literacy Committee.

I just learned from a Snopes update that something i always believed to be true (you should only put your hand over your heart when saying the Pledge of Allegiance, not during the playing of the national anthem) is false. According to
US CODE: Title 36,301. National anthem “During a rendition of the national anthem— (1) when the flag is displayed—

SLJ chats with Diane Penrod about Using Blogs to Enhance Literacy – 10/9/2007 2:15:00 PM - School Library Journal

“Blogs are a “killer app.” I compare blogs to email. It’s a revolutionary breakthrough in communicating with others. It’s also a fundamental genre for Web 2.0 environments like those you mention. If you can blog, you can move to these other genres.”

Diane Penrod’s book sounds like something we need for our professional collection. I tried to get my teachers on-board with blogging two years ago, but there just didn’t seem to be time. Largely, the students writing product was mediocre. There wasn’t any pre-writing or editing happening and it shows.

I still think there’s value there, but I’m trying to figure out the best way to position myself and encourage students to use the tool. I would love for them to use my Read Write Think Repeat blog to share about the books they’re reading. Maybe I can start to offer C-Notes (school reward system) to students who want to share about the books they’re reading. I think I could justify it under Community as it builds a culture of readers and encourages discussion and shared experiences. Something to think about more.

[Added October 30] I was in the computer lab today with a colleague doing an information literacy assessment with her students. She was telling me she wanted to get her kids blogging about books. She doesn’t like my current book blog title. I told her we’ll change it. I’m thinking though instead of one of us choosing the title, we need to get student suggestions and let them vote on a title. Easy to do! I’m excited to have someone who wants to try this with me again!