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Posted 5 May 2020

Final Reflection

To close out this semester in LSSL 5391, Digital Technology for the School Librarian, I browsed through many different webapps. I fell in love with Book Creator instantly! So, here is my animated final reflection on this course!

Posted 2 May 2020

Universal Design for Learning

Universal Design of Learning (UDL) is a teaching framework designed around how the brain works. The goal is to minimize barriers and maximize learning for all of the individual ways students learn. The brain has 3 different networks: Recognition (the “what”), Skills and Strategies (the “how”), and Caring/Prioritizing (the “why”). Teaching requires goals, methods, materials, and assessments. To most effectively maximize learning and minimize barriers, educators should use the UDL Principles:

Representation by using
- Multiple forms of media
- Varied support
- Visual graphics/animation
- Background knowledge
- Supported vocabulary
Action & Expression by providing
- Many options for expressing prior knowledge
- Models, feedback, support
Engagement by providing
- Choices tailored to individual interests
- Safe environment for making mistakes

As always, the most difficult and critical part is self reflection and evaluation. When looking at my own effectiveness within the UDL Principles, I am asking myself these three questions:

Which am I already using?

When I was in the classroom, I was a music teacher. So, I believe my strength was engagement. We were constantly creating music, making individual and group choices, and had a safe environment to make mistakes. However, now that I’m a librarian, I feel like I’m most successfully demonstrating representation. I work hard to provide multiple forms of media, many different visual aids to guide students, and offer varied support to all of the different students I see in the library.

Which could I add right now?

I do use a lot of engagement with my book club, but I usually take a step back from this when classes are in the library. With some extra pre-planning on my part, I could do a better job at providing more individual engagement to everyone in the library.

What looks great, but I need help implementing?

Since teachers usually have their own lesson plan and objectives when they come to the library, I tend to leave much of the action and expression up to the classroom teacher. I offer tools, models, and support to the teachers, but I don’t often interject if they're not using those with their own students. Now that I have grown in my leadership and collaborative role with teachers this year, I think teachers will be more open to allowing/helping me to provide this directly to our students.

To read more about UDL, visit: http://udlguidelines.cast.org/

Posted 18 April 2020

Podcasts

While it seems like everyone else I know reads books and listens to news (via the radio, podcasts, or videos), I typically listen to audiobooks and read opinion or news articles! So, It was good for me to step outside of my comfort zone and create a podcast. I looked into a few different formats: Soundcloud, Audioboom, Podbean, and Anchor.

SOUNDCLOUD

I found Soundcloud to be a little confusing for trying to do a podcast. I wasn't able to figure it out instinctively, so I tried to search a how-to video page on it and their picture demonstration does not look like mine. This leads me to believe that I may have to pay to upgrade to the Pro version in order to create podcasts here.

AUDIOBOOM

Well, at least this one was 100% clear that I'd have to pay! As soon as I attempted to create a profile, it directed me to pay $9.99/month or $99/year. Thanks, but no thanks.

PODBEAN

First word - FREE! Although I appreciate that there's a least a free version to use, I don't like how I would have to upload a recording file onto the site. I would like the option of being able to record directly within the podcasting site.

ANCHOR

Since I couldn't access or didn't love the above formats, I tried another cite called Anchor. The website is titled "Anchor - The easiest way to a make a podcast" and, from my experience, it was! I was able to easily set up a channel, record within the website (or upload a recording if I wanted to), and add music. They provide many different sound effects to choose from and I was easily able to add a link to the transcript for someone to read instead of/in addition to listening. I also liked how easy it was to link to my Twitter page or other social media sites.

Less is More - The Importance of Weeding by Roeper’s Ramblings • A podcast on AnchorHere is a transcript of this podcast: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zbBRZxxbHLSRyKuvyAnahGzyrcujyFhhYZgR7FJnomE/edit?usp=sharing

Now that I've finally created a podcast, I think podcasts would be a fun way to share what's going on in the library (either in lieu of or in addition to creating a Newsletter/report). I also think that students would enjoy creating podcasts for school projects. This is even something I could promote now, during quarantine, for students or teachers to use!

Here are some links to worthwhile educational podcasts that are perfect for the ages I work with - Tweens/Teens:

Tumble - Science Podcast for Kids (in English and Spanish)
Book Club for Kids - Upper Elementary/Middle School book talks
Flyest Fables - Episodes about a bullied boy and a magical book that transports him into another world
The Allusionist - Podcast about language - root words, phrases, and weirdness
Stuff You Missed in History Class - People and events not always covered in history class
More of Less: Behind the Stats - Making sense of statistics all around us
StarTalk Radio - Because, hello, Neil deGrasse Tyson is out of this world. ;)

Posted 14 April 2020

Cartoons & Comics

This week I used three different comic/cartoon making websites (the free versions) to make some library-themed comics. Each of them had their pros and cons, as I'll explain below:

I created the above comic using FotoJet. What I liked most about FotoJet is that the layouts are the same as comic book or graphic novel pages. If I was wanting to create a multi-page comic or a story, this would be the format I would prefer. However, it was extremely limited in layout options, pictures (unless you uploaded your own, as I did) and speech bubble sizes.

I created the above cartoon using Pixton. This was, by far, the most enjoyable site to play around with. I was able to customize the scenes and the characters' facial expressions, body language, and clothing. However, I would have to pay to have a much broader array of options. This would be the website I would most likely recommend to teachers because you can set up a "classroom" for students to create and submit comics to you!

I created the above comic using Make Beliefs Comix. This website is probably the easiest for younger students to play around with. There are set graphics with four different poses to choose from and you can add up to 16 squares. You can choose different size speech bubbles, but I could not find a way to change the font size. I also didn't see a way to change the background, which would have made it far more visually appealing. Although you don't have to create an account to play around with this site, you do have to create one if you want to save/download your work.

Posted 10 April 2020

Videos & QR Codes in the Library

Videos:

After exploring several school library YouTube channels:

I narrowed down my top picks for the ones that would be the most helpful and most liked by students.

MOST HELPFUL:

How to Use EBSCOHost because the screencasting and explanation is easy to understand and follow along. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BezObVKkqOo&t=52s
Tillery: Senior Project Commitment Statement Slide Design Basics because the librarian walks students through the basic options available to them when creating their their own similar projects. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=977Gch8aQPY&t=86s
AP Course Intros. Many different teachers did brief video introductions to their AP Courses. This would be extremely helpful for all students who need to decide which electives they should register for. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2oJ9_c4ZXg&t=9s
NHD Annotation Writing because the creator clearly goes through all of the in and outs of the expectations of annotation writing for National History Day projects. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OOFsGvc-gM

MOST LIKED:

Norman Public Schools Celebrates Your Freedom to Read because it's a fun and engaging experience to see so many different teachers reading short clips from a wide range of books. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4keTSTLklU
The Importance of Choice for Igniting Student Passion and Learning Through Research Projects because the student that is interviewed offers a powerful testimony to the importance of choice and expression as she discusses the photographs she took and the project she chose to do on PTSD. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZUTsyfY8m4
AVID Pimp My Binder 2012 because it's a hilarious spin on the TV show Pimp My Ride. It's a creative way for students to do a project together and think about how they could create something similar with a current kit TV show theme. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg_MQe5zGn4
Overdue Book Parodies! There are SO MANY amazing and funny parodies to popular songs on the BBMS Media page! It's hard to pick just one that I think students would like the best, but here's one example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMMgJOETdDc

QR Codes

Although it's more practical to attach a link or embed a video onto a website, that doesn't work well inside a physical library. Instead of having students type and search for a website, you can save a lot of time and skip past mistakes by created a QR Code instead! Students can quickly scan the QR Code with their phones and be taken directly to the site you want them to view. This would be a great way to share book trailers in the Fiction section and other recommended resources throughout the Nonfiction Section. The QR Code to the left takes you directly to a book trailer I created for the Texas Bluebonnet List book titled The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl.

Publisher's Synopsis:

"A lightning strike gave her a super power...but even a super genius can't solve the problem of middle school. This smart and funny novel is perfect for fans of The Fourteenth Goldfish, Rain Reign, and Counting by Sevens.

Lucy Callahan's life was changed forever when she was struck by lightning. She doesn't remember it, but the zap gave her genius-level math skills, and she's been homeschooled ever since. Now, at 12 years old, she's technically ready for college. She just has to pass 1 more test--middle school!

Lucy's grandma insists: Go to middle school for 1 year. Make 1 friend. Join 1 activity. And read 1 book (that's not a math textbook!). Lucy's not sure what a girl who does calculus homework for fun can possibly learn in 7th grade. She has everything she needs at home, where nobody can make fun of her rigid routines or her superpowered brain. The equation of Lucy's life has already been solved. Unless there's been a miscalculation?

A celebration of friendship, Stacy McAnulty's smart and thoughtful middle-grade debut reminds us all to get out of our comfort zones and embrace what makes us different."

Posted 28 March 2020

DESTINY SEARCH DEMO using

Screencast-o-Matic on Chromebook

DESTINY SEARCH DEMO using

Record It on Chromebook

Screen-casting

With the use of Promethean boards in our classrooms, there hasn't been a huge need for screen-casting before now. Students could easily follow along on the large monitor during in-class instruction. However, with the sudden worldwide at-home instruction teachers are now navigating, screen-casting has become a necessity for instruction! Students often don't have access to participate in live-chats from home or have the ability to ask their teachers to repeat something they missed. Screen-casting allows teachers to record their lessons and walk through each step for students to follow. Students can pause or replay the video as many times as they need to make sure they understand. Some schools are utilizing screen-casting and recording options through video chat programs such as Zoom and Google Meet. This, however, can be frustrating for viewers to watch (who could not participate live) as they have to sit through periods of "waiting for others to join" or conversations they are not able to participate in if they are watching the recorded session later. This is why I prefer to use non-live video options for instruction. Here are a few that I suggest:

Screencast-o-Matic This is an application that can be used on computers, tablets, or phones. It is free (if you stay under 15 minutes) and I find it very user-friendly. It records the video screen and audio at the same time. When you are finished, there are several save and share options.
Record it! This is another application that you can used on computers, tablets, or phones. The main difference between this one and Screencast-o-Matic is that it records the video screen only and then you can add audio later. The nice this about this is that you can re-record the audio without having to start over with the demonstration/video. The bad thing, for me, is that I tend to click through things faster if I'm not recording my voice at the same time; this can lead to me rushing through the audio later to try to keep up with my video.

Below are two examples I created. The first one is a Screencast-o-Matic video on my Chromebook walking students/teachers through using Destiny Follett for research. This week the choir is doing a research project, so I used that as my example topic. I then created a much shorter example on Record It! with my cell phone to show the format differences (since I know more of my students will have access to phones than chromebooks/computers right now). I hope this helps!

Destiny Research - Screencast.webm

Destiny search on cellphone.mp4

Posted 19 March 2020

What's an Infographic?

If I ever wanted to do a summary of graphic novel, in a graphic novel format, it would essentially be an inforgraphic! Infographics are visual representations of the information you want to share (as apposed to an article or essay). By adding graphics, color, and making the information as concise as possible, you are more likely to catch (and hold) the attention of your targeted reader. If you've never made one before, it can seem daunting and time consuming. Fortunately, there are several website available that have formats and graphics available in one location for you to use to create your perfect infographic:

http://piktochart.com/

https://www.easel.ly/

http://infogr.am

All 3 of these sites allow you to create infographics from either a blank canvas or use a publicly available format. All of them are very user-friendly, however I prefer PIKTOCHART over the other two. EASELLY's imaged appeared blurry to me when selecting a format. There were also only a small handful of formats that were available for free. I would have to pay for an upgrade to use the format I would have preferred from this site. INFOGRAM has lots of other options (reports, slides, etc), but only has 8 free infogram formats to choose from. This site reminds me more of Google Docs templates than anything else. PIKTOCHART also would prefer you pay for an upgrade, but I feel like it has more free options than the other two, larger and clearer images, and better graphics for the infographic I wanted to use.

I know there is a lot of concern, stress, and information overload about COVID-19 right now, so wanted to share information about another important thing currently taking place in our country - The 2020 Census. There are a lot of rumors and misconceptions about what kind of questions are asked and what the purpose of the U.S. Census is. I'm hoping this infographic will be a quick and easy reference for everyone to use and understand. We have enough to worry about right now without adding rumors and fears about whether you'll be asked questions about your citizenship or religion. The government works for YOU, so make sure they know you exist!

Posted 25 January 2020

School Libraries on Social Media

Roeper's Ramblings on Social Sites

Twitter seems to be the social media of choice for most school librarians. My school district, Aldine ISD, has a very strong Twitter presence and teachers are encourages to use this social media above all others. I have found far more activity, followers, etc. on the Twitter pages of school libraries, authors, and publishers than I've found on Instagram, Facebook, and Tumblr COMBINED. After combing over many pages on all of the social media sites, I have come to the following conclusion:

Facebook is ideal of groups. So, if you'd like to have a group with some privacy for book clubs, parents, etc., creating a Facebook group is ideal. I know that most of my friends and colleagues are regular Facebook users, so Facebook pages would likely come across our New Feeds. However, most of my friends and colleagues are in their 30s - 50s. If younger generations aren't on Facebook as much, then our pages will reach fewer and fewer as the gap widens between my generation and the generation of my students and their parents.
Instagram is ideal if you would like to post pictures or videos with many editing options and/or want to be able to explain what's going on without being restricted to 150 characters. Although I don't use Instagram as much in my personal life, I know that most of my friends and colleagues in their 20s-30s do. Users seem to have a balanced mix of following people they know in real life and celebrities or businesses they like. This leads me to believe that Instagram may be checked for leisure more often than other social medias. I assumed I was going to find more authors than anything, but was surprised by just how many professional libraries and library organizations have a strong Instagram presence. I am now following over 100 library pages and will continue to add more! I suspect I will be using Instagram far more as a professional than I did in my personal life!
Twitter is idea for short posts with the option to tag other Twitter users, reach a wider audience with hashtags, and easily include links. The sheer number of people using Twitter makes it easier to reach the most amount of people. It is unlikely I'm going to get many followers on Facebook or Instagram without promoting them on my personal page and school website. However, I have had many unknown people who follow someone I tagged decide to follow my page now too.
Tumblr is a social media platform I have been unfamiliar with until this week. I have stumbled across far more memes than useful content - not that memes aren't useful ;) - so I'm having a hard time being sold on this platform. It does have a "Twitter feel" with the option of more than 4 photos at a time and no character limit. However, there were so few professional pages that I found that I do not see an advantage for my own personal use/growth. Thankfully, Instagram and Tumblr accounts can be synced to cross-post. So, anything I post on my Instagram account can be instantly added to my Tumblr page without any extra work. Otherwise, I would only use Tumblr if I discover that I have more students that would see my posts here than the other social media pages.

In all honestly, I saw very few differences in WHAT was posted by actual librarians on each of the social media sites. Many librarians are cross-posting the same thing from one to the other in an effort to increase the chances of their parents, students, or target audience to see their post.

Ed Tech Leaders on Twitter

As stated above, Twitter seems to be the ideal platform to not only reach the highest number of viewers, but also to follow the most active professional users. What I find the most useful is that you don't have to read through a long and/or click-bait headlines to decided whether a resource may be of real interest to you. You can also click on the tagged Twitter handles or hashtags to explore so many other options on the topic as well. Most Ed Tech users include links to their personal pages or blogs. Here are a few examples:

@kathyschrock individual tweets have very few likes or retweets. However, she has nearly 62,000 followers! What that tells me is that, although maybe not a "celebrity," she is very well respected in the ed tech community and her sites/blogs are worth looking into. I was not wrong or disappointed!!! Her twitter page links to four separate websites, but all of her pages can be access from https://www.kathyschrock.net/
Ok, so @GwenthJones is EVERYWHERE! I don't know how she manages to have time to manage a million (possibly *slight* exaggeration) along with working in a school library! She may be my new idol! I love her blog and all of her posts. It is also refreshing to see how many of her tweets are her own instead of retweets. She shares many pictures and videos that happen in her own library and well as shares thoughts and articles. Ironically, with her own insanely actively presence on social media and her very bubbly persona, one of her tweets included a potentially negative aspect:

Unfortunately, despite the research against it, it's not going away anytime soon. I hear students talking about it nonstop - lately I keep hearing about TikTok. Thankfully, Gwyneth Jones' blog has a post about that for me to explore and understand: https://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/2019/08/whats-up-with-tiktok.html

@jimlerman has a link to his site as well. However, instead of a company or personal website, it's a scoop.it site. The scoop.it site is maybe a little too visually stimulating for me ... however, it does kind of resemble a graphic novel! While I still prefer to look at mostly text that is broken up with some pictures, clearly that is NOT the preference of our younger viewers/readers! So, I actually think I may explore this for student-created sites (I currently use Google Sites with my students).

Posted 18 January 2020

Blog Readers

After reading about the best RSS Reader Apps available on https://zapier.com/blog/best-rss-feed-reader-apps/#flowreader, I was positive that I would like FlowReader the best! I can't stand having to hop around from Schoology, Google Drive groups, Yahoo groups, multiple email addresses, social media accounts, etc. I feel like I'm always in danger of forgetting an important deadline or forgetting where I saw/saved something I wanted to refer back to later. So, I was totally "sold" on the fact that FlowReader allows you to sync other accounts (such as my Twitter and Pinterest accounts) to one site! Great idea - poor execution. I spent hours trying to get Pinterest to sync and it wouldn't work. The twitter feed on the right did upload, but failed to update. The category options available were limited and half of them didn't even load once added. It was probably the least user-friendly thing I've seen in a long time. So, it was back to the drawing board. After exploring a few more options, I have decided that I like Inoreader quite a bit. While I spent hours fighting with FlowReader, it took all of 5 minutes to get Inoreader up and running. The tabs on the left work very much like an email account that has been set up with filters and are nicely organized. The dashboard in the center updates much like Facebook's newsfeed. The right side has recommended sources and inactive feeds you can choose to delete. Comparing it to other RSS Readers I checked out, I think my favorite feature is that the free version allows you to follow an unlimited number of feeds and everything is stored permanently. Hopefully I will continue to like it as I spend more time exploring!

5 Blogs worth following!

1. Sons of Technology - http://sonsoftechnology.com/

also follow on Twitter @JoeMarquez70 and @SonsOfTechEDU

I saw him present at TCCA last year and he had so many helpful tips for using technology with students! The site has podcasts,

2. Technology Curriculum Conference of Aldine (TCCA) - https://www.tccaconference.com/

also follow on Twitter @TCCAConf

This is one of the largest free educational technology conferences in the country! It is hosted by Aldine ISD in Houston, TX.

3. Teen Librarian Toolbox - http://www.teenlibrariantoolbox.com/

also follow on tumblr and Twitter @TLT16

I haven't had much success on tumblr sites thus far, but this is one I actually liked! Although most of the posts are reposts, this has actually helped find other sites I'd like to follow.

4. No Shelf Required - http://www.noshelfrequired.com/

also follow on Twitter @noshelfrequired

I have enjoyed reading through "This Week in Literature" posts and audiobook reviews (as I'm an avid audiobook listener. I am hoping they will update this section soon, since the last audiobook post was in August 2019.

5. Tech Soup for Libraries - https://www.techsoupforlibraries.org/blog

also follow on Twitter @TechSoup4Libs

Possibly the most useful of the 5! Here you can read about other libraries, training resources, newsletters, and participate in webinars.

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