Final Thoughts

Well, I am going to finish with only hours to spare! Thank you for allowing us the extra days to finish. The new school year has been filled with many surprises as usual, and never enough extra time on the weekends.

I have learned a number of new things, but more importantly, what I don’t know! I don’t mean that in a negative way at all—more importantly, I see it as enlightenment! I’m not sure if I would have liked to do Thing 21 earlier in the weeks, but it really got me thinking. Would I have looked at the other Things differently if I had done that as Thing #1? I began this program for professional development and it did that and more. It gave me a list of new ideas to use in my classroom and a number of new ideas to broaden my career opportunities. The first thing I am going to work on is to find a place to volunteer where I can increase my technology skills and confidence.

Thanks to all who participated, as I learned a great deal from all of you!

Week 16: Thing 21 & 22

Thing 21

I spent a good deal of time last year updating my resume after I had finished my first two years as a school librarian. I first thought I would only need to make a few additions since it was not that old, but after reading it carefully, I felt like it didn’t truly reflect my strengths and new skills. When I pulled it out again for this assignment, I looked at it with a different perspective. I learned how to use a number of new tech tools over these past weeks, but know that I need to increase my tech skills if I am going to go in the direction that I would like to be in the next couple of years. I came to this career later in life compared to many, and still have so much to learn. As I made my list of activities and interests I feel I have sharpened my skills in a number of areas, but see that technology is the area that could be holding me back.

                                                           

Thing 22

Volunteering for professional growth is not something I had really thought about until reading Jo’s post. I volunteer a large amount of hours a month for a number of organizations, but had never thought about it for my career! She talks about increasing your confidence and expanding your network…..just what I need to expand my tech knowledge. Now I just have to find the right place to volunteer where I can hone some new skills!

CPD23: Week 15 - Careers

As a small kid growing up I loved going to the South Omaha Library…..some of you may remember it fondly like I do. I loved it that my mom who was so busy raising 7 kids took the time to take us to the library. My love for books goes back to this time and I remember being envious of my Aunt Pearl who worked in the downtown library until retirement.

My life took a different turn though from college and I ended up in sales for about 20 years, then I decided I wanted to go back to school so I could become a teacher. As I was taking classes I crossed paths with an enthusiastic teacher at UNO who got me thinking about getting a Media Specialist endorsement. Just like Denise who posted on her blog that she has been questioned about needing a degree to be a librarian, I see shocked expressions from those I meet to find out you also need a degree to be a school librarian…..you know all we do is check out books! Well, it was a great decision even though I am a late bloomer for this career! I am teaching at my first school and in my 3^rd year as the Media Specialist. Not sure where this career path will go, but I love what I do and I know that I make a difference here at my school.

Not long ago I was at a library conference and was seated at a table full of strangers. As an ice breaker, we were told to discuss with our neighbor our first experience with a library and to my shock we both shared our fond memories of the same one......the South Omaha Library! Oh, what a small world!

Week 14: Thing 17- Prezi & Slideshare

I will start with Slideshare as that is the one I am most familiar with. I actually use Slideshare often when I am looking for a particular PowerPoint to follow up a lesson.  There are many good PowerPoint presentations out on Slideshare that I can use instead of starting from scratch. I can plan additional hands-on activities and make better use of my time if I am looking for a short PP to enhance a lesson. I would highly recommend using Slideshare to increase your options for presentations.

When I first looked at the demo of Prezi I thought it would be too hard to use, but in fact it is pretty easy and very cool! It does make a PowerPoint look pretty boring no matter how you spruce it up! I don’t have to make many presentations, but after signing up and playing around with Prezi, I would definitely use it in the future and would recommend it to friends and students wanting something with more zing! I did try and put one of my own PowerPoints into Prezi and I found it somewhat confusing so I will have to give that another try.

Week 13: Catch Up Week & Reflection

When I look over the long list of “Things” I have tried or put into practice, these are the ones that have been the most helpful:

Thing # 4- I had used RSS feeds in the past, but I am depending on them more now to manage the amount of information that I need to keep up-to-date on.   

Thing #8- Google Calendar was also something I had used for a few projects, but now I am trying to use it be more organized not only at school, but also several charity organizations I am involved in.

Thing #9-Evernote was a “thing” I had already been using and I still love it. It is something that I love to share with friends if they have not given it a try!

The last “thing” is about advocacy which was #16. It is something that we all do every day when we talk about our libraries, but not something that was organized and professional.  A week after I had completed “thing” 16 my principal asked if I would like to talk to our school board and I jumped at the chance. I am not sure I would have been as excited or prepared prior to this time, but I am happy to say it went very well and I was excited about it! I had a planned presentation with statistics that then created some good discussions by our board. To my delight, the next day my principal told me they wanted to give me some extra money to do some upgrades!!

CPD23 Week 12 : Thing 18

Screencasts- I found Jing to have many cool features and can think of projects that I have done in the past where it would have been nice to have it available. At the moment I don't have a need for it, but feel it would be great when we present new programs to the staff in the future. As for basic screen capturing, I have found the screen capture key to be sufficient for small tasks.


Podcasts- I have made a few short ones for book talks, but that has been the extent of my creating experience. As a dedicated user of podcasts, I love them! I use them for a variety of things......learning a new technique for knitting or quilting, cooking ideas, book talks and one of my favorites...Pray-as-you-go podcast. I download two of my favorite weekly podcasts to my MP3 player and then listen to them on my long commute to work! What a great way to start my day!

CPD 23: Week 11 - Putting Yourself Out There

Thing #15
Attend: I have only attended a handful of conferences and workshops so far in my short career. I have to admit that the cost is what holds me back the most. My school came close to closing last year because of our financial situation, so I don’t feel right asking for too much assistance to attend conferences. For those on the fence about attending—all I can say is GO! I can’t imagine someone going and not taking home new ideas. I leave with excitement, renewed energy for my job and determination to try new lessons! It is a shot of energy we all need to get our creative juices flowing.

Speaking: Being a new teacher librarian I do not feel I have enough experience to speak at a conference. Maybe after attending more events I will feel I have something to share.

Organize- Since I don’t feel too confident in my experience for speaking at events, this is an area I feel I can step forward and contribute. I know if I step out of my comfort zone and offer to help with some of the workshops and conferences I will meet new people and feel a stronger connection to our state organizations.


Thing #16 : Advocacy
This is something that is so important at my school and school library. Since the school has faced a number of financial hardships over the last years, it is imperative that we spread the word to school members, alumni and the local community about what we are doing. I have to say that we have a few staff members who excel at this, so I have had some good role models to follow. They are always thinking about advocacy so it helps to have strength in numbers! For those who work at a school I would strongly advise keeping in contact with alumni....there are many who feel a strong bond to the library so don't leave them out of the loop as they can help you build a strong following.

CPD 23 :Week 10 - Zotero/Mendeley/CiteULike

I picked Mendeley as my choice to try out. I love this idea! I would agree with Sherm Sez when he stated how easy it is to install and use. I also like his idea to download the PDF manuals for devices we have at school…so much easier to organize and find instead of digging through my file cabinets. I have a several friends who are working on their masters and I will be sending Mendeley’s link for them to try out.

As for teaching it to my students....I think it is too advanced for my students, but I will be using it personally. I especially like the “papers” tab and the number of readers who have added it to the specific topics. I also like the “trending” feature—good source for topics or additional ideas.

CPD23: Week 9 - Google Docs, Wikis and Dropbox

I have been using Google Docs and Wikis for several years and I think they are great tools. A good example of using a Wiki successfully is when I attended a workshop and the presenters gave each participant a business card with the Wiki site printed on it for future use. I have gone back to that particular Wiki several times for ideas on implementing their topic into my lessons and reading the feedback/ideas from other participants.

Dropbox was new to me and I already love it. I have been using Evernote for ideas, photos, lists…just your general things I don’t want to have all over my desk. I often take a picture of something I don’t want to forget and email it to Evernote. I like the idea of Dropbox and the folders-subfolders. I only have the free version so far, will have to wait and see if I want to pay for more storage. Since I have had a number of computer problems lately, the idea of having all my files on any computer sounds much easier than what I have been doing lately to ensure the loss of files. This is also a good idea for students who constantly misplace their flashdrives, so this will be a great tool to present to our students.

CPD23: Week 8 - Reflections

When I first starting hearing the phrase “social media” I really only looked at it as a source for my teenagers to keep in contact with their friends. Little did I know of how the many forms of social media would expand and actually be put to good use. At the school where I teach, we use Facebook to connect to the many alumni who feel a strong bond to our school, which dates to opening around 80 years ago. This on-line community is made up of alumni from the 1950’s to more recent alumni with a common goal of keeping our school strong and vital. I am sure this could not have been accomplished without using social media as a way to link this group of people who otherwise would not have met!

CPD 23: Week 7 - Librarianship Training Options

After 18 years in the cooperate world I was a bit burned out from the heavy travel and decided that I would do some part-time projects for my employer. I loved the company I worked for, but I really wanted to be able to spend more time with my family instead of my co-workers! During that time I made the decision to return to school and crossed paths with Dr. Pasco from UNO. Little did I know at that time, my career choice was about to change and I am now starting my third year as a part-time Teacher Librarian in an Omaha school. I love my new career and feel very privileged to work with such a dedicated group of teachers at my school. I am the only staff in our library, so that does present some challenges of doing daily classroom lessons and managing all the details of the library on a part-time basis. I still feel like a “newbie” as there is always so much more to learn!

As for mentoring, I feel like my first mentor was Dr. Pasco who has such enthusiasm for librarianship that I once heard an English major student say he was thinking of changing his major after just one class with her! My other mentors have been my student teacher advisor, Dr. Hazelwood and my wonderful cooperating library teachers. My principal is a wonderful mentor with many years of experience and I value all that I can learn from her. Even though my roll as a mentor as been to another new teacher and not in librarianship, I feel we should all mentor to give back for what we have learned—in the mentor/mentee role….we all grow!

CPD 23: Week 6 - Organizing Yourself

Thing 8

Google Calendar- I have just played around with Google Calendar and would love to be able to use this school-wide instead of the system we currently use. I love the features that Google offers and especially the ability to use it on my phone so I would not have to have a separate work and personal calendar.

Thing 9

Evernote- I have been using Evernote for over a year and absolutely love it. I only wish I had know about it when I went back to school a couple of years ago! I love the ability to access my documents, lists, ideas, pictures in one place, regardless of where I am working. Because I tend to forget more “stuff” these days, I love to just snap a picture of something I need to remember with my phone and send it to Evernote. I know that when I get home I have a reminder of everything I need to follow-up on. My friends made fun of me until I pointed out to them that in most cases you always have your phone with you so it is easy to keep your ideas organized......no more little sticky notes all over your desk!  I have two college age children and made sure they knew how to use it before they left for college as it is a wonderful time saver for students. This year I will be adding it to my lesson plans for my 8^th graders, as it can be another valuable tool in their high school toolbox.

Week 5-Thing 7: Real Life Networks

This is where I need to put in more effort. As one of the other participants pointed out – we get out of our organizations in equal to what effort we put into them. Well, I have not received much, as I have not given much! I belong to only a couple of organizations and know I should attend at least one conference a year. I teach at a school that cannot afford to pay for memberships so I am hesitant to pay for many out of my own salary. I know this is an opportunity for training and networking and will make it a priority this year to get more involved.

CPD23: Week 5: Thing #6-Online Networks

Interesting read on social networks as there are several I have not heard of before.  My main reason for using social networks is to stay connected and to be better equipped at what I do. I have been using Facebook for about a year and half and use it primarily for friends and family, but also use it to stay connected to the teachers at my school. Sometimes we start a message thread and it works well when we are planning a school event. At this point I have not used it to connect with other school librarians—that is where I see Google+ fitting in for me. I like how you can decide on a group of people to share with instead of everyone on your friend list who is really not interested in your library talk.

I have been invited to use Linkedln, but have not used it at this point. I don’t see it as a way for teachers to network, but I would have loved using it when I was in sales years ago. There were several network names that were new to me and I thought I would follow the LAT network for teachers on Twitter to see what they are all about. It looked to me that it was more UK things that may not apply, but it can’t hurt to take a peek!

CPD23 Week 4:Thing 5-Reflective Practice

Well, first just a little bit about reflective practice…..It’s a love/hate sort of thing for me. I hate to take the time—just never enough, but when I do it is so beneficial. As a teacher, there is nothing better than having a revelation while reflecting on a lesson. As I reflect on what I have learned so far doing The 23 Things, what comes to mind is that I enjoy trying new things like Twitter and Pushnote, but I need to find what works best for me. I want to be open to new/current tools, but at the same time take my own advice and set aside what doesn’t work so that I am not spinning my wheels and wasting time.  I feel a part of reflection should also include asking ourselves if we are having fun while we are learning. Are we enjoying the process?  I can answer that so far I have enjoyed using Twitter and seeing a different side of people I thought I knew pretty well. The other benefit is getting to know people I have not met and now will take the time to meet them at a state conference in the future.

CPD23: Week 3: Thing 4

Current Awareness: Tweets, RSS & Pushnote

Twitter: Thing 4 has pushed me to try some new things which is exactly why I signed up to do Nebraska Learns 2.0! I have always thought I would try Twitter but didn’t get around to it, so now I have made my first Tweet and will test this out through the 23 Things. Not sure how I feel about it, but always ready to learn new technology and how I can connect with others or use it in a lesson.

RSS: I have used RSS for a couple of years through Google Reader and love having all the blogs I follow in one place. I don’t think I would follow many blogs if I didn’t have the ability to see all of them at once. I will admit I get an overload of them to go through and feel overwhelmed by the information I feel I need to read through to stay informed as a Library Teacher. I love technology, but feel at times that it has taken over my life…..does anyone else feel this way?

Pushnote:  I have to say I was not going to try Pushnote, but again that is the reason for taking part in 23 Things. I have registered, but not sure how I will use it. I do think it is odd that there is not an IE user button — what’s with that? I understand it is not the same as delicious (which I love), but pretty similar to me. I will try this out through October and make my decision at that time. Hopefully I will get some ideas on how others are using it by reading some of the other postings.

CPD23: Week 2: Online Presence

As I started this “Thing” I realized I had not given much thought to my brand so to speak. I spent some time trying to come up with a name for my blog and had made a list of names that I liked. When I went to make my blog I was disappointed that all the names on my list were taken….so I just picked something generic. Still wondering if my name needs to be connected so that it comes up in searches?

My blog is more about my professional identity, but I did add one of my favorite pictures that I took while biking and thought in the future I would add some of my quilts to give a better picture of both my professional and personal identity. I enjoy reading other blogs that show the complete person and it helps me connect with those that share more of their interests and ideas. When I searched my name I didn’t come up with much that surprised me except to see my home phone number all over the place even though my number is unlisted--so much for paying for an unlisted number!

Changes that I would make after doing this activity: I added my picture to my blog and will also add it as my identifier. I also like the idea of coming up with a consistent theme or visual to use for my blog, Twitter and school library page. After reading the ALA article about personal branding and a few of the links within the article I realize the importance of fine-tuning until we find what works best for each of us....I'm sure as I work through the 23 Things I will do just that!

Thing 2-Viewing other blogs

Nice to find another quilting librarian from NE! She has been blogging for several years so I enjoyed reading through her past entries. We have even finished the same quilt....I love all the pictures that she has posted on her blog (especially quilts) and seeing the many interests we have in common! What I found to be a nice surprise was that she knows a great deal about computers and that is my main professional goal right now....increasing my computer ability in the way of tinkering and fixing! After reading Quiltin' LibraryLady's blog I can see I have much to learn in the way of tinkering with computers! Great first blog to visit!

Thing 1- Blogging

As I start 23 Things I am excited to get a chance to try some new technology ideas. I am going into my third year as the librarian of an inner-city school in Omaha, but don't get the opportunity to use as much technology as I would like since we also have a technology teacher. Even though this has been my past situation, I would like to continue to learn new ideas and discuss ways I might increase collaboration with the tech teacher as well as my classroom teachers. Besides learning the 23 Things, I am trying to spend more time learning about fixing computer connections and general computer maintenance this summer. My goal is to increase my confidence in computer technology, try new things and not be afraid of messing up my computer. It is so old that I really can't do much damage to it!

As for blogging, I have used Google reader for a couple of years as I have enjoyed reading other blogs, but have not taken the time to set one up myself. I am excited to read the other blogs and hope to gain a number of new ideas to share with my students and fellow teachers this fall.

7 1/2 Habits Video

I have always been a Lifelong Learner! I have taken so many classes for hobbies that interest me and have even talked others into taking different classes because it was the only way I could get a teacher to teach me!


The two questions asked were what do I find the easiest and which one is the hardest...Since much of this is about technology I will say that viewing problems as challenges is the most difficult for me and accepting responsibility for my learning is the easiest.


After reflecting on this topic of lifelong learning, I realize that I have mastered many of the 7 1/2 skills when it comes to a topic that I view as "fun" but am lacking the 7 1/2 skills when it comes to learning as it pertains to my career! I get nervous about not knowing enough about technology (fixing co-workers computers and such at school) that I give up too easily. I would never give up on any other new skill, but fool myself that I am in over my head on much of the technical skills I would like to learn.


This was a good exercise as I was able to see that I view my continued learning in two very different ways and need to make some adjustments to my thought process. I think this was a good start and look forward to more discoveries.


Note** The photo above is from the Wabash Trace Trail in Council Bluffs. It is one of my favorite trails to bike ...life is a journey and this is one of my favorite paths!

Beginnings!

Well, today is my first day to take part in Nebraska Learns 2.0. I have wanted to take part in this for the past year and was thrilled to see that it was beginning again! I am looking forward to trying new things and using them in my classroom. I love learning new things--especially technology so this will be push me to make the time to expand my toolbox!