Mary Haddon’s Life of Li(brary)

I downloaded Fruity Loops (demo version) in an attempt to create my own music since the student made it look sooo easy!  It was hard.  So I quit.  Anyway, pics from technology fair week around the district are posted here.

This week we are celebrating technology.  February 18-22 is named Technology Fair week in Richland One. 

We are celebrating students who have used technology in innovative ways.  I was most impressed with our student presenters today.  The Broadcast Journalism and Newspaper showcased the behind-the-scenes work they do producing the morning news show and newspaper.  A band student demonstrated how he uses Fruity Loops to create his own music (very awesome).

More to come.

A German teacher at my school introduced me to a program within Microsoft Office called NetMeeting.  She uses this for her students to have guided conversations in German but with an instant messaging/texting/conference call feel. 

To find this on your computer go to the Run command and type conf.exe.  This will load the program.  Set your preferences.  You will need to know your computer’s IP address so other computers can “call in.”  Whatever computer you are calling to is called the host computer.

 To find a computer’s IP address: Go to “Run.”  Type “cmd”.  The screen will turn into DOS mode.  Type “ipconfig” and listed will be the numerical IP address.

 This explaination may be clear as mud, but when you figure it out it is cool!  Once the host computer accepts your call you can begin typing messages back and forth.  You can also use voice, maybe video?  There are lots of features that I haven’t explored yet. 

Broadcast Journalism students at Flora are podcasting.  This is an excellent way to get started with podcasting since it only takes about 15 minutes from recording the annoucments, exporting the file as an mp3 using Audacity (a free download) to uploading it to the webpage.   And what an impact it has made with the school community!

"Make it work."  Words taken from one of my favorite reality TV shows "Project Runway" became part of my vocabulary as we opened school.  There are many things we cannot do yet (because of construction woes, etc.) but we ARE making it work ! 

http://www.slideshare.net/mhaddon/media-center/1

Enjoy the pics.  More to come later.

Reading through my blog feeds this morning, I came across an article mentioning the “7 Things You Should Know About” series found on the Educause Learning Initiative (ELI) website.   

In pdf format you get quick articles explaining emerging technologies or practices: wikipedia, twitter, digital storytelling, YouTube, RSS, etc.  

These are great guides for  professional development workshops with teachers or to use while teaching students. 

test2.mp3 (Listen to this post as a podcast)

Hi all!

For those of you who don't know, and are interested, I will be one of the new Information Technology Specialists at A.C. Flora High School in Richland One.  The Media Center is newly rennovated and we (along with wonderful volunteers--thank you ITS from around the district) have unpacked and shelved 400+ boxes of books and equipment this summer. 

I also wanted to quickly share with you something that I learned how to do at an ITS workshop yesterday.  My family and I spent the evening playing with it.  It is called Voki and can be found on voki.com.  There you create a character, attach your voice to it by recording through a cheap mic, and you instantly have something fun.  How awesome is this!  Just think of the possibilities with your students.

http://www.richland.lib.sc.us/baker.htm April 20-21. Sponsored by RCPL and the USC School of Library and Information ScienceFeatured author/illustrator is Bryan Collier known for his illustrations in Rosa, winner of the Coretta Scott King Award, and three Coretta Scott King Honors for Martin’s Big Words, Freedom River and Visiting Langston.

Just finished reading this novel and if you are looking for a book about love in many forms and the physical and emotional survival of a little girl orphaned by her mother’s death, then this is a book for you and your library.

For those who haven’t read or will not read this book because of a word, then you are missing out.

Thursday, 1st General session Alan November.  MySpace, Wikis, YouTube, etc.  The things educators are most afraid to use in schools, but these are the things kids want to use, and do use, so why aren’t educators embracing them?  He gave the analogy that made clear what we are doing:  say at the invention of paper that a student wrote something bad, inappropriate on it.  Because paper can lead to this type of behavior paper is now banned or blocked. Use the things kids want to use, but fill it with “our” content.  Teach responsibility.  Embrace these mediums as a means for students to publish their work either through text, audio, or video.

After thinking about all this, I would like to get either a class or a group of students to make a wikipedia entry on something local or to add to an entry of something they are interested in. 

Thursday, 2nd General Session Jim Trelease.  I had to leave his session a bit early to facilitate another.  What I took from this is that we have to think of simple, but new ways to constantly reach out to our patrons and students in regards to literacy.  He showed statistics and gave reasons why the U.S. is falling behind in literacy.  Interesting side note he shared: Finland children who are not taught to read formally until age 7 and live in the highest ranked country in terms of a literate population, watches just as much TV as we do–not all educational either.  Why are they so literate?  Because Finland children watch American shows with the closed captioning turned on.  So, over the weekend I turned the closed captioning on when my little one was watching her shows on Noggin. .

We as school librarians are getting the shaft.  Why? A publication by the National Reading Panel barely mentions libraries or librarians, or reading aloud when countless studies have shown that those factors positively affect student achievement.  We have to advocate, be proactive, because the support of the government on libraries and librarians is minimal to none.  So, Strive for 25!  

Facilitator for Dr. Naidoo’s  session“Celebracion Cultura de Latino: Resources and Materials for Non-Spanish Speaking Librarians Serving Latino Children.”Lots and lots of great resources and book lists to meet the needs of this growing population in South Carolina schools.  Also learned strategies to use when picking “better” picture books/novels that celebrate the Latino cultures.   He emphasized the “Latino” student doesn’t always have the dark eyes and skin.  Some may be light skinned and blue eyed.  Also, librarians need to watch out for stereotypes placed on characters in stories; an example he showed was one where the girl, pretending to be a boy, was wearing a sombrero and riding a donkey.  Again, celebrate their cultures whether they are from Mexico, Argentina, etc because the Latino label often lumps then in one group when in fact each culture is different. 

Friday, my session with Valerie Byrd Fort:  Blogging and Podcasting.  We had a full house!  Very well received and look forward to communicating with attendees through blogging and/or podcasting.  See next post for information and an outline of the session.

 And lastly, my favorite was facilitating for award-winning author, Jacqueline Woodson.  Awesome session where she talked about how/why she became and author.  She read from some of her work, including my favorite Newbery Honor Book, Show Way.  The roots of the story are in South Carolina where she tells of her great-grandmothers show ways that lead slaves to freedom which Ms. Woodson has passed down to her own child through this story.