Week#5, Thing#12

This is great! Now when I want to put together a list of places that are relevant to the topics the teachers make I can make a search roll for them and not have to go to each computer to put the websites in my favorites! I am going to share this with the teachers that do research on the web and see if they will share any search rolls they create with me so I can use them. We also will need to get the computer teacher on board with this.

Week#5 Thing#11

I enjoy playing solitaire games on the computer and like trying out new ones so I went to the games list. Zango was my favorite - it listed several games which I want to try when I get on my own computer. Also looked at WorldCat - that looks like a great resource for helping patrons find books I do not have, also learned about using Google books and Google scholar to find the book in a library without going to the WorldCat site. The Web 2.0 awards site has some good ideas and I will look forward to seeing the next list.

Week #5 Thing #10

I really enjoyed the Image Chef site. I want to make a list for the upper grades to create signs for different popular dewey sections of the library for the younger students who do not know how to search the shelves well. I like the variety of comic strips found but lack the creativity right now to do much.

I have several students who will do a much better job than I will for the library website image - that will also be an assignment this year.

Thing #9

I looked at all the different search tools and liked the google one best. Of course, that may be because I finally got my search item refined. I still am not a fan of blogs and such since I see them as a major time requirement right now. I am going to try to go to my RSS feeds and look at them two or three times a week and see how I manage that. Of course, that requires remembering how to get there again. Once school starts maybe I'll have a better feel for what I will need time for and how to schedule it better. Getting a babysitter to get on a computer since my personal ones have both crashed is really coloring my attitude. Hopefully my tech buddies are serious about getting the laptop and desktop fixed this month for me. (Since they only charge for parts I am not going to push them to make time in their lives for me.)

Thing #8

At this time I cannot say I am a fan of RSS. It is one more thing to keep up with and remember. I will probably change my attitude when I have made it a habit like my favorite cartoon strip I read online. I have put a blog on my reader from a former student who is now a friend and some librarian blogs to keep up with. I can keep up with Laura once she leaves Austin and if my daughter blogs I can add her. When I take the time to read and other blogs I will be able to see what is going on in my professional world. I want to collaborate with teachers and see what units they are working on, especially intermediate level and see if there are blogs that would give them or their students ideas and information on the topic being studied.

Thing 7

I can tell I will need to put a reminder on my computer to go back to infodoodads weekly. I only read through the first page and found several sites to go to. I went into the top 13 for librarians and found a new site (to me) to save my bookmarks. My school computers lose all my bookmarks periodically and I have not taken the time to put them on the internet. Now I will go to all the computers in the library and put them all on del.icio.us as well as my home computers. I will also tell my daughter about this site - she is starting her first year teaching in 5th grade. I am going to see her and her classroom in two weeks and want to share what I have learned during this inservice with her - she knows some but there are some things she may not have learned about yet, unlike her mother who is still behind the curve right now.

Thing #6 Flickr fun

Wow, spent way more time with this than I thought I would. Still not sure how to edit pictures in Flickr - when I previewed ones to import they were right side up, in set on Flickr they are sideways now. I'll go back and play more to fix these later. I tried to do a mosaic for my children about my granddaughter but it kept saying the pictures were unavailable. Another argh. So I tried the trading card. Yea! success! Now to get the children to sign up and join Flickr to share pics.
I have a tiny library with no space to display posters etc. I want to change my birthday book program to include pictures of the people who participate and the trading card will be perfect to use. I can put the name of the child, their birthday and the title of the book they selected. I can put these on the sides of bookcases. I can also see using the trading cards to publicize books and get students who read the book to write a review. Then I can put them in an album.