Reading to 2nd Graders

Teacher Librarians at the Heart of Learning

     Teacher Librarians at the Heart of Learning is a video that portrays what the 21^st school library should be focusing on to be the heart of the school with the teacher librarian being a necessary and important part in education of the school community.  The library is a place where the students feel welcome and everyone has a voice, is participating, and is actively engaged.  One librarian stated that getting the things for the library is not the problem, but rather what the student is going to do with it, and what knowledge are they going to produce with it is the underlying challenge.  Kids need to know how to utilize the information they come across.  Better skills need to be taught so that the student can embrace technology and use it.  Information literacy needs to be promoted through technology.  One professor stated that technology can be locked down, or instead we can help students learn to internalize what it is to be a digital citizen, and the library is a good place to learn this.

     A teacher librarian is also an advocate for reading.  Books should be off the shelves and into the hands of the students.  A teacher librarian needs to have a passion for books and reading so that she can help others develop this same passion.  One way to excite students about books with technology is through book trailers. 

     I really like how one librarian demonstrated how she is able to help her teachers.  She constantly asks her teachers what they are teaching in class.  And then she follows up with a question such as, “What do you need to help your kids be successful learners in school and in life?”  Then she does what she can to make it happen.  I thought this was a simple, yet effective way to actively use her resources and knowledge to be of service to those within her area of influence.  

Teacher Librarians at The Heart of Learning

My Twitter Experience

It was really interesting reading about and exploring Twitter today.  When used correctly, Twitter can be an effective advertising and promoting tool.   I believe I now have a better understanding of what Twitter can do to help promote a library. 

Andy Burkhardt’s article on How Librarians can Leverage Twitter was useful concerning how a librarian can use Twitter as a tool to help promote a library.  Mr. Burkhardt has used Twitter to report what is happening in the library, such as an author coming to visit.  He also uses Twitter to promote what resources and services the library has.  Through twitter he has also forward community events that others have tweeted him.  Mr. Burkhardt stated, “The libraries are the center of the community, so they want to promote what others are doing.”

In order for this to work correctly, I believe a librarian would need to have consistent and dependable assistants in the school who are not afraid to help out with the technical aspects of the library.  Upon following my community library on Twitter, I noticed that the last post was months ago.  There needs to be a systematic and organized way to post tweets and answer personal tweets without overwhelming the librarian so that Twitter can help promote the library is a positive way. 

Like much of the new and up-coming technology of today, Twitter is a tool that can be effectively useful to librarians when applied in the right way.  

Twitter

Tweets by @SidneyMiller5

Christopher Harris on Library 2.0 ITLS 6030

     This article was written about the changing world of technology and how we as librarians need to embrace this change to be the effective, creative and efficient school librarians in today’s world.  We need to learn to function in an electronic information environment.  If we do not do this, we will fall behind and become obsolete.  As librarians, we need to transform the way we think and the way we do things and stay on the cutting edge of technology.  Not only do we need to focus on having the library physically the center of the school, but we need to take the library to the student and teacher throughout the school where learning is taking place.

     Mr. Harris mentioned ways in which librarians were using technology in their schools, and possible applications for future use.  Del.cio.us was mentioned for social bookmarking and to help located online resources.  He stated ways to be creative with booktalks and bookclubs that included blogging, media, and voicemail.  He cited My Thing as a way to get students to write reviews on the books they were reading and creating a bookshelf to display their favorite books.

     An important point that I thought he brought up was that of marketing the library.  He stated how many librarians do not like to advertise what they are doing, or to self-market what they are accomplishing.  Mr. Harris pointed out that it is vital to the future of these institutions to let others know how the library is useful and helpful in education today.  It was suggested that we create a logo, or sticker that we can place on everything we do.  Librarians need to be vocal and visual in their accomplishments to let others, especially those who have the power to give or take away funding, know what an invaluable service librarians are performing.

     Librarians are here to bring education to the next level so as to help students function in a constantly changing world.  As Christopher Harris stated, “ We are helping children to become literate users of information in order for them to have successful careers in school and beyond.“ 

RSS Feeds and Newsreaders with Google Reader

I really enjoy seeing the other blogs in the class.  It is fun to see what others are doing and I get many good ideas on what I can do. There are many benefits to knowing how to use Google Reader, and it could be helpful as a librarian in keeping up on the latest information through RSS feeds and Newsreaders.  I picked the following blogs:
1) The Daring Librarian http://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/
I like this blog because of the way the librarian explains how to accomplish technological tasks in a creative and fun way for her school faculty and staff.  The illustrations are bright and the explanations are often shown in a comic book style format.  The way she communicates with the staff about being technologically on board is humorous, yet quite direct.
2) The School Library Journal Blog http://www.slj.com/slj-blog-network/
This Journal has a lot of information about libraries that could be helpful in many ways.  Some of the articles written for the month of March include Adult Books 4 Teens, Battle of the Books, and Good Comics for Kids.  There is so much good information given on a monthly basis.  A librarian could not go wrong reading this on a regular basis.
3) The Blue Skunk http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/
This seems to be a blog that addresses issues for a whole district.  The posting I viewed gave a checklist of what students should know and to be able to do technology wise by the time they are a freshman.  I liked how specific his post was.