This is my fourth year participating in Cool Tools for Schools and every year I am blown away by the ever-changing world of education around us. There are always so many great tools and articles to read that it is hard to pick just a few topics. I am grateful for the opportunity to participate in Cool Tools allowing for me to learn at my own pace and complete topics and "things" that are relevant to my particular position. This is year four as a shared librarian although my first two years I was split between two very different districts the past two years I have been in one district and then the Media Librarian at our media library in our BOCES building. This has allowed for me to grow both as a librarian in a district and as a professional in the field. I am grateful for the opportunities to work with not only students but teachers and administrators.
Participating in this workshop allows for me to hone my skills for both positions. This year I was able to complete nine things and then my reflection. Each thing allowed for me to look at pieces for both sides of my job and to create a learning environment for myself that would benefit me throughout my year and next year.
I found thing 50 to be one of the most beneficial as it allowed for me to look at the new standards and to really begin to focus on those. As a newer librarian, I am still trying to build a curriculum that works well for me and I have found that it changes every year especially depending on the students. I am hoping that with the new standards I will be able to develop a curriculum that I am more confident in with my classes.
Overall, I have found Cool Tools to be a great experience. I always keep the website bookmarked so that I can continually go back to it all year long and find new ways to help better my education. Being able to pace your own learning is best. When you have the time to sit down and read articles and really focus on a project that is the best time to learn- or for me anyway. Self-paced PD really helps me as a learner and educator to focus in on the pieces that are most important to me. I feel that it is truly beneficial for students to also be allowed to work at their own pace.
I hope to continue to implement all that I have learned from Cool Tools this year into my both my professional and personal lives. Staying on task and being focused is very important for success and with the help of Cool Tools, I can do that.
Friday, April 13, 2018
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
Thing 50: The New AASL Standards
Standards are always a very overwhelming topic to think about no matter who you are or how long you've been in the field. Anytime you hear the words "new standards" are coming you cringe just a little bit or maybe a whole lot. New standards can be scary if you're not given to opportunity to view them and learn with them before being told you have to use them. It is very difficult to be handed new standards and expected to be able to interpret them and work with them all in one day. This "thing" is helpful in the fact that it allows for librarians and teachers to view the new standards, look at them and find the areas that they need/want to find out more about.
I found the shortened link with key details to be the most useful. The common beliefs page with the six explanations along with the Standards Framework for Learners were the most useful for me from this document.
I agree heavily with the six common beliefs. It is important to know about these beliefs and how they are broken down. This would also be a great piece to share with administration and teachers so that they are aware of what our standards focus on.
The framework is broken into six foundations and key commitments with four domains and competencies.
I find the domains/competencies to be fantastic. As a relatively new librarian (finishing year four) I find that having these domains will help me to connect to the IFC along with developing better learning objectives for my students.
As stated in the article we are already doing a lot of these pieces of the new standards they are just worded differently or moved to a different part of the standards. It is important to take the time and go through and circle or highlight what you're doing, what you need to work on and what you need to start doing. I did this activity for just the Inquire foundation and found that almost all of those steps in the domains I am already doing and that there are a few of them that I need to focus on a little bit more.
As I have been working on this BLOG post I have discovered that some of the other foundations need more focus a bit more than the Inquire phase and that is a great starting point. I can focus on creating my school goals for next year to incorporate the addition of some of the new pieces I am missing. This will help me to develop a stronger curriculum for the future.
I will be getting my own copy of the standards book as right now I am just using the copy from our BOCES which has a professional library for our librarians. The book is definitely a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be although it still is not as big as the IFC 😅.
I look forward to continuing to grow in my library field and this standards book will help me to do that. I will be able to learn and grow as I go forward in my career. The breakdown of the standards is simple and easy to understand as opposed to other formats.
Thursday, March 22, 2018
Thing 21: News Literacy
News literacy has definitely become a hot topic within the past few years. Many world events have caused an outbreak is hoax writing or satirical writing. Teaching students news literacy is very important and should be a part of media literacy skills. This is definitely one piece I have struggled with this year as I only have kindergarten and first-grade classes. How do you help a five or six-year-old understand the news around them may not be real? At that age, a lot of their world is still "make-believe". I found a few of the kid sites to be really helpful viewing the different ways that they discuss news. It is still important to teach our littlest ones about the world around them but at that age, it is very difficult not to cross the line and ruin their childhood.
I have a free Newsela account that I use when I am teaching summer school. I find it very helpful to be able to print the articles off and have the short three to five question quiz following the article. It is important to teach students about the world around them with reliable resources. I also love that you can adjust the reading level for the students you are working with. Of course the students in summer school are there for a couple of reasons- they didn't like their teacher, they refused to do the word, they are lazy or the work was in fact too difficult and nobody noticed to help (although this isn't a common reason there are a few students that still slip through the cracks because they can normally fake it enough to not get noticed.). Newsela is a great site to use. I hope to continue using it in the future.
Teaching our students about news literacy is very important. They need to be able to determine the facts from the fiction. They need to know how to determine what is really going on and what is an over exaggeration. It is difficult to teach students about news literacy when many of them get their news from social media. It is important to discuss social media and its role in the lives of our students today. Social media is a huge culprit for fake news and it is definitely important to talk to our students about it and how it affects them.
I have a free Newsela account that I use when I am teaching summer school. I find it very helpful to be able to print the articles off and have the short three to five question quiz following the article. It is important to teach students about the world around them with reliable resources. I also love that you can adjust the reading level for the students you are working with. Of course the students in summer school are there for a couple of reasons- they didn't like their teacher, they refused to do the word, they are lazy or the work was in fact too difficult and nobody noticed to help (although this isn't a common reason there are a few students that still slip through the cracks because they can normally fake it enough to not get noticed.). Newsela is a great site to use. I hope to continue using it in the future.
Teaching our students about news literacy is very important. They need to be able to determine the facts from the fiction. They need to know how to determine what is really going on and what is an over exaggeration. It is difficult to teach students about news literacy when many of them get their news from social media. It is important to discuss social media and its role in the lives of our students today. Social media is a huge culprit for fake news and it is definitely important to talk to our students about it and how it affects them.
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Thing 49: Collaboration, Connecting, Sharing
So this is a tool that is always changing as well.
I am a member of Educational Media and Technology Association and this year I was lucky enough to learn about Zoom. I had heard other teachers mention Zooming and completing webinars through Zoom but I had never tried it or heard of it really other than that. So the great thing about EMTA is that if you're unable to attend the meeting in person you can Zoom in! So I have had the pleasure of seeing that this year during our meetings. I also was able to take part in a makerspace webinar by Zooming into the webinar. I find Zoom to be fantastic! I am grateful that I have had the opportunity to learn about it this year and I hope to continue to use it in the future. So I have really only seen pros for this other than the one webinar I did notice that you cannot join until it is exactly the time of the event unless the coordinator sets up the event differently. I had to wait until exactly 315 to join the event which made me rather nervous that I was going to miss something but I didn't. I like the video or phone conferencing capabilities with Zoom. It is a great feature to have.
While reading the article Top 200 Tools for Learning I did come across a tool that may fit better under productivity tools however, it is such a great tool that I wanted to share it here. Plus I already turned in my blog for productivity. It is the tool My Study Life. It allows for you to add your schedule and it was created specifically for students. The schedule can be based on a day cycle which many schools use this. Along with adding in holidays to make sure the schedule reflects the number of days in school accurately. You can then add tasks and have reminders set up as well. It allows for you to set a homework schedule so that you are spending the appropriate amount of time on each task. Plus you can sign into it with Google so many schools that have G Suite for the students will be able to have students just sign right in and keep track of their schedule. Overall this also would allow for collaboration between a teacher and students if the school purchased the educator version. This would allow for teachers to upload their homework or reminders into the system and share with their students. The student version is always free. I signed up as a student just to play around with it. I was able to add in my classes that I teach just to see how the schedule works. It is pretty neat.
A few other tools that I have tried and absolutely lover are Padlet, Popplet and Remind. All of these tools are great for brainstorming or reminders. I have used Remind as a coach to contact my players and ensure that they know when practice is or if there is a cancelation. I also use Remind for one of the LuLaRoe groups I'm in :-) (guilty pleasure). The consultant will send out messages about upcoming sales so that we do not miss out. It is a great program! I love to use it and it is nice to be able to use it with students. My co-advisor for yearbook uses it along with me for our yearbook meetings as well to keep in touch with the kids and remind them of deadlines.
I have used Padlet in the past with the science teacher that I collaborate with and the students absolutely love this tools.I also enjoy how we use this tool to introduce ourselves at the beginning of this workshop. It is a quick and easy tool to use to get to know one an another. It is also a great tool for brainstorming.
I am a member of Educational Media and Technology Association and this year I was lucky enough to learn about Zoom. I had heard other teachers mention Zooming and completing webinars through Zoom but I had never tried it or heard of it really other than that. So the great thing about EMTA is that if you're unable to attend the meeting in person you can Zoom in! So I have had the pleasure of seeing that this year during our meetings. I also was able to take part in a makerspace webinar by Zooming into the webinar. I find Zoom to be fantastic! I am grateful that I have had the opportunity to learn about it this year and I hope to continue to use it in the future. So I have really only seen pros for this other than the one webinar I did notice that you cannot join until it is exactly the time of the event unless the coordinator sets up the event differently. I had to wait until exactly 315 to join the event which made me rather nervous that I was going to miss something but I didn't. I like the video or phone conferencing capabilities with Zoom. It is a great feature to have.
While reading the article Top 200 Tools for Learning I did come across a tool that may fit better under productivity tools however, it is such a great tool that I wanted to share it here. Plus I already turned in my blog for productivity. It is the tool My Study Life. It allows for you to add your schedule and it was created specifically for students. The schedule can be based on a day cycle which many schools use this. Along with adding in holidays to make sure the schedule reflects the number of days in school accurately. You can then add tasks and have reminders set up as well. It allows for you to set a homework schedule so that you are spending the appropriate amount of time on each task. Plus you can sign into it with Google so many schools that have G Suite for the students will be able to have students just sign right in and keep track of their schedule. Overall this also would allow for collaboration between a teacher and students if the school purchased the educator version. This would allow for teachers to upload their homework or reminders into the system and share with their students. The student version is always free. I signed up as a student just to play around with it. I was able to add in my classes that I teach just to see how the schedule works. It is pretty neat.
A few other tools that I have tried and absolutely lover are Padlet, Popplet and Remind. All of these tools are great for brainstorming or reminders. I have used Remind as a coach to contact my players and ensure that they know when practice is or if there is a cancelation. I also use Remind for one of the LuLaRoe groups I'm in :-) (guilty pleasure). The consultant will send out messages about upcoming sales so that we do not miss out. It is a great program! I love to use it and it is nice to be able to use it with students. My co-advisor for yearbook uses it along with me for our yearbook meetings as well to keep in touch with the kids and remind them of deadlines.
I have used Padlet in the past with the science teacher that I collaborate with and the students absolutely love this tools.I also enjoy how we use this tool to introduce ourselves at the beginning of this workshop. It is a quick and easy tool to use to get to know one an another. It is also a great tool for brainstorming.
Thing 47: Productivity Tools
I wanted to work with the productivity tools this year since I will be teaching a college prep course for students at school. I wanted to find some simple apps and tools to introduce to them so they could use them in the future! However, as always I found so many things that I didn't even know existed especially with Google. Of course, you always learn something new about Google.
So I may be way behind the eight ball or I've just never paid attention to Google but I did not know that Google had templates on it! I was reading the article EdTechTeacher 10 Creative Ways to use Google Tools to Maximize your time and one of the last pieces of this article was all about the templates and being able to use those! Wow! I'm so excited that I found these and I will definitely be using them in the future with my students! Especially when I teach summer school! Leave it to Google to make your life easier!
Another tool I will definitely be introducing to the students is Grammarly. This is a great tool for students as many of them struggle with grammar and sentence structure. This is a great extension just to add to Chrome and since many schools are equipped with Chromebooks now it will be much easier to show the students how to use this feature. It is also nice to be able to show the students how to add the extension to the Chrome browser so they are able to use it from any computer device. So I am excited to show the students this extension since they will be needing it in the future for college.
I believe these two ideas will help the students tremendously. As always I learned about Google Keep last year and absolutely love it! So I will also be showing the students that option as well.
I have been trying out Nuzzle for myself and I'm still trying to figure it out. One of the librarians in our area uses it and I get her newsletters every day. I enjoy seeing the stories that she has to offer so I decided to try it for myself. I am unsure if I like it or not or if I would just rather subscribe to other's newsletters and see what is going on for them. I have never been a huge fan of Twitter so having to use my Twitter account again really threw me off however it is good to get back to Twitter as it truly is a great place to interact with others and be able to see a lot of the latest and greatest news. I look forward to continuing to use Twitter and Nuzzle to determine how I truly feel about it in the future.
I love my paper planner and have always used that- so I'm always looking for ways to increase the use technology when it comes to my calendar. I keep a lot of my doctor appointments and other personal meetings right on my calendar on my phone. I find this to be most useful for me along with my paper planner. I hope to show both of these aspects to the students so that they can determine which mode will work best for them.
Productivity tools are a great feature to have. I am looking forward to learning new ways to stay productive in the future as the world of technology changes around us.
So I may be way behind the eight ball or I've just never paid attention to Google but I did not know that Google had templates on it! I was reading the article EdTechTeacher 10 Creative Ways to use Google Tools to Maximize your time and one of the last pieces of this article was all about the templates and being able to use those! Wow! I'm so excited that I found these and I will definitely be using them in the future with my students! Especially when I teach summer school! Leave it to Google to make your life easier!
Another tool I will definitely be introducing to the students is Grammarly. This is a great tool for students as many of them struggle with grammar and sentence structure. This is a great extension just to add to Chrome and since many schools are equipped with Chromebooks now it will be much easier to show the students how to use this feature. It is also nice to be able to show the students how to add the extension to the Chrome browser so they are able to use it from any computer device. So I am excited to show the students this extension since they will be needing it in the future for college.
I believe these two ideas will help the students tremendously. As always I learned about Google Keep last year and absolutely love it! So I will also be showing the students that option as well.
I have been trying out Nuzzle for myself and I'm still trying to figure it out. One of the librarians in our area uses it and I get her newsletters every day. I enjoy seeing the stories that she has to offer so I decided to try it for myself. I am unsure if I like it or not or if I would just rather subscribe to other's newsletters and see what is going on for them. I have never been a huge fan of Twitter so having to use my Twitter account again really threw me off however it is good to get back to Twitter as it truly is a great place to interact with others and be able to see a lot of the latest and greatest news. I look forward to continuing to use Twitter and Nuzzle to determine how I truly feel about it in the future.
I love my paper planner and have always used that- so I'm always looking for ways to increase the use technology when it comes to my calendar. I keep a lot of my doctor appointments and other personal meetings right on my calendar on my phone. I find this to be most useful for me along with my paper planner. I hope to show both of these aspects to the students so that they can determine which mode will work best for them.
Productivity tools are a great feature to have. I am looking forward to learning new ways to stay productive in the future as the world of technology changes around us.
Monday, February 26, 2018
Thing 44: Social Reading & Book Stuff
I completed this "thing" last year as well but I find it great to go over again as the world of Social reading is changing around us.
So last year I focused on Goodreads and getting my account set back up and running. I was able to get my faculty book club members using Goodreads as well so we can now track our book club books along with our free read books. Two of the women in the group love it and love to be able to share their reviews. I like to do the reading challenge and challenge myself to more books each year. I have also created an audio book list for myself so that those books that I listen too I can also add to my Goodreads account and track my progress. Is there a platform out there to just track audio books? This would be a great idea to create in the future if there isn't one already out there.
So to listen to all of the audio books that I listen to- I use Overdrive through our public library system. I absolutely love Overdrive. I have only used it for audio books as I am not a huge ebook reader and the few ebooks that I do read I read on my Kindle app. But Overdrive has been great. My commute for most days is a 35 minute drive one way so I am able to listen to a lot of books. This years SSL conference in Long Island is featuring Steven Sheinkin whom I have not read any of his books so I immediately downloaded Abraham Lincoln's Grave Robbers and Time Twister series to listen to. I love being able to listen to nonfiction as I will admit I am a fiction reader all the way. I will read some nonfiction here and there but I definitely prefer fiction. Overdrive has been great in this aspect to let me branch out and listen to more nonfiction texts than I would read.
I also used Overdrive last year to be part of the Audiofile Sync for Teens for the summer. I have the books all on my phone and plan to start listening to them soon as the new titles for this summer will be coming out soon :-)
So Overdrive has been a huge hit for me and I cannot wait to see what else the app will bring forth.
I also did the summer reading BINGO with my students last year and I plan to do a similar summer reading challenge for my kids. I like to try new things and the BINGO went over really well last year but I think I will do something new this year. I am just trying to decide what format I will use this year. I am thinking about some type of weekly format- we use Google classroom at school and I"m thinking about setting up a Google Classroom this year to cut down on the use for paper as last year I had 26 participants.
So last year I focused on Goodreads and getting my account set back up and running. I was able to get my faculty book club members using Goodreads as well so we can now track our book club books along with our free read books. Two of the women in the group love it and love to be able to share their reviews. I like to do the reading challenge and challenge myself to more books each year. I have also created an audio book list for myself so that those books that I listen too I can also add to my Goodreads account and track my progress. Is there a platform out there to just track audio books? This would be a great idea to create in the future if there isn't one already out there.
So to listen to all of the audio books that I listen to- I use Overdrive through our public library system. I absolutely love Overdrive. I have only used it for audio books as I am not a huge ebook reader and the few ebooks that I do read I read on my Kindle app. But Overdrive has been great. My commute for most days is a 35 minute drive one way so I am able to listen to a lot of books. This years SSL conference in Long Island is featuring Steven Sheinkin whom I have not read any of his books so I immediately downloaded Abraham Lincoln's Grave Robbers and Time Twister series to listen to. I love being able to listen to nonfiction as I will admit I am a fiction reader all the way. I will read some nonfiction here and there but I definitely prefer fiction. Overdrive has been great in this aspect to let me branch out and listen to more nonfiction texts than I would read.
I also used Overdrive last year to be part of the Audiofile Sync for Teens for the summer. I have the books all on my phone and plan to start listening to them soon as the new titles for this summer will be coming out soon :-)
So Overdrive has been a huge hit for me and I cannot wait to see what else the app will bring forth.
I also did the summer reading BINGO with my students last year and I plan to do a similar summer reading challenge for my kids. I like to try new things and the BINGO went over really well last year but I think I will do something new this year. I am just trying to decide what format I will use this year. I am thinking about some type of weekly format- we use Google classroom at school and I"m thinking about setting up a Google Classroom this year to cut down on the use for paper as last year I had 26 participants.
Monday, February 5, 2018
Thing 28: App-palooza!
After completing this "thing" last year I knew that this would be one to complete every year as the world of technology and apps are always changing. Learning about new technology and apps that can better inform and help students is always important. It is very difficult in the world of education to stay on top of the most up to date information. The "best" that is out there is always changing. The needs of your students are always changing as well.
First I looked at the "Should I download this App?" Checklist. I found it a great review to view the checklist. It is important to put pedagogy and student needs before the price and an app. Many people forget this and just look for the best app to get the job done without looking at the needs of the project and the students. This is an important checklist to share out with your faculty and staff and I plan to create a document from this checklist to do just that as our school is slowly adding Chrome books to the school. It is important for all teachers to read this checklist so that they can better fit the needs of themselves and their students.
I also found it very interesting in an article about having an AUP for personal devices. My school is still not allowing personal devices to be used unless the teacher wants to allow it. If the teacher doesn't want a device in their classroom the students are supposed to leave it in their lockers or keep it in a pocket where it isn't a distraction. This as you can imagine has caused a lot of issues for many students. We are however adding more and more devices to the school so hopefully soon many of the classrooms will have Chrome books or other devices for student use.
I then looked at the best apps for teaching from the AASL website. I enjoy that the website goes back to previous years as well so you can compare the changes in what is being used for apps.
One of the apps that I use in my daily life is Google Keep I was happy to see that it falls on the list for best apps. I have not used this with any of my students but I feel that it would be beneficial for the kids to know about. I will use this app when teaching my after school program (ASP) for college prep 101. This will be beneficial to the participants in learning organizational techniques and more.
I"m interested in exploring The New Immigrants: NYC 1880-1924 by Vanguard Direct/New York City Department of Education. This app caught my eye because I just finished working on an immigration inquiry project with my 11th grade teacher in Morristown. I would like to look into this app to use in the future with the class. We followed the tool kit from engageny.org just to keep it more in line with the regents exam for the students but I think that this app would help to benefit the students. I look forward to learning more with this app in the future.
I have also saved a few of the app tasks in my Google drive so that I can go in and try them. They look great and like they will be very beneficial. This is definitely one of my favorite "things" to complete.
First I looked at the "Should I download this App?" Checklist. I found it a great review to view the checklist. It is important to put pedagogy and student needs before the price and an app. Many people forget this and just look for the best app to get the job done without looking at the needs of the project and the students. This is an important checklist to share out with your faculty and staff and I plan to create a document from this checklist to do just that as our school is slowly adding Chrome books to the school. It is important for all teachers to read this checklist so that they can better fit the needs of themselves and their students.
I also found it very interesting in an article about having an AUP for personal devices. My school is still not allowing personal devices to be used unless the teacher wants to allow it. If the teacher doesn't want a device in their classroom the students are supposed to leave it in their lockers or keep it in a pocket where it isn't a distraction. This as you can imagine has caused a lot of issues for many students. We are however adding more and more devices to the school so hopefully soon many of the classrooms will have Chrome books or other devices for student use.
I then looked at the best apps for teaching from the AASL website. I enjoy that the website goes back to previous years as well so you can compare the changes in what is being used for apps.
One of the apps that I use in my daily life is Google Keep I was happy to see that it falls on the list for best apps. I have not used this with any of my students but I feel that it would be beneficial for the kids to know about. I will use this app when teaching my after school program (ASP) for college prep 101. This will be beneficial to the participants in learning organizational techniques and more.
I"m interested in exploring The New Immigrants: NYC 1880-1924 by Vanguard Direct/New York City Department of Education. This app caught my eye because I just finished working on an immigration inquiry project with my 11th grade teacher in Morristown. I would like to look into this app to use in the future with the class. We followed the tool kit from engageny.org just to keep it more in line with the regents exam for the students but I think that this app would help to benefit the students. I look forward to learning more with this app in the future.
I have also saved a few of the app tasks in my Google drive so that I can go in and try them. They look great and like they will be very beneficial. This is definitely one of my favorite "things" to complete.
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