Thing 1-A Fourth B-Baby

Thing 1...A fourth B.  When I signed up for this course I naively thought that Babykins would, well, sleep like a baby.  Even as I write this, trying desperately to catch up with the rest of you, I am being starred down by a 3-month-old who has missed the window of getting sleeping and gone straight to way overdue for a nap.  That being said, I am having such a good time at home that I haven't really been thinking about much of technology (other than posting baby pics to facebook) or work for that matter.  I am very okay with the latter.

So for Thing 1 I added a few widgets to my blog.  I haven't really used GoodReads so I set up an account and added that.  I actually created two GoodReads accounts, one for my personal reading, and one for school.  I would like to set up a new website for our school library.  Tried it in wiki format for last CoolTools project.  Didn't really care for the format to use as a website.  Will try again but just as a tool for a stand alone class.

Also added a Pinterest widget.  I am a total addict.  I now spend a lot of time on the coach feeding Babykins.  My child eats like every meal is a leisurely dinner in Paris so feeding sessions can take about 45 minutes.  I have found Pinterest to be a great resource for so many things--cooking, crafting, great ideas for library lessons and decor.

In terms of blogging.  When I get back to school in February I plan on using KidBlogs for my fourth grade students to keep a research journal.  I can see a lot of potential for using it as a reflection tool for all students.  We will see how that goes.

Thing 10-Yeah!!!

So when I saw the assignment for this Thing, I was excited.  I have been meaning to Migrate my school website from the easy, but boring Teacher Web, to something a bit more exciting.  I commandeered MenandsSchoolLibrary (not that there would be another one) through wikispaces, about a year ago, but hadn't done much with it.  In order to cater to my youngest students I wanted to use Glogster to make the pages more picture oriented.  Unfortunately, Glogster changed their format mid-year and I have to renew my educator account, because many of their free tools are now fee tools.

Summer reading lists are normally provided by the public library in our district and this year, they did not offer them.  Unfortunately, I didn't realize this until a week before school got out.  I had made a big push to get students on Overdrive for summer reading, but  I didn't have any set lists.  I want kids to read what they like, not necessarily what I, or some other adult, things they would like.  So I used my Wikispaces page to create a pathfinder for summer reading resources.

I don't know that I love Wikispaces for a long-term solution on my quest for the perfect website format  I plan on investigating Google Sites later in the summer, and possibly Weebly based on some of the information provided on the Cool Tools site and examples provided.

I have used Word Press before and I don't love it.  I don't know why, I just don't love it.  It does not seem intuitive.  Perhaps I will give that another shot as well.

I linked my Summer Reading pathfinder to my borrowing Teacher Web page.  Click here.  You can also check out some of the other items I have put on the wiki.

I really liked Alicia's digital portfolio and may try to create something similar.  Now that we have to formally document everything we do for APPR it might be helpful to be able to do that digitally.

I am certain I am found so decent alternatives in my quest to move toward an increasingly paperless library program.

I will update my blog on my further playing with Weebly and Google sites.

Thing 7-Sharing, collaborating, Pinning

So I admit I am a big old Pinterest Addict.  I can loose myself for hours clicking, pinning, tagging!  I love it.  I have found some excellent pin boards for organizing myself at school, literacy centers, and other fun things.  I especially love the visuals for different recipes.

Google Docs-I have used this for myself in the past, but never have used it to share items.  This past year I co-taught enrichment.  We created our grading rubrics in Google docs and then when assessment time came we could easily work on our student rubrics without actually having to find time to meet.  This worked really well.  It also worked well to distribute our final grading rubric with the two other teachers who also teach this course.

Another plus-- Google Docs is that it is extremely helpful for students who either do not have Microsoft Word (or have a really dated version), or the children who do not own, or consistently forget their flash drive.  I have really been pushing these tools for my middle school students because you only need the web.  We also introduced Prezi this year in our enrichment program.  The students loved that they could work at school or home.


Stixy-I have always wanted to try this but never seemed to find the time.  So I created a Stixy account.  After giving it some thought I decided that this could be a very useful tool to use with students.   Next year I would like to use this not only with my enrichment students, but with my fifth and sixth grade students as well.

With animoto I used dummy email accounts that  I set up through Google.  I plan on assigning each student a dummy email account so they can create a stixy page.  A quick assessment or activity could be to add a note or response on a note and stick it to a shared class board.  Using the mask function on the project you can keep responses hidden until all students are finished.

Additionally, I liked how you can add photos, and documents.  I may try to use these features to have students create a digital portfolio of their work over the course of the year.  I am always looking for tools to help get rid of paper-this may work well for me.

May also be nice to create a collaborative image board for students to share books they have read.  It might make some of the required classroom genre reading that happens within the fourth grade classroom more enticing.

Thing 9-eReaders and eBooks

eBook Overdrive.  With Capital Region BOCES launching Overdrive this year, I decided it would be a good time to also jump-start my own eBook usage.  I have an iPad with Nook, Kindle, and Kobo apps, I also use iBooks.  I have been slowly acquiring digital formats of new cookbooks because my bookshelf in the kitchen is full.  I love the sample feature in iBooks, it allows you to check out a small piece of a book so you don't have to commit.   I haven't used eBooks as much as I would like partly because for me, I do most of my reading in water (tub or floating in the pool).  If someone can recommend something to keep my iPad out of the water I would greatly appreciate it.  

Prior to Overdrive I was an extensive digital magazine reader.  I love the Newstand App for magazines and will NEVER buy another print magazine again.  There are so many amazing features that can be added to a magazine-video tutorials, links to featured product websites, and the images are amazing on the iPad.  

Back to eBooks.  I began purchases eBooks through Follett last year.  Our school uses Destiny and I have purchased many popular picture books that teachers request (so they can project them for the class), as well as multi-user nonfiction materials.  The way our system works is that students can use the book right from their computer.  So far they have not been able to "check-out," or download materials for a loan period.  They can view items when they need them on their screen and then close the book and use it later.  They can filter their search in Destiny to only see the eBooks we currently own.  I suspect I will continue to buy Follett eBooks for Destiny, however, I may stick to more reference type titles and use Overdrive for items that students may want to read for pleasure.  

I am excited to have overdrive so students can download both audio and eBooks.  I used overdrive as a launch pad to get students excited about summer reading.  Most students have access to a device that will support some type of eBook or audiobook, either their own, or one that belongs to an adult.  For parents, having a few eBooks on their phone may be an easy way to sneak in some summer reading, in between rounds of Angry Birds that is.  

To aid in the launch I spent the last weeks of school talking up Overdrive.  In student report cards I sent home instructions for accessing Overdrive.  Students went home with bookmarks provided by the SLS.  

I also added a link with the icon pic to my website for easy access.  I am just waiting for the webmaster to add a direct link from our school's main website as well.  

See my site here.

My first Overdrive eBook-Twilight book 4-Didn't like it and didn't finish. 

#2-Just finished Sold...Not bad, good choice for a someone who doesn't like to read because it is written in free verse.  

Books at school:  As a side note, we just adopted a new math series for MS that offers a digital text book for students who would like that option.  I would have killed to have that option.  If the digital product is as intuitive and informative as Martha Stewart Living for the iPad (video tutorials on food, crafts, outside links, etc.) , students are going to love to having Math homework.  

Thing 8-Search Engines and Widgets...

LOVE LOVE LOVE KidRex.org!  I normally introduce search engines (KidsClick, Internet Public Library for Kids, and Yahooligans-very limited because I don't really like it) to students in third grade.  I had a particularly inquisitive group of second graders this year, and when I saw KidRex listed here I decided to use it with them.  We worked in Kidspiration creating Wonder Maps with a topic in the middle, and keywords to support the topic around the edge.  I modeled for the children using their topic and one keyword to find a website...we had "Dogs Husky," "Porcupines spikes," "Legos Star Wars," and a number of other topics the children were interested in.  While the sites are most often not at the reading level of my second graders, they really enjoyed the interface, and loved that a picture came up next to the site.  I loved that I would have less worries about what weird kinds of images may pop up, or if sites were too technical, ad laden, or otherwise worthless.  While second graders would need lots of guidance from adults to actually gather detailed info from many of the sites, I liked that these sites have already met a criteria to be included in KidRex.

My fourth graders are already well entrenched in "Googling."  Not really from my instruction but because it is what their parents do,  and lets face it, it's a Google world.  I showed KidRex as an alternative to Google for pictures because I did not want them doing image search on their own at school.  They were impressed that they could get great pictures along with the websites that came up.  The added bonus was that it was very easy to copy and paste URL info for giving credit (all to often students give me the Google URL instead of the website URL when giving photo credit).

KidRex gets two thumbs up and a widget on my search engine page!

Get the KidRex widget here.

Widgets--So I did try putting some widgets on my site.  Some worked, some did not.  I am not an html expert, but I can copy and paste, and add extra lines in the code an such.  Unfortunately, our school subscribes to Teacher Web, I don't love this program, but it is easy to manage and maintain (I have been meaning to revamp my site using a wiki, so I am excited about thing 10--I just hope I finish in time).  Teacher Web is best for someone who can barely send email.  It does have an html editor option in some of the page layout features, but when I cut and pasted the code in what I thought was the correct space, it did not always work out.

I searched some of our databases besides the Widget links provided by Polly.  I did find one for (click for code) Teen Health and Wellness and tried to add it.  It was buggy--Don't know if that is from teacher web or from the code for the widget, I suspect teacher web is the issue.  I finally did get it to work.

I looked for a Gale widget.  You had to have some information about your account which I wasn't sure about since we order through BOCES.  However, a short email to customer service, and a response a few days later, I had the necessary info.  Check out my added widgets.

Thing 5-Finally

Ok...So I am finally getting around to thing 5.  All I have to say is...I wish I hadn't waited so long to find flip board...I love it.

I am going to start with Delicious.  I love Delicious and have been a user for years.  I provided my school colleagues with an inservice on this awesome tool several years ago and I am still getting requests for the directions, or my colleagues will add me to their contacts.  I use this tool a lot-both professionally, and for my other passions.  The convenience of always having your bookmarks is super important.  It also solves my problem that I use at least three different computers each day.  My biggest problem with delicious is that I am sometimes inconsistent with my tagging.  However, I have found this with any site that allows tagging--I have trouble with consistency.  Whatever strikes my fancy one day to describe a site might not be what I come up with another day to tag a similar site.  Use with students--I can definitely see potential for use with students for collaboration on group projects, finding better websites for topics they are interested in-students are often not motivated enough to think about their search or delve too deeply into Google- creating a delicious page for a class section even.


erinjankowski is my delicious id...feel free to add me as a contact.

FlipBoard Vs. Paper.li--I tried both.  I loved FlipBoard, most likely because it was very much like Pinterest.  It was nice to be able to literally flip through articles and posts as if it were a magazine.  Moreover, the iPad's great graphics make it look much cooler than Paper.li.  For students it would be nice to customize what appears to create a reading list for a class.  In my Mom's school they have a current events class (hs level)  This would be a great tool for that class.  The class texts are all on a Kindle Fire which students sign out for the year if they do not have one.  If there was a similar app for that this could really work for them.

I didn't love Paper.li.  The layout and interface were not nearly as user friendly.  I set up a paper and when I wanted to make changes after to the name and such it did not allow me to go back.  Moreover, the layout is not nearly as pleasing as FlipBoard.  Best for high school students and professional resources.  It seemed like an added step as opposed to just going to twitter.


Pinterest-Love it, in fact I had a whole blog post about it.  I don't need to add any more to that!
When I am finally allowed to make a Facebook account for my LMC, I will also create a pinterest account...Kids love visuals...yes, they judge books by there cover, and if they can see it, they might actually read it.

Thing 6-I know I am out of order

My Things--First I decided to try Evernote-I had been dying to set this up ever since Angela Strong shared her so wonderfully organized recipe collection at a CapReg BOCES SLS mtg..  It took all my willpower not to start setting up an account right then and there on my iPad.  Well I got bogged down with author visits, school plays, and a plague bestowed upon me by a hacking first-grader, and I just got around to creating an account.  My first clip was Jacque Torres' chocolate chip cookie recipe.  I took a look the Buffy Hamilton piece about using Evernote with students.  I only have K-8 students and I feel the tool is better suited for high school.  However, I would definitely pilot this tool with my gifted group-both as tool to organize their notes, and to use as shared forum for notes, articles, and digital ephemera.  As for teachers, librarians, etc, what a great way to share and organize.

My other tool I decided to use was DropBox.  I signed up for this years ago and never used it.  So I finally added my school files from my laptop to a dropbox folder.  I am anxious to get the files I have created on my work accounts into drop box.  I am not nearly as neat and organized on my work computer and now I can organize and access my work documents at home.  Now while Dropbox is a great tool, I am a an apple devotee and really do prefer iCloud.  While I have an older operating system on my laptop and cannot upgrade to Lion, I do manually add my stuff to iCloud (Lion does it for you).  In addition I love the opportunities available with iTunes, and the photo backup.  I know this can all be done with Dropbox...but Apple is Apple.