Thursday, January 30, 2014

Getting Organized...

I created accounts on several organizational websites, and I decided that my favorite was Wunderlist! It is an awesome website/app that can help anyone keep their lives in order...especially students! Check it out...www.wunderlist.com. On this site, you are able to create as many lists as you need, such as grocery lists, to-do lists, planning lists, etc. This is list makers dream! You can add and take away lists as needed, and under each list you can add items as needed. As you complete (or purchase) items, you can check them off your list. Talk about a feeling of accomplishment! :) My husband and I already had a similar app called "Our Groceries" that we used for grocery and to-do lists, but Wunderlist goes above and beyond. You can share your lists with others and invite them to have ownership in your list. Teachers could use this for lesson planning and students could use this for group projects! Students could also use this app to list assignments due, homework, etc. You are also able print any list or email it to yourself or someone else. You can sort your lists alphabetically if needed. When you add an item to a list, you can make it a favorite, or you can set due dates on items and reminders for them. All and all, this tool is AMAZING and could really help students and teachers stay organized, connect in groups as needed, and make sure they meet deadlines like never before! Love this app!

Another tool that I explored was Evernote. Evernote is similar to Wunderlist, but on steroids! It is not only a list making site, but it is excellent for project management. Students could use this tool for group projects or research projects. I will definitely encourage the use of Evernote with my students. Students can store single items on Evernote, called notes. These can be documents (scanned into the system), pictures, notes, audio recordings, to-do lists, etc. Students can also have "notebooks", which is a collection of notes. I can see this tool being extremely useful for managing projects. As students research, explore, experiment, and create, they can store all of their findings and creations on Evernote in order to keep them all in one portable place. Evernote can be accessed from anywhere, so the information will always be accessible. Students can sync their notes and they will be stored on their computer, phone, iPad, anything! This is an excellent tool to keep students and their documents organized.

Pinterest is another tool that could be very helpful to students. I was already familiar with Pinterest, and have recently become even more familiar with it as I have dived into lesson planning during my student teaching. Pinterest is a place where you can "pin" great ideas that you find on the Internet or search through things that others have pinned. Students could use Pinterest to assist with their assignments and projects in a couple of ways. First of all, students could sign in to Pinterest, do a search for their project idea and have tons of ideas right at their fingertips. For instance, if a student searched "Holocaust Project," they would find websites, pictures, interviews, and more dealing with the Holocaust. Another way students could use Pinterest is as an organizer and a place to hold all of their ideas as they find them. So, if a student is cruising the Internet looking for information and ideas for their project, and they see something that they want to use or look at in more depth, then they can pin it to a board on Pinterest and go back to it later. You can make as many boards as you want and add as many things as you want to them. A students could make a board labeled "Holocaust Project" and pin things to it, such as pictures, great websites, audio/video materials, project ideas from other students, museum information, etc. Here is an example of a board that I made, just to show you how they look and how they are organized...(I wanted to embed the board, but I couldn't get it to work for the life of me, so here is a link.)

http://www.pinterest.com/ashleysneds/how-can-students-use-pinterest/

Fun and easy right?! I love Pinterest, and I will definitely encourage my students to use it to stay organized, get ideas, and share ideas!



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Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Some of My Favorite Tweets...
















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The Library on Facebook

Doing a search on Facebook to find school library pages was quite an adventure. I decided to start with a high school library page for Pasadena High School in Pasadena, TX. This Facebook page had 237 likes, but when looking through the posts I noticed that very few of these followers actually read, or at least respond to, the page. I looked back through this school year to see how the librarian chose to use the page, and she really did a pretty good job. Early in the school year she asked for suggestions for books to add to the collect (no responses). She then announced an author coming to visit and also let readers know that they are now able to check out kindles to read eBooks (again, no comments or likes). The trend continued...reminder to get ID cards, reminder for permission slips, reminder for Barnes and Noble Book Fair, announcement of new additions to the collection, etc...all with no response from followers. I was very discouraged by this. It seems like this page is a waste of time for this librarian.

I then moved on to find a middle school page for Austin Middle School Library. This page had 609 likes, so I was sure it would be more interactive...and I was right! However, they should take the word "Library" off of this page, because it had nothing to do with the media center. This librarian utilized her page to share school events such as Back to School Bash and Open House, which is great, except that this is all she used the site for. She reminded students about picture day, student counsel meetings, sports events, school-wide charity projects, etc. She included LOTS of pictures from events such as the Fall Dance, volleyball and basketball games, and the Fireman Festival. She would sometimes get up to 30 likes on a post and some even commented. This would be great news if this librarian had used the page to also inform followers about the library...books, events, research, etc. She not one time used this page to engage students or parents to the media center. Again, I left the page feeling discouraged.

THEN, I came across the page for Roosevelt-Wilson Elementary School Library. This page had 267 likes, and this librarian did an awesome job of engaging those 267 followers to her library. She welcomed students back to school and also announced that she had gotten married and had a new last name....this post alone had 65 likes...that is almost 1/4 of the total followers. She used this page to entertain students with quotes from books, such as "30 Dr. Seuss Quotes That Can Change Your Life." She posts links to awesome things, like science experiments to do at home when you're bored, free reading websites for kids, and apps to inspire kids to read. These are so helpful for parents! She does awesome activities and posts pictures afterwards. She did a story book character dress up day and a project where students decorated a pumpkin to match their favorite books. These pictures were so fun to look at! She also posts about other school activities, such as 50's day and Science Fair...which is great because she shows the followers that her page is FOR the library but also SUPPORTS the school at large. She promotes literacy through her page by announcing author visits and family reading nights. Every month she posts "Ticket Winners," which are students who win the ability to check out new books for the very first time. She announced a grant that the media center had won and took a picture of students next to the huge checks...people really responded with excitement to this post. The list could go on and on...she did an incredible job with utilizing her Facebook page to engage students and parents. I was so impressed that I sent this librarian a message thanking her for doing such a great job...I wanted her to know that she renewed my faith in Facebook for the school library! :) Check out her page: https://www.facebook.com/rwlibrary

As these pages show, there are both advantages and disadvantages to using Facebook for the school library. As the librarian at the elementary level shows us, Facebook can be an excellent way to promote literacy, share library events and pictures, and keep students involved in the collection throughout the year. The other two pages show that Facebook pages can quickly get off focus if you are not committed to use it to promote the school media center.

I created a screen cast on how to create a Facebook page. Bare with me...this was my first screen cast ever, so it is pretty rough!  


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