Happy New Year!

Last week, while reading tweets from members of my PLN (Professional Learning Network) I could see that people were planning. Planning for a new school year, planning for a new challenge, even planning for new positions or new schools. For those of us in education, July feels a lot like January. It is a time for making goals and changes, for really looking at what you have been doing or where you have been, and then working to make sure that when August comes around, and the students walk in the door, you are right where you are suppose to be, ready to give your very best!

So today, I jumped on board the "Back to School" train! I bought my planner for the year! I've been thinking about the new school year all summer, as I participated in staff development, Twitter chats, Summer Learning challenges, brainstorming sessions with my #Wandoo5 +1 friends, and EdCamp Ft. Worth. But the purchasing of the planner says "I'm ready to focus & commit to ideas and goals for the new year."

Earlier this month, I watched with excitement as our school counselor, Lindsay Fuller started developing her own Twitter PLN and collaborated and connecting with other school counselors. I've shared how being a connected educator has helped me be a better librarian, and she experienced that this summer!  She wrote a fabulous blog post about her goals for this new school year that you can read HERE and sent out this sweet tweet!

This and a session at EdCamp FWTX helped bring to mind one of my goals for the new school year, which is to help teachers on our campus become connected educators. I can do this by providing opportunities for connections and supporting them while they develop their own PLNs on Twitter.  Joining and participating in conversations & chats on Twitter is a great way to become a connected educator.  During EdCamp FWTX, Todd Nesloney Skyped in to talk about his Summer Learning Series aimed at getting educators connected and comfortable with using various tools. He also spoke to the people in the room about creating a PLN on Twitter. Here some more tweets from that session.

Another goal I will have this year is having a MakerClub. Having had a Media MakerClub last school year, I know better than to name this club. The first thing the students did in the Media Maker Club was change the name to Digital Bookworms! :) #studentvoice

 If you've been reading this blog, you know we created a maker space in the library last spring. You can read the posts about it HERE and HERE.  My goal this year is to use this space not only during the school day, but also with an after school club. This club will change each six weeks, with a new collaborative project each six weeks. I have had several parents who are interested assisting with this club, so I will be calling upon them for help. The students have really enjoyed the time they have spent exploring the makerspace, but my goal is for it to be more product oriented, with a mini-makerfaire at the end of each session to showcase the creations of the students. 

The media maker club will also run similarly to this, so that students are learning a tool and then creating with that tool. This decision was based on feedback I got from the members of the Digital Bookworms at the end of last year.

Lastly, a goal I have this year is to collaborate even more with our campus teachers. Each year brings more opportunities for collaboration and more willing participants. These collaboration efforts, like other goals I have, need a specific focus so I will design collaborative projects for each grade level, with the help of the grade level teachers. With these collaborations, students will be taught a digital tool that they can use. While at AASL last November, I listened to Jennifer Reed talk about how she teaches each grade level a specific digital tool each year so that they build a tool box of digital tools. I did a little of this last year, but want to be more focused this year, planning ahead each grade level's tool. These tools will then be used for their collaborative project. 

I am excited about this new year! I'm ready to open my new planner, get focused and start working on these goals! What goals do you have for the new school year? 

Vacations Help Clear the Mind! EdCamp Fort Worth Experience

It took a vacation to get my mind clear enough to share my first Edcamp experience!  We spent a cool 6 days in Vancouver & Whistler, BC Canada and it was WONDERFUL!!

Before that though, I spent a Saturday at Edcamp Fort Worth, hosted by some great people in Keller ISD!  I had seen information on Twitter about Edcamp and I was excited to find one so close.  Two teachers and two librarians from our district went, each with our own individual focus.  I don't think any of us left disappointed!  And we are all excited about the next one, Edcamp Dallas!


The great part about an Edcamp is that it is so informal and provides opportunities for personal professional learning with peers.  When we first arrived, we listed topics we were interested in learning about on sticky notes and then grouped them on a window with like notes.  The sessions were then chosen from those and put into time slots. 

An easy tool to help with organization of your edcamp experience was the guidebook that I downloaded before I got there.  I could keep up with the sessions I wanted to participate in, and that is exactly what it was, PARTICIPATORY.  In two of the sessions, there were people who were more knowledgeable than most, but in two sessions, we just all shared and tried out things while we were in there together.  None of the sessions were lecture or just one person talking.  This is how Edcamps should be from what I've learned!  :)

The first session I chose was on Evernote, an organizational tool that can be used on iPads, as well as PCs.  It is a way to organize documents, websites, photos, and more in different "notebooks"  The notes can be tagged for easy access.  While in the sessions, I learned  how to create different notebooks, which I had not done with all of my notes.  Another attendee showed how she had created a checklist in Evernote to use for the beginning of school, which was interactive.  She was able to check off supplies/notes, etc for the students as they brought them in.  So much better than all of the paper checklists!  Evernote is definitely a tool I will be using this year to stay organized!

Next, I went to a session on Genius Hour, which is something we are interested in implementing at our school. It is based on Google's 20% time, where employees are allowed to pursue their passions & interest for 20% of the work time.  Amazingly enough, 50% of the new ideas put into use came during this creative exploration time. For school use, students & staff would be able to pursue their own interests during Genius Hour. Teachers would set aside a certain amount of time for students to work on their "passion projects." It was described as "messy" and "loud" but we are were still interested!  :)

While in the session, people shared how they are planning to use genius hour in their classroom. Some teachers plant to put no parameters on the projects, while others wanted to offer a little more guidance to their students.  I loved that each person could make it their own, which is an important part of this. Genius Hour, if nothing else, is individualized & personal!  All of this made me stop and think of how I could support classroom teachers with genius hour using our new Makerspaces in the library.  Our engineering makerspace, as well as the multi-media makerspace would fit in nicely with genius hour!  Light bulbs were definitely going on!

In addition to these two great sessions, I also went to one on Augmented Reality. This is something I had only heard of, and still am a long way from implementing, but it was oh so cool!!  I'll have to work on it during my own "genius hour" and look at the ways it can be used in the library. The last one I went to was on Google Docs, and although I comfortably use Google Docs, I decided to stay as a refresher, not to mention, I had so much already going on in my brain that I didn't think I could handle anything else new!  ;)

My first Edcamp experience was GREAT!  I learned quite a bit in a short amount of time and in a very relaxed setting. I was able to meet some of my Twitter PLN face to face, as well as make new connections!  The people who put it on did a fantastic job, and it ran very smoothly! AND there were door prizes!! 

 I can't wait to attend my next edcamp:

EdcampDallas
Oct 12th 2013
Plano, Tx (Sockwell Center)

Have you been to an edcamp?  What are your thoughts?  Have you helped present or facilitate at one? I'm hoping to try that in the near future....  Any advice? :)

Learning, Connecting, Growing

This past week, I had a few opportunities to learn and share with other educators. From blogging to Twitter to faculty book club meeting to attending my first Edcamp, it was definitely a FULL week!

On Tuesday, I worked with teachers and librarians on blogging. Each person was at a different place, some had an active blog but just wanted to add some WOW to it, while others had not yet begun to blog.

I went with Blogger, since that is the one I am most familiar with and helped teachers set up a Google account and then create  and "decorate" their blog. Sometimes, especially with elementary teachers, we can't even begin until we are pleased with the look! :)

 In addition to teachers & librarians, our diagnostician came to the session, wanting help not only with blogging, but also finding relevant blogs to follow.  By searching topics and people, we were able to find blogs that would be beneficial.  Some decided to add these to their blog page under "My Blog List" so that it was easy to follow. 

There was a really good discussion about "audiences" for our blog and who we are targeting.  We all agreed that our hope is that our school families are reading them, acknowledging though that more often it is other teachers & librarians.  Everyone brainstormed ways to draw in our school families, and decided one way is to make sure there is more coverage of daily events with pictures!  :)



The best part of the day was the informal sharing that happened as we all moved forward with our blogging skills!  I love how Mrs. Abdur-Razzaaq added video of her new genre-fied fiction section to her Crockett Elementary Library blog!  

It was fun working with each other to create informative blogs for our students & families!


On Wednesday, I met with a few teachers to help them create Personal Learning Networks (PLN)on Twitter.  Again, we started where each person was, some without a Twitter account, some with "eggs" as profile pictures, and others with wanting to find people to follow. 

I am passionate about sharing the benefits of establishing a PLN with colleagues and was excited about the opportunity to "hook" a few new people!  :)  We discussed the difference between using Facebook and Twitter, separating your personal and professional Twitter accounts, and connecting with people who will inspire and energize you! The professional learning opportunities that come up from following people on Twitter are fabulous!  The weekly chats are plentiful!  Just look at this Tweet for Jerry Blumengarten, who is an incredible asset to any PLN:

Weekly Twitter Educational Chat Schedule http://t.co/lsnhn5kNM9 Every day you can learn and share with a global audience.
— Jerry Blumengarten (@cybraryman1) July 29, 2013

Webinars are often shared on Twitter, as well as conferences.  And then there is the daily interaction between people who create, collaborate and share!  This is the best place to personalize your professional learning!  (see, I told you I was passionate about this!  ;) )

When everyone left, they had their account set up, people to follow, and had posted at least one tweet!  Woohoo! 
 
Most of the people working on Twitter are also members of our faculty book club, which happened to be meeting right after.  Each month we choose a book to read and then meet to discuss it. Now that more of us are on Twitter, we are also using #curtisbookclub when talking about our books.  We read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn for this month's book and the discussion was LIVELY to say the least! (This is NOT a children's book, definitely for "mature audiences.")  The delicious treats at Cup and Cake in downtown Weatherford made the discussion even better!

Our next selection is The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and we will meet in a few weeks for this discussion.  This is another adult book, but as I have recently been reminded, teachers need to be READERS to teach READERS!  :)  We will work in children's books during the school year, but for the end of summer, this seems good!  I'm taking it with me on my end of summer trip next week. 

 

 

Edcamp Fort Worth was so awesome, it deserves its own post! More to come!

 

Happy Reading AND Happy Learning!