The Learning Librarian

I have really been enjoying my first couple of months as a school librarian! I recently accpeted a position as the library media specialist at Saranac Elementary School in Saranac, NY. I have three classes of each grade, K-5, plus a pre-first, two self-contained classes, and one day per rotation (6 days) teaching information literacy skills to sixth graders at the junior high. I have a bit of a drive, about 40-50 min each way depending on the weather, but that just gives me plenty of time to listen to audiobooks! So far I love my new school. The students are generally polite and fun, the teachers and staff are welcoming, and my principal is supportive. I don’t have a library aide, but I do have a long-serving volunteer who comes to help me every day. I definitely never would have made it through without her or the library club students who come in several times a day to shelve books, run errands, make copies, and whatever else I need.

It feels so great to be finished with all of my graduate school classes. For the past couple of years I’ve been juggling school, a part-time environmental consulting job, student teaching, substitute teaching, and family. Now I can focus on family and work like a normal person. How much do I love that it is now a legitimate use of my time (and not procrastination) to peruse Twitter for new cool websites, communicate with my colleagues and friends on FB, and read books for fun!

I couldn’t have asked for a warmer welcome to the school–nor a better mentor than the previous librarian, Glenda Rowe. Her values have shaped the library’s future, including a strong culture of collaboration between the library and the classroom, a high level of interest in reading by the students, and an overall sense of enjoyment of the library.

I have made a few changes since I started in January, including:

• upgrading library computers and adding more computers,
• creating a book reading nook,
• adding many more library records into the online catalog,
• posting the library online catalog on the school website for classroom or at-home access (including links to the library databases),
• working with teachers to provide resources and assist with research units,
• creating library pathfinders, which are lists of research links for teachers and students, and
• developing a library sign-up procedure to facilitate research projects in the library computer lab.

I have a lot of plans for additional improvements, but that will come with time. I’m still trying to remember the names of all the staff and students!

I recently responded to a post on LM_NET regarding the use of Skype in the classroom. Subsequently there was a lot of interest in the Skype projects that I posted about (see below), plus the Skype manual that I generated for the Lake Placid Middle/High School (LPMHS) as part of a class assignment. I created the Skype manual specifically for the school in which I was interning, but it includes information about settings, sample project ideas, procedural recommendations, and links to additional information, so the manual could be applicable in many different school settings. So here’s the link to the manual: lpmhs-skype-manual

While doing my student teaching at LPMHS under the excellent tutelage of Sara Kelly Johns, we conducted two different Skype interactions between Christian Wissler’s LPMHS biology students and David Fahey’s students at LaFayette High School in Williamsburg, VA. The hardest part was finding another school and teacher to Skype with, and coordinating timing. It helped that both schools were in the same time zone! An excellent resource for getting started is the Skype in Schools wiki.  Ultimately, I ended up using personal contacts to find a partner school.

The first project was a debate on genetically engineered foods between the two classes. Both classes researched the topic ahead of time, and the debate took place via Skype.  The debate ended up being only marginally successful since the two classes were not evenly matched in terms of age or ability, and the competitive nature of the interaction was stressful for the kids. The second project was much more successful: a discussion via Skype between two groups of biology students. Each class did some research about ecological issues in both regions (the Chesapeake Bay in Virgina and the Adirondacks in northern New York). The students asked each other questions about acid rain, water quality, pollution, development pressure, and invasive species. Afterwards, the kids were allowed to briefly discuss general topics such as what they did for fun, and how much snow it takes before school is closed (1/2 inch in Virginia, over a foot in the Adirondacks!). It was a lot of fun for both students and teachers! My favorite question (which was unnecessarily prefaced by “This is a dumb question, but…”) was “does acid rain taste different?”

Overall, I found Skype to be an excellent resource for broadening students’ minds and teaching them about life in other regions or other countries. For students like ours that come from very rural areas, this type of interaction is especially invaluable. I hope to conduct many more Skype interactions once I settle into a real library job!

Note: this post satisfies the requirements for an assignment in Pam Berger’s IST 611 course, Syracuse University.

Technology: Bubbl.us

Mind mapping in general has been in use since the 1970s. According to Murley (2), “Because mind mapping is more flexible than outlining, it encourages creativity. Displaying all related topics on the same mind map, with emphasis and connections indicated by images, symbols, and colors, improves memory retention. The maps are also easier to understand, which saves time and increases productivity.” I had never used any mind mapping program before, so investigating Bubbl.us was eye-opening for me.

I can see how this tool could be useful in the classroom for all kinds of projects. Not only can it be used for brainstorming during the initial stages of a project, it can be used during later stages as well (Techbites n.p.). Brainstorming on the computer will capture the students’ interest better than brainstorming on a flip board or chalkboard, and the social networking component is especially appealing to students (Davis n.p.). If setting up student accounts is too cumbersome, bubbl.us can be used without signing into an account, as long as the work doesn’t need to be saved or shared (Clarke, n.p.). Collaboration between classes online may be more convenient with bubbl.us than with other Web 2.0 tools, because it can be asynchronous: each class can choose to view the collaborative content at a time that is convenient for them. With an online program such as bubbl.us, teachers and teacher-librarians can start with a narrow topic, and gradually broaden and deepen by adding bubbles as they go along, incorporating experiences from students’ own experience and enhancing learning (Murley 3).

Bubbl.us can help educators in many ways, including the following classroom ideas:

1.      Make a family tree when studying family heritage in social studies (Aitchison n.p.).

2.      Collaborate on a project with another class in another school without having to make sure everyone has the same commercial software (Valenza 13).

3.      Create word webs, which can then be shared with the teacher and with fellow students that may have related words (Davis n.p.).

4.      Introduce note-taking strategies for a literature analysis (Goldberg 22).

5.      Teach Big6 or other research strategies at the beginning stages of a research project (Goldberg 23).

6.      Create a timeline (incorporating people and locations) for a specific historical time period or event (Goldberg 24).

7.      Accommodate different learning styles – mind mapping is particularly useful for strong visual learners (Murley 3).

In addition to classroom use, Bubbl.us can help educators on a personal level to become more organized. For example:

1.      Create flow charts for grant proposals (Aitchison n.p.).

2.      Create a mind map of a brainstorming session for project planning that can be shared with all project team members using the collaboration feature or pasted into a blog or wiki.

3.      Organize sources or notes for a paper or research article, in order to aid in the writing process and narrow the focus of each topic (Murley 3). For an example, see the works cited section below.

In summary, Bubbl.us is a very intriguing mind mapping tool. I wish it allowed real-time collaboration (wiki-style) like MindMeister or FreeMind (Adam and Mowers 24), rather than only one person being able to use it at a time. Other, more robust mind mapping programs (MindMeister, Inspiration) are out there that have more features such as greater flexibility in fonts and editing options, or the ability to add links and pictures (Adam and Mowers 24), but Bubbl.us is free, and its very simplicity is what makes it so useful and convenient (Clarke n.p.). Bubbl.us isn’t trying to be the most intricate mind-mapping tool, and its colorful visuals and cute animations (bubbles “blow up” when you delete them, panning feature) will be very appealing to students (Wilson n.p.).

With all of its cool interactive features and beneficial organization tools, however, I see myself using it more in a classroom setting with students than for my own personal purposes. I think a person’s own personal organization visualization preferences either mesh with mind mapping or they don’t. I am a linear thinker, so making lists and hierarchical trees works better for me than bubbl.us’s more amorphous blob organization. Having said that, I do like the idea of being able to save and change my mind map, and being able to move bubbles around and inter-connect them. It would take some getting used to, but I am now warming to the idea of new ways to visualize projects and ideas, and I appreciate the opportunity to learn about a technology I would probably never have investigated if not for this class. This project has ultimately shown me that I should be open-minded about any and all web 2.0 technologies, because their usefulness might just surprise me!

Works Cited (Note: one of the downsides of bubbl.us is that you can’t provide a url link to a mind map, you can only invite someone to view it who already has a bubbl.us account. Please comment to this blog if you would like access to this mind map!) 

I’m not exactly sure what the blog etiquette rules are but I strongly suspect that it is discouraged to post the same blog entry to more than one blog. So instead I’ll provide a link to the post I just made over on the Syracuse MLIS blog: http://blogs.iis.syr.edu/mslis/?p=90 

I’m interested in hearing people’s thoughts about this and Scott Nicholson tells me that he’s had to disable comments on the MLIS blog due to spammers so please post your comments here.

Thanks!

2. All of the readings give specific examples of ways to use blogs with students and in schools, as well as the positives and negatives of incorporating blogs into your school. What other issues or positive consequences can you foresee happening as a result of utilizing blogs in schools? Can you think of other ways to blog or use established blogs as a teaching tool?
The primary positive consequence I can see from incorporating blogs into a school is to encourage shy students that might not feel comfortable talking aloud in class. Blogs allow students time to formulate their thoughts before making them public. Blogs also allow students to find their voices and define what is important to them, encourage creative writing, and boost literacy. Although there is always a risk of students making inappropriate comments, I think it will be lessened by the fact that the blog process is so public and all comments will have students’ names on them. Plus, the blog can be set up so that the teacher or LMS has to approve the comments.  I like the idea of using peer pressure in a positive way to improve students’ writing.

Mattering in the school blogosphere. (2007). American Libraries, 38(5), 62-5. Retrieved February 8, 2009, from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database.

Not about THE inaguration, just my first one. This blog was initiated as part of Pam Berger’s Syracuse University MLIS course, Information Technologies in Educational Organizations. I’ll be responding to some discussion topics, and hope to have some good discussions with my classmates. I love this class!