OZZFEST in August!

What a wonderful experience! My son, my foster son, and I went to Ozzfest in August. We left early in the day and arrived at Dr. Pepper Stadium, I believe it was called, north of Dallas, late in the morning. It was already hot, and it would get even hotter as the day wore on, finally reaching 104 degrees! We were able to find a parking lot that still had available spaces, and I debated taking my straw hat, but the boys thought it made me look weird so I let them talk me out of it. "Mama. we are all going to get Metallica hats so you don't need that stupid-looking straw hat!"

We passed through the metal checkpoint without incident and entered the stadium to the sounds of Apocalyptica. I particularly like this group when they play Metallica on their cellos--just heavenly! We went straight to the merchandise to spend our money. I got a great new Metallica shirt that looks like the night sky studded with stars, but it is actually a skull--really nice. The boys got Metallica caps--the last two. Yes, I had to wear a towel on my head which must have made me look a lot stupider than the straw hat did! :(

I thought I might be the oldest living Metallica fan, but there were many ancients there that day, although most of them did sport tattoos and ponytails. I looked just like what I am--a little old lady Metallica fan.

Our seats were out in the open but they were on the 3rd row Out of deference to me, the boys did not buy tickets on the grass.I was very grateful.

Ozzy was in great form, and he was having a wonderful time. In fact, he ran over by 35 minutes. Metallica, naturally, was the finale, and it was after 10:00 PM by the time they took the stage, I think. They favored us with a dynamic show, as usual. They were moving constantly and roamed all over the stage. They sang a new song from their newest album, so we heard it first!!

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

Don't I just wish my latest project had worked out better! A fabulous sister librarian in our district had the idea of selling coffee in the library before school during National Library Week. I think I will be out of town that week, so I thought maybe I could try out the idea on Valentine's Day!

I contacted the coffee shop which supplies coffee for teachers on our campus every Friday, and they said, "Sure! No problem! We'll give you a good deal." But then, but then....I never could keep in contact. I had to call and call and call. Finally, we agreed on a price for coffee and hot chocolate, complete with cups, spoons, sugar, cream, and whipped cream. I was plenty nervous so I didn't advertise in a big way.

This morning my retired librarian friend and I were parked in front of the coffee shop at 6:30. The coffee was ready; the cocoa was ready. There were no cups, cream, or whipped cream. We made an emergency run to the grocery store. Finally, we arrived at school, and we were early enough to get a parking place in front. Sure, I had to park in the spot reserved for "The speaker," but whoever he or she may be, he/she wasn't there at 6:45! I collared two students who had the misfortune of arriving early, and gave them the opportunity to help me lug two hefty containers and assorted items up to the library, while long-suffering friend parked my car in its proper space.

I was set up and ready for business at 7:00! My regular morning crowd came in, and a few of them bought cocoa. They seemed to enjoy the experience, and it was nice. The atmosphere was homey and relaxed, and the hint of cinnamon was a masterful touch!

Did I make any money? Not a dime. Did people enjoy it? Yes. What could I have done differently? More extensive advertising. Take pictures! Now that I know what to expect, I can have a better experience next time!

It was fun; I would do it again.

Thing #23: Cliff Notes

Oh, this has been a treasured learning experience! Thank you for making me get off my duff and tackle these "things!" Our RCE librarian is one who always just jumps in and does something with new technology--remember the "teases?" I really envied that attitude, and although it is not a "native born" trait, I feel that I am developing into the kind of person and librarian I want and need to be.

It feels so good to have done this and to understand the terminology that our geeky kids seem to have been born knowing. Today I complimented a student for helping me clean up a mess on one of the computers, and I asked him how he had become so knowledgeable about computers. He replied, "Well, I ought to be! I've sat in front of them for 11 years!" I thought, "Well, we have probably sat in front of computers the same number of years, but you are light years ahead of me. How did that happen? How did I let that happen?"

Thing #22: Ding Dong Ning!

Oh, this was interesting I started with the definition of a "ning." I'd never heard that term before, and when I started Thing #1, I didn't even really understand what social networking was! At least now I know that a ning is a social networking tool that brings like-minded people together, no matter where they live!

I started with Teacher Librarian Ning because I do like that term, and I feel it describes my position--somewhat! This ning is for teacher-librarians and other educators, and some of the groups appealed to me: High School TeacherLibrarians, for example, discuss the lack of help, guaranteed research experience, and "old school" library aides. What to do? Building a Culture of Collaboration revolved around disseminating and implementing the AASL Standards for the 21st Century learner, flexible scheduling, and approaches to teaching information literacy. These are subjects that all of us wrestle with, apparently. It's nice to have company but maybe not so nice that we are all familiar with the problems!

I thought I would try to make a ning, so have a look at Nontraditional Old Maid Librarians!
It is just a start, I know, but it is fun, and the next one I make can be the "really good one!"

Thing #21: From My Pod to Yours

That is the problem, all right. I have sweated blood over this one. I went to Radio Shack this afternoon and purchased a ten dollar headset with microphone from a youngster who could have been my grandson. When I told him I had to learn to make a podcast, he almost choked to death to keep from guffawing right in my face. "Oh, it's easy," he said. Right. Well, I got home with said headset and recorded my experience, leaving out the sordid and humiliating little details. Now, I only have to figure out how to get the podcast into this blog. I may be up to my eyeballs in trouble here. I could save this as a wav file but not as mp3. I wasn't able to download this "lame" thing (lame in more ways than one!) on my computer. What to do with a wav? Swim fast to the shore. I'll be back!

This is still very clumsy. I cannot see the forest for the trees!
http://www.box.net/shared/204knx9c0s/rss.xml

Thing #20: I Tube, You Tube, We Tube, Teacher Tubes....

I received an email this morning from a senior English teacher who asked me to gather resources for a unit dealing with the Vietnam War. Since I was in the mood to play and since the firewall doesn't block Teacher Tube, I engaged in a little detective work! I searched for both Viet Nam and Vietnam, and almost immediately I stumbled upon this lesson plan incorporating primary source research and technology for Tim O'Brian's The Things They Carried. I hope it is embedded properly, and I hope you like it.

Although I dutifully searched for library and libraries and even more dutifully viewed what I found, what I really wanted to see on You Tube was a performance video of Anna Pavlova, and I found one! I was in heaven! Her technique was sadly lacking, but she danced so expressively and had such lovely arms and hands that she was a joy to behold! I am absolutely sold on You Tube now, and I wish I could see it at school!

Thing #19: Explore the Web 2.0 Awards List

How exciting it is to see the familiar "faces" of Technorati, del.icio.us , and LibraryThing, among others, but today I am thrilled to find Medstory. Not only is it fascinating to me personally, but I wish I had known about it this past week when the biology students were researching diseases and working on PowerPoint presentations! We had enough information just using the Library Resources Page, of course, but if this one is on the Page, I missed it!

Just type in your search term, and voila! There is all the information a person could possibly slog through! Even me. I searched for fatty liver, hemochromotosis, Tay-Sachs disease, and, oh, yes! The plague! A friend of mine is currently reading Journal of the Plague Year and was asking about the two types of plague mentioned in the book: one with buboes, and one where the victim --well, never mind. The point is that we can find out the answers here!

For those of you who are participating in the district's wellness program, try peertrainer if you need information, a sympathetic ear, and moral support.Your friends are probably tired of hearing about your wellness efforts and don't appreciate the new you!

Thing #18: Online Productivity Tools

Open Office turned out to be easier for me to use than Google Docs; perhaps it is more like Word? I loved dabbling with the drawing tools and making presentations. I even made a table, but I must admit that spreadsheets are not my forte no matter which program I am using! Thing #25 to learn?

I hadn't known what open source meant so I had to look it up, and I still couldn't easily explain it to anyone. Source code?? I like that it is free, and I like that Open Office is multiplatform. It did take quite a while to download, but maybe that was an individual computer problem.

These, according to Google Docs' "Basic Information" are just some of the advantages of using an online productivity tool such as Google Docs:

• Invite others (by e-mail address) to edit or view your documents and spreadsheets.
• Edit documents online with whomever you choose.
• View your documents' and spreadsheets' revision history and roll back to any version.
• Publish documents online to the world, as Web pages or post documents to your blog.
• Download documents to your desktop as Word, OpenOffice, RTF, PDF, HTML or zip.

P.S. Yesterday I downloaded Open Office, as I told you, and today a student came in with a WordPerfect document. Our library computers wouldn't read it, and she was really stressing. I thought I would try to open it with Open Office, and it worked!

Thing #17: Learning 2.0 Sandbox Wiki

I played in the Sandbox this afternoon, and being a fur person, I wonder whether anyone will come by with a scoop and fresh litter!

The pbwiki tour link did not work for me. I am staying late and working on a school computer; perhaps that is part of the problem. Anyway, I would have enjoyed taking a tour to learn more about this! I was intimidated because everyone can see what I wrote, and it wasn't really all that intelligent! Taking these risks is sometimes very uncomfortable for me, but I will just have to suck it up and GOI!

Thing #16: Wiki, Wiki!

I am not sure what is supposed to be "wiki wiki" (fast) but I am not it! I have read several of the suggested wikis ,and all the information just vanishes as soon as I go to sleep. Like the girl in "50 First Dates," I start each day as a blank slate and begin re-reading. Finally, it occurred to me--take notes!

I investigated some of the suggested wikis, starting with Library Success: A best practices wiki. I looked at the suggestions for book club reading guides and found BookBrowse.com Reading Guides, Reading Group Guides, both of which are useful, and S.C.O.R.E. Cyberguides, directed primarily toward teachers and no longer updated.

Some teachers are doing remarkable work with students. This Holocaust Wiki Project is so good and so interesting that I would like to join in myself! The Holocaust Museum Houston (Holocaust Museum Houston : Home) is always adding to their database of resources for school projects, and I know the librarian will be very pleased to learn about this one!

Other wikis such as Core Competencies wiki are devoted to staff technology training, although this one may have been accessed but not added to. Others are developed for librarians especially interested in library instruction.

Thanks to a certain individual who keeps me on my toes, I have had a bit of experience the past few days on pbwiki. It isn't really hard to get started, but the formatting can be difficult, and I am very glad that formatting wasn't my part of the project! My friend tells me that one has to let the wiki be a wiki and do its thing, and I was very grateful to be the follower rather than the leader in this adventure!

The project my colleague was working on was a wiki for interdisciplinary research with a resources bank which teachers could add to. I can see the benefits for both teachers and students as they share their information.

Thing #15 Reflection Pool

This was the most fascinating "Thing!" I watched the video "A Vision of Students Today, " thought about it for a couple of days, and mulled over some of the many comments about the film. Some bloggers thought it was anti-technology; others thought it was totally pro-technology. The students bemoan the fact that they have inherited problems not of their making, but who among us hasn't? Fact of life; get over it. They buy textbooks they never use, they pay tuition but skip class, they bring laptops to class but use them "off task," and they put in over 26 hours in a 24 hour period. How can they do that? They multi-task. For me, one comment kinda summed it up: are we using technology but teaching in the same traditional manner we used to? From the looks of the video classrooms, the answer is, "Yes."



Another comment, from a librarian, asserts that stimulating curiosity is in the domain of the teacher. So true. Questions lead to other questions. For example, if the traditional educational system in the United States is non-productive, and if we need to incorporate technology and teach according to learning style and encourage interaction with the teacher and with classmates, why are traditional educational systems in some other countries graduating scholars, doctors, engineers, and scientists to a greater degree (no pun intended) than is the United States? Everyone has an idea about this; I would like to hear yours.



I just had to laugh at myself when I read Away from the "Icebergs" by Rick Anderson.That is so me! Not only am I dealing with the "Save the world's clutter" here at home, but I am also suffering from it at work! I need to take Anderson's words to heart; a library is not a museum, and I need not save every book "just in case." My mother, from whom I inherited the clutter gene, has purchased a book to help her eliminate the clutter in her home. She, as did the author's parents, lived through the Great Depression and remembers how her own parents saved everything "just in case they needed it." And, the author continues, guess what? They never did need it.



My retired librarian friend, who shares this character flaw, and I have made a pact to get rid of one thing for every new one brought into the house. We don't have it quite right, though, because I give mine to her, and she gives hers to me! :(

Thing #14: Technorati

A keyword search for "school library learning 2.0" resulted in 1,593 hits. School librarians in another state are doing just what we're doing--investigating web 2.0 to see how we can prepare ourselves to assist patrons who are more technologically proficient than we are!It's a really big thing, isn't it? I viewed both videos, and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the views of the Technorati staff.Of course, I had to use a non-Spring Branch computer to see the second video! Our kickball captains have really done a remarkable job of making these "things" both interesting and motivating. Kudos to you, Cap'ns!

One comment that stays with me is that we are able to "talk" to "regular" people, the unwashed masses as they were called in the 2nd video.The Technorati employee said she no longer reads reviews by so-called professional reviewers. She prefers the opinions of us "regular" folk. Well, we have choices, don't we, with the internet? We have access to experts as well as to everyday bloggers who set forth their opinions, and we can choose whom we wish to believe. We really are living in an age of marvels (says she, sitting in her rocker and listening to the drip, drip, drip as the rain leaks into her bookcase, of all places)

Out of 19 blogs about 'school library learning 2.0' I discovered that we are all on the same journey! I got mixed up searching tags. Anyway, there was one blog with the tag 'school library learning 2.0' that I got tickled by. The writer had the same instructions for Thing #14 as we did, and he/she answered, "Yes, the results were different."

Tagging is fundamental. With all of the blogs and posts out there, how else are we to locate and organize information?

Technorati Profile

I am claiming my blog. Any claim jumpers out there?

Thing #13: Tag! You're it!

del.icio.us
is lots easier than finding subject headings in those big red books! Just kidding; I know the title. Really. The only sidestep I had to make was to read the text version of the video because it wouldn't play on the school's computer. I had fun seeing what showed up when I searched for my favorite tags! I must confess that even though the instructions told me to limit my tag to one word, I had previously used the tag "book reviews." According to information gleaned here, I could have used "bookreviews" or "book.reviews." I may need to go back and make those changes, but it isn't currently a high priority! :)

This was a restful, relaxing "thing!" I was so glad because at 2:00 this morning, my ceiling sprang a leak. Guess where? Yep, the water dripped down my bookcase and cleaned up some of my favorite books! It took two hours to relocate my collection, which had just been cataloged on LibraryThing, and to begin the drying out process. I started out the day tired!

Thing # 12: Rollyo

Well, that went pretty well so I must have done something wrong! My Rollyo Searchroll is called My Bookpeople, and I used one of the starter kits and someone else's hard work! My Bookpeople is meant to feature authors, books, and book reviews. When I tried it out for the first time, I thought, "Oops! This isn't giving me the information I am seeking!" I was searching My Bookpeople for titles of books, and only Amazon was coming up with the correct title. I tried putting quotes around the title in the search box, but it made no difference! I was getting results for individual words but not for titles. Then, I entered an author's name (last name first) and hooray! I found the information about the book I was interested in!

From school, I was unable to add the RollBar Bookmarklet to Internet Explorer. I could get it to the top of the page but not onto the browser toolbar. I tried another computer at home but was still unsuccessful with Internet Explorer, although I was able to add it on Firefox.

http://rollyo.com/benefiej/my_bookpeople/ This is the link to my Searchroll. Have I linked this properly? It isn't pretty, but it works!

We had our first Faculty Book Club meeting this afternoon, and it was surprisingly well-attended. After delicious refreshments tastefully (!) served, Valerie Koehler, owner of Blue Willow Book Shop, presented several popular book club titles for us to choose from: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan; Water for Elephants; Peony in Love; The Glass Castle; Suite Francaise; Founding Mothers; Kabul Beauty School; Garden Spells; The Year of Living Biblically; People of the Book; and The Whistling Season, which was our first choice! Have you read any of these? I have read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, and it is a fascinating read, especially the part about footbinding. Can you imagine having feet 3" long? See link below, but reader beware!!
http://www.shoeblog.com/blog/friday-shoe-history-corner-footbinding-not-for-the-faint-of-heart/

My Bookpeople Searchroll has already been helpful. By searching for the authors (last name, first name) I could read book reviews and comments on the books Valerie presented today.

Thing #11: LibraryThing

I loved playing around with LibraryThing! When I first read that we had to catalog our books, I thought, "We don't do enough cataloging as it is? Now we're going to catalog our own books?" Imagine my delight when I realized that our lists of books could link us to others with the same tastes in literature! Yes! There really are people out there who read the same fascinating disease and disaster books that I do! Weirdos of the world, unite!

I did find a group, Read YA Lit, that has some excellent suggestions and comments that I can use. The group has over 1100 members so it should prove a valuable resource. As I read and study further, perhaps I will be able to use a LibraryThing widget to feature new books on my library's website, which is another thing I need to be working on--guess I'll call it Thing #24!

Thing #10: Online Image Generator

Ah, smell the roses....It will soon be Valentine's Day, and, in the library, I will be featuring literature's great romantic duos. Over the 3-day weekend, I attempted to view one of the greatest of all time--Romeo and Juliet--but I couldn't get through it. The film starred Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard. Juliet, Norma Shearer, was 37, and Leslie Howard as Romeo was a real stretch, too. Despite their talent, they were just too old to be convincing! Suggestions for great YA romances will be gratefully accepted!

Since I have already used the trading card maker several times, I tried Happy Face Generator and Comic Strip. I didn't get much done with the Happy Faces, but I made my little anime girl with the Comic Strip Generator and feel that it will be useful in the future.

One of my students has pretty designs shaved into? onto? his head. It doesn't appear to violate our dress code, and I kinda like it. I tell him I am going to put a design on my head when I retire! Image Chef allows me to see how I would look!

Thing # 9: Information Overload

It is Flex Day. No, I am not going anywhere special. I am sitting in my rocker with a laptop, and I am watching The Plague episode which is airing on The History Channel. That reminds me .... My retired librarian friend just purchased a copy of Daniel Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year at Barnes & Noble, and Valerie Koehler, of Blue Willow Book Shop, recently purchased a book she thought I would like: The Pesthouse by Jim Crace. A man and a woman, in what was once the land of prosperity, join forces and traverse the United States, which in this future time is sparsely populated and rife with lawlessness. Valerie was right; it is my kind of book.

All righty then. Blogs. I started looking for blogs by seeing what other people have listed. That could be construed as cheating, I suppose. You see how much that bothered me. Then I went to Google Reader, which, after trying the others, is my favorite because it is the least complicated. Next, I tried Syndic8, which interestingly lists 5 random syndicated feeds, 10 random headlines, 5 most recent actions, and 5 most viewed feeds, among others. I searched for blogs dealing with "YA Lit" and subscribed to " Teen Reads," which I may or may not keep. Topix permits searching by keyword or phrase. Again, I searched for blogs dealing with YA Lit, but I didn't find any I wanted to read on a regular basis. As you can see, I listed few blogs--not wanting to get blogged" down!

Thing #8: All Googled Out

Following directions is for linear sequential people; I like to jump around. Maybe that is why I get confused! Anyway, I made friends with Google Reader and added blog sites and RSS feeds. This is WAY too much information to digest at one time. That is why Google Reader is such a great idea. I can read what I want when I want.

I am sharing three items that appealed to me: a video of a volcano eruption; a video about climbing Everest; and, a news item about malaria. My favorite is the Everest video, although it is rather long. I have just finished reading Peak (couldn't find the underliner and didn't look very hard) which is about a teen whose father is an Everest guide and renowned climber. Dad wants his son to become the youngest person to climb Everest. I have read a handful of books about Everest and the people who climbed it (him? her?) and thought this was a credible novel for YAs. I would use the video, or a bit of it, as a hook. Oh, I know how to climb Everest, but I would need to borrow a different body!

Thing #7B: Lost in the Desert

My father once told me that the hardest thing he had ever done was to leave me in Gabbs, Nevada, my first attempt at independent living as a completely single, relative-free adult. Using Google Earth, I placemarked this isolated desert community so that you could appreciate my father's apprehension. Google Earth allowed me to fly directly to Gabbs as if perched on an eagle's wing for a bird's eye view. Imagine my surprise when I recognized the site of my first teaching position! Do you see the orange speck in the top photo? That is Gabbs School, where I taught grades 7 - 12. There were 6 classrooms in the secondary school! I lived in a teacherage which consisted of 4 units to a building. They were furnished and rented for $45 per month! I understand that, now, teacher housing consists of double-wide mobile homes.

Thing #7A: Full Metal Alert

This posting has taken me a long time to prepare because over Winter Break, I fell and broke my glasses. Not being able to read or see television allowed me to hone my conversational skills but did little toward getting Thing #7 published.

The Social Studies teachers used Google Earth the week before Winter Break so I knew a little bit about it, and I had used Google Scholar in attempts to locate obscure articles for teachers, but I decided to please myself with the Google Tools assignment and created three Google Alerts: Metallica, WWE, and Houston Ballet. You will be glad to know that all three entities are thriving--I have kept up with breaking news!

My first Google Alert arrived this morning. I just love getting mail about something I enjoy! Although I hadn't planned to make a curriculum connection, I did! Was it the Music Department? Nope. The Physics Department!

Scientists riff on fabric of the universe

Guardian Unlimited - UKTheir music may be the scourge of parents, but the thrashing guitars of heavy metal bands like Metallica and Iron Maiden could help explain the mysteries of ...See all stories on this topic

So--tonight I am sitting in my rocker listening to Metallica and contemplating String Theory. Oh, yeah.