Thing 8

I love the idea of the RSS and readers! I can see where this will save me so much time. Instead of me going to the blogs....they come to me and at my convenience! I can see where this is going to save me so much time and help me grow professionally. I can see where the RSS and readers can also be enjoyable just for personal interests and followings of those things.

I think for me I need to set up a reader for my personal interests. This way I will keep my personal and professional separate. What I like about the idea of the RSS and readers is that I have one location to go to when the time is right for me! I can see where the idea of creating folders to help me keep things organized will also be helpful. I am also thinking that I should set aside time once or twice a week when I go and take the time to catch up on the blogs that I have subscribed to. In doing this I will devote a specific time to professional growth. Of course doing this for my personal interest blogs will be much easier.

I think sharing the usage of RSS and readers with others at school will also help in their professional growth. It can also be used as a huge time saver. Once teachers have practiced this on their own I think they will be much more open to setting up a classroom blog or grade level blog and then these could easily followed. So much of new technology I feel is getting a comfort level. I believe, at least for me, that once I have achieved that level on a personal basis it is easy for me to share it with others. I think this will be the same for teachers. I know after this summer I will feel comfortable sharing this new tool with fellow educators. I already have an idea of a few teachers that I am going to really work with as soon as school starts. I am hoping that I will then be able to persuade them to try this blogging and google reader as a classroom project. I even think about pulling a few students out of each class at each grade level and starting something myself so the teachers can see how easy it is!!!

I think lifelong learning is all about keeping your mind open to new and different ideas. Not being afraid to try new things and even to mess up is a part of being open minded to new ideas. None of us try without messing up in some particular way. I think as we take these new ideas to our fellow educators and let them know that is okay to feel like they can mess up and it isn't the end of the world. In keeping a sense of humor along with an upbeat spirit, I think I can get many of my fellow professionals to attempt blogging and using google reader to follow blogs.

Thing 7 - Google

I already had an igoogle and was using this a little but not to the fullest extent that I could.
I am a librarian for several elementary schools and also work with other librarians in my district. This year we used google documents a little but we had difficulties sometimes opening them up. It could be because we didn't use the email address for sharing. Today I created a document for computer usage at one of my campuses in google documents and then shared it with a fellow elementary librarian in my district. We have also used this for other documents like "Reading Off Your Fine" and Bluebonnet ideas that we have. This makes it very simple to share and we can even make it where we could change the documents to make it a work in progress between the two of us.

I also created a google calendar. Again, I travel campuses...this year it has been three different campuses but next year will only be two campuses! YEAH!! For right now my calendar is very boring with mainly personal stuff but a few school / library items. I can see how this tool can be very valuable to my group of librarians. Most of us travel and have many things on our agenda and it is hard to keep up with. Using the calendar and sharing it with our group will make it much easier to keep up with each other and what we are doing. What is also cool is you can only allow those you share this with to only view certain items....like school not personal.

I also put a couple of pictures in the Picasa Web Album but I'm not sure if others can view them. I'm still going to work on that. Again, this is another great way to share what is going on from campus to campus with others. It would be a great way to share pictures when putting together a district powerpoint or some other type of document or brochure.

I can see how Google will play a much larger role next year with me professionally. I am sure with our growing number of librarians in the district we can use this format to share as well as stay in touch with what each other is doing. Using new formats is just a matter of practice and trial and error. That is one reason why practicing with these different formats and ideas over the summer is a good way to start. At least for me, I don't have all the pressures of the school year and so my frustration level is low and I am enjoying experimenting!

Thing 6

Don't know what happened here....I uploaded the wrong picture and I can't seem to get it out!

I loved playing around with the mashups. It was a lot of fun. I can see how this could be used to really get the students interested in being creative. Wouldn't it be fun to use the trading cards for book characters! Students could create them to help promote their favorite books! I can see using the calendar as well especially since I am a traveling librarian. I couldn't get the pictures to upload using Flickr but I will keep playing with it. This is all opening an entire new and fun world!!

Thing 5

I enjoyed looking at the pictures on Flickr. Animal pictures are always some of my favorite. I am a huge dog lover! This picture I though showed a playfulness between two pets. It looked like they were both having fun.

Flickr was easy to browse and look for pictures. Saving a pictures was also very simple. This blog also had simple access to being able to upload the picture that I chose.

Thing 3 Setting up a blog

Setting up a blog was easy. Anyone who is not tech savy could easily follow directions to set up a blog and avatar. It is fun being able to choose something fun for your avatar. Doing something like this where very few people actually know you makes it easy to have a fun or even outragous avatar! For those people who don't know you having a fun avatar helps them get an insight to your personality.

Thing 2 - Lifelong Learning

Lifelong learning allows individuals to stay current in their career and the world around them. It also is a way of connecting to younger generations. Lifelong learning also keeps the mind active and creative juices flowing. Learning new things can also boost self esteem and self reliance. As a librarian lifelong learning will allow me to keep up with those librarians fresh out of school as well as with those students who are already current in many of the new technologies that are up and coming.

In lifelong learning the most difficult thing for me is setting a specific goal. My goals are usually too broad and then I easily get off task. I have to make myself select a specific goal so I am unable to veer off in a different direction or get distracted. The easiest thing for me as a lifelong learner is to teach others. That comes very natural to me. I am an outgoing people type person and enjoy working with other. I am always happy to work with others teaching them and demonstrating new ideas as well as mentoring others.