Step 5: Talk About It

So after that incredibly busy and wonderful week at the beginning of December, I realized that I needed to talk more about what I do.  Great!  I have a blog, so isn't' that spreading my word to the masses? Sort of, but not to the extent that I need to be spreading the word...well, I'm extended, but not necessarily intended!  I realized that I am putting the word "out", but what I really need to do is put the word "in".  Specifically, I need to share the word within my school about what I do and what I can help others do.

Ready for hugs and sharing!

What exactly do I do?  Well, I teach library classes for PreK through 5th grade for 40 minutes once a week.  During these time slots I teach literacy appreciation, research skills, technology skills and when applicable I integrate math, science, social studies, etc! In addition, I teach keyboarding skills to 3rd and 4th graders once a week for 30 minutes.  This is an interesting thing to "teach" as it requires little more than monitoring and reminding beyond the first few weeks.  The kids come and practice, practice, practice while I monitor, remind and encourage. I also have several "open" time slots during each day for doing technology integration.  Unfortunately, I haven't been called on for much true integration yet.  Sure, they call me when the technology isn't working and I troubleshoot what I can.  They ask for resources and I scrounge up print and non-print materials.  They sometimes even ask for suggestions on what to incorporate into their lessons in terms of web resources...but none of this is true integration.

Lone penguin in a Charlie Brownish tree

What do I mean by true integration?  What I envision is planning with classroom and special education teachers to provide lessons that are scaffolded, engaging, creative and memorable for students.  I envision lessons that include some technology, some hands on experiential work and real world applications.  I envision being viewed as a colleague and sought after for my incredible brains and insightful lessons! Okay, okay, maybe that last part has me echoing maniacal laughter, but I would like to help in any way possible.  So I'm going to start putting myself out there more.  I have a plan to start small, let the word spread and build a set of truly integrated lessons that we can share, not only within our school, but also with the greater community.

Look for a January installment to my blog about my presentation to the school board!

Happy Holidays!

Step 4: Go out and do something!

This week has been a bit crazy for me, had some trouble with my car, my daughter went back to college and I spent half of my week at the Christa McAuliffe Conference in Manchester!  Lots of things to do and learn.

 Img from nhste.org

On Monday night I had the pleasure of attending a workshop with Sylvia Martinez on the Maker Movement. I have been hearing about Makerspaces and dreaming of creating one at my school for about 6 months now and we are on our way already! I have surveyed the fifth graders, purchased iPads and Little Bits kits, and started the conversation with my principal(who is fully on board)! Monday night's workshop gave me the opportunity to play with a MaKey MaKey kit, which I will be bringing back to school for the student's use. If you've never seen one, check out their website by clicking on the link below.

makeymakey 

 Img from MakeyMakey website

Tuesday was a full conference day for me and I attended a wonderful keynote and workshop by Sylvia Martinez so my head is full of ideas for the Makerspace. In addition, I attended a workshop on Twitter as a PD tool, which I really can't say enough about. I first logged into Twitter to follow Jimmy Fallon and George Takei, they are both so funny and the hashtag challenges crack me up. But then I attended a workshop at the BLC conference that opened my eyes to the possibility of using Twitter as a PD tool. The workshop this week included some like minded people and some newbies and I learned a few more tricks and tools, including better curating of my Twitter feed through Tweet Deck.  You can follow me on Twitter @hdidi17 or follow my library @LibrarySCES.
                          
Thursday was another full conference day for me. It began with a truly inspiring keynote by Rushton Hurley. The main thing I took away from it was that we, as educators, need to put the fun into learning and we can do that in two key ways- letting kids play(explore, discover, make mistakes, learn) and by putting ourselves out there. The technology isn't always going to work, but how we handle that is key. The time we give kids to do things is key. The support we give them, without "grading" them is key.

I also spent a great deal of the day networking with other teachers and librarians. I feel I've made some valuable contacts and have truly taken my head out of the sand! It can be scary putting yourself out there, wondering if what we have to offer is good enough. But as the keynote speaker stated, the only person you should compare yourself to is yourself from yesterday!  He also said a candle doesn't lose anything by lighting another candle...just something to think about.

Friday I stepped way out of my comfort zone and used Google hangout for a video chat between one of my 2nd grade classes and a second grade class from Henniker Community School. I had gone to visit Carol Sweny, the Librarian at HCS, a few weeks back and we came up with a plan to have our kids share their thoughts about the NH Ladybug Award nominees. In preparation, both groups had listened to all of the books, written about their favorite and cast their official ballot! In addition, Carol and I ran a practice video chat last week to be sure that we could see and hear each other!  The whole experience was fantastic!  The kids were excited and engaged on both ends and Carol and I are planning on doing more of this in future!

 

I know this is a fairly long blog post and I thank you for reading to the end, if you did in fact read to the end!  I have gotten out to do some things this week and I can't wait to get out and do more things!!!!