Tuesday Tech Fave Audiobooks

What are some of your favorites? Cause said commute and all.
Not EVERY book is good on audio. Some topics and plots work better than others. Not to mention narrators (like I was not a huge fan of the Percy Jackson narrator ... was it the same for all of them? I didn't even try past book 1). Here are just a few of specifically audio ones I have enjoyed.

There is lots of scrolling on this post because of long skinny pics. Sorry. Click on the pic to go to Audible to listen to a snippet, at least of the top books I've listened to.

The entire Lockwood & Co series. Book 5 comes out next month and so far there is no pre-ordering the audio, just the book or Kindle version. WHAT IS TAKING SO LONG TO POST THE AUDIO?  DO NOT EVEN PROPOSE THE HORRIBLE THOUGHT THAT THEY WON'T HAVE AN AUDIO VERSION. It's slightly spooky but only slightly so. Set in an alternate London. I've recommended it to my stronger upper grade readers before. We don't have it in our elementary library, though.  They have to go find it at the public library ... but they enjoyed it! The later ones especially go into YA territory. Nothing major so I feel OK recommending the series to a few of my kiddos.

Cosmic. I seriously stayed on the treadmill longer than planned just to keep listening. Laughed like a crazy person in the middle of the gym. It won't be everyone's cup of tea but for those of you that share the same sense of humor? HILARIOUS!!!! About a kid who looks older than he is and it gets him in ... shall we say a spot of trouble?

HP goes without saying. Only I should have done the screenshot in two parts because now it's so long and skinny. I am not a new blogger. I should know my images better.

He could read just about anything and I'd listen. Sorry. I digress from proper reviewing.

Definitely not the best of the best stories but worth a listen.



I also have a couple new Star Wars books downloaded still to listen to.

I know I need to listen to Echo. I've already read it but I heard it was a great audiobook. I got it when they had a recent kids' audiobook sale. $4, I think.

And I downloaded the first Audible X-Files book because MULDER and SCULLY original full cast audio. But I haven't listened to it yet. They already have a book two in the works that I might as well go ahead and preorder. I'm sure there will be time. Remember this? Normal. Not an out of the norm day. Sigh.

I just have a one credit a month subscription to Audible. There's always Overdrive, too. Though our district recently made a change to the login. Trying to be patient until we learn more about it because right now? ACK! DO NOT LIKE! TAKES WAY TOO LONG AND WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY TOO MUCH TYPING ON A MOBILE DEVICE (I actually really like the changes on the desktop) TO LOG IN! I've had problems and got sent in login loops every single time I've tried. And that's me, a user who is motivated to log in. Patience. All will be revealed, right? Patience.

Tuesday Tech Fave Podcasts

The COMMUTE will soon start back up. And a big five year construction job 😟 has just started on the main way I get between home and school. There are very limited alternate routes that will also fill up with people trying to avoid the madness. :(



This is an old pic I took once back when I used to go to the gym. I now live about what, eighteen miles further down that road (what was I thinking? Honestly I was thinking I'd change schools but that is another story). It sort of gives you a glimpse of why they had to do something. But five years. And WHILE they do the something. 😒 Did I mention I have a manual transmission car?







So I will probably get even more time for audiobooks and PODCASTS. Thought I'd share some of my faves with you. Some are library or book or education related, some are not. I actually wasn't much of a podcast listener until like maybe November?



Pretend I inserted a fun graphic of someone listening to a podcast here.



Some I listen to every episode ASAP, some I might subscribe but end up deleting episodes before I ever get them listened to because I get behind and I hate seeing them stack up, some I don't actually subscribe to but I've gone in and downloaded specific episodes from their back catalog because at least one has proved super interesting. Not telling you which is which cause everyone needs to decide for themselves. Just like every book has its reader, every podcast has their listeners!





In no particular order and I feel like I'm forgetting some (linked to webpages where you could try episodes out or get show notes and decide about subscribing ... most have the link to iTunes or Stitcher there) ...





Mike Rowe's The Way I Heard It (hilarious and interesting!)



The Google Teacher Tribe (I've fangirled before I think!)



Angela Watson's Truth for Teachers



Books Between



Fangirls Going Rogue (STAR WARS and general all things GEEK ALERT ;))



Star Wars Bookworms  (They don't do junior books and not many YA, which is actually what I read the most of. Big surprise. But it's still interesting to the super fan!)



Levar Burton Reads



All the Wonders



Masterpiece Studio (because I loved Downton and Sherlock and Victoria and what else ...)



Brains On! Science Podcast



House of #EdTech



Publishers Weekly PW KidsCast



TeacherCast Educational Broadcast Network (I'm not sure I got all these links right on the webpage ... but searching for podcasts they are different)



The TeacherCast Podcast



TechEducator Podcast



Song Talks with Richard Marx (there is some language on this one which personally I can do w/o)



The Wildlife Photography Podcast (this one is more interesting if you follow his IG feed as well, and have some interest in photography)



BYU Speeches (This one is quite faith based, though not entirely. I didn't take advantage of all the great speakers when I was there so now I listen to devotionals. Makes all the sense in the world, right? But they are not all devotionals. Some of them are just interesting sort of like TED talks? But the majority faith based.)





I wonder if later I will wish I had done this on like a Listly or something. Anyway. Later!

Tuesday (Google) Tool: Keep

Can you tell I'm trying? Hopefully it's useful to someone.
Anyway. Google Keep. I'm actually still really just learning about it ... it's been on my phone for a while but I didn't really pay attention to it until I started reviewing for the Google Certified Educator test. One of those things I download and sort of forget about until later. I do that sometimes. :/

It's available online and as an app on your mobile device. It syncs to your Google account.
You can add images and photos and audio recordings. You can add labels.. Checkboxes (who doesn't love to check things off?!). Color coding.

If you are moving to digital planning (for school ... I still like my paper planner for personal stuff. I even spent hours last summer working on a set of Avery printable teacher librarian planner stickers for paper planning ... and then found for school it just ... ugh. Didn't work for me. So I never ended up finishing them. I love analog planning for personal stuff but school, let's just go with digital) this is a MUST! There is no no no reason to keep a simple To Do list in Slides or Docs or Sheets. You can even add collaborators in Keep (though that part is easier to do on the desktop version).

Kasey Bell of Shake Up Learning has a great article (and lots of other things ... she's half of the Google Teacher Tribe) and lots of other things linked if you click through from the infographic found below.



So mine is too messy to actually show you. I'm too paranoid for that. But here's a glimpse.

Here's one short tutorial.


But here is a longer one from Matt Miller of Ditch that Textbook. He's an educator so it's worth the extra time! You might already have heard of him? He's the other half of the Google Teacher Tribe than anything but hey, whatever. He does it better than I could so we'll just let him, shall we? Since I was naughty and just got an Apple watch the GPS based reminders are especially interesting to me ... more help even than a buzzing phone. That could be helpful. You may hear about them again later.


Here's the link to the Chrome Extension.

140 Twitter Tips Summer PD Reading

I recently got a new Kindle Paperwhite (I already had a Fire but I am testing to see if less blue light helps me sleep better. :P) and decided to try the Kindle Unlimited trial. Terrible fiction selection but noticed the non-fic actually had some interesting titles. Doubt I'll keep it past the summer but for now it's handy.


140 Twitter Tips for Educators: Get Connected, Grow Your Professional Learning Network, and Reinvigorate Your Career by Brad Currie
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

For beginners to Twitter four stars or maybe even higher. Though would they be reading a book? Don't get me wrong ... I mean three as a compliment. I really liked the middle section (for those familiar with Twitter) and the first half or so of the last section (looking to become a Twitter "rock star"). This will take repeated references to get the full advantage.


My notes were taken from the Kindle version so I don't have page numbers. Just Locations.

Location 439     #21 Turn Motivational Tweets into Images
Hmmm. Had already been thinking about creating some book quotes for our hallway monitor so I will get on that. Just tweeted it out (already had it on Instagram). In the 10 seconds since realized two things. One ... I already had it on IG. Could have just tweeted the link at the same time. And Two ... I didn't watermark the image. I just made it on WordSwag. Going to take a while until my "edits" are good enough that people might want to borrow but it's a good habit to get into all the same.

Location 469     #24 Tweet Daily
I go in waves. Still WAAAAAAAAAAY more lurking because I don't always have something to say. And sometimes I feel like Twitter gets a bit ridiculous with all the "You're so awesome" "No, you are." (Do I sound rude?) I've been on Twitter for a long time. Since before my blog, in fact. That's why the username doesn't match. When I first joined Twitter it was to follow like Hollywood people (lame, I know). Then that got boring but more authors/illustrators were on Twitter. Then it because this amazing place to learn from like minded edu-peeps. I could try to rebuild everything but getting people to refollow ... annoying to them. And me to refollow everyone under a different name. So I don't "match."

Location 731     #52 Check out the #PersonalizedPD hashtag.
Haven't checked that out yet. Should start. Totally why I blog and Tweet and love EdCamp style stuff. So much of the other just doesn't apply.

Location 808     #61 Build Twitter Stamina
Part of that for me is not feeling bad when someone doesn't answer a tweet. We can't all keep up with everything! It's not usually personal and even if it is ... so what? The authors talked about that as well though I think it was under a different tip.

Location 837     #63 Create a Classroom Twitter Handle
Sometimes I wonder about starting a new one specifically for my school. Right now the only place I do that is FB. Everywhere else is entirely "me."

Location 892     #69 Listen to Student Voice (#stuvoice)
Would love to see that. Sort of tried a couple years back with paper tweets but didn't stick with it and not enough teachers "got" it. Most actually still don't seem to. I need to be more patient and understanding and consistent. And remember #61.

Location 933     #70 Tell Your School's Story
Super important because we HAVE TO. Sometime in the next week or so I'll write up a bit of what I thought of this one. Pretty awesome.

Location 1065      #84 Start a Hashtag for your book (#140EduTips)
I don't have a book but I'm sort of lurking on a hashtag two schools in my district are doing with their teachers and summer reading. It's pretty awesome, actually. I debated putting the hashtag for this book  in my post title. Maybe I should have.

Location 1153      #91 Collaborate with Someone.
Talked to people but haven't actually done any sort of project. Anyone game?

Location 1255     #102 Display Your Twitter Stream
In order for that to be useful you have to tweet pretty regularly. I suppose I could have my Twitter feed to the side on my blog. Necessary? I don't know. A specifically SCHOOL feed would be good to have displayed prominently.

Location 1281     #105 Manage Your Social Media Accounts with Hootsuite
There's another tool I've actually known about for years but know I don't use to its greatest extent. For a while I was ahead enough on blog post ideas that I used it to schedule things. Last couple years not so much.

Location 1323     #111 Vine for Education
I've seen this done so well ... just need to get more in the habit of taking pictures/short clips. Would this be easier than IG?

Location 1350     #115 Create a Twitter Recipe with If This Then That app
Ha! I totally turned my blog post Tweet IFTTT recipe off a couple months ago. I was testing something. Realized the other day I still hadn't turned it back on! I use Networked Blogs to auto-post to FB but I know that brings it down in the algorithms. I wonder if IFTTT does the same?

Way too much work thinking right now. Later. Hope you're enjoying your summer!

(PS Also debating the Scholastic Reading Summit in SA. Worth it? Having to choose between it and more BOOKS or Star Wars (personal or the Really Good Stuff classroom set!) or Harry Potter stuff. Or CONVERSE or maybe even girly TIEKS.)

#NotAtISTE16

Coming home with a cold makes it less interesting to unpack and clean (wait, when was that ever interesting?). Why not sit on the couch (not still in my PJs, at least) and explore some of the people and topics I can get to online? I am jealous of all the peeps at ISTE and at ALA (because all that good stuff AND Orlando/Mickey/HP?) ...

This is the badge I made up. Nothing mind boggling unless you are also taking cold medication. :P

Been poking around the Augmented Reality and Green Screen stuff mostly. On to Maker stuff after some reading. And if I stop sneezing to somewhere to get a green backdrop. Only I look like Rudolph right now so that can wait.

At least next year I should be able to go. It's in town!

On a side note are any of you going to KidLitCon? Thinking about it. Just thinking right now but it's fairly accessible.

Some Google Docs Add-Ons

So. Google Docs. You can do more even than I knew. There are much more extensive reviews out there. These are just what I happened to have added to my blog and school accounts.

Easy Accents because hello! Former Spanish teacher!
Install and start the add-on, choose your language, and look what appears to the right of your page?

Extensis Fonts because ... I like fonts. Blech on Comic Sans or Times New Roman. I mean, you do still need to keep things clean and uncluttered looking. And some "decorative" fonts take away from that. But there are a lot of cool ones out there! There are other ways to get new fonts in your G Drive but this is an easy one.

I haven't tried the Avery Label Merge yet but since I DESPISE the Word/Pages templates I will. Formatting is such a nightmare with those.

Open Clipart. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more options. Now you know this is one area I have a weakness for cutesy. But that's at home. At school? This is nice.

Tag Cloud Generator is one I wish I'd remembered a couple weeks ago when a teacher was in a panic because Wordle didn't work on the Chromebooks. I just looked up a website that worked. Anyway. I copied/pasted one of the paragraphs from the book blurb into a Google Doc and here's the cloud it made. You have to screen grab it to save it and even if you change the font in the text you can't change the font in the cloud. That said, it's nice and easy. And could also be used as a quick editing tool to see if writers used any particular words in excess. The more times a word shows up in the text the bigger it gets in the cloud.

Will have to try the barcodes one when I'm back at school because with our new network system our poor little barcode printer keeps getting kicked offline. And of course the tech eventually comes to fix it (because they've tied everything down so tightly I can't do a thing) but I can tell he's getting tired of fixing a label printer. A teacher librarian needs her barcodes, though. For books and students!

Mindmeister ... I don't quite get the point of. But then again I've never quite gotten the point of Inspiration or Popplet, either. So I offer different kinds of graphic organizers. But I figured I'd show you. Not sure why it skipped Padme. Basically anything that you bullet point in your document, highlight, and then choose the add-on? Turns it into this.

Translate is pretty self-explanatory. No, no machine translation is perfect but it's a place to start.

And the ProWriting and Templates we'll see when I get around to using them if they are worth it!

TBT and Tech Camp Day 2

Remember the time when I guest posted on Kirby Larson's blog about Star Wars and encouraging library users? I should make that up into a cool image.


Today I attended classes on creating infographics, augmented reality, Chrome apps, and Chrome tips and extensions.


The real kicker for the infographics one is deciding what information to include. Never been awesome with numbers but then again not all infographics are numbers. Really it's just sit down and FINISH it! See TBT. Expect to see that later this summer.

I had heard of most of the AR apps but never actually TRIED a few of them so that was good. Will post more about them later. Then the power went out and we got an early lunch

Power was back on after lunch so Chrome Apps. Some new to me ones. Yay!
LucidPress (linking to the webpage but of course install it to Chrome!). So I had heard the name but out of context. Or maybe I'd just heard of LucidChart, I don't know. I'd never actually seen WHAT it does. Definitely one worth checking out further.

SumoPaint

Ahhhhhhh ...

NewsELA. Do you all use this one? I mean, I like to promote use of the databases so I don't know. One article at many different reading levels. That is helpful. I can see how teachers would like it.

They talked about Typing Club and how we had to get kids practicing at the elementary level (using good because it was an expected skill from about 7th on. I got a terrible score. But hey, I can type!

Loupe Collage. Yes, it's kind of cool. So maybe for my blog Google account. Remains to be seen for school. Will kids have that many photos in their Google accounts? They'll all be on the iPads. And that seems easier to deal with Dropbox than Google Drive, actually.

Polarr. My first instinct is "I like my Picmonkey." So old school. Remember when I was so mad Google killed Picnik? (And then Google Reader but hey, that's a sidebar conversation.) But definitely, I think this one can do more.

Google Docs and Sheets Add-Ons ... well that deserves a whole other post in and of itself.


Now? Well, I still have to turn in my keys and get the promissory note for the tech I took home over the summer. No one I needed was there when I went back to campus Tuesday afternoon. But beyond that? GLORIOUS SUMMER FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




Last chance to enter the giveaway. Share if you know someone that has a Surface Pro!

Tech Camp Day 1

My two presentations are over! Whew! One was based on the same ideas as my guest post over on FreeTech4Teachers last week ... "iRead a Book, Now What?" I think people liked that one. Then the other was basically the same thing as the Image Editing page on my blog. Not sure too many people got excited about it. Oh well. Can't win them all.

Then I went to a GAFE class. Nothing new to me there but for the uninitiated they were super impressed!

And then came the Minecraft EDU class. I have read a lot about educational uses ... building habitats for animals or building settings for books they have read. I was super excited. Then come to find out: 1) it doesn't work on VDIs (virtual desktops ... no real CPU of their own, run entirely off a giant high school level server), 2) it doesn't work on Chromebooks or iPads, and 3) I get just as turned around in Minecraft as I do in real life #nosenseofdirectionatall. So bravo for the secondary tech teachers that have a non-VDI lab to run it on ... not going to happen at the elementary level. :/

Since you already know I am a geek, Internet ... and not a ridiculous geek who can spend this much on t-shirts ... thoughts? Maybe ... top 3? And count it as Back to School shopping since I want to do a Star Wars "theme" next year? Dear Clinton and Stacy ... I'm sorry. I really am.

Oh, and recap of SMART conference ... really it does some cool stuff. I could use it more. I guess I get a lot of it done in other ways. The kicker is I only have the software on my school laptop and who has time to do any prep at school? And since I hate my school laptop (the track pad is POSSESSED!) I don't like to take it home. At home I use my iMac or Chromebook.

Don't forget to share about the Surface Pro case giveaway. It will close Thursday night!

#IMWAYR June 7 & Surface Pro Gumdrop Case Giveaway

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now… who knows, you might discover that next “must read” book!

Our Kid Lit to YA version is hosted by Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers.

GREAT IDEA! Check out all of the What Are You Reading? participants for title ideas.



Started with two of next year's Bluebonnets. They were OK. Not my picks when picking for personal choice but definitely for some readers good stories. Q&H is a humorous 3rd grade realistic fic, Abigail a "stick up for your REAL friends" realistic 4th or 5th.

I ... did not actually care for E&P #23. Never ever, ever, ever, ever thought I'd say that. :/ Naps? Love. Piggie and Elephant? Love. Apparently the twain should not meet. IMHO, anyway. Hope others loved it cause the disappointment kind of stinks.

I started this one via audio and finished in print. I liked it. Be aware it starts out a little slow. Then it picks up into a more original story. Most likely going to be older teens or adults that would stick with this one.

Still have several days of meetings so my #bookaday goals for this week include finishing books that I've had sort of on hold for a while, like A Riddle in Ruby, Story Thieves, and decide whether or not to finish Red Rising or Young Houdini Magician's Fire. I've put them off so many times! I want to start The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate. Oh and Story Chasers. And The Thickety: The Whispering Trees. They will probably have to wait until next week.

Don't forget to enter the Rafflecopter for a Surface Pro Gumdrop case!

Code.org K-8 Workshop

I went to one at a (EEEK! Says this Google/Apple Girl's Heart) Microsoft store today because I thought it looked interesting. And ... I totally missed that our district had Teri Lesesne coming. I do read the Friday Focus newsletters. Apparently not close enough. I even read her blog post about heading out for the drive to SA and didn't connect the dots until a colleague posted on FB. Anyway. Oops but OK oops.

Thought #1 I am (present tense, not past ... cause I refuse to think about how long ago it actually was!) an English major. This is my identity. Story person, through and through. I don't even really like writing (Slice of Life posts are AWESOME but the stress they would put me through. I still remember some kid's TV writing show we watched like every Monday back in maybe 2nd or 3rd grade? It ended with a story starter and our homework that night would be to finish the story. OH HOW I HATED THAT SO MUCH!). Let me read. That is my favorite.

Thought #2
Any love of tech I might have? Or ability? Really pretty recent.

Thought #3
Code.org makes it very easy.

Thought #4
The puzzles are fun.

Thought #5
Can barely imagine the skills the jobs our kiddos will be holding will turn out to need. Solid reading. Solid math. Solid PROBLEM SOLVING, COLLABORATION, and DESIGN of ALL SORTS skills. Whether it's computer programming or not ... this can only be a good foundation for them.

Thought #6
There has to be a way to make it successful during #makermornings. But when the computers are on all they ever want to do is play Coolmath. Not a fan of Coolmath. Many of them did Hour of Code but how can I get the message across to all of them there is so much more? The drop in model of #makermornings could still work ... if I had like maybe once to see all of them at the same time to introduce the specific idea of using Code Studio. But that would take a good portion of the time that is left this school year. Testing. You are the bane.

Look who I ran into at the coding workshop!

A photo posted by Susan Reeves (@susanfreeves) on Mar 21, 2015 at 2:44pm PDT

Bleh day to have to go outside (and drive for 45 minutes). Training on Code.org with students ... hope it's worth it. #photo365 #teacherlibrarian #thethingswedoforthekids

A photo posted by Angie Oliverson (@msoreadsbooks) on Mar 21, 2015 at 5:55am PDT

TCEA Day 2 Makerspaces and Augmented Reality

This morning I went by the vendors at TCEA. TLA is more fun because it's more stuff I could actually influence purchasing ... but I went. The LEGO table ... TOO COOL. I want. Pigeon? And Natural Disasters? We just covered those. We've been using regular Legos but these look too cool. The WeDo stuff also looked interesting. Our district educational foundation grant applications just opened. You know what I'll be writing about.
And so ... it's done! Finished the presentation. I hope it went well? I about died when I saw the line that was waiting to get in. By far the biggest room I've ever presented in.

Anyway ... check out the link at the top of the page. Or just click here. ;) Our makerspaces are still a work in progress. Neither of us are at the point we wanted to be when we first submitted the proposal. Things happen. I guess the main takeaway we wanted people to have is DON'T WAIT. Start now with what you can. Deal with pushback ... convince them with small steps. Realize you expected too much when your library space was being completely overhauled? It's all good. The amazing stuff will come later. (Speaking of amazing ... at the Women in Ed Tech meetup last night heard about the coolest makerspace at the Ann Richards School for Young Women ... I mean the COOLEST. I need to find the link. It's 6-12 so obviously very different to anything I'm currently doing. And they were not librarians so it was definitely more technical. But still. Visions.)

Now. Went to two classes on Augmented Reality. The first one shared a bunch of books that have embedded content. Need to look up our vendors and see if they have them. They also actively demonstrated Daqri which was pretty cool. I applied during the class and already got my educator account. It looks like it might do what I wanted Aurasma Studio to do but could never get to work, we shall see. I still love the basic Aurasma app for quick uploads. The second class showed more about ColAR and Crayola Alive than I knew before.

And I got an email. The Toontastic app was just purchased by Google and it's now FREE!

#learneverywhere



Did you enter the Zodiac Legacy book giveaway?

I might be hiding in my strange quirky AirBnB room. Been surrounded by so many people ... needed a little quiet time.

TCEA Day 1

Pretty good. Nothing super terrible or exceptional ... until the Women in Ed Tech meetup. Of course they were only sharing highlights ... the best stuff that actually worked! That I walked away feeling super inadequate. Will write something more informative later. For now I remind you to enter the book giveaway on Monday morning's post. And look at this pic. The Hilton this is not. Quirky. Keep Austin Weird, I guess.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

QR Code Library Login How To Update

So it will never be perfectly pretty (I still need to change the wallpaper now that the iPad has been repurposed) but here it is. Again, with the Instagram repeats!

And here is a link to the how to directions. I guess they get the job done even if they are not aesthetically pleasing.

Kids walk in and it's right there. The only app immediately visible is NeoReader (yes, all they have to do is swipe to the left but it hasn't been a problem). That's the QR code reader that lets you set the camera to the front facing option (important cause that's the one that is still accessible with this security stand). They scan the card which opens up the sign in form that auto-fills grade level and teacher, and they enter their name and choose their reason for being in the library. Then hit "Submit" and "Done." Took them a bit at first but then they get it down and can do it in under 15 seconds. Faster than notebook and pencil!

We've only been using it for what, 7 school days. Don't have a lot of data yet. But I am seeing lots of "lights" go on with teachers as to how useful the auto-tracking of the kids that come on passes might be (time stamp and frequency ... teachers can see the sign in results when they are logged in to their Google accounts). Every K-2 class gets a class checkout visit a week and then can come on passes. 3-5 gets a class visit for checkout every two weeks and can come on passes in between. They only sign in if they are in the library on their time and not a scheduled class visit.

If I can find the template (egads, seriously, could I be more disorganized? Hoping it's on my computer at school though why on earth I didn't put it in Google Drive I cannot say) would you like the library pass template? Or is there any other info that would be helpful?

#IMWAYR (almost) & Google Login Update

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now… who knows, you might discover that next “must read” book!

Our Kid Lit to YA version is hosted by Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers.

GREAT IDEA! Check out all of the What Are You Reading? participants for title ideas.




Been a little while, no? Reading rut. Still not actually OUT of it. .. but on the road, I think. My Audible subscription kicked back on (after I set it to a 3 month hiatus) the same week as Cary Elwes' As You Wish came out. Now, grand literature it's not. But it's such fun to hear about the making of one of my favorite movies. Based on a book which I am embarrassed to say I've never gotten around to reading. Perhaps we'll need to remedy that next?


And of course the Ivan picture book. Oh, what I'd give for a pic from the days of visiting him at the B&I. I'd have bad hair, of course. That is sort of a given for the time period.



Stay tuned ... I have almost made my "dream" Google login system work. The auto-fill QR code was amazingly easy when I searched on the right terms. Right now I have all the classes sorted to send responses to separate tabs in the response spreadsheet. I'd prefer for a method I saw on YouTube where you clicked on a drop down menu at the top of the column and chose one possible response ... and then only that answer would show up. A teacher would choose their name and then only their kids would show up. Or we'd choose a grade. I think they called it data validation? Cleaner but I haven't gotten that to work yet (and now I can't find the video). So we have like 40 tabs on the spreadsheet ... a little messy but it works. Just waiting for what feels like forever on the order for the lockable iPad station. And a new custodian to apply and get the job so he or she can actually install it. Me and power drills ... well. So far we don't get along. Maybe desperation will help me to get brave. I just would prefer to not be brave FIRST on something so important as our circ desk.

Here are the library passes waiting to be used. Waiting. Waiting. If it actually works (and the info gained on classes and students coming to the library on passes proves to be useful) I'll post a how to. I already made a really ugly how to that I shared with district librarians. To put it out here it would need to be much prettier. I perhaps have too much pride in visuals. :P

So. GTA messages go out on Wednesday. I wish my video would have turned out more interesting. Tech really has changed my teaching. I've seen really cool things happen when kids and teachers try new things. Boy howdy would my colleagues from my first years of teaching Spanish would LAUGH at the idea. I would really love to go. But I keep seeing about how people apply multiple times. Hmm. Well. Would be super cool as it's just up the road and we rolled out Chromebooks on campus just this past week. But I'm not holding my breath. :P :P

Monday

So I just submitted an application for the Google Teacher Academy. Here's my video. It's way cookie cutter and not great (some people are budding Spielbergs!) so I'm counting on the rest of the application. Chances are slim but you never know. It's for sure no unless you try. If you never hear me talk about it again that means I didn't make it. :P



Did you have school today? Kids were off but we had meetings. They ... were not super fascinating. Oh well. Tomorrow I will actually be off campus at a little librarian field trip. Our district has never done this before so it might be fun! Half of us are going tomorrow and half on Thursday.

Part of the day will be to visit the county library without books. I have been against the idea of it since I first heard. We'll see if my mind is changed.

Library Sign In with Google

Do you keep a record of the kids that come in on passes?

We do have a flex schedule where teachers attend the library with their classes. But with 3-5 class checkout is only every two weeks. That leaves us some time to do lessons w/o so many people wandering around (though it could be better now, w/the walls! Not so distracting). The kids can always come on a pass on the "off" weeks.

It's always been in a binder or notebook. That was the easiest but let's face it ... just ended up being a piece of paper. I never took the time to go back and get the "data" from it that I'd like. Who had that kind of time? And patience to flip through pages and pages counting? Plus students didn't always fill it out completely with the time.

In my perfect world this would work. But so far I haven't been able to figure out HOW.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lydiashiningbrightly/7815685436

Each class or grade would have a laminated pass with a QR code on it. Depending on how it was set up (class or grade) all the kids would have to do is scan the pass (from an iPad in a locked stand) to open up a Google form and fill in their name. Google time stamps the entry in forms so no more "What time is it? with a clock right in front of them. :P In my perfect world through the specific QR code link the class (and by default grade, or they'd have to pick their teacher from a drop down menu) would also fill in on the Google results page. All the kiddo would have to enter would be their name.

And in my really perfect world the results would populate in two spreadsheets. One class specific tab that teachers could see (whether they chose to visit the link would be up to them ... but the info would be available) with their kids and a record of who was coming and the time stamp. That way teachers could see who was asking to come and who wasn't and even if they were playing around between the library and the classroom. And a schoolwide tab so that the library could also extrapolate our busiest days and times. And see which teachers perhaps needed some chains rattled to get their kids down here on passes.

Is this too much to ask? Spreadsheets are not my forte. There has to be some kind of script or "if/then" statement. I just haven't figured it out yet! :P




PS I wonder where the QR code in the pic leads. To be honest I just looked for a CC image on Flickr. A super on top of it blogger would have an example Google form ready to go. And a freebie library pass to download.

Carbonite: Part Awesome and Part Sloth #backupyourdata Also JEDI ACADEMY

Tech Rant ahead then books at the bottom ...

My first hard lesson was 4 years ago in October. A jerk broke into my house and loaded up a car with TVs, jewelry, cameras, and computers.

Lost a lot of pics and files that day that I can't get back. :(

So when I got a new computer I was NOT EVER going to have that happen again. Enter Carbonite! Automatic backup of anything I ever save. Don't even have to set up Time Machine (Mac). LOVE that. Always remind everyone ... "Back up your files OFF site!" I'm lucky they didn't see the external drive or they might have taken that, too ... along with the $100+ in bookfair change I had ready for the following Monday. But I wasn't good about regularly backing stuff up on that drive so it was very hit and miss.

(insert mental picture of Han Solo here ... can't find one that embeds neatly)

But (and there is a BUT here) ... OH MY WORD CARBONITE IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SLOW! I'm remembering now. It took it three weeks just to back up the files I DID have. Three weeks.

And now? Moving files over from one machine to another? Going to take even longer as I have more files. #Sigh They say they released the "throttle" on data but gotta say ... not seeing it. And I have high speed internet that allows multiple devices to stream video and direct downloads of individual files are super fast.

Attempts to use the Mac Migration Assistant were also less than primo. Software and I can be friends. But hardware related? #notasgood

So. All this just to say ... it's better than not backing up. But it could be better.

I finally read the first Jedi Academy book yesterday. And the second. TOO FUN.

Star Wars: Jedi Academy by Jeffrey Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Too funny. I can't believe it took me so long to get around to reading this one. First I got an early egalley and then I've actually owned a copy since ... last fall's bookfair, I think.

Roan is hilarious. Readers will need to be at least somewhat familiar with the SW universe. After that, though, the story stands as a sci-fi Wimpy Kid. Only less annoying.

Must get a couple copies for the school collection!


This one isn't quite out yet. I received an advanced e-copy via Netgalley.

Star Wars: Jedi Academy: Return of the Padawan by Jeffrey Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After taking almost a year to read the first one (which really I can't explain because I am a SW fangirl) I managed to read both 1 & 2 this afternoon.

Too fun. It does take a little getting used to, reading all of the SW names in a handwritten font. That will cause some issues for some readers. But beyond that? TOO FUNNY. I love the characters. I love the references to classic SW moments. I love the "Holobook" and the lessons Roan and his classmates have to learn about being kind and to use an oft repeated phrase ... "seeking first to understand, THEN be understood."

Will definitely be getting both of these books for our school collection.




PS The Carbonite link is not a referral. Could have been but I'll leave it up to you. I LOVE it for the peace of mind. I am ready to scream at it for being so slow.

TL Blogging Challenge Day #6 Another Tech Tip

Another Tech Tip ... easy image editing! Does that sound strange when I am so terrible at remembering to take pics? That I love to play with image editing?

I almost hate to send you there because it is in need of updating (Picnik went bye bye a long time ago and Aviary has followed suit). But check the Image Editing page at the top of my blog. If you have any questions comment and that will be a good motivator for me to work on it. Page is pretty text heavy as it is. Probably won't happen until summer. Unless I get some good questions before spring break is over. ;)

The Big Huge Labs stuff is still relevant. Here's a Snapguide I did for some 4th graders who were illustrating "I AM" poems. It took them longer than I thought it would ... but you know why? Because they were really thinking about the images they wanted to create. They weren't just snapping selfies. That's pretty awesome, actually.


PicMonkey used to be my new favorite. And I still use them a lot but I also use ribbet.com.

Here's a post I did last year on apps and image editing.


And I'll leave you with a pic taken from my back porch the other night.



And for laughs ... a recent Seuss-themed Pinterestfail.