TL Blogging Challenge #4 Has Tech Changed my Job?

Yes and No.

Yes because we've gone more mobile ... and that's mostly awesome. Thousands more reference sources available now in a device the size of my hand. Keyword searching instead of index searching and multivolume searching (or the ... what was it called ... Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature?). Love Pebble Go. Kids that can't necessarily read independently can still conduct basic research ... and if they can't write what they learned they draw it. World Book. BrainPop, Jr. Kids that struggle to read at their interest or "age" level can listen to an audiobook. Kids can download library books from home on a day when there's no school (yes, I do realize a lot of them don't have computer access ... but more and more even if there's no full on computer at home there's at least a smartphone!).



No because Oh My Word when tech doesn't work it makes things difficult. Things that should be SIMPLE are not because of ridiculous network or hardware issues. I'm an idealist, I'm sure. I feel like at school things should function and not always be a fight. If they don't work it should be fixed. I can be patient once or twice or even three times with issues. But "be patient" for the eighteenth time (by people who sit in an office and don't work with kids) over problems that make it harder for teachers? How can I ask them over and over "Try this! Try this!" when they are told "don't try to use apps that require wifi because you don't have it" or it takes 15 of their 30 minutes in the computer lab just to get kids logged in to the network (and it's not because the kiddos don't know their passwords)? At home it will work. Try it there. :/

Yes because I learn more. A lot of my PD is delivered via tech ... webinars or blogs or YouTube videos or digital library books. Most of the face to face I get is ... not always what my students or staff need me to offer.
No because though I own two digital e-readers ... given the choice I still choose a hard copy title. And that's still a major portion of our collection.
So there you go. Not super eloquent but it's Thursday night and the cedar count cannot go down fast enough. :P

Finally Friday Jan. 24

It's an ICE DAY! This has not happened in three years so big news.
Also it's a year since I was in so much pain I caved and went to the hospital. Eight hours later I had my appendix out and then felt so much better. Though not as interesting as my teacher friend had twins yesterday, the same day Kid President released this video.

Angie O's pin on Pinterest.

A librarian friend made this! Isn't it cool?


Maybe I will watch this movie today. The iPad commercials reminded me of it. Only it IS kind of sad.
Angie O's pin on Pinterest.

I wonder if I have all the ingredients for these. #coldweathertastiness



Or if I have the colored paper to start making this.

TL Blogging Challenge #3 My Cannot Live Without Website

Used to be Google Reader but then Google took it away and neither Bloglovin nor Feedly are filling the gap. Which makes no sense because none of those sites actually created the useful content. You awesome blog writers did! The sites were just the way in which I accessed the info.

You know what I'm going to say now, don't you. YOU KNOW IT. How do I access a lot of it now?

Pinterest. It's a double-edged sword because it can get distracting with non-school library related fluff. But there's so much GREAT school library stuff to be found on there, too! And a much easier way to FIND said stuff than via Google. More focused and of course with the handy image preview.

I used to keep my boards pretty chunked together ... only had about 10 topics. Then they got a bit unwieldy. Pinterest REALLY helped things along when they introduced the ability to search within your own pins but hey, that only helps if I used good tagging/captioning! I go back and delete pins sometimes. I want to keep the number reasonable and only the best of the best ideas that I hope I get to use at some point!

#IMWAYR Jan. 20 & Google in the Library

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.



Slow reading week as we had a late PTA night and a couple days where I just came home after school and crashed cause I was so tired. Didn't finish anything but a couple magazines and then got further into ...

The Lost Treasure of Tuckernuck. Actually my e-checkout of that book timed out. This is so awkward ... I'm not loving much of our state award list next year. How do I fake enthusiasm for books I'm not excited about? Or also why is it I'm not excited but everyone else is? #questions
When I can check it out again I will finish it cause that could make a big difference.

I want to finish Ungifted and Hollywood, Dead Ahead cause I've been partway through those for a while. Liked them ... just keep getting distracted by other titles!

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey. I have to admit I almost gave up on this one ... was having trouble following things. But then I kept listening (can't really say "stuck with it" as it was more than anything it was laziness about taking the CD out of the car and finding something else) and now it's getting to where I WANT to listen longer.

If I get to it Codename Zero by Chris Rylander will be my next one.


So TCEA is coming up. I am tagging along with two MS (Google certified!) and HS librarians to present on Google in your LMC. Right now I feel like I'm not adding much. Hopefully that will change! Do you have an idea? A way that you use Google that makes your life easier or something run more smoothly in your library or really catches your students' attention? Please share. We'll credit you in the presentation for sure! And when the presentation site is live (well ... OK. It's live now but it's not done so no sharing the site for at least a week! And when I DO share ... head's up that I might need to ... well. The Google certified librarian talks above my head a good portion of the time and while I'm NOT as knowledgeable as I'm sometimes given credit for? I do know that some of what she says makes more sense to me than others. So I will "translate" in later blog posts, if you get my drift. If nothing else I can add that to the presentation. ;)

TL Blogging Challenge Day #2 E-books and E-audio

Me again! Twice in one day!

I got a color Nook back when they were pretty new ... when the only other "tablet" was an iPad. It was super nice for traveling and at the time you couldn't get Overdrive books any other way. Never got my money's worth out of it, though. And the slow Internet speed drove me batty. So then what makes no sense was I was very naughty on Black Friday and bought myself a Kindle Fire HD. I love that E-ARCS from Netgalley and Edelweiss won't time out on me now. And it's easier cause I don't have to deal with a USB cord. And like over the holiday break ... I was tired of waiting for the library copy of the new Pendergast novel to come in so I downloaded it. And bonus it was on sale so it was only $6.50. Ebooks are not always cheaper than the hard copy book and buying for the library is different. But it was so nice to not have to leave my couch!

When I was exercising well I downloaded audiobooks to my phone all the time. Then Overdrive did some strange update where nothing worked and that got me off my groove. Also I got sick. Finally just completely reinstalled Overdrive and it's working again.

I need to promote our district collection more with our campus, though. I got a grant to get the classrooms mp3 players to download for Daily 5 time and then the vendor stopped carrying the kid friendly ones I wanted to order. So now I have to look for a new devices. Any suggestions? I don't really want to do the iPod route because if you don't own one it's not necessarily easy. I want something the least tech savvy teacher could use in their classroom (cause of licensing they have to do the downloading ... I can't do it for them and heavens, couldn't for all of them).

I made these to start some more active advertising. They're not perfect but they're a start for now. Print out the signs and put them in a frame then add color copies of book covers you own digitally to the blank area (that way you can change out the advertised books). Click here to get the easy peasy pdf file.

(The PDF lists all of the artists ... Graphics from the Pond, School Supply Addict, Creative Clips, and Kimberly Geswein.)

Lincoln Bookmarks & Black History Month mini-posters Redeux

So ... went looking for some bookmarks Friday and couldn't find them anywhere. Or, all I could find was a TERRIBLE preview pic of them on the blog (how embarrassing!) and then no FILE with the pic (worse!). So I made them over again here for your downloading pleasure. If you like them/can use them or anything.

Abraham Lincoln book quote (Google Drive ... use the Google File-->Download menu to download a copy)

(And of course TODAY when I look a decent copy was easy to find on the blog (but why the Google drive search didn't work I still don't understand but anyway). So if you want Scrappin' Doodles instead of Melonheadz go here.)

Black History Month Quote Mini-Posters (freebie download on TPT)

Now I'm paranoid and need to go back and check if other little mini-signs or bookmark links or preview pics are messed up. Won't get done today but it will get done. If you ever notice one let me know, would you? Maybe that will be my Throwback Thursday goal for a while. Pick one thing to double check/freshen up.

I have a list of books for Black History Month here. It's FAR from comprehensive and more than a little Kadir Nelson heavy. Any suggestions to add? The post is getting some attention on Pinterest at the moment so I'd like to make the best possible. Keep people around and all.

Anyone want to nominate themselves for Sunshine Blogger?

Sunshine Blogger

First I have to say thank you to Deb of Stylin' Librarian for the nomination. What fun! During a bout with the highest cedar count known to man it was such a nice little ... burst of sunshine. :)

First of all you probably already know about Deb's blog. But if you don't, go there. Always shares great reviews of the books and some fun little insights into living abroad! I enjoy it immensely.

Now. 11 facts you may not know about me. Or maybe you do:

1) I might have mentioned this, I can't remember. I speak Spanish! Not perfectly like I'd ever be mistaken for native but I get along. Comes from HS, college, and 18 months doing service work for my church with mainly Hispanic people in CA. I speak it fairly often living in South Texas. ;)

2) If I still practiced I'd be like Sherlock. I play the violin. Went to music camp and played in orchestras for a long time. Miss playing with a big group!

3) I'm an aunt of 10 ... 6 nieces and 4 nephews. Sister of 3 brothers and 2 sisters. Daughter of Mom and Dad. Only parents live close. At least them but :( on everyone else being far away.

4) I love 80s music. a-ha is my favorite! They had several other awesome songs after Take on Me. That was NOT the only one!

5) I love to collect recipes and crafty ideas. I don't love to cook or make most of them. Perfectionist.

6) I've been to British Columbia, Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, England, France, Spain, Ireland, Scotland, and one day in Morocco. I need another trip! Even though beforehand I stress out like no other. "Did I pack enough? Did I pack too much? Did I remember this? Or that?"

7) And related to number 6 ... oh my word do I get lost easily. NO sense of direction. At all. Like it's ridiculous and makes me late for things or miss things entirely or not even try to go cause I'm nervous about getting lost. 

8) All of my family summer vacations were spent in the small town in Idaho where Napoleon Dynamite was filmed. That's where my parents grew up and my grandparents lived.

9) Goodness ... we're starting to stretch things here. Umm ... I spent a week sailing the San Juan Islands on a Boy Scout Explorer sailboat.

10) First concert I ever went to was Extreme. Remember them? So weird ... stuck out like a sore thumb. Next one was George Strait.

11) Drat. Can't think of anything remotely interesting. I hate bananas and raisins with a fiery passion.

11 answers to Deb's questions:

1) If I could travel anywhere, I would go ... back to Scotland! Or Ireland! So green and pretty with history in the architecture. And to give it one more chance to have tall, dark, and handsome walk around the corner. 

2) Recent procrastination I need to deal with ... some things that are falling behind at work. Collaboration. You have to actively work for it and with feeling yucky some of that has been pushed to the back burner. Survive instead of thrive mode, you know? 

3) Last time I laughed out loud was the other day. Kid quote: "Miss, why does your hair look so crazy?" and the same day "Why is your nose so red?" Before that it was my nieces and nephews over Christmas. Too adorable.

4) Movie that has stuck with me ... harder. Movies are a favorite. I tend to go more for action and fantasy than drama. I guess ... the LOTR trilogy. Samwise Gamgee's speech about the great stories and there being some good in the world. For a movie (to be fair book, but anyway) TWO to manage that kind of power ... that's something.

5) I need to read more non-fic. I'm getting better but more would teach me things! And more early chapter books. Picture books, middle grade, YA? Got those fairly decently covered. But early chapter? Not my fave so I don't always.

6) What makes a book 5 of 5 stars? If love it and I feel like the book's targeted audience will also love it (those two don't always go together). When the writing and turns of phrase just amaze me and make me wish I could write my own stories.

7) I wish I could be braver about people. I get nervous and then can't think of anything to say. I have a couple of blog friends for which I am so thankful! Open to more ... just nervous about making first contacts. TCEA is coming up. I would love to make more personal connections. Not just go, stay in my own bubble, then come home.

8) EEK! Personal style? What would someone call it? I'm not sure. My style was much better when my body was more in shape. Clinton and Stacy were my gurus. But hey. Allergy shots so I can breathe and I'll exercise more and I'll get back into those cute clothes. We'll say Converse Chucks and you can probably guess the rest of my current style. :P

9) My favorite recreational activity besides reading is making cookies running sleeping.

10) How do I give back to my community? You know ... that's something I could do more of. I don't regularly volunteer at any soup kitchens or shelter. Don't do anything at the public library in the summer. I know one doesn't have to do any of that. But I think it would be nice. Sometimes it feels like I'm so wrapped up in school that IS my community service. But it's not.

11) If I had only one book I could share with a group of students it would be ... right now it would be The One and Only Ivan. I have such a personal connection to it. No picture proof ... but memories of visits to his sad mall domicile.

Here's the hardest part. I'm not sure who to tag. WHAT IF THEY SAID NO? OR just didn't ever do it? Then I'd feel silly. And I know ... THAT is silly.

My 11 questions:

1) favorite candy

2) favorite Star Wars or Harry Potter or LOTR or Pride and Prejudice or Anne of Green Gables  character (hopefully at least one of them you like! if not feel free to add a character from somewhere else) and why

3) least favorite thing to do

4) scariest book you ever read (even if it wasn't very scary!)

5) time you'd like to visit

6) first animal you visit at the zoo

7) first website you open on a "regular" day

8) most tolerable form of exercise

9) Sherlock or Watson?

10) Hard copy print, e-reading, or audiobooks?

11) fave tech tool