Gaols 2008-2009

Goals/Lyle Metzler
08-09


Type Goal #1 Collaborate by grade level to conduct a research unit as specified by the curriculum.

Define the research topic.

Teach the research cycle in the library.

Determine with grade level the part of grading the librarian does.

Librarian and classroom teacher continue to collaborate while students conduct research both in the library and on line in the computer lab.

Type Goal #2 Maintain existing level of circulation.

Organize the students to participate in Six Flags Six Hour Reading Club.

Organize a Holiday Reading Club from December 12, 2006 to January 5, 2007.

Organize the school to participate in the Bluebonnet Reading Program.

Organize the students to participate in Book-It.

Type Goal #3 Teach a variety of technologies to students for use while conducting research and publishing findings.

Teach and provide guided practice while students use technologies to find information to answer the questions in the Research Cycle.

Teach and assist students to report using Power Point.

Teach and assist students to report using i-Movie.

Teach and assist students using Word.

Collaborate with classroom teachers on lessons using the Promethean Board.

Type Goal #4 Engage, direct, and encourage students, individually and in groups, in extensive problem-driven research with real-world application.

Work collaboratively with classroom teachers to define the problem to research.

Model, teach, guide and assist students to locate, synthesize, and integrate information from multiple resources, in a variety of formats to draw conclusions and create a product.

Use technology to present newly acquired knowledge.

Use various criteria, such as logical validity, factual accuracy, and distorted evidence to evaluate various forms of information.

Is it the end or only the beginning?

For me, this is the beginning, not the end.  Although I am nearing the end of my professional career, there are some things I have learned here that I will take into retirement.  Some of them include:

Flickr

Animato

iGoogle

Blogging

I think that these tools will enable me to keep using my mind, continue being a lifelong learner, and share what I have learned with other people.  My goal will be to use these tools not only for me and my family and friends, but also to share with elderly people to enable them to keep in better communication with their families and friends, too.

I really want to share some of these tools with my current students.  The "gee-whiz" factor makes this worth exploring--making school more fun while educational for the children.  I'll be contacting our ETF to make certain I understand the district requirements for parental permission and documentation.

Things #23

Creative Commons is an interesting way to maintain some control over work but make it part of the public domain.  Someone mentioned that Peggy Sharp gives people who attend her conference the right to copy the notebook to give to others.  She says she does this because she know the conference attendees will anyway.

Attribution is usually required, but a fee is neither assessed nor is it collected.  The 23 Things has a block at the end on the right column that says the program was created by Helene Blowers and is covered with a Creative Commons License.  There are two other credits given.  I think that this will enable a number of people to explore their creative side by building upon the work that has gone before to make an even better, more creative whatever.  This is in keeping with the Library 2.0 ideal of always being in Beta.

 

Things #21

This Thing helped me reinforce the session we had Podcasting for Librarians.  I think the most powerful feature is the ability to have the subscription service.  This enables the podcasts to be fed from the server at a time other than when the subscriber wants to listen/watch it.  The whole file is on the computer and ready to go.  There was an interesting diagram on the TeacherTube--Podcasting versus audio files that show the effects of "Freeing data from destination."  It showed one person who was connected to the net with a dial up modem.  The podcasts could be aggregated at a time that the person was asleep or otherwise not using the computer.  This would save a great deal of time.

I found an interesting podcast when I searched travel and Australia.  I was easily able to add it to my iGoogle aggregator, but was having some trouble putting it on my blog.  I may have been about the time for the scheduled maintenance on the blog.  I'll check it later to see if I can add it.  It was some Australian music that I found interesting.

I think individual podcasts available on the library page that showing how to find a book would be helpful.  I'm going to give it a try.  I did open an account at Odeo's Studio.  I'll see how it goes.

Things #12

For what ever reason I seem to have missed a couple of these. I am now on MySpace! Yipee! It seems to be very easily established. I think. I think that librarians need to know about things that are important to their students. Because this is very important to many of them, it helps to know a little bit about it. I feel that I can at least know some of the words.

I think there are better tools to do things at school that also have less potential for the downside. There are so many horror stories about things that happen to kids that seemed to start on their MySpace. I wonder if this were a school sponsored activity if the district, school, administrator, or the librarian would be found liable.

I also think this would help librarians who have school age children be more alert to the potential dangers and be alert as their children are on line.

Things #6

I found using iGoogle maps and Flickr together was a great deal of fun. The pictures I used were from a tractor club plow and play day. I was able to use the the feature that combined the topographical map that also showed the road. The resolution from the topographical map was good enough that I was able to see the actual field where the event was held. (No, we were not seen. the satellite must have passed overhead and taken the picture before we were there!) :>)

I wonder what the students would draw to illustrate different images from The True Adventures of Charlotte Doyle at various locations in the book. Then the images could be scanned, loaded into a computer, then located on a map. The map would need to have her starting trip in England, the places on the voyage , the land journey to her home in America, and the final trip back to sea. I'm sure there are better stories that would lend itself better than this one, but hopefully I have been able to paint and understandable picture of this.

Things #16

The sandbox wiki was very easy to use. I added a post to it several days ago. Then I was greatly pleased to see an alert where Mary Mc had added a post after mine.

We used a wiki when we developed the library evaluation instrument. Today I was assigned the task to write a grant. I plan on teaching teachers at the point of need by using the wiki to track additions, deletions, and other changes. I believe with a little teaching I will have a core of teachers ready to lead team members to become more technologically proficient. This will be an interesting exercise, especially because I plan on being done with the 23 Things! Yeah!