New Year, New Blog?

Well, it has happened.  After almost three years, lots of reading, many research papers, and much help from my family and friends, I have graduated with my Master of Library & Information Science and have a pending South Carolina State Teaching certificate.  The next step is finding a position as a school media specialist.

Transitioning from a graduate school focus, this blog will discuss books, apps, and tech tools. Eventually it may evolve again to reflect my life as a newly minted school media specialist. But not yet...:)

After six books and over 300,00 words, I finally completed all of Michael Grant's Gone series. Set in a California beach town in the aftermath of a nuclear powder plant accident, this series is full of richly developed, memorable characters (Whip Hand anyone?). Whether hero, villain, or a mixture of both, no one leaves the FAYZ unscathed. I would love to see this series brought to the big screen. Gone has become one of my go to titles for those students that have already read other popular dystopian series such as The Hunger Games or Divergent.

Catching Kisses is a new picture book by Amy Gibson. The story follows kisses as they are blown and fly off with the wind around our country. I especially enjoyed Maria Van Lieshout's striking retro style illustrations of various U.S. cities and the game in recognizing the places in the book.

Current favorite apps: Haiku Deck and Smore. Haiku Deck is super simple to use and creates very visual, striking presentations. Streamlined alternative to PowerPoint. Smore is for digital flyers, newsletters, invitations, and much more. It is intuitive to learn and features modern fonts and backgrounds. I have made Smores for school drop ins, yard sales, and professional development presentations. 

Day 17 - Professional Development and iPads

It is hard to believe that I am in my last two weeks at Dorman.  This semester has gone so rapidly and I have truly enjoyed going "back" to high school and working with such a knowledgeable pair of media specialists. I'll save the rest of my reflections for next week's posts, but I already know that I will miss working with the DHS MC gang!

Today was a rewarding day for me as I had the opportunity to provide professional development for a group of student teachers.  As a fellow student, I could relate to their challenges and wishes for the future.  My presentation (see below for the Haiku Deck visual portion) focused on why new teachers should partner with their school librarian.  Aside from the fact, that librarians are a terrific bunch, we covered collaboration opportunities, research guidance, and identified beneficial resources for teachers (e.g., Discus, Streamline SC).  Next week I have an opportunity to present to a group of second year teachers and will customize to fit their needs.



Melanie and I got to experience iPads in action with an economics class.  The students used a web based credit card simulator to learn about interest and minimum payments.  Here's my advice: stay out of debt kids!
Good luck to Cathy as she ventures to cold Hartford, CT for the AAAL (American Association of School Librarians) conference.  A great opportunity to share best practices with school librarians from all over the country.