Day 2 & 3 with Google Docs

I had great plans yesterday to extend the use of Google Docs with my test group. I had one student who was absent when we started, so I had to get her set up. Things we going fine, then it froze. Her Google Docs wouldn’t open anything. Then another student had the same issue. Ugh! I figured if this wasn’t reliable there was no way to sell it with the teachers. I wasn’t looking forward to the note taking session during later blocks.

Surprise, it went okay. I liked being able to monitor their notes as they created. I can see where it could get out of hand with a large group but I think it would be great too. Today I had more students using their docs for notes today. It seemed to go well but I couldn’t monitor as I had another class I was instructing to use Glogster. However, I know I can go on tonight and look at the notes and make suggestions. This is another benefit of the online document. The students not using Google Docs I had to get printouts of their notes to check. I either had to look at them at work or take the stack home. This might be a big incentive for teachers. Although I did have one teacher comment that she has a hard time reading on the computer and prints everything.

The students seem to like Google Docs for the of using at home and school. I had one student trying to send her notes home but it wouldn’t attach. I felt really bad for her and hoping to solve the problem tomorrow.

I am not sure if the students are doing better at taking notes. However, that wasn’t what I was after. I just really want to make the research process easier for the students. I always tell the students I make it my job to find the easiest/fastest ways for them to do research. I don’t want them to dreading the process so much that they don’t engage with the information.

Google Docs–Validation?

Funny thing happened in the library today…

Okay it is only funny or ironic to me, but I thought I would share. After I had shared my blog post with several colleagues I pulled the latest edition (May/June) of Library Media Connection.

The first article I was drawn to  was about the entrepreneurial librarian–good listing of jobs you can do outside of regular library job.  Then there was the article by Tori Jensen about using Google Docs.  She decided to use Google Docs to make it easier for students to work on documents both at school and at home.  Gee, that is what got me started too   She has asked that her school district sign up for Google for School–which a colleague and I were just discussing this morning. It is wonderful when you find another librarian doing what you are doing.

Oh and I have to say, typing this on the computer was much easier than on my iTouch while getting a pedicure yesterday

Google Docs

So after a colleague showed me the new updates to Google Docs, I decided to try it with my Research class. They are actually doing two research projects this quarter. They haven’t started the actual project for me but they are starting their research for Language Arts. They have to write a persuasive essay and have just started creating a working bibliography. We are focusing their research to the online databases, easier citations and no web evaluation forms. We did the working bibliography using Word.

Today the 10 students in my research class created their accounts and I shared the presentation document they need to take notes. Big lesson learned–have a play document for them to test with or have the only able to view the document! I had to go back 84 revisions in the small amount of time it took them to create their account and share the document! Thank goodness for the revision history list! Oh did I mention these were 8th graders!

Once we were back to the orginal, the students copied the slides, renamed, saved, and shared with me. All ten did a great job!

We will start the actual note taking on Tuesday in their Language Arts class. We will do a little more editing of the slides on Monday and I will post how it goes. I am hoping to be able to expand this to another class this quarter and then all classes next year when they do research.

I did find two students who were willing to copy their working bibliography into Google Docs to try it. We found that the format did not copy over and that you can not do hanging paragraphs Maybe in the future!

Collaboration

So today was the day of collaboration with world geography teacher. The principal was in for the first block to observe the teacher and we planned a lesson using glogster. She did a great job introducing and explaining the project and the students did a great job! The principal was impressed. That was 3 blocks out of 4 and the 2nd block was free in which I spent most the time doing the basic stuff of managing the library. Again I forgot to update the Black History website, although the principal did comment on my displays when he was in. Tomorrow is another snow day- so we will see what Monday brings. Might actually catch up with Twitter to check out all the good information. I did send information to elementary ET’s about the doodle for Google contest.

Snow day

Today was a snow day so nothing work related today. Although I did see some interesting tweets from PBS and Joyce Valenza. I will have to go back and check them out.

Tuesday was a challenging day. I have planned a lesson with my world geography teacher to have students use glogster to create posters for the countries they are studying. Well it turns out she is being observed so she wanted to really learn how to do the glog. So we worked all of second block getting her started with Glogster. It would have been fine but for everything new she got flustered and kept saying she couldn’t do it. I finally got so frustrated with her that I told her that she is being just like the students she complains about. That seemed to shake her up but I think I wait awhile before doing something new with her. She is also more nervous this year as her standards and textbook has changed and more focus on countries she doesn’t know a lot about. We finally got her glog done with the video and I typed up the directions for the students and the rubric done.
I did not update the website I created for Black History Month. I am sure I will see an email about that. I tried to do it first thing but I had a students and then a teacher request help. What should. Come first? I say the patrons.

This is really the diffrence between elementary and high school libraries. While I always pushed for flex scheduling at the elementary, I now see how the management of the library becomes much harder with only one person. I have been thinking of moving back to the elementary level but the position is shared between two schools. This would require me to really be organized and have much better time management skills than I think I currently have. I miss the eager learner at the lower level but worry about the lack of collaboration that has occurred at the schools. I wonder how receptive the staffs will be to my philosophy. I guess it won’t hurt to talk to the principals–including my own.

Wow lots to ponder. I know we will have school tomorrow and it will be busy with the world geography classes. I just hope all goes as planned and we don’t have any technology issues.

Day six with recap of day five

Friday–started with an email from principal about my lack of bulletin boards and giving me suggestions. Now a little reminder is fine because I will delay doing displays forever but it was the tone that got me upset. So after I got that out of my system and created two bulletin boards– somewhat lame–and two displays, I was ready to move on to other things. I did get the bookcase moved and with the help of students and a volunteer we shifted books. I was also able to get the Smartboards out to the science teacher. Now we still have to get the projectos out and software loaded but we are slowly progressing.

Today we were all hoping for a delay as there was some refreeze from Saturdays snow fall. No such luck and the sidewalks a d parkikng lot were horrible! Many complaints were se nt up the chain of command. After that I was able to plan for my research class to learn about keywords and different search engines. I also had the humanities class back in for another edit session on Glogster. Today we did a short video of each student and will upload and use on Wednesday. The afternoon was spent laminating things foe reoccuring displays–tomorrow I will have to change the film–not a fun job. I also finished the lesson plans for the world geography class using Glogster and typed the rubric. Very productive day. Not sure what tomorrow will bring but I never really have a boring day.

Day Four

Today was a good day. It started with the announcement that we received 10 more projectors. Now it looks like we will be able put one in each classroom. Of course I still need to get the first 15 out.
I also introduced Glogster to 10 7th graders. While the smartboard wasn’t working properly, the students were excited and did a great job starting their posters. Oh and did I mention that I also had my 12 8th grade research students and 4 distance learning students and 1 Study hall student. It certainly was a busy place. Good thing the principal came on to see how busy it was and that I still managed everything. He was impressed with Glogster and how quickly the students took to it. We also only had a 40 minutes of classes because it was an early release for staff development.
The staff development started with a Zumba class. Lots of fun but hard work. Then we had a great pot luck lunch with enough leftovers for tomorrow. Then the real work began. We were introduced to the new differentiation model that DoDEA wants us to use. This was the first in a series that will span 6 years of implentation. The training wasn’t bad but I don’t see how it impacts me. I did a lot of this when I was a librarian at the elementary and was a planning period but having a hard time having to do this now. I really rely on the cooperative planning I do with the teachers to differentiate. Guess I will learn more in the training to come.
Hoping to get all smartboards and their projectors out and get books rearranged in nonfiction tomorrow.

Day Three

Today was a very productive day. I started with creating a bibliography of the last of the new nonfiction books. While I only did 1 cart, at least some are done. I has a volunteer come in to help shelve and we realized that I needed to move bookshelves. I emptied the shelves but we unable to move the shelf–delay waiting for help–I hope it gets moved tomorrow.
My next task was to plan with a 7th grade social studies teacher to be observed introducing Glogster. Plans are done but not fully typed.
I had high hopes for the rest of the afternoon but I was side tracked with the Apple announcement. I have to say I like the uPad but since I just received the iPod touch for Christmas, I don’t think I can justify. Plus I already have a Kindle that I do like. I am wondering if you will be able to share books like I can on the Kindle. I do like the color aspect and the size. I had thought about getting the Kindle DX for the textbook and newspaper ease of reading. I am looking forward to trying one but not ready to put out 500 for it.
Tomorrow is an early release for staff development. We are learning about differentiation. Guess after 15 years of teaching, I could use a refresher—not!

Day Two

Today didn’t start off all that well. I thought I would be able to start the process of compiling the list of books for weeding. I have a student volunteering after school for 40 minutes to help–she has 5 boxes ready and now I need to get the list together from the materials list. Policy changes last year make compiling the information a pain as Spectrum doesn’t allow me to modify the lists. I figured out a way to do it last year and thought I had written in my procedures binder. Of course I didn’t, so I spent the first part of the morning trying to remember. Now it is in the weeding tab of my procedures binder.

Then it was time for my research class and the library hunt. I used the Elmo projector to show the print resources–it worked better than I thought. Most of the students did okay but I think I need to work on the organization of the activity. They didn’t finish, so we will finish on Thursday.

I ended the day finally able to create the lesson plan and handout for the humanities class to use glogster on Thursday. Tomorrow I will work on the weeding, I hope.

Day One Post

I had high hopes for today but it quickly went down hill. Not long after getting my computer logged in and starting email–the power blinked. Total black out for about 10 seconds. Unfortunately enough to knock out 4 of my computers. Not normally a problem but no tech guys on site today. Hope they can be fixed tomorrow. The rest of the day making sure distance learning students could get into classes and creating a Library Hunt for my 8th grade research class. The students will only be using print resources except for the card catalog. Not the most enthusiastic group, so not sure how they will take the assignment.
I had hopes of planning with social studies teacher in using Glogster. However, we never got that far. We hope to have the students create the online posters for countries in northern Africa and southern Asia. Guess that will have to wait until Wednesday.
While I would rather do this update at work, I think it is going to be something I do while watching the news. Great way to clear mind for the night.