Working on my laptop at Starbucks for hours on end doesn't seem very
interesting. But...
The most interesting thing this summer was that it was the first time in my
11 years of teaching that I worked on school things ALL SUMMER LONG. Easily
15-25 hours a week. Unpaid. Why did I do this? We were awarded a large
federal library grant and the spending dealine was last Friday. With the
hectic school year schedule I was only able to spend half the grant money
during the school year. Therefore, I needed to work all summer to get it
spent and accounted for. I was really upset about spending so much time
working (unpaid), BUT I felt completely rewarded during my back-to-school
orientation last week.
Here's what happened: two non-grant related things I did this summer were
create a wiki space for our library and also an orientation Power Point for
teachers. I really hate public speaking (to adults), so the Power Point was
a way to get through my library orientation workshop. Let me just say--
they were BLOWN AWAY by the presentation. I received many emails and even
more people in person thanking me for the presentation and stocking the
library with all these resources. It felt really, really good. So, even
though I'm not very tan because I plugged away in coffee shops and libraries
all summer, I know I am starting the year on the best note ever. If you
haven't given an orientation yet, I would encourage you to do so. I made
all the staff and faculty attend, and even those who have been teaching
since our library opened four years ago learned A LOT about all our new
services. It was like a library grand re-opening because of all the new
resources the grant provided.
Here is a link to my wikispace: www.dewey-dot-com.wikispaces.com. As you
can see, it is very much under construction. It is also my "online filing
cabinet", holding links/articles/lists, etc. from things I get off of
LM_NET. After my orientation, several teachers asked if I could teach them
to create a wikispace, and our Dean of Faculty was so impressed he wants to
create one for the school. Also, I can now post lesson plans for the
teachers (who receive a hard copy at the beginning of the trimester but it's
nice to have it online to reference from home or last minute at school). If
you can, try to create a wikispace if you don't have control over your
library's webpage. It's very easy to update, and the faculty will be
appreciative.
One note: the PowerPoint I gave is on my wiki (see above for address). It
is specifically tailored to our school and contains several pop culture
references, so I'm not sure it will be very helpful for your school.
However, feel free to download and change it as needed. I am a pretty
mild-mannered person, so the references in the PP to me being "aggresive"
provided many laughs for those that know me. :-)
So, the bottom line of this novel-length email was that all the hours I put
in will be totally worth it, especially when the students arrive on Tuesday.
It's for them that we do this. And we now have a staff of at least 50
more people who are fully on board with our mission. It's because of LM_NET
that I have a wikispace to begin with, so thank you all for EVERYTHING!
Sipping on my Frappucino,
Carrie
Carrie Higgins, Library Media Specialist
Wissahickon Charter School
Philadelphia, PA
carriergreen@hotmail.com
higgins@wissahickoncharter.org
----Original Message Follows----
From: Peter Milbury <pmilbury@IIS.SYR.EDU>
Reply-To: Peter Milbury <pmilbury@IIS.SYR.EDU>
To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: [LM_NET] GEN: Most Interesting Thing This Summer
Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2007 15:37:52 -0400
Dear LM_NET Colleagues,
Now that most of us are back online after the summer break, I would like
to hear from those who might feel like sharing the most interesting thing
(education related) that you did this summer. I will start by sharing.
In June, just after school ended, I taught a four half-day PowerPoint
workshop for a regional technology conference (CTAP). What was especially
interesting was that I used some tips from LM_NET members regarding useful
things to do with PowerPoint. Also, I taught with PPT 2003 for the first
time, because our school had only supported Office 2000, but the workshop
required PPT 2003. It was interesting to learn some of the new ways of
doing things woth this newer version. It is definitely more powerful, but
also has some differences in how elements are added to the slides. The
work done by the participants was quite impressive, and ranged over all
grade levels and subject areas.
Would you like to share something that you felt was worthwhile you did
this summer? If so, please use the same subject description, GEN: Most
Interesting Thing This Summer.
Best wishes,
Peter Milbury, LM_NET Co-Moderator pmilbury@iis.syr.edu
Library Media Teacher/CA TeleMentor, Chico, CA
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