Promoting reading and reading programs at my school seems not to be a one man job - thankfully! Most of the reading incentive programs (how I feel about those is a topic for another day) are organized by several of our reading teachers - and boy, do they do a great job! From organizing an author visit to planning Read Across America, they are fantastic. Sure, I get involved in the discussions and help out when I can, but for the most part, they take the lead. This might be a good thing because they are far more organized than me!

This leads to me write about an event I attended at the school my children attend. Tonight was the second year of Camp Read-A-Lot. This outdoor event, put on by the media specialist and the reader teacher, is a variety of things, but mostly an event to promote reading. During the hour-long event, families brought their chairs or blankets and hung out on the lawn in front of the school - some of the children even wore their pajamas. We listened to a couple of stories read by the event organizers, sang a few campfire songs, and then had some time to read with our children. Oh, did I mention there were smores? In addition, children were encouraged to bring books from home that they no longer needed and then could add them to the Book Swap table. If you brought put a book on the table, you could take another back home with you.

It's a cool event, short, productive, and positive. I saw at least four classroom teachers at the event, with their own children, not "working" - which I thought was great.

I wonder if an event like this would be successful at my school?? I guess there's only one way to find out - tell the reading teachers to do it!

There has been a pretty interesting discussion about the role of the Library Media Specialist, thanks to this post by Darren Draper. The comments to the post are pretty interesting, with many library media specialists tossing about their ideas. Please, read it.

There's no doubt the library of today isn't what it was in the past. The technology has changed the way the library functions and librarians have had to move with the changes. Some have moved along quickly, like the hare, while others are trudging along the like tortoise. The good news, is that most are moving in the right direction. Those of us in the library field understand what's needed to keep our libraries successful, important parts of our schools. We need to get students thinking globally, communicating with others outside of the school walls, and to become better problem solvers. We need to collaborate with the classroom teachers, stay current in trends related to our position, and continuously learn.

To me, much of what's discussed regarding the students seems to be easier to implement at the high school level, not the elementary. It's a different ballgame in a K-5 building barely meeting AYP. While I'd like to completely overhaul how my services are delivered and how I interact with the students and teachers, many of the restrictions are beyond my control. Here's what I can't control:

1. A fixed schedule (Contractually, I provide prep time for teachers)
2. Certain attitudes about what I do on a daily basis (from teachers)
3. The physical layout of my space - lack of $$$ prevents me from changing a lot
4. Lack of technology - one computer lab for almost 400 students.
5. Time - I see each class for "technology" no more than 45 minutes a week.

I understand that with the exception of #1, secondary libraries struggle with the same problems. Perhaps the fixed schedule is the largest of my issues. However, since teachers have prep time when their students are with me, it's going to be very hard to change that. In addition, there are many in my department who don't want that change made because it provides us with job stability. I agree, but if a flexible schedule was implemented correctly, teachers might feel a greater need for the library and the media specialist. In my district, that's not going to happen anytime soon. In addition, it seems there's so much to cover in a little bit of time. Since we really don't have a technology curriculum broken down by grade level, I'm having a hard time figuring out what to teach when. I know I need to talk about internet safety, proper web searching techniques, etc. But when? At what grade? With a limited time frame, and students struggling with basic skills, I see our students spending a lot of their time working on basic skills in the lab - phonics activities, basic math facts practice, keyboarding for 4th grade. These are all important, but there's so much more that could be done if....

I need some guidance getting from point A to point B. I'm not at the starting line anymore and I can see where point B is, I'm just struggling with how to get there.

If you have read any recent posts, you've noticed I'm working on a pretty good size project with classrooms from around the country. The project isn't over yet, but we should have things wrapped up by the end of next week.

I wrote a more detailed post about what I've learned while doing this project and you can read about it here. This post can be found on the Discovery Education Network Wisconsin blog, which I'm currently in charge of.

Please, visit the site, read the post, and comment here or there. Tell me what you think.

A few weeks ago, I introduced blogging to some of the librarians in my department. Along with another teacher-librarian, we showed some of the tools we use to find and keep track of the blogs we follow. I use Google Reader, as does my coworker. For us, it works. It was not always this way for me, however. When I first started using an RSS Reader, I used Bloglines. I thought I wrote a post about why I changed, but I looked back through my archives and couldn't find it. In a nutshell, I liked a few features of Google Reader that weren't available in Bloglines - features that made my experience better. Anyway, Google Reader is my RSS of choice. This leads me to a little advice I'd like to share - whether you're relatively new to the World of Web 2.0 or not.

If you find a tool that works for you, stick with it.

Believe me, you will have plenty of choices to make. RSS readers - Google Reader or Bloglines? Social Bookmarking - Delicious or Diigo? Online photo storage/sharing - Flickr or Picasso or iPhoto, etc.? Blog platform - WordPress or Blogger? And these are the ones that are out now! There will most certainly be new ones that pop up down the road, but my advice is this, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Now, I'm not saying ignore the new stuff that pops up, especially if it's recommended by people you trust. I'm simply saying that if your current tool of choice is working for you, you probably don't need to change. I use Delicious for my social bookmarking. It meets my needs. It does what I need it to do. Should I consider Diigo? Perhaps. Are there features that I might find valuable? Perhaps. Is it worth at least exploring? Perhaps. But why? I've had several people tell me they like Diigo better. I've read quite a few posts and tweets comparing the two. But, the way I look at is this - if I have something that serves the purpose I need it do, why switch? I understand that there may be features of Diigo that are better than those in Delicious, maybe even one's I'd use. However, in my case, Delicious is providing what I need. With that being said, I did export my Delicious bookmarks, created a Diigo account, and imported the list, but haven't looked at Diigo since. I'm not sure I want to take the time, much less have the time, to learn another Web 2.0 application.

I'm curious. Do you think this is good advice or do you think people should check out the new sites that pop up? Should they check them out even if what they're using is meeting their needs? Please give me your input.

Here's a little update on our State Project. As you may or may not know, our 4th graders are studying the United States. Each student has a state to research and will put together a final project at the end of the project. We are trying to conduct interviews with other students to learn more about each state. For example, instead of just learning about North Carolina from a book or website, our students are going to interview someone who lives there. That way, they are getting information from a different perspective. Last year, we used Skype for the video interviews, but could also use Google Talk if needed this year. Our students interviewed entire classes as well as small groups of students. It doesn't matter to us, whatever works best for those involved is fine. We found that taking advantage of the technology available not only is exciting, but also a great way for our students to connect with other students and classes around the country.

The interviews will last about ten minutes with our students asking the questions listed below. We'd love to hear answers from most or all of the questions.

What do you like best about living in your state?
What are a few things your state is most famous for?
Are there any famous people from your state? (What are they famous for?)
What are some things to do in your state that can't be done in most other states?
What is the biggest city in your state and how far away is your school from that city?
If we came to visit your state, where should we go and what should we do?
Are there any other interesting facts you'd like to tell us about your state?

Last year, the students on both ends of the conversation had a blast. I hope that continues this year.

Steve Dembo believes that every teacher is a rock star. I'm not sure I agree 100%, but understand where he's coming from. I just think some people want to be background singers, not on lead vocals or guitars. With that being said, they are all important to ultimately creating beautiful music.

A few weeks ago, I presented a session on Building Your PLN (here's the wiki) with a friend and colleague, Rachel Yurk. We did this presentation as part of the Discovery Education Virtual Conference. Her district hosted a local event for the VC and we decided to give a live presentation to those who were interested. This was the first time I've done a presentation to people outside of my school and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Rachel and I get along very well, have a similar sense of humor and presentation style (I think) so it was very enjoyable. I hope the educators in attendance learned something and will use the information we showed to benefit themselves and their students. One thing I realized while we were presenting is that many of us have been using some great tools for a while, there are still many, many people just beginning the adventure.

If the attendees were anything like me, they probably figured Rachel and I knew a lot about what we were talking about - might have even considered us "experts." I think most conference session attendees consider the speakers to be pretty knowledgable about the topic they're presenting on. If they weren't, I guess they wouldn't be presenting, right? This leads me to another post Dembo recently wrote. Steve wonders when the average person becomes an expert at something. Does it take a large number of Twitter followers? Does it take many comments on a blog post? Does it have anything to do with giving presentations or speaking at conferences? I think it might be a combination of all of these. Steve lists the wikipedia definition of expert and makes a note that for someone to be an expert, they have to have the DESIRE to be an expert. I completely agree. There are a ton of top notch educators working with children everyday, but some don't want to considered experts or put themselves out there. They simply want to do their job. To some extent, I think this is a shame, because I think we should all be sharing the successes we have with students and learning from each other.

Back to the title of this post. I hardly think I'm a rock star or an expert in the ed tech world - I'm just trying to learn a lot as I enjoy the ride. I've been flattered when a few colleagues or members of my PLN have told me they read my blog (which has totally been on the back burner lately) or follow me on Twitter. It's very encouraging when someone mentions that they recommended me as someone to follow. I'm happy about that. I hope to continue sharing my knowledge (or lack thereof) with others. Rock Star? I doubt it. Expert? Probably not, but maybe I'm on headed in that direction, depending on your definition.

Okay everyone, I need your help again. Our fourth graders are looking for information about each state and they would like to find a class of students or a small group of students to interview for their project. Ideally, we'd like to video conference - we used Skype last year. Interested? Go to our project wiki and add your information to the list. The wiki currently lists those who participated last year. Even if there is already someone from your state listed, please add your information. The more the merrier! The wiki is private, but join it and I'll give you permission promptly and you can fill out the info.

Here's my post about this project from last year. The project was great. We ended up with a bout video conferences from about 33 schools. This year, I'd like to top that list.

I hope you join us!

I recently saw this and wondered if I should give it a try. I've already floated the idea out to a couple of people in my PLN and they said I should do it. It certainly sounds like a great experience. There's a huge part of me who wants to fill out the application and see if I'm chosen. There's also a part of me that wants to take it easy this summer and relax. If I would be lucky enough to be chosen, I'd have to make a big decision about spending two weeks of my summer working my tail off, yet learning a ton. A decision about spending a lot of money to fly half way around the world. A decision about being away from my kids even more than just the week I'll be in DC for NECC.

Decisions, decisions......

Last week, a new post appeared on my blog, on April 1st to be exact. If you read it, you may have wondered if I was the author, well, I wasn't. That post was actually written by Mr D., author of I Want to Teach Forever. The idea of a little blog switch on April 1st came from the creative author of Learn Me Good, one of the first blogs I began to follow. Go ahead and read his post explaining the idea.

My original post can be found here.

In school, your standardized tests are probably looming and you're struggling to keep your students motivated. Outside of school, you're probably planning for next year--whether you're sticking around or moving on to life after TFA. You might have to move or transition to new roommates even if you're staying at the same school. This is of course on top of all of the unique challenges we all face each day.

Where do we find the strength to keep going? One source, not surprisingly, should be your students. I'm a big proponent of asking them for frequent, honest feedback about the job you're doing. If you're down on yourself, you'll likely feel reassured by the positive comments you get, especially if you've never given your students the opportunity to tell you what they really think. Even if you find out there's some things that are really not working for your students, it's your opportunity to fix them and make the rest of the year work better. Ask simple questions, along the lines of:

1. What do you think of how class is going this year?
2. What should [teacher's name] change to make class better?

This is also a good time to start asking yourself the same questions. In other words, take stock of the good, the bad and everything in between while there's still time to make things better. I recently carried this out myself, making a detailed list of my five greatest failures and five greatest successes this year. I had to be brutally honest with myself, because that's the only way you'll ever make any professional growth. You don't have to do this in a public forum, but you should write it down. It's a cathartic process, even if you don't can't or don't act on what you learn.

Next, take steps to reduce your stress at school by working more efficiently. Two years ago I outlined a three-part plan based on ideas from the book The 4-Hour Workweek to make my life much easier. I wasn't a rookie when I took that advice, either--it was actually my fourth year in the classroom when I realized what had to be done.

Finally, look for (or create) a light at the end of the tunnel. What are you doing this summer? Have you planned an escape, even if for a short time? Are you moving on to some exciting new adventure next year? Either way, getting excited about what's just around the corner is easy:

* Create a countdown
* Make a summer fun "to do" list
* Think about and plan out your already-booked adventures
* Call friends and family and share exciting plans
* Focus your energy on what have to do before summer comes to make all your great plans come to fruition

Have an idea of your own? Leave a comment!