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Thing 12: Final Reflections & What’s Next?

It is so very hard to believe that another school year is quickly coming to a close - sadness is attached to that idea this year for me and my school community because our beloved building is closing it's doors.  Although this is my fourth year of teaching, it seems like it has been very challenging - most of which is associated with the closing.  We are all trying to remain positive for the students and to keep things as normal as possible in the classroom even though we are all panicking at how we will ever pack all of the things we have "collected" over the years!  However, on the positive side, I do have a job next year and I'll be working with students from grades K - 2 as well as the 3 - 5 that I currently teach. This year with Cool Tools I tried to focus most of my lessons for grades K - 2 because I have not worked with them outside of my student teaching.  I realize that we are in a time period where kids are very technologically savvy at a very young age b...
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Thing 21: Taking the Lead: Connecting with your Stakeholders

I chose this "thing" to investigate because it is about a very relevant topic to all librarians - particularly school librarians.  Unfortunately we seem to be the target for cuts in budgets when our profession is needed the most.  We need to educate the community that we are so much more than the keeper of the books! Our local SLS office just hosted Hilda Weisburg to discuss the issue of advocacy with our local school librarians. It was very interesting and reassuring to hear what she had to say mirrored in the beginning video and the articles.  We need to stand up for ourselves and shout to the world that we are needed (this is probably difficult for most of us in this profession - especially me). The video had a lot of very good material about reaching out to the stakeholders through the mission statement, school improvement plans and surveys targeted at administrators, teachers and students.  At our SLS conference Hilda suggested the same thing so part of our da...
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Thing 17: Digital Tattoo & Digital Citizenship

I have decided to review Thing 17 in the hopes of learning about new resources/lessons for children in grades K-2  about keeping them  safe  online as well as teaching them to be responsible digital citizens.  As I have mentioned in earlier posts, I have  worked with  grades 3-5 for the past four years but due to the closing of my school I will be  teaching K-5 next year.  I  am very  excited to begin this new journey but would like to make sure I am prepared for the new challenge.  Prior to  exploring this "thing" last year, I had relied on Netsmartz videos and BrainPoP for my digital citizenship lessons.  As  much as I enjoyed these resources I felt there had to be something more to use  because some of the kids were  still making poor online choices.  I was introduced to the  Common Sense Media  website at a regional librarian's conference a few years ago  but only thought you c...
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Thing 9: Databases & Search Tools

I am revisiting Thing 9 because it has been several years since I last worked on this topic and I am always interested in finding better resources for my students to use for their research needs.  In addition, I will be working with grades K - 2 in the fall which is new for me.  I didn't really spend a lot of time on the database section because I am very familiar with the resources my district/SLS office organizes for us on our search page.  I will note that I am very sad that Amazing Animals and America the Beautiful will not be offered through NovelNY - they were two of my favorites.  The new offerings look good but there will be a learning curve. My focus for this lesson was to really explore web search tools for the younger students.  I have looked at Kidrex previously and do like this search tool but have not implemented in my current school.  I like the clean, kid friendly interface but wish it would be geared a little more for our younger friends....
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Thing 5: Presentation Tools

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For some reason I believe I may have looked at this "thing" years ago when I took my first Cool Tools class but with all of the new technology I wanted to revisit it to see what is new and fun to use for my students.  My 5th graders do a lot of mini research projects with me and their teachers so I am always looking for new tools for them to use.  In the past they have mainly used PowerPoint and a few used Prezi but this year I am requiring all to use Prezi.  I am so glad to see it here so that I can pick up some pointers on how to make it easier for the kids to learn how to use it effectively.  I was going to explore Google Slides because I'm sure our school is headed that way in the next few years but instead decided to play with Buncee. Tools I've explored: Prezi As I mentioned above, I have used Prezi in the past with some of my students but those were usually the ones that were very comfortable using technology - some would also say they were the adventurou...
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