What was I most excited about in this course?When I think about my time in this course this year, I have so many amazing memories. I truly have had a very difficult Time deciding what has been some of the most exciting things for me in this course. I have felt little victories after almost every assignment that I have completed. I know that they have meant so much to me because I have gone to my curriculum coordinator and raved about all of the amazing things that we have done in this class and what I’ve been learning. I truly believe that learning about the comics and cartoons has been a really big moment for me because I used to hate that kind of stuff. Once I got into it I could Definitely see the appeal that it had especially in schools. What did I find the most difficult/challenging?I think the thing that I had the most difficulty with was the blog reader assignment in the very beginning. At first, my mind wasn’t understanding how to utilize blog readers correctly, but once I figured it out it was a breeze. What did I think would benefit the students the most?I also thought that the podcast was a really neat thing that I got excited about because podcasts are becoming such a big thing now days. This year, our English TEKS have changed. Students are being asked to take what they hear and apply it to the next level. Listening and speaking are in bedded in the strands of the new TEKS. Therefore, I think it’s crucial that we are exposing kids to that kind of information. Overall Thoughts/OpinionsOverall, I have found a sense of enjoyment in all of the things that we have done. Looking back, I can easily say that this was by far my favorite library science class that I have taken because I’ve been able to apply so many of the things that we’ve been learning to not only my studies in the type of library and I want to be, but I’m also able to apply it to the instruction that I’m using in my actual classroom at this moment. I think because of all of these new and innovative ways and methods that I’ve been learning, I will be a fantastic librarian because I am able to stay up-to-date with what is current and focus on the collaborative efforts that need to be made with teachers. Creative Reflection Using Pixton
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Collaboration Podcast:
Kara Harper and I created this podcast about collaboration in the library.
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â Tamara Meigh (@booksley) August 17, 2019
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Facebook Pages:
The whole concept of this assignment was to evaluate how social media can be used as a platform to promote school libraries. I started by evaluating Facebook. I do not have a Facebook, so I did borrow my friends account to do all of the research. When I began looking up information about school library, I noticed that there were a lot of school districts that did use Facebook as a way to promote their library. This was surprising to me. As I browsed through the sites, I noticed that most of the items posted were upcoming events, videos like author sessions or information about book fairs, collaboration photos that have happened in classrooms, and other photos of that nature. I noticed that on all of the posts that it seems to be minimal comments and likes. The maximum amount of likes that I saw through my browsing was about 12 on one photo. This was about the amount that I expected, I thought Facebook was a fantastic platform to be able to house videos and photos, but Facebook is actually not as popular as it once was. Therefore, it is not doing as good of a job as it was originally intended to. Twitter: When I began my search on Twitter (@emlyssy), it was a very different story. Twitter is very big in the literacy world and therefore when you follow the suggested users from our assignment you were able to see that not only do they have a massive amount of followers but many retweets and likes as well. I found that on Twitter the little blurbs about education are also linked to articles or projects (very helpful indeed). I think that this is more beneficial because it has many more users behind it that are actually wanting to follow and progress in the literacy realm. (You can see some of my favorite tweets on the side!) Twitter is able to house many great articles and lets you share immediately. I would say that Twitter is typically geared to adults or those who are in the literacy profession (making it not as likely to be stumbled upon by parents or kids). Instagram: Once again, I do not have an Instagram so I did have to create one (My account is TeacherEmWilk3). In my research of trying to find school and library related content, I found that there are a lot of photo options that showcase different things happening in the library. One was Book displays that are going on. I thought this was really cool because librarians would be able to follow some of these people and get ideas on how to enhance the productivity and quality of their library. I also saw some really neat ideas like having a top 10 book of the week list. I thought this was a really neat way to promote the library and get people reading. My Review: At the end of the day, I think that Twitter is the most beneficial when it comes to the promotion of literacy among adults. However, Instagram is still relevant among the kids so when it comes to enforcing it in a school library, I think that Instagram could also have a big following as well. I do not think Facebook is an adequate way to promote school libraries because the popularity of Facebook is simply dying. As a middle school teacher, I can tell you that the kids main ways of social media is Snapchat and Instagram. Snapchat is obviously not a likely choice for librarians (or other school members) because kids would not be able to just follow the connect without someone else seeing their content. However, with Instagram on the other hand kids and parents would follow it. Basically, I believe that if you are trying to promote a library, Instagram is definitely the way to go. |
Review of Blog Reader Feedly:
The blog reader that I chose to use for this assignment was Feedly. While I was in the process of my research, I kept coming back to this one because the design was clean and simplistic. I found that it was very user friendly and very beginner friendly as well. The minimal amount of buttons that you had to push to set up your account made it so easy.
Once I set up my account, I simply typed in the types of blogs that I would like to follow and pressed “Follow”. I was able to go to the home tab and see all of the posts that were made and what came from which site. I thought it was very impressive.
When I looked at another blog reader (NewsBlur) I found it very frustrating. From what I was able to see, it was challenging to customize what you wanted to follow.
Blogs I Chose to Follow:
5 Minute Librarian
This blog is designed to share crucial information with librarians (or book lovers) in a simplified form. The concept is to be able to share what the content is in the amount of time a busy person would have available. I chose to follow this because I am a very busy person, but I love to gain new information. I thought that the concept was interesting.
http://www.5minlib.com/2020/01/literary-holidays-to-celebrate-all-year.html
American Libraries Magazine
This webpage is a magazine publication of ALA. There is a diverse set of issues that get covered in the majority of the articles. I followed this because I actually read the article that was in the link, and I found it to be very though provoking. My thoughts then became this might be the standard for most of the articles that are published here.
https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2020/01/02/free-speech-free-for-all-first-amendment-audits/
Teen Library Toolbox
This is a blog for teen librarians. Typically, they give reviews for YA books and host discussions about those books. I chose to follow this because I felt that with my experience working at a middle school that it could be beneficial to me to see what books they are sharing and why.
http://www.teenlibrariantoolbox.com/2020/01/book-review-jane-anonymous-by-laurie-faria-stolarz-a-teen-review/
YALSA Blog
This blog is designed to talk about YA books typically for librarians and other people. Their goal is to show the merit that YA literature holds. I chose to follow this because I thought that their page looked interesting. I discovered that they had many writers working for this blog which intrigued me. I like the idea that it is not just one person’s opinions being shared all of the time.
http://yalsa.ala.org/blog/
Public Libraries Online
This is the online version of the magazine Public Libraries Association. This online component is more interactive (obviously) and does book reviews, author interviews, and more. I chose this because I actually was reading the interviews with some of the authors, and I thought that it would be interesting to follow.
http://publiclibrariesonline.org/
Overall:
I really enjoyed being able to look and understand blogs this way. It was something that I followed on twitter before, but now I will be following on my Feedly account as well.
Author
English Teacher.
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