My students are doing some phenomenal projects in the Information Literacy course I teach, so I decided to give them a way to save all their work in a digital portfolio using Google Sites.  There are many different platforms I could have used such as Edublogs, Wix, or Weebly, just to name a few.  I choose to use Google Sites as our platform.  The new Google Sites is very easy to use, and although users don't have a lot of choices with design, it's a really good first website creation tool for upper elementary and middle school level students.  I also like the fact that Google has different levels of privacy, so students have the ability to create a website, publish it to the web, but keep it available only to our school district.

Google Sites is very easy to use.  My 6th, 7th and 8th graders all had a very easy time creating their sites.  They were asked to create a site to use as a portfolio for all the work they would complete for the year.  In the future they will add a page for their new grade level. 

Directions For Using New Google Sites

• Go to Google Sites https://sites.google.com/

• Choose New Google Sites.  

This week I had the pleasure of attending and presenting at TCEA (Texas Computer Education Association) Conference in Austin Texas.  This was a fabulous conference and I highly recommend attending.  Even though it is a state conference, it feels more like a national conference.  My husband always says "Everything's Bigger in Texas" and in this case he is most certainly correct.

Some of my highlights of the week included:

1.  Presenting to Librarians on My Top 25 Tech Tools For Librarians.  

Presenting is one of my favorite things to do, and I always enjoy sharing things that have worked for me, and making new connections.

2.  Attending a presentation by Kasey Bell on Google Keep.  

I have been following Kasey on Twitter for quite some time now @shakeuplearning and am very impressed with all that she has to offer educators on all areas of Google.  I really learned a lot about using Google Keep.  It is quickly becoming my new Go To Tool.

3.  The Vendor Hall

The vendor hall at TCEA was just amazing!  Pretty much every technology vendor was there.  Since I have a new Makerspace, and am always looking to expand, the vendor hall always gives me time to explore the newest and up and coming technologies.  I was also lucky enough to present for Mackin in the vendor hall on how we used MackinMaker to create our school library makerspace.

4.  Hearing Marlee Matlin Keynote

Marlee Matlin was one of TCEA's keynotes and I was so moved by her talk.  She spoke of the struggles of becoming an actress with a disability and mentioned many people who were a help to her along her way to success.  She ended her speech by explaining what an asset technology has been to those struggling with various disabilities.  Such a moving person!

5.  Making New Connections

If you have never been to a larger conference, I would recommend you do so soon.  I have been to 3 in the past year (ISTE, AASL, and now TCEA)  At each of these conferences I have met new educators.  You may meet someone if you are presenting, someone who sits next to you at a session you are attending, or someone while you are sitting down taking it all in.  It is always a treat for me to talk to new people and learn how they are doing things in their schools.  

Building in the Makerlab

Last school year I started promoting monthly stem challenges in the library.  This idea began when I was looking for something extra for my students to work on during a recess period when my students are able to visit the library.  This December, I decided to run a Gingerbread House Competition as our monthly STEM Challenge.  This was patterned after some of the gingerbread house competitions I have attended in the past.  Of course those competitions had real gingerbread houses made from candy and gingerbread.  The idea with this competetion was to make everything out of paper and crafting materials.  Students were allowed to work together and were given about 2 weeks of 20 minute increments to work on completing their houses.



The Rules Were as Follows:
Flyer and Rules

Gingerbread House Contest Form

Voting Ballots

                                                                                                                         

I don't know about you, but I am always looking for awesome reading promotions to do with my students.  I teach 5-8, and it can sometimes be a bit challenging to get my 7th and 8th graders excited about reading. 

This November, I attended AASL and attended a session on reading promotions at the middle school level.  The presenter talked about a reading promotion she ran called Unwrap a Good Book For Christmas.  I had done something similar to this last year and Valentine's Day "Blind Date With a Book" and it seemed to go over well, so I thought this would be a perfect fit as well.

Here's How the Promotion Works:

Over the past year, I have learned the importance of blogging.  It is a great way to share your ideas with others, keep a record of your successes, and make connections with other educators.

About six months ago, I began the process of redesigning my blog.  This involved creating a new design for my header.  Unfortunately, I have absolutely no artistic skills, at least not when it comes to drawing.  My mother is a very talented artist, and even holds a Bachelors in Fine Arts from Moore College of Art in Philadelphia.  Who better than her to create a design for my blog?  My mother is a huge part of my life and has been an inspiration to me both personally and professionally.  I feel blessed to have her in my life.   The header symbolizes my love for literature, technology, and design thinking.  This school year I was fortunate enough to get funded for a Makerspace.  Every day proves to be a learning experience for myself and my students.  No matter how challenging the day is, I still always leave my school thinking how much I love our library makerspace.

My blog page was created fully with the help of Christi Fultz of http://www.designbychristi.com/  If you are looking for a blog designer, I would highly recommend Christy.  I ended up changing my blog design several times, and she was extremely patient with me, and kept the price the same.

Keeping a blog is challenging, but I highly recommend it.  We ask our students to write all the time, but are we writing?  My goal for this new blog is to share my ideas, and blog on a regular basis.  It is my hope that my posts can inspire educators in the way that I have been inspired by so many of the bloggers that I have followed through the years.

Let's face it - many teachers and educators are unaware of all that a librarian can do for them.  Many of them still see us as only a book resource.  When I first started in my newest library position last December, my principal admitted that I confused him, because he had no idea librarians could do all the things I was doing.  We really need to put ourselves out there and say to our other staff members:

Hey!  Pay Attention!  I can help you do great things in your classroom!

Ok, perhaps we don't actually say that, but we do need to find ways to reach the teachers in our school.  Hopefully they will find that we can help them make their lessons awesome.

So where do we start?

One of the unit I teach my student in Information Literacy is Digital Citizenship.  We spend time sharing and discussing netiquette, digital privacy, maintaining a digital footprint, and cyberbullying.  I have found that this provides a sounding board for many of my students and we have had some amazing conversations.

More than 90% of my students own a cell phone and most of them are on social media.  The issues we are discussing are real and need to be discussed.  This is one of the few classes that takes the time to discuss digital citizenship at length.  I have found that many of my parents have no idea where to start and some are even unsure about some of the newest social medias like Snapchat.

Last year I decided to not only discuss the issues, but also to spend time creating with technology so students could promote digital citizenship themes through 21st century technologies.  Specifically my 7th graders created projects that I am especially proud of.  Students created Animoto videos on a digital citizenship topic.  Did you know that Animoto offers free accounts to educators and their students.  Here is a link with information for getting educator accounts.  https://animoto.com/education/classroom My students enjoyed making the videos and were very proud of their finished creations.

Digital Citizenship Animoto Videos

1. It was explained to students that they will be making a PSA with Animoto on a specific area of digital citizenship (digital privacy, cyberbullying, keeping a clean digital footprint)
2. Students picked a partner and began planning out their video using a storyboard paper.
3. Students were instructed on using Animoto, and began creating their video.
4. Videos were created using at least 5 slides (most of my students opted to do more)
5. Students added their videos to Padlet so we all could share.