Spring Break Surfin’

It has FINALLY arrived!  Spring Break 2008.  My post’s title does not refer to the wild MTV style Spring Break surfing, though - I’m much too old for that.  My idea of Spring Break is relaxing and surfing the Internet (after this morning’s much needed massage).

As I was reading some other educators’ blogs today, I came across an interesting tidbit in Diane Cordell’s blog.  She had found a “blog worth test” through a friend on Twitter and tested to see how much her blog would be worth on the market.  Dane Carlson created an applet based on Technorati’s API of blog value.  He describes it in this Business Opportunites Weblog post.

Of course, no blogger could read this post without testing the value of his/her blog.  Diane’s blog is worth a respectable $35,001.48.  Mine has less than 1/10 the value of hers which is no surprise since it is the definition of obscure (and perhaps even lonely).   I guess I need to finish my Master’s in Library and Information Science and continue working as a media specialist in case I ever get a wild hair and want to go WATCH (not participate) in an MTV Spring Break bash – blogging is not going to pay for my gas to the beach.  Sigh…

But, a fun way to start out Spring Break.

My blog is worth $3,387.24.
How much is your blog worth?

SCASL Conference: PowerPoint Sidekicks and Desktop Learning Spaces: Practical Engaging Project Starters

On Thursday, I attended this session conducted by Annette Lamb.  She shared with us the idea of using PowerPoint to create  mini-projects to use with students as a way of getting them to interact with text and pictures/graphics.  All of the information she shared can be found on the Eduscapes site here. 

Students are often overwhelmed when given a full sheet of paper or a full wordprocessing screen they must fill with their thoughts. As educators, our job is to ensure they have mastered the content we have chosen for them. Annette Lamb uses the concept of PostIt notes to encourage students to organize their thoughts and understandings.  Several of the templates she shares on her site have the look of the yellow lined sticky note which is much less daunting than a full page of paper or full screen. Scroll down the page this link takes you to see her example of Novel Notes.

Annette Lamb and her husband Larry Johnson understand the pressures that teachers are under to help students perform well on “the test” and wanted to help them create engaging activities in which students can prove mastery of content.  PowerPoint Sidekicks are essentially electronic worksheets, without the worksheet feel.  Students can interact with text and graphics to create a product that takes mastery of content to a higher level of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Because teachers already have too many demands on their time, Lamb and Johnson don’t expect teachers to reinvent the wheel.  They provide a plethora of templates at their site that teachers can download and make their own to match their curriculum.    

As a media specialist, I can not only share this site with my teachers, but also help them create their own Sidekicks that will create higher level thinking activities for our students.

SCASL Conference: Session One M & M’s: Motivating and Marketing for Students in the Media Center

This week, I attended the South Carolina Association of School Librarians (SCASL) Conference in Columbia, South Carolina.  There were so many wonderful sessions that at times it was difficult to choose which one to attend. 

Ann Hawthorne of Wright Middle School in Abbeville presented at the first session I attended. She creates delightful displays in her media center for just pennies and shared her tricks with us – including “drive by shopping.”  She cruises the backs of stores such as Walgreen’s, CVS, Eckerd’s, and Walmart to see what they are throwing away and if she discovers treasures she can use, asks if she can take the merchandise.  She never passes up a thrift store which she enters with an open mind.  She has purchased numerous stuffed animals to use in her displays.  My favorite was a huge stuffed banana which sits on her shelves with a sign that reads “Books are appealing.”

Anne also shops at dollar stores and finds treasures such as book stands.  My favorite of her dollar store finds and ideas was one she just got:  three little chicks for $1.00.  She will use these in a display dealing with a media specialist’s “peeps” – authors.  I can’t wait to play with this idea!

Another source of merchandise for her displays is, of all places, a funeral home.  One of her former students is a funeral director who gives her beautiful plants that families have left behind. 

Ann’s presentation was just as delightful as she is and I came away with many great ideas to brighten up my book display areas.