Summer Musings and Things I Have Learned This Summer

Several of my fellow county librarians were able to attend the 2018 Google Summit.  They have collected many ideas, tidbits, and app information that they are sharing with those of us who were unable to get a seat at the summit.

Some of the apps they mentioned are Flipgrid and ScreenCastify.  They also heard that Shorten URL to get QR codes will be discontinued soon from Google.  Not sure what will replace it.  One person heard that Bit.ly is also going away.  I hope not!

Four of us attended the Lincoln County-Fayetteville Books and Bytes workshop on June 5, 2018.  The keynote speaker, Dr. Jeanne Gilliam Fain, from Lipscomb University, hit the highlights of the ALA Notable Books.  Several of the books sound like something that would go great in our ELA and SS TN standards.

One session covered https://edpuzzle.com/    The neatest thing about this is you can grab YouTube videos and trim/edit them for classroom use.  Thus get around YouTube inappropriate advertisements and firewall issues that many school districts have accessing YouTube.  You can build in questions to assess students during a video, too, and it grades it for you.  There is a free Chrome extension called edit edpuzzle to use to edit the videos.  You can also incorporate TED talks, Vimeo, and CC videos.  Sounds like something I will be trying in the 2018-2019 school year.

Another session was taught be a very knowledgable and great Technology Instructional Coach from Williamson County, TN.  She presented different ways to edit and use Google Drawing in classrooms and libraries.  Words cannot describe the great the presentation and information.  She provided ready-made templates and collaboration projects with suggested curriculum connections!  Check her out on Twitter at @BevNOzburn.  

At the elementary round table session, one idea on creating and using Reader's Theater in the library is to have students write their own Reader's Theater about a certain topic.  One librarian had the students write a Reader's Theater on Aesop's Fables.  An alternative to Accelerated Reader might be https://www.whooosreading.org/   Several Tennessee school districts are losing access to Accelerated Reader due to budget cuts and are struggling to find a free or lower cost alternative.  https://classroomscreen.com/ is a great tool to use for timers, etc., to display on a projector.  We were encouraged to look into the free trial for a younger Bill Nye the Science Guy type of science videos at https://www.generationgenius.com/  

The last session I attended discussed Genrefying an elementary library.  Lots of neat ideas.  The presenter started with the nonfiction.  She created a color code for the different genres.  She purchased see-through color labels to go over her existing spine lables instead of printing all new spine labels.  Acknowledging that the books might be somewhat disordered within the section but all of a genre are together was a big point she made to us.  

Part of my summer resolution is to clean up my files.  I primarily use Dropbox.  Google Drive is what my district provides with my Google Classroom account but I have problems having what I need where and when I need it.  At the same time, I have multiple copies of quite a few files as well as my personal photos.  So, I am spending a few days getting all of that cleaned up.  I chose to use Ashisoft's Duplicate File Finder found here.  

I have plans to go through Google Suite certification training on my own this summer!  Hopefully I will be able to post how that went!

Enjoy your summer!  August 1 will roll around before you know it!  Our district gets out Memorial Day weekend and students start back on August 1.