Slim's Ever-Evolving Library Adventures

AASL 2011

2011-11-07T09:40:00.001-08:00

This was my first AASL conference and it was fantastic. No real time to blog on it as I am prepping for CSLA's conference this weekend, but I did write a blog post for AASL's blog about the Maggie Stiefvater breakfast!

The SCIBA Author Feast

2011-10-24T21:59:00.000-07:00

Pat Nelson and Toni Francis of Mrs. Nelson's Library Services invited me to attend the SCIBA (SoCal Independent Booksellers Association) 2011 Authors Feast and Trade Show. What a fantastic evening!

Here I am early in the evening. Lots of free ARC's here!

The first author I met was Marie Lu, whose first YA novel comes out 11/29/11.

She enjoys dystopian novels like I do!

Pictured here is Max Kornell and his wife Erin. Max's book is super-cute - he won an award!

I was in author heaven. Shatter Me's Tahereh Mafi is pictured here with FRANCESCA LIA BLOCK! I told FLB what a huge fan I am. I love her novels' punk rock L.A. vibe.

Always Running's Luis Rodriguez has a new autobiographical portrait out.

I let him know how much my students love Always Running.

Brian Selznick was the keynote. He shared a behind-the-scenes look at the making of his awesome books. We also saw a Hugo Cabret trailer.

"I wrote this book!" yells one of my table-mates, John Stephens.

I spread some of my haul across my living room! Great times. My boys loved their books!

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

2011-10-22T11:51:00.000-07:00

When I was on YALSA's 2009 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers Committee, a teen from Colorado who attended the Quick Picks' midwinter meeting could not stop raving about Graceling by Kristin Cashore. And this is a teen who had also read Hunger Games. "Graceling is better," he had said.

That stayed with me, and so now, three years later, I have finished Graceling and.....it IS FANTASTIC! Time for its accompanying novel, Fire.

Set in the time of kings and kingdoms, Graceling features Katsa, who....is....wait for it....wait for it.....a....Graceling!

Gracelings are special mutant people who have two different colored eyes and have special "graces." Katsa's power is fighting. And she is a one-woman Chuck Norris equivalent. But she has a heart too.

A student came into one of my library's yesterday looking for a book with "action." Dashner's Maze Runner was checked out and of course Hunger Games is still out. As I was about to go pull out the Anthony Horowitz books, Graceling caught my eye, and after a 15 second description by me the young man was checking out the book. I know he's going to love it. I do.

I'm back!

2011-10-18T18:36:00.000-07:00

I've decided to revive my blog. Or actually, re-invent it. It used to be a sandbox used to store my Library 2.0 treasures, but now I'm going to use it to document my latest adventures in high school libraries. My last post was in January. So much has changed since then. I've gone from being the sole TL at three high school libraries to being the only TL in the district (6 comprehensive high schools, 1 alternative high school and 1 continuation high school). Right now I'm surviving. I hope to thrive and give my students the best I can while still maintaining my sanity. I'm looking at retooling my practice to make the most impact.

Is it best to reach 14,000 students with just a little info lit and reading appreciation?

Would it be better to concentrate on one school of 2000 to 2600 students?

Should I instead focus on the 3,000 freshmen at the 6 comprehensive schools?

Or should I concentrate on a course I create at one school and teach students who take that course?

Or should I prepare such a course and attempt to teach it virtually?

I'm exploring my students' options!

Shrekify Yourself!

2011-01-17T23:32:00.000-08:00

Save the Words

2010-10-30T23:01:00.000-07:00

I just adopted the word "locupletative" at: http://www.savethewords.org/

Digital Textbooks Impact Education: Challenges

2010-10-23T10:11:00.000-07:00

Digital Textbooks Impact Education: Challenges: " Challenges come with every stage of moving to a digital textbook environment. But the video above shows how the state of Maine ..."

I am at Deb Stanley's wonderful Workshop at the Ed Tech Classroom Conference at CSUSB (CSLA SS Region 6 Workshop)

The Last Librarian | school, teacher, students - Home - The Orange County Register

2010-10-18T23:29:00.000-07:00

It's me!

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/school-271735-teacher-students.html

The Last Librarian | school, teacher, students - Home - The Orange County Register

Math Lesson Ideas

2010-10-15T09:29:00.000-07:00

Here's a document I created for the following query:

My First JogTheWeb!

2010-10-13T23:43:00.000-07:00

Teen Learning 2.0

http://www.jogtheweb.com/run/rlJgWEsLk6nw/Teen-Learning-2.0

For Teen Learning 2.0!

My First Glogster!

2010-10-12T23:15:00.000-07:00

If you are viewing this in Facebook, go instead to:

http://sraslim.glogster.com/school-library-learning-20/

Here is my first ever Glogster:

Yesterday in the SHHS Library

2010-10-12T09:24:00.000-07:00

Today I worked with Dr. Christina Zubko Periods 1, 2, and 4 at SHHS. Students were to find a website - an authoritative, accurate and objective source that would help them in figuring out some allusions in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Dr. Zubko and I found that very few students had adequate web search skills. Students often stopped at the first result on the list of Google search results. We taught students to use Wikipedia as a possible resource to begin their search (to collect search terms) but that ultimately they would use a more authoritative source on their yellow Works Cited source slip and to collect information from the more authoritative site.

I taught students how to access Google Advanced Search and how to limit searches to the .edu domain. I also taught students how to cite a basic website using the yellow works cited slip, which I corrected for authoritativeness of the website plus the quality of information put on the form by the student. In addition I introduced the concept of "triangulating data" to check out at least 3 different sources and compare and contrast each against the others to establish authenticity of information. Dr. Zubko and I both worked with kids throughout the period to help with web searches and troubleshoot logging in, etc.

Biography.com turned out to be one of the best sites for searches on people (Milton, Sophocles, Benjamin Franklin, etc). Some students listed "A&E Television Networks" as the Author, which made me happy. Encyclopedia.com (with its search of the Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th Edition) was great for other searches. Some searches, like "Keystone Kops," "Cheshire Cat," "Tree of Life," "Phoenix rising from ashes" were a bit more difficult. Our Gale Student Resources in Context database had some great results for "Phoenix and ashes," "Hercules" and other "myth searches."

Resources for the project are at: http://fjuhsdlibraries.wikispaces.com/Fahrenheit+451+Allusions+Webquest

photos are at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24143753@N07/sets/72157625017528477/

About one-third of the students were logging into the computers for the first time this semester and needed to change their password from the original "lancers" password. A handful of students from each class did not know their student ID number for logging in and also did not carry their ID card, but Dr. Zubko was able to fix that by looking at ABI. Weston Baughn also needed to reset about 6 passwords period 1 as students had already forgotten their passwords since having logged in previously this year. One young man did not have his permanent ID number on his ID card, as he was a transfer student.

My First Prezi = CSLA's Classroom 2.0

2010-10-11T20:59:00.001-07:00

This is my first Prezi:

PowerPoint HELP!

2010-08-31T20:55:00.001-07:00

Presentation Skills for Teachers version 3.0

View more presentations from Simon Jones.

GoAnimate Video for Teacher Inservice Day

2010-08-19T21:22:00.000-07:00

I created this video to explain Library Services in my district this year. We've drastically changed.

GoAnimate.com: FJUHSD Library Services for Teachers 2010/2011 by sraslim

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

3,000th Tweet!

2010-08-15T22:13:00.000-07:00

I'm a Twitter believer! Today I Tweeted my 3,000th Tweet! (And Facebooked it too).

Someone on CALIB asked about library collaboration on exceptional projects. This was my response:

1) Try Twitter. Go to www.twitter.com You don't have to join or sign in. Just type in #tlchat in the search box (where it says search for a key word or phrase). This will give you "realtime results." Most will have links. This will yield tons of awesome stuff!

2) Our SuperLibraries Group (which I would love you to join) is creating a database of our "Best Practices" at: http://superlibraries.wikispaces.com/SuperProjects We are CA TL's and we want to network with each other to develop our super-library powers and support each other.

3) Also - since you are in HS, check out: http://pathfinderswap.wikispaces.com/

4) and/or Join the Ning at: http://teacherlibrarian.ning.com/

If you were in Elem, I would direct you to: http://elementarylibraryroutines.wikispaces.com/

Love Livebinders

2010-08-09T00:32:00.001-07:00

FINALLY got around to creating my first LiveBinder. And I love it! I created this live binder to convince a frosh English teacher to collaborate with me this year!

Greek Mythology Project

A New Way to Lecture: Using Web 2.0 to Create Interactive Lecture with Your Students, by Michael Zimmer

2010-07-20T06:54:00.000-07:00

Open publication - Free publishing - More education

http://issuu.com/mzimmer557/docs/a_new_way_to_lecture

Found at: http://cheekylit.com/21stcentury-skills-technology-integration/

Love the Old Spice Guy on Libraries!!!

2010-07-15T17:12:00.001-07:00

Let's eat peanut-butter!

My New and Improved Annual Report

2010-07-07T01:30:00.000-07:00

Just fixed some things...

BRHS LIBRARY 2009-10

2010-07-07T00:29:00.000-07:00

Fellow CA TL Amy Linden's End-of-year report! AWESOME!!!

BRHS LIBRARY 2009-10

Reflective Teaching, Effective Learning by Char Booth

2010-07-06T23:34:00.001-07:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Reflective Teaching, Effective Learning by Char Booth

View more presentations from char booth.

Testing Skills - Cerritos College - Starring my Family!!

2010-06-26T22:19:00.000-07:00

My sister Angie is a math instructor at Cerritos College. She recruited me and my older son to be in her testing skills video:

Troy High School's Annual Report 2009-2010

2010-06-23T14:34:00.000-07:00

Here is my annual report for Troy High School via YouTube and created with Animoto.

Fast Track Cyber Safe Curricula for K12 Webinar Today!

2010-06-08T17:05:00.000-07:00

Fast Track Cyber Safe Curricula for K12

Glen Warren, Orange County Department of Education

June 8, 4:30-5:30pm

So glad I got to tune in to Glen's webcast today. I thought I knew it all about Cybersafety Instruction. So WRONG! There is so much more! Glen is doing a fantastic job at making Teacher Librarians Viable!!!

Neil Gaiman = A librarian can bring you back the right answer!

2010-05-01T19:00:00.000-07:00

Flickr for Libraries

2010-04-16T22:41:00.001-07:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Flickr for Libraries

View more presentations from Nicole C. Engard.

CA libraries

2010-04-16T22:33:00.000-07:00

California School Libraries video created by CSLA President Connie Williams. Click on Link:
CA libraries

LAUSD Teachers - Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green Advocate!

2010-04-15T12:11:00.000-07:00

Hot for Teachers w/ Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green from Megan Fox

A Nation Without School Librarians

2010-03-30T20:08:00.000-07:00

Please contribute!

View A Nation Without School Librarians in a larger map

YouCube!

2010-03-17T00:37:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to my first ever YouCube! Found out via @russeltarr on Twitter.

So....someone I REALLY respect saw the above post and said, "is that what it's supposed to do?"

She means, be a black box. I guess yes, it's supposed to be a black box. I asked Russel Tarr if it's supposed to be a black box. He hasn't responded.

But if you click on "Browse other You Cubes" it does get cooler....

Creating CSLA Buttons!

2010-03-12T03:42:00.001-08:00

create & buy custom products at Zazzle

Dad's Speech at Angie's Wedding - first 4 minutes

2010-02-08T23:48:00.001-08:00

This is my dad's speech. Captured with Screenium for Mac. My dad passed away in November, 2009.

Networked Student Video

2009-12-10T10:52:00.001-08:00

21st Century! This is what it's all about for us "Teacher-Librarians!" Let's make the shift before we get the "shaft." Also - I am such a BIG Buffy Hamilton fan these days! Found this video on her EXCELLENT Mindomo map for her Unquiet Library: http://www.mindomo.com/view.htm?m=1d7256e89dee403cb977d41cb3b64809

Oh how we need to get there!

2,200 join in Facebook support for late beloved coach | coach, conley, dorado - News - The Orange County Register

2009-12-01T22:23:00.001-08:00

2,200 join in Facebook support for late beloved coach | coach, conley, dorado - News - The Orange County Register

Posted using ShareThis

Day 1 of CSLA Conference - Friday, Nov. 19th

2009-11-19T10:26:00.000-08:00

Getting ready for some FUN!

Going to put up my poster session at 11am - pretty soon. Then I'm going to eat something and get ready for my 1pm Workshop. AAGH! I'm nervous! Then we've got Book Cart Drill Team practice at 4:30, Opening of the Exhibit Hall at 6 and then Book Cart Drill Team event at 7:30pm! Woohoo! Busy day today - hope i can get through it unscathed!

Oddcast.com

2009-10-18T01:53:00.001-07:00

Very disturbing. I put a picture of my sister when she was like 12 years old or something. She's a big Wizard of Oz fan. Amazing that this was done in about 2 minutes!

FJUHSD Board Meeting Tonight - 9-21-09

2009-09-21T21:34:00.000-07:00

Wow!

Diane Oestreich of Fullerton Union HS and I just did a great job at our District Board Meeting tonight. I talked about our migration to MLA Handbook 7 and our motto: "Write It? Cite It!" Diane talked about our cool Cybersafety Orientation. (Link is a Work-in-Progress)

Then AFTERWARDS, one of the board members held up his copy of the California School Boards Association's latest California Schools Magazine....he wanted to know if what I am doing (according to the article) is replicated across all the district schools and I assured him it was...sooooo awesome!!! He had a copy of the print article so it was kind of hard to figure out what he was talking about, but I "got it."

Diane and I presented tonight. Traci and Diana will present our Cybersafety Orientation results in November, and Tina and Ted will present our Intra-District Electronic Access Library (IDEAL) in January or February.

All of the Board Members were enthusiastic and President Buchi even referred to us as "Teacher-Librarians," although I think she read that off the cards that we ourselves submitted. We were the only "Other Business" of what was a pretty dull night, so I think our positivity and enthusiasm were well-received.

Here is the text of my presentation (which I wrote during the beginning of the board meeting - thought it would be a super-long meeting):

"Hi. I'm Marie Slim, Teacher-Librarian at Troy High School. On behalf of the six Teacher-Librarians of the district I'd like to quickly know about our exciting new slogan: 'Write It? Cite It! MLA 7' (show my t-shirt) MLA is a citation method used widely throughout the district by students and teachers to give proper attribution to the sources they use in their research and papers. Part of our Information Literacy standards is to teach students to use information ethically and to respect the rights of others.

We 6 district Teacher-Librarians teach students and classroom teachers how to easily give attribution using MLA format (handed out papers). Proper citation is necessary to avoid plagiarism and prepare ALL students for post-secondary studies. Using MLA gives students a good stepping stone for using APA, Chicago, Turabian and other citation styles.

We have made many adjustments to our district-wide standard MLA Works Cited to bring all of our help documents up to MLA 7 standards (hold up book). The changes in MLA format from MLA 6 reflect the diversity of resources that District Teacher-Librarians offer to students; print sources, websites, e-books, and databases all have different citation formats. First adopted in 1977, MLA has grown over the years.

Many students use our Libraries' color-coded forms (THANK YOU DEB STANLEY!!!) to format their "Perfect MLA Works Cited." Sometimes students come back from university to our libraries to fetch some of our color-coded slips. It seems the "Write It? Cite It!" message has already caught on with many of our present and former students. We will continue to teach them the value of respecting information and teaching information literacy.

Thank you for your time and attention!"

Then Diane gave a short, beautifully worded account of our work on our Cybersafety Orientation, our plans for Cybersafety week and how our work helps with our E-rate funding and for complying with SB 1492 and AB 307.

YEAH! I'm so happy for us! We were fantastic!!! Many thanks to the Long Beach Teacher-Librarians for sharing their advocacy efforts with us. SOOOOO inspirational.

Yearbook Yourself 2009

2009-08-26T00:43:00.000-07:00

I'd heard about this site last summer, but I think it was still under construction. Pretty cool way to put your own picture into different hairstyles and clothing of the 1950's, 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's.

Here's my 1960 pic. Pure Librarian.

If you are reading this post from Facebook, check out my blog at www.slimlibrary.blogger.com

Animoto

2009-08-25T02:13:00.000-07:00

This is my first Animoto video. Very easy to use!

My Library's Facebook Group - Troy HS Library

2009-08-17T13:32:00.001-07:00

Troy High School Library on Facebook

Screenium and Screencasting

2009-08-14T02:52:00.000-07:00

Anna Koval introduced me to Screencasting at CSLA last November. I've not had the time and attention to dedicate to it until now, and I'm hooked! There are a few videos I need for our district's CyberSafety orientation, and now I will screencast them!

I'm using Screenium for the Mac. It's cheap ($29) and easy to use. I am very happy with it so far!

Anna's Screencasting Weebly Site: http://screencastingiscool.weebly.com/

My first Screenium capture: http://troyhigh.com/apps/podcasts/show_channel.jsp?pcOwnerREC_ID=u57297&rn=9795539

UStream - Something new I have to figure out!

2009-07-31T20:01:00.000-07:00

Live video by Ustream

Got suckered into using this by Edmodo. There's a Chat, a live show I can do (someday), and a Twitter Social Stream I've yet to figure out. Hope to add it to CSLA Conference Wiki when I figure it out....

27 Free Must-have Online Collaboration Tools : Crazeegeekchick.com

2009-07-22T23:27:00.001-07:00

27 Free Must-have Online Collaboration Tools : Crazeegeekchick.com

Posted using ShareThis

Star Wars The Clone Wars!

2009-07-14T10:14:00.001-07:00

My kids love this stuff!

Facebook Vanity URL

2009-07-02T13:52:00.000-07:00

I got my library a vanity URL for Facebook - had to find 100 fans to make us eligible. Luckily Mashable created a way for different Facebook pages to achieve Vanity URL eligibility by fanning each other. Up until 6/27 it was stated that in order to get a vanity url an entity only had to have 25 fans by 6/28 (the day to register). So I had to NETWORK!

Our URL: www.facebook.com/troylibrary

YEAH!

Learning Commons Pictures

2009-06-23T22:36:00.000-07:00

I'm so jealous. I want a library make-over:

textbooksReload

2009-06-23T22:24:00.001-07:00

Yikes! This could be my future. So sad that all that student learning space is wasted on a holding facility. Video is beautifully done. Kudos Ann!

Geek Chart: http://www.geekchart.com/

2009-06-23T03:06:00.000-07:00

Sraslim's Geek Chart

My Geek Chart - Facebook will be coming soon!

Doodle.com = My salvation!

2009-06-22T00:52:00.001-07:00

I first used Doodle.com to coordinate a workshop day for the librarians in our district. Everyone loved it and I've used it to coordinate lunches, Girls Nights Out, and to vote on a variety of options.

Doodle.com rocks!

Ratemyteachers.com

2009-06-22T00:40:00.000-07:00

So I'm checking out the ratings of teachers and staff at my school - I realize that it's mostly students with an axe to grind or who just LOVE their teacher who are using the site - it's not used too often to be a reliable source of info, but I just wanted to get a sense of homework load, sense of humor, etc. The students at Troy are wonderful, and I wanted to see what they had to say.

However, about 20 mins into it I found my name. And I didn't have a big yellow smiley face. Oh no!

2 ratings. One gave me a high rating and a nice smiley face (no comments). The other student gave me all "1's" (the equivalent of an "F") and the following comment:

"She's WAY too dedicated to her job. Her signs all over the library are stupid and she just tries way too hard. the library behavior video? what a joke. it's the LIBRARY. not a cool hangout. she also needs to calm down about..." Then it cut off. I need to calm down about what? Overdue books? Students eating cheetos at the keyboards?

And what? IT's NOT A COOL HANGOUT? WHAT???

Luckily, someone put a retaliatory comment in my defense:

"maybe you should calm down - she's one of the best things that happened to Troy. go read a book and learn something, loser."

Although I don't really condone the put-down, it's nice to have a defender. :-) My husband, however, would probably agree that I need to calm down and that I'm too dedicated.

Twitter: Who Should I Follow?

2009-06-16T23:58:00.000-07:00

http://whoshouldifollow.com/

Found out about this Twitter tool through Joyce Valenza's blog. Very cool tool. I like the way it tells you how often the subject tweets and who they are similar to.

As it says "Awesome way to expand your network!"

What I want for Christmas - 80's retro

2009-06-01T00:04:00.001-07:00

I Like:

Freestyle Hi
by Reebok Lifestyle

2009-06-01T00:04:00.000-07:00

Vote For Me - Crazy Kids Hair Contest!

2009-05-08T23:16:00.000-07:00

Here's my son Mazzen! Please vote, refresh and vote again. And visit often! Thank you!

CSLA 2007 - I LOVE Slide.com

2009-05-06T15:49:00.000-07:00

FJUHSD Board Meeting Pictures 5-5-09

2009-05-06T00:37:00.000-07:00

My Library Calendar - Activities for Asian-American / Pacific-Islander American Heritage Month!

2009-05-03T21:48:00.000-07:00

SlideRocket - Thank you PTSA!

2009-04-12T23:02:00.000-07:00

I created another SlideRocket presentation to thank my wonderful PTSA once again:

This time I learned more. I added music from freeplaymusic.com!

District Teachers of the Year - Sue Singh and me!

2009-04-09T12:19:00.000-07:00

I was notified that I was Troy Teacher of the Year in early March, and I was told that I was District co-Teacher of the Year in mid-March. I'm so happy that I'm being considered a "real" teacher!

Link to district: http://www.fjuhsd.k12.ca.us/fjuhsd/site/default.asp This is our district's new "revamped" site. It needed it!

My husband's on Twitter

2009-04-09T12:15:00.000-07:00

He now understands (or is starting to understand) my world. And we got him an avatar as well, which is now the wallpaper on his phone. He shares it with all his colleagues. He's the one who decided to crop off half his face in the first picture. He's so creative!

Busy, busy, busy!

2009-03-24T23:49:00.000-07:00

I'm in the middle of a Book Fair! It's been going great. Lots of students are coming in with their classes and on their own to look at the books. We also have the Twilight movie and Dance Dance Revolution on the XBox - so it's been fun.

Our Book Fair theme is "Read like a Rock Star" so we have some Rock Themed books (Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, Born to Rock, etc.) The Classic books go well with my population, so I went up to Pomona today to restock a bunch of books.

This is great news as we are working that much harder to funding the databases!

Here are some pictures of me in my "Rock Star" outfits:

Day #1 Rock Star Outfit

Day #2 (Today's) Rock Star Outfit

Tomorrow I've asked the Faculty and Staff to wear concert t-shirts to support "Reading like a Rock Star."

We've been playing great old and new rock music - really adds to the ambiance! I got a new iPod nano for the occasion - I've been using a prehistoric shuffle up until now.

Also - I got Teacher of the Year for my high School and I'm sharing District Teacher of the Year with a colleague from Sonora HS. Woohoo! It's been fun.

CSLA - Already excited!

2009-03-17T01:20:00.000-07:00

I'm already excited about CSLA 2009 Conference! Woohoo! Anna Koval and I may present together. That would be awesome as I learn so much from her. We're tossing some ideas back and forth.

I'm also updating the CSLA 2009 Conference Wiki right now. (at 1:21am). Such fun! I wish the state of the state were better. But I want to look on the bright side.

Also - I received Teacher of the Year at my school last week. Yeah! So nice to be acknowledged.

Now to sleep.

Stand Up for Schools! Pink Friday - 3/13/09

2009-03-03T00:57:00.000-08:00

My sister-in-law was on temporary status. She has not been rehired by her district. And a dear Teacher Librarian friend may have her job cut :-(

Find more photos like this on Pink Friday

Twittermania: 140+ More Twitter Tools!

2009-02-25T22:27:00.000-08:00

Twittermania: 140+ More Twitter Tools!

HOW TO: Organize a Successful Tweetup

2009-02-25T22:16:00.000-08:00

HOW TO: Organize a Successful Tweetup

This is an example of what people are doing with Twitter. I may need to organize an event some day.

SlideRocket, Part 3

2009-02-25T15:11:00.001-08:00

ArG! Just realized the free version doesn't have all the options. So now I'm paying $12 per month. Darn you, Anna Koval!!!

SlideRocket, Part 2

2009-02-25T15:07:00.001-08:00

Okay - I upgraded to the free version (from the trial). Good thing, too, as my trial was about to expire 3/2/09! Yeah! It's cooL!

SlideRocket

2009-02-02T21:13:00.000-08:00

I learned about SlideRocket from Anna Koval of the Big House Library.

Here is my presentation to thank the PTSA for another year's subscription to World Book Encyclopedia Online:

It's fun and web based, but requires the latest version of Flash. Not all my computers have the latest version. Yet.

It's a good alternative to PowerPoint. In fact, PowerPoint slides can be imported into SlideRocket. And SlideRocket has some cool transitions.

But right now I'm on a 31-day trial. Haven't looked into pricing. Yet.

Obamicon.me

2009-01-31T22:38:00.000-08:00

I found this image generator from a Facebook friend.

I see a lot of fun library applications for this. It will help me promote the Obama books I have, along with the Obama Family paper dolls I found in Denver.

Here's my ObamIcon:

My friend Joy made her own READ Poster from it:

And here's my son Mazzen:

I also am making my sons' preschool valentines using regular old Photoshop:

Tuesday, 1-27-09

2009-01-27T22:38:00.001-08:00

The Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers Committee finished the list today!

The 2009 List is here: http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/booklistsawards/quickpicks/09qp.cfm

It was fun but exhausting so I did some sightseeing today (saw Coors Field from the outside, it's closed to tours on Tuesdays, darn!) and then I watched Tropical Thunder and American Gun in my new (for today) hotel, The Curtis.

The Curtis is a great hotel to stay in in Denver. Every floor has a theme. I'm on the "TV Mania" floor. This hotel also has a House of Horrors Floor - the 13th Floor. When the elevator gets to the 13th floor, the elevator announces in a Jack Nicholson voice, "Heeeeere's Johnny!" When it gets to my floor it just says "TV Mania!" But there are some cool Friends and Gilligan's Island and Cheers pics all around. It's fun. The room service is good too. MMMMMMM! Lobster Mac and Cheese! Must diet when I return.

ALA Midwinter Meeting - Sunday, 1/25/09

2009-01-26T00:05:00.000-08:00

Another great day at ALA!

Went out to the exhibits again this morning. Picked up some cool titles, shipped off some books at the post office. Bought too much stuff at the ALA store. (I'm a sucker for library stuff).

We ate lunch at ESPN Zone (Yummy!)

Then the QP Committee met and discussed and reasoned, etc. Here's a picture of the 12 of us:

ALA YALSA Quick Picks for Young Adult Reluctant Readers Committee 2009.

The discussion has been spectacular and the experience of working with all of these fine people has been fantastic - or booktastic!

A key phrase for some of my nominations has been "let it die." Books that went with a subset population at my school but that really didn't fly with any of the other libraries. Jenine's "in deep yogurt" was the phrase for today.

A couple of my nominations are being held in high regard so that is good.

At the exhibit hall today I got to see my pal Scott Bloom:

And here I am with JOYCE VALENZA (with whom I actually managed to talk to and kind of speak to her coherently) and SLJ editor-in-chief Brian Kenney:

Joyce let me know where I could catch up with her later on but I screwed up and went to the parties in the wrong order. Heather, Susan and I went to a Random House event with nice appetizers and good local beer and then we went off to Houghton Mifflin. Then I thought we'd catch up with Joyce at the History Museum party that Greenwood was putting on but when we got there it was over. So that was sad, but I'm going to keep up with Joyce through her website, blog and twitter posts :-)

Susan, Heather and I got to see SNOW. Here's a picture of some snow on Heather's jacket:

and here's Susan's mini-snowball:

Of course, Heather and I were completely riveted by the snow as we are both So. Cal. girls. I'm sure Susan doesn't get much snow either, but she seemed to be able to contain her excitement.

Tomorrow is a LOOOONNNG day for Quick Picks. I'll need lots of coffee tomorrow a.m.

ALA Midwinter Meeting - Saturday, 1/24/09

2009-01-24T22:20:00.000-08:00

Wow! My last ALA conference for awhile! And I am enjoying it. Denver is beautiful. I'm meeting up with a lot of friends. I got my picture taken with my Library Idol, Joyce Valenza. The Quick Picks committee is going very well. Things are great. Wish I could stay on, but I'm not going to second-guess myself.

So here's my picture with Joyce:

Of course I'm ecstatic to be in her presence again but I didn't cry this time.

Here's me having a Coors Light in Colorado:

It's a little blurry, but I swear I only had one! Even though Scholastic had a hosted bar - woohoo!

Here are me and my roomies in the convention center:

Here's a pic of some of the Quick Picks Committee:

That's about it for tonight. I've got to read a bit. I'm also going to post a slideshow soon.

Nighty nite!

Famous Last Words

2009-01-19T23:27:00.001-08:00

I saw this on the Maggie Reads Blog - I want to do something similar...

Twitter Tips

2009-01-15T12:24:00.000-08:00

Doug Johnson posted Twitter tips on Twitter - a link to David Pogue's article from today.

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/twittering-tips-for-beginners/

Very interesting! So we're not REALLY supposed to tell people what we are doing...

BTW - I Twittered through the CSLA conference and my posts became my notes. It really makes you try to be succinct. And it's fun and helps those kinesthetic ADHD people like myself...

FriendFeed - the aggregator for everything!

2009-01-07T22:36:00.000-08:00

Wow! My friend Anna Koval of BigHouseLibrary invited me to join Friend Feed a while ago - and wow! It's great. I've got my Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, Netflix, Del,icio.us and Blog posts all in one place. It will be a great way to stalk my idol, Joyce Valenza, as well as other luminaries. YEAH! Talk about Inter-Connectivity. To the max.

Web 2.0 and Application Inter-connectivity

2008-12-31T01:53:00.000-08:00

I am so pleased with the way Web2.0 applications build upon each other. I now have configured my Facebook so that my Twitter posts become my Facebook status. I also love the inter-connectivity between Slide.com and Flickr and Flickr and Facebook and this blog and Facebook (my blog entries show up as Facebook "notes"). I am really digging this part of Web2.0. And I'm still loving Edmodo.com and Mint.com. YEAH!

http://bookvideo.ning.com/ - Book Videos

2008-12-13T06:33:00.000-08:00

Find more videos like this on TeacherLibrarianNetwork

I just joined the Book Video Ning created by Joyce Valenza at http://bookvideo.ning.com/ The above video was created by Joyce Valenza to advertise Feed by MT Anderson.

Edmodo.com - Microblogging for the Classroom

2008-12-03T00:14:00.000-08:00

I think I'm in love with Edmodo. Thanks to Kathy Schrock for getting me hooked. I'm going to use this now for my Library Experience students instead of Google Docs. Looking forward to my students' reaction tomorrow!

Saturday at CSLA

2008-11-22T19:48:00.000-08:00

Whoosh! What a day - it's so nice to see all of our profession's CA Luminaries!!!

I posted more to Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marieslim/sets/72157609648978640/

It has been fun taking pictures even though everyone thinks I'm a nutcase. And I've been collecting CALIBK12 stickers, but when I asked if anyone wanted to trade stickers, a lot of people looked at me as if I were crazy, which is okay since it's not too far from the truth. Tomorrow I should take a picture of all my stickers.

But here are today's pictures:

Marilyn Robertson is so together! I wish I could write like she does!

Janet Melikian has done WONDERS at this conference - and she's so peppy!

Health and Info Lit session presenters...I got some great ideas from them!

Me, Paula and Joe McHugh:

Dr. Woolls and an SJSU alumna:

Richard, Will and Sandy:

Janet HasBrouck (LibraryMum) reminding me of all the cool things one can do with business cards...

Outstanding Presenter Tim Gardes:

Me and fellow Fullertonian David Henderson:

Me and Screencaster Extraordinaire Anna Koval:

Brainstorming with Southern Section Region 4 - Joy has such good penmanship!

Me with John McGinnis - I'm getting so good I can now take pictures with my left hand! We talked politics since we're in Sacramento!

All in all, great day!

CSLA Day 1 (for me) - Friday

2008-11-21T23:21:00.000-08:00

Had a fantastic day today. Got to see a lot of new faces as well as some old friends. So very cool.

General Session:

Joe McHugh gave a fantastic talk and even mentioned running into a person from Fullerton in the Coffee Shop:

Got my picture taken with CSLA President Connie Williams:

Went to the Exhibit Hall, checked out the Poster Sessions:

And met up with friends:

Tattooed Ellie:

Session 1: Advocacy 101:

Pam Oehlman and Sandy Patton -

2nd Session: Teaching Cyberethics

Session 3: Games in the Library

Me and Ellie Goldstein-Erickson:

Me and Sarah Bosler of Montclair High:

Ramona Cheek, the Games Guru:

Me and Stephanie Hall of Norco HS:

CSLA Sacramento Post 1 - Friday morning.

2008-11-21T13:48:00.000-08:00

How to Fill a Pinata

2008-11-15T19:29:00.000-08:00

This is what I'm doing the night before my 3-year-old's birthday party.
How to Fill a Piñata

Trying to Learn Diigo: Encyclopedia Mythica: mythology, folklore, and religion.

2008-11-12T11:54:00.001-08:00

Encyclopedia Mythica: mythology, folklore, and religion.

tags: mythology, myth, culture, greek mythology
- - I like this website - post by mariaceleste
- The mythology section is divided to six geographical regions: Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, Middle East, and Oceania. Each region has many clearly defined subdivisions that will ease your search.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

IB Librarians Conference Slideshow - Dallas, TX

2008-11-02T14:10:00.000-08:00

IB Conference - Librarian Sessions - Awesome

2008-11-01T22:48:00.001-07:00

Our presenters will answer our burning questions!

Teaching culture "below the water" instead of just the tip of the iceberg above the water.

Half of our group.

The other half of our group.

Our esteemed presenters.

Obama Loses - Marie Slim to Blame!

2008-11-01T21:53:00.000-07:00

Oops! Should have gotten my absentee ballot in sooner!

Large Hadron Rap

2008-10-05T14:15:00.001-07:00

Recommended by one of my computer science teachers.

The Internet Overdose Song (w/FREE mp3)

2008-09-10T21:23:00.003-07:00

SLL2.0 written all over it!

First YouTube Posting - My Uke Ensemble Audition

2008-09-10T20:49:00.000-07:00

Hope I make the ensemble!!!

Race for the Cure - Sept. 28th, 2008

2008-08-12T09:58:00.000-07:00

Two years ago I was diagnosed and treated for breast cancer. Now I walk for others and for those who trail blazed so that I could survive.

Click Here to Donate

My Page

Click Here to Donate

The 600 Starbucks Closures

2008-07-18T19:04:00.000-07:00

See the list at the Huffington Post:

ALA Annual Conference - Saturday, June 28th

2008-06-29T01:23:00.000-07:00

More and more Facebook - and ALA annual

2008-06-26T14:11:00.000-07:00

I'm still loving Facebook. So much to do! So many friends to reconnect with! So many games to play!

I'm also going to my first ALA Annual Conference this weekend. My nephew says it serves me right for making fun of him going to an IB (HS Honors) Dance. That now I'm going to a LIBRARIANS conference. Ha.

Web 2.0 Interview

2008-06-04T15:47:00.001-07:00

A Florida State University student read an article I wrote for the CSLA Journal and asked if she could interview me. Here are here questions and my responses. This is so good for reflecting and evaluating what I do!

1. What activities or implementations do use in your library with regards to Web 2.0 (pod casting, blogs,etc.)? How and why did you become interested in this concept?

I learned about Web 2.0 from the CSLA (California School Library Association) listserve. CSLA offered the School Library Learning 2.0 free online tutorial at http://www.schoollibrarylearning2.blogspot.com/. I LOVE computers and information literacy and getting students excited about learning, so I completed the tutorial in Summer 2007 and thus became part of the SLL2.0 “Team.” CSLA had a Winter session of the tutorial and I helped “cheerlead” others through the tutorial.

I have my website, www.ilovelibraries.com, which uses some Web 2.0 tools. The pictures on the main page were created using Imagechef.com, which is one of the image generators I learned about in the tutorial. I also have some pictures at the bottom of the main page and those are from a screen shot that I took of the book covers of some of the books that my students have inputted for me on LibraryThing.com (another Web 2.0 tool).

If you click on “Library News (RSS), FAQ, Pictures, Blogs and Podcasts,” there are more Web 2.0 features that I learned about through the tutorial. I never knew what RSS was useful for, but now that I have an RSS aggregator I can use my Library’s news feed (that comes with our school’s website) to send Library News to my students’ aggregators (if they subscribe).

I have some pictures of our library posted on Flickr. I also have a “Flickr Feed Bar” that puts random pictures of the library on the “News, FAQ, etc.” page. My district intends to filter Flickr and other image hosting sites, but for now the pictures are visible at our school.

I have three blogs. One serves to document my Web 2.0 skills development (http://slimlibrary.blogspot.com/). It is mostly for me, so I don’t really let my students know about it. But I do have two blogs that I need to update soon. I’ve got the content but not the time right now (I’m moving, got two crazy kids, etc.). One blog is the Troy Reads Blog (http://troyreads.blogspot.com/), and I’m hoping to continue to put book reviews on it, both from me and from our students.

The Troy HS Quick Picks Blog has been updated more recently. It is located at http://troyhsquickpicks.blogspot.com/. I have been gathering student feedback on books that I have been receiving from publishers who wish that their books be considered a “Quick Pick” – a book that would spur a reluctant young adult reader to pick it up. I am a member of the selection committee for YALSA’s Quick Pick committee. Ultimately I hope that students will be able to contribute to this blog more easily.

I had created a podcast last year for a student who needed footage of his teachers teaching (for his career project). So that is posted under “Podcasts.” I also had my students write and record one Book Review Podcast, and I hope to start doing that more frequently next year.

I also have been using LibraryThing so that students can select new books by subject or genre.

Recently I have created some online vocabulary practice games at Quia.com for some of our Special Education students. I used to create these games and activities when I taught Spanish a few years ago. The links to these two games are at http://www.troyhigh.com/apps/classes/show_class.jsp?REC_ID=225983&rn=9843679

I also just worked with a Math teacher whose pre-algebra students used Google Docs (per my suggestion) to collaborate on a math/creative writing assignment. Each group of 2-3 students needed to write a 3 page story that includes a math concept. A sample book is at http://www.troyhigh.com/apps/classes/show_class.jsp?REC_ID=225935&rn=1000248 . Using a Google Word Processing Doc, the students were able to collaborate and see each others’ changes and revisions. The students “shared” their documents with me and their math teacher so that we could see the documents and comment on the documents too. I took pictures of each of the groups’ members and inserted them into each group’s document. The math teacher and I were able to see if each of the members was contributing and we could see the times that they edited their document. I mentioned to one young man that he was working on his document at 10:18pm, and he was pretty proud of himself.

Another Web 2.0 tool that I just starting experimenting with is SurveyMonkey. You can create surveys, administer them online and SurveyMonkey will tabulate the response. I am going to ask my IB students to complete a survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=NGL9g1idv82dQtHADJP_2ffw_3d_3d to give me feedback on what worked for them and what I need to improve on (in my University Research Orientation). I’m also hoping that the survey will focus them on what they need to do for their Extended Essay.

2. What impact, if any, has the use of Web 2.0 tools made on student achievement?

In the case of the Google Docs experiment, the students, who are normally “under-achievers,” were intrigued with and excited about the concept of being able to use this new application for their story creation. They also knew that their math teacher and I were “watching” them, so they were more on task.

I have not asked the Special Education teacher if students scored better on their vocabulary tests due to the online activities I created for them, but she did tell me that she was using the activities as a reward for achievement or behavior (if a student was studying like he/she should, she would allow him/her to use the computers to play the vocab. games and activities.

3. Briefly describe the support you have received from administration/faculty?

I have not really let my faculty and administration know about my Web2.0 passions. Another Teacher-Librarian and I were going to work at the district level to introduce “Classroom 2.0” to our district’s teachers, but the other Teacher-Librarian has not yet completed SLL2.0. Our district has made it clear that they are not allowing any blogs, wikis, or video-sharing sites to be used nor seen.

However, the math teacher I worked with was very happy with Google Docs, and the Special Education teacher wants me to create more games for her students for next year. Her enthusiasm has encouraged other Special Education teachers to sign up for the library too.

4. How do these activities help improve students' inquiry skills, critical thinking skills and knowledge acquisition?

There are tons of activities at http://calcurriculum.pbwiki.com/ that California Teacher-Librarians have collaborated on to brainstorm new and innovative ways to get students thinking. I think that these new applications and innovations are getting students to show mastery of a concept in new and exciting ways. You have to think critically to figure out how to distill information about a character from Romeo & Juliet in order to make a “trading card” for them. Lots of the applications that have narration, like Voicethread, really deviate from the pointlessness of PowerPoint, and really make students analyze data and find meaning in their research.

5. How does this support their ability to draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations and create new knowledge?

I think that it gives them a lot more ways to apply knowledge and it does give them new situations IF projects are structured appropriately. If students are asked “How?” or “Why?” or “Compare/Contrast” rather than “what is the capital of France?” So I think that these technologies are just tools – it takes a good teacher to use them well.

6. Are students able to share knowledge and participate ethically and productively as members of our democratic society? In what ways?

Google Docs and wikis and social networking can give students the ability to work together, collaborate and share knowledge, but as we know, whether or not they do it ethically and productively requires that teachers teach and monitor.

7. Do these activities support the students' pursuit of personal and aesthetic growth? How?
Quite a lot. I see that my students really enjoy decorating their MySpace and Facebook pages and they really enjoy expressing themselves in new and creative ways. I showed one class a website that makes snowflakes and they were all eager to do it on the LCD projector for the class.

8. Finally, provide any additional information or insights on how to make this a successful learning experience for others. Any resources that you find beneficial to someone who is just getting started and trying to wrap their mind around all of this?

There are so many resources and tutorials. I recommend that you use Del.icio.us or Mag.nol.ia to bookmark and organize what you find. I also think that monitoring some blogs (such as Joyce Valenza’s Neverending Search) with an aggregator is helpful too.

My Simpsons Avatar

2008-06-04T15:45:00.001-07:00

Krumping - the new wave of dance

2008-05-24T16:38:00.000-07:00

Breoun from Oregonian News on Vimeo.

Read about it at The Oregonian. My brother-in-law lives in Oregon, maybe he can bust some moves and teach me.

My exploits

2008-05-10T11:43:00.000-07:00

We're in the process of moving...here are my boys in front of our new home. It's very exciting but time-consuming. Hopefully after we are all settled I can continue my adventures in SLL2.0. I still am doing a lot of Facebook stuff. Playing games, raising babies, searching for eggs.

And I just uploaded some more library pictures to Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24143753@N07/

I've got a lot of great projects in the library for May. I had a class of autistic students come in for vocabulary practice and library socialization and rules and such. I had a fantastic time with them. Info at: http://www.troyhigh.com/apps/classes/show_class.jsp?REC_ID=225983&rn=465062

I'm also working closely with an Earth Science teacher and a Pre-Algebra teacher. I'm also doing an orientation for the History IB Extended Essay students. All in all it's lots of fun in my library for May.

I'm using Google Docs to keep me on track, and I'll be teaching some students to use Google Docs (on Monday!) for their Pre-Algebra project.

I'm also on ALA's YALSA Quick Picks Committee, so I've been doing a LOT of reading for that. I'm looking forward to the ALA conference in my birth town in June.

That's me in a nutshell. And the kids are running me ragged.

My CSLA Cyber-Buddy

2008-05-06T17:04:00.000-07:00

I posted this on CALIB, but then received clarification that Kathy was the DISTRICT Employee of the year! Woohoo!

"I was taking my kids to the park the other day, when what did I see as I drove past my local junior high school? The marquee (photo attached) said "Congrats Ms. Spielman - Employee of the Year!"

My SLL2.0 buddy (Our Library Moves Forward blog) , Sr. Library/Media Technician Kathy Spielman earned Employee of the Year for her campus.

Kathy is a genuinely warm person who attends a lot of the CSLA conferences and trainings. I'm so lucky that the SLL2.0 enabled us to become "cyber-friends."

Kudos to Kathy!"

Schmap Guides? My pic's been published?

2008-04-27T14:59:00.000-07:00

Is this like those "America's Top HS Students?" Like you're included but you can only get the book if you pay $60?

":: Schmap East Coast Second Edition: Photo Inclusion

Hi Marie,

I am delighted to let you know that your submitted photo
has been selected for inclusion in the newly released
second edition of our Schmap East Coast Guide:

City Tavern
http://www.schmap.com/eastcoast/attractions/p=62198/i=62198.jpg

If you like the guide and have a website, blog or personal
page, then please also check out the customizable
widgetized versions of our Schmap East Coast Guide,
complete with your published photo:

http://www.schmap.com/guidewidgets/p=8986059N05/c=SG33064102

Thanks so much for letting us include your photo - please
enjoy the guide!

Best regards,

Emma Williams,
Managing Editor, Schmap Guides"