Diving In!

It has been a bit of a scary week so far, but not because the material is too difficult. It is because I have so many plates spinning. Aside from LIS 568, I have had a sick child to contend with, pulling off a daughter's birthday party (complete with overnight guests), my son's JV MCCI finals meet for swimming (yes, those are his legs), my 3 hour round trip on Tuesday night to and from Buffalo for a class, and whatever else being a normal homemaker and mom brings. How can I possibly get it all done? Okay...I am whining a bit. Things are managing to come together in spite of it all. My goal is to get it all done by Friday so I can concentrate on my daughter's birthday on Saturday.

First of all, the newsletter. I was having all kinds of trouble with MS Word because it just wasn't doing what I wanted it to. I ended up settling for something I didn't like as well because I just couldn't figure it out. I asked my son for help because after all, aren't today's teenagers supposed to be technologically savvy? Hmmm. It seems like I read something about that very topic lately. Anyway, he didn't know how to do it either! Go figure! The other thing I hate to admit is that sometimes I am very confused about how to cite something even with The Little, Brown Essential Handbook. This concerns me since I am supposed to be an educator who helps students do this very thing! Is there anyone else out there who is like this? Please comment and tell me 'Yes' and encourage me that I am not alone.

I'm enjoying the discussion board,and the blogs of my classmates and hearing the perspectives of others.

As for the articles about the assistive devices, I thought they were fascinating! I loved learning all about them. There are just some incredible things out there to help people with disabilities today. I do feel very informed about assistive technology that is available and am glad that I had this assignment to help me learn about them. My newsletter is almost done.

Second Week Reflections

I am trying to understand the rhythm of this online course. Getting it so that I know how it works and how to best accomplish the work and do well. I still feel overwhelmed by all of the information. So much of it is new to me that I fear that I won't understand it enough to do a good job. The other worry is that I will simply miss something and fall behind.

One of the first things I looked at was the hierarchy of the library system in NY state. I know that I must understand this system and how it works. I'm glad that it has been presented because this has never come up in another class at all...and this is pretty much my last class to take. I really want to be a great school librarian and I understand that simply wanting to be that is not enough. Knowledge and understanding is the key to implementing a good library program. There are so many things to know: the hierarchy, copyright laws, grants, all the technology and keeping up with it, just to name a few.

I got a chance to look at NOVEL. I've looked at it before. We are so fortunate in NY state to have this resource. I learned about it in a class I took a year ago. There are so many people that are unaware of this resource. My sister homeschools her children and didn't know about it. I told her about it a year ago, but I'm not sure she has used it much. How could you not if you are an educator of any sort here in NY? Thinkfinity.com is new for me.

The articles I have read so far have been interesting and informative. The Cyber Briefing Paper was particularly interesting to me. I have children of my own and tried to think of them as I read the findings of these studies. I admit that I am not terribly concerned about the issues raised in the article. Maybe I should be. I just think that every generation of young people made their respective older generations worried about them in some way or another. I think quite a bit of it has to do with maturity and the normal "generation gap" that occurs. I observe my own children, one of whom is in high school and I see a smart kid who isn't that much different than the teens of my own generation (the 80s). I noticed that the article made sure to say that young people are not necessarily technologically savvy or "expert" searchers. This echoes what one of the school librarians that I worked with told me.

Copyright. Wow! So much information and virtually all of it new. I wonder if I've broken copyright without knowing it at some time or another. I wouldn't do it on purpose, honest! It just brings home the huge responsibility that all educators have in knowing and understanding this information. I liked some of the websites my classmates put up about teaching copyright issues. Thanks!

To continue the journey

I am here again in LIS 568. Some of you will read the previous two entries and figure out that I had actually been in the class last semester for a week. I had some unfortunate family matters to attend to and needed to take a leave of absence. So far, this week has involved looking up URLs and passwords for the different things I set up during the first week of class in August. Some of it involved starting fresh again with new accounts. Some things are comfortable, like keeping a blog. I love blogging and have done it for 4 years. I decided to keep the blog I set up last semester since it is all a part of my journey as an LIS student. Other things are new, like Diigo. I've used Delicious before, but am happy to do something new. My Delicious account is crammed full of links to art sites and tourist sites for Paris, among other things that won't have anything to do with this class.
I am a little anxious about starting school again. I've had an emotional time of it this past semester and wonder if I can handle it all. I'm still attending to family matters, but it looks like the worst is over for now. The class looks overwhelming, but I'm sure that I will somehow pull through.
I think I managed to do everything on the list. I had a little trouble with iTunes-podcast subscription. I ended up subscribing to it on my google reader instead. I'm not sure if this is acceptable...but it works.
One important thing I learned is that if you have another blog that you keep, you need to be very careful to make sure you are posting to the correct one. I created a nice post for my other blog about my son's swim meet...and by a mistake it ended up being on this blog. Ooops! So if you see some really crazy posts here, you'll know that I did it again. If I make a mistake the other way, Susan will think I never made a reflection for the week.
I noticed that I still have a follower from last semester's class.