The end....but only the beginning

So we are coming to a close in this class. I learned quite a bit. I still have quite a bit to think about and read. I'll be busy with that this summer. The information in the class was vast, but helpful. When I first decided to become a librarian, I knew that many things had changed in librarianship since I had worked in a public library years ago, but I just didn't know how much. I think it only makes the job that much more appealing and exciting to me. I don't think I'll get bored in the field. It seems like it is challenging, rewarding and ever changing.

After this class, I feel much more equipped to become a school librarian. I look forward to it. I am done now with all of my coursework to get my degree. In the fall, I will complete my practicum.

So I am done with my course work, but never done with learning! I can see that it will be constant work to stay abreast of new developments in the field. However, I think it will be work that I will enjoy.

Pulling it all together

This week we discussed what our visions are for ourselves in a future school library setting. I enjoyed the discussion. I really want to be the kind of librarian who is on the cutting edge of technology and helping to find new and exciting ways to incorporate it into education. I want to be the expert at searching and finding information so that I can be of real help to students when they need it. More importantly, I want to make sure to equip my students with search skills.

I think Gretchen hit upon something pretty important. Building relationships that are positive with students (and staff). No one want to listen to someone they can't relate to.

The other thing we worked on was our resumes. I was a little intimidated by it since I have stayed home with my kids for about 15 years. I have had some employment, but nothing impressive. It took quite a bit of thinking and digging to find relevant things to put on my resume. I ended up being surprised that I cam up with as much as I did. I am having a little but of a challenge putting it all together and wording it well. At least I have a good skeleton of information to improve upon when I have a little more time to seek out people who can help me fine tune it.

Podcasting and more copyright

More on copyright. After I handed in the staff development project, I started workign hard to catch up on my Simpson reading. It's a good thing I did because this week we were asked to discuss chapters 12 & 13 on the discussion board. I'm all caught up and I was able to discuss it fairly intelligently.

I really liked these two chapters of Simpson...particularly the chapter where Simpson discusses how to balance managing copyright in a school without becoming the person everyone avoids. I certainly do not want to make enemies of all the other teachers in the school I work in some day. I think it is very important that the rest of the staff gets some education on this issue. It is not fair for the librarian having the sole responsibility for it simply because we've had training.

As for podcasting, I had never heard of podcasting before the start of this class. This semester I have listened to several podcasts, both for this class and for my other class. I've also found some that are purely for my own entertainment. I listened to a little bit of the podcasting that the kids in Mr Coley's class created. It sounds like the kids had fun with it. Was it an absolutely necessary tool to use? Probably not, but maybe it's good in that it increases their excitement about learning. It certainly reinforces what they learn by having them create a podcast about it. I can see podcasts being very useful in education. My son has recently started listening to entertaining podcasts called "Adventures in Odyssey" which can be found here.

Screencasts are another fairly new tool to use. I've seen several screen casts and have actually used them to learn how to use different tools on the web. I just didn't know what they were called.

Project Completed

Well...I am happy to say that as of 1:30 this afternoon, my presentation project is done! So now I can enjoy my Easter weekend with family that is visiting from Long Island. The project took quite a bit of my time and I am glad that I started it well in advance of the due date. I learned a lot about the use of webquests in education and really feel like I could actually give the presentation. Now I know what getting prepared to give a presentation involves and feel equipped to prepare for and give one some day if that needs to happen. I thought it was particularly helpful to have the times that each section would take in order to help stay on task time-wise. I'll have to remember to really take the time to do that rather than wing it.

I enjoyed the reading about eBooks. I do not have any experience using one...other than trying my brother-in-law's rather quickly. I also think that I might like to own one some day...but I'll never get rid of all of my books in paper print. I do think eBooks will become an integral part of education some day and therefore part of the library collection. I don't think that the printed book will disappear any time soon though.

I must admit that I need to catch up on reading Simpson. Now that I am over my biggest projects, I will be working harder on that. I know that understanding copyright is an important aspect of being a librarian. At the very least, I plan on keeping the book as a reference.