Thing 9 : Search Tools Ninja

So I played around a lot with various search tools!  I am intrigued with introducing students to search tools other than Google!  Yes, it's my go to search tool simply out of habit!  Google has absolutely made my life easier BUT it isn't always the best or most appropriate search tool to use especially when working with elementary students.  I use DuckDuckGo with some regularity and I also introduce this tool to my 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students and explain how this search tool doesn't track your data and explain the relevance of that.

I did a search using Google, Million Short, and DuckDuckGo.  As you might expect, the results varied between the search engines.  However, the best results came from Google!  I was looking for  "Corinth, NY fun activities."  The top five results in Google were all relevant while the other search tools both gave my results about Corinth, Mississippi and some irrelevant pages about activities for Corinth, NY but it wasn't really about Corinth, NY.  I will have to revisit Million Short again and play around with it (I see a lesson !).  I checked out ScoopIt and found some great book trailers to use in my library! I'm not sure I will use this regularly but it's worth more time.  I did sign up for a free account.

I was excited to learn about Choosito! As I was able to get search results with grade/reading levels attached to them but to use the free version of this tool you are limited as to what you can access.  It appears that this company has done a really nice job of allowing students to think about and rate websites from the search results! Visually, I like the way your results appear and I think it's very kid friendly.  What I was really impressed with is how it allows students to actively participate in website evaluation which is so important, however, you must be a paid subscriber to access this! That's too bad.

PS - Many of Bill Bradley's links for search tools are dead links.  He hasn't updated this page so I'm not sure it's a very useful resource still.

Thing 16: Bitmoji Fun

 Here is my revised Bitmoji!  I created one awhile back when I got a Snapchat account but only because my daughter had one for her Snapchat account.  It's good that my kids don't think I am living in the Dark Ages! Now with my new knowledge from Cool Tools I know some fun ways to use Bitmoji in school! 

The kids (my students) got a kick out of it, when my image showed up on their Google Doc. It seems that giving them feedback with a picture made them more receptive to reading my feedback (if that makes sense!).  I also used it on a Google Slide as an end of the year Menu of Library Choices for what students could do during their library visit.   As we have a new web filter a school I customized and saved a Bitmoji to Google Keep (I added some text to the image).  I will put it at the end of my post as I am having trouble pasting it into my blog without it taking up so much room.  I was also challenged by changing its size in a Google doc.  I can change the size but the image ends up being smaller than I would like it to be.

I also added the Bitmoji extension to Chrome.  I was surprised and found it interesting that the app had more options for creating your Bitmoji than the site itself! 

In addition, I checked out Booksnaps and created a custom image using the book One Crazy Summer  by Rita Williams-Garcia .

 

The directions from the video were great!  I am still a work on progress with this and I didn't tweet it but I am really excited about how much more comfortable I am using Bitmoji as a educational/PR tool!  This may be a great way to make book trailers or book slides to advertise what's in my collection!  I would love to show my upper grade students how to create their own Bitmoji and have them create comics in Google Slides.  I have to practice at school over the summer, to see how it would work under a student login.

My Google Keep image!

Thing 1: Blogging

I am Laura Gable.  I am currently finishing up my 2nd year at Latham Ridge Elementary School in the North Colonie School District. This will be my fourteenth year as a school librarian.  I also had the pleasure of working as a part-time librarian at the Clifton Park Library until recently.While I really enjoyed working at the public library, with my new position at North Colonie and two kids that are now involved in sports that require travel, sadly I had to resign from that position at (least for now). 

This will be my third time participating in Cool Tools and I swore my experience would be different than the last time but sadly I will finish just under the deadline. While I say I will do it differently next time I find myself in the same boat.  However, I have to say that I ALWAYS learn new skills and get new ideas by taking part in this program.  So that will remain my take away always. Sorry Polly for all the "late" assignments!  At least I am predictable. 😊


I haven't kept an ongoing library blog.  However I think it's a great idea.  Not just to let others know what I am doing but as a reflection tool for me regarding my teaching and my library program.  In September I will begin my third year at Latham Ridge & I am going to begin a blog!  After reviewing some other elementary library blogs I will model mine after the England & the Falmouth Libraries.  Both seemed more simple than other blogs, so that inspired me and to keep it from seeming like a daunting task I will begin by writing a book blog and see where that takes me!  📕

THING 10: FINAL LEARNING ACTIVITY

Well this is the second time I participated in Cool Tools!  My expectations are always higher than what I actually achieve.  I was going to complete 10 Things but I am only completing 5 Things.  How do I put these tools into action at work?  Well I did download the Twitter app on my phone and I have read some really useful articles that have benefited me professionally! I've also kept up on some school events!  I am not a regular tweeter though! I don't blog regularly for work or in my personal life but I do enjoy reading other peoples blogs.  I will most definitely use what I learned about search engines and  I intend to go back and read up a little more on the databases.

Things that I did not complete such as Productivity Tools, Student Portfolios, and Web Design really interested me and I plan to go back and look those over. I scheduled 1 hour for each item on my calendar to look at during the summer.

My biggest challenge is sitting down and making the time to complete a "Thing." You see, I  sit down and I would read and learn about a topic but I wouldn't complete the task (for a variety of reasons - kids, a commitment, etc.) I always found myself saying I will do it tomorrow & here I am at 10:56 PM on June 3rd!!!

I definitely plan on sharing what I've learned. I enjoy learning at my own pace and being able to learn from anywhere.  The convenience is HUGE!  For me personally I wish there were mini - deadlines, maybe one Thing completed every four weeks. Maybe I am just someone who needs a deadline and no matter what I won't finish until the clock strikes midnight - lol.

I would participate in Cool Tools again.  I always learn new information and that makes me happy and fulfilled.  Thank you for the opportunity.

Thing 9: Databases & Search Tools

As I was looking to choose what to complete next "Databases and Search Tools" caught my eye. This year I started working with high school students again (it had been 12 years since I had)!  Topics and search skills will vary from elementary to secondary.  I read Do Your Students Know How to Search?  I thought to myself, no they don't.  What I found out was I don't either!  Yes, I know how to how to search and maybe better than my students but what I found out was that I too could use improvement!
  
I really enjoyed the article and the two video clips included in it!  The article was informative and I will most definitely pass on the  information to my students.  I can say that it made me a better searcher.  I Learned about "Filter Bubbles" and that Google News is a good place to access primary documents!!  This is very exciting!

Although I teach my students about DuckDuckGo and Sweet Search, I hadn't really looked for more search engines to see what they can do. Choosing this topic was a reminder about other options.  InstaGrok is interesting, I think I like it but the presentation is a little different so I have to get used to it. I am undecided if it would work well for my students, I need more time to decide!  And, yes I had to try THINGA and I have to say I really loved it! It's a nice little search tool for the youngsters.  There are lots of videos so it may be good to use as a reward after finishing a project or watch a video and see what kind of questions your students come up with!  From there they could begin some genuine inquiry and that could be so much FUN!!!

Can't wait to check out Scoop.It

Regarding "Articles & resources to Explore," I must say that the save directly option from GALE to Google School Apps is AWESOME!!  It really makes researching and saving articles so much easier!!  I love it and so do my students!

Thing 3: Online Communities & Personal Learning Networks

Twitter . . .

Well I am a Twitter Option 3 only by the definition of time!   Although I signed up for a Twitter account back in 2010, yes I couldn't believe it either.  I haven't completely acclimated myself to this online community.  Why, I'm not sure?  My process has been slow . . .  Cool Tools has given me the opportunity to revisit Twitter and this time it may stick !

I now follow a couple of elementary teachers that I used to work with that I want to stay in touch with.  I now follow TLChat and a few other well known school librarians.  For now that is enough!  I love the wealth of information available to me at my fingertips!  I read some really interesting articles that others posted.  I found some cool apps, and read about some cool things other librarians are doing, like charging lockers (students can charge their gadgets in them)!!!

There really is so much out there to learn about!  For now I will use Twitter as a learning tool!  I just scheduled a weekly Twitter check-in on my Google calendar!

Thing Two: Photo Fun

I decided to complete Option 3, Edit, Create & Share.  I am familiar with Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. & I use Google Photos regularly since my phone automatically backs up all of my photos there!!  I love that I don't have to worry about losing my pictures and videos.  Google organizes my photos by date and creates albums automatically.  I did check out Tumblr and will spend some more time discovering what it has to offer later.

The two sites I checked out were BigHugeLabs & Photovisi.  I found them easy to use and created some cool pictures!   I created a magazine cover, and two collages shared below.

In thinking how I might use these with my students. . .

1) Create a booktalk poster
2) Take pictures of their research/writing process and discuss the steps along the way
3) Spine labels collage of their favorite books
4) Genre poster using spine labels of titles they read in that genre
5) Author highlight