Social Media~What works and what doesn't, for now...

    Once again, welcome back to the most informative, groundbreaking and exciting blog you'll read (this minute!)  We are discussing all the forms of social media and what works for us professionally and personally.

      I have been on social media for about a decade now.  When my children wanted Facebook pages, (Thank you, Mr. Mark Zuckerberg,) I made the stipulation that I would create one and then they would have to be friends with me.  “No problem!” they said.  Well, we are all still on Facebook and we are all still friends; who knows what they have used “Messenger” for.  I can’t catch them at everything but I can let them know that I am there (insert creepy laugh.)  I use Facebook for the library so I can post upcoming events, or things we have done during the week.

     I found Goodreads in July, 2007, and would spend entire weekends on that website.  I think one of my kids graduated HS and I didn’t notice!!  Hee, hee, just kidding.  Of course, after being an elementary library specialist for almost ten years, I had A LOT of books to enter.  The great thing is, when parents ask for book recommendations for their child or themselves, I send them to Goodreads to look at my account.  Goodreads is a social cataloging website that was created by Otis and Elizabeth Chandler in 2006 and launched in January, 2007.  In March 2013, Amazon bought Goodreads.  

     I found Pinterest soon after, that site is also addicting.  I knew I would do everything I pinned.  So far, I have found recipes that I will never make, crafts I will never do, and clothes that I can’t afford to buy.  The one thing I found was my next tattoo, so pretty.  However, I love the website. I have created a school board with great ideas, I might have even created a couple!  Pinterest was created in December 2009 by cofounders Ben Silbermann, Evan Sharp and Paul Sciarra, and was launched in 2010.

     Clearly, my own three children were the reason I ever entered the social media platform to begin with.  This includes the accounts I have for Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter.  I have Snapchat so my kids could send me things, although I have never sent a Snapchat of my own.  I can probably delete that account, as they aren’t using it much anymore.  My Instagram account was the result of a class I was taking.  I am leery of putting any student pictures online, even if there is no media restriction for that child.  Last week for my video post on my blog, I spoke to each parent and got their consent.  I hear that educators are using it, but I know that they are teaching in the older grades.  Which leaves me with Twitter.  Again, I signed up with the help of my daughter and I can see me using it in the library, I just have to remember to do it!!  I kept the same account and just changed my name on Twitter to “MsLarrabee,” to make it more in line with school and the book club.  I am going to “tweet” something this week!!  I have added 70 new “following” links, which will hopefully prompt me to check it more often.

     I have a LinkedIn account and I have not mastered that site yet.  I spend more time inadvertently sending out invitations to people that I don’t want to send them to (they shall remain nameless!)  I keep trying to navigate the website because the professional connections that can be made there are fantastic.  Of course, I have the free account, maybe the premium accounts are easier to use?

    I have a Tumblr account; I have no idea when I set it up and there is absolutely nothing on it.  The scary thing is, that don’t surprise me.  Maybe I set it up, and then found some other form of social media better.  It certainly looks like it does everything, I wonder why I never went back?  Ahhhh, the beauty of too many accounts!  I think I should spend time using the ones I have to see if they are a fit for me and the library, instead of signing up for more accounts that I won’t use.

    Thanks for coming back, see you next week!  Happy Reading...

Welcome back to this week's blog!  This is the taping of our online book review, such fun!  We had a book club over the summer after reading the book Meridian James and the Ouroboros Dagger by Rebs Kendry.  The children loved it, so I thought a book review video would be perfect for this blog.  Enjoy!

Hi!  Welcome back, you rebels!!  This week I investigated several apps that I could use administratively or in the classroom.  Here we go:

App Uses List

·         Flickr is an amazing site!  I use this at the beginning of class before we start our lesson, or for a filler at the end of any lesson, as differentiated learning.  I pull up one picture, have the students look at it and then write down the first word that comes to their mind.  We share our words after to see how many views we have.  A picture is worth a thousand words…

·         Bighugelabs would be great to use with students at any grade level when they need to submit a project includes pictures.  It is easy to install and has everything including templates to display pictures, calendars and photo collages.

·         Timelines might work for the 4^th grade project on ancestry.  One parent has secured an account with Ancestry.com for our students to research their own heritage.  Could Timeline work by comparing other events that took place at the same time of the family’s immigration?

·         Gloster would be an app that could be used for any yearbook!  Setting up pages with pictures and text with their digital template. 

 

·         Zamzar would be used to convert music files to use in any presentation/project that music is wanted. 

·         SurveyMonkey is a great site for students in student council to use as a poll when other students need to vote for certain preferences.

·         Doodle is a brilliant app that lets me schedule district library meetings with everyone while polling for preferences of days and times.

·         BubblUs is a great app to share with teachers and use in the library when students have a report to do.  Mapping out where to start and building a graphic organizer to visualize the process.  

·         Voki would be a great way to have student’s log in to this website by using an avatar that they created of themselves, while still protecting their privacy.  Lessons and homework can be reviewed on Voki.

·         Jing would be a great way to share lessons with other librarians.  We can record what we are working on and then send it to other librarians.  They can see the lesson and all the steps through.

·         Animoto would be fun to use while taping the students talking about different parts of the library.  Then I could set it to music and we have a personal how-to use the library video! 

     

       Thanks for visiting, see you next week!

P.S.  Here's the link to my Flickr acct that I created: 

https://www.flickr.com/cameraroll

Readers and Apps and Tools, oh my!!

Hi, Welcome back to week 3 of my blog :)  It should actually be week 4 but I will catch up this week.  I have been investigating different tools, apps and RSS readers this week and I have some mixed reviews.  I am no expert, but here is my 2 cents.

I have surprised myself at how diverse I have become.  I love my PC at home, love my IPad when I’m at school, and hate my laptop everywhere because of Windows 10.  I’m sure it is user error.  I have several apps on my on my IPhone and my IPad and I use several tools every day.  I learned about the Wallet app on my IPhone this past summer.  It takes a screenshot of your boarding pass or concert tickets, etc., so you can find it quickly with no Wi-Fi!  I swear it is like magic!  I have had a Goodreads account since 2007, although I write few reviews. It helps me keep track of books I have read and books I want to read.  Love that.  My daughters introduced me to The Skimm, and it works perfectly for me because I hate watching the news, it is too depressing.  I prefer puppies, piglets and all things happy. ;)    I signed up for Google docs when I started my master’s degree, but I have used it only once.  I’m not sure if I didn’t trust it back then?  It’s completely ridiculous, right?  I signed up for Twitter and Instagram just to see how they worked, and I never use them.  I think I hit the point where it was all TOO much. I think I spend more time trying to GET organized than I do BEING organized.  Having said that, I am willing to try any app or tool that will help me get there.  I think the ones that I use the most, are the ones I like the most, or the ones that are the easiest to navigate.  I made a Diigo account; I love the idea of all my bookmarks in one place.  However, even though I was able to load Diigo onto my toolbar, it didn’t list any of the options to highlight, bookmark, etc.  I will keep trying or switch to another bookmarking site.  I found the idea of an RSS reader just fascinating!  The Digg reader is the one I signed up for and I added several newsfeeds to my page.  I understand you can also bookmark posts on there as well, while integrating with other web services.  Thankfully, I am not overwhelmed yet; just have to keep moving forward.  There are multiples of whatever tool or app you want, just find the one that best fits your needs.