The end in sight

I sent my GROWTH brochure Word document to webmaster@carr.org . Now I have to look over my portfolio. What a mess. I must organize it and make sure it represents what I want it too and also so that I can have it handy and use it in the future.

GROW-TH

Preparing the GROW-TH brochure is where I had to turn my attention to the GROWTH learning model. I took time to reflect on the project and process of creating it to concisely show what I have learned. I went back to the GROW-TH module at the LATI website and cut and pasted into a word document so that line by line, piece by piece, answering all the questions; low and behold the GROW-TH Brochure wrote itself! I then looked at other brochures from past students and decided on the style I wanted to pursue. I got it all together and realized that, once again, it was full of typos and some design flaws noted after I asked my friends to proof read it for me. Fixed all of it (I hope). So, off to the printer I go!

Scary Step

I glued it down.

Lots of work.

I have this very unusually slow work week so I plan on working on my poster board this week. So far I have been quite busy, but I like the crafty end of this. I had already I gotten color copies of the covers of the books I used for my original storytime. I replicated the tree I used for my original training storytime two times and made more monkeys. I also had the title already printed up as well all the other computer printed components to glue onto the tri-fold. I am a little afraid to glue down everything today. I've worked on it so much that I think I should look at it tomorrow and check it over AGAIN to see if it still looks ok. The typos are killing me.

Tri-Fold Board

I decided to use a tri-fold board to display my original storytime and then show it morphing into two other storytimes. I mapped out on paper how I want the board to look. I will start putting it all together this coming week.

Project Information Form

I sent my Project information form to L.A. today. I hope that my tongue in cheek commercial will be acceptable. I just wanted to grab the audience’s attention and also use the Mary Poppins motif in the final project. Over the weekend I designed a book mark as a handout for the Showcase and included elements of the project information form in it.

Checking and Double Checking

Over the weekend I put the results onto an Ex-cell spreadsheet and also made a Word Document to explain my project. (This all took so MANY hours!) Then I stole a minute at work today to ask the Children’s Librarian to assess my project and see if I am on the right path. I was very happy that S.B. took the time to see how my project is coming along. She said that she thought it looked good and also that it was a good idea for other substitutes. I am going full steam ahead with it.

Real Life Practice

I have figured out what a good outline for 3-5 year olds; Two’s and Babies with Books should be. I tested it this week because I had to Substitute for our Babies with Books and Tales for Toddler storytime this week. The writing of the outlines took me a long time because it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. But once I did it, I was happy and relieved to see that this worked out after all. Now I have to figure out a way to display my findings.

A Change

When looking over my proposal to Sherry back in May and trying to refine the outlines to show how they are similar, I discovered that I really need to use the resource of the excellent traveling storytime boxes that FCPL has for the branches. These boxes would enable the subs to use a themed, age appropriate resource at their fingertips. I revised my original plan and will instead use them in my project because I have gained the knowledge of them over the past few months since I submitted my project idea and gained experience planning and performing storytimes.

Project Homework

Over the past weeks I have been refreshing my memory as to the developmental skills of the different age groups by re-reading reference books: Literate Beginnings : Programs for Babies and Toddlers by Debby Ann Jeffery. As well as Lap Sit Services for the Very Young II : A How-To-Do-It Manual by Linda L. Ernst. In these books there was a lot of information to be found, not only refreshing me on the age appropriate activities but also a bit of psychology and practical advice for the different developmental stages of children. Studying this has allowed me to think about the task of putting the outlines into similar structures without overloading a small child or not having enough to do for the older age group. Today I am still thinking and trying to put this all together.

The Project Begins

This week I have decided to seriously think about my project as I am the sort of person who likes to work a head because you never know what's around the corner! I also like to not lag behind. So far I have posted my idea and looked at previous projects. I have also gotten the go ahead with my branch manager, well as the children's srvices supervisor at the main branch as well as the supervisor who is in charge of training new substitutes. They have all been positive and I am hopeful that I can begin this process. I have also read and printed out the module. I took a lot of time to break it down in a word document and take small bites out of it. This way I think it will be more manageable.

23 Things Summary

I am glad that we were asked to participate in 23 Things. I learned a lot and also got to play around with websites that I would not have ordinarily been introduced to. I saw tools that could possibly make life at our branch easier (and I hope to keep exploring these thoughts). I also enjoyed discovering some fun sites that I hope to look at again. I will use many of the items I learned about for my daily activities. I view this experience positively and hope to use most of what I've learned professionally.

You Tube

I explored YouTube with my children way before it was one of the 23 Things to do. I have to admit, and I am not proud of this~ but I found it immensely entertaining. I love when they showed me Pearl(which was actually on the webiste "Funny Or Die"); A David Blane knock-off and I also found myself ashamed of our reaction to the "Grape Lady Falls". (Which I asked my children to research how that poor woman is doing since her unfortunate fall!....She's supposed to be fine by the way, only a few broken ribs and punctured lung!)

I read once that YouTube has really given the network TV a run for their money and changed the way we think about and demand our TV viewing. YouTube has allowed us to see what we want when we want it. Quite the contrary to what we were used to in the past. I think that this is a good thing.

As for the subject matter on YouTube: It may be funny or sad but I think it is true to life in 2007. It is filled with what we call living our lives. It is entertainment about ourselves, produced by us for the most part and the way we live now a days.

Web 2.0 Awards List

I have been looking at some of the Web 2.0 Awards Lists and found two interesting ones to comment on. (There were many choices to explore here!).

Craigslist:http://www.craigslist.org/about/factsheet.html I had heard of it before and had the opportunity to explore it. It is an urban community that had free classified ads and forums displayed on a very austere homepage. However when searching through the nuts and bolts, I discovered that although it has a .org domain, it is a for profit website. It gets more than 8 billion page views per month. It was founded in 1995 by Craig Newmark for San Francisco area. It was fun to look around but I prefer to keep e-Bay's organization as my weird purchasing place of choice.

The other site is One Sentence. True stories told in one sentence. (http://www.onesentence.org/) The site is about telling your story, briefly. Any story will do: "Insignificant stories, everyday stories, or turning - point - in -your-life stories, boiled down to their bare essentials." I really enjoyed reading these one sentance stories and thought it would be sometihgn I'd like to try someday.

Week 7: Cool

As we go through these weeks doing our "23 Things", it seems to me that we are allowing technology to sneak into our lives so innocently. All the "Things" I've discovered over the past weeks are very interesting and helpful information. But I didn't realize that it was becoming part of my life until I was at Rita's Italian Ice yesterday and participated in a conversation that not only did I know what was being said, I also knew what I was talking about. AND some "other" really super smart computer people nearby...haven't blogged yet! So that was cool.

Rita's' Italian Ice is also cool and by the way, they are supporting Alex's Lemonade Stand. A fundraiser to fight childhood cancer . I really recommend going to have some Ice and support this very worthwhile cause.

Add this Bolg to My Favorites

Save this blog

Technorati

Technorati Profile

Jeez....Meez

Well I figured out how to create and post a Meez avatar! It really does look just like me! I also went to The Generator Blog place and played around with a lot of generators but didn't want to include them on my blog. It seems to me that although fun, they are somewhat of a waste of time and the subject matter is questionable! However, I plan on sending out singing e-mails soon as that was very cute. I also tried to put a link on this blog to Library Thing but was very unsuccessful. Library Thing is fun anyway.

Technology and me

On a good day I feel that I am very adept and savvy where technology is concerned ...until my kids or husband are around! Then I am suddenly an infant.
So summer is here, they are all here and ...I am learning so much (I am also grateful that they are here so that they can oversee my "23 Things"!) I love seeing all the fun stuff on YOUTUBE as well as a new site called "Funny or Die" with the cursing baby Pearl.
Yes I suppose it's not important Rocket Science, but it does add a certain quality to my life. It make me feel hipper to know about these places. I become "cool" at least when it's summer and all those noisy (hungry) summer people are around.
Come fall I'll again stand on my two feet. But for now I'll enjoy my position a comptuer toddler and am learning all I can.

23 Things

Now as I begin my 23 Things and I am happy to learn some of the topics in the list. I am also glad my 3 college age kids will be home this summer to help me.

Look out You Tube ..... here come the librarians!

LATI

This is my very first blog as I attend my LATI training. All of this is so new to me. I just don't know what to expect. How is everyone else doing?