C-O-L-L-A-B-O-R-A-T-I-O-N

When I have a successful collaboration story I want to stand on the top of a mountain and shout it out. As a librarian I am fully aware that if I don’t have collaboration, I don’t have an effective library program. I try and take full advantage of all collaborative opportunities as possible. Some come planned while others may just drop in my lap as did with this opportunity.

Principal, Chris Jones reading to the kindergarten class.

It all began with WRAD (World Read Aloud Day).  I mentioned to my IT (Instructional Technology) Coach that I wanted to try and collaborate on a WRAD activity using GHO (Google Hangouts). Within two days I was in a district GHO with all our IT Coaches. While in the GHO a Google document was shared live with the group. Notes were taken, ideas were developed, and an awesome WRAD program developed. Our IT team sent out a district wide request using a Google form asking for volunteers to either read or classes wanting to be read aloud to. Our IT coaches matched readers with classrooms and decided to use Skype instead of GHO.

My first selfie just before I began reading to a 6th grade math class

During our WRAD event the district Twitter feed had a stream of pictures and comments about the read aloud event. I saw Assistant Superintendents, principals, teachers, students, and librarians come together during this awesome day. I teamed up with my principal and we read to a kindergarten class. He ended up reading 3 books to the class and took pictures and tweeted while I read to the same class. When our Skype session was over he commented, “That was so much fun.” That one comment was priceless. Although the day was filled with my regular schedule and duties, I took the time out to connect through Skype with two different schools and read out loud to their classes. It took about 45 total minutes of my time but I have made many other positive connections through this event.

Our Skyoe screen

I challenge you to stop, look, and listen for collaborative opportunities in your school. I must give a huge “shout out” to our awesome IT Coaches that took the idea of one librarian and made it into a fantastic day in our district. I believe I saw a post by another district peep that said everyday should be read aloud day. I am so lucky to be working in such a progressive district.

TechnoExpo 2014

It was an evening of epic proportions. Each year our district hosts an awesome event called TechnoExpo. It entails an evening of students and teachers showcasing projects where technology was integrated within a lesson. Students, parents, teachers, administration, and the community came together in celebration during this event.

The path and planning of such an undertaking as TechnoExpo is a tremendous collaboration on the part of many. Teachers and students began the process in the classroom. Teachers submited their best student technology integration projects and a school panel selected the best to be entered into TechnoExpo. Students knew it was a privilege to be picked for the event and some projects were tweaked. Students collaborated in Google documents with index cards and practiced the presentations during a working lunch. It was well worth the hard work to see over 4,000 people attend this event.

The high school culinary arts students provided food for everyone while the IT department meticulously thought through every detail for a smooth evening of over 1,100 participants and 500 student presentations in grades K-12. Technology issues were handled immediately by the IT department, high school students directed foot traffic and answered questions, family members beamed with pride, teachers hugged students just before their presentation began, and awesome student projects were presented. One student was quoted on his way home as saying, “I’m proud of myself.” The hard work by all was well worth seeing our students take pride in their school work.

A video for our faculty.

A video to play on the student news show.

 As the teacher librarian and school Computer Technology Liaison (CTL), I am proud to have been involved in the process. The evening was a combination of hard work from all involved.  It was an epic evening!

March Madness in the Library

With March Madness upon us this is an opportune time for some exciting library programming. I like to take the theme green at the beginning of the month and than I pull out the colors and blooms once spring is upon us.  There are extraordinary opportunities to collaborate with your music, art, and math departments so take full advantage of these celebrations.  You may acknowledge festivities through displays, flyers, mentions in a newsletter, invitations to celebrations, and more.  I like the idea of blending National Craft Month in making items for Read Across America or Teen Tech Week. 

• First Day of Spring – March 20th
• March Madness
• Music In Our Schools Month - The theme for 2014 is "Music Makes Me!" 
• National Craft Month
• National Women’s History Month - Celebrating Women of Character, Courage, and Committment 
• Pi Day – March 14th
• Read Across America – March 3^rd
• Teen Tech Week – March 9-15, DIY @ your library
• World Read Aloud Day – March 5^th
• Youth Art Month

Poetry Slam with Google Hangouts!

I had the privilege of participating in a district Poetry Slam via Google Hangouts and all I can say is it was an awesome experience!

The project was the collaboration and brainchild of 3 Instructional Coaches, 3 Computer Technology Liaisons, and 3 English Language Arts teachers at 3 different middle schools in our district.  All planning took place through Google Hangouts or Google docs.  

A view of our Google Hangout

Here’s basically how the Poetry Slam was conducted.

1. Students wrote original poetry in the ELA classes.
2. 4-5 students were selected prior to the Slam to read their poetry.  Time prevented all students to participating in reading.
3. Proper etiquette, rules, format, etc. was shared on a Google document with the group. 
4. A location and time was selected within each school for a hangout.  2 schools chose the library as their location!
5. IT Coaches, CTLs (this included 2 librarians), and ELA teachers collaborated on each campus to enter the Google Hangout
6. Once the Hangout began all 3 schools took turns reading their poetry.
7. After each poem was read students were ask for feedback by entering information in a Google form. There were over 1,750 responses in the form.
8. Students from other campuses were allowed to ask questions after each poem was read.
9. During the entire process there was feedback from many through TodaysMeet and Twitter (#NISDpoetryslam) feeds that were visible on separate monitors. I displayed in Visible Tweets which was very enthralling to our students.

Tweets via Visible Tweets

The activity was incredible with our students totally engaged at all times.  Once they completed the Google form they were encouraged to make comments on our TodaysMeet and Twitter feeds.  Lurkers included school and district administrators who had a glimpse into a fantastic classroom activity that went beyond the walls of just one school.  I foresee the use of Google Hangouts in many other activities in the near future.  What a day with Google Hangouts, Google docs, Google form, TodaysMeet, and Twitter all smashed into one activity.  It was epic.  Watch out World Read Aloud Day - here we come!

TCEA 2014

I've been attending conferences since 1989 but this was my first time to attend TCEA 2014 in Austin, Texas.  What an awesome surprise for me to have so many opportunities to attend the most amazing sessions.  I was able to blend my love of technology at the sessions in the convention center and my passion for the library in the TCEA LIB-SIG meeting and sessions at the Hilton.  Another treat was to meet many in my virtual PLN face-to-face.  I brought books to read, anticipated I would have time to finish writing a grant, and expected some lesson plan writing time but the fast paced high energy agenda left me just about enough time to eat and sleep.  

Here is a link to the TCEA 2014 handouts since this was almost a paperless convention.

I was honored to be nominated for The Amazing Librarian 2014 Award.  Congratulations to Nidia Rodriquez on receiving this award.

Tina Berumen Cannon Elementary Grapevine-Colleyville ISD

Sue Fitzgerald Gene Pike Middle School Northwest ISD

Mary Carole Strother Finch Elementary McKinney ISD
Nidia Rodriguez United High School United ISD

I also had the privilege to present Cheapskate PD for Librarians with the wonderful #TXLchat co-moderators.  We have incredible plans for future chats.

February 11th

Join #TXLchat moderators Sharon Gullett & Sonja Schulz as they share highlights of TCEA. There's also a surprise guest.  Come share what you loved about the conference!

February 25th

Join #TXLchat moderators Michelle Cooper & Sharon Gullett as they welcome special guests Colby Sharp and John Schumacher from the #SharpSchu chat and #NerdyBookClub











Who could forget to mention all the new awesome friends that we made.  But the best part was connecting with my PLN!  I can't wait for TLA. 

Here's a visual view of TCEA 2014.

Loupe Collage - Another Awesome Google App

Loupe Collage is a free online collage app that I use with my school Google account.  You can easily access Loupe in Google Drive by clicking on the Create option and choosing connect more apps.  Once you select Loupe in the more apps click on the green connect button.  The app will now appear when you click on Create in Google Drive. 

Great options with the Loupe app includes:

• You can access photos from many social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and more to make a collage.
• You can make unique collages from pre-made shapes to choose from.
• Photos can be repositioned manually.
• The collage can be emailed, shared on social media, downloaded, or embedded as in this post.
• The image is saved in your Google Drive account.
• When using Google Drive there is no account set-up.
• There are some easy formatting options such as adjusting borders, choosing photos, and more.

The process is extremely easy.

• Suggested use for collage:
• Use on your library website or blog
• Host a variety of book titles 
• Use to show case displays
• Make a visual for your library programming
• Make a collaborative collage with favorite books of students and/or faculty

Take some time and check out the Loupe app in either in your Google account or on  the website.