Wired Librarian

What Happened in Woodstock Stays in Woodstock

kkliegman — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 10:24:40 +0000

I have worked with five principals in my career… but my principal, Nancy, whom I have worked with for the past seven years, has been and always will be the one that stands out as a shining beacon in my life journey. I love this woman who created a teaching atmosphere that encouraged innovation, collaboration, independence, passion, compassion, fun, laughter, and who has been the ‘wind beneath our wings’ for all of us. She is retiring, which is so sad for me, who will I have to tell me “You do such wonderful things.”? I have won some awards over the past few years (in great part due to her encouragement and support that gave me the confidence and energy to forge ahead), but there is not one placque, grant check, or certificate that can make me glow like a hug and a “you are amazing” from Nancy. How lucky I am to have had her in my life, to guide me in becoming a better teacher and a better person. I will miss her so much. How many principals do YOU know that will get on the loudspeaker to tell everyone to stop what they are doing and go to the windows to look at the first snowflake falling? I know that she has instilled in me a spirit that will always stay with me and I thank her for that and for so much more.

You know, she doesn’t like having her picture taken, she doesn’t like attention drawn to her, she has always preferred to be the quiet pebble that creates the ripples in the water… but yesterday she had to deal with being the center of attention at our school’s graduation when there was a touching and emotional tribute to her. Nancy, you deserve every minute of adoration and I hope, for once, you are reveling in it! I will miss her so…

Tell Me a Story

kkliegman — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 10:18:33 +0000

For the past few months, I have been working with four-4th grade classes and four-5th grade classes on a project I developed called Tell Me a Story. I am winding down at work, three more days to go, and I just finally finished posting their finished products on my school website.
Their digital stories, made with Photostory, and their podcasts and book reviews are on the Student Gallery page on our website.

A little of the back story… I was hired as the school library media specialist at my school 7 years ago. At that time, there was a 4th/5th grade ‘research program’ in place which was taught by the computer teacher. This irked me to no end. Research classes are the in the librarian’s realm! Well, in any case, I fought hard for, and eventually won, the right to revamp this program. The program as it stands now is a once a week, one hour class, taught by myself with the support of the computer teacher. We use the resources of the library and the computer lab (which are adjacent to each other). Unfortunately, the classroom teacher is only there for 20 minutes of the class (the other 40 are a prep) – I know, not the ideal situation, but sometimes you gotta work with what you have. In any case, I have developed several research projects for my students (see my e-portfolio) which are project-based and often tied to themes of tolerance or social justice. Tell Me a Story was an attempt at creating something that focused on multicultural understanding (my school has a very diverse population) while incorporating technology tools not used before at my school. Grant money helped purchase digital audio recorders and headsets.

I think what amazed me the most was how easily my students picked up the technology. As teachers, it took us awhile to figure out and master Audacity, mixing soundtracks, importing audio tracks, podcasting… honestly, for my fifth graders it was a piece of cake! The results, in many cases, was incredible! And they loved creating for an audience – whether it was through writing, speaking, images or some combination of the three.

Yesterday, fifth graders came around for yearbook signing. Thanks, Amir, for your comment, I really loved our class. You made my day!

Wired Librarian

kkliegman — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 09:58:11 +0000

OK, coming up with a name for this blog took me longer than I thought it would! After mulling over several titles, I finally decided on “Wired” – it seems fitting in many ways:

When I was getting my educational technology masters, (back in 2001) our class had to come up with a name for our ‘team’ – we decided to call ourselves the “Wired” team.
I like the connotations of that – wired–connected-collaborative–plugged in–hyperactive-receiving-sending.
Maybe I should change it to ‘wireless’ ? Not that I mean the above connotations don’t apply to me, but that information flows so effortlessly.
Nah, I’ll leave it at wireless.