measuring progress (doesn't that sound awful?)

Today as I drove around running errands, I thought about what I've learned during my class (PBS: Communicate and Collaborate Online), where I've been and where I'm going. I remember reading (somewhere...someone's blog that I didn't bookmark, don't know exactly where I found it...) someone said, "I seem to spend more time reading blogs than writing one." And I guess that's true for me, too, right now. After I watched Michael Wesch's "A Vision of K-12 Students Today," I also watched "an Anthropological Introduction to YouTube." Somehow that spoke even more to me than the "students" video--which was powerful enough, certainly. When he spoke about "context collapse," how YouTubers (is that the right term? It sounds like potatoes....) were talking to an invisible audience, I recognized my own ambivalence and difficulty with writing a blog. Who, after all, wants to listen to what I think?

And yet I know who: me. I learned a long time ago that reflection is a serious, important part of improvement....and that writing my thoughts down helps clarify them. Helps still those thoughts , too, when they are in desperate need of quieting. (My brain goes into hamster mode way too fast.) So it doesn't actually matter all that much if many people read this....it's nice if they do, but I've got other methods of networking that work fine. I don't do this to make money, hit the top of any charts--I'm working at learning and growing. I've got an enormous way to go...but I'm working on it.

So--a few minor reflections on my experience with this class....Yesterday I broke down and typed up a list of my passwords and usernames for the very long list of websites where I needed both and was unlikely to remember how I'd signed up. That list is one indicator of what I've learned--I'm signed up for all sorts of networking things--about booktalks, librarians, web 2.0 tools, social networking things. I hardly know how to use most of them--but that's a slow process that I'm just going to keep working on. I realized, too, that I have, without even noticing it, moved away from handwriting my first draft to composing at the keyboard. (I started to type "typewriter" there...which is such an indicator of progress, isn't it?) (I remember typing catalog cards....boy, do I ever NOT miss that!) I'm not sure I think any better for it--but my first drafts are certainly neater. I still scribble on paper of course, and I guess I always will...I still read books, too--even books about technology. They may well be out of date by the time they're published--but they still help me.

Another minor measurement of my progress: I reread an article I received in a webinar (derived from a blog post at http://www/schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1340000334/post/760015876.html) (utterly no guarantees that I typed that right, either. Joyce Valenza wrote it; it's titled "A Few New Things" and I'm sure it's findable...for better bloggers than me.) Anyway....I reread the article. It blew me away when I first read it--almost like reading a foreign language. I had utterly no clue what most of the "new things" were, much less how to do them. And I noticed, in going back, that while I still haven't done most of them, I've done a couple....and I sort of know what most of them mean, too.

And in another year or so, I'll look back on this post and think, "Yeah, that's right. That was before I learned to ___________. " (I might be filling in with "post a link" or "embed a picture" or "ask the reader a question" or a variety of other possibilities...some of which don't even occur to me right now...)

So, am I making progress? Utterly yes. Is it fast? No, not at all. Is it a little like learning to read? Maybe. I don't love the tools yet--but maybe, when I get more familar with them, better at using them, I'll learn to love them. I know that I always want to run right off the bat, that I'm just as impatient as any learner anywhere...but I know, too, that I'm persistent. And I can see that this is really important.

carrots and goals

Today I'm thinking about the online class I've been taking (PBS: Communicating and Collaborating), the goals I'm considering for next year, and another book I've been reading just for my own improvement, The Carrot Principle by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton. Somehow in the summer I always find myself working on ways to improve the library/my service for the following year. So, since putting it all into black and white helps me get it done (even if I don't look at it again, writing it down sinks a goal into my subconscious somehow...), here are my work-in-progress goals for next year:

1. Booktalks: Hard copy, podcasts, video, blogs...some of everything. Really get some cool things going for getting the kids excited to read. Something to help them get into AR...but also to graduate from it. Book clubs or something excellently cool. Start with my own reading, what I can find done by others, then build to getting kids doing them, sharing, publishing...
2. Technology: Keep learning web 2.0 tools and how to use, share, grow. (A wiki would have been better for working out the AR labeling work we did last year, and for the summer library program--but I didn't know that, didn't know how to do one. That needs to change.)
3. PR: (witness the carrot book!) I need to say thank you lots and lots more....need to actively solicit ideas for ways to improve library services. I want to get to know each teacher well enough to be able to pick a carrot for them that would be a perfect choice.
4. Organizational: New system for circulation, new file cabinets, kids helping more with routine tasks, whatever it will take to get cleaned out and slicked up and not spend time hunting for pieces of paper I know I have somewhere.

Sort of the overarching goal: make the library the heart of the school--best loved, most important place.

avatars r us

Trying to work through the 23 things on a stick--the first one was start a blog, create an avatar. I started the blog a week ago, got distracted (with work, I think--but it could have been life, the learning curve, family, Thanksgiving plans...something!) and didn't get back to doing the avatar thing until just now....

And I made one--and like it, oddly enough....and can't seem to load it onto here. I'm a little frustrated--it may be time to walk away for a bit!

It's really, really hard to love the learning curve sometimes!

23 toes wet

Yesterday I attended Doug Johnson's webinar....this morning I've read through a bit of his website, handout, found the 23 Things on a Stick site and signed up for this blog. (I've never really loved writing like I've always loved reading...but I'm going to push myself on this since I know from Nat. Board how writing is reflection, ratchets up learning. And I've always been big on sharing....) I hope the 23 Things site stays up long enough for me to get through the course, though....

Funny how things mesh sometimes. I recently read Once You're Lucky; Twice You're Good...about the development of many of the 2.0 web tools.....here I am trying them out. Maybe I should have named my blog something about "old dogs..."

And last night I also read Robin Williams' The Non-Designer's Design Book (not the comic Robin Williams, though...) so I'm going to be a little more aware of layouts now. Hmm..

Nearly time to start getting ready for work now.