Readings

I enjoyed the fairly straightforward texts we were assigned this semester. It was nice to read once and understand, rather than laboring each week to find even partial meaning to the texts.

I felt like the chapter on "professional development" in Jurkowski was very useful. I suppose it's a reflection of how much I am in the mindset of a classroom teacher rather than a librarian that I expected this chapter to discuss opportunities for my own professional development, rather than what I as a teacher-librarian can and should offer to my staff. I am used to being a passive participant in professional development, but thinking back over my years in education, the best school-sponsored sessions have been the one which my media specialist coordinated. I have learned as much from my current media specialist this school year as from my Clarion classes!

Also in Jurkowski, I enjoyed the chapter on "school library websites". I do not have vast programming knowledge, but I am slowly learning everything I can so that I can, one day when I leave the classroom in favor of a media center, create and maintain an effective and attractive website for my school. Last year, I dabbled with Dreamweaver and made some changes to the school media center website, but unfortunately I wasn't given network privileges and my changes were never posted. It was a great learning experience, however, one which I will refer to when I am once again in the stages of website creation.

After our Wimba presentations, I feel that I have added yet another technology to my tool box, in addition to those that I have acquired in the course of this class.