Journey to Topaz by Yoshiko Uchida

      Journey to Topaz is a book about the tragic treatment of Japanese Americans as a result of the WWII bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japan.  I knew about this time in history, but never heard a story written by someone who had lived through it.The characters are well developed and through his words the author allows you to feel what his characters are feeling and view the events that unfolded in their unique perspective.  The book tells the story of a family whose normal American life in California is completely changed even though they personally have done nothing against America. First the father is taken away by the FBI to an internment camp,or prisoner of war camp. He is considered an enemy alien simply because he is a first generation Japanese immigrant who is a business executive with ties to Japan.  The story then tells what the family has to do in order to prepare to go to a different camp themselves, including selling their furniture and giving away a beloved dog to a stranger.  The author then gives details of the life they must endure along with hundreds of other families that were taken to the camps.  As a lover of history I enjoyed reading this book and felt it was worth "talking" about. If you liked this story as much as I did, try the sequel called Journey Home.

Henry and the Buccaneer Bunnies by Carolyn Crimi

I wanted to start my book reviews with a children's book I had never read before.  Henry and the Buccaneer Bunnies seemed like a fun title.  The book is basically about a bunny who loves to read about everything.  His father is a pirate captain who clearly does not see the importance of reading, but Henry is not discouraged, even when the other pirate bunnies make fun of him.  Henry saves the day when there is a shipwreck and Henry uses what he learned in his books to build them shelter, make them food and even show them how to build a new ship out of palm fronds.  This book definitely showed children the benefit of reading a variety of books. As I was reading I felt unsure of the grade levels that would enjoy this book.  There aren't too many words per page, so you could keep the little ones' attention, but some of the meaning would be lost by them.  Older elementary kids would think the book was too childish.  I think second or third graders might be able to appreciate it most.  In one of the reviews I read, someone suggested reading it to high schoolers as a funny way to introduce their history lessons that included pirates.  They would probably chuckle at the names of the books Henry read like "Rabbitson Crusoe" and "Quick and Easy Meals for Marooned Pirates".  The book's illustrations by John Manders are eye catching and funny, but I noticed right away that Henry looks a bit nerdy with his enormous glasses and I thought to myself, "I was kind of a nerdy reader type when I was a kid and I would have liked to have been more cool.  Why didn't they make him look like the coolest bunny ever?"  Anyway, how he looked didn't matter because he saved the day. So I guess they wanted nerdy- looking book lovers to know they really are the coolest!

Conclusion and Self Assessment

    I've learned a lot about different kinds of new technology over the course of this semester in school.  This new knowledge has piqued my interest to find new ways to use technology in my classroom, in my future library, and in my personal life.  I have already shared new things I've learned with my technologist, who in turn, shares with me!  I have asked to have a Promethean board in my classroom next year and plan to use it daily.  I think what has happened is I’ve gained the knowledge and courage, I suppose, to try new technologies instead of just talking about trying them.

    I've thought about how to keep up with the new innovations in technology, in order to be a more effective teacher and future media specialist.  Several things came to mind- keep lines of communication open with the school technologist and media specialists from my school and other schools, try out technology ideas mentioned in listserv emails, and read articles about new technology ideas in journals related to education, librarianship or technology.  I plan to create a database, which organizes the technology into categories useful to teachers, students and myself. 

    Although I've always been a fan of technology in the classroom, the idea of implementing the new technologies into my elementary school lessons and future library “lessons” is exciting! I've already spoken to a 5th grade teacher about students using Googledocs and Wikkis to create collaborative documents for projects; I’ve shared a research idea with kindergarten that helps them research in an appropriate way for children of their age group; I'm in the process of creating a Qlubb site in order to organize a group of volunteers to help with a “Garden Clean Up” event at school, and let’s not forget that awesome Promethean board!

The Job of Organizing

    The more I learn about Web 2.0 the more I love it! I think it's wonderful that there are sites available on the web like NetVibes, Protopage and PageFlakes that allow people to get organized.  I don't know anyone who couldn't use a Personal Information Space!  This tool can be changed and rearranged as the user's needs change. It allows the users to have all of their most important sites right at their fingertips. I think this will be a tool that librarians can use to help students and teacher- colleagues gather all of their resources into one place to make them more efficient at school.  Librarians will have to keep up with the newest technologies and websites in order to help those students and teachers stay on the cutting edge.  I can see "organization workshops" to get people started and notices on the librarian's blog or the library website to keep them updated. 
    The social bookmarking site Diigo would be an example of the type of channel a person could have on their information space. To me, the tags on Diigo are similar to keywords that help me to more easily categorize "bookmarked" Websites and to help others locate Websites that may possibly contain the information they are seeking.   I think the more familiar I become with Diigo, the better I will be at naming tags in a way that will help others to find Websites that match their needs.

About: The Machine is Us/ing Us By Michael Wesch

    As I viewed the YouTube video about Web 2.0 by Professor Michael Wesch, I thought, “Wow! There’s a lot of information here and it’s moving pretty quickly from one thought to another," a bit overwhelming, actually. So after watching it a few times I thought about the question- What was Wesch trying to say when he entitled it “The Machine is Us/ing Us”? Why did he give that name to his video?  I think he meant that the Web 2.0 tools that people all over the globe are using “is us” because it’s all about people connecting with each other and the world around them through the many social networking tools like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter, to name a few.  It allows anyone to show their creative abilities and allows for self-expression through avenues like personal Web sites, blogs, Flickr, and Image Chef. It allows people to collaborate on projects when they aren’t even in the same room, city, or even country with tools like Wikis and Google Docs. It’s amazing how web 2.0 tools have brought the people of the world so much closer together-- “us”.

    The “using us” part was explained when he said that every time we make a new connection we are teaching the machine. Imagine millions of people are making millions of connections day after day! The machine needs us to change and grow, like a brain needs information flowing over neuropathways to function, learn, grow and cause change—The machine is “using us”.

QR Codes

    Have you heard of Quick Response Codes, or QR codes?   They’re like a bar code that can be read by a smart phone or special QRC readers.  QR codes link you to different kinds of information, and can be found printed in magazine ads, in news papers, on business cards, on book jackets, and many more places including on food and clothing!  When I first learned about Quick Response Codes, I wasn’t sure how a librarian could use them, then I thought about the kinds of things library patrons might want to access quickly from the convenience of their cell phones (or QRC readers).   

     The Quick Response code could link to a librarian’s blog to announce special events coming to the library, like a book fair, or a visit from a storyteller, author or other special speaker.  This could also be done through a link to the library’s monthly calendar of events.  Librarians could use the QRC to highlight a book of the week, by creating a link to a review of the book or to information about the book. To highlight authors or illustrators, a link could be made to their web sites. The QRC could be used to connect students to research resources, acceptable use policy information, or instructions on how to properly cite sources.  Students could tell others about their favorite books through book reviews.

    The QR codes could also be used for practical applications, like allowing teachers to access the library’s browser while planning lessons.  Parents could access information about their child’s library account to find out about overdue books or pay library fines.   A book fair catalog could be created, so parents could browse with their children, before coming in to make a purchase.  The possibilities for using QR codes in connection with the library are pretty exciting! 

Individual Technology Assessment

     When I saw the definition of technology in the power point provided  "… a broad term dealing with the use and knowledge of tools and crafts." (Wikipedia, 2006),  I started to think about the tools I have used over the years in my teaching experience. Of course I've used things like the overhead projector when I taught 5th grade- old school, but effective for standard lessons that I didn't want to write over and over again on the board.  I prefer to use my computer, a Mac, to teach through Power Point presentations, Keynote presentations and You Tube clips. I taught my 5th graders how to use Power Point to create their own presentations. I also like to photograph my students with a digital camera while they're working, which the older students later used in applications like Comic Life to create their own comic strip or poster.  I  am learning the ins and outs of using the new projectors, which we use in the computer lab and in classrooms with Promethean boards. I've taken lessons at our school to become more proficient at using these tools.  I would like to be able to use the Promethean board with my pre-k students to make daily activities, like the calendar, interactive and fun and to show video clips of the students doing things like counting, presenting playground rules, reviewing color words or shapes, and singing songs with motions.  They love to watch themselves on the big screen.  I'm working with a colleague, who uses the Promethean board daily, to learn how to do these things. I'm amazed at how technology has changed during the 16 years that I've been teaching.  I hope that I can keep up with the changes to come.