Library Media Tech Talk

As the hectic pace of May continues to build, it is easy to get wrapped up in end-of-the-year procedures. During this time teacher librarians everywhere are making lists of overdue items, teaching classes, completing library inventory reports, and more. What if we also used these last few weeks as a time to invite students to give us feedback on how the year went for them in the library? This is exactly what we have done at Lakeside High School for the past few weeks, and the feedback has been informative. We wanted to know how our services impacted the students. We also want to know how students think we can improve. Read on for a brief description of how we have heard their voices. Google Form Survey We decided to create a Google Form to email out to all of the students. We asked only four questions (3 multiple choice and 1 optional short paragraph written answer). The library media center has a warm and inviting climate for the LHS learning community. (Strongly Agree...

This was a great year for the Library Media Tech Talk Blog! I created this blog in March 2014. I sincerely hope that my posts have been both interesting and helpful to all educators! As 2016 comes to a close, I want to share our most-read articles of the year. Top 5 most read blog posts of 2016 3265 pageviews: The Flexible School Library: Creating a 21st Century Space For Our Learners 2698 pageviews : How 6 Picture Frames Made A Difference In The School Library 2165 pageviews :  Create A Library Sign-In With Google Forms 1805 pageviews : Four Ways To Lead From The School Library 1757 pageviews : Library Orientation Breakout EDU Thank you for reading this blog! Happy New Year, friends! How we held the 2016 Skype-a-Thon in the library! My table of contents for the blog is here! I have a monthly email newsletter for the subscribers of the Library Media Tech Talk blog. If you are interested in exclusive content not appearing on the blog, b...

This has been one of the busiest summers ever in our high school library. I have made efforts to share many of the activities on social media. It is important to show the community and administration what is happening, even in the summer months, since they are investing in our program. I want to share a few things with you that occurred this week that changed my thinking. My First Attempt at Using HyperDocs I was recently sent with a team from my school to my first ever Google Summit. One of the most interesting tools I learned about while there was the HyperDoc. This type of shareable, innovative document could be a Google Doc (It could also easily be a Word Document if you are using Docs.com or Office 365). The presenter was Will Kimbley (@willkimbley), and he showed us examples from his classroom content. He had placed a mixture of text, links, and even quizzes within the HyperDocs that were shared with students in Google Classroom. When learners accessed the content, they were ...

In years past, we have used the old-fashioned clipboard with a paper sign-in/ sign-out sheet to help keep track of students coming in to the library during free flow periods. A few years ago, a mentor showed me how to set up a digital sign-in/ sign-out form using Google Forms. This has been a much better way to keep track of students that come and go during the regular school day. It has also been a nice addition to our end of year report statistics. Let's take a look at how we set this up. Google Forms The first step is to create a specific Google Form for your sign-in/ sign-out form. I do this by going to Google Drive and selecting the "Google Forms" option. See the screenshot below. From Google Drive, select "New" and then "Google Forms" Selecting "Google Forms" should open a new tab with a blank Google Form. See the screenshot below. From this page, you can build your form. I named ours LHS Library Sign In 2015-2016 ...