Feed Readers and Blogs

This was my first time ever hearing about a feed reader, and I am happy to say that I enjoyed it immensely! A feed reader, for those like me who had no clue they existed, is an app that can be used to help you stay up to date with all the blogs you follow; it holds all of them in one place so that you can easily browse through them without having to open and close different browsers. The feed reader I chose was NewsBlur because of how it allows you to create folders for your different blogs.

Pros:

• Has folders that you can customize for your needs
• Allows you to add blogs easily through their URL
• User friendly
• Easy to delete blogs added to wrong folders

Cons:

• I had trouble maneuvering while using my mac when it came to creating an account and choosing blogs that are preselected by NewsBlur, so this was a con for me, but for others it might not even be an issue. 

In the end, I chose NewsBlur because I felt that it was very simple to use, and it saved me time when it came to adding sites and viewing my saved blogs. There are other feed readers, but not all are free, most are not costly, so I am sure you will find one that fits your needs. 

Here are a few blogs I chose to follow:

1. Tays Junior High Library Blog: https://k0401955.edublogs.org  The reason I chose to follow them is because I am a middle school teacher, so I feel that a lot of the content they add is helpful to me and my students. They also share great ideas that can be implemented into the library.   

    2.  Tompkins High School Library Blog: https://tompkinslibrary.edublogs.org. Tompkins High School Library is another great resource to follow if you are looking for ideas to try out in your library. It shows activities such as Blind Date with a Book, ebook reading contests, and bracket contests that can be used in other libraries as well. 

3. The Library Thing Blog: http://blog.librarything.com/main. The reason I chose to follow The Library Thing's blog is because it shares great book reviews and who doesn't love hearing about new books?? :)

4. Literacy Station Inspiration: http://www.literacystationinspiration.com/. This blog is a great teaching resource because it shares both lessons and handouts that can be used when planning as well as shares websites that can be used when you are looking for new curriculum or technology for your classroom. 

5. School Library Displays Blog: http://schoollibrarydisplays.blogspot.com/. This is a fun blog to follow because it gives you great ideas for book displays. I always love seeing how to incorporate new displays in the library, so this is a great resource to add if you like the same thing!

One more thing, follow me on Tumblr! 

https://kra024.tumblr.com  

Using Facebook and Twitter in Libraries

     When looking into how social media and technology is used in libraries, I ran across a few examples that I found to be very enlightening and inspiring. Since I am from a small school district, only 6 campuses, I realized how much more we can do to help promote technology and literacy with the use of social media. One example that left me feeling inspired was from Albany High School Library. They use Facebook to promote and suggest books to students, give information about goings-on in the library, and share links and ideas that can be used in the classroom.

     Although these suggestions are helpful and look to be authentically made for the students by the librarian, the actual  page only has about 29 viewers. I believe that it is a good resource to use, but some could say that a library webpage will also do the trick. 

     Another example of Facebook being used is Parkview Middle School Library. The majority of this  webpage is used to promote books to students based on their likes. They do include links to other webpages, which are used to help engage students and be a fun way to see what else is out there, but it also only has about 23 viewers in total. 

    From what I have seen between these two libraries here are some pros and cons:

Pros- 

1. Promote library programs and events
2. Share popular or newly acquired books
3. Share links and pages students may like
4. Give teachers ideas, examples, technology apps
5. Post quickly 24/7

Cons- 

1. Can be similar to the library webpage, so many may not follow
2. Smaller districts may not have access to 1:1 ratio of technology to use with students
3. Posts/ comments from others are added without needing a mediator 

    In addition to Facebook, Twitter is taking the education world by storm and the following are some examples of how Twitter is beneficial to libraries based on what they can learn from other library leaders. 

    If librarians use Twitter they are able to share links to helpful or interesting websites that multiple people can view. For example, I loved how in the Young Adult Library Services Association share one such tool that I didn't know about before:

   Being able to learn from others has never been easier because a tweet is something concise and can be quickly saved to view again. Another link I found interesting was the following one regarding MakerSpaces. Adding a MakerSpace to our campus has been something that the librarian and I have been wanting to do, and hopefully with these ideas we can begin adding them soon!

     In addition to YALSA, I found two library leaders, Jim Lerman and Kathy Schrock, who I felt helped share wonderful resources that I didn't have access to before. It is very helpful to see who these leaders, in addition to others, follow in order to help build up our knowledge and resources. Here are a few posts of theres that I enjoyed reading on:

  This post above is great for reflection on what we do in our classrooms, and what else we can add to them. 

   The following posts that both Lerman and Schlock shared show topics that I am interested in incorporating in my campus, and it is great to see what resources and ideas they share when it comes to these ideas: 

     Ultimately what I learned from this experience was that Facebook and Twitter have a lot to offer in our profession. It may be a little nerve-wrecking at first to try something new, but in the long run it will benefit our students in becoming creative and collaborating individuals. Plus, they showed me that it is okay to play around with new ideas in order to become a life-long learner. 

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

 Aveyard, V. (2015). Red queen. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

Mare Barrows lives in a divided world. Depending on the color of your blood, red or silver, you are given a place in society. If you are red-blooded you are treated like a slave and made to work like one too, and if you are silver-blooded you are considered royal and most likely have a special-power that sets you apart from the red-bloods (telekinesis, water control, superhuman strength, swiftness, and bend nature). Mare is a master thief and does so to help her family survive. When her best-friend, Kilorn, is told that he will be serving in the army she tries to help him escape, but to do so she needs to come up with a lot of money.  She resorts to pick-pocketing and ends up stealing from the kingdom's Prince Cal. He in turn does give her money, but to prevent her from being put in the army as well he has her taken to the castle to work. While there she finds out she has the power to conjure electricity from her body and is made to look as if she were in fact a silver-blood who was raised by the red-bloods, but that isn't so. She is a special kind of person, and war ensues as the red and silver-bloods try to over-power the other. As the feelings of love come in, Mare has to find a way to overthrow the silver-bloods before they decimate everything she has ever known and loved. In the end, she and Cal and a few special-blooded people seek a way to find Maven, Cal's half brother, who is planning to overtake the reign and kill all who get in his way.

Mare's story has a lot of adventure and deceit in it that can make students from middle school and above addicted to finding out the outcome of this saga. The themes that are included are of course society, social-class, slavery, friendships, and monarchies. Teachers will be able to use this novel in comparison to multiple events that have taken place in history and can answer the ultimate questions: does history repeat itself?

I rate this book a 5 out of 5 stars!

Jackaby by William Ritter

 Ritter, W. (2014). Jackaby. New York, NY: Scholastic.

Abigail Rock has just set sail for New Fiddleham and is looking for a job and a place to stay. What she finds though, is something unimaginable: R.F. Jackaby. He is a private investigator in search of a new assistant, but he is a little out of the ordinary. He claims to be able to see things which others cannot, and has become a nuisance to the police force, that is all except detective Charlie Cane. While Jackaby sees things that lead him to believe they have a supernatural serial killer, this all because of a banshee he sees at the scene of the recent crime, they are still escorted out and hope to find the next victim before the killer does. They are constantly on the search, but arrive a little to late to each one and cannot save them, and the commissioner, Commissioner Swift, finally sees that Jackaby may be the only hope left for the case. When it comes time to confront the killer, with a large police force backing them, Charlie turns into a beast and is thought to be the killer until Abigail runs into the Commissioner who in turn also morphs and shows that he is actually a goblin. He injures both Charlie and Abigail, but they are saved by Jackaby. Charlie is unfortunately not reinstated to their force, but is forced to assume a new position, so it leaves Abigail and Jackaby alone for whatever adventure comes next.

This book was filled with exciting twists and turns, both real and supernatural, and one cannot help but fall in love with what Ritter has included in the novel. I believe that students from middle school and up will enjoy this novel because of the thrill and suspense it leaves you in looking for the killer. Teachers can include this novel to discuss plot, inferencing, myths, and characterization.

I rate this book a 5 out of 5 stars!

 

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

 Smith, A. (2014). Grasshopper jungle: A history. New York, NY: Dutton Books.

Austin Szerba lives in an uneventful town named Ealing, Iowa; the only thing that is remotely entertaining there is an old mall that has been used by Austin and his friend Robby as a skate park.  Unfortunately, it isn't only occupied by Austin and Robby, but also by a few bullies who beat up Robby and leave some of his blood on the strip mall ground and some of their belongings on the mall roof. When Austin, Robby and Austin's girlfriend Shann go to reclaim their belongings they go into a store that has a lot of abandoned creatures in weird jars that once shattered begin to form into very dangerous, and horny, praying mantis. When Shann finds a secret message in her room, they all go to a bunker that protects humans unaffected by the outbreak. They find a few tapes regarding the outbreak, but are missing some, so Austin and Robby are sent to go and find them. Through the tapes they discover that they can stop the creatures through Robby's blood, since it was his blood from the mall that created the, but when they go onto extracting it and putting them in paint-balls they discover that it is too late for them, the praying mantis' have repopulated. They are stuck underground and only leave during winter months to search for resources. 

This novel is an extremely interesting sci-fi apocalyptic journey into the unknown. I believe that many students will enjoy the adventure they are thrown into in the hopes that Ealing can be saved. There are some themes that would need to be addressed in this novel such as the sexual desires felt by Austin, but this is something that can be shared with students in high school rather than middle school and under. 

I rate this book a 4 out of 5 stars!