Online Book Communites

I am learning so much this semester!  It honestly makes me feel a little old and out of touch with technology.  Before this week, I did not know online book communities existed.  I am going to blame this on my lack of time to explore things in my "free time", which does not exist.  That makes it a little easier to take, right??? 

Online book communities is now one of my favorite things.  It is a place to track your reading, including what you want to read.  I was fortunate enough to explore 5 different sites that offer a range of options.  They were all good sites, but there were special features that I liked more than others.  As always, ease of use is a must for me, a mommy to twins with little to know free time.  As you read my opinions, please keep in mind that I teach at an elementary and my heart belongs there.  I like to say that I see everything through the eyes of my little people that I teach everyday.  Do not let that sway you if your heart belongs in secondary.  Some of these are great for you too!

1.  Good Reads

I like the look of the interface for this site.  It is very easy to add books to your shelves.  Not only can you add it, but you can instantly choose which shelf to put it in without having to go to a separate page.  Another feature that I like is that it offers suggestions when typing.  This is a great feature that can cut some time off searching for things.  It does allow you to import books from other web pages or files, which is a great idea when changing communities.  That way you don't have to redo everything you've already done.  The one thing I did not like was that it was difficult to find my friends.  It wants you to connect with Facebook, email or Twitter.  Personally, I don't like to interconnect my accounts and wish the search feature would be a little more user friendly.  This is a great site to use for high school or adults.  I do not think it appropriate for early teenagers and elementary aged children. 
Here is what it looks like if you are interested.

2.  Library Thing

This particular is very buy and not as appealing to me.  However, you can add books to your shelves very quickly and import other lists you may have from Amazon, Goodreads, etc.  Some advantages include the tabs that are located across the top of the page.  One tab, Local, allows you to see local venues and libraries.  You can also find special local events by date, such as author visits or classes offered at the library.  The Groups tab offers many suggestions for thousands of groups.  Some of the ones I liked were Read Young Adults and 1001 Books Before You Die.  A definite disadvantage is that it does not offer suggestions when typing.  That is a feature that I miss dearly.  I would recommend this site to older teenagers and adults.  I believe it would be a little difficult to navigate around as a young teenager. 

3.  Shelfari

First of all, how cool and catchy is that name? Shelfari?  Powered by Amazon, this is a pretty easy to maneuver site.  Because of this, you do not have to create a new username/password.  You simply use your Amazon account to login.  In a world of one thousand different usernames and passwords, this is definitely an advantage to me!  I loved the way the shelves looked and lined up the books.  I appreciate this look much more than a boring list of titles.  Not sure if it was my Internet connection or the site, but it was extremely slow when I used it, even on different days.  Another advantage is the suggested typing, which is a must have to me.  It allows you to set goals and collects your reading statistics, which is great idea.  I believe that middle school aged and up students could benefit from using this site to track their progress and what they want to read.  It is still a little too advanced for elementary aged students. 

4.  Booklikes

The homepage for Booklikes reminds me a lot of Tumblr.  It looks like a blog roll, but you can add your own text, quotes, photos, videos, or URL's.  Using this site, it was very easy to add books to my shelves.  The one thing that I did not like was that there were no typing suggestions when adding books.  The thing I like the most about it is that it puts them into a blog for you.  The blog looks awesome with books sitting on the shelves.  The blog itself reminds me of the look of Pinterest, with followers and following.  The blog is very customizable, allowing you to choose backgrounds, themes, and much more.  This site is definitely user friendly and I could see 4th graders on up using it.  I might give it a try with own kids.  They would definitely love to see their reading progress and timeline on a cool shelf!  Do you like the look of this as much as I do?  It is still a work in progress, but I am liking it!

5.  Biblionasium

As an elementary teacher, I LOVE this site and everything about it!  It is a great way to connect with students and parents outside of school.  The interface is extremely appealing and easy to use.  As a teacher, you can assign required readings, recommendations and your favorites.  There is even a tab for Classroom Wish List, which allows parents to purchase books from Amazon, with the click of a button taking you there.  Students can review books and write recommendations.  This feature makes this site interactive and that is a plus.  The resources page is top notch with many suggestions for articles, useful websites, parent connections, and so much more.  Some disadvantages are that it does not offer typing suggestions and you are not able to load the shelves as quickly as some of the other sites.  It will take some planning time to load your students into the database, but I think it is worth it!  You will be able to run reports and see what your students are reading quickly.  I wonder if it can somehow "talk" to Accelerated Reader and merge the books that students take comprehension tests on so that they are not having to enter their data twice. That would be the one feature that would make this site extremely valuable in my eyes.  Although, not all schools use AR, so I am not sure if it is worth it to the company.

How do you like the look of it?  I love the color scheme.  It is so inviting for children!

As a teacher, I like Biblionasium the best and will continue to use it.  It is very user friendly and pleasing to the eyes.  Not only is it a shelf for books, but it is a way to stay connected at home, which is an important part of teaching that many struggle with.  As I said before, it will be a little extra work on the front end, but it will produce so much more, making it well worth it.  My students will love using this at school and at home.  I can see this being something that they get addicted to and their parents telling them over and over again to turn it off.  When it comes to educational things, those statements make my heart happy.

As an adult, I will continue to use Booklikes.  It is very appealing to me because of the look and blog aspect.  I really like how easy you can add books and change the shelf arrangement.  I am going to keep working on this site to see if I can get my list somewhat updated.  I just hope I make the time to do it. 

Did you notice the screenshots with arrows and extra text?  That is a new software that I learned called SKITCH. It is a simple download and free.  SKITCH allows you to draw out the area you want to take a screenshot of and add text, arrows, highlight, blackout, crop, and add shapes.  I can't believe that I have not used this before.  I cannot wait to introduce this to my students.  The possibilities are endless with this! 

Podcasts

Since being in graduate school I have learned so many new pieces of technology.  There are things that I never new really existed.  That either makes me really old or not so tech savvy, but I do not feel like either of those things!  Technology is constantly changing, therefore, we must be constantly learning, which matches my teaching philosophy perfectly: growing life long learners.

Podcasts are something new to me.  I have created one last semester to introduce myself to the class.  I thought it was an interesting way to get to know people without "meeting" them face to face.  They remind of tv on the radio, from way back before my time.  There is not a visual, but rather an audio recording giving you information.

I signed up for Sound Cloud and Podomatic.  We did not have a great internet connection and Sound Cloud was the app that was working the best at school.  I will never understand how the connection in a school can be so spotty, but it is something we have learned to deal with.  It was fairly easy to record and save the Podcast.  Then, I was able to log in on the computer, add a picture, and get the link to embed it into Blogger.  The process was painless and took no time at all.  I think my students could do all of it themselves after some direction.

I chose to record one of my sweet girls giving a book summary/review for one of her favorite books.  We had a great time making the recording, and all the other students are very excited to make their own now too.  I cannot wait to set this up as one of our reading stations and see what they come up with!  I think she will make you want to read this book too.  I wish you could have seen her expression as she was talking.  She was truly speaking from the heart about this book.



Podcasts are a great tool to use in the classroom and in the library.  I definitely plan to let my students use this for book reviews and even to teach each other how to do things, such as the steps to solve a 3 digit addition problem.  They could even record themselves reading a picture book and we could share it with our kindergarten buddy class so the students could "listen" to the story when we are not able to be there.  In the library, Podcasts would be great for tutorials on how to use databases or find just the right book.  I love the idea of interviewing students for book recommendations or for just plain book talks.  The possibilities are endless and if you love to talk, but not in front of people, then this is the right choice for you!  It really does take the pressure away since people cannot see you.  You are able to speak freely and from the heart.

A special thanks to "Brooke" for helping me out with this Podcast, and of course, her mom for giving me permission!

Videos and QR Codes in the Library

YouTube can be a powerful tool, however, being a mother of young children, I am always a little leery of it.  Some of the content can be completely unacceptable.  Although, once I learned how to turn safe search ON, it is very useful for people of all ages.

Librarians all around the country are using YouTube in many ways to promote the library, teach mini-lessons or to create cute/funny videos about overdue books.  Check out some of my favorite videos from different library Channels.


The first channel I looked at was Norman High School Library


One of the most helpful videos I saw was How to use EBSCO Host.  The narrator takes you through a step by step process of how to search and narrow your search using this database.  She also discusses how to complete the search from home, which is very beneficial to students.

This next video is a student favorite, with more than 1,000 views!  It includes students and teachers, dancing and singing The Dark Lord Funk (Uptown Funk tune).  It is pretty entertaining and you find yourself singing along with it!

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The second channel I explored was The Unquiet Library, which is administered by Buffy Hamilton, the Library and Media Specialist at Creekview High School.

I chose this first video as the most helpful to students because finding images that are licensed to use is difficult to do.  Actually, before my MLS classes, I never thought about it being a copyright issue to use images that I found.  This is a great way for students to learn how to find appropriate images.

This next video is a new concept to me and I think it's a great idea!  They bring the library to the students, via a cart with wheels, and students can check out books while they eat.  This is a great option, as some kids don't like to actually go to the library.  In high school, I was one of those kids.  For whatever reason, which I think was the scary librarian, I did my best to avoid it.  I think students would like this video because it gives them choices and options for checking out books.

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Pikesville High School Library is the third channel I viewed.  

The video that I think is most helpful to students is about Course Advisement.  It lets students know exactly what they need for the upcoming school year and graduation requirements.

Pikesville High School Library enjoys videoing students while singing and dancing.  I think students would enjoy watching this next video because it highlights Hip Hop Day and Black History Month.  It looks like they had a lot of fun on this day in the library.  Their library is definitely not a "quiet zone" all the time, and that is something that inspires me.

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The last channel is Bonnie Branch Middle School.  This is my FAVORITE channel so far!  It includes some tutorials, for students and teachers, and many parodies made by students for different reasons, such as overdue books.  I found this channel entertaining!

The Online Career Resources video would be the most helpful to students.  The librarian walks students through the steps of how to use the online resources that are available when doing research.

I love the Bring Them Back Overdue Library Book Parody.  They use the song "Let it go" from Frozen.  Primary elementary students would really enjoy this video.  What a great way to start a lesson about returning books, especially if it has been an issue in your library.

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Wow, I never knew the possibilities with YouTube and the school library!  This was interesting and exciting to research.  I cannot wait to try some of these ideas out.  I imagine that some of these videos encouraged other students to come to the library, if even just to explore the options to make videos.  The first step is to get the students to come!  I would love to have students create videos for book reviews/book trailers.  As the librarian, I would make mini-lessons for how-to's in the library, directly geared towards helping teachers.  

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I have used Animoto several times as a teacher.  I usually take our field trip pictures to create videos for my students.  It is something that they cherish.  The one thing that is a negative for Animoto is that when you sign up for the free educator plan, your video can only be 30 seconds long.  That is much time for anything.  

I did enjoy creating this book trailer for Shiloh.  This is a book that I use yearly with my 3rd grade students.  

When Marty Preston comes across a young beagle in the hills behind his home, it's love at first sight—and also big trouble. It turns out the dog, which Marty names Shiloh, belongs to Judd Travers, who drinks too much and has a gun—and abuses his dogs. So when Shiloh runs away from Judd to Marty, Marty just has to hide him and protect him from Judd. But Marty's secret becomes too big for him to keep to himself, and it exposes his entire family to Judd's anger. How far will Marty have to go to make Shiloh his?

View the Book Trailer by scanning the QR Code below!  Hope you enjoy it!

With QR codes, the possibilities are endless, whether in a classroom or the library.  After some research, I found that many librarians use them for various reasons.  These are some of my favorites that I plan to use in my own library:

I love this idea from The Brown Bag Teacher.  She created research mats for her 1st graders that were researching Penguins.  Each QR code took the students to different websites, that were appropriate, that discussed penguin facts and videos.

The Daring Librarian uses a scavenger hunt for her middle school students.  This could easily be adapted for elementary aged students and they would love it!  Who doesn't love a good old scavenger hunt?!  It is a great way to learn your way around the library.  She also created a slideshow with all of her ideas of how she uses QR codes in her library and around the school.  Check the slideshow out here.

One idea was to create book trailers for the current Bluebonnet Books.  I love this and think that it could really help promote these award winning books.

Teaching like it's 2999 has some great ideas of how to create and display student work in the form of a QR Code.  She also uses them to create interactive libraries by genre.  These were some new ideas to me, but definitely worth a try!

One last way that I am going to use for sure is to create book trailers, reviews and read alouds with QR codes.  They are a great way to get students involved in lessons and motivated to want to learn and do more.  

You should try them out.  They are so easy to create for everyday use in a school!