Bradwell Institute

3:00-4:00PM
I went to Bradwell today to work more hours. When I got there, the media specialist was working on Helen Ruffin Book Club books. We discussed this for a short time and we also discussed the push for blogs in the county. I thought it would be a good idea for the book club to use this tool by creating a blog post for each of the book bowl books and having participating students discuss the book through this blog. The MS thought it was also a good idea but did not have the desire to actually do this.
Since I am teaching my staff development unit at Bradwell, we also discussed my topic, which will cover PLNs. She had never heard of the term and was curious as to what exactly it involved. I showed her my personal netvibes account and the one I am creating for my school. She also told me that she got her issue of School Library Journal the same day I emailed her and the administration about the PLN staff development and in it, there is an article that has a quote highlighted about those media specialists who don't have a PLN, attend conferences, and read cutting edge articles are holding themselves and others back. I think this really upset her - the fact that she does not have a PLN and has no idea what it even was. When I showed her what it was, she thought it looked an awful lot like the website that was just created for her media center. I tried my best to explain the differences - which include being able to create different tabs for different topics, subscribe to various RSS feeds, and keep all web materials in one centralized location. I can't wait to teach this lesson and show the rest of the staff how valuable this site is.