As a child in upper elementary I was the kind of reader who read what was required of me in school and I read at a very rapid rate so it was a quick read for me I did not linger in the pages of any books. I did not love books until I read " A Wrinkle in Time" at the time I had no idea why this book changed my desire to read but now I understand why. It is a creative endeavor with bits of tech and great deep rich writing work. LOVE it!
I even spent a summer after this working in the local library in the Children's Section in a Library Volunteer program, organizing books, checking out books to the little ones, keeping the crayons bins full, hanging up coloring pages and most importantly my grandmother had to walk me over to the library at least 3 times a week and I got to stay 3 hours a day. The seeds of a Geek were being planted.
What changed I used the library in college but nearly as much as in elementary and middle school then as I went into my Masters program I literally never sit foot in a library by this time the internet was fully functional
(no more crazy dial up sound) I really did not need it to do my research in a library. During my reading fellowship I fell in love with Amazon prime and my kindle app on my ipad it worked well to gather literature for research
. Game Changer! The only time I spent time with books was in the local book store. My own children love the book store and in fact we really did not have library cards for many years.
So, Where did the library go? I started to ask and especially after learning about the amazing Augmented Reality book " The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore." Hear is a quick look at it, the app by itself is fun but when you lay your ipad camera over the book the words are read aloud by an amazing voice actor and the book comes alive!
http://youtu.be/nmxuhGF1yj8
I thought about what would the new library of 2014 look like. I thought of course students will be creating AR or QR recommendations of books for other readers
(The Brown Bag Teacher has a great post on this), chromebooks, ipads etc...
Wait! Why am I not using the library in a 2014 way?
So, I did a search to find my local library. I know they have audio books but I am not going to have some CD's in my cars and then drive them back to the library when they are
due (or knowing my schedule late and then I owe the library 27 cents)
Seriously! To my surprise my local library uses Overdrive an audiobook reader. WHAT!
I browsed their selection not bad not bad.
I put some books on hold. Then downloaded the app on my laptop and ipad/iphone. Then I found and ebook I wanted and guess what wait for it wait for it. I borrowed it using the kindle app and straight to my ipad it went. Holy Moly Gucamole!
I know none of this is new stuff but this is the first time I have had time to link and set all this up I feel like a 21st Century human. Of course it does not have everything I need but Amazon prime , kindle, Overdrive and my library together make an excellent combination.
Now, back to the classroom how and what will this be good for????
I have a fifth grade class working on Maniac Magee, so I downloaded it in my Overdrive and I thought what power this gives me as a teacher. When I am doing a read aloud I can embed stopping points and model, replay key points use Close Reading strategies more authentically because I am able to focus on words in the text and not reading the text so my students are engaged and understanding. I can roam the room and take notes. Possibly posting these on
Padlet or
Murraly then share this on
Edmodo for future collaboration along with my students. This thought was inspired by a
Around the Kampfire blogpost about Anchor Charts. Well, the possibilities are endless but I feel great because I have found the Library? Where oh where did the library go? Well I had to wait for it............. wait for it....... until they caught up with the digital age but the certainly have done so. So, I welcome you back library I hope we will not lose touch again. K.I.T.
