Author Archives: carriek

Reading Review #2

So, for this Reading Review post, I began with the Suggested Readings List and Bibliography. I started to read about educational trends, immigration and such. It wasn’t really hitting on my topic, Destiny Quest. So, I went into the UBC Library to search different databases and journals. After several tries, I hadn’t found much beyond how to reach my destiny and begin the quest for meaning in my life. Ha.

Next, I looked at my notes that I had jotted down from the “Google Hangout” last Tuesday, mainly suggestions from Aaron on different resources I could search out for my Destiny Quest topic. I decided to go ahead and started exploring the following sites:

Destiny Quest Community Space: https://www.follettcommunity.com/

I logged into my school site and registered myself in the Follett Community site. I really had no idea what I was looking for, but clicked on the first link, “Bookmark Challenge.” I was thinking, “Ok, so we are supposed to research sites and bookmark them and then win something?” No, the challenge is to actually make bookmarks (yes, paper and mactac ones). I thought, “Hey, I am already doing that in my library, students come in in their spare time and make bookmarks. Wow, I can do this!”

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/

My sister forced me to sign up a year ago (same way I got a Facebook account) but I have never used it. When I tried a couple of times, I was confused. So this time, I googled “how to use Pinterest” and took the time to read the first couple of paragraphs. I went back into my account and entered the words Follett Destiny Quest. I was blown away by how many different resources that I found, from how to add a book trailer to teaching students to write reviews to making the most of your library’s ebook collection. This is definitely a site I will use again!

Twitter: http://twitter.com/

Yes, it is true, I hadn’t been on twitter before. So, I went into the account that I created for Libe 477 and entered the same search words and ended up following my first account, called Classroom 2.0. So, one more new resource for me! Libe 477 has forced me to add gmail, twitter, a blog, digg reader and pinterest! For twitter, Aaron’s suggestion is to just dive in, so that’s what I’m doing!

Blogs: https://indiancreeklibrary.wordpress.com/tag/destiny-quest/

I haven’t followed a blog before and wasn’t sure how to do it. Aaron suggested googling blog wordpress destiny quest. So I tried that and instantly found a blog to follow from an elementary librarian who posts lots of items on integrating Destiny Quest in her library. I added her for email updates but then I saw that I could also add her on twitter, so I did that also.

Instagram

Welcome to my blog: LIBE 477.

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Assignment #1: Reading Review Blog Post #1 (Issue, Interest, or Opportunity Identification and Key Word Generator)

When thinking about my current teaching situation, I have one topic that is clogging my brain at this moment: utilizing my new Destiny Quest online catalogue in my elementary library. I have been using this OPAC for two weeks now and had about one hour of training before it was installed in my library. Each day is a matter of survival with my classes, as I am learning to use the system right along with my students. My goal is to learn all of its features and thus assist students in accessing the information they need to become savvy 21st century literate learners!

This is going to sounds soooooo basic, but since I know virtually nothing about my new OPAC, I just decided to google “how to use Destiny Quest in elementary library.” After trying a few hits, I stumbled upon a YouTube video called Destiny Quest Tutorial. It was super basic, but just went over how to show students how to search for books, create resource lists, and find the items they want in the library. I decided that rather than try and teach my students (the blind leading the blind), I would show them this YouTube clip and have the students get proper instruction to begin with. I emailed the link to my work and am going to show the clip on Monday to my Intermediate classes.

Through some literature searches, I want to read about other teacher librarians’ experiences with Destiny Quest, what works and what doesn’t. I want to find out how to add Titlewave, how to catalogue properly, how to motivate students to write book reviews and recommendations, how to create book lists for each teacher’s current research project, how to teach students to find the resources they are searching for, etc. In short, I want to make our library an even better place than it already is by bringing it into the homes of our students and their families.