Ok, this is random, but at the hangout tonight, I said I liked Instagram. So Aaron asked me to show the my latest photo I posted this morning. Post called, “This is where I live.”

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.