This blog post is about what I have learned this week while I lay around resting and recuperating (in no particular order):

• The cloud rocks. It is so much better to create files as Google docs or upload them to Google docs or use Dropbox or something other application that keeps them in the cloud rather than saving them on a server that you can only access at work. I was able to tweak timetables and keep track of my own and I was able to help with lab bookings and the like.

• Having a PLN and friends on social networks keeps you from being completely isolated while stuck at home. I was able to follow more of the great stuff being shared on Twitter and to pass on valuable links to colleagues. I participated in a meeting to choose books for the Red Dot Award via Skype. Being at home during the day meant that I had more overlapping hours to catch up with friends on the other side of the world via Skype and various chat applications (and even the – gasp – telephone once or twice).

• I ♥ my iPhone. Yes it is only a 3G model but it was perfect for quick checks of email, Facebook, Twitter and reading articles and blog posts while lying in bed too weak to sit up and hold my laptop and unable to focus long enough to read a book.

• A warm laptop feels great on your chest when you are experiencing the chills part of fever and chills.

• Lisa Patton is a fabulous MS/HS teacher-librarian (and a good friend). She sent home a stack of great YA novels to keep me busy. You can see them on my Goodreads.

• No matter how much time I have or how bored I may get, blogging and catching up on Google Reader come at the end of the list of ways I will find to amuse myself.

• If you are a teacher-librarian and you have to get sick, do it before you have put collaborative lessons plans in place.

Here’s to being well!

Margriet will be working with students at United World College of South East Asia (both Dover and East campuses) and the Canadian International School (BT and TK campuses) in Singapore this week and will also be doing presentations for parents.

Over brunch, Margriet told us stories about and from her books, such as My Librarian is a Camel.

Margriet filled us in on her upcoming trip to Mongolia and we also learned about Between the Covers, a book-lovers B&B on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia, Canada that she and her family own and run. It sounds and looks fabulous and I hope one day to visit.

In addition to being an author, Margriet is also the editor of KIDSWWWRITE: The e-zine for young authors and readers. I would like to encourage some students to submit their writing to her at some point.

Other books and authors were mentioned over the course of the visit. Here is a partial list:

Reading Magic by Mem Fox (a good book to recommend to parents about reading with their children)

Dying to Meet You by Kate Klise, illustrated by Sarah Klise – first title in a new series that will appeal to young readers (and that I’m now dying to read!)

Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt – first published in 1940 and still loved by babies today, including my nephew Grant as seen here in July 2009.

What a fabulous way to spend a Sunday morning!

Two more Margriet Ruurs links:

Margriet Ruurs fan page on Facebook

Margriet Ruurs on Twitter

We have 5-9 classes at each grade level so there is usually a morning group and an afternoon group. As a teacher-librarian, I try to be present for most of the day in order to effectively provide resources and support for the unit being planned.

I have tried only popping into QUIPs when the group is “scheduled” to discuss resources but I find I miss too many important things that come up throughout the day. That being said, there are times when I don’t need to be part of the discussion. I have started taking my iPhone to the meetings so I can at least stay on top of my work email and Twitter (we don’t have school laptops and are not allowed to access the wireless network with our personal laptops – which deserves its very own blog post someday). At our most recent round of QUIPs, I started asking the coordinators if I could jump on their computers to check the library catalog, Library Video, Titlewave and other relevant sites. On Wednesday, I also showed up with my Mac Book. Although I couldn’t use the Internet, I was able to work on my previous blog post when I wasn’t involved in the discussion.

And this brings me to the title of this post. During the session this past Wednesday, I was sitting with my laptop on my knees and my iPhone in my hand and one teacher said, “Oh, look at Megan and her toys”. While I do have a fair number of fun game type apps on my iPhone (most of which I use to amuse assorted children when I visit my brother), I wasn’t using any of them – I was working, but to this teacher, the tools I was using were just “toys”. I was a bit dumbfounded and didn’t know how to reply so I just smiled and let it slide. However, it bugged me and got me wondering about how we can work to change some people’s perception of technology as simply toys.

How do we get teachers on side and using tech with their students if they view it as playing with toys? What should I have said to this teacher?

As a PYP teacher, I have attended several IBO PYP workshops over the last few years and I now appreciate even more the workshop leadership training that the teachers who lead those workshops take part in. I have also been to other workshops of varying lengths presented by various individuals and organizations but the most have been only a day or shorter.

Registration took place in a library where there was room to mingle and then everyone sat down at the round tables. We did a quick share of who we are, our school and our position and then we moved to a computer lab. Had this been a PYP workshop, I suspect we would have had some sort of activity to get us moving and mingling prior to changing rooms – perhaps sorting ourselves along a continuum based on library experience, or how far we traveled to come to the workshop. As it was, once we were installed in the computer lab, people interacted with the people closest to them – often the ones from their school (and if me and my colleagues were typical, others online). Working with a group when everyone is behind a computer and connected to the Internet comes with its own benefits and challenges.

One element of every PYP workshop I have attended (as well as some other workshops) has been a way of recording the participants’ “burning questions/issues”. (I have seen this done primarily with chart paper and Post-it® notes but why not set up an online bulletin board at wallwisher or stixy?) The presenters review the questions posted by participants during breaks or at the end of the day and address them when the group gathers again. Presenters need not claim to have all the answers but they should answer what they can and hunt for the answers they don’t have. The later is sometimes as easy as polling the room for another participant who can share their knowledge or experience.

In our classrooms, we encourage active listening, co-construction of knowledge and plenty of time for sharing. Teachers are often a difficult audience for presenters – they frequently prefer to talk instead of listening. Opportunities to share in partners or small group or whole group can release some of the side conversations that take place. Presenters do well to have many tricks up their sleeve as good teachers – simply asking if anyone has any questions rarely elicits much reaction. Unfortunately one of our workshop presenters became argumentative (his word) when questioned about the software he was presenting. Another wished to demonstrate new and improved features of the latest version but clicked along too quickly with very little commentary and so we were unable to follow along our own library catalogs. A series of annotated screenshots and/or screencasts with voice-over might have made this easier.

One of the presenters took a stab at using web 2.0 tools and started our second day by creating an Etherpad. Unfortunately the buzz petered out when only 16 people in the room could access it at one time and not many people added to it (even the presenters had to be reminded to add links at times). I have been to workshops where the presenters have created wikis for the session but personally after the workshop, I have rarely visited them. I have also used a Google doc with a group, but we had problems with delays in changes showing up. What collaborative tools have you used successfully?

At one point, we had a PowerPoint presentation on weeding library books. This would have been a great place to introduce the Awful Library books blog for some fantastic examples and visuals. Instead we were treated to monochromatic slides of bulleted lists that the presenter read to us. I found myself falling into the horrible trap of madly trying to copy down the information and failing to get it all before the slide had changed which interfered with my listening. At the end she mentioned the URL for the PDF where much of her information had been gathered so all my mad copying was for naught anyway. (If you haven’t seen the humorous video, “How Not to Use PowerPoint”, you can watch it here.)

I have been to disappointing IB workshops and not all the good workshops I have been to have been interactive. As an example of an engaging non-participatory workshop, I attended a fabulous workshop on library design presented by Kevin Hennah at ISB in August (Kim Cofino blogged about it here). Kevin showed us hundreds of slides and talked at us for hours but for his presentation the combination of fabulous photos and interesting patter was plenty to keep me engaged. However this was definitely an exception not the rule.

What do you think are the characteristics of a good workshop presenter?