TxLA recap

This is my library bling. I can't tell you how many people had comments that weren't always meant to be complimentary about how many tags I had hanging from my badge. Most all of those hadn't even bothered to pick up their district tag. I'm not judging. Frankly I don't like to wear things around my neck.

But maybe, next time, ask about what the tags mean. You might just find some really awesome group you'd not considered being involved in.

There will be more pictures soon. I got some ARCs signed, had dinner with some fascinating authors, and managed to have a few pictures snapped with them. It was wonderful!

The best part, though, was coming home and giving one of my students an ARC I'd had signed for her. She's a READER. Big time. BIG TIME. I was able to snag an ARC of Fragile Eternity, Melissa Marr's sequel to Wicked Lovely. I got the biggest hug and a load of questions about being a librarian from her. Makes my year!

Really nice presentation on techy ideas.



Teresa Schauer, Pettus ISD's district librarian shared it on LM_Net today. Pettus ISD's Library's can be found at http://www.pettuslibrary.net/ . She and her students blog book reviews, too!

If you're like me, you're staying home for Spring Break this year. (I say that like I ever go anywhere for Spring Break.) BUT, that doesn't mean that you have to spend the days wishing it warmer (mid-70s just doesn't do it when the pool is still in the low 60s) and watching daytime TV.

**Note, all of the sites below are relatively local to Angleton/Houston. Except for the Bluebell Creamery, which is just seriously worth the trip for fresh Tin Roof Ice Cream.

George Ranch Historical Park http://www.georgeranch.org/
Where cattle and cotton are king!

Brazos Bend State Park http://www.brazosbend.org/
Alligators, trails, picnics…

George Observatory http://www.hmns.org/see_do/george_observatory.asp
Inspire the astronomer in you.

Kemah Boardwalk http://www.kemahboardwalk.com/flash_content/flash_content.html
Almost everything has reopened since Ike came through. More things opening and re-opening all month.

Bluebell Creameries http://www.bluebell.com/home.aspx
I shouldn’t have to explain why you should visit this one. You can also get the required pictures of children in bluebonnets as you travel 290.

Forbidden Gardens http://www.forbidden-gardens.com/
Outdoor replica of some of China’s famous historic scenes, located in Katy.

Houston Museum District http://www.houstonmuseumdistrict.org/default.asp?id=1
I’ve always loved visiting museums—from the Museum of Natural Science to the Museum of Fine Arts. If I had kids, we’d play at the Children’s Museum all the time.

Bayou Wildlife Park http://www.bayouwildlifepark.com/
Over in Alvin, see the giraffes (my favorites!), llamas, rhinos, goats..you name it. From 35, turn on 517, like you’re heading to Dickinson.

What I've been doing lately...

SO..I've been looking around lately at different websites. I look for things that have an education bend to them. Or could be educational. I am, afterall, in a school library and my #2 job is to support my teachers. (If I have to explain my #1 job, well.)

Every so often, I put together a page or 2 of sites that I think can be really useful. Today, I'm going to cheat and give you my most recent "Sites to See."

Free Technology for Teachers Great blog with lots of good information. Just browsing it turned on my brain. This one an Edublogs 2008 award for “Best Resource Sharing Blog”.

Webspiration If you’ve used Inspiration or Kidspiration mind-mapping/graphic organizer software, you’ll quickly see how neat this is. It’s just Inspiration online, making it easy to work on something at home or have students work on something and send it to you. Better still, it’s FREE right now because it's still in beta-mode. (Inspiration is $69 for one computer, which means you either buy 2 copies OR you choose to only use it at home or only at school).

Chemistry Comes Alive Video collection of chemistry demonstrations from the Journal of Chemical Education. Chemistry stuff is one of my personal guilty pleasures (which makes me sound like a nerd..I need new guilty pleasures.) and this collection of videos has some violent reactions.

Perry-Castaneda Library Map Collection (from the UT-Austin Library) Digital collection of maps available and links out to other places to find maps. Many are interactive.

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This last one doesn't really have a lot to do with anything we do on my campus, educationally. However, we are at the top of a weight loss challenge on our campus. The winning team gets money at the end. Well, I know I have no discipline for stuff like this. I like food too much, and have more than once found myself finishing off a can of Pringles I just opened but not really remembering eating them (I guess the old saying is true, you know.."once you pop, you can stop").

Anyway, this LiveStrong.com partner site is pretty neat. With a few bits of info, it told me how many calories I should be eating to lose my goal of 2 pounds per week. THEN, I can chart every bite I take and every calorie over and above my daily routine that burn (I believe that's called "exercise"). I did share it with my co-workers in this week's "Sites to See."

The Daily Plate
My friend, Bryan, a trainer in another life, turned me on to this site. It’s really REALLY helping me with this diet thing. Check it out. I’ll even let you look at my info you want.

30D2BBB Challenge--Days 7-10

So, last night I blew threw several of the challenges. Here's a recap:

Day 7: Invite Someone to be a Guest Blogger.
I talked to a friend of mine who is a mid-thirties undergrad college student. He tried this once before, after graduating from high school. The integration of technology has seriously changed education from his perspective. He's completing finals this week, so he'll post later on.

Day 8: Comment Unto Others
Oh, this isn't difficult! I do this A LOT. Especially with our 2.0 Challenge going on.

Day 9: Burn Baby Burn!
Alrighty..got my feed set up..it's over there in the sidebar.

Day 10: Do you see what they see?
I did look at things in several different ways. I use Firefox at home, because it seems like my stuff works on Firefox when it won't in IE7. I've never looked at this one in IE6, but then I don't have easy access to that without doing some reverting. Things look a little off sometimes, but I have a pretty basic template, so I'm alright with that.

I know I shouldn't have blown through 4 days worth of stuff so quickly. Kind of defeats the purpose of being a better blogger. Does it help at all to know that I spent 4 hours looking at these things?