Images and Citations

When I decided to take the plunge and apply for the Library Studies Program, I realized that unlike the last time I was in a graduate program which was focused entirely on English for grades 6-12, this time around, I would need to think about ALL grade levels and how I could potentially teach lessons to enhance ANY content area. With that in mind, I decided to focus my image search on the Dewey Decimal System, as that is something that is frequently taught in the elementary grade levels and helps with research in all content areas. In looking for an image that showed the Dewey Decimal System with a creative commons license, I found this poster on TeacherTube that I felt could be a good resource in the future because the simple and easy-to-identify images that are associated with each category.

Appleton, M. (2011). Dewey decimal system poster [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/appletonmaggie/5907672591. CC by SA

Image Creation Tools

There are a variety of image creation tools that are beneficial for instruction in the library. As teacher-librarians, we can use these tools to enhance our curriculum, as well as the curriculum as others in our building, and have students use the tools to increase their comprehension of what is taught and show their creativity. Three tools that I really liked are as follows:

Big Huge Labs: I really enjoyed playing around on Big HugeLabs, especially with creating your own motivational poster and movie poster. I immediately started thinking about how I could use this in my current classroom and in my future library. I thought it would be really fun for students to create posters motivating others on the importance of reading (as I did below), citing their sources, etc. and then to display them around the library. Students could also create movie posters for books they have read, either independently or for class. These tools could offer a fun way to not only display student-generated “art” in the library (or classroom!), but also to use a bit of peer pressure in influencing students to read.

Care, N. (2015). books-door-entrance-italy-colors-1655783 [Image]. Retrieved
from https://pixabay.com/en/books-door-entrance-italy-colors-1655783. CC0

Foldplay: Foldplay is a more creation-based website and students could use the Foldbook feature to create their own storybooks using eight different pictures and one piece of paper. This tool could be used for students to have a more hands-on activity that relates to the creation of a book and could allow students to either become the author of their own stories or re-create a story they love, sort of like an adaptation of fan-fiction.

PicMonkey: I use PicMonkey a lot in personal life (my mom gets a monthly picture collage of my daughter to use as her desktop background), but one way I think it could be used with students in the library is to create photo collages that feature the students reading, either just for fun or as part of a school-wide event. For instance, many schools celebrate Read Across America Day every year and utilizing PicMonkey could be a fun way to include numerous pictures in one space for a school or class newsletter home highlighting some of the in-school or in-class ways students celebrated. While this is a more teacher-based way to use PicMonkey, students could also use it to edit pictures they have taken to enhance reading projects or journalism-based assignments, such as for Yearbook or Newspaper, to show percentages in a more image-based way.

Introduction: Design and Font Choices

My husband helped me to come up with the name for this blog, as he claims I tend to ramble when discussing the books I love, and because of that, "Ramblings of a Bibliophile" was born. I also wanted to ensure that the title would work even after my coursework was complete, should I choose to continue writing in a blog format.

Due to the nature of a bibliophile, I chose the bookshelf template as my background, as it relates to my current field of study, as well as my interest in books as a whole. As for my font choices, I decided upon the font type Garamond, as it is what I use in my everyday life at work (on all emails and typed documents), and is described by Garr Reynolds as "classic elegance, mature without being stuffy" in Presentation Zen Design (2014, p. 40), a description that I would love to describe myself in my personal life. By having the same font type for my post title, date of post, and post text, it allows for readability, simplicity, and continuity. However, I chose to use a different font for the blog title in order to create a more dynamic harmony and heirarchy (p. 43). To do so, I chose a font that differed from Garamond and settled upon Homemade Apple. Whereas the Garamond font is an older-style serif typeface, Homemade Apple adds diversity due to its more hand drawn, cursive script.

In trying one of the sandbox tools, I opted for the word cloud, as it is something I do not utilize frequently in the classroom. The word cloud is based on the Harry Potter series, which is my absolute favorite series and one I reference frequently as examples in my teaching. As I have used Wordle before, I wanted to try something new and opted for Word Art, which I have seen used, but I have never used it. After doing this, I want to make EVERYTHING into word art; it is so fun!!!

Reynolds, G. (2014). Presentation zen design: A simple visual approah to presenting in today's world (2nd ed.). Berkley, CA: New Riders.