Thing 1: Blogging & Welcome!

Hello All! 

First a short introduction.  My name is Katelynn Ingham.  I am thrilled to call myself the new high school librarian at Columbia High School in the East Greenbush Central School District.  I graduated from SUNY Oneonta with a B.S. degree in Childhood Education and then went on to obtain my M.S.I.S. from SUNY Albany.  With this being my first teaching position, I look forward to learn all that I can and collaborate with others to expand my learning network.  My hope is that by participating in Cool Tools I will be able to share what I have learned with my fellow librarians and the entire school community.  

This is my first time participating in Cool Tools.  I am excited to learn more about new and exciting web 2.0 tools to help my school community become more tech savvy.  I have always been somewhat interested in blogging and how it can help students, teachers, parents and administrators stay more connected.  It is very important to use technology in order to collaborate and learn through social interactions.  Interactive web 2.0 tools are wonderful resources for the school community to stay informed and contribute to important academic discussions.

  

After looking through some of the some tips, ideas and examples, I was happy with the information I found from Paul Wagner's blog.  Why Students Should Blog, How to Start Blogging with Students and Where Students Should Blog.  I was inspired to use the Weebly.   I love that a teacher can create an account and then set up user accounts for up to 40 students.    In East Greenbush, students are not allowed access to their email accounts which makes it difficult to use some web 2.0 tools.    Weebly is definitely something that I would want to try with students.  I am starting a CHS book club and I am strongly considering testing it out with them and starting a book review blog for the students to share what their reading with the school.   I would love to post the blog on our library website!

Thank you for reading!