MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

This has been an AMAZING experience for so many reasons. Honestly, I haven't felt this passionate about a course since I took New Jersey Writing in the Summer of 1999. That's saying something!

The most important THING that I've learned is that I CAN DO TECHNOLOGY. When I realized I wanted to be a librarian, the only thing that was holding me back was the technology; it scared me. I felt confident that my passion for books and kids would make me a good librarian, but I don't just want to be good--I want to be EFFECTIVE, and I know that being an effective 21st century librarian means embracing the technology instead of shying away from it. So that's what brought me to add 23 Things to my BUSY Summer To-Do list. And I'm so glad that I did. It's been well-worth the COUNTLESS HOURS that I've invested.

I have taken the time to soak up all of this information so that I will USE it, and I WILL USE all of these amazing tools. Here are my promises:

• I will continue blogging because it feeds my writing soul; corny but true. As a writer, I need to do this for myself. In fact, I want to start a personal blog where I focus on my family; my two daughters are growing up too fast, and I want to capture as much of their childhood as I can; this blog would be a perfect way to encapsulate these moments . I'm hoping this will make me more accountable in my writing because I suck at keeping a journal. I will continue with this blog as a professional one where I can write about my passion for the library, students, books, and TECHNOLOGY.
• I will continue to make my Google Reader a part of my reading life. I want to enlarge my "circle of the wise" with more RSS feeds. I have been amazed by the ideas and voices that I've been introduced to. They inspire me.
• I will start small and incorporate some of the tools into the library--a bit at a time. My fear is that I will overwhelm my faculty and my kids with my excitement about all of this cool stuff that I've learned. I don't want to scare them off by coming on too strong. I'm still new at this job and new to my school, so I need to proceed with caution. This year I will incorporate in the library: wikis, podcasts, Animoto, Google Docs, Google Calendar, image generators, blogs...okay, I want to do them ALL! I don't think I'm going to have a problem with implementation; my problem will be with integration. I have to find the right time and way to introduce these tools to my own faculty and students to have optimum buy-in.
• I will try not to become a LIBRARY THING addict. That's the one that I loved the most personally. It could even replace my Facebook obsession. Uh oh.
  

Thank you so much to all of the facilitators for working hard to make this class so effective. A special shout out goes to Marnie for reading and commenting on my blogs! Thanks, Marnie! I'm sure there are 23,000 more things to learn about Web 2.0, and I will jump at the chance to take more courses.

I'm a 23 Things believer!