Fox's Corner

Best Intentions

2007-03-29T14:21:00.000-07:00

I return, head hung low. I loved writing my blog that began as a class assignment and I really truly thought that I would continue to write entries even after the class ended. But alas, I did not. I revisited recently and updated my profile, why? For another class assignment. And I am behind schedule on this one. This class is a seminar on intellectual freedom. It is very interesting and one I would recommend for anyone taking classes to obtain their Master's in Library Science or already working in a library setting or for anyone concerned with protecting their constitutional rights.

This assignment involves setting up an account on a social network, I thought about MySpace, but my teen told me I was too, too old, to be on MySpace! So I decided to rev up my blog again, though I admit I don't feel as OUT THERE as I might on MySpace. I don't even know if anyone will read this. I think I had a couple responses to postings from long ago, so we will see. On April 13th, I have to create and submit a podcast (ClickCaster) about this whole experience. So if you are reading this, give me some feedback, but be gentle. If you are a regular blogger, what has your experience been? What motivates you to write blogs in this day and age of constant barrage of email and other time consuming pastimes of the Internet, not to mention your job, family etc.?

Sometimes when I'm Googling for info, I run across other's blogs and am amazed at the things people blog about, so I am not ashamed to use mine for a bit of a ramble. There are quite a few librarians out there blogging. In fact one helped me out with her helpful tips on reading programs for little guys. Flexibility being #1. I didn't panic when I only had two little ones to read to, I expected 15. I tossed out the window one of the rhymes that I had printed up when I realized it was way over their little heads. Instead, I began with animal actions and read a book and did another rhyme involving colors and the clothes they were wearing (by that point the teacher joined in) and read the other book. Then I reread in a round about way each book as each toddler took possession of their favorite and said "read it again." Great fun!

In addition to podcasting in this class, we are also posting wikis, very cool (check out "wikispaces") and tomorrow we are filming vidcasts. My partner and I took on the topic of RFIDs. Radio Frequency Identification Technology. It may be in a library near you or hanging about in your tollpass. It is similar to the chips we have the vet embed in our pets. A new invisible barcode of sorts. Won't go into all the details, but if you want more info, Google RFIDs. Wikipedia also seemed reputable on the subject and if you want to be very scholarly check out your library's databases.

Well I'm off for now, more later I promise.

Wrapping, Waving, Wishing

2005-10-10T21:11:00.000-07:00

It's a wrap!!! Not quite the wrap I anticipated, but still I managed to pull together what I consider a good final product. All weekend I tried to find various ways to open my video in imovie on our Mac. We even added software that allowed Quick time to read Mpeg2 files. And it worked, sort of. Only the import was still too dark to make out anything. I tried several suggestions from family and friends to no avail. Basically, to get the quality I wanted I needed to purchase a firewire that would allow me to hook our friend's camera to our computer. That would feed it directly into imovie. John didn't think his camera contained the necessary port and time was an issue anyway. So I accepted defeat.

I'd already decided to drop my text into a PowerPoint presentation and began working on the slides. Some how I wanted it to have the essence of the video. It needed to have a voice. The teen's voices. Then my daughter Sarah suggested using pics she had of her and her friends and a cool speech bubble tool to incorporate the girls and their responses to my interview questions. It worked. What's missing though is the girls interactions with each other during the video taping. I watched it again to transcribe the quotes I used and my husband commented on what a great video it is. A friend stopped by to pick up his daughter and stayed to view the PowerPoint and gave it a thumbs up. My youngest sat and read the whole thing. She even pointed out some editing mistakes for me. Tip: Always have someone read your final work to catch those pesky typos. I'm a great believer in having students exchange final drafts to catch mistakes and make suggestions. This would work with these types of projects too.

I'd be glad to share this with someone. I found as I worked on it that I visualized it as a resource for teens. So I may look into ways to share it with teens. Not sure if they are still offering a life skills class at BRHS or maybe in the health class.

My projects bibliography is as follows:

Adams, Carol J. Help! My Child Stopped Eating Meat! : An A-Z Guide to Surviving a Conflict in Diets.. New York: Continuum, 2004.

Belamerich, Peter F., and Keith Thomas Ayoob. "Keeping Teenage Vegetarians Healthy and in the Know." Contemporary Pediatrics. October 2001: 89. (Gale).

Children’s and Women’s Health Center of British Columbia. “Vegetarian Reading List for Teens.” 09/06/05. http://www.cw.bc.ca/endodiab/pdf/vegread.pdf.

Duden, Jane. Vegetarianism for Teens. Mankato: Capstone Press, 2001.

Maurer, Donna. Vegetarianism: Movement or Moment. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001.

National Center for Nutrition and Dietetics. “Vegetarian Food Guide Pyramid.” (1997):
The University of Texas at Austin. http://www.utexas.edu/depts/he/ntr/NTR311pyramidpage5.htm

Palo Alto Medical Foundation. “Vegetarianism in Teens.” http://www.vegsoc.org/youth/Parentteenager.pdf.

The Vegetarian Society. (2005). Parent and Teenager’s Guide, Iron handout and Calcium handout. http://www.vegsoc.org.

Winkler, Kathleen. Vegetarianism and Teens: A Hot Issue. Berkeley Heights: Enslow, 2001.

Hopefully it is all there. I tried to keep good records for all information I used in researching vegetarianism and teens and on materials used in the final project. Wonder now if I should have included this at the end of the PowerPoint too. Can always add it later, especially if I share it.

"Describe how your experiences with personal inquiry are like and unlike those of a child or young adult." Hmm... Let's see. This project took over my life and that of my family. Not sure any K-12 project would require so much. But the freedom to choose our inquiry is probably different. Most kids have to choose from a list of teacher generated topics. My experience with searching for information gave me an advantage. Most school-age students would require some guidance from a teacher/media specialist. Most kids have a leg up on me with technology, and may have had experience already with using tools like Inspiration. I know my own run circles around me on our Mac. Reading and notetaking, students would need to learn how to extract material relevent to their topics and how to take good notes and organize them. I described in an earlier blog about dealing with frustrations of access to equipment and setting up interviews and what that would be like as a student. And I know I'd share their relief at having finished the project and turned it in. I learned alot and I know students learn alot through these experiences too.

Wishing? I just wish that I had had my own digital video equipment and/or that the equipment I used had been compatible with my computer. I still wish the video clips had worked out. What would I do differently? Started the whole darn thing alot earlier. :-)

If anyone would like to check out my PowerPoint, click on final product.

Favorite things about this project: Creating the video and blogging.

Standards and More

2005-10-08T20:55:00.000-07:00

Today was a day of ups and downs emotionally. Friends who loaned me their digital video camera burned Cds (one a DVD, one a DVD Data Disc with uncompressed MP files) of my video. They are PC users and we are Mac users. Their camera had not come with an i.LINK cable that would allow me to load the video directly to my computer. We all thought one of the discs would enable me to upload the video to iMovie, so that I could edit it into clips to add to my text about vegetarianism. But when I tried I got audio only, no picture. We knew the images were there, or rather that I had remembered to remove the lens cap, because we had played the DVD in our player and viewed the interview on our t.v. I started to throw in the towel on the whole final product, but first I put out calls to two avid Mac techy types. No one was home, who works on Saturdays, right? My cousin-in-law called and then emailed ideas tonight. One it would have been easiest to buy an i.LINK cable (though, friends with camera said they didn't think the camera had the right port) or two, add a plug-in to Quick Time that would allow it to read the Mpeg 2 files. They both cost basically the same. So tomorrow will try one or both to solve problem.

Students doing this at school may or may not have these equipment woes. At our elementary school, we have a Mac lab and cameras and my daughter has used these to create school movies. Schools are able to write grants or to have teachers participate in special programs that award equipment to schools.

Standards

I consulted the Indiana Health Education Standards and chose the following as suitable to my topic and project. The references to health standards in my reading of Chapter 2 in Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning, ALA,1998 (see examples of Content-Area Standards), got me to thinking how they fit with my information inquiry.

Standard 2-Students will demonstrate ability to access and evaluate health information, products and services.

Standard 4-Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze the influence of family, culture, peers, community, media and technology on health and health behaviors.

Standard 6-Students will demonstrate ability to implement decision making and goal setting skills to enhance health.

Standard 7-Students will demonstrate ability to advocate for personal, family and community health.

I included these in that a similar project might be assigned in a health science class. Standard 2, I also see as looking at determining what "is quality information and what's junk?" (Lamb, Wiggling email) in websites with health information, that a student might consult. See figure 6.6: Questions Used to Evaluate Web Sites in Inquiry Learning through Librarian-Teacher Partnerships by Violet H. Harada and Joan M. Yoshina. This table on page 90, with its criteria and questions, is a useful tool for students.

I also selected a standard from 8th grade English/Language Arts.

Standard 4-Parts of Writing Process: Students discuss, list and graphically organize writing ideas.

This would apply to students projects that include group discussions, emails or blogs and outlining and graphic organizers, like concept maps.

And lastly, I selected a standard from Indiana Standards for Technology Education.

Standard 12-Select the appropriate devices and systems to meet personal and societal needs.

Definitely important, see first paragraph of this blog. I chose this particular format for my final product, because I thought it would be appealing to the age group
my topic is addressing. Teens. Students creating a similar project would want to make peers aware of this imformation and would want to create and share a product that would ultimately educate others. Whether video, PowerPoint or pamphlet. Hoping that I'll still be able to create the final product I have envisioned.

Wiggling and Weaving

2005-10-07T20:42:00.000-07:00

I had my interview for the Youth Services Librarian position on Wednesday. It was quite the learning experience and not at all what I had anticipated. I thought of all kinds of things I wished I had said, after the fact. I think that places of employment should email you the interview questions the evening before your interview, so you can feel better prepared. And more relaxed.

On Wednesday evening I succeeded in gathering 4 of the 5 girls I wanted to interview for project. It went really well and we all had a good time. Afterwards, we enjoyed pizza, vegetarian of course. I learned a lot from the girls. I imparted my knowledge about the importance of iron in their diet and each took home a copy of the vegetarian food pyramid. I was surprised that none of the three vegetarians had done any research on this diet decision before heading into it. And two have not shared with their family physician their dietary choice.

Students planning to do an interview, outside of school, as a part of their inquiry could easily abandon this option. When a deadline is at stake and the interviewee is elusive, students, especially those nervous about this type of interaction would eagerly take an easier path. But first hand information is interesting and adds elements not found in text.

Thursday, I received a call back for a second round of interviews for the library position! All I know is that this round will focus on "practical application of skills." That could cover a lot of territory. The big day is Thursday, Oct. 13th.

Last blog I promised to try and add a visual I created with a free trial of software from Inspiration.

I checked preview. It worked, yay!!! The Inspiration tools worked well and the instructions were easy to understand. The many options available with the software make it a useful tool for students. I noted the outline feature. Outlines are often required by teachers for students to get a visual idea of where they are headed with their topics. The outline template on Inspiration would be easy for a student to enter information into it and then to transfer it into other useful templates. If students were blogging their way through a project, these would add visual interest. These completed templates could also be added to a PowerPoint or webpage.

I'm now involved in seeking out information on how to create my final product. I have used the help features, watched tutorials and checked out a book about making imovies as well as looking into the movie features of PowerPoint. I used a friend's digital video camera and they were unsure if the camera was compatible with my Mac. So I gave them a disc for them to burn the video onto. They saved it two different ways and tomorrow I will attempt to, what's the appropriate term, upload it on my computer? I may consult knowledgeable friends about best tool for creating the blend of text and video I want to produce. Or just go with the trial and error method. I'm also planning to type up my research on Word. Up till now I have been using a notebook, with a separate page or two for each question.

Stay tuned.

Webbing and Wiggling

2005-10-04T20:41:00.000-07:00

Just returned from Stories by Starlight, a yearly event at our elementary building. We gather for dinner, small group readings and enjoy a storyteller. This year I volunteered to find a storyteller. I used my SLIS connections and thought of Celestine Bloomfield who is a lecturer at IUPUI and teaches a storytelling workshop class. She agreed to come and bring a student or two, to give them experience. Celestine and Ann Guthrie (student and librarian at Greenfield) came, and were wonderful. Ann's stories required audience (kids) participation and in her retelling of The Giant Turnip she added a multitude of animals helpers to encompass all the kids who wanted to participate. Celestine is quite captivating and will participate in the storytelling festival which kicks off this weekend.

As I promised last blog, databases. I started by checking out what was available through I-MCPL. To access the databases you have to log in with your Marion Co. library card. I chose to search the Health and Wellness Resource Center, a Thompson * Gale Group database. I should explain right off that I find database searching very frustrating. To me it's like playing one of the popular games kids play online, you know the kind, where if you can only find the key, unlock the cave, you'll go to the next level and earn thousands of points. Only I can never find the key that fits. Or I get through the door, only to be eaten by a giant troll, well you get the idea.

Basic Search: Vegetarianism, 12 hits, tossed into reference only, 2 articles from the Pediatric Advisor, 2004.1. 1). Vegetarian Diet, p3350. 2). Sources of Essential Nutrients in a Vegetarian Diet, p2880. Okay, both usable.

Advanced Search:
Full text
2004-2005
Subject;Keyword-Hits
Vegetarianism;Teens-0
Vegetarianism-67
Vegetarianism-101
Teens-843
Teens and Vegetarianism-0
High School students-1831
(narrowed by subject)
"food and nutrition-34, a couple on veg.
Youth;Vegetarians-8
No date limiter-all before 2002

(I had this all type in an easier to read table, but blog did not like, so I've made concession).

It goes on but, I'll spare you. Did take notes on one article. Keeping Teenage Vegetarians Healthy and in the Know
by Peter F. Belamerich and Keith Thomas Ayoob. Contemporary Pediatrics; Oct. 2001, v18 i10, p89.

Next I went to IUPUI Libraries and Inspire for EBSCO HOST. One plus is that you are able to search multiple database at one time and set limiters for each. I decided to search databases that a student might use, so I chose Middle Search Plus and Topic-Health and Wellness. Tried "vegetarian" and "food" and "teens." 4 hits, 3 useable. 1). The Great American Meatout by Dee Murphy. Current Health 2; Feb. 2002, v28 i6, p23, 3p, 1 chart, 2c. Focus: Vegetarian diets among American Teens. 2). More Teens Say 'pass the salad' by Angela Wang. Christian Science Monitor; 9/19/96, v88 i207, p15, 5c. Reports on increase in number of teen vegetarians. 3). So Long Big Macs-it's on to rice and beans by
Susan Brink. U.S. News and World Report; 5/10/93, v114 i18, p70, 2p, 3c. Fastest growing segment of U.S. I copied and pasted last article to a word document.

I have noticed that there is little variation in the information that I have found in my search. Whether books, websites or articles, they are all structured similarly. "What is vegetarianism?" "What are the types of vegetarians?" "Reason for becoming vegetarian." "Nutritional needs of vegetarians." Etc. One issue that comes up is whether a vegetarian diet is possible masking an eating disorder, pro-vegetarian materials adamently discard this notion. Others suggest that is something to watch for. Could make for an interesting research project on its own, but not one I'll be tackling.

This is getting a bit long so I'll blog again to try and add my "Inspiration" tooled map. But, before I go I have to add how cool I think blogging is, I love the instant html coding features.

Webbing

2005-10-03T20:57:00.000-07:00

It has been a crazy few days since I last blogged. I polished up my resume, which took a bit of time and created a cover letter, more time. I submitted my application for a part-time youth services librarian position and the next day received a call to return for an interview. I spent the weekend in a state of excitement, jitters and was a regular basket case. So I emailed Dr. Lamb with my juicy excuse and asked for an extension. Good thing too. My inquiry interview subjects were impossible to pin down for videoing on Sunday afternoon. One had a migraine and another had gone out of town, camping. I'm determined to get all five teens together, so now we are counting on their presence on Wednesday evening. Pizza as bait.

I've been exploring all my materials.

Books

Help my Child Stopped Eating Meat by Carol J. Adams.
Vegetarianism for Teens by Jane Duden.
Vegetarianism: Movement or Moment? by Donna Maurer.
Vegetarianism and Teens: A Hot Issue by Kathleen Winkler.

Websites

Vegetarianism in Teens I found this site very interesting.
Vegetarian Society British Organization, again good information and cool pamphlet for Veggie Teens and Parents, see pdf file.
VegetarianTeen Good support for Teen Vegetarians, not so much for research.

I also looked at I-MCPL and checked out their "Just for Kids" page for pathfinders. They are now called Kids' Info Guides. Click on "Health" and Health again. Good jumpstarters for kids doing research.

Steve asked the other night, when he saw me reading and taking notes, whether the point was to become an expert on vegetarianism or rather on being metacognitive about students' search processes. Hm? Both, right?

Check back tomorrow when I go into great detail about my database searching.

Wondering

2005-09-28T14:40:00.000-07:00

I'm still "wondering" if I'll get this all done! First off, Ace Awards to Jennifer Smith and Julie Mansfield for their blogs. I've only visited the ones from my POD so I can't judge them all, but these two are on the ball.

I found some comfort in the Carol Kuhlthau video clip on "Student Frustration." (Can be found on Eduscapes under "Wondering"). I have been mulling over the materials I have. It has been a long time since I've done any research quite like this. My youngest does this all the time for fun! She has always been into Non-Fiction and loves animals. She has created many PowerPoints on various topics: planets; sharks; monkeys and apes, etc. I have even greater admiration for this passion in her now that I'm faced with this project.

I wrote out a list of questions I began wondering about as I thought about my topic. Side note: Is it recursive to think of the final product and then back to questions? I've already admited that I tend to get caught up in the final product. I went from being curious about the vitamin/nutrition aspects of my daughter Sarah's vegetarian diet choice. But that curiosity has expanded to include wondering about other aspects. And includes not only Sarah but her group of close friends, too.

Questions:

What prompted you to become a vegetarian?
What was your parents/siblings reaction?
What's been the hardest thing being vegetarian?
Have you researched your nutritional needs?
Iron? How much needed at your age?
Calcium? Ditto.
Can you enough of these through diet only?
Do you take a daily vitamin with iron?
Where do you go for support? Books? Websites? Magazines? Friends?

Is any of this conducive to my research? To my final product?
Probably more to the latter. I really want to video "the girls" and ask them these questions. Don't get the wrong idea, I support them fully in this choice of diet.
And I admire their stamina in sticking to their choice. Maybe it's the inner teacher in me that wants to know what they know and to bring to their attention information about nutritional needs for girls their age.

Research: I need to learn as much as I can about vegetarian diets and vitamin needs.

One of the two bloggers I mentioned above, not only used a mapping tool, but was able to blog it in. I tried to use a pdf. wondering chart but could not figure out how to fill it in without printing it out first. I've now found "Inspiration" not a pun, but a download I'm hoping I can get to work for me. The video tour of it impressed me, it looks like a really fantastic tool for students and teachers to use.

I found the download of Inspiration on James McKenzie's page on "The Research Cycle."
I really like his philosophy toward learning and research. He's providing information to educators to turn from topic driven research to using creative questions to prompt research projects. This avoids turning "students into simple word movers"(McKenzie, ). Kids are natural questioners and if this could be incorporated into K-12, it would be fantastic. All three of my girls got some of this via their school, Center for Inquiry. But even there, I'd like to see it stretched further.

Now I'm wondering if I can borrow a digital video camera from a friend and whether I can get this group of girls together before Oct. 3rd.

Time to get blogging

2005-09-26T11:13:00.000-07:00

I feel I have a greater sense of direction since Dr. Lamb's last two emails. I love the idea of blogging, but confess I have a difficult time thinking, writing out loud about this project. I have procrastinated and now have a week to accomplish this inquiry and product. After completing 3 skyhoppers I felt I had overdosed on my computer monitor and needed a break. My body thought so too. I had an episode of sciatica on Tues. 9/20. Fortunately ice packs and muscle relaxants got me back on my feet by Wed. I read that sitting for too long can aggravate this condition.
FYI- I read that the Firefox browser works better with Blogger. You can download Firefox from if you don't already have it. I found the tip on page 23 of the Oct. 2005 issue of MacHome magazine. It also shares info about video blogging. I'm writing via Firefox now.
I hope the two previous blogs addressed some of Watching and Wondering. I spent a little time thinking about various topics before deciding on Vegetarian Teens. I didn't want to do something that was just something to fill space with, I wanted whatever I learned to be useful. It couldn't be too broad. It needed to be manageable, timewise. I confess that I didn't pick up on the fact that this was all to be done by Oct. 3. Manageable is now even more important. Ack! I regret that I can't remember at this point the kinds of things that I toyed with doing at first.
In the last blog I talked about not having begun looking at sources for my topic. I did sit down the very next day and started with IMCPL. I initially searched under "vegetarian teens" in a subject search and brought up some hits. In one, a book called "Vegetarianism and Teens: A Hot Issue" by Kathleen Winkler, clued me into the keyword Vegetarianism. I had never considered this. Vegetarian/Vegan yes but vegetarianism no. I found and requested several books, keeping copyrights as current as possible, though I did include one 1999, that is "The Teen's Vegetarian Cookbook" by Judy Krizmanic, mostly for personal use. And another "EAT" by Steven Kroll (1995) a 3rd grade Hyperion Chapters book for fun rather than research.
When I did hit Google, I used "Vegetarianism and Teens" again and came up with several useful sites. I need to go back and read through them thoroughly for information, but skimming brought up some issues I hadn't thought of previously. Like why teens decide to become vegetarians. Health, religion, ethics, weight, fashion or environment or combination of these. I realized that I never gave many of these thought when Sarah made her choice to become a vegetarian. I got a vague sense that it was appreciation of animal rights, etc. She had read some information about PETA and receives some of their mailings including a magazine geared at tweens/teens called "Grrr!" Also, the friend factor was there, as several of her friends were experimenting with vegetarianism. One in particular, Jesi, was always sharing with the group the horrors of McDonalds, where they got there meat from etc. I remember this going back several years ago, possibly 5th/6th grade. The girls are Freshmen this year.
Back to reading, more blog to come. Jeanine
PS. Thank you to those of you who have commented on my previous blogs!

Too little time!

2005-09-12T21:27:00.000-07:00

Between L551 and all the required reading and skyhoppers and family, I've had little time to give thought to my personal inquiry project. I was excited to see an article in The Indy Star about being vegetarian and will cut it out when I unearth it from my dining room table. I've also toyed with the idea of interviewing Sarah and friends about their decisions to go vegetarian. May do video. Also, would like to talk to a dietician in person and ask questions about the diet with teens in mind. Probably check back with Dr. Harris for names.
I'm also finding that with an online class I'm avoiding the computer at other times. My personal email is piling up. I used to enjoy emailing friends and family and I've let that slide too. I know there will be a dearth of resources online about vegetarian diets, but my butt is numb! I can't sit here any longer. If only I had a laptop, then I could shift my position and locale.
I've been walking my dog Rufus, prior to writing any of the skyhoppers, as a way of clearing my mind. Sketching out my response on foot before typing a word. Probably also an element of procratination but hey, walking is good for you right? Also, is anybody else out there having cravings to eat all the time when they are planted in front of the computer? Another good reason to take the dog for a walk!

Inquiry Project

2005-09-04T22:19:00.000-07:00

Before school started I took two of my daughters in for their yearly exams. Sarah who is 14 went on her own for her exam, so that I could stay with her 8 year old sister. In the course of Sarah's exam, she shared with Dr. Harris that she was a vegetarian. Dr. Harris stressed the importance of Sarah taking a vitamin with iron. This got me to thinking more about this dietary path Sarah has taken. I really know very little about being a vegetarian and what the implications are for teens following a vegetarian diet. I decided that the inquiry project for L551 would give me the incentive to follow through on this quest. Jeanine