Library, Marblehead Village School, .75 hours

On 2/26/13, my one-on-one discussion with the LMS focused on professional development.  I was able to meet with the LMS without any students and discuss my upcoming leader interview assignment.  She openly shared with me her once in a lifetime opportunity that she had when she was able to interview Joyce Valenza!  My mouth must have fallen open at the mention of, not only her meeting Joyce but, spending the entire day with her in her library!  My first question was, “Does she sleep?”  Mrs. Soghomonian laughed at my question, but I was very serious.  Seeing all of her professional endeavors, I still wonder how Joyce manages to do it all.  Mrs. Soghomonian shared that Joyce has a huge staff of paid and parent volunteers.  I was not surprised to hear that Joyce is a very artsy and creative person.  That is apparent in her blog and technology infusion with kids in a very “kid friendly” way on her school wiki  and glog. 

Joyce Valenza's Wiki Home Page (Showing Glog Link)

One fact that surprised me was that when Mrs. Soghomonian mentioned to her sister, who lives in the same vicinity as Joyce’s school, that she was going to interview Joyce Valenza during her visit, her sister’s reply was, “Who?”  I know that before becoming involved with library media studies program I was not aware of Joyce but, I would assume that if I lived in her city or town, I would have heard about her contributions from press releases from the school in the local paper at the very least. 

Joyce Valenza

As an acting librarian at the time, Mrs. Soghomonian told me that this was one of her most important professional development opportunities ever.  While talking to this multi-talented librarian was, I am sure, an eye opening experience in general, Mrs. Soghomonian felt like the tech tools that Joyce shared with her were the most valuable to her at the time.  These tools were Voki  and Blabberize  .  Mrs. Soghomonian went on to use Blabberize in her Early American Idol postings that she helped students to create.  Never having heard of a Blabberize I had to ask.  She simply explained it as taking a picture of a historic figure and manipulating its mouth so it looks like it is saying what you want it to say.  The image of this was something that I was familiar with but until that moment the application to educational purposes was not apparent.  I can see why this sharing of information and its application was so valuable to Mrs. Soghomonian in her professional development.  I couldn’t resist the opportunity to try out a new tool, so here to say a few words is George Washington.

      

 

Blabber of George Washington
(Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian Institute)