Anna Zbacnik--Blog post 1

me
Welcome to a to z learning. My name is Anna Zbacnik. I am particularly fond of alphabets, as my initials are both the beginning and end of the alphabet. I am a wife and mother of two (Frankie--age 5, Oliver--age 3). I have been in the grad program at St. Kate's for what feels like an eternity. I have had a baby, worked full time, and switched jobs while in school--I literally feel like I can do anything if I set my mind to it.

I am also a school librarian in Roseville, Minnesota--at Brimhall Elementary School. I regularly blog at my school library blog a to z library. Before I was a media specialist, I taught both fifth and 2nd grades. I have been teaching since 2001. I consider myself to be both a teacher, and a librarian. I love being a librarian--I think I have the best job in the world. I get to work with kids, work with books, technology, and information. Really I am a pretty lucky person!

web 2.0
I would love to gain more web 2.0 tools that I can use with both students and staff. I teach grades pre-K - 6th each day, and work with over 700 students. With such a large school, it is essential that I am using computer times to the best ability. When my students are using web 2.0 tools, I want it to be meaningful and useful to their learning. I want my teachers to feel that web 2.0 tools benefit their teaching and the learning of their students. My fellow media specialists in my district are working to create online tutorials to many web 2.0 tools. I am excited to learn of new tools I can share with my staff.

Web 2.0 tools are exciting. I use many regularly.  Follow me on Twitter at @a_to_z_library. I mainly use twitter for professional use only. I use Facebook for personal use. I also blog as mentioned above (I have a book club blog as well!). Tools like Pinterest and diigo are great professional and personal web 2.0 tools.

I use web 2.0 tools to teach my students (glogster, Flipsnack, animoto, dropbox, storybird, google apps...). I have typically used tools where I do not need to know coding language--so I don't really know it--although I can copy and paste it into my website and blog to embed something.

I am very excited for this class and what I can learn.