All Your Social Media in One Place

As some might have noticed, as busyness goes up, the number of blog posts go down. So, this is another concentrated effort to keep up on posting :)

During the month of October, I presented at the Idaho Library Association conference. I talked about how I use social media, and one of the things that kept coming up was Hootsuite. So, I figured I'd mention it to you guys as well. 

Hootsuite is what many people call a dashboard. Basically that means you can sign your different social media networks (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) into the dashboard (Hootsuite), and then control all of them from the one dashboard. So instead of signing into a million different places, you can just sign into one. 

You can write up a single post and send it out to multiple networks, you can schedule when you want a certain post to go out (like write it beforehand and tell Hootsuite when to post it), and you can also see what is happeneing on your networks from inside Hootsuite. 

The only downside I've found is that some networks, like Blogger, aren't recognized. But, for the many that it does recognize, it can be super helpful and time saving.

Read Shakespeare? On Purpose?

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

Why did I read it?

Take a wild guess? My children's literature Master's class? You're good!

What happened?

Holling Hoodhood (yep that is the name of the character) is in the seventh grade, and is convinced his teacher, Mrs. Baker, has it out for him. On Wednesday afternoons, half of his class goes to Hebrew School, and the other half go to Catholic Catechism. Holling is the only kid in the class who attends a Presbyterian church, and so he has nowhere to go on Wednesdays. So, he gets to hang out with Mrs. Baker for the entire afternoon!

If she isn't having him bang the dust off of erasers or feed her oversized rats (that even she is afraid to get near), she has him read Shakespeare. As things move along, Holling realizes that Shakespeare might not be that bad (the curses he gives his characters are particularly juicy), and Mrs. Baker might not hate him as much as he thinks.

What did I like or not like about it?

Set in 1967, the Vietnam War comes up as a background theme throughout the novel. The two sides to that war are contrasted nicely by Holling's sister and his father. In addition to the historical perspective, Holling's perspective on things are often hilarious and very insightful. Ultimately, Holling starting to make choices about what and who he will be when he grows up is a fantastic story.