What is elo and how is it calculated?Is it just from ranked matches or any?thanks.

There's a hidden Elo for normal games which is separate from the various ranked Elos. (There's a solo queue Elo and one for each team.)

As for how it's calculated, all you need to worry about is winning or losing; nothing else you do will affect your Elo. (There are some equations, but those are simply based on who is in the match, how many are an arranged team, etc, nothing to do with what happened in the game other than W/L.)

how can i find out my elo rating?

your point for rank

Normal Elo is 'hidden,' which means you will never get to see it unless you work for Riot. The reasoning behind this is to make it a more 'casual' game where you're not stressing over numbers.

If you want to be competitive, you play ranked games once you are ready (you can play them once you reach level 30, but just being 30 doesn't mean you are ready). Ranked games have their own Elo, separate from normal Elo, but this Elo is visible to you (and others if it's above a threshold). You might wish to be competitive before then, but you really won't be experienced enough at the game until a while after you hit 30 to be truly competitive.

i dont follow? Per match?I'm still rank 8, still trying to figure out stuff and new characters. I'm 6/10 in my last 10 matches.
cool, got it now, thanks.

Your 'summoner level' is 8, this isn't 'ranking.' If you hop into the 'LoL University' chat room in game, you can find a variety of summoner levels there. Some of the 30s have played ranked, and have done well enough to have their ranking visible to the public (over ~1250, you start at 1200). For these players you'll see their rating in their tooltip when you hover over their name.

Noob question of my own: what does ELO stand for? I'm assuming effective level ... Something?

Elo doesnt stand for anything, its named after its creator, its a rating system for 2 player games, mainly chess

Although your question has been answered, here are some links to read up on it as well.

a history and explination:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elo_rating_system

as it applies in LoL
http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Elo_rating_system

an explination on how matchmaking in LoL works:
http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/...ad.php?t=12029

hope these help you understand the systems better, i know they helped me =)

Best Luck Always =)