Friday "Wrap Up"

One more week until Spring Break!!  Although it sure doesn't feel like it outside.  We have freezing rain right now and it is supposed to get worse tomorrow.  This week was early dismissal for parent conferences so I thought I would get a lot done.  Somehow it didn't work out that way.

• 11 more kinder research lessons
• 2 kinder classes FINISHED with research!
• skyped 2x with students who were trying to finish a BINGO for ConnectED Bingo
• Planned activities for Dr. Seuss Week
• Participated in 3 twitter chats
• Spent the rest of my book budget
• Entered our 6 Flags Read to Succeed information
• Walk/Ran 15 miles on the treadmill.  My longest continuous run was 1.5 mles - which is HUGE for me!

And my wraps...

Untamed and Rose Gold

Technology Tuesday: Skyping

Another item checked off my professional bucket list!  Been scared to do it until now.

I finally connected with another class via skype!  Well, actually we tried skype and my sound settings were messed up so we switched real quick over to a google hangout video chat, because you always have a plan B for technology, right?

Back at the beginning of February, I saw a tweet about ConnectED Bingo by Brad Gustafson.  I loved the idea and since I don't have a class of my own, I sent an email out to all my teachers telling them about it.  I suggested they could do it whole class, send it home for kids that wanted to do it at home or have students do it during our whole school intervention time in the morning.  I even threw in $5 gift certificates for the book fair for students who completed a bingo and a $25 if a class completed a bingo.  I have loved watching the tweets of my teachers as they post the student completed squares.

One of the squares is to hold a book talk with another class to discuss a book or author using skype or google hangouts.  One of my 4th grade students wanted to discuss Rump by Liesl Shurtliff.  So through the power of twitter, Ms. Melissa Guerrette in Maine replied back to my tweet searching for some students who would like to talk Rump.

Yesterday, we connected Texas to Maine.  They laughed when we said we were having a cold front and it was 30 degrees.  My 4th grade student had a list of questions that Ms. Guerrette's students graciously answered as they talked about their favorite part or the book, which character they would like to be, what they would have done differently if they were Rump and so on.  We even found out their class had skyped with Liesl Shurtliff!  How cool is that!

It was such an awesome experience. I am not sure who was more excited me or my 4th grader.  I can really see the power of classrooms connecting and hope I can convince more of my teachers to try it.  

Friday "Wrap" Up

This week at Woodstone I...

Introduced the Fairy Tale Battle to rest 2nd Grade

30 Hands Sequencing with the rest of 1st grade

Had the first Coding Club Meeting

Moderated my first chat

Excersized 5 times!

Friday Funny 

Today was group picture day.  So the coding club was in line after choir and student council to get our group picture taken.  Quite a few students in the coding club were in choir so after they took their picture, they took off their choir shirts and got in our line.  When our picture was over one of the boys came to me and told me that his choir shirt was not on the bench where he left it.  We went to the music teacher's room thinking she probably picked it up with the rest of the shirts.  Sure enough, she had a big pile on a table.  I asked him if he knew what size it was and he replied it was a large.  I found a large in the pile and said, "Here it is!" and handed it to him.  He held the shirt up to his nose and inhaled deeply and said, "No, that's not mine!".  So i looked again and found another one.  He sniffed and handed it back with a "Nope".  I looked again, faound another large and hesitantly handed it over.  He repeated the process, but this time his face lit up like a jack-o-lantern and he very excitedly pronounced, "THIS IS MINE!"  I laughed and told him I was glad he recognized his smell and he replied back, "No, it's Gain!"

And now my wraps.  Had to get these on before January was over...

Winter's Edge

Friday "Wrap Up"

This week I started kinder research and while I was dreading it a bit, it actually has been kind of fun.

• 9 kinder research lessons
• 3 first grade nonstandard measurement lessons on ipads
• 4 second grade inferencing lessons on ipads
• presented genrefication session with a middle school librarian to other librarians in our district
• walked/ran total of 9 miles on treadmill (I messed up my knee doing T25) 
• blogged twice
• participated in 2 twitter chats

and my nails this week... Half Shell and Darkest Black (the baseball is in honor of my freshman making the High School JV Baseball team)!

Kinder... You gotta love them

I have posted before about my brief moment of panic 6 times every week before each kinder class comes to the library, but I have to admit, they are pretty darn funny.  This week we started our research unit about Jobs in the Community (more about that in a later post) and some of the things they have said are just cracking me up.

In the classroom, they are doing whole class research on animals.  I started off asking one of my kinder classes if they knew what research was.  I was expecting an answer like "It's where you find out stuff" or "when you learn something:".  One cute little guy raised his hand and said, "Its when you learn about babies..." I neverously glanced over at the teacher and her eyes are getting bigger as he finished "and where they live and stuff like that".  I think we both exhaled loudly at the same time. Come to find out their whole class research is about penguins :)

For our research in the library we are going to be researching jobs.  After asking what research is, I ask about the custodians and what they do at our school.  Answers were as expected... clean the tables, empty the trash, mop the floors, etc.  Until one pops out with "Cleans up the PUKE!"  Yes they do!

I also have them turn and talk to a neighbor about what would happen if we did not have custodians at our school.  First of all, if you have never done turn and talk with kinders, it is about the cutest thing ever.  They must do it a bunch in the classroom, because they all turned to the closest person and huddle their heads very close together and really have a conversation.  Asking each other "What would we do without our custodians?"

So as we are listening to these animated discussions we hear things like,,, there would be trash everywhere... our school would be a disaster!... we would have to clean up our own messes! ... and my favorite - there would be LOTS of rats!  So glad we have our custodians :)

Kinder... you gotta love them!

Technology Tuesday: Nonstandard Measurement

Don't you just love it when you have an idea and after a couple of fails, you figure out how to do it?(sort of)  When my first graders study nonstandard measurement, I like to read them Leo Lionni's Inch by Inch.

In the past, I had pictures of the animals in the book and "inchworm" rulers for them to measure with. This year though, I wanted to try to amp it up a bit with the iPads.  I wanted them to use stickers of some kind to measure a picture.  I started off with the Doodle Buddy app, thinking they could draw the picture and then use the stamps provided in the app to measure.  The problem I ran into with this app was that I could not figure out how to move the stamps once I put them on the page.

Plan B:  Try it in my old, trusty, go-to PicCollage. 

Are there stamps?  No, but there are "stickers". 

Could I move them?  Yes and resize them!  

Could I copy them once I had a good size?  Yes, by double tapping on the sticker.  

So after reading the book.  I had the kids take pictures of each other from head to toe.  Then I walked them through getting their picture into PicCollage and showed them the features of the stickers.  For an added bonus, I had them add text.  Here are a few of the finished products.  

Are they perfect? No, but the kids got the idea that the stickers had to be stacked end to end and don't you love that Penny is 3 and a half arrows tall?  

How have you made a paper/pencil activity iPadable?

WRAD Blogging Challenge: Week 1

In preparation for World Read Aloud Day, I am taking part in the World Read Aloud Blogging Challenge.  Here is my post for week one.  I hope you will consider joining in the fun too.  

Week 1: February 9 - 15
What is your favorite book to read aloud or to hear read aloud and why?

How can a librarian answer a question like this?  There are way too many to choose.  When I was in the classroom teaching 3rd grade, I loved reading Island of the Blue Dolphins aloud to my class.  I think because when I was in 4th grade that was one of the books my favorite teacher, Mrs. Patterson, read out loud to us.  At the time, that is not a book that I would have ever chosen to read myself.  I was much more into Little House on the Prairie or Ramona books.  But there was something about how Karana made a life for herself alone with only the animals, friends or foes, to keep her company. Mrs. Patterson always read to us after recess and I would sit there, head on my desk, listening to her voice and trying to imagine what made Karana strong enough to continue each day.  When I had my own classroom, I think I chose that book to read to my students as a way to introduce them to a genre they might not choose on their own.  Every day, after reading, they would beg me not to stop (and sometimes I wouldn't ;)) 

As a librarian, I love to read aloud fun books.  Books that the students can join in with me.  Books that have great language patterns.  Books that have surprise endings.  

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This is going to be my first year to celebrate World Read Aloud Day.  I found out about it through twitter this year.  During the week, I am going to be connecting one of my 1st grade classes and 4th grade classes with Matthew Winner's class and a 3rd grade class with Shawna Ford's classes. My whole school will be celebrating Dr. Seuss that week as well so many activities are being planned for that celebration as well. 

Saturday "Wrap" Up

I was attending sessions and  traveling back from TCEA 2015 yesterday and then had Bunco last night (priorities!)  so I wasn't able to post my Friday Wrap Up, so here it is on Saturday.

 - Met with some of my 3rd grade teachers to talk technology 

- attended my district library meeting

- presented Twitter Chatting to my fellow librarians

- drove to Austin and tried to check into the wrong hotel 

- attended 17 sessions at TCEA

- planned with fellow librarians, GT teachers and EdTech 

- completed EduLS Challenge #5

And my wraps are my absolute favorite wraps and on the retiring list - waaaa! :( Funky Cheetah

It's 10:00 and My Brain Won't Turn Off

Call it a side effect of attending a technology conference, but my brain is on full overload. Swimming with apps, websites and ideas to share back on my campus, my wheels are spinning from 2 full days at TCEA 2015 and the thought of 2 more to go.

We started yesterday off at an iPad academy with Leslie Fisher (@lesliefisher).  HILARIOUS. Perfect person to start of an 8:00 session.  She gave us some of the coolest ipad apps and tips in 50 minutes.  My favorite was Plickers.

 A free app in the "iPhone Only" part of the app store, it is the perfect assessment tool for teachers with only a few iPads.  Teachers create an account and form classes.  Within the class, they assign students a number. There are cards on the website to print off that each have a number, a distinctive shape and the letters A,B,C,D in the corners.  Give the students the cards that corresponds with their number in the class. The teacher asks a multiple choice question and gives the answer choices.  The students decide on their answer and with their numbered card point the corner with the letter they think is the correct answer up to the ceiling.  The teachers gets her iPad with the Plicker app downloaded and uses the app to scan the crowd of students.  The app reads the cards and lets the teacher know instantly who has the correct answer and who has the wrong answer.  How cool is that??

Chirp, Augmented Reality, Photobabble, Adobe Voice, Hyperlapse, ChatterPix Kids, Makerspaces, Google Hangouts... See now why I can't turn off thinking about how to use these great tools in my library, but also how to share them with the teachers in a way that is meaningful for them.  

How do you share technology ideas with your teachers?