The Amazing Jeff Mack

WOW!! What a day!

Today we welcomed Jeff Mack, author and illustrator of many, many books.

He had 5th grade completely engaged and quieter than I have ever seen them for an ENTIRE hour!

He showed them in a real video (sped up) how his illustrations come about from taping the paper down to his drawing board to taking a thumb drive of the illustrations to the copy shop so he can see how the "book" will turn out.  He also discussed how illustrators have to be sure to match the style of the drawing to the characters. The students brought notebooks and pencils and he showed them how to draw Clueless McGee.  We are not sure if this Clueless McGee is ready for Halloween or in some kind of show...

Since 4th graders in Texas have to take a state writing test, his presentaiton to them was more about the writing process and his steps for writing.  He was sure to draw with them also... a Steph-Curry-loving-hippo.

With K,1st, 2nd and 3rd, he talked about practicing and not giving up when you don;t get it right the first time.  Then he read a book with each group. You can definitely tell that these drawing came from the lower grades... only random thought came from a 3rd grader who wanted bear to hold a "cup of hot chocolate that smells like broccoli"?  I know... I'm sure there is a reason for that, but we didn't go there.

                  

All in all, it was a great day.  Students and teachers enjoyed his visit.  I highly recommend Jeff if you are looking for an author to visit your school.

                   

Technology Tues: Kate Messner Google Hangout

Writing, Writing, Writing... It is definitely an area that our school is concentrating on every year. Especially our 4th grade students that have to take a state writing assessment.  

Today, some of my 4th grade classes participated in Kate Messner's Google Hangout sponsored by We Are Teachers.  

She was specifically discussing the writing process of her Ranger In Time series.  This series is about Ranger, a search and rescue dog, who travels back in time to help people.  

Kate was so open about showing different parts of her work.  She held up her writer's notebook with her brief phrases about ideas.  She showed a long piece of paper where she collects all her ideas about a story in one place before she starts.  

The students were shocked to hear that it took almost 2 years to write and publish a book!  They were also glad to hear that even professional writer's have their papers marked up by editors.  

Our students were also surprised to hear one of the guest classes ask a question about what kind of "leads" Kate like to use in her books.  That class was in a totally different state and they called the beginning of their stories "leads" too!  

It sure does make more of an impact on kids when they hear that students in other states and professional authors go through the same writing process that they do... another example of the power of being connected.  

Being Connected: Another Virtual Author Visit

Thanks again to twitter, the students at my school were involved in another virtual author visit.  This time with Kate DiCamillo.  Last year, Jarret Krosoczka tweeted about a live event he was going to be doing.  I sent the information out to the teachers and almost my whole school watched as he talked abot writing, illustrating and Platapus Police Squad.  You can read about that here.

Back in August, John Schu @MrSchuReads, tweeted about a video conference opportunity in October with Kate DiCamillo.

 I immediately emailed my teachers about this awesome opportunity (even though we were not yet back in school from summer vacation)!  

When school did start, one of my kinder teachers asked if I had any recommendations for a read aloud to do with her class.  I mentioned the Mercy Watson books and reminded her about the upcomming video conference with Kate.  She jumped on the idea and started reading her kids book one and they were hooked!  She would tell me that her kids LOVED the books and couldn't wait for the end of the day when she would read.  They sat mesmerized, still and quiet while she read. They loved how Mercy loved buttery toast and asked questions about why Eugenia didn't like Mercy.  She said in all her years of teaching kinder, she had never had kids respond to a book like that.  So of course when she finished book 1, they wanted to read book 2. So they did.  And another kinder class started book 1. 

Today, they came back from lunch and were so excited to see "Mercy's writer" on the screen and the books that they had read displayed behind her.  Everytime Kate mentioned Mercy, they would gasp and giggle.  They "oohed" and "ahhed" when she mentioned the "buttery toast".  It was really something to be able to connect them with an author of a story they had just adored.

Meanwhile, in 5th grade, more amazing things were happening.  One teacher told her kids about the video conference and that they would only be able to watch the beginning of it since their lunch happened to fall right in the middle of it.  Tonight on her blog, this teacher wrote "After I saw the expressions on their faces, I offered to have them get lunch from the cafeteria and come back to the room during lunch.  They all had smiles on their faces!"  She emailed me after school and said that her kids loved it.  They had watched the whole thing and told me that they had eaten lunch in the room, and that it was the first time ever in her teaching career (21 years) that she had eaten in her room.  Wow!  The power of being connected!  

I love being able to find these opportunites for my students and it is only because I stepped out of my comfort zone and started tweeting that I became connected and in turn can connect my students and teachers.  

Friday "Wrap" Up

This is the last Friday of the school year!  While I can't believe this school year is over, it seems like these last two weeks will never end.  But the end is in sight.  

Besides hounding kids to turn in or pay for their books, we have actually been pretty busy.  

-3rd grade Battle of the books

-hosted a former student turned author, Megan Padalecki, for 1st and 2nd grade.  She has written, illustrated and self-published a book called Big Mo.  A story about an iguana who grows too large and threatens his environment.  

- I also met with our district battle of the books planning committee to debrief our battle from last Thursday.  

- We have also been changing all our genrification stickers to colored labels over the call number so that has been a lot of peeling and degunking with Goo Gone.  

My wraps this week... Mermaid Tales and Fountain of Youth

Live Video Feed with Jarrett Krosoczka

Another fabulous opportunity for my students discovered on Twitter...

Last night I noticed a tweet about a live opportunity Jarrett Krosoczka was offering for students today.

 I immediately emailed my teachers about it.  As usual, most were skeptical, but my two go-getter, willing to try anything, 4th grade teachers jumped at the 11:00 opportunity.   They even asked questions during the feed and Jarrett answered them!  

Wanting to get more teachers on board, I asked these two to reply to my email about how cool it was (sneaky, I know, but hey, it worked!)  and I brought it up with them in the teacher's lounge at lunch since he was doing another one at 1:00 our time.  

Once they heard how easy and fabulous it was, the rest of the teachers were all on board.  During the feed, Jarrett introduces his Platypus Police Squad books and how he draws the characters.  Some of my kinder students were even drawing along!  

 

He also showed how he changes characters facial expressions by drawing different lines around the eyes.  Here is a 2nd grader practicing.

What a super way to connect with kids and get kids excited about reading.  With summer coming up, I know what books my students are going to be looking for at the library.  

 

Here are some actual quotes from some 5th graders about the experience.  

"We are learning about his books online without him actually being here"

"We loved that it was interactive"

"Not only did he talk about his books, but he showed us how he illustrated them too"

"He gave us a sneak peak of his next book"

"We got to look at a live screen at a famous author that students across the country were able to see at the same time"

Thanks Mr. Krosoczka for a fabulous 20 min that our students will remember!  

Kate Klise is Fabulous!

Yesterday, we had the honor of hosting author Kate Klise.  And I am here to say she is fabulous!  She is the author of the "43 Old Cemetery Road" series, "The Three-Ring Rascals" series and "Little Rabbit" books.

She presented 4 sessions for my school and had a different way of presenting story writing for K,1,2 and 3,4,5. My students couldn't wait to go back to class to put into practice what she showed them. She had the students mesmerized with stories of growing up and how she and her sister, Sarah, formed their author/illustrator partnership.  

Students even made up stories on the spot using the strategies that she taught them.  

I think the thing that I loved most about her was she is so personable with staff and students.  As the students came into the library, she talked to them about school and asked them questions and as they left she stopped as many as she could and asked, "So what's your story going to be about?".  I overheard one of the 4th graders later telling a friend about the story they were going to write because "that lady made it seem like I could do it!"

Oh... and she performs magic and not just the writing kind ;) 

Tecnology Tuesday: TinkaMaker and Skitch

Last week I posted about an activity I did with 1st grade using Tinkamaker and ChatterPixKid for our upcoming Kate Klise visit.  The kids had so much fun with TinkaMaker I decided to use it again with 2nd grade.  The lesson was the same up until after they had created the picture of their "meanest mother" and saved it to the camera roll.  Then we opened Skitch

and wrote our sentence on the picture instead of recording it.  We talked about how our moms weren't really the meanest mothers on Earth, but sometimes they make us do something or won't let us do something and we feel a little angry.  But just like Little Rabbit, we always got to sleep loving them.  I loved seeing the difference between what the 1st graders and 2nd graders though was "mean" and how much more elaborate the 2nd graders thoughts were. 

Technology Tuesday: TinkaMaker and ChatterPixKids

We are so excited about our Kate Klise visit coming up in November! Today with First Grade I read her book Little Rabbit and the Meanest Mother on Earth.

Before the story, we predicted why she could be the "meanest mother on earth".  After the story, the students completed the sentence My mom is the meanest mom when she....  Then on the iPad we used the app TinkaMaker 

TinkaMaker

to create what our meanest mother looks like.  The kids had a great time adding wild hair, different shaped heads and ears and experimenting with different eyes and mouths to make her look mean.  

We took screen shots of our creations (that was exciting with first graders) and then opened the ChatterPixKid app.

ChatterPixKids

Here we were able to take our meanest mother picture, add a mouth and record our sentence.  

Both of these apps are free and tons of fun to use by themselves, but put them together and watch what happens.

Author Visit: Aaron Reynolds

OMG!! He was AMAZING!  I have been so looking forward to his visit since some of the librarians in my district had him in October and couldn't stop gushing about how great his presentations were and he was every bit as fantastic as they said.  He was engaging and energetic (I'm sure his theater background help there) and his presentation were chock full of interaction with the students.  In his Joey Fly presentation for my 4th and 5th graders, he challenged the students in a race against the clock to solve a real-live mystery, all the while teaching them the different elements a mystery has to have.

His Creepy Carrots presentation for the younger students was just as fun.  For my 2nd and 3rd graders, he discussed how a book goes from a story to an actual book, using students from the audience as the Author, the Illustrator and the Publisher.  The kids were fascinated to find out that he has never met the Illustrator of Creepy Carrots in person.

After school, many of the teachers came by to tell me how great they thought he was and how their students could not stop talking about him all day. I highly recommend an Aaron Reynolds visit!  You will not be disappointed! 

And Aaron if you are reading this, please don't judge me on my comma usage ;)