Family Reading Night

(Better late than never)
Back on November14th , yes THREE months ago, my school held Family Reading Night.  Students and their families return to school for 2 hours of fun!
Each family was separated into one of four color coded groups and provided a schedule.  Each family attended the following events:

Meet the author:

This year we had author Wendy Pfeffer come speak with the families.  Ms. Pfeffer is the award winning author of over 48 children's books.  When looking for authors, I asked Wendy Pfeffer to come to help inspire students to read more non-fiction, Common Core related books. In Kindergarten the students all read "Sounds All Around" and "From Seed to Pumpkin" during their curriculum.  This year, second grade added her beautiful book, "Life In the Coral Reef" to their curriculum after learning about her visit.

Her visit was full of stories about how she writes, specific stories about her inspiration, and so much more.  Wendy Pfeffer was homely and listening to her speak was like listening to a family member tell a story that you are personally connected too.  Parents and students both loved hearing her speak and many had books signed at the end.  She hand wrote little notes to each child.  It was very nice of her.

Family Reading:

During the night, parents and students stop in the library to read together.  This is a great opportunity for students to show their parents our beautiful library and read their favorite books.  As a "reward" for coming, families are able to check out an additional library book beyond their usual circulation allowance.

Music and Storytelling:
One stop is in the music room.  This year our music teacher stayed and sang songs with the students and their families.  It is fun to go down to the music room and see the students excited to sing along with students of different grade levels.  This year the students sang and looked at pictures for an eye-spy interactive adventure.

Art Room:
Every year our art teacher develops an art project that relates to the visiting authors books.  Students love to stop in the art room and go home with something they created that night.

Thank You Doug Johnson at The Blue Skunk Blog

http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2013/12/12/72-of-librarians-seen-as-tech-leader-not-enough.html

Doug started his post today with the following I infrographic: 

http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2013/12/k-12/steal-infographic/

He continued to promote librarians as tech leaders. This is what I do everyday, or hope to do everyday.  

Doug asks why every librarian is not a tech leader and I don't have an answer. I am thankful that my School Library Media Specialist graduate program was really an Educational Technology program with library classes intertwined.  I chose my program for this reason. There were other options out there though that did not offer as many tech classes. My feeling is that they either haven't recognized the change that came OR more likely, they haven't taken the time to revamp their programs. 

The BIG problem is, administration programs do not include training on how to handle libraries and librarians. I am not sure how much technology is included in administrative and supervisor courses. Doug writes "On seeing a new box that plugs in, rather than asking “How fast is the processor?” or “How big is the hard drive?”, a librarian tends to ask “What is it good for?” Good librarians are neither technophiles nor technophobes. The librarian considers and teaches not just how to use technology, but why and under what circumstances it should be used."  As an teacher/SLMS I find principals, superintendents, and CFOs, view the technology requirements, the cost, and immediate needs unlike the librarian. They look to the IT department first and the librarian second or third if at all. 

So what do we do?

We change the training. We revamp the courses for librarians, principals, superintendents and other administrators. We hire technology coaches or technology instructors to assist the librarians. The future is here! We all need to be a part of it, not just 72% of us. 

Voice QR

If you know me you know I love QR codes.  Recently I learned about Voice QR thanks to David Lee Edtech: http://www.davidleeedtech.org/.  I follow him on Instagram and love to see what is going on in his classroom.

QR Voice, http://qrvoice.net/,  allows you to type 100 characters and it will create a QR code that links to a voice speaking your text.

This tool is simple to use. Type your words in the box that says "say what?" and click the QR button at the end.  You can even choose a different language.

Once the QR code appears use the slider to select a size and click it.  A single click opens the QR code in stand alone window so it can be printed without any border or distractions.  Go back and create another one.

Try the QR Code below to hear, "If you Michel Rex's Fangbone books, try the Dragonbreath series by Ursula Vernon".  (Since Michael Rex came to our school last year and put on a spectacular author visit, the students adore his books and it is easy to use his books to make a connection with other books.  Check out Michael Rex: http://mikerexbooks.blogspot.com/2013/11/i-need-volunteer.html)

There are so many ways this can be used in the classroom.  It will be great for ELL and ESL learners. PreK, Kindergarten, and Special Education students will greatly benefit.

Classroom uses:

1.  Make up spelling test

2. Talking posters

3. Talking worksheet directions

4. Talking homework

5. Interactive museum

6. Book recommendations

7. Write the room

8. SO many more options...

Aurasma and Augmented Reality

(I started this post 3 weeks ago, just after the NJ Teacher's Convention and am finally finishing it. Sorry for the delay.)

Augmented Reality while not new is really starting to come into the classroom.  I could not be more excited.  Whenever I can I try and use QR codes or create them for the teachers in my school to use and  this is the next step.  Watch this great Common Craft video that describes what Augmented Reality is: http://youtu.be/D-A1l4Jn6EY

Thanks to the NJEA Teacher's Convention last week I was able to see some things I had been researching in action.

Aurasma, http://www.aurasma.com

Aurasma's saying is "every image, object and even place can have its own Aura".   After downloading the app made available in both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, you hold your device up to something that is set to have an Aura and watch the screen.  The result may be simple, like an image, text, or link to a webpage comes up, BUT, it can be so much more.  You may see an 3D lifelike image, a video, or an interactive menu appear. Aurasma has created a video that shows a series of examples:

There are educators already using this in their classroom and I cannot wait to join them.

Uses for the classroom

1. A student created a poster and now they can add a layer in which they describe information in more detail.

2. Video tutorials of how to use apps

3. Video tutorials of practically anything.

4. Interactive classroom posters allow your students to see and hear word, word sounds, writing rules, proper grammar, and much more.

5. An interactive Word Wall is great for students to understand the meaning and spelling of words.  You can put the students in control create the videos that put the words in a sentence or provide the definition.

6. Animate a mathematical problem being solved. Post the trigger image to your website and students can review at home.

AR Flash Cards: http://arflashcards.com/

AR Flash Cards is a free app for the alphabet and $.99 for Space.  

The alphabet has 26 animals that come to life, 1 for each animal. (Included are also 6 dinosaurs.) Tap on each animal to hear the Letter and the name of the animal.

Students can interact with the animal to see it from different angles and take screenshots of what they are seeing.

First you print the flashcards in color, cut them out, and open the app.  Aim the camera at the cards and it looks the images below.  Students can move the card or iPad around to get different angles.

I brought this into you prek 3 and 4 year olds and Kindergarten as well.

Happy Halloween

Check out today's Google Doodle!  It is a fun interactive Halloween doodle.  Depending on what two ingredients you choose to put into the witch's cauldron, you get a different interactive result.

For Halloween this year I am Super Grover.  The alter ego of Grover! 

Tried It Tuesday- Nooks!

I'm linking up with Fourth Grade Flipper for the first time for Tried It Tuesday since today was a BIG day for me

This week is the first week my students are allowed to check Nooks out of the library.  Each Nook is acting like one library book and the students can have it for 2 weeks.  Setting up the Nooks was a process.


Step 1: Obtain Funding for the Nooks
Each Simple Touch Nook starts at $79.  (If you are interested in a Kindle they start at $69 with advertisements, $89 without.)   The price of a Children's Nook Book vary.  New titles are about $9.99 but since I was just starting my collection, I could purchase many titles for $4.99.   Covers to protect the Nooks were $15.00.

Getting money is hard. I truly feel lucky to work in the district I work in.  Both the PTO and local education foundation are extremely supportive.  Each year the PTO donates $1,000 to the library which is almost always spent on books and basic supplies.  Last year it was spend on Nooks.  I totaled everything above out and ended up with 8 Nooks, 8 Covers, and money left over books!

Step 2: Setting up the Nooks
Once the funds were set, the Nooks were ordered, and had finally arrived, everything needed to be set up.  Decisions had to be made.  With 8 Nooks I decided I wanted to split them into two groups: lower level readers and higher level readers.  The lower level would be for 2nd and 3rd graders and the higher for 3rd and 4th graders.  While searching the Barnes and Noble website I created a spreadsheet  recording  the title, author, and price of each books I wanted.

Next, I worked with the Community Relations Manager at our local Barnes & Noble store and gave her my two list.  She said I only needed to buy each book ONCE!  If I had two email accounts, every time you buy a book it can be read on up to 6 devices.  So I was able to select more books!  In the end I had 40 books for the lower level and 41 for the higher level.  81 books total!

Since we are a school and use Purchase Orders, the Community Relations Manager purchases all the books and emails you the code to redeem each book.  Each code must be redeemed individually.  This was time consuming...

Once all the codes are redeemed you need to go to the Nooks and register each device to a specific email address.  Your library will sync so all the books you just redeemed are now on the Nook.  For this having a strong wireless connection is extremely helpful.

Step 3: Getting the Students Ready
So the Nooks are ready but are the students?

My students were very excited to hear they could take Nooks home for two weeks.  I sat them down and went over a variety of rules.   First, We discussed the benefits of having a 40 books for 2 weeks at a time. Then I explained the cost of a Nook vs the cost a book from the shelf.  They learned that all Nooks must be handed back to me in person.  We discussed that EVERY child that wants to take home a Nook must have a special AUP/Consent form signed.  Students were informed that not everyone will have theirs signed.  I received a large number back, it was a great surprise!

Students then learned about our binders.  Blue for 3rd and 4th grade, green for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.  Above our resources bin I am keeping 2 binders.  Inside the binder is a wait list for students who have signed forms and behind that a list of all the books that can be found in the Nook.

Step 4: Checking the Nooks in/out
This week the Nooks are ready to go!  It is going to smoothly.  As I hand the student whose names are at top of the list their Nooks, I remind them that it must came back to me in 2 weeks time.  I show them the directions I made inside to help them out, and tell them if it needs a charge to bring it back.  (I debated sending home the micro USB cords and decided to keep them as most families have one for some device or another at home and it is just another thing to get lost.)

The cases I bought each have pockets so include instructions on basic operations I think they will need to use the Nooks.

Halloween Week (and My Truth Monday) updated

It is Halloween Week and as the years pass I begin to like Halloween more and more.

Kindergarten
This week, the Kindergartners are watching the BrainPop Jr. video about Fall, coloring a fall bookmark to accompany the video I made, and with the time remaining we are going to come with 1 word for each letter of the alphabet about Halloween.  My first class of the week did very well  with identifying words and their first letter.

First Grade
In first grade we have been spending time focusing on basic library and computer skills.  So this week we will focus on parts of a book, especially a spine.  Students will get to choose from some Halloween themed books for a read-a-loud. Today's class chose "Miss Fiona's Stupendous Pumpkin Pies" which I LOVE.

After we talked about the parts of a book: cover, title page, back cover, and spine. A few years ago I found this great worksheet "Books Have A Spine Just Like Mine" from the Modesto City Schools Library Media Lessons.  The students love the lesson every year and its a great and fun parts of a book review.

Here is my sample for this year:

Second Grade

The second graders are making surprise Halloween shapes in Excel.  This is their first time using Excel.  I like to introduce it with creating an image so students get used to naming and finding cells.  once my classes do this I will post it.   I made my own image and want it to be a surprise.

Examples of my stretched out pumpkin:

Directions:

Download Here

To wrap up my Monday I'm linking up with Sunny Days In Second Grade for:

Each week there a new topic and people share truths about that topic.  This is my first Monday linking up and I am excited.  This is a great way to get to know others in the blogger world. 

So here we go:

What creeps you out?