9th Rotation - survival mode

It is always kind of nuts after break because tennis season is winding up and we travel to another country for a competition. Fun, but I'm usually behind on everything.

Kindergarten - we started our Linda Sue Park study. She's the visiting author in March. We read Bee Bim Bop and What does Bunny See? Nice patterns in text to reinforce language learning.

Grade 1 - We read, Monkey : a trickster tale from India by Gerald McDermott. The students loved this book! On a sad note the talented author died January 10, 2013.

Grade 2 - We read, The Third Gift, by Linda Sue Park. The like the surprise ending and how the story unfolds. The students weren't quite sure what tree it was and what the two were going to do with the sap.

Grade 3 - Lesson 2 of the book trailer project. I tried a new graphic organizer where students had to write the lead, summary, problem, and opinion. We will see if the next writing organizer is better than last years.

Grade 4 - We read about the Korean bonfire signal system in Linda Sue Park's novel, The Firekeeper's Son. A boy's father breaks his ankle going up the mountain to light the fire and his young son goes in his place. He struggles internally about whether to light the fire or not because he knows if he doesn't the soldiers will come. And oh! How he wants to see the soldiers. Good mentor text with a clear story arc and internal conflict in a character.

Grade 5 - Students signed up or registered for Goodreads. They had to add me as their friend and from there added other friends. I told students if they wrote a review I would give them an Edmodo Goodreads badge (that I created).

6th Rotation - reflecting

Kindergarten - I read through my stack of new books. Students really liked The Bear Who Shared by Catherine Rayner. The illustrations are fascinating. She outlines the bear and fills it in with different shapes. It might be a good book for teaching patterns and shapes. On a funny note I read a book about Gertrude Stein by Jonah Winter and it was imitating her play on words. It was supposed to be funny and a boy kept saying, "This isn't funny" which of course made me laugh all the more. I know that Jonah Winter's books don't target the wee ones but it was the last book in my pile of newbies and I really wanted to read it.  

Grade 1 - They are doing character studies so I picked books with distinct characters such as Henry and Mudge, Cam Jansen, Mercer Mayer, Ling & Ting, and Fox. The language arts curriculum describes the goals of the character unit as students studying what characters say, do, and how they change; plus, "they will retell to help them hold onto meaning and will make predictions based on the characteristics of the characters in their books." I could enhance this lesson by having students retell the story using the video on the iPad. The only problem is the books above are too long except for some of the Mercer Mayer. I would have to find shorter books like Biscuit, Pup & Hound, etc.

Grade 2 - I read the book, Okay by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, where the narrator says all the things they are okay at doing. Students love that the character is actually made out of the "O" and "K." They asked me to tip the book this way and that so they could spy the character in the illustrations. I wanted students to write things they were okay at but rather than be burdened with pencil and paper I wanted them to use the Dragon Dictation app. It didn't work. The app doesn't type the correct words and they got so distracted by it that they forgot about the task at hand. Some thought it so funny that they started saying all sorts of goofy things. I don't think the lesson was a complete failure. I think next time I'll just use a recorder. They can record on Sound Cloud their thoughts and I can then post it to the library blog... I need to incorporate my blog into more of my lessons as a way for students to post their work done on the iPad and then check out on their own.

Grade 3 - Teachers asked me to show the students Fountas & Pinnell. Do you know I've done this lesson 22 times?! Nuff said. I did email Follett Company and asked for them to add the advanced feature on their mobile app. Students can't search for leveled books on the app at the moment.

Grade 4 - I read Mrs. Harkness and the Panda by Alicia Potter. We had some awesome discussions about it in every class. The first class wanted to know how long panda's live. We looked it up online. The next class wanted to find out how Mr. Harkness died. We looked that up on Wikipedia and the information was incorrect! That sparked a whole discussion on information that is accurate and not accurate and how we can learn the difference. It was a teachable moment and the students were so engaged! I was also happy with myself because I made a conscious effort to ask open-ended questions and praise students for their thinking on the text. I am also trying to think more about letting students turn and talk with a partner about the text. I don't do this enough and it is quite powerful.

Grade 5 - We started our book trailers. I showed students a book trailer I did and one done on a picture book by some 4th graders. Next, I showed the app and gave a short demo on how it works. I gave students a graphic organizer to write a book trailer and told them to get in pairs. There are some threesomes and I'm not sure how this will work. They had to choose a book and write a trailer that focuses on the problem in the story. They can't give away the ending. Those who finished quickly I gave an iPad to and let them begin. This allowed for differentiation and seemed to work well. The students were so excited to use iMovie on the iPad. What an amazing motivator. I had one boy come at recess to ask if he could work on it because he didn't want to wait for the next rotation.

1st Rotation: Lessons for Grades K to 5

Kindergarten - I read the Magic Hat by Mem Fox and wear my Disney hat that lights up. We work on routines and how to check out books at the circulation desk.

Grade 1 - I read Goldie Socks and the Three Libearians by Jackie Hopkins. Goldie Socks searches the bears house for a "just right" book. After we play a game were I have clues that spell out the sentence "a just right book." The first clue is the letter "A" and it is "the person who writes the book." When the kid gets it right they stand on the stage with the letter "A". Eventually 14 kids are standing and the ones left get to read the story.

Grade 2 - We read and I blogged about it in this post Fox on Wheels. A video of the kids retelling the story using the iTouch and iRig microphone are here.

Grade 3 - We sat in a circle and discussed our favorite summer book we read for the summer. Students used the microphone to practice speaking. We also used accountable talk reviewing how we use good listening skills. Later in the year students make book trailers and they meet in a circle to discuss two things they did well or learned and one thing they would do differently.

Grade 4 - We practiced using the catalog and talked about laptop care. I created a laptop questionnaire for students to take after school. I want them to act more responsibly with the laptops and earn the right to use them. I had one blip with this lesson. The first day of school I tried having students log on and they couldn't because they hadn't gone to computer to use their passwords. I tried to cover too much ground with the catalog by adding reading levels. Next class I'm going to just talk about reading levels and what they mean then once kids know their reading levels I can explain how it is an aid to finding just right books.



I had the kids save to their resource lists and print it to go shopping. They like that phrase, "Go shopping for books." Another grade 4 teacher uses that phrase and I took it from him. I also showed the students how to log on the Follett page. They had 15 minutes left to look for books. The lesson took 30 minutes mainly because they are familiarizing themselves with the computers' interface. During the 15 minutes I was able to help students locate books in the library.

Grade 5 - I talked about my expectations when students have free time to find books. I'm not always good about reminding kids every time they come to the library. I want to work on that this year and talk about finding books and sitting down and reading them.

Students took an online reading interest survey. I then get the results and DRA scores from teachers so that I can pull books based on what they are reading. Hopefully, I can strike up conversations with kids and they'll come to me for recommendations. This is incredibly time-consuming. It takes me hours to hand pick books. We will see if it pays off by the end of the year. If you want to see the survey go to this link. I made the survey in Google Docs and put a link on the Follett Home page.

This is one of the best starts I've had to the school year and it really helps when I can reflect on lessons and jot down what went well and what needs to be improved.

Neighborhood Book

Grade 1 put together a neighborhood book from pictures that all of the students took while going for a walk around the school. Grade 1 teachers have a unit called, "What's around the corner?" where children learn there is a relationship between humans and their local environment. They need to identify the components of a neighborhood and ways people work cooperatively with others in order to have a successful community. I've been doing this lesson for several years and found it helpful to go back and review the social studies standard and enduring understandings listed in Atlas Rubicon.

This lesson ties in with the social studies standard of ISOC5B3: c. identify examples of institutions and describe the interactions of people with institutions.

Enduring understandings: Communities are places where people live, work, play and help each other. People in the community provide services for that community. That institutions in Tien Mu are here to meet people's needs.

I have done this lesson 4 years in a row and felt like I was going through the motions this time and not really focusing on the enduring understandings. Writing a blog is a good way of snapping out of it. For this lesson I print copies of their pictures and the students choose one picture and write about it. I collect each student's sheet and make a classroom book. The next time they come to library I read them their book and put a barcode and spine label on it. Then students can check it out.

I decided to ask students about what they wrote and videotaped them. Attached is Eduardo. It shows that he's writing about the picture but he really isn't relating it back to the enduring understanding. I should have asked him: What is the temple for in the neighborhood? Who takes care of it? When I looked at most of the writing examples they just describe the picture. Next time I need spend more time on relating the photo to what it means in the community. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkxO6Lzn8m8[/youtube]

I also tried doing the lesson differently with Scott Middleton's class. I had them make a book versus doing one page. It took took too long for the 30 minutes they are in the library and it was too similar to the brochure they do in computer lab. The students loved that I had printed all the pictures they took. I'll incorporate this into the lesson next year and print off 4 photos from each group. I think if I coordinate this with the IT person or teachers they can use it with their brochure.

Head, Body, Legs

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp9pZbxvrco[/youtube]This lesson is for kindergarteners and ties in with their social studies unit titled, All About Me, where they gain knowledge of individual development and study basic external body parts. I read the silly book, Head, Body, Legs: A story from Liberia by Won-ldy Paye & Margaret H. Lippert, which is about a disembodied head that can't get cherries or mangoes from the trees unless it cooperates with the rest of the body parts. It finds arms, legs, and body and they work together to get the food they want to eat. I have done this lesson in the past using cutout butcher block paper and magnets and decided to try the Epson Brightlink. The kids loved it. All of the students were able to manipulate the pen pretty smoothly. One boy had a temper tantrum because he didn't want to wait for his turn. When head cooperates in the story he says "This is perfect." One class picked up on that and when they finished their picture they said, "This is perfect." Attached is a video showing the students manipulating the pen.

Standards Accomplished in This Unit

Library Standard 3: The student who is information literate uses information accurately and creatively.

3.3 Communicates and synthesizes ideas in logical and creative or novel ways.

3.3.2 Presents information that visually conveys the main idea and supporting details about a topic.

ISTE.NETS Standard 1: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity

Social Studies: Individual Development and Identity

ISoc4B3: c. describe the unique features of one's nuclear and extended families

Integrated Unit: All About Me – Students learn how they are special and unique.

Reader's Theater

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wui_Q44YVVs[/youtube]Grade 3 performed a reader's theater of the book, Chester's Masterpiece, by Melanie Watt. The story involves the author leaving sticky notes to the character in the book which ties in with reading strategies being taught in the classroom. I used the document reader with Avermedia software on my computer to project the book onto the wall using the Epson Brightlink projector. Students read one page of the book using the microphone from a portable speaker. Props of the author, Chester, and Rat were used as they spoke their parts. Only one of the five classes stayed focused until the end. The words were a little too hard and the lesson was a little too long. Next year I will do this lesson in the springtime when students are better readers.

I had problems with the document reader freezing. The document reader is old and the software is new so I think it is just a compatibility issue but I'm not sure. Anyone had this problem?  I attached a video. In the beginning the girl is struggling with holding the script, prop, and microphone. I told her to put the pages on the chair but she forgot. Other students would mix up the pages or drop them. I put the pages in a three-ring binder and set it on the chair and that seemed to correct the problem. I also moved the videotographer by the speaker and the sound is better in the following person on the video. I had the students' who have problems focusing run the video and flip the pages of the book.

Google Search Stories Video Creator

Hyper. Linked.

Imagine thoughts exploding in all directions.

Like my lunch.

I put an egg in the microwave for one minute. An impressive boom sounded and I ended up with a crater in my egg, (a mess to clean), and a lead for my blog. I love the speed of the microwave and Internet.

I used Google Search Stories Video Creator with two 5^th grade classes that came to the library for 45 minutes. I showed them three videos: Toy Story, Monster Cookie, and Zombie Apocalypse. The students had a blast with this lesson and didn’t want to stop. There were a few bumps along the way but we sure had fun!

The lesson involved creating a video based on the books we had discussed in the previous library lesson. Students chose groups of two or three and used one computer per group. A couple of times the students lost their Internet connection and the story disappeared. Not good. Most remembered what they typed so the frustration level remained low. Another glitch in the lesson was that we couldn’t publish the stories to YouTube. I was hoping students could use their Google Apps account but that didn’t work. I tried a generic account on Gmail and that didn’t work either. I had a hunch that the school filter or Norton’s was interfering with the download. I grabbed a video camera and taped their stories. That seemed to satisfy everyone. Luckily I get to teach the same lesson five times so I went home and was able to link a YouTube account to the generic Google Account.  I posted an example on YouTube and showed it to the second 5^th grade class. Everything was going well with no Internet connections lost and we posted 3 videos.

Or so I thought.

Google Story Creator said it was successful but when we looked on YouTube they weren’t there. I quickly told students to upload their videos and then leave the computers. I took their videos and used an online converter program saving them to a flash drive from their computers. I imported one of the videos to Corel Video Studio and there was no sound. I copied the file to my hard drive but still no sound. Perhaps it’s the MPEG extension that Corel doesn’t like? I’m starting to think that maybe I don’t want my egg to explode but will go back to cooking it on the stove in a format I know. Next, I went back to the online converter and converted the MPEG to an .avi file. That worked, but the quality was reduced.

Here’s a video of lesson.

With the first class I grabbed a video camera and it looks a little bit like an earthquake is happening but it’s my shaky hands. The second class is a downloaded and converted video. I produced it in an .flv. Is that the best format for a web page? Or is an .mp4 format better?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh8zMRxu1q0[/youtube]

I really wanted students to tell something about the story. I didn’t always get that. Instead I got a list of characters in the story like on the Pokemon section of the video. I verbally told students that they need to have the title of the book, setting, main character, and tension, but I need to slow down this part of my lesson and write it on the whiteboard.  We did do one together but I must have gone too fast. I'll have to check more for understanding. I'll let you know how it goes.

P.S. I was putting in my hyperlinks and went to YouTube typing in TASlslibrary (the generic email account). Guess what! The videos were there. There must be a delay in the posting. Yeah! No more converting.