Learning in Progress

Last year I hosted my first Hour of Code .  It was a rather last minute thing for me to organize because I wasn't sure if I could pull it off and I wasn't sure there would be a lot of interest.  I scheduled our Hour of Code for a Friday afternoon (because who wants to stay after school on a Friday), reserved a lab for 25, sent out an email at lunch to parents with a Google Form signup -giving them a week's notice about the event.  Thinking I wouldn't have a lot of interest because of the late notice and day, I was completely dumbfounded when I checked the registration form an hour and half later and discovered I had 51 kids signed up!  I only had 25 computers reserved!  I scrambled to find some volunteers to help me out and started lining up iPads to borrow from classrooms to supplement.  The kids LOVED it, the volunteers loved it, and I had parents requesting more coding events.  The energy surrounding the Hour of Code was incredible, and while I wanted to do mo

For years I've been hearing about librarians who have a self-checkout station for their students to use, and while I always thought that sounded like a good idea, I never really could get it together enough to set one up.  When I thought about it, it just didn't seem like something that would work in my space.  We only have five student workstations, and I couldn't justify commandeering one of those for checkout only. I use the computer at the circulation desk for both checkout and for my own teacher workstation, so having students check out on a computer where my work email may be up or where something I might be working on might be open, just sounded like too much of a hassle to manage.  After having an after school coffee meet up with one of my local school library pals, and hearing that she used a self checkout system on her teacher machine that worked, I realized that I was being silly about the whole thing and just making excuses so that I didn't have to give up

I'll be giving a GET (Guidance, Education and Technology) talk at my school about different aspects of technology.  I've compiled some research and resources to share with parents.  There is no way I can adequately cover these topics in a 30 minute session, but hopefully it will start some conversations that we can continue. H over over the Thinglink image below to check out some of the resources I've put together - or see it [ here ]  

When it comes to planning for and creating a makerspace in your library there is a lot to consider, beginning with the needs of your school community, budget and space concerns.  At the KLA/KASL 2015 Joint Conference I'll be sharing my experience with creating a makerspace on a budget.  Below you will find my slide show, and some suggested items that you might want to use as a starting point for stocking your makerspace.    Be sure to check out KyMakes as a resource for sharing and curating ideas, especially those that are standards related, and for exploring a Symbaloo of maker related links and resources . Makerspace On a Budget from hneltner Makerspace on a Budget Thinglinked Handout  Hover over the handout below to see links to some of my favorite resources and items.   Fall 2015 - Sample Supply List The list of items here is a really just for reference - it's not the perfect list, there's no such thing really - but it may get you thinking.  I d

During Tuesday's Power Lunch, teachers in my building will get a crash course on how to use Voxer to keep in touch with their team, and we'll brainstorm other uses.  We'll discuss basics such as how to use it and privacy settings.  Scroll over the Thinglinked image below to see resources that include educator examples of use and a how to video. Below you will also find a Smore of the same resources with some additional comments.  

After reading Donalyn Miller's The Book Whisperer and getting to hear her speak a few years back, I felt inspired to challenge the students in my school a challenge of that nature.  It just took me awhile to wrap my head around how to accomplish such a task with a whole school.   Facing Obstacles I had two obstacles, in my mind, to overcome.  The first was coming up with a way to monitor reading logs for a whole school.  In The Book Whisperer , Miller describes the reading journals her students keep as a living, breathing, dynamic student record.  Students are recording information about books they want to read, books they are reading.  They write letters, thoughts, ideas.  For a classroom teacher this sounds like an incredible way to interact with texts.   For a librarian like myself, working with a few hundred students, creating this kind of experience isn't quite a possibility.  I thought about using paper logs, but that seemed unreasonable, so as an experiment, I

Here are some resources I'll be sharing via Thinglink at an upcoming professional development session at Northern Kentucky University.  Hover over the document below for links to other sources.  

Resources Organized by Disciplinary Core Ideas Check out elementary level lessons and resources under general DCI arrangement [ here ] Feel free to add you own ideas to the third column! General Resources that can be used for NGSS Multimedia Lessons The following websites can not only be used to find inspiration for NGSS lessons and investigations but to support other disciplines as well. PebbleGo This is a subscription service that aligns with NGSS standards at the primary level.  If your school does not subscribe, talk to your librarian or building admin to purchase the subscription for you.  In addition to an Animals database that may be useful, you will want to for sure check out the Science database, which has “Earth and Space”, “Physical”, “Life” and “Science and Engineering Practices” as subtopics.  Each article has the ability to read the info to the student, includes important vocabulary, media of some sort. Under the “activity” feature, you can find a “share