Learning in Progress

For the last five or six weeks my third graders have been hard at work discovering their inner genius through our "Genius Hour" research time in the library.  Links to handouts and resources are in blue throughout. Genius Beginnings I first learned about the concept of Genius Hour or 20% time in the Fall, and I worked to figure out a way to tap into it to help generate excitement for research and build research skills.  Essentially, Genius Hour originated with an idea from Google, where employees are allowed 20% release time to pursue their own passions and interests as long as those interests/research could lead to something that could benefit and be used by Google.   Seriously Genius Resources Really though, if you want a much better explanation and some excellent resources, you should check out the Genius Hour website by Chris Kesler and follow him on twitter  @iamkesler .  Joy Kirr ( @JoyKirr ) keeps an excellent LiveBinder of Genius Hour Re...

I spent hours over the last few weeks putting together a presentation for 21st Century Book Talks , and then "The Technician" (my local computer genius) introduced me to the ChatterPix app, and a whole new idea for creating book talks was hatched! ChatterPix , by Duck Duck Moose, is a hilarious app that allows you to take a photo, draw a line across an area of the photo, creating a mouth, then you add in a voice over.  Once complete, you have a video in which it appears that an object in the photo is talking. You could easily have students do a 30 second book talk using this app.  All they would need to do is take a picture of the book cover using the app, select a character or object on the cover, and create a voice over that explains why someone should read it.  Here's an example of one I made for James Dean's Pete the Cat Old MacDonald Had a Farm . How to Make it Happen Open up the ChatterPix app Choose Take Photo Take a photo by pressing th...

I just finished reading an article by Audrey P. Church in the March/April 2014 Library Media Connection  "Embrace the Opportunity: Annual Professional Performance Review" and can't help but think about the idea of how we can use our performance review as a means to build advocacy for our school library programs. Currently the state of Kentucky is in the process of transitioning to a new format for evaluations called the PGES - Professional Growth and Effectiveness System.  Under this system, teachers, including teacher librarians, will be evaluated using a Framework for Teaching, based on the work of Charlotte Danielson .  The Framework (see the download on the right side of the PGES page) includes evaluation in the areas of: Planning and Preparation, Professional Responsibilities, Classroom Environment, and Instruction. As with anything new, this system is sure to generate some anxiety as teachers and teacher librarians try to figure out how to demonstrate that t...

Links are in blue throughout Stephanie Griffith @StephGriff1  and I are presenting at KySTE this week, and we're excited to be sharing what we've learned about 21st Century Book Talks. Participants during our session are going to learn about resources and tools to help them, their teachers, and their students create book trailers and book talks and method to share your work.  The session will feature information about using programs like Microsoft Movie Maker, the iMovie app as well as using features of Destiny, QR Codes and Augmented Reality to share the work. Below, you will find our Prezi and some additional resources that might help you as you plan and work with students and teachers. Here are some additional links and resources to help you. Book Trailer Storyboard - can be used with any book trailer program Book Talk Planner - could be used with Aurasma or Podcasting iMovie Book Trailer How To Playlist - includes tips for searching and saving imag...

By now, my kindergarteners and first graders are old pros at library centers.  Despite the increasing complexity of what they're doing, when I stop by their centers to give them brief instructions, I usually get comments like "We already know what to do!" and "Don't worry, we've got this!".  I've kept some of the activities fairly consistent, and have tried to add in a few new activities, especially in the Computer and Words center to mix things up for them. As with previous rounds of centers , students rotate through a series of six centers, completing a different center each week with their assigned group.  This way I know that they have likely had a chance to practice the skills at each of the centers in the six week rotation.  Each of the centers connect to Common Core Standards or AASL standards in some way, but up until this point, I haven't consistently identified "I can" statements for the centers, in the future my goal is to ...

These were the tips I sent out to my faculty today. The Augmented Reality discussion is fairly specific to a display in our building, but may be useful in generating ideas for using Aurasma.  For the Office 365 screencasts, they will be part of a series of screencasts I do to help both teachers and students in my building learn how to work with features of our new Office 365 accounts . Digital Citizenship   Gallery & Aurasma During the first semester in the library, students in grades 3-5 worked very hard at exercising a number of skills through Project Based Learning.   They practiced research skills, persistence in the use of technology, and learned about many concepts that will hopefully help make them better digital citizens.   Students made videos using iPads & iMove or Puppet Pals and Flip cameras and Microsoft Movie Maker, they created posters and made presentations to the class that we recorded live.   You can view the videos s...