TLC = Tech + Library + Classroom

Library Love

2011-12-14T02:18:00.001-08:00

Oh, how I love our library team. We work together so well, and they always have my back. Eternally grateful for lovely library assistants.

Speaking of grateful, I am over the moon with a group of 4th and 5th graders who helped me build our library Christmas tree. So far, this is the best way I've found to use outdated reference books and weeded materials. I showed them a picture, they worked together beautifully, and now each time I walk in the Hub, I am filled with joy.

Mother/Daughter Book Club

2011-12-03T04:15:00.001-08:00

Way back in January, my virtual library friend Becky Maher posted about hosting a mother/daughter book club in her library. I knew then and there that I had to find a way to make this a priority in our Hub this school year. After much reading, I decided on The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z by Kate Messner. It is filled with such beautiful writing and a bit of mother/daughter conflict, and it proved to be a great choice for discussion. This time around, we invited 4th and 5th grade girls and their mothers to be a part of the evening. There was so much love in the room that it had me choked up as I welcomed everyone.

Part of the Gianna Z book is about how Gianna and her friend Zig look at everyone and give them tree names depending on their personalities. Our homework was to bring a photo of a tree that represented each of us, which we then added to our group mural. We even had one grandma who sent leaves all the way from Germany to her granddaughter so she could scatter them on our mural.

Our evening schedule was set up like so:

1. Eat Italian wedding cookies (they feature in the book often), drink hot chocolate and add your tree picture to the mural.

2. Have your photo taken with mom

3. We then broke into small groups of six and answered the questions we provided. Our idea was to ensure that everyone was comfortable and providing questions is a good way to do that. The back of the book had amazing questions, and we used those.

4. After about 20 minutes or so, we gathered as a group again to list some comments and questions for Kate herself. She graciously donates 10 free minutes on Skype, and we were set to meet with her the following week. The girls had thoughtful questions and tons of them!

Now for the father/son book club planned for the spring. I imagine it will look much different than the girls' group, but I still can't wait to spend the evening with all of them.

Skype & Connections

2011-12-02T05:14:00.001-08:00

I am downright amazed at the power of Skype in schools, especially for those of us so far away. A simple conversation with a classroom teacher about how her class had so deeply connected to Barbara O'Connor's book Greetings from Nowhere led to an intimate Skype call with Barbara less than a week later. The students had so many thoughtful questions to ask her, and she was delightful and dynamic. It was the perfect way to wrap up a powerful read aloud.

The Hubmobile

2011-11-09T17:04:00.000-08:00

Sadly, most of Bangkok is underwater at the moment, and our school was closed unexpectedly for two weeks. Even though our area is dry (thankfully!), the students were going a bit crazy without any new books from the Hub.

Some quick thinking created the Hubmobile. Our fabulous yellow golf cart became an old-fashioned booknmobile set up right next to our neighborhood grocery store. It quickly became a fun way for kids to come and check out some books to replenish their supply. I loved every second of it!

An extra bonus was that my daughter loved being the announcer. "GET YOUR BOOKS!" Beyond cute!

Branching Out

2011-11-07T06:08:00.000-08:00

I've been a big fan of Wallwisher for some time now, but one drawback has been the limited number of characters allowed. As I am preparing for an upcoming presentation on the power of Destiny Quest book reviews, I needed something with more space to showcase some stellar book reviews the students have been doing completely independently (oh, how I love that they are so thoughtful when they are working on their own).

Enter Corkboard. Love it! It has the cool, old-school bulletin board look and enough space for me to include all their thoughtful words to share with librarians soon.

Here is the actual link to see all their writing.

Double the Fun

2011-10-31T06:32:00.000-07:00

A while back, I ordered a book called Not a Box and loved it. All that creativity in one short book was great, but how would I use it in the library when it was just a quick book to share?

Enter the fabulous website called Draw a Stickman, recommended by my friend Laura. Since both the book and the website are all about creativity, it was a perfect combination. I read the book*, we brainstormed some activities that make us feel creative**, and then I showed them the website and did it together. (I won't spoil the fun here as surprise is everything, so please try it yourself!) We then had enough time for everyone to play on the site themselves before checking out. Double the creativity. Love it!

*What took me by surprise is that I read this all the way up to 3rd grade, and everyone ate it up.

**Their answers for what makes them feel creative were so cool. My favorite was a 1st grader who said, I feel creative when I ask questions. Like when I asked my mom why the walls don't just fall down. Then I felt creative."

Pre-K Class Books Gone Viral!

2011-09-22T05:15:00.000-07:00

This year, my daughter is in Pre-K, and it's so fabulous seeing her around school and even better having her in the Hub once a week. Little did she know that her nose-picking would inspire what has become a series of hilarious class books at our school. I decided to make a class book with the Pre-K classes called Don't Pick Your Nose. We brainstormed all the places we shouldn't pick our noses--on a rocket ship, in the swimming pool, in the library.

Well, it turned out to be such a fun and funny project (even the 5th graders love the books!) that I did it with the kinder classes as well. There are murmurs of 2nd graders wanting to do the same project. Fun, fun, fun! It also made me realize how fun it is to make a finished product in the library that then goes into the classroom library. I want to do more of that this year! Maybe something with taking pictures next...

To display the book online, I used Youblisher. J'Adore Youblisher, and all you need is all the photos on one big PDF file. Simply upload when that is ready!

*To turn the pages on this book, click on the cover and then place your cursor on the page and click. Turns just like a real book, complete with page-turning sound (love that part).

*Above photo is one of our Kinder teachers who made her own groovy cover for the book. She says it's one they are reading over and over!

e-Browsing Across the Ocean

2011-09-18T06:29:00.000-07:00

I'm absolutely fascinated by all the excitement that e-readers are generating for kids and adults alike, and I love talking about how libraries are beginning to play a crucial part in all this. Despite my excitement, I've always been a paper book gal myself.

Until recently, that is.

My local library in the US now has Overdrive, the e-book platform that is super, duper cool. It took me a while to figure out how to use it (hint: download the free Overdrive app), but once I did, there was no stopping me. I now spend my Sunday nights browsing the shelves of my favorite small-town library all the way over here in Thailand, reading blurbs of new books or putting books on hold or downloading books to my iPad. And it's free! FREE! I say this because every time I am in the States, I am downright shocked at how many people do not use their public libraries. Free books! You simply can't go wrong.

Did I mention that Sunday night browsing takes place during a foot massage? Thailand is the land of fabulously wonderful and affordable massage. Combining massage with book browsing is a slice of heaven for me.

Books Too Good to Miss

2011-09-07T06:08:00.000-07:00

As most librarians do, I host a teacher coffee morning with books every now and then. In getting ready for the morning, I spend some time writing sticky notes on the covers about how I would use the book with students or why I thought the book was so great. As I was setting up for one last school year, a parent walked by and said how much something like that would help her with her book choices.

Such a smart mama. Because of her, "Books Too Good to Miss" was born.

Our literacy coach, Tammy, and I wanted to keep the morning simple and casual--give parents time to look at quality titles and take some home with them. We chose four major areas and set up tables filled with titles related to those themes:

Reluctant Readers, Non Fiction, Early Literacy and Family Readalouds.

The morning was a smashing success! Over 65 parents showed up, and after a short introduction of reading aloud the book The Dot by Peter Reynolds (parents love to be read to as well!) and an overview of the themes, most of the 90 minutes were spent browsing books and talking, talking, talking. My big aha of the morning--parents are hungry not only for good books, but also for time to talk to librarians. Time to talk about their child who only reads Junie B. Jones or to deeper understand the importance of reading in their home language.

Two more "Books too Good to Miss" are scheduled for this school year. Hoping that is enough!

Digital Book Trailer Keynote

2011-06-28T08:38:00.000-07:00

I've finally managed to drag myself away from the depths of summer vacation long enough to post the information that I presented at the ECIS conference. It was such fun to share this with others, and I loved hearing from librarians who went back to their respective schools and gave it a try right away. My hope was to share something practical and do-able, and I felt that came through.

Feel free to share the digital book trailer love.

In addition, my wiki for detailed info on how to create a trailer is found here.

Now, back to summer vacation!

Inspiration

2011-05-20T07:02:00.001-07:00

One of the things I love about the digital age is all the sharing. What we used to call copying is now called 'being inspired,' and I have been buzzing with inspiration since returning from the ECIS conference.

When I read this post on one of my favorite blogs, I was immediately inspired. We read Kindergarten Rocks! by Katie Davis (check out her website--very cute!) and then brainstormed all the things we thought rocked this year in kinder. We made a quick Voicethread recording afterwards and will now share this with our Pre-K students who are heading to kinder next year. Super fun activity that wasn't too taxing at this time of year when energy is waning!

Summer Reading

2011-05-19T01:28:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again. Time to start thinking of the lazy days of summer when the extra time allows for tons of reading. As I began to put together a list for each grade level, I started thinking that there should be more than just me recommending books. Kids recommend books to each other all the time. Then, a tweet about kids helping each other find books using a google form* inspired me to make my own google form and put it on our Destiny homepage. Yet another use for that homepage!

*To make your own google form, look on your gmail account under google docs. There are so many fun choices of templates. Make sure to remember to change the setting to make it public.

90 responses and counting! Top winners so far are Children of the Lamp, Quantum Prophecy and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

ECIS Library/Tech Conference

2011-05-17T20:37:00.000-07:00

Imagine 200+ librarians in one room, all excited and buzzing and sharing and learning. That would be the ECIS Library/Tech conference I attended last week. It was hands-down the best library professional development I've had. Of course, the conference being held in Istanbul was the icing on the Turkish delight. We were wined and dined on the Bosphorus by the book companies and were saturated with awesome information from the keynotes, Doug Johnson and Joyce Valenza.

It was also my first tweet-up (this is when you meet people from Twitter in real life!) with @sducharme, @librarydonna and @librareanne. It was great to meet them all and learn from them. Amazing connecting all around, and I'm already dreaming of the next one three years from now.

My big takeways from the conference...

1. Only2Clicks--using this to house the game and sites allowed in our tech zone. The visual part is so appealing.

2. Sqworl--Love this for finding age-appropriate sites quickly. Again loving the visual aspect of this.

3. QR codes--I am finally setting up my own QR code station (blog post to follow!), inspired by Book Trailers For All.

Last takeaway is that Istanbul is an amazing city. Cannot wait to go back one day!

iPad Apps To Love

2011-04-07T20:07:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted about iPad Apps we are loving, and the list is growing!

I Write Words is the best handwriting app I have come across. What I love most is that it requires kids to trace the letter the proper way, and the little crab that guides you squeaks if you go the wrong way. Plus, it has a few extra features that make it engaging for little ones doing handwriting practice.

Little Explorers ABC Go is another favorite. The entire app is various forms of transportation, organized in abc order, and the bonus is there is a YouTube video demonstrating each and every mode of transportation. We are big fans of the ice skating and unicycle examples.

Little Things is a fun finding app that has a nice twist to it.

For the adults, I am loving the Zinio app. It gives me access to tons of magazines, and I get a full article from about ten features magazines a month. If I choose to purchase the magazine, great. If not, I can always wait until next month to read more articles for free. Just love this one.

Lastly, I must forewarn that Chicktionary is a bit addicting, especially for those who love word games. Anything that has kids playing around with words is a good thing.

Twitter Love

2011-03-30T18:52:00.000-07:00

More and more, I find myself loving the connections that Twitter provides me. Whether it's a link to a tool that is perfect for a librarian or a book recommendation to add to my order, I'm starting to "know" some of the people out there and am so grateful for what they add to my professional life.

And then there is just the "How cool is that?" connections like what happened to me yesterday. I tweeted out a book trailer for the newest in the Pinkalicious series because our little ones are nuts over these books.

This is what came back to me a few hours later. It made me smile for hours.

New to Twitter? Ready to take the leap? The best way that I find to keep up with it is to install a Tweetdeck where the tweets pop up in a window rather than always logging in to Twitter.

Looking for librarians to follow? Check out this list.

Keith Baker, author/illustrator

2011-03-29T18:07:00.000-07:00

Last week, we had the extreme pleasure of inviting author and illustrator Keith Baker to ISB. It was such a fun week of drawing and sketching and feeling inspired, and I had more than one parent tell me that their dinner conversation was all about the visit. Other parents told me that their child immediately wanted his or her own sketchbook so they could always jot down ideas in that moment. One of my favorite pieces of feedback was this picture sent from the Pre-K teacher. This little cutie spent her choice time drawing all the expressive faces that Keith showed us. Keith hides tiny things in all of his books, and it doesn't matter how old you are, the concept of finding something on each page appeals to us all. These 4th graders were clamoring to find the green worm on the pages of Little Green.
My personal favorites of Keith's books are the Mr. and Mrs. Green series. As a teacher, you know a book is magic when the exact same story can make the first graders guffaw as loudly as the fifth graders. Most unfortunately, this amazing series is going out of print, so if your library doesn't have them, I would highly recommend the series. I use it as a mentor text to show the use of the 'power of 3' in writing and also for character.
If you are looking for a visiting author, I'd recommend Keith Baker!

Embedding in the Destiny Home Page

2011-03-13T16:17:00.000-07:00

I use my Destiny home page a lot. Once I figured out that I can embed anything or I can simply write a message on it, I knew it was the best place for me to communicate with lots of students at one time. Typically I use it to share book trailers, and it seems like there are more and more great book trailers out there every time I search.

Here's how to embed a book trailer on your home page in four easy steps:

Step 1: Log in to Destiny. Your home page will be blank, while mine already has the trailer on it. Click 'edit page.'

Step 2: Click the edit button on this page (one with the piece of paper icon)

Step 3: Copy the embed code from Youtube or whatever program you are using (this can be found directly under the Youtube video with the word 'embed') and paste it in the box. I unclick the 'add related videos' button. Don't forget the title on the top. Then save.

Step 4: Click on the 'close' button. Your video will show up now on the home page.

That's it!

Cool Tools

2011-03-09T03:19:00.000-08:00

Every Monday and Wednesday after school, Chrissy and I run after-school tech sessions. And while we generally focus on any and all tech questions, we have been thinking of ways to expand our offerings and share some fun tools to try in the classroom. Today was our first "Cool Tools" session, and I made this quick speech bubble photo of us using Big Huge Labs (LOVE this site--use the 'captioner' selection when you scroll down).

I sent the photo out as the body of the email letting teachers know about the session, and we had such a lovely response. Such a fun way to make your message stand out in this age of email overload.

Fotobabble

2011-03-07T13:53:00.000-08:00

Nothing like a morning meeting with our fabulous tech lady to get the ideas flowing. Chrissy showed me Fotobabble, a tool that allows you to add voice to a single picture. Quick and easy, I made one to add to our Destiny homepage as a way of advertising our upcoming Celebrating Characters We Love event. Just upload the photo and record your voice.

Celebrating Characters We Love--Diary of a Wimpy Kid

2011-02-26T17:35:00.000-08:00

I've held the 5th graders off long enough--they were ready for their own Celebrating Characters Day back in December, but I asked them to wait just a bit for me to catch my breath after Star Wars. What I love about the big kids is that they already formed an organizing group and came ready with ideas for our Diary of a Wimpy Kid Celebration that will take place on March 18. We're making advertisements this week, and we have written a letter/plea to Jeff Kinney to tape a short message that we could play at the celebration. It's a long shot, but they feel strongly that I should send it (we're including the photo of us with our Greg and Holly masks on).

One big change we are making this time is to not have food at the event. It was simply too crazy, and the kids had no problem with this. Instead, it's shaping up to be a pretty creative afternoon. Another change is that the organizers want to run a center instead of simply attending the event. Here are some of our centers thus far:

1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid website in the tech zone
2. Drawing tutorials in the Smartboard area--one girl is filming herself drawing Greg and Holly and will also wander around to help others
3. Cheese Touch game--this will be a version of the traditional Heads-Up 7Up game, but with the cheese touch
4. Trivia tests, both easy and hard
5. Unfinished Comics from the Do It Yourself Wimpy Kid book

The only bummer is that there are no costumes this time. I do love a good excuse to dress up!

Skype an Author--Todd Parr

2011-02-25T03:24:00.000-08:00

Every now and then, I peruse the Skype an Author network to see if there are any new contributors. Imagine my utter joy to find one of my very favorite authors, Todd Parr, on the list. We are huge fans of his work at ISB, so we arranged a time to have him meet with our kindergarteners. The whole experience was nothing short of magical.
Todd is one of those people who is a natural with kids, and he had them howling with laughter at just the right times. I mean, how can you not when you read a book about Underwear?! He read us two books and then showed us how he does his drawings (very cool Skype feature!). This part was great because we are going to use Todd's books as mentor texts for our kindergarten illustration unit next year. Actually, the whole experience made me smile all day long.

And the icing on the cake? We made his Facebook page!
Now onto finding a way to get Todd Parr to come visit us in Thailand next year...

Youblisher & Keith Baker

2011-02-21T23:56:00.000-08:00

My friend Chrissy shared this cool tool called Youblisher with me, which allows you to take PDF files and read them like an online magazine. One of our 4th grade teachers is sharing her class magazine this way with parents, and I loved the idea. Easy storage, better for the environment and quick delivery. But, how to use it in the library?

Enter our class letters to our upcoming visiting author and illustrator, Keith Baker. Our Pre-K through second grade classes did a shared writing lesson with me and we wrote about how much we are loving Keith's books. Youblisher is a perfect way for me to share these letters with him, and I love seeing their work displayed in this format! Already picturing Keith leafing through our words over a cup of coffee and getting excited for his visit to Thailand in March.

Just click on the link and then drag a bit to turn the page.

One quick note about Youblisher...

You can only upload one time, so I made a word document with all the pictures of the letters we wrote and then turned it into a PDF document.

Online Reading Subscriptions

2011-02-09T15:02:00.000-08:00

Finding online subscription sites that teachers and students actually love using is not always easy. Just recently, through blogs and recommendations, I've come across three sites that are working very well for us at ISB. The first two have free trials, and I highly recommend giving them a go.

PebbleGo has been amazingly successful at our school, and we are just now finishing our 2-week trial period. I've had the computers booked often in the last few weeks for classes to use this, and it's perfect for supplementing our non-fiction units of study. Plus, it's incredibly engaging with short text, a video component and very relevant but fun games. Thanks, Franki, for the tip!

Since PebbleGo was so successful, I decided to trial Capstone's site for older readers called Capstone Digital. The feedback I have from 4th grade students was very positive: they said it was easy to find something that interested them, they loved the choice of having it read to you, and the scary books and graphic novels were their favorites. Personally, I can never seem to have enough scary books to meet the demands of readers. The only negative feedback, from only a few kids, was that they thought it went too slowly when they turned the page. That being said, a good test of anything, in my opinion, is if it hooks the reluctant readers. One of the kids I always have an eye on could not stop reading the graphic novel on Pearl Harbor. That sold me!

The last one is called Our Little Earth, a current event site that a 5th grade teacher told me about it. For $40.00 US a year, it is definitely worth trying. I will get an email once every two weeks, which I will then forward on to the teams in our upper elementary. The samples on the website looked interesting, relevant and at a good reading level.

Anyone have any other suggestions of sites that are super successful?

Connecting in a Big School

2011-02-08T17:32:00.000-08:00

Working in a big school sometimes makes it tricky to connect with kids as quickly as I'd like about new books or new websites to try. So, when our mid-year book order arrived yesterday with all these titles I knew the kids were waiting for, I decided to make a quick movie of me just talking to them like I would if I had them all in the same room.
I also added the movie to my Destiny homepage (love the Destiny homepage for advertising!) and I only have 4 new chapter books left out of the 20 I had yesterday. Not too shabby!

Our Favorite iPad Apps

2011-01-25T00:10:00.001-08:00

To say that our two iPads in the Hub are popular is an understatement. Somehow getting our second iPad has caused even more kids to spend their recess time vying for a chance to play on it. Today, I did an informal data collection of what the favorite apps of the moment are. I love that wordle is such an easy tool to use to show data and that it always is pleasing to the eye as well.

4th & 5th grade results:

2nd & 3rd grade results:

I love that although Cut the Rope is a game, it's so fabulous for angles and geometry and physics. My next task is to see what their favorite apps are at home. Prediction: Angry Birds. Or at least that is what is crazy popular in our house.

The Finnish Have it Going On!

2011-01-24T01:11:00.001-08:00

I came across this video the other day on Twitter, and I just love it. It was put out by the Finnish library system, and I think they rock. Short and sweet but also powerful. I'd love to make one with students to promote our library.

The Book Challenge of 2010

2011-01-14T18:46:00.000-08:00

88 was my final number of the 100 Book Reading Challenge of 2010. Before leaving for the December holiday, the students suggested that I start reading picture books towards the end just so I could make 100, but I opted to stick with what I originally planned: kid lit and adult chapter books.

I loved the challenge, and I often found myself reviewing all those great titles I read in 2010. Now onto the challenge of 2011.

Image Attribution: minusbaby

More iPad Apps to Love!

2010-12-16T16:20:00.000-08:00

Pad fever is starting at our school. From kids who tell me they have one at home to a few teachers who have purchased one as well, there is some serious iPad love blossoming at ISB.

Here are some of my new favorite apps to add to our growing collection on the Hub iPads (our lovely PTA donated another iPad to us a few weeks ago, and we are overjoyed!).

Cut the Rope (.99 cents)
Love the strategy involved in this game. Your job is to feed a Christmas creature a piece of candy by cutting various ropes at the right time. It looks deceivingly simple, but it's a great challenge, and I see tons of potential for collaborative use (much like Gravity HD). Plus, the creature is super cute!

Lego Creationary (free app)
You cannot go wrong with Legos & kids, and this app is great for spatial skills. You roll a 3-D dice (even that is cool!) and then watch a Lego structure being built. As it is being built, you decide which of the pictures shown it will be, all within a time limit. This one is crazy popular during our recess times with all ages of students.

Alphabet Car (free app for the lite version)
This game, designed for the wee ones, is fun because the iPad itself becomes the steering wheel of the car. You try and drive the bus into various letters to spell 3-letter words. 1st graders had a lot of fun with this the other day.

I'm pretty sure our school is piloting iPads in the early childhood classrooms next semester. Can't wait to see some of these apps in the classroom setting.

Star Wars, the Aftermath

2010-12-15T19:04:00.000-08:00

a view from outside...I love these funky windows in our Hub.
Let's just say that the Star Wars Marathon was a big hit! Like, 125+ kids and a lot of parents in one space but still heaps of chaotic fun. The Lego activity was the most popular, and I found that kids did not want to leave that center. Overall, it was great fun, but I need to do some future thinking about how to organize these for a smaller amount of kids. I guess if too many kids being excited about something is my biggest problem, that's a good problem to have.
A surprise addition to our event was the visit of many Star Wars characters. Our middle school put on the play last year, and a group of students offered to come and walk around in costume and in character. It was the perfect addition to the party and a perfect addition to my Princess Leia outfit!

One of our centers was a graphing center. I did a quick search for something free and easy to use to show the data, and this one from Kids Zone was very straightforward. Any other easy-to-use sites that anyone knows of to create graphs?

More Celebrating Characters We Love

2010-12-08T03:32:00.000-08:00

Last school year's Percy Jackson event was such a success that I started thinking of how to offer something similar for the younger grades this year. When I took more than three seconds to think about what characters make the kids crazy excited, I thought of Star Wars. Our Star Wars basket is one of the first students run to in the Hub, and I try to continue adding to it when I find a new book at a bookstore.

I enlisted a small group of 2nd and 3rd grade Star Wars fanatics to help me design the special day, and they decided that we call it the Star Wars Marathon (I love that the event is 45 minutes after school, and we are calling it a marathon!). Again, I'm keeping it simple with six different stations and having kids rotate at their leisure.

Here are the stations--all names created by our organizing team

1. Death Star Coloring (color your favorite character)
2. Mustafar Battle (show off your light saber moves)
3. Star Wars Structures (putting a ton of Legos out and some ideas of how to make something Star Wars-ish)
4. The Quest for R2D2 (take a quiz to show what you know)
5. Force Jump Training (a non-violent Star Wars online game)
6. Jedi Archives (our graphing station to view our favorites)

Using Photopeach, we made a short promotional video to get people excited about the event. I adore Photopeach.

While all this planning has been going on, the 4th and 5th graders have already begun planning the next event--without me because I was helping with the younger students. I am told that Diary of a Wimpy Kid will be the next Celebrating Characters We Love. Talk about a gradual release of responsibility...

Wallwisher & New Title Browsings

2010-11-22T23:07:00.001-08:00

It's been a while since I've used Wallwisher, and I wanted to introduce a new 4th grade teacher and her class to the tool since it is fairly simply to navigate and has tons of uses in the classroom. We started our lesson with a quick title recommendation, and then we moved on to the Solon Community School District website hosting tons of wallwishers and video reviews created by the students. Many of our students went straight to the video reviews and they loved them. The room was buzzing with kids checking Destiny to see if we had the title, and then coming right to me if we didn't to ensure I put it on the order. I added quite a few to our list of new books to buy.

QR Codes in the Library

2010-11-17T22:46:00.000-08:00

Wow. Wow. Wow.

I've been hearing rumblings of something called QR codes, but I had no idea what they were until Kim posted this video on Twitter the other day. After watching, you could have knocked me over with a feather. Jeff is calling 2011 "The Year of the Code," and I think he's on to something.

QR codes are perfect for the library--just perfect. The condensed version of QR codes are that they are barcodes that hold a lot of data and can be scanned using a mobile device or laptop. You decide what information you want on the barcode: it can be a URL or a written message. When you create a QR code (I've been using Kaywa to make mine), you print it out and tape it to any surface to be read by a QR scanner. Below is the QR code for my book recommendation blog.

To get a QR reader for your laptop or mobile device, there seem to be many choices of apps. Here's one to try.

Ideas swimming in my library brain:

1. Messages on QR codes about why kids like certain books. I print and tape onto the book cover.
2. QR codes linking to various book trailers.
3. Communicating better with parents about book recommendations via QR codes outside the Hub

Exciting times for libraries and librarians...

Hunger Games Book Club

2010-11-16T06:30:00.000-08:00

On the heels of our recent Mimosas and Mentor Texts came our second book club for Hunger Games. This time, our gathering consisted of teachers from high school, middle school, elementary, administration, and even our director's wife who is a huge YA fan. I believe the conversation was richer and deeper because we had people with such diverse experiences. Here's what I took with me from that night:

*The realization that we bring our own adult expecations to the books we read. Some of us wanted Katniss to develop as a character throughout the book, but she simply did not. Others felt this was the point of the book, and we had a great conversation about it.

*In big schools, we become so focused on our own divisions that sometimes we miss out on meeting people. It was wonderful to spend some quality time with different folks and to hear different opinions about the same book.

*I had little knowledge of the YA genre, but the evening finished with a sharing of recommended titles and a desire to continue this book club with another choice soon.
*Having cheesecake at a gathering always makes it better. My fabulous husband sent a parachute down from the 2nd floor to announce the arrival of the "gift," much like Haymitch in the book. It added some yumminess and some humor to the night.

Overall, I'm finding that these teacher book clubs are pretty casual on the organizing front but pack a real punch for deepening understanding and building community. Love them!

Image Attribution: Jokin BCN

A Little of This & A Little of That

2010-11-02T22:58:00.000-07:00

One thing I absolutely love about Twitter and blogging is how many amazing ideas are out there being shared. And copying is ok, even encouraged! Today's lesson with 5th graders was a little bit Becky and a little bit Mary Lee & Franki--Becky posted about Big Huge Labs trading cards and Mary Lee & Franki blogged about themselves as readers. I combined the two and had the students brainstorm 5 things about themselves as readers and put them on the trading cards. They not only dug deep about their own selves but they learned some very useful tech skills:

1. How to use Photobooth
2. How to take a screenshot
3. How to upload a photo

My next step is to get their trading cards on a slideshow and have it running on our small digital screen in the Hub for all to see.

Here's my wondering-- is it ok for me to share the slideshow on my blog if the students only have their first name listed? I prefer to share their work rather than my example, but I am unsure. Advice welcome!

Creative Commons

2010-10-22T18:35:00.000-07:00

Teaching students how to find and use Creative Commons images is the focus of my lessons with 4th and 5th graders this week. From my conversations with both adults and kids, there seems to be widespread lack of understanding about the concept of Creative Commons, and so Chrissy and I are trying to develop strong digital citizenship habits in the younger grades.

My favorite site for finding Creative Commons images easily (this is key because for a long time, I was doing it wrong and it was frustrating and complicated) is Compfight. Easy, cheesy, hit the CC only button on top and search away for the most amazing photos that artists are willing to share as long as they are given credit.
In working with students this week, our conversations are so interesting, and they are so keen to look at the copyright symbols for each photo. We are taking it slowly at this point, introducing them to the concept that they just can't take whatever they want from Google images (this is just shocking to most everyone), and then having them notice the artist's name on the page, and doing some searching for photos on topics that interest them. I'm scaffolding for Chrissy who will then go one step further and teach them how to attribute the photos on their blogs.

I did a bit of searching on Compfight tonight for an image that apprehended me. This is a doorway in Tunisia, a country that has intrigued me for years. One day, I would love to walk past blue doorways like this, on my way to grab a coffee and read a book at a sidewalk cafe. Better yet, what if it were the entrance to my house?

Chrissy shared a new link with me that does the same Creative Commons searching but includes the attribution for you--definitely worth a look! Thanks, John Johnston!

Image attribution: ahisgett

The Future?

2010-10-21T20:32:00.001-07:00

While browsing the shelves for engaging nonfiction, I came across a book about the future, published in the year 2000. Most of the book was very interesting and had great ideas about what the future might be like, but this page made me crack up.

Just a short 10 years ago, this is what we envisioned for the year 2010.Ever since I saw this picture, I keep picturing all my friends walking through the halls with these contraptions rather than their sleek iPhones. Makes it so hard to order technology books for a library.

How the Future Began: Everyday Life by Clive Gifford

Mimosas and Mentor Texts

2010-10-16T17:55:00.000-07:00

A recent conversation with the librarian from The American Embassy School in New Delhi inspired me to start some teacher book clubs at ISB. The idea is simple, yet brilliant--gather teachers together to have a kid lit club.

At first, the idea started out as teachers all reading the same book (that Hunger Games book club will take place in a few weeks with HS, MS and ES teachers--cannot wait!), but when our literacy council discussed this idea, it morphed into a mentor text book club for the younger grades. I found about 5-6 quality new books to introduce to the teachers, we rotated the bag of books between us all, and then we met last Saturday to talk about them for our first 'Mimosas and Mentor Texts.' It was just a blast.

Here are my reflections:

*Meeting outside of school made it such an 'event.' It brought us together for some quality time and not just a quick chat in the hallway. The bonus is that it was an excellent way to build community because we wound up chatting for three hours, mostly about books.

*Teachers are so eager for exposure to new books. This is where librarians or literacy coaches can be a big help by keeping current with new releases and organize an event like this.

*Food makes everything better. But we already know that.

*I loved how we were talking about books just the way we want our students to talk about books. With the book, Life-Sized Zoo, we had such authentic conversations about our awe over the pictures and talked through our own curiosities. My friend Erin turned to me at one point in the conversation and said, "This is exactly what we want our students to be doing with books."
*Some of us chose to leave sticky notes in the front endpages. Loved seeing what others were thinking while reading.

Overall, it was one of my best days, and not just because of the chocolate fountain. I can't wait to have more book clubs with more grade levels.
A special thanks to Franki and Mary Lee from A Year of Reading and Katie from Creative Literacy who blogged about many of the mentor texts I chose for our club.

Instant Gratification

2010-10-14T22:34:00.001-07:00

On the wonderful Year of Reading blog, I found a book trailer for The Magnificent 12 by Michael Grant. I'm always keen to show our students book trailers to get them excited, and the power of this type of media is nothing short of amazing. When I showed the trailer during recess, a big crowd gathered, and I was bombarded with questions like, "Is this a series? Is there a movie?" The excitement was palpable.

Then, from the back of the room, a voice piped up,

"I've just downloaded the sample on my Kindle."

And here I thought me getting it by December would be fabulous! I love that this is just another peek into the possible future of reading.
Lucky me got to read the first few chapter with a group of 5th grade girls during lunch recess later that day. It's funny and adventure mixed together, and I can't wait to get it for our Hub.

Future Plans

2010-10-06T06:55:00.001-07:00

This falls under the "I am so going to do this as soon as possible" category for me. Becky Maher posted this on her blog (I always get such great ideas from her!), and it is using a program called Big Huge Labs. It was super quick and easy and would be so much fun for 2nd and 3rd graders to take a picture of themselves reading a favorite book and writing a bit about why they like it so much. Already picturing these in a slideshow of some sort. Now I just need one of those digital photo frames...
This was using the trading card option on Big Huge Labs.

5 iPad apps for the Wee Ones

2010-09-30T17:46:00.000-07:00

I'm always grateful when I come across posts recommending iPad apps, so here are my recent picks.
Hanoch Piven, an amazing artist and author, has an app out that is so much fun and very creative. It's called Faces iMake
and uses object art to create various faces. Tons of fun and excellent for children to tap into creativity.*

The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin is a great story that is now on the iPad (how I wish more kids' books were on the iPad...) There are options to read it yourself or have it read to you, as well as lots of interactive sounds.

ShapeBuilder is perfect for spatial awareness in younger children. This one is a hit in our house.

Spell N Say Lite encourages spelling practice but with the cool factor of touching the speaker button to hear your word. What I love about this one is that there is a natural interest in spelling a word just to hear it said.

Piffle's ABC book of Funny Animals is great for matching pictures to words. There are a number of different animals to match, and then there is a song that goes along with each of them.

*Creativity in this Faces iMake is from my daughter.

Tagxedo--Alternative to Wordle

2010-09-27T00:37:00.000-07:00

The always fabulous Chrissy shared a new-to-me tool, Tagxedo, that is similar to Wordle but with a few more bells and whistles. It wasn't as easy to navigate as Wordle, but it sure is cute! This is a recent post from my personal blog that was all about swimming and marshmallow treats. I love seeing the words I crafted displayed so artistically. And I know students would love all the choices they have in this program.

Playing with Prezi

2010-09-25T05:58:00.000-07:00

For some time now, I've heard rave reviews about Prezi, a funky 'new' way of creating a presentation, but I had never tried it myself. However, this weekend I was determined to create a simple Prezi. Sitting down and actually having the patience to figure technology out is my biggest sign of growth in the last few years--the frustration doesn't stop me anymore, and I love that confidence that has slowly grown over the last few years. It is now few and far between that I want to throw the computer out the window.

Here is my first attempt at Prezi, inspired by my friend Colleen. I must say that I did not find it to be an intuitive program, which was kind of a bummer. Once I watched the tutorial video and played around a bit, it worked enough for a start. Certainly there are a gazillion more bells and whistles that can be added, I'm sure.

Ms. Tara's Picks on Prezi

Already thinking this is the perfect idea for collaborating with a 4th grade teacher. We've been looking for something tech & literacy focused to do with the students. Can't wait to see what 5 books from various genres they will recommend.

*To view, click on the arrow, then the MORE button and click Autoplay.

Getting To Know Ourselves as Readers

2010-09-24T00:08:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking of a way to have younger students look at their book choices a bit deeper. With 4th and 5th graders, they can easily explain what genres they like and dislike, but the little ones are still in the process of figuring out what is fiction and what is nonfiction. So I experimented with the 2nd graders this afternoon by asking them to make their book choices first and then to bring them to our meeting area in the Hub. We then looked at our choices and decided where they fit in the Venn diagram.

And then I figured out that it's a whole lot easier (and quicker!) for 2nd graders to write tally marks. We had a great group discussion with the children who came up unsure of whether their choices were fiction or nonfiction. My thought is to have something like this up every now and then to have the kids quickly add a tally once they have chosen their books for the week.

We did have a few stumpers--what about an I Spy book? After a lively discussion, it felt like both to us.

Reading for a Cause

2010-09-21T20:46:00.000-07:00

Via Twitter, I discovered an organization called We Give Books that is just that--they give books. Every time you read a book online, you press a button, and they donate a book to the cause you wish to join. I joined a few of them them this week and am sharing the site with students who come to me in the Hub.

On top of that fabulousness, they are also organizing a world reading event on October 7. The idea is that thousands of people around the world will read The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. We are hoping to participate in that as well.

In the meantime, I love knowing that by reading great books online, I am helping out the people of Asia, my adopted home for the last seven years. Here's the promo video for that cause.

One more thing I love about the online reading is the ability to zoom into certain sections. This was a blast with the nonfiction selections on the site. And Spot is on the site! You can't beat that with kinders.

Big Nate Fever

2010-09-18T21:06:00.000-07:00

You know a book is getting some good press within a school when the hold queue is 32 students! Big Nate Fever has definitely hit ISB, and the word is spreading fast. It's similar in format to Diary of a Wimpy Kid, which is why it's making kids just nuts with excitement.

When I went online to find out more about Big Nate, I discovered that the website has the first 42 pages of the first book online for free. I was showing the site to a group of 4th graders the other day, and I read them the first few pages aloud from the computer. We were all laughing and having such a good time that I realized I didn't want to continue with my planned Destiny Quest lesson. Instead, we postponed that lesson until next week and spent our time reading the first few chapters at computers and then taking a few minutes at the end to play the games.

My biggest Big Nate lesson: taking the time to honor where kids are at the moment. There was such genuine excitement about the book that it felt very liberating for me as a teacher to honor that excitement and postpone my planned lesson.

Then I knew I had to get to the bookstore to pick up some extra copies of the book. 32 holds means that some kids won't ever get the book!

Letting Go

2010-09-14T01:00:00.000-07:00

One year later, and I am still the hugest fan of the social networking options on Follett's Destiny Quest. For elementary students, the authentic nature of their book recommendations continually make me smile and make me proud because they are so into it and excited about writing about books--exactly what we hope for.

However, letting them use the recommending feature means I have to let go of a lot of teacher control. And I mean A LOT. Even the previous version of Destiny allowed for me to approve every single recommendation, and I could go in and edit out all those spelling and grammar mistakes if I so chose. It was kind of a pain, and how is that authentic if I add and delete or correct grammar from a child's work?

But no longer. It's just them out there, typing away about Geronimo Stilton or Leven Thumps or Candy Apple books.

There are some that will say the reviews are too loose, but I feel it allows the students to express what they truly feel about a book. Of course we talk about what is appropriate, and how we are writing for an audience, and how we should say more than the I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!!!!!! comment (this is huge in 3rd grade, but even a big part of me thinks that is fabulous because there are some books I've read where this is exactly what I want to say!). It's fascinating to see how there is a natural progression from 3rd to 4th to 5th grade, and how their recommendations contain an added depth as they get older and wiser and more well-read.

I spent most of last week teaching students how to create good, solid book recommendations, and they have so much to say. But it is only when I can let go, when I can provide that gradual release of responsibility, that they can truly interact on Destiny Quest.

Here's to letting go and enjoying the ride. Try it--It's TOTALLY AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!

Image Attribution: Destiny's Agent

5 Great New Books

2010-09-14T00:49:00.000-07:00

A Sunday shopping trip to our local bookstore provided me with some great finds, and I can't wait to share these books with our lower elementary teachers and students.

When I read Little Owl Lost, I knew it would be perfect for Pre-K. A small owl falls out of his tree and is off to find his mother, but there are lots of misunderstandings when he describes her. We were all giggling and acting out parts, which was such fun. The illustrations are simply stunning and with all sorts of additions that you notice only after a few reads. I'm putting this book into the Pre-K classroom library after I read it to the other class--it's great for retelling.

Teachers are always on the lookout for good books to model similes, and I have a feeling that My Best Friend is as Sharp as a Pencil will become my new go-to book for that. Great object art and deeper similes to describe teachers and classmates make this a great book to use at the start of the year to describe the class.

This songbook looks like it will be great for kinder and first grade classes with its monster theme and amazing illustrations, set to the tune of 'If You're Happy and You Know It." Lots of opportunity to act like monsters with this one.

Nico and Lola: Kindness Shared Between and Boy and a Dog is so special. Nico is asked if he would be "so kind" as to babysit his aunt's dog, and he agrees. Each page is a different activity that he does with Lola, and it ties into a sentence on the bottom that illustrates kindness. I love this book and can already hear the students clamoring to tell their own dog stories. Perfect for small moment writing.

Lastly, our ever-popular princess basket is always in need of new princess books. It seems that every girl under the age of nine wants to check out a princess book, and I can never keep enough around. I love that Princess Pigtoria and the Pea has a ton of alliteration, all with the letter P.

And the really cool part of buying these books? They are going to be part of our first teacher book club. The idea is that we'll invite our Kinder and 1st grade teachers to read all the texts, then we'll share some food and wine one night to discuss how the books will fit in the classroom and whether or not they are fabulous enough to add to our classroom libraries. I can't wait!

Balance in the Tech Zone

2010-09-12T19:20:00.000-07:00

One of my biggest challenges in our Hub is the amount of time in the day that the tech zone is open for student use. We open at 6:30 a.m., so there is a 45 minute period of free tech time before school starts. After school, we are open for 90 minutes. In between, there are staggered recesses throughout the day, and so we are a revolving door for student use. Definitely not a bad thing, but the high interest of computer use coupled with the sheer volume of students has made it tricky for me for two years now.
Some questions I was asking myself: What should they be doing on computers during their free time? How can I manage the space best and still give kids a choice? How do I balance the volume of kids in the tech zone while I am teaching a class simultaneously?

After much trial and error (like when I thought it would be fun to let them do Poptropica--not my finest choice), I have created a wiki with choices that is the home page when students go to Firefox. It's a nice balance of fun and literacy that is weeding out the Poptropica-only patrons and allowing room for those who want to explore Destiny Quest or book blogs or National Geographic.

I'd be so curious to know what others are doing out there in the big, wide world. Feel free to share what your tech zone looks like during recess.

Image attribution from pshutterbug

Series Organization

2010-08-26T22:15:00.000-07:00

Since our Kevin Hennah library design visit last August, we've been trying to pull together our space with common colors and design to make it look professional. One of the last pieces in our design was doing something with our series baskets at the entrance to the Hub. I love that kids can easily find the series they are looking for in baskets rather than hunting on the shelves, but ours were randomly colored and in poor condition. Our locally made bins arrived this week, and I am in organizational heaven. They are gorgeous, and I find myself looking at them the minute I enter the door. Exactly what we wanted!
And this was the picture I had to take this morning before school of the big group of students all huddled around the iPad playing Gravity HD. I love the collaborative nature of the iPad for kids.

Mystery Reader with a Twist of Tech

2010-08-25T00:52:00.001-07:00

One of our fabulous kindergarten teachers asked if I would be the Mystery Reader for her class this week. The twist was that she wanted me to Skype from the Hub to her classroom. Last week, I read the book Monkey with a Tool Belt, which was a smashing success with kinders (all those nonsense words cracked them up). Today, I read the sequel to it, Monkey with a Tool Belt has a Noisy Problem.

It was fun seeing the kids from a different angle, so to speak. Since it was my first time reading on Skype, it was tricky to "read" the kids because I wasn't right in front of them seeing their reactions. But they still had fun and they love Chico Bon Bon, the character.

We're thinking this way of reading might be great fun for parents who travel a lot as a way for them to have the opportunity to connect with their child's classroom.

Lovin' the iPad!

2010-08-23T05:13:00.001-07:00

Oh, the lovely iPad! It sits on my desk during the school day and kids come up and take it to use during recess time. I've even had kids meet me at the door in the morning just to be the first in line to use it. Sharing one iPad with 670 students will prove to be challenging, but I'm glad it's a huge success already.

Currently, the two most popular apps are I Spy Spooky House (the kids kick my behind in this one!) and Issac Newton's Gravity. At this point, no one has used it as a reader, but I think this is because they have such a limited amount of time.

What still amazes me is how intuitive the iPad is for kids. They just sit down and figure it out. I love watching that because it is truly so different than many of us adults. My daughter is a real pro at the iPad, and I feel like I'm watching the future when she uses it.

Here's a little demo of how simple it is:

The First Book of Summer

2010-06-24T07:42:00.001-07:00

My husband discovered this gem while browsing the bookstore the other day, and I was hooked from the first page. I did decide to wait and buy it on the Kindle because it was much cheaper, but I'm loving it as my first book of the summer. It's informative, funny and so perfect in how it addresses how relevant librarians truly are today. The author, Marilyn Johnson, is not a librarian, but I like that someone outside our field felt strongly enough to write a whole book about how we are anything but obsolete. An interesting side note is that she became interested in librarians after writing a book about obituaries--she found that librarians tended to have these really interesting lives. Not surprising.

Any other suggestions for great summer reading?

iPad from a Mama Teacher's Perspective

2010-06-12T06:26:00.000-07:00

Summer vacation has started, and the iPad arrived at my parent's house. Less than 48 hours old, let's just say that it's getting a whole lot of use in our household, and I know it's going to be amazing for elementary students when I get back to ISB in August.

When I'm using the iPad, I'm looking at it from two points of view--the mama view and the teacher view.

Things I Am Loving from Both Perspectives...

1. It's smaller than I imagined but the perfect size for kids. Fits them nicely and not too bulky.

2. There are so many free apps or ones that only cost $.99. I've added a bunch and am trying them out one by one. There are lots of ABC apps for the younger ones and I found a Greek Gods one for the older readers.

3. My favorite app so far is Miss Spider's Tea Party. It cost $9.99 but is worth every penny (my daughter is reading it at this very moment) because the artwork is spectacular. You can either watch the story as a movie with words on the bottom or read the story yourself but with lots of interaction as you read. In addition, there is a matching game as well as a painting program. When there are more of this kind of book available, I'll be thrilled!

4. It's incredibly intuitive. Amazingly so. My 3 year old is navigating it almost seamlessly after only a short time. We are both trying to work on our sharing skills with the iPad.

5. One way to save a bit of money is get the free samples of chapter books for students. The covers look very cool sitting on the virtual bookshelf, and my thought is that kids can get a preview of books we have in the Hub and then check out the paper copy. A little taste to get them hooked.

5. One more free book (or at least a few chapters of the book) is Alice in Wonderland. Again, the illustrations are spectacular. As my mom said, "It's simply magical."

Alice in Wonderland

Lingering Thoughts/Concerns/Paradigm Shifts/Adjustments on my Journey

Because the books are so interactive, I found my daughter quite distracted by all the buttons to push while I was reading Miss Spider's Tea Party to her. It is set up so that there are different actions on each page-a teacup shaking, an ant stomping its foot-but all of these are controlled by the reader. She was more interested in pushing all the buttons and wasn't really listening to the story. At first this bothered me, but then I let go and realized she was having a blast. And that's what reading is about-having fun. This is where my own thinking is changing with things like Tumblebooks and now the iPad. Balance is everything to me, and I feel strongly that there is a place for both paper books and digital books.

The future is incredibly exciting for books and for us librarians. I have this gorgeous vision of kids entering the library with their own iPads in hand. They will choose books and check them out from me, much like Netflix is done on computers now. Once the due date arrives, the book is then deleted from the iPad.

Just think--no chasing down kids for overdue books!

Coming Soon...

2010-05-27T20:02:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, International School of Bangkok's very generous PTA offered to donate a Kindle to our Learning Hub. And while I think the Kindle is a great reading tool, the iPad offers much more to a larger community of readers. I could easily picture a small group of students huddled around an iPad more than I could the Kindle, and the PTA agreed to the change. Since it is not yet available in Thailand, I had the iPad sent to my parents' house in the U.S. Lucky me gets to familiarize myself with it this summer, add apps, order some books and somehow figure out a way to fairly share one iPad with a whole lot of students during recess time.

Image borrowed from here

Family Blogging & Summer Writing

2010-05-24T00:52:00.000-07:00

Still on a high from the summer reading workshop, a friend stopped me the other day to pitch an idea:

What if I held a tandem workshop on summer writing, but from the perspective of setting up a family blog and providing this fun, authentic opportunity for kids to continue their writing over the vacation?

Needless to say, I loved the idea and set out to find Chrissy, our soon-to-be tech gal in elementary. She was keen as well and we dove right into the planning.

Keeping it simple, we focused on three things:

Why? (why would you blog? what kind of blog will you have?)

How? (getting them set up from the ground up--we used Wordpress because it's the platform our students will use in school)

What? (what will kids and parents write about?)

Creating the list of cool things to blog about was fun and gave me ideas for my own family blog this summer. Our main goal here was to really encourage the family aspect of the blog. What kinds of memories are families creating and wouldn't it be awesome to have them all written down as a digital scrapbook? Why not all take turns writing a post?

Here's what we came up with:

1. Places You Are Visiting

2. Good Books You've Read

3. Day Trips

4. Reflections (my favorite part of the day)

5. Top Ten (things to do on a rainy day, restaurants in my hometown, ways I annoy my brother during the break)

6. Best and Worst of the Summer

7. Artwork

8. Photography piece (how to start noticing things more)

9. A Day in the Life of...

10. In My Own Backyard (science, flowers, wondering--use video for this)

11. Visitors

12. Mapping Out Your Special Place (draw a map of finding small moments in the map)

13. Things To Do In Our Town

14. Food

15. Small Moments

We had about 25 interested and engaged parents in attendance this morning. The workshop was fun and parents gave us tons more ideas about what they want to learn next.

Percy Jackson Day

2010-05-20T06:35:00.000-07:00

Wow! Our Percy Jackson day was a huge hit. Over 100 kids descended upon the Hub after school, where the organizers and I (as Medusa!) met them at the door with a ticket showing all their choices. Something we found that worked really well was promoting the event about 2 weeks before it happened--it really created a buzz of excitement. I literally had kids stopping me in the halls to tell me how many days were left before Percy Jackson day. My advice to anyone hosting their own character day is to keep it simple. I did at first, but then about three days before, I started to panic and think the activities weren't exciting enough to hold their attention. A sweet 5th grader was talking with me, and I asked his advice about the various Greek god and goddess coloring sheets in one center (I thought it would be boring). He kindly told me that kids don't really care--they just want to be together and having fun. And during the event, he sought me out to give me a big "I told you so" when we saw that the coloring center was filled to capacity!

The students and I are already planning next year's Celebrating Characters We Love events. Garfield is one they are thinking will be fun. Whatever will I wear?

The Power of 10 Minutes

2010-05-18T19:56:00.000-07:00

I've used the Skype An Author network three times this year, and each time has been nothing short of amazing. Ten minutes of time with an author always seems like it's going to be too short, but it ends up to be perfect.

This morning, a 4th grade class met with the fabulous Bruce Hale. He was funny, down-to-earth and instantly connected with the kids. Plus, we were all cracking up at his jokes and anecdotes.

In 10 minutes time, we had a bunch of great student questions answered and even got to listen to Bruce read the first part of one of his books. Hearing the words from the author himself is magical, and I become downright giddy when I see authors talking about their work. It was easy to see that Bruce would be a great visiting author at a school--another reason I love Skype An Author. To get a taste of what an author would be like as a potential visitor is invaluable.

The second we finished, a ton of kids ran to check out his Chet Gecko books. Thanks, Bruce Hale!

Summer Fun-Making Book Baskets

2010-05-12T22:21:00.001-07:00

I loved talking with parents yesterday about tips on how to keep kids reading over the summer. Every time I think reading with kids is pretty straightforward, I am reminded that parents still welcome all the advice they can get. One of the ideas I talked about as a fun idea for summer was to create book baskets with your kids. Here are some tips I shared with parents on how to do that:

For Younger Readers

1. I don't use any bookshelves for my daughter's books; instead we use various baskets. They are placed in many rooms in the house (1 in the living room as in the above photo, 2 in her room and 1 in our bedroom) so we never have to go far to find a book. Plus, baskets look lovely.

2. I keep a bunch of books in the closet and 'freshen' the basket every now and then. My daughter helps me with this, and even at the age of 3, she knows what she is tired of having in her basket.

3. I add a few non-fiction books to give her a variety of choices. She tends to not gravitate towards these herself, so I put these books on the outside of the basket to hopefully capture her attention.

4. Definitely put some beginning chapter books in there, even for the wee ones.

For Older Readers (I tied this into how we set up our classroom libraries and how easy this is for kids to make book choices)

1. Take all the books off the bookshelf and dump them on the floor. Kids love this part!

2. Have all your empty baskets lined up.

3. Start looking at the books with your child. What do you notice goes together? Begin making categories like "Books with Strong Girl Characters" or "Science Books" or "Books That Crack Me Up." The ideas kids have are great, plus it's using the math skill of classifying.

4. Make the tags either by hand or on the computer. Place the baskets wherever your child can have easy access to them.

Voila!

Storybird & First Graders

2010-05-11T20:52:00.000-07:00

In trying to provide students with ideas of fun ways to read and write over the summer, I decided to create a Storybird with each first grade class this week. We had a blast choosing pictures, (the art is beyond fabulous on this site, and all you do is click and drag your choice to the story) and it was a bonus writing lesson. There was definitely enough excitement created that many kids will be going home and sharing the site with their parents tonight. At the end of the story, I was able to email the creation to their classroom teacher at that moment, even adding a personal message from us to her. Love, love, love this site!

Love it even more at the end of the year when attention spans are shorter! They were mesmerized the whole time.

Here's the link to the full story, Dali, the Mean Monster. Enjoy!

Summer Reading

2010-05-06T23:49:00.000-07:00

Aaah, summer! Here you are again! Energy levels are rising, vacation plans are being made, and it's the perfect time to talk about summer reading with kids. We have made some changes this year to our approach to summer reading. Last year, we had classroom teachers help students set summer goals, but there was no way for us to check in on that progress since they go to different teachers the following year. Enter the librarian...

Since I am the only one who sees all the students in the elementary, I am helping them brainstorm and set reading goals for the summer holidays in these last weeks. It has been wonderful and eye-opening. There is a tendency to automatically set a number goal, so we spent some time stretching our thinking to think of deeper ideas. Above are some of the great ideas they had. After brainstorming, each child chose a goal or two and recorded them on a paper star. I'll keep these over the summer, and we'll revisit them again in August.

In addition, I'll be hosting a parent literacy morning next week on tips for summer reading. My plan is to have five areas of focus--Access, Togetherness, Fun, Extension and Modeling. I'm again using the Presentation Zen approach and had so much fun locating images that pop. The cover slide is my favorite, but that might be because I am anxious for my own summer hammock reading in just four short weeks.

FBA--Pete the Cat

2010-04-22T20:54:00.000-07:00

Man alive, I love when a book is just so fun that I feel compelled to share it with every single kid that comes to see me during the week! Franki, from a Year of Reading, has a list called "Books I Could Read a Million Times," and Pete the Cat falls into that category for me.

The problem is that we don't even have the book in our library, but no matter! This youtube video has the author, illustrator and guitar player performing the fabulous story/song.

Thanks a million to Katie from Creative Literacy for sharing the book idea. Her blog is filled with great stuff, and I am constantly learning from her.

I dare you to watch the video and not find yourself singing the tune hours later.

Celebrating Characters We Love

2010-04-21T07:58:00.000-07:00

A while back, a small group of 4th grade boys approached me and asked if I would help them start a Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief club. We sat down during a few lunch recesses and mapped out what they wanted to do, and before we knew it, their club idea morphed into what will hopefully be the first of many of our Celebrating Characters We Love events in the Hub.

We got many of our ideas from Rick Riordan himself at his site. (scroll down until you get to Percy Party Event Guide). Please note that because of the mature content in the book, we are only offering this event to 3rd, 4th and 5th graders--we felt like the little ones would have little connection to the book.

This is what ours is going to look like:

*Kids can come in costume if they want. I am planning a fabulous Medusa outfit!

*We will have 5 different activities that the participants will visit during the hour-long event. The plan is to have it be very organic and let kids move at their own pace, with teachers and/or parents supervising the areas.

*Activities will be in various areas of the Hub. The students have named the areas and we will have big signs directing partcipants.

1. Poseidon's Home-Make your own name tag in Greek letters (borrowed from the Rick Riordan site)

2. Hephaestus' Workshop/Tech zone-play games about Greek mythology (borrowed from this Rick Riordan site)

3. Mt. Olympus-Take a Percy Jackson quiz and try to be the person with the most correct answers for a prize (adapted from the Rick Riordan site)

4. The Underworld-Make a craft activity of either Medusa or a cyclops (borrowed from the Rick Riordan site)

5. Camp Half Blood-watch a short movie on Mt. Olympus

*Ambrosia (apple juice) and cookies will be served after the activities. If I am feeling really ambitious or find a parent who is, I'd love to serve the cupcakes above!

Mind you, it hasn't taken place yet, but it still seems to be stress-free, simple and fun from my perspective. Exactly how I want it to be.

Ours is on May 14! Can't wait. Here is the promotional video we are sending out to kids. Still loving Photopeach

yummy image from here

Spilling Ink

2010-04-14T05:28:00.001-07:00

There has been so much talk in the blogosphere about the new book by Anne Mazer and Ellen Potter, Spilling Ink, that I knew I couldn't possibly wait to read it until August when our overseas book orders arrive.
Amazon.com to the rescue! As luck would have it, the book was delivered mere minutes before I headed out the door to start my spring break vacation.

I blazed through it--dog-earing pages, nodding my head, all the while wishing I were a classroom teacher again. To go through the whole book with kids to see what resonates with them as writers. To share the 'realness' of Anne and Ellen (such voice these two have!) and how hard writing is but how good it also feels.

But mostly, I'd love to watch them dive into the chapter endings of 'I DARE YOU' ideas. My plan is to do more than a few of them myself and see what happens with my own writing.

A Culture of Reading

2010-04-06T06:37:00.001-07:00

Ever since discovering Donalynn Miller's The Book Whisperer last summer, I have become a better reader. Kid lit is the main ingredient in my reading diet, and I am surrounded by many, many rich stories. Even better, I have more to talk about with kids, and more books leave in readers' hands. A few months ago, I started to notice that students were bringing me their own personal books from home for me to read. It was after a few books arrived on my desk that I realized that the kind of authentic reading connections I wanted to have were beginning to take place.

Because this is what lifelong readers do--we love a book ourselves, rave about it and want someone else to read it so we can talk about it. I see the pride in a student's face when he or she volunteers their personal copy of Wimpy Kid to me. I feel the same when I know a book off my shelf will bring joy to a friend.

This kind of authentic connection also tells me that we have a culture of readers at ISB. Reading is cool at our school. It's a magical combination of awesome teachers giving them lots of choices, implementing readers and writers workshop, and a library chocked full of what they love.

Onto the picture I posted of Baby Island, the newest book brought to me from a home bookshelf. I was recently sharing with a group of 2nd graders how much I appreciate when people give me recommendations and how a parent had come in and told me how much she loved the book Princesses are Not Quitters! I confessed to them that princess books are not my favorite, but that I know I need to branch out as a reader, and I wound up loving the book (so did they!). Just then, a sweet girl said, "That's just like Baby Island for me." She told a bit about it and said she would bring it to me the next day.

And so she did. She brought me this book, published in 1937, that might have been the softest book I've ever held. I was perplexed and fascinated by this tale of two girls, aged 10 and 11, who are shipwrecked on a desert island with 4 toddlers. That's right--FOUR! The best part of it was that these girls were not stressed out at all, not for being shipwrecked nor for the prospect of entertaining 4 toddlers for an indefinite period of time. It was like a big playtime for them, which made me smile the whole time I was reading. Perplexing to me, but what a blast for a second grader.

A Virtual Tour

2010-03-29T19:14:00.000-07:00

We've recently done a complete redesign of our Hub, and it feels great. The feedback from kids, parents and teachers is so positive that I thought I'd make a virtual tour for others to see.

It would be great if librarians around the world did the same and posted it on their blogs so we all can have a look inside. If you do make a video, please leave a comment so I can see your library!

Presentation Zen

2010-03-22T20:04:00.000-07:00

Presentation Zen is not necessarily new to some folks, but I am intrigued by it, and I have sat through a few traditional PowerPoint presentations lately that have inspired me to share my take on it.

In a nutshell, Presentation Zen is a different way of looking at creating a presentation for an audience. Instead of the traditional PowerPoint slide with lots of text, instead choose an evocative image that is appealing and makes the audience think. Choose one or two words to sum up what you want to say in that slide instead of adding all that text, and you have completely changed the approach of presenting to peers.

Garr Reynolds, the author of the book Presentation Zen, lives in Japan and took the Japanese concept of simplicity and beauty and adapted it to presentations. His book is a very interesting read, and I learned tons from it.

Recently on my first trip to Japan, I was amazed at how I could walk down the street and see images that were just perfect for a presentation designed in a Presentation Zen style. I'm finding that my mind now looks at images in a way as to how I can use them in a future presentation.

Giving your audience something beautiful to look at in your next presentation just might hold their attention longer than a traditional text-filled slide, and I love how it makes me ponder while listening. Compfight offers a great selection of Creative Commons photos.

Another great resource to check out is Death By Powerpoint.

Digital Book Reviews- Compiling Our Work

2010-03-15T05:40:00.000-07:00

My small group of 5th graders is chugging away at making their digital book trailers, and we are highlighting one a week on the Destiny home page. This week's Lightning Thief is pretty popular, and I love that a pair of boys are entering the foray of nonfiction trailers.

My original plan was to move the showcased trailer into a link next to the book title within the catalog, but I have since discovered that you can only upload from the computer itself and not use any sort of embedding at this time. A bit of a bummer for me because the simplicity of PhotoPeach is fantastic, but I've come up with plan B: a wiki dedicated to ISB book trailers. It's at the beginning stages but hopefully will grow over time. I've also added a link on the Destiny homepage to the wiki, and students are using it well.

My fingers are crossed that Destiny 10.0 will include embedding a link as an update feature in June.

Celebrity Sighting in Nagoya

2010-02-27T18:09:00.001-08:00

Living it up here in Nagoya, Japan this weekend. The lovely Debbie Miller graciously agreed to do an EARCOS weekend workshop at the Nagoya International School, and many of us at ISB jumped at the chance. For me, it's a literacy dream come true as Debbie's philosophy and words have resonated with me for many years. My Reading With Meaning book is well-loved, dog-eared and has sticky notes coming out of all ends. Hence, the celebrity sighting title of this post. Debbie is so warm, so smart and so real-exactly like I expected her to be from reading her books. I feel so inspired.

A surprise for us was that a group of 2nd graders came to school to allow us to watch a modeled lesson on inferring. It was so cute to see the stage set up like a movie set, complete with anchor charts and sitting rug. And we were introduced to a great new title by Jeanette Winter, Nasreen's Secret School.

Trusting ourselves as teachers and trusting our students with their reading was the big idea of the weekend for me. Try something new with kids. Take a risk. If it doesn't work, it's ok. Sometimes it's good just to see what happens. I've got some ideas brewing, and I can't wait to see what happens...

Digital Book Trailers

2010-02-24T05:33:00.000-08:00

So, for about forever now, I've wanted to work with some 5th graders to make digital book reviews. Problem is I could never find the time. Finally I got tired of not finding the time and made the time. In the 15 minutes of 5th grade lunch recess, I started offering an optional "How to Make Your Own Book Trailer" gathering. We started with about 12 kids but are down to 3 diehards who come everyday, ready to add a bit to their trailer (15 minutes flies by!).

Our first one is totally finished and ready for production...

Siana worked so hard on that. Beaming with pride (both of us).

Now a bit of background logistics in case anyone wants to try it.

We used PhotoPeach because it is pretty intuitive and the kids got it. At first we played around with Animoto, but it was a bit too flashy and the free ones are only 30 seconds. We needed longer for our trailers, but in hindsight it was fun to let the kids fool around with the program and see why it wouldn't work for this project.

Our goal was to be very Presentation Zen about the images we chose and the text we used. Simple, succinct and powerful. It should pack a punch when you read it. We were inspired greatly by this trailer and this one.

For images, the best discovery via Chrissy was Compfight. Just click the 'creative commons' button at the top and it only searches those images that can be used. Cut and paste the URL's as you go along on a word document.

Something the kids learned is that it was pretty hard at first to tease out the essence of a book instead of doing a book review format. Thankfully, the kids were up for the challenge and really helped each other very organically with wording and image choice.

For all those Destiny users out there, you can embed the video right on your home page. I'm going to do this to showcase one student's work each week. One whole class of 5th graders is creating book trailers for their social issues unit, so I've got lots to showcase. And you can now embed digital content right into the catalog so when someone searches the book, a link will appear to the book trailer. So much fun to see the process and the final product.

Signage

2010-02-19T06:05:00.000-08:00

After a major remodel a few years ago, our Learning Hub is now very contemporary and funky. The hanging bubble chairs are a huge hit with students, and we have a space that brings them a lot of joy. The only job left to be completed was the signage-- we really wanted to make sure we found signage that fit the vibe of our Hub.

Enter the fabulous Kevin Hennah, library design guru (and much more) out of Australia. Kim and I hosted Kevin at ISB back in August and all the regional librarians unanimously agreed that he was fantastic. He helped us sort out our signage by brainstorming ways to incorporate our contemporary style into the design.

It took a bit longer than we thought to finally see our vision come alive, but it's all coming together this week. Since our entire space is designed to be flexible, these hollow plastic blocks slip in and out of shelves easily, and they are color-coded for picture books and fiction. They look so very professional.

The non-fiction is even more flexible in that we just slide in whatever we need with topics to guide students.
I know when I searched online for signage design ideas, I had a hard time finding something with a bit of funk to it. Hopefully sharing these ideas can fill a gap. I'm also keen to know what others use for signage to store away ideas for the future.

Storybird

2010-02-17T06:14:00.001-08:00

Thanks again to Twitter and @imcguy, the fun of Storybird has come my way.

The site provides a story template with tons of amazing artists who have created a set of illustrations to be used. Simply choose an artist (I am loving the bright colors and playfulness of Paul McDougall), drag a picture into the blank page and add text. Students will need emails to create their own account, but they can play around and create a story without signing up. Note that they cannot save the story.

My plan is to have the 1st and 2nd graders take some time experimenting with this site during our time next week, and then I'll send home a note about the site so parents can sign their kids up. I see it as a great way to be creative at home with storytelling. Plus, the inspiration from the illustrations is sure to have some kids drawing to their heart's content.

Care to read mine? Feel free.

Library Love

2010-02-09T03:30:00.000-08:00

Yes, Wallwisher again. I'm hooked. So authentic, so easy and such instant gratification. I've been showing it to as many students and teachers as I can.
I put up this Wallwisher up on the Smartboard and had it 'open for business' during the 4th and 5th grade recess times, as well as during some of the library times. After I gave a short demo, some kids came up and added to the wall. I promise I didn't add all those comments that say 'mstara'--learning as I go and left myself logged in so the students' names came up as mine.

What a fabulous way to collect and analyze data about your library. It let me see so clearly what is working for the students, and you can't beat feeling the library love either! Perhaps the next question is "What can we do to improve our Hub?"

Chrissy, our fab grade 5 teacher and soon-to-be technology coach in the elementary, just sent me another site like Wallwisher. Worth checking out!

Wallwisher

2010-02-04T18:57:00.000-08:00

I've spent the last two days at the yearly Follett Destiny workshop held in Bangkok. Lucky for me that they asked for librarian presentations this year, so I jumped at the chance to share some of the tools and activities I've been doing (or wish to do in a perfect world). Imagine the chance to actually be in the same room as 40 other librarians--it simply doesn't happen for us in the Asian region.

One of my favorite new tools that I shared with the group was Wallwisher. It's the whole 'get a sticky note, write your thoughts and stick it to the chart paper' activity but online. Brilliant! It's free, and I can keep the information archived each time I build a new wall.

Off the top of my head, I can think of a gazillion authentic ways to use this tool, and I'd be going nuts if I were a classroom teacher. I used it as an introduction activity in my presentation (but somehow forgot to refresh and so no post-its showed up...new mantra--refresh, refresh, refresh) and asked what people like best about being a librarian. Click on the photo above to see our thoughts.

Here is an amazing selection of different ways to use Wallwisher. Imagine having it set up in your library and have kids just walk up and add favorite books each month, images included. Wow.

TechTrain 2010

2010-02-01T05:05:00.000-08:00

Every now and then, something comes together so perfectly that it just feels good all the way down to your toes. That was TechTrain for me this past weekend. Chrissy, Kim, Dana, Dennis and I hosted a weekend workshop designed specifically for new users.

The idea came to us in a conversation almost 10 months ago: there are so many great international tech conferences out there, but they go too fast for newbies and are overwhelming. Could we provide a conference designed just for new users? Something that provided a safe, customized environment for teachers to learn the tools and spend the necessary time practicing and feeling comfortable enough to go back to the classroom and implement their learning?

Yes we could.
We just did.
And it was amazing.

From creating blogs and wikis to making slideshows and learning about the Twitterverse, my cohort of ten teachers from various parts of Asia was absolutely phenomenal. Watching them grow in confidence hour by hour throughout the weekend made me a bit giddy, and I loved watching them start to help each other with projects and how good it felt for them to be the ones with the answers.
Each of us guided a cohort of 10-12 people through the weekend, creating that safe environment for the super newbies. Those who had some experience with tools entered the application group and created a digital storytelling project for the newbie groups to view as the culmination of the weekend. This is everyone 'speed geeking' at the end of the day.Such an empowering weekend for both the participants and for me. I think it might be the beginning of a yearly event.

Destiny, 2 Weeks Later

2010-01-28T06:44:00.000-08:00

2 weeks into the introduction of Destiny's new social networking component, and I am giddy at how much the students love it. Every morning before school this week, this is what I saw in the Hub. That's a lot of time spent on books.
Here's why I think it is revolutionary for elementary students:

It has truly become a means of sharing books and recommending to a much wider audience. The visual aspect is powerful, and it's very easy for children to navigate.

On their own, students are discovering that when someone recommends a book, you can simply add the title to one of your shelves. My list of 'want to reads' is growing immensely, directly due to the kids' recommendations.

Most powerful for me is when I see someone write a recommendation and shortly thereafter there are a number of kids who move that recommended book to their list of 'want to read' books. A culture of sharing good titles is growing .

Admittedly, a big part of me was worried about someone being inappropriate. We had a few small incidents in the beginning, but it shows me how important it is to talk to kids about the importance of developing smart online habits. What you post is out for your peers (and your librarian) to see...

Best part of the whole thing--it's not just the voracious readers who are into this. The quieter ones are also finding their voices.

Reading Challenge for Kids

2010-01-17T20:51:00.000-08:00

I'm loving the 100 book Reading Challenge and keeping track of my titles on the sidebar of my Great Reads! book blog. This first week back to school, I have invited ISB students to join me, and I am thrilled that many of them are giving it a try. Thrilled mainly because there is no prize whatsoever except for the personal challenge part. Of course, I did mention the cool points of having your picture up on the bulletin board outside, but still...it means we've got some true readers on our hands.

To make the goal more attainable, students are starting with 20 books and then moving on to higher numbers once they reach that first goal.

Logistics-wise, I have provided those who want it a paper to record their titles or we are using the new features of Destiny Quest (HAVE READ bookshelf) or those students who already have blogs are also using their sidebars to track them.

My next step is to invite teachers. Some have already noticed on their own and joined. Even one parent has joined the challenge!

I love how this fabulous teacher already has her list outside her classroom door. Very motivating!

Hello Destiny 9.5!

2010-01-11T07:11:00.000-08:00

You know you love being a librarian when you anxiously await the updates to the Destiny system. Over the December holiday, we updated to 9.5, and what I most wanted to explore was the social networking component. New to Destiny (thanks for listening, Follett!), it works much like Facebook and allows kids to talk about books, recommend books and also organize their book lists much like Shelfari.

Things I am loving already after only one day of classes

1. Kids having a place to record what they are reading and share that with their peers
2. The frenzy of friend adding and them feeling so excited
3. Watching them navigate a new site with little help from me--lots of opportunity to be intuitive
4. Going to Destiny right now to take a screenshot and seeing that kids were on it tonight adding to their book lists and recommending.

My favorite of the day came from one particulary dry-witted student who turned to me and said, "We should call it Bookface."

Get it? Facebook--Bookface.

And, lastly, the coolest library card generator ever! Put in whatever text you want and add the scribbles.

T-H-A-N-K Y-O-U song

2010-01-07T21:17:00.000-08:00

Via @classicsixbooks on Twitter, I discovered an amazing site put out by the King County library of a gazillion fingerplays for little kids. Many of the fingerplays have videos attached, and I so appreciate that as a teacher. It got me thinking of a video I made a while back that I've been meaning to share. It's called the "Thank You" song, and I wish I could give credit where credit is due, but all I know is that Christine, the music teacher at my old school, used to sing this for our visiting authors. It's short and sweet, just the way I like 'em.

The kinders loved the song, as did their teachers. When the lovely kinders had a Skype author visit with Jessica Harper the other day, we ended our call with this song, and she loved it. Enjoy!

A Reading Challenge for the New Year

2009-12-31T05:03:00.001-08:00

I'm starting my first reading challenge, thanks to my friend Colleen's posting about J. Kaye's Book Blog. The gist is to read 100 books starting on January 1, 2010 until December 31, 2010 (check out the site for all the details). I've been devouring books anyway this year, so why not jump into a challenge?

The idea of recording all the books one reads makes me think of my very treasured book journals. For many years--15 to be exact--I have kept a journal of every book I have read. I write down passages that spoke to me and how I felt about the book at the time. When I finish a new book, I love to go back and read what I wrote about other books. A dear friend who was my inspiration to be a librarian started hers in 1975 (!) and looking through hers made me want to start my own. Of course, I always look to see how many books I read a year, but it's never been a challenge before. I've also never made it to 100 prior to adding kid lit to the pot, but I love the idea!

I'm thinking of modifying it a bit for kids at school and seeing if any of them want to join. Say 40 books? I'll invite teachers to participate as well. I know you'll be game, Chrissy!

Reading Over the Vaca

2009-12-17T18:46:00.000-08:00

I have a gorgeous pile of books (how I love how they look all piled up...) ready to be read over the upcoming vacation. When I organized the pile last night to take a picture, I realized that all but one book are recommendations from either kids or teachers. There is such power in having kids put a book on my desk and tell me I have to read it.

I'm a bit late in doing this, but I posted my picture of the books this morning on the last day before break, encouraging kids to take a picture of their own reading pile over the break. If there are enough photos, I'd love to make a Voicethread of them. If not, I'll put them up on a bulletin board outside the Hub.

Next year, I'll definitely do this before the last day when things are crazy. But I still see kids gathered around the door looking at the picture, which is making me smile.

Happy Reading! p.s. I'm always open to recommendations...

Twitter, Take Two

2009-12-15T21:42:00.000-08:00

It took me so long to fully digest the benefits of Twitter. At first, it was hard for me to sift through all the tweets and make sense of what was pertinent to my own learning. So I took a break from it and thought it was simply a tool that wasn't for me.

Enter the lovely Lesley Edwards who oh-so-gently posted about the benefits of Twitter every now and then (smart move to not just do it once, Lesley!), which was just enough to get me thinking about diving back in.

And dive back in I have, and I can now truly say that I am loving Twitter. Why the change? Well, I've narrowed down my field of who I follow to librarians and tech teachers and just a few extras for good measure. In essence, now I'm learning from the people I wish were in the same room as me many times. It feels a bit like that feeling of sitting across from someone while working and one of you says, "Wow! you should check this out. Let me send you the link." Whether you choose to tweet or just be a lurker on Twitter, there is enough great stuff being shared out there that it's worth the leap.

One more reason Twitter is better for me is having a Tweetdeck. This is a site that arranges the new tweets to come up all the time on your computer screen (kind of like a ping for an email) so I'm not actually going to the twitter website.

And if there is anyone wanting to get Twitter a try, I found this little nugget on Twitter today from Librareanne out of Tokyo: a list of librarians on Twitter. I just added a bunch to my account. Plus, you can't beat how cute the Twitter bird is. I've added a "Follow Me" button on the side. Jump on in the Twitter pool!

The Lighter Side of Weeding

2009-12-01T19:55:00.000-08:00

Get ready to bust a gut on this one! I was recently turned onto a hilarious blog called Awful Library Books, which is a list of archaic and hilarious titles found by librarians while weeding books. These two ladies, Mary and Holly, give librarians such a good rep as being funny and witty while doing the somewhat tedious task of weeding.

This year, I have added something new to my own weeding. To help deepen teacher's understanding of the process, I wrote up a detailed and lighthearted rationale of why I weed and how hard it really is for me to get rid of some books. My hope is that it helped a bit.

I came across this gem from a pile of donated books. Printed in 1985 and still in pristine condition, Read About Computers seemed a perfect choice to submit to the Awful Library Books website. Even if it's not chosen, it cracked me up.

It's worthy of a mention that this book was donated to a center for children in downtown Bangkok where I was working. I find it so strange that a book so old could not just be thrown away. Do poor people not need current reading material? I'm just saying...

Ok, that last part was worth digging through all the dusty boxes of donated books. I was in my junior year of high school when this book was published. Egads!

Paperless Planning

2009-11-16T00:36:00.001-08:00

When moving from the classroom to the library a few years ago, I discovered that lesson planning was much trickier. Once so neat and clean and organized and color-coded as a classroom teacher, all of a sudden I had a completely different kind of schedule that changed everyday. There were a lot of sticky notes, Word documents and way too many pieces of paper.

Enter paperless planning from Planbookedu to bring me a sweet sigh of relief. It is nothing short of brilliant, and I don't think it takes that much longer than traditional planbook planning. The overwhelming benefit is that everything is in one place, stored forever, and with the oh-so-amazing features of linking to websites and attaching documents right to my lesson plan. For example, if you look right there on Friday's lesson, the paperclip shows that all my notes about the lesson focus, youtube links, and everything needed for the lesson is just a click away. Now, if only it could only help me figure out how I am going to be in two places at once on Wednesday...

Many Books, Many Voices

2009-11-09T23:43:00.000-08:00

Being a librarian is, for me, the most amazing job. The fact that I am surrounded by books and by kids who are clamoring (yes, some days clamoring!) to get to many of those books is pretty amazing. And I am grateful to the bloggers out there who share so many great titles to add to my collection. I am forever finding amazing literature, and it's all about the sharing.

So, that is why I have started a collaborative blog for ES librarians sharing books that work well with kids or titles we must have in our collections or really anything worthy of library conversation. So far it's just me and my good friend Colleen who works in Vietnam, but even our two-way conversation is stimulating.

If you are an ES librarian, international or not, and would like to join the blog, Many Books, Many Voices, feel free to comment and include your email. I will contact you with details about how to join the conversation.

A peek into my RSS reader for some favorite book blogs.

Mother Reader
A Year of Reading
A Sweet Read
Kids Lit

image taken from verseguru, flikr creative commons

Changing Things Up a Bit

2009-11-05T21:37:00.000-08:00

A while back, I read a great article on Choice Literacy called "A Workshop Model in the Library: Time For More Than Book Checkout" by Franki Sibberson. I will say that the Choice Literacy site is worth every penny of the membership fee, especially for a librarian. (Thanks, Lesley, for finding the public article!)

In a nutshell, she talks about setting up library time like we do the reading workshop. Start with a mini-lesson, have kids choose their books and THEN come back together to share and read a story. I thought it sounded like a great idea, but I was a bit chicken to shake things up now that we have our routine established in the Hub.

But, shake it up I did today. I talked with the kids about doing a flip-flop of what we normally do, with the caveat that if it really flopped, we'd change back to what we normally do.

It was beyond wonderful. Having the mini-lesson first (today we talked about what it is that draws us to a book when we are in the library and how we make our choices) calmed us down and got us on track. After checking out, we all met back on the stairs for our story. This allowed us to end on a great note together instead of the normal routine of me herding kids from all over the place trying to get them in line, which always felt quite chaotic to me. This is also almost exactly the feeling Franki got when she did it. I tried it with kinder, 1st and 2nd grades today, and they were all successful. And that was on a Friday afternoon, so that's saying something.

Just because it was awesome to hear them articulate their reasons for book choice, here is the list from one second grade class:

1. The cover is fab!
2. It's about something you love, like an animal
3. It's a just right book
4. The title looks good
5. You want to try something new that looks good
6. You like the author
7. The character is good
8. Reread a favorite
9. It's something you love to do, like a craft
10. The inside pics look good and funny

A Big WOW!

2009-10-28T19:09:00.001-07:00

Oh, I love days like today! This morning, a small group of 4th and 5th graders met with Mary Amato for our first Skype An Author visit. It was beyond fantastic! Let's just say it's 2 hours later, and I'm still on a high from how incredibly powerful the experience was.

Skype an Author is a program where authors donate time to talk to students. Mary donated 15 minutes of her time to meet with us and talk about her book called Please Write in This Book. The group of kids had met with me to generate questions ahead of time, and we were very organized and ready to go. I liked that Mary had sent me guidelines ahead of time so we could easily follow her expectations.

Mary was so gracious and warm. Even when we lost electricity (aagggh!) in the middle of our time with her, we all gathered around the laptop in the dark and she loved it, saying it looked like we were gathering around a campfire to talk to her. We even got to see a sneak peek of her newest book, Invisible Lines, which was very cool. But most exciting for me was the energy in the room--it was the coolest buzz from the kids and me about the fact that we had just talked to the person who wrote the book we love. A 5 star authentic experience for us all, and we can't thank Mary enough for meeting with us!

Feedback from the kids is the best way to sum it up:

*I never knew that she made a lot more books.

*I never would have thought it took 6 years to write a book.

*She was nice.

*You know when you are reading a book and you have questions for the author. We always put post-its in the books, but we got to actually ask her the questions. (this one really hit home with me!)

*It was cool when the lights went out.

*Writing takes time...actually, good writing takes time.

*Even if you don't like writing like Ms. Amato didn't like writing, if you keep writing and writing, you can learn to be very good.

Wordle and Books = Groovy Stuff!

2009-10-27T01:40:00.000-07:00

I love the idea of leaving kids with one "cool tool" each time they visit me. During my second session with the grade 3-5 students, I modified an idea I found on Chad Lehman's website using Wordle. In a nutshell, Wordle creates a word cloud out of the text your provide. The more frequently a word is used, the bigger it becomes in the cloud. We began our Wordle lesson by modeling the process, and I had kids quickly brainstorm reasons we love Thailand. Yes, the beaches truly are amazing here, but I did cheat a bit when we made this. When one kid said 'beach,' I asked who else liked the beach and then added a bunch more to give them the idea.We then broke into small groups and listed 6 favorite book titles or series, which I then input into the program to create our Wordle. (It is always cute to hear the 'oohs' and 'aahs' of kids viewing the Wordle). Going one step further, I talked about how our Wordle is actually providing us with data about our class as readers, and we tried to extract the data we could find.

I put them together in a Voicethreadand found myself very interested to see how readers matured greatly from grade 3 to grade 4. There was a leap from mostly predictable series in grade 3 to more individual, meatier books in grade 4. Diary of a Wimpy Kid was overall the most popular, and our friend Garfield was found to be king at all levels.

Tumblebooks

2009-10-08T00:21:00.000-07:00

One of the best investments our school has made for our greater community is buying a site license for Tumblebooks. The concept is simple: quality titles read to kids with illustrations using a tiny bit of movement. It's magic, and it is becoming a wonderful tool for parents to use at home. I believe the cost for a school is about $1000.00, but it's so worth it if your budget can handle it! We are finding it especially motivating for the ELL population as it allows students to hear English at home.

Free trials as well.

Easy, cheesy tech tip: To do a screen capture (photo of a website you are on) like I did of this photo attached, simply click shift + command + 4 on a Mac. Drag the crosshairs over the area you want to take a picture of and let go. An automatic picture!

Keeping Current

2009-10-02T06:48:00.000-07:00

Keeping current with technology is fairly easy: read a lot of blogs that tech-savvy folks are writing, watch your tweetdeck for new cool tools and spend a lot of time with techies. But keeping current with reading strategies and pedagogy is not as easy, in my opinion. Sure, I read book blogs (almost obsessively), but I've been out of the classroom for a few years now, and I simply don't want to lose touch with current ideas on how to use mentor texts and how to implement good, solid strategies when I'm meeting with kids.

For that reason, I put some of my yearly PD money to good use. And Amazon kindly delivered these awesome new books in just under a week's time. Certainly not bad at all for being all the way over here in Thailand. I can say I'm already so pleased with my well-researched choices. Lots and lots of deeper understanding already on my part about choosing and using mentor texts.

The Revision Toolbox by Georgia Heard
Non-Fiction Mentor Texts by Lynne Dorfman and Rose Capelli
Wondrous Words by Katie Wood Ray
Mentor Texts by Lynne Dorfman and Rose Capelli
Teaching With Intention by Debbie Miller

Skype an Author

2009-09-22T06:55:00.000-07:00

A big thanks to Joyce Valenza for sharing a site called Skype an Author.

The concept is simple: a number of authors have signed up on this site and are willing to donate (free!) 15-20 minutes of an author visit via Skype. Being that we are in Thailand, this is a phenomenal way for our students to have contact with writers and get a taste of mingling with authors. I immediately sat down and scrolled through the list of authors to match books we have in our collection with available authors. One of our first mini author visits will be with Jessica Harper. I just read A Place Called Kindergarten this week, and the kinders loved it. Coupled with another of her books called Lizzy's Do's and Don'ts, which they also loved, we will now write a few questions to ask Ms. Harper when she meets with us on the computer.
I can't wait!

Glogster

2009-09-14T05:57:00.000-07:00

I heard about Glogster a while back, but I never seemed to find the time to sit down and experiment with it. For me, the playing around with themes and fonts and style is the fun part, and so I dove in feet first this past weekend. For my first attempt, I've gone quite simple, but you can add links and all sorts of goodies. My thought is to make a few glogs showcasing authors that are not the 'biggies' used for author studies. By adding these to my blogroll on the sidebar of Great Reads!, it becomes one more resource for teachers. And a pretty funky-looking one at that!

The ISB21 Team

2009-09-09T22:34:00.000-07:00

I feel so fortunate to work with so many talented individuals in both the tech and library fields at ISB. A few years ago, the two areas joined forces and the ISB21 team was created. As a librarian who is keen on technology and relatively new to the library field, I am soaking up all the knowledge and experience I can from both sides. Check out where we house our all our team thinking.

Our team decided last year to do a group book club, and our choice was Disrupting Class by Clayton Christensen. Using the final word protocol was a great way to facilitate the discussion of the first chapter today. Only bummer for me is that I was home sick. In true ISB21 fashion, I sat in via Skype and was able to participate in the great discussion the team had. Looks like it was a great book choice.

Book Trailers

2009-09-08T19:20:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've come across a number of great book trailers for kids, and they are such a creative way to grab someone's attention. Some of the best ones out there, in my opinion, are the ones that take a Presentation Zen approach to the trailer: few words and beautiful images that speak volumes. My goal as a librarian this year is to work with students to create some of their own book trailers for books found in our Learning Hub. I'm thinking a lunchtime group of interested 4th and 5th graders is the place to start.

Trailer from one of my favorite new character series for young readers, The Adventures of Max and Pinky

And talk about a book trailer that is simple yet powerful. All I want to do is run out and buy this book when I see the trailer...Greetings From Nowhere by Barbara O'Connor.

I'm finding that it's hit or miss when it comes to finding trailers for books at this point. Perhaps because it is a new medium? This site, Book Screening, has about 80 good trailers. Hopefully we'll be on our way to creating our own soon. Anyone doing this already who can share?

Inspiration

2009-09-06T19:27:00.001-07:00

Groovy way to get a message across, eh? You can make one of your own here.

I really did spend the entire weekend pouring through the archives of A Year of Reading. Franki and Mary Lee are have put an amazing amount of work and research and passion into their book blog, and I am beyond excited to order and read many of the titles they suggest. What I really want to do is get a huge latte and hang out with the two of them for about a week and talk nothing but books.

Online Catalog, 21st Century Style

2009-09-02T20:55:00.001-07:00

I spent my first year (ok, first two years) using Destiny in a pretty basic way, but this year I'm determined to have the kids use it in a way that makes it authentic for them. So, we're diving into Destiny Quest, a very cool part of the catalog that gives it all a more current twist that appeals to students (and librarians). Here is a snapshot of my Destiny Quest page showing a fabulous book called Odd Velvet. Check out how many things I can learn about the book just from this page: the summary, a review, other books I might like, put it on hold, and the list goes on.

Cool features we are loving

*Ability to check your own account to see when things are due

*Checking out the lists I've created of book recommendations

*Changing the background theme to something groovy

*Putting their own books on hold

*And my personal favorite--the "You May Also Like..." feature, similar to what Amazon has. It's not on every book, but enough to make it very, very cool!

One question for the library world--how can I give kids access to make more than one resource list? It appears that they can only make a personal list, but they want to make more. One list for books they want to read later, one list for favorites, etc.

Rethink, Reinvent, Rejuvenate

2009-08-24T18:43:00.000-07:00

Kim and I had the pleasure of hosting over 30 librarians from the Asian region here at ISB. A few short months ago, we met Kevin Hennah as he was passing through Bangkok, and his presentation of redesigning library spaces struck a chord with us. We immediately asked him to come back and do a presentation in Bangkok.

Not only was it wonderful to connect with so many librarians, Kevin's presentation was engaging, practical and inspiring. Since his background is in retail, he looks at the books as products and how to make them move just like a bookstore would.

Or, as he put it,

"What would you do differently if you were given one dollar for every book that left the library?"

Great way to look at it. Here are a few things I took from the presentation:

*Use vinyl stickers for areas where you would normally use a poster. They look better and add a bit of coolness to the library. These are the types of stickers you see on the sides of busses or on store windows. Luckily, we live in Bangkok where this is quite affordable.

*Uniformity of signage is key and also professional. I was drooling over this funky signage that Kevin brought. You can find it here.

*Come up with a brand for your library. It can then be included in the letterhead for notices, up on the walls, and it ties the whole thing together. We are already putting our heads together here to come up with a cool brand that incorporates Thai culture.

*The focus is on books. Getting them out the door, displaying them in such a way that kids are drawn to them. And as many front-facing shelves as possible!

Looking forward to implementing many of his ideas in our Learning Hub. Interested in having Kevin come to your school? I know he's keen on doing more presentations!

Visiting Authors

2009-08-17T06:47:00.000-07:00

I vividly remember being a classroom teacher and being envious of the librarian while s/he was hosting a visiting author. With a dynamic speaker and a good author, there is such palpable inspiration that it's more than a bit intoxicating.

So lucky me to have hired Sheree Fitch, a Canadian author and poet, as our visiting author at ISBangkok coming up in March of 2010. She comes highly recommended as a passionate writer and speaker. Plus, she has one of those vibrant personalities that I feel like I already know her just from emails going back and forth.

Doesn't she look just fabulously fun?! I can't wait until March.

Check out her interview on Just One More Book

image taken from http://www.edu.pe.ca/stjean/playing%20with%20poetry/Ives/images/sheree3.gif

A New Year

2009-08-10T19:14:00.000-07:00

The new school year has begun, and oh, does the second year feel smoother than the first! Always the case, I think. I love seeing faces I recognize and knowing many of the students as readers.

A goal of mine this year is to advertise books more. Here are a few things I'm working on this year to be more visible in promoting literacy: (first two ideas taken from the AAIE conference last summer)

1. Wearing a lanyard around my neck and sticking a book through the lanyard as a book necklace of sorts. (this can be painful with thick books!) Kids now know that whatever I am wearing is something I recommend, and they can ask me for the book. It's working well so far as it gets people's attention.

2. Having a sign on the library door showing what I am reading. LOVE this idea, and then I take the book cover and add it to my recommendation bulletin board when I change it. In the future, I'd love to get more teachers to put something like this outside their classrooms.

3. And lastly, I'm trying to house all the books I recommend for various units of study and genres in one place. I tend to come across something wonderful and then forget what it was later on. Hopefully, my new Fabulous Books wiki will be utilized by teachers this year. I'm still using 22books as the platform with which to add the book covers. Easy, cheesy!

Feel free to share any ideas of how librarians are promoting books in school.

My Own Summer Reading

2009-07-02T20:19:00.001-07:00

Ah, summer! I have been reading some rave reviews of The Book Whisperer, so I put that on the top of my summer reads. To say I loved it is putting it mildly. It was both inspiring and validating, and I'd recommend to any elementary teacher and definitely to librarians. The premise is simple: read and read and read, and kids will become better readers. But it adds the important element that I think some of us forget--if we, as adults, are readers ourselves--passionate readers who talk about reading and share our love--then it's almost impossible for kids not to catch some of the reading fever.

For me personally, the book inspired me to get off my butt and do some serious summer reading. I have found that there is this weird pressure for librarians to have read all the books in a library, and while that is completely unrealistic, I know I can do better. I see how kids LOVE when I recommend a book to them, and I listen to them talk to each other about what to read. It truly is the best way to get kids to find a book that fits them. So here is the first of my summer reading pile. Living just a few blocks from the local library means this pile can be replenished over and over. Check out my book recommendation blog, Great Reads!, for the reviews.

Fun and Learning

2009-06-09T06:01:00.000-07:00

Lucky me to have received a DVD gift from a friend who is a parent at the Singapore American School. The principal, David Hoss, has created characters called Hop-a-Long and Shoo-Fly (played by himself and vice-principal, Ken Schunk), and these characters put on an educational variety show for students. Dancing, songs, literature and just plain fun are included, as well as a central theme. The primary librarian at Singapore American School is also a part of the show, and he looks like he is having a blast playing Mr. Bookman. Another character on the show looks like she might be a relative of his. This was the absolute perfect way to end a year in the library this week. Kids loved that there was a real principal and a real vice-principal and a real librarian and real science teacher making a movie. This is a great addition to any elementary library collection for both the information learned and the fun had.
Permission granted by Mr. Bookman to show his image online. Image taken from http://hop-a-long.com/