Another Means of Connecting

View my page on Classroom 2.0

Just the other day, I heard a colleague say, "Where do you even start with doing things like reading blogs?" and I thought it was a fantastic question. How on earth does one dive into the web 2.0 forum when all of it is new? My feeling at times is that the educational world is expecting teachers and librarians to already be well on their way to integrating technology when truthfully there are many who are still on the starting blocks and not sure what to do when the whistle blows. Recently, I've found a relatively easy way to connect with other teachers around the world at Classroom 2.0 website. Any question you might have or any collaborating you might want to join or start yourself is right there for the taking. Even a question like, "Where do you even start with reading blogs?" could be posted there, and I imagine the results would be great. Actually, I'm going to do that myself and see what kinds of answers I get from others. I'll post them here at a later date.

For the record, the tech blogs on my RSS feed that I somewhat faithfully read at the moment are
Cool Cat Teacher
Always Learning
The Fischbowl
Utech Tips

Love of Reading Assembly Idea

As a new librarian, I wanted to do something really fun for our Love of Reading assembly that happens as a kickoff to our Visiting Author week in March. However, when I went online, I couldn't find much out there, so I thought I would post our fun idea on this blog in case someone else is searching for ideas. Our VP did this cool thing when she worked in Brazil-- we are going to have a book character fashion show called Fiction Fashion Week. Teachers will dress up as various book characters and walk the runway to clues being given by our host and kids will shout out (yes, this will be a crazy loud assembly!) the character's name. It's great for teachers because they don't have to act, just strut their stuff, and I know the kids are going to love it. To top if off, we have an incredibly vivacious art teacher who is a perfect MC.

Two Million Minutes

Fascinating trailer of a documentary called Two Million Minutes. That is the estimated amount of time spent in a 4-year high school. Tracing the lives of 6 students from 3 countries--United States, India and China--it highlights the differences and how the U.S. values about education are radically different from India and China, the two biggest competitors on the world market. Living in Shanghai, the attitudes towards education are intense, even in the elementary grades. What a great documentary to show students living in any country to get conversations started.

A Bit of Funkiness

I love a library that has a personality to it. To me, it makes the space inviting and warm. We are lucky to have an amazing floor-to-ceiling mural on our main wall, but the story corner is tucked away and feels a bit lonely to me. I'm thinking of adding one of these wall decals I've found online. They are inexpensive and removable (but not reusable) so there isn't the fear of it being permanent, but I think they are simply fantastic.

The decal shown is only $35.oo and is found at EllyNelly

Other sites for decals are blik and WinkWall.

Reading Incentive Programs

I've been looking into ideas for reading incentive programs because I want to do something more interactive and meaningful for kids. This year, I did a 100 Days of Reading, which was nice for the kids because they got a prize for reading for 100 days, but it had little connection between the library, classroom and kids--or the world for that matter. One of my favorite charity organizations, Heifer International, has a program called Read to Feed. In a nutshell, the idea behind Heifer is that one buys an animal as a donation, anything from ducks to a water buffalo, and that animal is then donated to a needy family somewhere around the world. The family that receives the animal then passes on that animal's offspring to another family in the community, thus creating a "pay it forward" concept. The Read to Feed program is geared toward upper grades with its videos and lesson plans, but it could easily be modified as a fundraiser for all elementary grades. I have the coolest vision in my head of a kindergarten class discussing how they will use their money raised--do they buy 3 flocks of geese or 2 pigs? Pro and con writing in a completely authentic setting, and kids making real-life decisions that affect the world.

Virtual Field Trip

After finishing my first collaborative project, Books Go Global!, another teacher approached me (the seed has been planted...) to collaborate on something. Perfect timing as I wanted a partner for a Virtual Field Trip idea where kids make a movie of their city and post it on a website so kids around the world can go on a "field trip" to that city. It's a true TLC partnership as the technology teacher, the librarian and the classroom teacher all did the kick-off this morning to get the kids pumped up about the project. Our tech teacher extraordinaire, Mike, made a sample Photostory 3 (our medium due to the age group of the kids and ease of creating them--fabulously easy way to make pictures into a movie) of Shanghai to give them some ideas. From here, their homework in the next few weeks is to take pictures of their surroundings and activities in their world that represent Shanghai. We will also take a TLC field trip together to some key landmarks in town.

I know that the organizer of the this collaborative project is looking for more teachers to join. Check out his site for an incredibly authentic and relevant way for kids to study their hometown. I'm including Mike's sample Photostory in case it inspires anyone to join the fun!

21st Century OPAC?

After reading a Kim Cofino's wish list for the "best" library catalog system out there, I've been thinking about how everything else around me is becoming technologically advanced at lightning speed, so why not the OPAC? Navigating it is not always easy for me as a librarian at times, so imagine the elementary kids who are trying to find a good book and actually want to do that independently by typing in a title and having it lead them to new titles they might like? Instead, if they spell the title wrong, it often leads them to a dead end. School Library Journal has a fabulous article addressing just this issue (like why on earth do we have MARC records displayed for all to see in this day and age when there are of no real use to students?!). He suggests a tool called Fish4Info which looks intriguing to me. It's open source, so it's free, and from what I see, your catalog is on it but it's streamlined, friendly and includes some of the neat additions like student book reviews and notes from the librarian. Worth exploring...