Monday, April 30, 2012
Greetings!
I am sure that most of you are getting your summer plans in order and on the list is the convention in August. I want to let you know that I will be giving two presentations on library at the convention. One presentation will be on how to organize a small library. Most of you have small libraries and if you are interested in organizing your school library and/or getting your library on an automated program, I hope you will find the time to come to my session. For the past two summers, I have been part of a team to visit a small school and work for a week in the summer to get the library cataloged and automated. At the convention in August I will be presenting our system and how it has worked.
Another session I will be presenting is a ShopTalk for Librarians. In this session we will be discussing any topics that concern our SDA schools and libraries and books. I will be moderating this session. If you have questions or concerns or just wonder how other teachers handle library situations, then come and talk with us. This will be fairly informal and we will talk about the subjects that you want to talk about.
I am collecting ideas for the ShopTalk session. If you have any questions, I would love to put it on the list of subject ideas.
I’ll try to remember to send out a reminder again this summer about the sessions. I hope to meet some of you face to face at the convention.
Have a great week,
Audrey
Sdalibrarian.blogspot.com
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Videos and DVDs
Greetings!
Usually I talk about books and other reading material, but this time I thought I’d talk about other media. Recently I bought a number of DVDs for school use to supplement the curriculum. I sent an email to all the teachers and asked them to let me know what subject areas they would like to have DVDs for use in their classrooms. I wrote down the responses I got and made a list. Then I went looking for these subjects.
First I went to Library Video Company. www.LibraryVideo.com I have a print catalog and I started paging through. When I saw something that fit a need at our school, I highlighted the item and put a post it flag on that page then I marked it off my list. Many of the subjects have multiple videos and DVDs for it, so I had to choose the ones that would be best for our school and the grade level that needed the DVD. If you search online, you can watch short clips of many of the DVDs in order to help you get a better idea of the appropriateness of the movie. You can also sort the lists online and filter them to get your choices down to a more manageable size.
If you need a particular subject and cannot find something at Library Video, check Amazon.com. I was looking for a DVD for study skills for junior high next year and could not find what I wanted. I did a search on Amazon.com and found just what I was looking for.
At our school, we have videos and a few DVDs for students to check out. This is the first year we have done this and it is working out well. We also have videos and DVDs for teacher use only. The ones that support our curriculum do not get checked out by students, only teachers. The two sections are separate from each other and marked differently, too.
I hope you consider purchasing a variety of other media for your library. Think about videos, audio books, maybe even some CDs for check-out.
Have a great week.
Audrey
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Andrea Davis Pinkney
Greetings!
This morning all the students in grades 1 through 4 had the opportunity to hear Andrea Davis Pinkney speak. She is a petite Black woman who gave a dynamic presentation to a few hundred students from area schools. She spoke about her writing style and how she gets her ideas. Andrea’s day begins at 4:00 am with some silent meditation on something beautiful and lovely or something that she loves. She said that she sits with her cell phone on her knee so she knows how long she has been sitting and thinking. She invited the children to sit quietly with their hands folded in their laps, close their eyes and think of something they love. Then she puts on her swim suit and goes to the YMCA in her neighborhood in New York City and swims. Andrea said that she takes her notebook with her everywhere she goes. She walked down the steps to the audience level and walked along the side showing her notebook and asked the students if her writing was neat. It was not. She then commented that it was a bit sloppy but that it was her notes and not meant to be neat. She uses her notebook to write down her ideas as soon as they come to her so that she won’t forget them.
Since I knew that our students would be attending this session, I bought two of Andrea’s books and shared them with the students. I bought “Dear Benjamin Banneker”, and “Sit In. How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down”. Andrea shared parts of the book “Sit In” along with other books of hers. The “Sit In” book is the story of the Greensboro sit in that occurred in February of 1960. It tells the story of a nonviolent protest for equal rights. Andrea uses Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words in sections of the story.
She did not mention her book about Benjamin Banneker, but that was one of my favorites. Benjamin Banneker was born free to free Black parents. They owned a small tobacco farm that he eventually took over when he was an adult. He studied the stars and wrote his own almanac, but was unable to get it published because he was Black. A group of people who fought for the rights of black people helped him eventually get his almanac published. Benjamin also wrote a letter to Thomas Jefferson reminding him that he had written in his document “The Declaration of Independence” that all men are created equal but at the same time he – Thomas Jefferson – was guilty of owning slaves. Jefferson answered and said that Banneker was right. This book shows that all people are able to learn and achieve their dreams no matter the color of their skin.
Andrea’s husband, Brian Pinkney, illustrates many of her books. He uses scratchboard – white covered over with black – for his illustrations. He scratches away the black part that he doesn’t want, and is left with black and white. He then paints color where he wants color. After sharing Andrea’s books, you might incorporate an art lesson and let the children try some scratchboard art for themselves. For those children who are ‘lefties’, you can tell them that Brian is also left-handed.
If you are unfamiliar with this author, you might want to get some of her books. The two that I have mentioned are two that are certainly appropriate for our SDA Schools and there are most certainly others. Andrea also writes picture biographies about famous Black people. Check them out of your local public library and see which ones will be best for your school.
Have a great week!
Audrey
This morning all the students in grades 1 through 4 had the opportunity to hear Andrea Davis Pinkney speak. She is a petite Black woman who gave a dynamic presentation to a few hundred students from area schools. She spoke about her writing style and how she gets her ideas. Andrea’s day begins at 4:00 am with some silent meditation on something beautiful and lovely or something that she loves. She said that she sits with her cell phone on her knee so she knows how long she has been sitting and thinking. She invited the children to sit quietly with their hands folded in their laps, close their eyes and think of something they love. Then she puts on her swim suit and goes to the YMCA in her neighborhood in New York City and swims. Andrea said that she takes her notebook with her everywhere she goes. She walked down the steps to the audience level and walked along the side showing her notebook and asked the students if her writing was neat. It was not. She then commented that it was a bit sloppy but that it was her notes and not meant to be neat. She uses her notebook to write down her ideas as soon as they come to her so that she won’t forget them.
Since I knew that our students would be attending this session, I bought two of Andrea’s books and shared them with the students. I bought “Dear Benjamin Banneker”, and “Sit In. How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down”. Andrea shared parts of the book “Sit In” along with other books of hers. The “Sit In” book is the story of the Greensboro sit in that occurred in February of 1960. It tells the story of a nonviolent protest for equal rights. Andrea uses Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words in sections of the story.
She did not mention her book about Benjamin Banneker, but that was one of my favorites. Benjamin Banneker was born free to free Black parents. They owned a small tobacco farm that he eventually took over when he was an adult. He studied the stars and wrote his own almanac, but was unable to get it published because he was Black. A group of people who fought for the rights of black people helped him eventually get his almanac published. Benjamin also wrote a letter to Thomas Jefferson reminding him that he had written in his document “The Declaration of Independence” that all men are created equal but at the same time he – Thomas Jefferson – was guilty of owning slaves. Jefferson answered and said that Banneker was right. This book shows that all people are able to learn and achieve their dreams no matter the color of their skin.
Andrea’s husband, Brian Pinkney, illustrates many of her books. He uses scratchboard – white covered over with black – for his illustrations. He scratches away the black part that he doesn’t want, and is left with black and white. He then paints color where he wants color. After sharing Andrea’s books, you might incorporate an art lesson and let the children try some scratchboard art for themselves. For those children who are ‘lefties’, you can tell them that Brian is also left-handed.
If you are unfamiliar with this author, you might want to get some of her books. The two that I have mentioned are two that are certainly appropriate for our SDA Schools and there are most certainly others. Andrea also writes picture biographies about famous Black people. Check them out of your local public library and see which ones will be best for your school.
Have a great week!
Audrey
Monday, April 9, 2012
BYOD - Bring Your Own Device
Greetings!
I believe that we as educators need to be either on the cutting edge or at least aware of cutting edge practices. At the NCCE convention there was a lot of talk about BYOD – Bring Your Own Device. The rationale is that students are already using these anyway, so let’s put them to educational use. A Smartphone, an iPad, a net book, or personal computer can be a great educational tool, and our job is to educate students to use their devices as a learning tool rather than a texting or game tool.
BYOD has some positive elements.
1. Students already own them, so the school does not have to provide them.
2. Students are also responsible for any repairs or device problems that may happen. It is a personal device, not a school one.
3. Students know how to use it already.
4. It provides a 1:1 student to device ratio.
Of course, there will always be problems with students having devices. It is our job to teach students about internet safety and proper use of the internet. One presenter gave the following ‘proverb’ to us. “Filter a website and you protect a student for a day. Educate students about online safety and you will protect children for a lifetime.”
Now I certainly believe we need to filter our computers at school. But along with filtering the internet, we also need to educate students about internet safety, cyber bullying, and being safe with social media.
I do not believe that many of our SDA schools are ready to adopt a BYOD policy, but I thought it would be interesting to think about and at least know that there are many schools out there that are doing this right now. If you think that this sounds like an interesting option, I would encourage you to plan a special day with technology and allow students to Bring Their Own Device on that day. See what ideas you can come up with. If you do try this idea, I’d be interested in learning about your experience.
Hope you have a great week.
Audrey
I believe that we as educators need to be either on the cutting edge or at least aware of cutting edge practices. At the NCCE convention there was a lot of talk about BYOD – Bring Your Own Device. The rationale is that students are already using these anyway, so let’s put them to educational use. A Smartphone, an iPad, a net book, or personal computer can be a great educational tool, and our job is to educate students to use their devices as a learning tool rather than a texting or game tool.
BYOD has some positive elements.
1. Students already own them, so the school does not have to provide them.
2. Students are also responsible for any repairs or device problems that may happen. It is a personal device, not a school one.
3. Students know how to use it already.
4. It provides a 1:1 student to device ratio.
Of course, there will always be problems with students having devices. It is our job to teach students about internet safety and proper use of the internet. One presenter gave the following ‘proverb’ to us. “Filter a website and you protect a student for a day. Educate students about online safety and you will protect children for a lifetime.”
Now I certainly believe we need to filter our computers at school. But along with filtering the internet, we also need to educate students about internet safety, cyber bullying, and being safe with social media.
I do not believe that many of our SDA schools are ready to adopt a BYOD policy, but I thought it would be interesting to think about and at least know that there are many schools out there that are doing this right now. If you think that this sounds like an interesting option, I would encourage you to plan a special day with technology and allow students to Bring Their Own Device on that day. See what ideas you can come up with. If you do try this idea, I’d be interested in learning about your experience.
Hope you have a great week.
Audrey
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
NCCE part 2
Greetings!
I noticed an error I made in a web address last week. I mentioned Prezi – a program to use rather than PowerPoint, and I listed the website as www.prexi.com and it should be www.prezi.com. Please excuse my error.
Do you wish you could show short video clips to illustrate something you are learning or to enhance a unit? Go to www.teachersdomain.org and you can have access to thousands of clips. You may need to sign up for an account. I am not sure about this. I know that my school blocks streaming video so I cannot use it the regular way. I think that you could download the clips you want to use on a thumb drive and then show them on your computer. It is a little more trouble, but I believe it would work well.
Tammy Worcester is a presenter I can listen to over and over. She is very entertaining and quickly presents lots of ideas for technology. Her books seem a bit pricy, but the use you will get from them makes it well worth the cost. The following ideas are from her presentation titled “Fabulous Free Web Tools”.
Random Name/Word Picker - http://www.superteachertools.com/instantclassroom/random-name-generator.php. There are many tools out in internet world that have random name picker. You input student names and then the program spins or ends up with a particular student’s name. Sometimes you can remove them from the list so they will not be called upon again, but that is usually an option you can choose or not. Some look like a spinning wheel and the names all appear rolling around and around. The one I found above looks like a blackboard and the names appear quietly. Tammy presented one that acts like a slot machine at http://classtools.net/main_area/template_loader.php/?fruit_machine. I believe that you can choose other options rather than a slot machine, but in any case, it is a little more fun that using popsicle sticks with your students’ names on them. You can save the name list and reuse it over and over. Do you need a list of words? What about listing the states or provinces and students name the capitals? You can input any kind of list and use this multiple ways.
Online Stopwatch - http://www.online-stopwatch.com/ This is a large screen stopwatch or countdown clock or even a classroom timer. This works great on a smart board. Place the timer on your desktop by simply dragging the URL from the website to your desktop. Now you have the timer ready to go whenever you need it.
Classroom Management Tool - http://www.classdojo.com/ This tool can be very motivational. One criticism is that all students can see what everyone’s behavior is. This is true. The people who like to use this program state that all students already know who is behaving and who isn’t behaving anyway, so what is the problem? The program can be used to note participation, behavior, and other idea. Take a look at the demo and see if this is something that would work for you. It is kind of fun to give Brad Pitt a mark for class participation.
Newseum - http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/flash/ - You can view headlines from newspapers across the country or world. You can go back in time for quite a few years. Please note that the front page is the only page you can access. Even so, it is great to have such a wonderful primary source available.
Science online activities – just go to http://edheads.org/ and you can let students actually do a knee replacement or deep brain stimulation or design a cell phone, or simple machines, or more. Very cool!
Traveler IQ Challenge - http://www.travelpod.com/traveler-iq - This site has a fun and addictive geography game. It isn’t as easy as it looks, but it is fun. Try naming the capital and clicking on the place it is located. I hate to admit it, but although I knew the capitals, I did not get the placement correct.
There is so much available on the web and most teachers simply do not have time to sit at the computers and search for sites. I hope these sites have been helpful to you. If you are interested in more next week, please let me know. I can go another week or two on just this information I learned from NCCE.
Hope you have a great week.
Audrey
I noticed an error I made in a web address last week. I mentioned Prezi – a program to use rather than PowerPoint, and I listed the website as www.prexi.com and it should be www.prezi.com. Please excuse my error.
Do you wish you could show short video clips to illustrate something you are learning or to enhance a unit? Go to www.teachersdomain.org and you can have access to thousands of clips. You may need to sign up for an account. I am not sure about this. I know that my school blocks streaming video so I cannot use it the regular way. I think that you could download the clips you want to use on a thumb drive and then show them on your computer. It is a little more trouble, but I believe it would work well.
Tammy Worcester is a presenter I can listen to over and over. She is very entertaining and quickly presents lots of ideas for technology. Her books seem a bit pricy, but the use you will get from them makes it well worth the cost. The following ideas are from her presentation titled “Fabulous Free Web Tools”.
Random Name/Word Picker - http://www.superteachertools.com/instantclassroom/random-name-generator.php. There are many tools out in internet world that have random name picker. You input student names and then the program spins or ends up with a particular student’s name. Sometimes you can remove them from the list so they will not be called upon again, but that is usually an option you can choose or not. Some look like a spinning wheel and the names all appear rolling around and around. The one I found above looks like a blackboard and the names appear quietly. Tammy presented one that acts like a slot machine at http://classtools.net/main_area/template_loader.php/?fruit_machine. I believe that you can choose other options rather than a slot machine, but in any case, it is a little more fun that using popsicle sticks with your students’ names on them. You can save the name list and reuse it over and over. Do you need a list of words? What about listing the states or provinces and students name the capitals? You can input any kind of list and use this multiple ways.
Online Stopwatch - http://www.online-stopwatch.com/ This is a large screen stopwatch or countdown clock or even a classroom timer. This works great on a smart board. Place the timer on your desktop by simply dragging the URL from the website to your desktop. Now you have the timer ready to go whenever you need it.
Classroom Management Tool - http://www.classdojo.com/ This tool can be very motivational. One criticism is that all students can see what everyone’s behavior is. This is true. The people who like to use this program state that all students already know who is behaving and who isn’t behaving anyway, so what is the problem? The program can be used to note participation, behavior, and other idea. Take a look at the demo and see if this is something that would work for you. It is kind of fun to give Brad Pitt a mark for class participation.
Newseum - http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/flash/ - You can view headlines from newspapers across the country or world. You can go back in time for quite a few years. Please note that the front page is the only page you can access. Even so, it is great to have such a wonderful primary source available.
Science online activities – just go to http://edheads.org/ and you can let students actually do a knee replacement or deep brain stimulation or design a cell phone, or simple machines, or more. Very cool!
Traveler IQ Challenge - http://www.travelpod.com/traveler-iq - This site has a fun and addictive geography game. It isn’t as easy as it looks, but it is fun. Try naming the capital and clicking on the place it is located. I hate to admit it, but although I knew the capitals, I did not get the placement correct.
There is so much available on the web and most teachers simply do not have time to sit at the computers and search for sites. I hope these sites have been helpful to you. If you are interested in more next week, please let me know. I can go another week or two on just this information I learned from NCCE.
Hope you have a great week.
Audrey
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