Sunday, April 26, 2015

Inspired by B.J. Novak's Book, 3rd Graders Publish Their Own Hilarious eBook With No Pictures!

3rd Graders have just finished publishing their own hilarious ebook after being inspired by B.J. Novak's, The Book With No Pictures!  To read about the beginning of this project, check out an earlier post - Using B.J.Novak's Example, Students Begin Writing Their Own eBook With No Pictures!



Mr. Novak's book was truly inspired and this became even more apparent to me as students began writing their own version of The Book With No Pictures. As students wrote their pages, I realized I had entered their world. (A world that Mr. Novak really understood and captured in his book!) A place where children find humor in just being silly. This world, which is often lost on adults, is a place where silly sounds and outrageous blurts seemed like the highest form of humor. All over our computer lab, students were cracking themselves up and sharing their giggles and belly laughs with their buddies! Sometimes I laughed not because I understood the humor but because they were so pleased with themselves and their laughter was contagious! Students also loved the sense that they were in control of the reader, presumably a parent!  The combination created a fantastic opportunity for children to be creative and write! Thanks so much B.J. Novak!


To publish this book, student collaborated by sharing a Google presentation.  Each student took a slide or two to write their page of our class book.  


Once the students were done writing, all I had to do was download the Google presentation as a PDF and upload it to one of my favorite eBook publishing tools FlipSnack! Flipsnack allows you to upload any PDF and it automatically turns it into a flipbook - voila! Instant eBook!

3rd Graders Answer The Burning Question - Why Did I Choose This Book To Read?

For those of us entrusted with the task of selecting books for children, there is no bigger question - Why do our students pick the books they pick?  As much as we want them to pick the most high quality books possible, there are so many other factors that they consider when choosing a books to read.

They pick the books they see their friend reading - the popular books!



Saturday, April 25, 2015

Coding with Kindergarten and 1st Grade...Some May Wonder Why?


This week kindergarteners and first graders have been learning coding logic with the Daisy the Dino App and the Kodable App. 

 

Thursday, April 23, 2015

My Creative Students Inspire Me Again - Students Become Teachers & Makers With Storehouse Webpages!

Fifth Graders have been hard at work creating lessons for us!  For the beginning of the project, see my earlier blog post - 5th Graders Are Hard At Work With "How To" Projects And The Storehouse App!

This projects took a while to complete, but the final results proved to be worthy of the time. Students chose a topic, researched, created a plan, video taped and photographed their creations and simulations, and created their step-by-step directions is the Storehouse App! The Storehouse App is easy to use and perfect for a linear step-by-step presentation! Enjoy our final results!






Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Our One Day Spring BOGO Scholastic Book Fair Was a Huge Success! Great For Summer Reading!

The One Day, Buy One Get One, Scholastic Book Fair was a huge success! Students were able to get bargain books for summer reading and I was able to take advantage of the sale with some great new books for the library! Thanks so much to our fantastic Book Fair Chairpeople who run a wonderful fair!



Monday, April 20, 2015

And The Champion of the 2015 OHE March Madness Tournament of Books...Sisters!


Our tournament didn't quite all fit into March, but the final votes were cast and tallied!  The winner of the 2015 Oak Hills March Madness Tournament of Books is officially Sisters!  Congratulations on a fantastic book by Raina Telgemeier!  Oak Hills students LOVE your books!  Though the Oak Hills Elementary students clearly love Sisters, they also love The Wimpy Kid Series by Jeff Kinney!  In the final show down, Sisters versus Wimpy Kid, Sisters won by only 7 votes (out of 372!).  So close for two great books!  We are grateful to Raina Telgemeier and Jeff Kinney for sharing their talent! 



We had only one perfect bracket!  The winning student will receive a book from our upcoming Spring Book Fair! Congratulations!

Thank You KSTP & Jessica Miles for Sharing My Love of Teaching & Digital Learning!


Thursday, April 16, 2015

Honored To Receive The 2015 ISTE Primary Librarian Network Award!



This week, I was excited to find out that I was chosen to receive the 2015 ISTE Primary Librarian Network Award.  (ISTE stands for International Society for Technology in Education)  ISTE is an organization that gives teachers from all over the world an opportunity to connect, collaborate and share around the topic of digital learning.  It is a privilege to be a part of this vibrant group of teachers and librarians! Thank you ISTE Librarians Network!