Look At Our New Books!!!

Returning From The 2014 ITEM Conference - A Little Tired But Professionally Inspired!

My friend, fellow Lakeville media specialist Paula Hansen, and I just returned from the 2014 ITEM Conference! ITEM stands for Information & Technology Educators of Minnesota.  It was a fantastic opportunity to hear other innovative library and tech specialists from all over the state of Minnesota! Because we are often isolated as the only library/tech specialists in our schools, it is so great to have the opportunity to learn from each other! We heard from the ITEM president, also affectionately called Madam President, Mary Mehsikomer. We heard from Doug Johnson, Jane Prestebak and keynote speakers Naomi Harm and Jonathan Friesen.

We discussed eBooks, Makerspaces, Genius Hour, Collection Genrefication, Virtual Field Trips, Future Library Spaces, Digital Storytelling, Flipped Learning, Personalization, & Tech Integration!  I felt like my brain was exploding with new ideas and now I can't wait to bring back those ideas to my Oak Hills Elementary students!

In addition to our own learning, Paula and I shared our own knowledge with our ITEM friends in two sessions - Digitivity, Digital Creativity With K-5 Literacy! and Breathing Life Into Your Library Program!  Though we were a little tired after preparing for two sessions, we had a blast! 

   

What Do You Do With An Idea? My Journey To Personalized Learning, Genius Hour and Query Books!

This week, I began to ask students to think about their own ideas!!  Following Isaac Newton's example, they are starting digital Query Books to gather their ideas, ponderings, and questions - both big and little! 

The Backstory - This lesson, like many of my lessons, took a while to develop.  There were so many contributing forces nudging me toward an "idea" lesson with students.  I suppose it began with a Twitter chat, #mnlead, that I participated in last year.  The subject was Personalized Learning, a current trend among educators.  This chat deepened my understanding of Personalized Learning, which at its core is about giving students choices about how and what they learn - putting the students in the proverbial driver's seat for their learning. From Personalized Learning, I learned about Genius Hour, another educational trend adopted from developers at Google who are given 20% of their time to develop their own "passion projects".  If you are curious to learn more, check out this great video explaining Genius Hour by Chris Kesler!  What is Genius Hour?  

These interactions sparked my interest in Personalized Learning and Genius Hour.  I began to change the way I worked with students, creating opportunities for them to choose the way that they demonstate their learning, providing choices for collaboration and focusing on creating and sharing in their own voice.

There was one obstacle that I noticed right away as I began to give students choices about their own learning.  Many of our students don't know where to begin when given choices to pursue their own interests and ideas! They haven't been asked to consider their own ideas as valuable. Many struggle with the act of being curious and pondering their own questions. They just haven't given it much thought. Partly because they are still young, 4th and 5th graders, but in part because it is rare for them to be asked to pursue their own ideas and interests in an educational setting. 

Right around the time that I began noticing students struggling to find their own ideas, I discovered a book and video, Where Good Ideas Come From, by Steven Johnson that gave me insights into how ideas are born!!

This summer I read a wonderful picture book by Kobi Yamada entitled What Do You Do With An Idea?  In his beautifully illustrated book, Mr. Yamada described the growth of an idea in terms that students can understand.  Just like Steven Johnson, he described ideas as beginning small and growing with attention and time.  I couldn't wait to share this great picture book with students!

The final step in my journey to this lesson occurred when I told my husband about my musings.  He is a physicist and so as I told him about my desire to help my students develop their own interests, ideas and ponderings, he told me about Isaac Newton.  Isaac Newton kept Query Books for his scientific ideas.  Some of his Query books launched new branches of science!

So I determined that I wanted my students to begin their own Query Books! They started their Query Books this week, but just like ideas, they will take time for them to develop.  Look for a future post as students begin to share their Query Books and their great ideas!!

3rd Graders Discover They Can Be Whatever They Want To Be With the Help Of The Book, This Is Moose!

This week, 3rd graders giggled and laughed as I read them a new book by Richard Morris and Tom Lichtenheld, This Is Moose!  This clever book is beautifully illustrated and students were able to easily grasp the underlying message revealed in the humor!  People, like the animals in the book, can be whatever they want to be, even when other are telling them they can't!  This is Moose is an absolutely wonderful read aloud!!

Using the example of moose and his friends, students began using the iPad app Scribble Press to add their own digital pages to the story! Using the style from the book, students created a digital story page sharing what they dream of being when they grow up!  

Scribble Press is a great app for students to create digital books and drawings! They can draw, type, stamp, import images and write in speech bubbles to create their own story pages! 

We only just started when our class time was over, but we will finish our pages in an upcoming class. Look for our digital story pages in a future blog post!!

Picture Day Perfection & The PixlrExpress App!

This week we used Dan Santat's new hilarious book, Picture Day Perfection to continue our lesson theme - Images of a New Year!  Dan Santat's book celebrates picture day! The main character wants the perfect school picture, but his idea of the perfect picture is very different from what most people consider perfect!  Like most elementary schools across America, we are also preparing for our OHE picture day, so the timing was perfect!!

Here is a quick book trailer to wet your appetite! 

Picture Day Perfection was the perfect book to kick off our discussion about image editing and effects! We used the free iPad app PixlrExpress to learn about the many options for image editing!  I reviewed with students some things to consider when taking selfies, and then sent them off to strike four "perfectly" silly poses, just like the character from Picture Day Perfection.

Students imported their four images into the PixlrExpress app and then we began looking at the options for editing their images!  Effects, overlays, borders, stickers and text could be added to their images to enhance their pictures.  For our images, students where trying to make them look like silly school pictures so they experimented with effects!  The results were hilarious and really fun!  My students have such a great sense of humor!!

Hooray For Hat Selfies With The YouDoodle App!!

This week, students loved the fun new book by Brian Won, Hooray For Hat! Check out the book trailer!

Students celebrated this new book by creating their own digital hats with the iPad app YouDoodle! 

We began by reviewing the important tips to remember about taking selfies.  My younger students really struggle with selfies. They find it difficult to look at the tiny iPad camera instead of looking at themselves as they take the picture.  They also tend to try to take the picture from their lap rather than holding up the iPad.  Practice makes perfect!!

Once they had all taken a selfie, leaving enough room in the picture to draw a hat, they imported it into YouDoodle and learned about the great options available in this app!  One reason I like this app is that it gives students so many options!  Students explored all of the YouDoodle options to create original designs!!

Hooray for Hat!!

Kindergarteners! 1st Trip To The OHE Library!!

Is there anything more beautiful than introducing our library collection to our bright shiny new readers!!  So many new books, so little time!

Kindergarteners - 1st Trip To The Library!! by Slidely Slideshow