11.5 More Things - Thing 3

I love Skype! I use it currently to "talk" to my nephew who lives in Houston. Aunt Shell reads him stories and he shows me the games he is playing on Wii. There are so many uses for Skype! I can see it being used across the district or across the world. My only problem will be selling it to the people in the district. There is always the possibility that there will be a bandwidth problem.
I agree with the Learning Librarian that Skype is "an excellent resource for broadening their minds and teaching them about life in other countries." I know the world geography class at the high school does a project on another country it would be a wonderful experience if they could interact through Skype with students in that country.
Skype would also be a great advantage to meetings that currently take place after school hours. If they district could utilize this then two sets of teachers at two campuses could meet during conference periods instead of outside hours.

11.5 More Things - Thing 2

I have used the Wordle tool many times with students. Last year in the library we had the students create a Wordle about their favorite Bluebonnet Nominee. They had to include the title, author, setting, characters, and at least 10 words that described the book and how it made them feel. We were going to post them on my blog, but the district blocked Blogspot, so none of the pictures would appear. Instead we printed them and posted them on the wall outside the library. One of the Wordles is on this blog.


Since I had experience with Wordle, I chose to create a Word Sift. I used the information included in a Technology inservice Blog that I am conducting this summer for my district.





I love this tool. I think it has so many uses in the classroom. I included it as a tool for my participants as well. I plan on sharing it especially with the 4th grade teachers who teach writing. I love the word web that is included with each Word Sift that is created. It is a visual way for students to choose a better word in their writing. The idea that you can put in text and then highlight the interdisciplinary words would help students to see that words are not only for spelling.

I had a great time making my Glog. I plan on using it with my 4th graders for their Bluebonnet projects. I want them to choose one of the books on the 2010 list and create a Glog about that book. I linked each of the pictures to the Mackin Book Talk site.



I have used Animoto before and like using it to make book trailers. I chose to create a Voki for this class. I even put one of our school mascot - a horse- to put on our intranet site welcoming the kids to the computer lab.

I was not that impressed with Bookr. I could not find any way to crop the pictures or edit the font or text. The pictures that you could get from Flickr were not easy to find and seemed rather random. I could not find a tutorial to use or any kind of help.

11.5 More Things - Thing 1

The video was inspiring. The student learned how to use all resources available to him. He is able to distinguish between factual information and opinion, make informed decisions and communicate with others.
These are some of the key skills that librarians try to impart to all their patrons. The theory of connectivism is a great one to employ in your libraries. We are not the giver of knowledge we are the finders of knowledge and it is our job to help even the youngest learners figure out how to find things.
21st century learners are able to find, sift through and use information in astounding ways. We have to be there to be the cheerleaders, the coaches and the spectators in their journeys.

Bess Brannen Elementary's Bronco Lunch Bunch




The Bronco Lunch Bunch is Bess Brannen's Book Club. The first semester is open to 3rd and 4th grade students only. We have a set list of books that students may read and then they join us in the library for lunch and book discussion. Check out the Bess Brannen Library website for the full list of books.

The first Lunch Bunch was over the book Where I Live by Eileen Spinelli. We had 56 3rd graders and 27 4th graders who joined us for lunch over 2 days.

The video above is just the 3rd graders.

The next book is Surprises According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney, read it by October 30 and join us for lunch.

Bluebonnet Projects - Wordles

Jason D. created this wordle for The Golly-Whopper Games

Trading Cards

Trading Cards
http://bighugelabs.com/deck.php

You will use the pictures I have saved on the desktop of the school laptops to create the practice trading card.

Bluebonnet Chapter Book Preview

Well the first week of library classes has been great. The third and fourth graders have been introduced to the Texas Bluebonnet Picture books nominees with the photo story in the previous post and now as promised is the preview video of the Texas Bluebonnett Award Chapter book nominees.
Bess Brannen's cutoff is Friday, January 22, 2010 at 3:30 p.m. Our voting and party will be on Friday, January 29, 2010.
To vote all 3rd and 4th graders need to read 5 of the books off the list.
To come to the party, 4th graders need to read 6 of the books and both 3rd and 4th graders need to complete a poster or another special project with their favorite book.