Saturday, October 1, 2016
Atlanta Maker Faire 2016
Monday, September 26, 2016
Organizing Book Club with OneNote
I love talking books with our school's most dedicated readers! Many of these students are in our Firebirds Book Club. Our book club students receive a new book each Monday and have one week to read it, although many students read and return their books by the end of the next day. All of the books we read are Georgia Children's Book Award nominees.
Book club students are organized into four groups. The students in each group read the same book each week. During book club meetings, students participate in four stations. At one station, students compete against each other to answer questions on the buzzers. We use the results of these mini-competitions to select the students who represent our school at the county Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl competition. At another station, students check out their new books and begin reading. A third station involves students working collaboratively to complete a graphic organizer about the book.
And at the last station, students add content to our book club's OneNote notebook. In the notebook, each of the books we read has a separate page with two subpages (Book Response and Questions). On the Book Response page, students write a review of the book. On the Questions page, students write their own questions to practice for the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl competition.
We have now had two meetings in which students worked in our OneNote notebook. The first time, it was a slight challenge for them to understand where to type their responses without overlapping someone else's. But by the second meeting, students were easily able to log in, find the page they needed, and get started with almost no assistance. They love seeing their group members' responses on the page as they work. In the past, we have maintained a blog, a wiki, and several shared documents with book club information. The OneNote notebook keeps everything in one place and makes it easier for students to access the information they need.
Book club students are organized into four groups. The students in each group read the same book each week. During book club meetings, students participate in four stations. At one station, students compete against each other to answer questions on the buzzers. We use the results of these mini-competitions to select the students who represent our school at the county Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl competition. At another station, students check out their new books and begin reading. A third station involves students working collaboratively to complete a graphic organizer about the book.
And at the last station, students add content to our book club's OneNote notebook. In the notebook, each of the books we read has a separate page with two subpages (Book Response and Questions). On the Book Response page, students write a review of the book. On the Questions page, students write their own questions to practice for the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl competition.
We have now had two meetings in which students worked in our OneNote notebook. The first time, it was a slight challenge for them to understand where to type their responses without overlapping someone else's. But by the second meeting, students were easily able to log in, find the page they needed, and get started with almost no assistance. They love seeing their group members' responses on the page as they work. In the past, we have maintained a blog, a wiki, and several shared documents with book club information. The OneNote notebook keeps everything in one place and makes it easier for students to access the information they need.
Saturday, September 10, 2016
Bookaneer Book Fair
The book fair is at my school this week! Scholastic's fall book fair theme is Bookaneer Book Fair: Where books are treasure! Our decorations include seven large palm trees, a pirate ship flying the Jolly Reader flag, and a treasure chest. I also used the Make Me Pirate app to take pictures of our staff members and turn them into pirates. Then I printed these pictures and displayed them outside the media center.
After my volunteers and I set up the fair, I held a teacher preview. Foods included the catch of the day (tuna salad in mini-croissants), seaweed dip (spinach dip) with Polly's crackers, berry'd treasure (strawberries and blueberries), and cannonballs (peanut butter and coconut balls). Teachers browsed the new titles and created their wish lists during the preview.
This fair, my students and teachers are most excited about Dog Man by Dav Pilkey and Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier. Also all things Pokemon. We aaargh looking forward to a successful book fair!
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Top Ten Books of 2015-2016
Here are the top ten circulated titles during the 2015-2016 school year at my K-6 elementary school.
10. The Saturday Boy by David Fleming
9. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
8. Nickel Bay Nick by Dean Pitchford
7. Prairie Evers by Ellen Airgood
6. How to Outrun a Crocodile When Your Shoes Are Untied by Jess Keating
5. Half a Chance by Cynthia Lord
4. This Journal Belongs to Ratchet by Nancy J. Cavanaugh
3. A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd
2. Loot: How to Steal a Fortune by Jude Watson
1. The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer L. Holm
10. The Saturday Boy by David Fleming
9. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
8. Nickel Bay Nick by Dean Pitchford
7. Prairie Evers by Ellen Airgood
6. How to Outrun a Crocodile When Your Shoes Are Untied by Jess Keating
5. Half a Chance by Cynthia Lord
4. This Journal Belongs to Ratchet by Nancy J. Cavanaugh
3. A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd
2. Loot: How to Steal a Fortune by Jude Watson
1. The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer L. Holm
Research Using OneNote
One of my third grade teachers and I collaborate at the end of each school year on a Native Americans research project. We usually direct students toward relevant print and digital resources. Then they take notes on a graphic organizer and create a Power Point presentation to share the information with their classmates. But this year, we decided to have students complete the project in OneNote! Although we use OneNote regularly, this was the first time we used it with students.
We first prepared the OneNote notebook. Each of the tabs in the notebook was the name of a different Native American tribe. Within each tab, we created three pages. The first page was for taking notes. We learned that we could insert the same graphic organizer that we have always used and that students could type their information straight into the boxes in OneNote. The second page contained a document with resources about the Native American tribe. The third page was set up so that students could add a link to the Sway they created after researching. We decided to have students use Sway instead of Power Point this year.
When students came to the media center to research, they accessed the notebook through an email sent from their teacher. Once everyone was busy, a few students asked, "Where is the paper?" We explained that there was no paper graphic organizer and again showed them how to type what they learned on the note taking page. We also explained that everyone in the group could type at the same time. Some students figured out how to have two windows open next to each other so that they could read a website and take notes at the same time without switching back and forth between two windows.
Some students took longer than others to log in. Some students accidentally deleted their graphic organizer. And some students moved the resources file so far off the page they couldn't find it. But my colleague and I were very excited about what our students accomplished in our 45 minutes together. We think that training students on OneNote as soon as school starts next year will allow them to navigate their notebooks proficiently in no time. We look forward to learning more about OneNote's features to help us create better notebooks and to use OneNote more effectively with students.
We first prepared the OneNote notebook. Each of the tabs in the notebook was the name of a different Native American tribe. Within each tab, we created three pages. The first page was for taking notes. We learned that we could insert the same graphic organizer that we have always used and that students could type their information straight into the boxes in OneNote. The second page contained a document with resources about the Native American tribe. The third page was set up so that students could add a link to the Sway they created after researching. We decided to have students use Sway instead of Power Point this year.
When students came to the media center to research, they accessed the notebook through an email sent from their teacher. Once everyone was busy, a few students asked, "Where is the paper?" We explained that there was no paper graphic organizer and again showed them how to type what they learned on the note taking page. We also explained that everyone in the group could type at the same time. Some students figured out how to have two windows open next to each other so that they could read a website and take notes at the same time without switching back and forth between two windows.
Some students took longer than others to log in. Some students accidentally deleted their graphic organizer. And some students moved the resources file so far off the page they couldn't find it. But my colleague and I were very excited about what our students accomplished in our 45 minutes together. We think that training students on OneNote as soon as school starts next year will allow them to navigate their notebooks proficiently in no time. We look forward to learning more about OneNote's features to help us create better notebooks and to use OneNote more effectively with students.
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Thursday, May 5, 2016
Littlebits Tic Tac Toe
Our third graders have been exploring Littlebits this week! When students arrived, I explained to them what Littlebits are and how they can be used. I showed students how Littlebits are color-coded and the functions of each of the types of bits (power, input, output, and wire). As I introduced each type of bit, I added it to the circuit and displayed it under the document camera.
Then I introduced Littlebits Tic Tac Toe, adapted from another media specialist in my district. Students worked in groups to select three activities from the tic tac toe grid to complete. After they completed each of the three circuits, they used iPads to take pictures of themselves with the circuits to document their work. After each picture was taken, students sent one group member back to the Littlebits storage cabinet to return bits they no longer needed and retrieve bits needed for the next circuit.
I recently reorganized our Littlebits into a new storage cabinet and labeled each drawer. This made it so much easier for students to find what they were looking for and clean up.
Eventually, I'd like for our third graders to be able to use our Littlebits independently and start thinking about how to use them beyond basic circuits. But for now, the tic tac toe was a perfect introduction to Littlebits!
Then I introduced Littlebits Tic Tac Toe, adapted from another media specialist in my district. Students worked in groups to select three activities from the tic tac toe grid to complete. After they completed each of the three circuits, they used iPads to take pictures of themselves with the circuits to document their work. After each picture was taken, students sent one group member back to the Littlebits storage cabinet to return bits they no longer needed and retrieve bits needed for the next circuit.
I recently reorganized our Littlebits into a new storage cabinet and labeled each drawer. This made it so much easier for students to find what they were looking for and clean up.
Eventually, I'd like for our third graders to be able to use our Littlebits independently and start thinking about how to use them beyond basic circuits. But for now, the tic tac toe was a perfect introduction to Littlebits!
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