Mold. Yuck!

Moldy, nastiness, growing in a library book!

I love gross stuff!  I love weird stuff!  I will be the first person to touch and experiment with something when other people are squirming in their seats. But. I have to say I have my limits.  Especially when books come back damaged like this one did. Just LOOK at all that mold growing inside the book!  Yuck!  I love to use this book as an example to students at the beginning of the year on how to NOT take care of our books.  We talk about the four things to beware of when you are reading a book.
1.  Water! The way the pages wrinkle and smell mildewy afterward create books you do not want to cuddle up to!
2.  Food and drink!  I share this Junie B. First Grader book as my example.  Honestly, I have no clue if that's how it got moldy.  I like to think so.  It was especially fun to use a microscope camera to get that bottom right image.  Super cool!
3.  Little people!  There are times when little brothers and sisters just don't know how to take care of books like the big kids!
4.  Pets!  Not just dogs...cats too! And gerbils, and hamsters, and fish.  I like to remind the kids that all animals can chew, poop, and pee...so lets keep our books away from all animals.  (I'm a dog lover, what can I say?  I don't want to say specifically dogs!)  :)

Do you have any other suggestions on book care?  Do you have any fun tips and tricks that work?  I'd love to hear them!

Happy Reading Everyone!

Book Love: The Book Whisperer

Photo Credit: http://www.bookwhisperer.com/

Anyone else cringe when they finish reading a book that they wish could keep going?  Like you're saying goodbye to a friend?  That's how I felt when I finished reading The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller.  For a few days, she was my very close teacher friend and now I just want EVERYONE to be her friend too!  I loved, loved, LOVED her book!  It gave a realistic teacher's perspective of how important reading with your students truly is! And...how important it is to have conversations about books with our students.  And...how important it is for us as teachers to take the time to read daily! I can keep gushing about this book for hours! Seriously!  I am also elated that she is coming to Plum Creek Literacy Festival's Adult Conference this September!  I can not wait to sit in her session is soak up every word she has to say!  Yay for an inspiring book! I feel re-fueled!

Book Love: Sing

This summer was filled with a lot of fun memories made with my Gingers.  One of my favorite memories made this summer was the arrival of Tom Lichtenheld's newest book, Sing.  Lichtenheld illustrates the song many of us know from Sesame Street called "Sing", written by Joe Raposo.  The illustrations give you goosebumps and leaves you feeling warm and fuzzy.  I got exceptional warm and fuzzies when I would read the book with my freshly bathed and lotioned up girlies in my lap.  The book comes with a CD including three songs from Sesame Street. The first is "Sing!".  The next two songs are "Somebody Come and Play" and "One of These Things" both sung by Becca Kauffman with The Midnight Sun Ensemble.

Needless to say we read a lot of books at home.  But this book became my favorite book read this summer. Hands down.  We read it numerous times, talked about the birds, how they're feeling, the colors...then after we would read it we would listen to the CD and always ended the CD with a dance party.  Our favorite part is at the end of the song "One of These Things" the singer says, "You're so smart!"

Watch the book Sing come to life in this YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW_PU7WwCAc

On a side note, I've noticed a lot of families choosing to bring the book "Oh, The Places You'll Go" by Dr. Seuss to school to have teachers write a note to their child.  Then at graduation they present that book with years of heartfelt notes written about that child to their graduating senior.  I think what I may do is use this book instead.  It is a beautifully written book that really encourages you to do what makes you happy and to not put too much worry into what others think.

Poem in Your Pocket Day!

The doors to the library were decorated to look like jean pockets by the wonderful Mrs. Reese

This year we celebrated Poem in Your Pocket Day on Thursday, April 18, 2013.  A few years ago when I first started taking my classes for becoming a media specialist, I was introduced to Poem in Your Pocket Day via www.poets.org. Two years ago I was on the third grade team, I swear my team thought I was crazy for scheming up another activity to our already busy schedule.  But it proved to be a huge success and the kids loved it. We even made aprons that said I <3 Poetry and stuffed our pockets with a variety of poems.  

3rd Grade Team on Poem in Your Pocket Day 2011

Last year when I found out I was going to be in this position a couple of us on the third grade team were talking about how fun it would be to get the entire school on board with celebrating poetry month and enjoying Poem in Your Pocket Day. That idea never really went away.  The seed was planted! 

This year we sent home notes (check out this Google Doc) letting kids know that Poem in Your Pocket Day was coming up soon.  We promoted it by asking teachers, paras, support staff, EVERYONE in the building to get into this.  You could walk down the hallway and say to any kid, "Hey! What poem is in your pocket?" Then you could take a few minutes to exchange poems and walked away with a smile.  It was a building activity that really brought us together.  Many teachers commented on how their students were completely excited about the day and how impressed they were that their students really got into it.  Isn't that awesome!?  A day to let literacy shine.  A day to unite the building.  A day to let kids have fun reading a poem they enjoy. 

Mrs. Reese and I also really got into it.  We decided we should be POETrees:

The Library POETrees 2013

"Mrs. Reese, what poem is in YOUR pocket?" 

I'm thinking next year we need to broaden the poetry horizons with April being National Poetry Month and have a Poetry Cafe for the entire building.  I'll continue scheming and seeing how I can make that happen! I'm looking forward to making it a building wide activity for ALL of our SES Bluejays.  Wouldn't it be fun each year to watch your kiddo grow with their poetry from Kindergarten to Fourth grade?  Ahh...the Kodak moment possibilities! 

Poetry Takes You Places!

This month in the library I wanted to highlight a very influential piece of literacy: POETRY!  I asked third graders to choose their favorite poem OR a poem they have written and to write it on a balloon or a kite.  Then I took their picture and attached it to the end of the balloon or the kite they chose.   Finally, we hung them up from the ceiling of the library and they have created such a fun display for all of us to read and enjoy!!

Coming soon: Thursday, April 18th...POEM IN YOUR POCKET DAY!

Blogging Bluejays

At the beginning of the year I got my students blogging using KidBlog.org.  It is a safe way for my students to practice using digital citizenship.  What I'm thrilled with is that it provides wonderful discussion of what we should and should not do on the Internet.  They've even made mistakes and luckily they made them with me over their shoulder which then lead to some awesome conversations.  I'm so glad they're able to make mistakes now rather than later.

Every year in the library the students get to hear all the books nominated for a Golden Sower Award: an award given to books in age leveled categories for books that ROCK!!  To keep track of the books that we've read the students created a post on their blogs that kept a running track of a couple of things.  They were to keep track of what the book was about, their favorite part, and on a scale from 1-10 (1 meaning it didn't float my boat and 10 being the most awesomest book ever--I want to scream on top of a mountain how good it is).  Then after we read all the books they created a blog post called "Favorite GS" in which they wrote about their favorite Golden Sower Nominee.

I then went to our settings and adjusted them so that ANYONE could comment on them.  This way we can really discuss how important it is to have an audience.  I used the analogy: imagine you're getting ready for your school music concert. You're all dressed up, you arrive at the high school, you get up on stage ready to sing your hearts out...and no one is there.  That lead to some great discussion of how you'd feel without having someone there to watch you.  That is so true with blogging. No audience, no fun! So, I went onto our school Twitter account (which is synced with our school Facebook page) and asked our followers to follow the link to the 3rd grade blog and 4th grade blogs and comment!  They have gotten a LOT of comments, and the kids are so excited about it.  They LOVE seeing if a "guest" commented on their blog.

My next lesson I'd love to do with them is to work with another class and exchange comments/posts.  So, if you know anyone that uses Kidblog.org and would be up for working with the 3rd and 4th grade please let me know! I really would love to get them excited about communicating with students around the country or the world!

I can make anything complicated

I'm the first to admit that I am a ditz. Tonight, I made Evernote complicated. Yes. Evernote! Its not that hard...its very user friendly. But I did it..I made it complicated.  Tonight was one of those nights I slapped my forehead and said, "DOH!!"

When I attended York Public School's technology professional development day in January I was lucky to sit in on Laura Kroll's packed session on Evernote.  If you don't follow her on Twitter. You're loosing out. She is inspirational with daily quotes, she is constantly providing feedback to others, she actively participates in chats, she's funny, she is a leader in so many ways, she constantly talks about Evernote and how amazing it is...my list can go on and on. Basically she knows her stuff!  Because of her session, one of my goals has been to utilize Evernote more often; really become fluid in using it. So at parent-teacher conferences tonight I made a to-do list.  One of my items on my agenda was to NOT print off the long schedule for the NETA conference I'll be attending in April but instead download it onto my iPad   Well, I couldn't find the downloadable version into iBooks like they had last year. So I thought this was the perfect opportunity to get creative.

First, I saved it as a PDF then uploaded it to my docs in Google Drive.  But.  The inner elementary teacher in me has this screaming urge to grab my beautiful and brightly colored Sharpie markers and decorate with fun stars or a puffy cloud around the sessions I really want to go to.  And then perhaps add sun rays beaming away from the session "winner" as if they've just won The Price is Right.  So, I remember back to Laura's Evernote session and how she used Skitch  I feel it has some really great potential that can really make life a whole lot easier.  You're never going to really understand how useful something is unless you use it, right?  So, I am treading in unfamiliar waters.  First Evernote novice mistake: let it intimidate you!

I tried to download the PDF to Skitch but it wasn't working.  So, at this point I am thinking I have just found the most difficult problem that only a true genius will be able to answer. What do I do?  I contact THE Laura Kroll. I'm thinking this is going to be a difficult one even for her.  NOPE.

What does she do?  She made a new note (for non-Evernote users that's like making a new document in docs or Word) and did the unthinkable...are you ready?  (Someone play some suspense music here.) SHE COPIED AND PASTED the schedule into the new note!  I know, right? Can you believe this?  Then, you know what she did NEXT?! She was able to highlight the text AND change the color AND manipulate the document how she wanted to so that the schedule stood out.  Can you believe it?  She conquered my challenge with flying colors.  You know what she did next? Just for ME?  She made her Evernote session from the NETA schedule really stand out for me...

I know what you're thinking.  Holy smokes.  This is an easy fix...I could have done that! Jennifer is loosin' it!  Yeah...well I'm going to blame it on a crazy day, my long list of to-do items, the constant flow of people in the library restricting me from thinking clearly...and...uh...a late night at parent-teacher conferences.  Am I allowed to pass the buck?

Lessons learned: slow down. Think. Don't let yourself get intimidated.  Don't be afraid to ask for help even if you don't think you should be.  And...don't be afraid to slap your forehead and exclaim, "DOH!" and admit when you do silly things!!!

Special thanks go to Laura Kroll for this learning experience.  You are the Evernote Goddess!