The little Engine that Could

I am not sure if this a comment on how I feel after the Pennsylvania School Librarian's Conference this weekend or a lesson plan in development. But there is a very nice kit for the book "The Little Engine that Could on teachervision.com and I just found this very cute video. I think I may have to read the book to my students during our book fair this week. Wish us luck with the book fair!

Glogster State Reports

My 4^th grade student just completed their State Report Glogs. It was a project that I had them complete in the library because there is just not enough time in a school year for teachers to get to everything and I wanted to give them another Web2.0 tool for their toolbox.

When we do a project in the library it always takes so much longer to complete because we only meet once a week and many times the students have other commitments during library special like band and orchestra or speech. If there is no school one day that puts us back even farther. Students have been working on gathering their information and pictures, and playing with the Glogster tool since mid January. The last class finished last Friday. What is a glog you ask? A glog is an interactive electronic poster. It has so many educational uses that one Glogster account is not enough for a librarian. The way it works is a teacher and/or librarian signs up for an educational Glogster account. Glogster then gives you 50 student logins. You can have your students create their login or you can do what I did, I had each student create a login with their first name being their classroom number and their last name being the classroom teacher’s last name. Not only did this offer an additional level of security for my under age-13 students but I will be able to use those accounts over next year with the same classes. It also provided an interesting grading outcome. I graded each glog against the same rubric not knowing which student did the glog. All I knew was their classroom teacher and their class number. When I was putting the grades in my grade book I noticed that many of the special education students had actually done better with the project than the gifted education students. Embedded here are several glogs, see if you can tell which students are gifted and which are in special education.

While this was not a scientific experiment by any means, I can’t wait to see if the results are duplicated the next time I assign a Glogster project. The students also enjoyed the Glogster network and looking at the glogs created by their fellow students. Great tool to introduce social networking in a controled environment, a walled garden so to speak.

I'll Fight You For the Library

As most of us know, April is Poetry Month. Welcome to my new favorite poem to share for Poetry Month. I love my PLN (Personal or Professional Learning Network) on Plurk. I discover the most wonderful things when my Plurk buddies share. This YouTube video was shared by my Friend Scottie Miller from Oriental, North Carolina. Like me she is an elementary school librarian. Hope you enjoy this and realize that teachers care about the education of their students!

Twitter Sheep

Bahhhh....

Who is following you on Twitter? Who are you following? What would your tweets and the Tweets of those you follow look like in a Wordle-like program? If you want to get a clear picture of what you are all about have I got a fun Web App for you! It's called TwitterSheep and it is a lot of fun even if it does not paint an accurate picture of you or your interests. I used the App on my Twitter account and got the results in the picture to the right. Hope you have fun with this! Bahhhh... Enjoy!

Google Head

I admit it, I am a Google Head. My students will tell you that. The day I took off to take my daughter to the doctor after she delivered my second grandson I was there at the doctor's office but my students thought I was at “Google Fest.” When I got back to school I had to check out what “Google Fest” was all about. Go Ann Arbor!

Hope you enjoyed your flash mobs and hope you get your Google Fiber!

Anyway, my students know that Mrs. Conger uses Google and GMail, and GoogleDocs, and they also know that Mrs. Conger teaches them how to Google and will be looking over their shoulders while they Google. Friday was Crazy Hair day at my school so since I am a self professed Google Head I made it real, Google Head real. (See picture above). Now Kathy Schrock has come out with this new picture of how Google and Google Apps fit into the new revised Bloom's Taxonomy. She has been getting wonderful feedback on Twitter and Plurk for what she is calling Google Tools to support Bloom’s Revised Technology. Notice that several Google Tools fit into more than one category and notice that Google Advanced Search is considered a tool under the category of Understanding. I have been teaching my students to search using advanced search and I have been thinking that I am doing such a wonderful thing and here we are only in the category of understanding. I got depressed when I thought of all the work my students were doing and the more I thought about it, the more I realized they were going beyond understanding and applying what they knew and transferring that knowledge to new situations. They were doing things that not only met the new AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner; they were becoming 21^st Century Citizens. They were utilizing digital tools to gather information on things they wanted to learn about, they were emerging into life-long learners. Isn’t that what we want them to do? Ok, so some of them were checking the scores on the NCAA tournament but they asked my permission first! :-}

So, I am going out on a limb here and disagreeing with Kathy Schrock, but just a little. I believe that Google Advanced Search falls under more than one category. In applying advanced search principals my students are no longer using copyright sensitive materials, they are applying the skills I have taught them to make decisions regarding materials they are choosing to use in their projects and reports and for their own use. And if Google Advance Search can fit under more than one category can other Google Tools fit into more than the categories assigned? I am taking Kathy’s Google Bloom’s and using it with a grain of salt, realizing that it too is a tool!

Tony Hawk's Reading for Scholastic

Scholastic Inc. has a new (well, new to me) YouTube Channel with the unforgettable name "The Scholastic Channel's Channel," and it's all about reading and Book Talks. Well, maybe they could have been a little more creative with the name but there are also channels for Scholastic Kids and Scholastic Teens. It is super exciting for a librarian to have YouTube Channels directed at getting kids to read. The Scholastic Channels also have author interviews and so far the comments seem positive! Too bad YouTube is blocked in my district. But the good news is that the powers that be are thinking about unblocking it for teachers so librarians like me can use this wonderful tool to promote reading!

History for Music Lovers

Found this wonderful Youtube channel that even taught me something new about history using music... kids will love it.



Check out Napoleon and Cleopatra and so many more!

Twitter Lessons Today

Today was a snow day. It could have been a day to sleep and forget about school but we have this wonderful technology integrator in our district that gets us all excited about things. Today she held an Elluminate session for the teachers about Twitter. I have been on Twitter for a very long time but I went to the session so I could be moral support. It turns out that Kathy Schrock also held a Twitter session today at FETC. I was hoping that her session was going to be streamed and sent her a message on Twitter to post the link to the stream. It was not streamed but Kathy sent me a message with links to her resources. A teacher/librarian's dream! Now I can spend the rest of the week clicking and learning! Oh, and on Kathy's page she has a Youtube video from one of my mentors, Jim Gates... here is Twitter in 60 Seconds. Oh, I also follow Jim on Twitter!


Join Twitter and start your own Personal Learning Network (PLN). Oh, and it is very cool that someone as famous as Kathy Schrock, who I learned about in library school, took the time to send me a message on Twitter with her links. Librarians are just like that, we share, share, share! Here is a link to Kathy Schrock's blog! Enjoy! :-)

More Groundhog Day Fun!

Here is more information on the Groundhog Inner Circle from Accuweather!



Learn more about Groundhog Day here.

Happy Groundhog Day

Every year on Groundhog day I wake up early to record the events on PCN for my students and every year they eagerly await their library class so they can see Punxsutawney Phil's latest prediction. However, on this 125th year of Phil predicting the weather my students will not be able to see Phil calling for an early spring because we have a snow day. So, I am telling them through my blog that Phil did NOT see his shadow today, February 2, 2011. Yeah for an early spring, since this is our 5th snow day this year we all can use an early Spring! Now watch this short video about Phil and his two handlers and remember Phil is the smartest groundhog in the world because he lives at the Punxsautawney Library! What better place to live?

Happy Groundhog Day!

Glogster

Hope this Candle Burns Bright

I have been looking for some animated gifs for my students to use on some wikis we want to begin in January. Someone on Plurk posted this link with holiday gifs and I am trying it out here to make sure it works... and it does. I am getting excited about showing these to my students.

Wes Fryer's Blog Caught My Eye Today, December 5, 2010

I have been checking out Wes Fryer's pictures on Flickr the last few days. He has been in Maine checking out some very inquiry driven classrooms. He has been posting the pictures and telling us all about his trip on Plurk. Actually, he has not been on Plurk much lately but has been feeding Plurk through his Twitter stream and with TwitPics of his visit. He wrote about one elementary classroom in the blog post: Be Kind, Do your Best and be a Voracious Reader. He also wrote about Alice Barr's classroom and her 21st Century Tool Kit. Alice is someone we both follow on Twitter.

Plurk Powwow - Text2Speech Software Solutions

For so many years I was in awe of Miguel Guhlin and his education blog. Don't get me wrong, I am still in awe but now that Miguel has embraced Plurk I get to enjoy his thought process as well as his expertise. Yesterday he was wondering on Plurk what kind of assistive technology was available for reading text to students. Miguel got so many answers to his text-to-speech question that his Plurk discussion gave him the fodder for this blog piece, check it out: Plurk Powwow - Text2Speech Software Solutions!

Audacity Tutorials

It has been a long time since I used Audacity in the classroom with my students but I wanted to use it again this year with a new group of students. I came across these Audacity step-by-step tutorials that will help me and my students understand how to use Audacity to the fullest!

I also created a Wallwisher for my students to use as we start the new year. Our building theme is "Fill a Bucket" and the students will write a sticky to say how they will fill buckets this year.