Helping students become independent researchers

When I was a student, I remember groaning when it was time for the once-a-year research project.  Pick a topic, find some dusty old reference books, and write a paper.  Yay.

Nowadays, researching no longer involves old reference books that you have to take notes on in the library because they cannot be checked out.  More and more reference books and research databases are available online for students.  Many of them still have the same encyclopedia-style articles, but there are also databases that include multimedia as well.

And here’s the best part:  Remember when you were almost done and the last thing you had to do was… the bibliography?  I remember painstakingly writing out the detail for every book on index cards.  Now, most of the online databases have easy citation tools built in – so students can easily cite any article, photo, or video, with just a click of the mouse.

One of the databases I really like is Discovery Education, because of the student-friendly interface and the wealth of videos and images offered.  If you would like to learn more about Discovery Education, see my screencast below.

http://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cDfQnG1zi9

 Happy researching!

Why you should use blogs and wikis with your students

I have been reading various articles about teaching and education this past week, and one word keeps popping up over and over: collaboration. Collaborating with others by sharing ideas and resources is an important skill for students to have, and one that employers highly value. Using digital media to work collaboratively is one of the ISTE standards for students.

Blogs and wikis are just two of the many web 2.0 tools available that allow students to interact and collaborate with each other. If you would like to learn more about using blogs and wikis in the classroom, you can view the Voicethread I put together below. In it, I describe some of the benefits of blogs and wikis, and ways you can use them in your classroom or library.

https://voicethread.com/share/7597895/

Blogs-and-Wikis Voicethread Script

Happy collaborating!

 

 

Digital storytelling tools – tools every librarian should know!

This week in my grad class, we had to play around with various Web 2.0 tools. I focused on digital storytelling tools like the Tarheel Reader, Mixbook, and Storybird. I really liked all of the educator features that Storybird has, so I focused on that tool and made a screencast of how to use it.

Storybird allows students to create their own digital stories online. Storybird is a unique tool because it has professional artwork that students can use as illustrations and as inspiration for their written work. In addition to writing stories, students can also use the Reading section and read stories from other students in their classes, or any of the stories published on Storybird.

Storybird supports the Common Core State Standards in writing. Some of the connections to the anchor standards for Writing are:

Standard 3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details and well-structured event sequences.

Standard 4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

Standard 5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.

Standard 6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others.

Standard 10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.

There are plenty of ideas already out there online for ways to use Storybird in the classroom. For this project, I used Storybird as part of a third grade writing unit on narrative writing. In Frederick County, as part of the 3^rd grade English-Language Arts curriculum, classes go through a unit on narrative writing.   Over three or four weeks, students create a writing notebook where they start several different stories. Then they go back and choose one of their stories to develop further into a published piece. Storybird is a great tool for this, because it can be the place for students to keep all of their stories, and for their final published piece. Here is an example of a digital storybook I was able to create using Storybird:

http://storybird.com/books/narrative-story-the-witch-of-the-forest/?token=9ab92hxywy

If you would like to learn more about Storybird and how to use it, feel free to watch my screencast here:

http://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cDn2rD1c69

Enjoy!

 

 

Librarians: How to market yourself as being essential to your school

Librarians, you know you have an awesome job. But how many times do you hear:

“How hard is it to help kids find books?”
“I wish I got paid to read stories all day.”
“It must be nice to have all that time just to read.”

 Honestly, most people have no idea what goes on in a school library. No one knows that librarians teach lessons, show students how to use online databases, help students with research projects, host book clubs, plan author visits, manage book fairs, and organize family reading nights, in addition to helping students find books for pleasure reading.

Many librarians are also the technology wizards in their school, helping teachers when a projector or interactive whiteboard malfunctions. Librarians are usually the experts on all the different educational apps and websites that are available to teachers. They are called on to help teachers set up their own website, blog, or Twitter feed for their class.

Librarians are essential in helping students and teachers throughout the school day. But, who is aware of this besides the students and teachers whom they are helping? It is easy for administrators and the general public to be in the dark about all the amazing things that librarians do. Now more than ever, it is important for librarians to champion themselves and their position.
The way to do that? Start a blog.

1. Ask yourself: Do you want to create a library blog or a librarian blog?

A library blog is similar to a website for your library – with multiple pages for library resources, online databases, library events, book clubs, and reading programs. This blog would be geared towards students, as well as parents who could read about all the different library events.
Two good examples are the Falcon Library Blog and the JRE Library Blog.

A librarian blog is where you share resources, tips, lessons, or technology with other librarians and teachers.  Two great examples are A Media Specialist’s Guide to the Internet and The Daring Librarian.

2. Choose a site for your blog.

Some of the popular free blog sites are: Blogger, EduBlogs, Weebly, and WordPress.

3. Set up the pages for your blog, and decide how often you will post.

Most library blogs have separate pages for online resources, reading programs or book clubs, special events, and general library information or frequently asked questions. Librarian blogs set up pages for different topics like authors, resources by subject, or web tools.

Then decide how often you will post about your events, new books, or technology. You don’t need to post something every week, unless you want to and have the time. Posting once a month keeps your blog updated and current.

4. Finally, share your blog with everyone!

Tell students, teachers, parents, and the principal.
Post a link on the school’s website.
Tell the checkout clerk at the grocery store.
Include it in your holiday newsletter.

Share it any way you can to get the word out – librarians are indispensable!

Here is some more information about those four blogs to help you get started:

Falcon Library Blog

The Falcon Library Blog provides information about the library, book clubs, and special library events. The posts include library and school special events – book fairs, author visits, and book character contests. There are also posts about book lists like summer reading lists or this post about a new graphic novel list. Then there are separate pages for the various book clubs, author visits, and reading programs.

This blog is a great resource for students and parents about all of the special things that go on in the library. This blog highlights special events throughout the year, as well as providing general library information on the Library FAQs page.

JRE Library Blog

The JRE Library Blog provides information about the library, the online catalog and other library resources, reading programs, and special events. Blog posts focus on special events like author visits, family reading festivals, and new books available in the library. The post Lately at the Library showed pictures of new books that had arrived, a Superhero book section, as well as a new student author section. All of the blog posts include pictures about the events and new books.

This blog is a good resource for students to access the card catalog and other online resources, and for parents to find out about all of the library events. This school seems to be fortunate to have several author visits throughout the year, like this First Grade Author Visit with local author Kathy Duval.

The Daring Librarian

The Daring Librarian has several different blogs and wikispaces. This main blog is aimed at other librarians as a way to share ideas, technology, and practices that she is using in her own school library. Blog posts describe different apps, technology, and makerspace ideas. Her latest post describes a Lego creation station that she has set up in her library along with information about how she started it and how she manages it. She has a separate blog, The MMS Daring School Library blog, where she posts about school events like the Edgar Allen Poe museum, and new maker space additions like Zen coloring books.

A Media Specialist’s Guide to the Internet

This blog is aimed at librarians and teachers looking for internet resources. She refers to herself as a “cybrarian”, a hybrid of cyber and librarian. All of her posts contain tons of links and internet resources. Some posts are reviews of apps or technology, like this post about the app Camscanner, while others have information about Primary and Secondary Sources. Then there are many curated, themed lists like this list of 26 Resources about climate change. This may be my favorite librarian blog so far, because it has such a wealth of resources. Teachers and librarians can use all of the internet resources shared on this blog.

Top three things you need to know about classroom blogs

This is my first blog. Yes, I knew what a blog was: someone writing their thoughts on the internet for everyone to see. (As an introvert, this whole idea seemed crazy to me.) Blogs are for people who have something to say about… politics, sports, entertainment, or social issues. My thoughts are my own, why would I want to share them with the world?

However, now I am studying to be a media specialist and taking a whole class on “learning technologies”. So I must immerse myself in blogs. There are three different types of educational blogs I am exploring: educator blogs, librarian blogs, and classroom blogs. At first, I did not understand the difference between an “educator” blog and a “classroom” blog. Most educators are teaching in classrooms, after all. Looking at classroom blogs, here is what I found out:

1. Classroom blogs are an easy way to communicate what you are doing in your classroom.

Teachers write about daily learning, science experiments, and special events. Since you are posting in a blog, there’s no need to print it or make 25 copies to send home in backpacks.

*Bonus*: The blog link can be shared with extended family – who can also see what is going on in their favorite granddaughter/niece’s class.

2. Classroom blogs can be used as student prompts for writing assignments.

In upper grades, teachers can write a post about a particular history or English topic and pose questions to the students. Rather than students writing a response in a spiral notebook and having to read 25 jaggedly torn pages (or worse – taking home 25 composition books to read), students can comment on the blog post with their response.  Classroom blogs can also be used by students to create a class or school newspaper. This approach allows each student to be the author and post their writing on the blog.

3. Classroom blogs are great for creating digital student portfolios.

Teachers can share student writing, art work, and science projects for every student in their class. This seems to be more common in elementary school where teachers only have 25 to 30 students in a class. Digital portfolios definitely cut down on the amount of filing and paper that teachers have to deal with in their already busy day.

Here are a few of the blogs I visited to gather my information:

Ms. Halbert’s 3H Crew

Ms. Halbert’s third-grade class uses their blog to share what they are doing in their classroom and to connect with other classes around the world. They have class posts, usually with pictures, describing what they are learning about, science experiments, projects, or special events. Their post Bees in the Classroom! shared what they were learning about bees and pollination. Student posts highlight a particular piece of writing or other student work. They created informational books using Google slides and shared them here: Informational Texts about the Global Monster Project.

Cougar News Blog

At Cactus Canyon Junior High, journalism students write blog stories about current events at school. It is similar to a school newspaper, except is online. There are weekly posts about school clubs, events, fundraisers, and a weekly “photos of the week” segment. In this post, a student wrote about the fundraising efforts for the yearbook to get new cameras: Yearbook starts crowdfunding for better equipment .

Mrs. Watson’s Room 102

Mrs. Watson’s classroom blog shares information for her US History and AP Human Geography classes. She shares basic class information like the syllabus, how to access grades, and information on quizzes and assignments. Posts also share specific topics and themes that are discussed in class, like this post about gender issues: Child Brides Photo Series Proves Girls Are Simply ‘Too Young To Wed’.