Kate Klise Author Visit

Curtis students were treated to a "real-live, in person" author visit this week, and it was an AWESOME experience! Back in the fall, PTA came to me to see if there was a program or author we would like to have for the students that they could help provide. I had not hosted an author before, and it had been many years since one had visited Curtis, so I wasn't sure where to begin.  As usual, I went to my Twitter PLN and the name Kate Klise came up more than once. I checked out HER WEBSITE  and then emailed her. Klise was able to add us to an already planned trip to Texas, so the planning began!  

To get ready for her visit, we read books by Klise, we listened to audio of her reading books, we made signs to welcome her and we even ordered a super fun cake with the covers of some of her books!

                                      

AND THEN SHE ARRIVED!!

Ms. Klise started off the day with 5th & 6th graders. She shared about her childhood and the beginning of her life as a writer. We loved the stories of how her mom did not believe in sugar, potato chips, Barbies or children having money! Gasps could be heard from the audience! She had us laughing out loud as she told us about wanting a haircut like Farrah Fawcett! And then she showed us the haircut she ended up with! As if on cue, one student said, "Oh, I'm so sorry!" :)

Next up were 3rd & 4th graders, and they were so entertained and engaged by her presentation. Students learned about how "writing is messy" and were even able to see some of the drafts of Ms. Klise's writing. As she explained the elements that a good story needs and the writing process she uses, she drew a clock to help students visualize. She wanted students to understand how to make their writing more interesting. This made the writing process easy for even the youngest writer to understand!

With each presentation, she would have volunteers come up to help create a story. Students would come up with the main character, the problem and what the main character wanted. They would then have to come up with a problem and solution. They LOVED this part and it was fun to watch as Ms. Klise guided them into creating some very interesting stories! 

Students enjoyed being able to visit with Klise before and after the presentations, and she made sure to talk to them and answer questions as they were leaving or as they were waiting. The smiles were priceless as she interacted with our students!

Curtis students had the opportunity to pre-order different titles by Kate Klise and were then invited to the library to meet her in person and have them signed. They were in awe of her and so polite as they introduced themselves! Hopefully it will be a special memory for them!

One of the parts of Klise's visit was a writing workshop with 30 students. Classes were invited to write persuasive letters to me, telling me why their class should be chosen to have this opportunity. Mrs. Palmatier's class won, and since there were only 17 students here that day, 13 students from Mrs. Shaw's class joined them. It was an incredible experience for them to get writing advice from a published author! 

                                     

Students began working on stories immediately and were so anxious to share their writing with Klise and the teachers in the room! There was so much energy in the room!

 There was even time for some volunteers to share their story with the whole group! It was awesome to watch students who were usually reluctant to write come up with creative stories AND volunteer to share! 

Kate Klise ended the day with our K-2nd grade students. If you have ever spent much time with this age group, you know that traditionally it is hard to keep them engaged at 2:00 PM, especially since most had already been to PE/Music/Art class! Well, this was not a problem for our visitor! These students were so engaged and attentive! 

AND they couldn't wait to write books!! I got this one FIRST thing this morning from a KINDERGARTEN student! 

I would definitely call this a success! We are already thinking about next year and who we can invite to visit Curtis. Have you had an author visit your school that you have really enjoyed? Any suggestions for our next author? I'd love to hear about successes you have had with author visits!

Remember the Alamo!

Curtis 4th graders were given a wonderful opportunity this morning- visiting the Alamo without leaving Weatherford! A couple of months ago, Nancy Jo Lambert, a librarian in Frisco and a member of my Twitter PLN, asked if we would be interested in participating in a Google Hangout with other schools and the Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library director and archivist. We said, YES! of course! Today was the day, so Curtis students, along with several other schools in North Texas AND a school in Bryn Mawr, PA took part in the first Google Hangout by the DRT Librarians!

Students in 4th grade focus on Texas history, so this was a perfect extension of their classroom instruction. Since their teachers had already covered the Battle of the Alamo, students were definitely prepared for our Google Hangout today! We were fortunate to also have WISD School Board Member Dave Cowley and State Board of Education Member Pat Hardy in attendance with us.

 

Leslie Stapleton is the DRT Library Director and Jaime Espensen-Sturges is the DRT Library Interim Archivist and they shared with the students various artifacts that are held at the Alamo in San Antonio. One item students were able to see was a  hand-drawn map by Stephen F. Austin. We learned that in addition to being the Father of Texas, he was also an excellent map maker.

 

There was an audible gasp when Mrs. Stapleton showed us clothes worn by Susanna Dickinson. Students were familiar with the historical people that Mrs. Stapleton spoke about, which I know made their teachers very proud!

 

During the Google Hangout, students were able to submit questions to www.todaysmeet.com/alamogho and have them answered by the DRT librarians. Mrs. Varhola typed the questions that students had created before they came to the library. After the GHO, students could go to the site and see if their questions were answered.

This was a wonderful opportunity for our students and we are so appreciative of the time and energy it took to organize this event!

Read Nancy Jo Lambert's blog post about our Alamo Hangout here: http://borchardtlibrary.edublogs.org/2014/01/14/4th-grade-alamo-google-hangout/

 



Voting is Open for the 2013 Edublog Awards

Last night I got a text from Nancy Jo Lambert, a fellow librarian and member of my Twitter PLN. She wanted me to know that the Curtis Library blog, which she had nominated for Best Library/Librarian Blog, had made the shortlist for finalists in the 2013 Edublog Awards. When I went to look, I was excited to see many of the people I had nominated in different categories had also made the shortlist, including Nancy Jo and her library blog, Ruth Borchardt Elementary Library.

There are so many incredible people that have been nominated in many different categories, that it is sometimes difficult to decide who to vote for! The good news is that you can vote for more than one in each category! 

Voting closes December 18th at 11:59 EST, so go vote at The Edublog Awards!

The Beginning of Coding for Curtis Students

Ok, I have jumped off the ledge and into coding, thanks to the gentle nudge from a few of my Twitter friends! A week or two ago, Andy Plemmons, a librarian in Georgia, asked who was doing the Hour of Code during Computer Science Education Week.


It all started with a tweet!

I have wanted to learn about coding so that I could teach my students, but had not done anything yet. I replied that I was interested in planning some activities for Hour of Code, which is an event that is taking place December 9-13th encouraging students to participate in an introduction to computer coding.

A Google Hangout was planned to brainstorm ideas and we met on Monday. Here is the recording of our planning session:



Librarians from Maine, Georgia, Iowa,  Indiana and Texas met together, along with technology people from Cathy Potter's district in Maine. They brought a wealth of information, which was shared with all of us. 

Most everyone will celebrate next week, but we got started this week due to our Lattes in the Library next week. I briefly introduced it to 5th graders on Monday, since I was excited after the Google Hangout!

Today I introduced coding to 6th graders & 2nd graders and they both did really well! We began by viewing one of the videos from the Computer Science Education Week site. Sixth graders were intrigued with the work environment that they should on the video! There are several  different videos featuring Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and NBA star, Chris Bosh sharing the importance of learning computer coding. It was interesting to hear the statistics about the number of jobs that will require computer programming and the lack of qualified people to fill those jobs. Hopefully some of our students will be interested in learning computer programming and fill some of those jobs in the future!

While they were going through the tutorials that are provided on the CSED Week website with me,  they started working on creating a holiday card using Scratch. They were so focused that I didn't want to stop them! It was very exciting to watch their excitement and hear them work with their partners to figure out how to do things!

Sixth grade was able to continue working on coding when they went to the computer lab after library, and our computer teacher said that they were completely engaged!

Second graders came in during the afternoon and I scrapped my lesson plans and jumped in with them! I think they could sense how excited I was about sharing this with them, and of course their excitement rose. After introducing the concept of computer programming and sharing with them that I know very little about the subject, we watched the introduction video. I chose the 1 minute video for them. I liked having the option of a 1, 5 or 9 minute video to introduce the Hour of Code. With the different grade levels I am working with, it is nice to be able to pick the one that is just right for that group.

After we talked for a few minutes, we went through so of the tutorials for Code.org. They explain the basics of computer programming, using Angry Bird, in such a way that even the youngest students can understand!  

And then off they went with their partners to practice what we had learned! Again, it was so exciting to listen to them try to problem solve when they would get stuck.

I can't wait to see how this goes with the rest of the classes! On Tuesday of next week, I will have 4 different classes come in for 1 hour each of coding. They will earn their Hour of Code certificate and hopefully create something that we will be able to share in the "Coding Smackdown" with our friends in Georgia, Iowa, Maine & Indiana.

Are you participating in Hour of Code? I would love to hear how others are using coding in their library programs or classrooms!

Celebrating Picture Book Month

It has been a fun month in the library as we have celebrated picture books by reading and connecting with others.

During their library time, we read some potential Caldecott winners like 

We read picture books with friends!

And we had a PICTURE BOOK SMACKDOWN with students in Georgia, Maine, Connecticut & Iowa, as well as authors Laurel Snyder and Ame Dyckman.  We all met on a Google Hangout and shared our favorite picture books and why we think picture books are important. Thanks to Georgia librarian, Andy Plemmons who organized this fun event! 

A student from Georgia begins the Smackdown with her favorite picture book!

Ame Dyckman shares a few of her favorite picture books! We were happy to see some of our favorites right behind her! 

Laurel Snyder talks about picture books with students. The students loved having authors share their favorites! 

Here, Parker shares his favorite book and how important picture books are for beginning readers.  You can see all of the other participants at the bottom of the screen.

Our students did a great job during the Picture Book Smackdown. I was so proud of how they voiced their thoughts about the importance of reading picture books! It was a fun way to end Picture Book Month! 

2013 Edublog Awards Nominations

This is my first time to participate in the Edublog Awards, and I am excited to nominate people and sites that inspire me to be better at what I do.

From the Edublog website:

The Edublog Awards started in 2004 in response to community concerns relating to how schools, districts and educational institutions were blocking access of learner and teacher blog sites for educational purposes.  The purpose of the Edublog awards is promote and demonstrate the educational values of these social media.


Although there are more areas to nominate in, these nominations are the ones that have impacted me the most this past year.

◾Best individual blog: Margie Myers-Culver's Librarian's Quest is a great source for book reviews & weekly Twitter wrap ups.

◾Best group blog - Definitely has to be the Nerdy Book Club blog

◾Best new blog- Cynthia Alaniz, blogs about being a new librarian at Librarian in Cute Shoes

◾Best class blog- Louise Morgan's Class at Mrs. Morgan's Superstars Second graders that connect and create

◾Best ed tech / resource sharing blog - Todd Nesloney  great resource for tech tools and information on flipping classrooms.

◾Best teacher blog - Katherine Sokolowski's  Read, Write, Reflect Always thoughtful, heartfelt, well written posts

◾Best library / librarian blog  Nancy Jo Lambert's Borchardt Elementary Library blog is one I use almost daily to see how she is collaborating with her teachers.

◾Best individual tweeter - Nancy Jo Lambert @NancyJoLambert - I seem to favorite and retweet many of her tweets.

◾Best twitter hashtag: #tlelem http://tlelem.wikispaces.com/ A great place to connect & share

◾Best free web tool BiblioNasium My students love this site and the support you get from the people at BiblioNasium is incredible! Marjan Ghara, the founder even Skyped with our students!

◾Best educational use of audio / video / visual / podcast Matthew Winner's Let's Get Busy podcasts

◾Best educational wiki- The Global Classroom Project is a great spot to find opportunities to connect students.

◾Best open PD / unconference / webinar series School Library Journal put on the webinar Be the Change during the spring. It was a six part series that was very motivating.

◾Lifetime achievement - Jerry Blumengarten http://www.cybraryman.com/ His thorough lists of sites and Twitter chat schedules are referred to by many.

So there are my nominations of people and places who have inspired me in the past year. If they have also inspired you, feel free to leave a comment. Who would you nominate? You can make your own nominations at Edublogs Awards. Nominations are open until December 1st, so go nominate!

Rising to the Challenge- AASL 2013

I had a wonderful few days recently, learning and connecting with fellow school librarians from all over the world. My path to getting there began last spring when I first started receiving notifications in the mail about American Association of School Librarians 16th Conference in Hartford, CT. It would be my first national conference to attend, and I knew a lot had to go right for me to get there. The stars starting aligning  pretty quickly, and I found cheap airfare to Hartford.

My roomie!

A roommate would be needed, so I posted on Twitter that I was looking for a roommate for AASL. Michelle Cooper, a member of my PLN responded quickly that she was interested. Now I had airfare and a roommate! Since it looked like I was going, I jumped at the chance to present in the eLearning Commons area when Carolyn Foote tweeted about signing up. I wanted to present on using Twitter to grow professionally. Of course, I looked for a co-presenter on Twitter and Cathy Potter, another member of my PLN, volunteered.


All of this planning came to fruition this past week and it was very exciting! While in Hartford, I connected with other members of my Twitter PLN, planned fun events for connecting our libraries, and learned from some incredibly talented people. 

Just a few members of my PLN!



I also met AUTHORS!

Author Seymour Simon

Laurel Snyder, my first author Skype

An exciting part of AASL13 was the "unconference" that was held Friday night. An unconference is like an edCamp, which is participant driven and led. Who could imagine that there could be so much energy at 9:00 PM after conference goers had already been going full speed all day? But oh my! The energy level in the room was incredible! One of the groups I sat in talked about Makerspaces, which I am trying to get started in our library. One librarian in the group shared about how she runs the makerspace in her library, and Andy Plemmons  talked about a 3D printer he just got funded on Donors Choose! It was a whirlwind of a night!

The organizers of AASL Uncon

Our Twitter presentation, which was my first time to present outside my district, was very fun and went well. I think we might have hooked a few new people and persuaded them to give Twitter a try for professional learning.  I've now made it a goal to present at a conference again in the future and am already planning with local members of my PLN for our state conference.

Cathy Potter & me before our presentation


As for takeaways, I will be considering genre-fying our fiction section of the library. This was a hot topic at AASL13, with some people having very strong feelings for or against genre-fying. For me, I want to be able to help my students locate materials quickly and easily in our library and think this might be a good way to go about it. As the only adult in our library, and often having up to 30 students in there at a time, it can be a challenge to get to all of the students and help them find the perfect book.  So for now, I will order genre spine labels and begin by putting those on books. I will see how that goes and then decide whether I should rearrange the books.

Another thing I will be working on is keeping the technology out and the projects going during our library times. Jennifer Reed presented an excellent session on using digital tools for promoting books. This was my last session to attend before heading home, and it was one of the most energizing ones for me! I took lots of notes and have already started to apply some of her ideas.

It was a wonderful few days, full of inspiring people sharing ideas on how we can rise to the challenges before us and be leaders and collaborators within our schools. I left feeling excited, energized and, of course, just a little overwhelmed, but definitely ready to Rise to the Challenge!

Media Maker Club, aka Digital Bookworms

As you can see by the title, our students exercised their voice and changed the name of their club. They decided, after some debate, that they wanted to be the Digital Bookworms, and so they are!

 

The club members first worked on creating an account on Biblionasium. We talked about what a great tool this is for not only keeping up with our books, but also recommending books to others. The students were very excited about logging in and making recommendations!

We have been connecting with my friend, Shannon Miller and her students in Van Meter, Iowa.  At our last meeting, we were able to connect again, which was a lot of fun!. After several students from Van Meter performed a song they were working on, we talked about ways we could connect and create. After some discussion & brainstorming, we decided to collaborate on a blog to share different types of projects. These two clubs have lots of great ideas, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with!


Already, students have created videos to advertise our book fair, brainstormed questions to ask other students about making book trailers, and had some of our group members explain how to use Animoto.

At the end, we posed for a group photo that will be a part of our new blog that we are doing with our friends in Iowa. You will have to check it out!
Creative Connections Club


Our goals are to connect, collaborate & create and this new joint blog is sure to help us meet these goals!


 

Third Grade Learns About Biblionasium

Today our 3rd graders had an awesome opportunity to connect with Marjan Ghara, the founder of Biblionasium. I first learned about this site from my friend, Shannon Miller in Van Meter, Iowa. Her students even Skyped with our students last year to help us learn more about the site.  Biblionasium is a safe, online place for young readers to keep up with their books, as well as to recommend books to friends.  You can find out more about their site HERE.

 

After students sign in, they set up their shelf with book categories, such as Favorites, Recommended, and more. We can even set up challenges, so that we are reading a variety of books.

Biblionasium has offered support all along the way as we experimented with their website this summer. Several students enjoyed keeping up with their books and earning badges while reading during their summer break. And they also earned Book Fair Bucks for logging in!

I knew this was something I wanted to use more this year, so I planned on introducing it to my 3rd graders. Through Twitter, Biblionasium reached out and offered support, which is something I've noticed about their company. If I have a question, I only have to tweet or contact them and someone responds almost immediately! They listen to suggestions from their members and then make changes so their site is even better!

 

Mrs. Ghara shared with us how Biblionasium came to be, telling us about how her children were always looking for their next book to read when they were younger.

 She answered questions from our Curtis students, who asked some great questions, by the way!

Mrs. Ghara explained to students about how important reading is and also, why it is important to be safe online.

And then she gave us a peek out her window! The students were THRILLED to see a bit of
New York!

 





It was so great to connect with Marjan and to learn more about Biblionasium. We can't wait to start setting goals, logging in our books and making recommendations.

 

Thanks so much to Biblionasium and Marjan for helping us along in our reading journey!