Reading Week Activities

It's been a busy Reading Week 2011. Today we had Chariho High School athletes come to read to classes. This has been a favorite since Mrs. Wright arranged the first visit three years ago. Now we hear that all the Chariho elementary schools like the idea and CHS students are kept very busy. The photos above show Mrs. St. Clair's 1st graders listening to Cody Rathbun read a funny story to them. It looks like Cody is having as much fun as the 1st graders!

That storytime also featured Sarah, another CHS student, but my camera decided not to cooperate for more photos. In fact, it even failed when the 1st graders posed with Cody, Sarah, and the Chariho Charger mascot - what a great shot that would have been.

Sometimes we have tech misses and sometimes we get "hits". This week I was able to share a video with a class by using some tricky maneuvering of tech tools. The video was on YouTube - not available at our schools. With the help of Michelle Steever, CMS librarian, I was able to do a file conversion, have the converted file emailed to me, use the VLC software to open it, and finally play the video for the class. It took several tries, but success is sweet!The class was able to enjoy a video version of the book, How My Parents Learned to Eat, by Ina R. Friedman. The story correlated to this class' study of Japan.

It's been fun to see all the different countries studied by various classes. Our library "took on" the entire world with flags and books about geography. Happy Reading Week to all!

Centering

It's Friday afternoon, soon to be evening. I found myself wondering what to tackle next before going home. No idea for this week's blog had come to me; rather, many ideas had come to me, but which to choose? Current library classes? Two days training on technology? Upcoming Reading Week? (April 4-8th). Even if I chose a topic, what photo can be used this week?

Feeling quite scattered, I looked up and saw the beautiful Clivia flowering on the library windowsill. I inherited this plant when I came to Charlestown in 1998. For years, it just sat by the window, surviving with a little watering, no flowers. I didn't even know what it was, just a bunch of strappy leaves. Finally, I figured out it was a Clivia, read a little, and decided to force the issue. I brought it home and took a kitchen knife to the tangled mass of tuberous roots, cutting away much of the rootball. It went into a new pot with new soil, then back to the library. It has flowered every year since that drastic change, sometimes even twice!

The moral? Change is good? Grow or stagnate? Or maybe it's about deserting the scattered piles of work around me for a few minutes. It wasn't "wake up and smell the flowers", but "wake up, center yourself, and enjoy the beautiful flowers". I hope you enjoy the photo and have a good weekend to center, relax, and regroup.

We're All Winners!

Kindergarten student, Emma, and her mother joined me this week to celebrate our prizes won at the March 5th Warwick Mall event, NEA Read Across America Day that celebrated the birthday of Dr. Seuss.

That day I was volunteering at the school librarians' table, RIEMA (Rhode Island Educational Media Association). It was a fun time that featured a table for children to make bookmarks plus a raffle. Emma's mother spotted me, came over, and they entered the raffle. The raffle price was two $25 Gift Cards to Barnes & Noble bookstore - one for the student, one for their school library. Raffle entries went into two large Cat in the Hat hats.

At the end of the day there were three entries drawn out of hundreds and guess who won! It was quite a stroke of good luck because Emma was the only Charlestown student I saw that afternoon who entered the raffle. I figured we had little chance with all the Warwick and local students who came by and entered the raffle. What a great surprise to hear that Emma's entry was a winner!

The photo was taken by Bianca, a student in Mrs. Mcgill's 3rd grade - a future photographer? In the photo, Emma's mother is holding the letter announcing our win. I hold the two hardcover books purchased for our library and Emma holds the Cat in the Hat. I heard that Emma bought several books great for kindergarteners and her mother was as thrilled as I was. And . . . because the books may be borrowed by all students and teachers at Charlestown School, we all win!

Current Events-Iditarod and more

This week Mrs. McGill's class has a special assignment every morning.
They come right to the library to check their musher's current place in the Iditarod sled dog race. Because Mrs. McGill set up a subscription to the Iditarod Insider GPS, they are able to get up-to-date information on the progress of the race. They locate their race team on the map or list, then take turns writing down the mileage. The next step is when they go on to class and do the math to find how many more miles their team has to go until the finish. It's fun, it's interactive, and it's learning.

Regarding another too-current event, as I write this blog entry on Friday afternoon, my heart is saddened by the horrific news coming from Japan and other places devastated by the earthquake and tsunami that struck yesterday. Our technology enables us to be in touch with the rest of the world. I'm sure many share my thoughts and prayers that go the many victims of this terrible disaster.

Wacky Wednesday Pictures

Not much to say with these photos from our fun and Wacky Wednesday on March 2nd to celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss. The pictures tell the story - Enjoy!

Learning is Fun!

Today I tried a different activity with Mrs. Rathbone's 3rd grade class and we had such a good time. I was thrilled with the way they worked with others at the library computers. They were excited about how well they did on the activity - a win/win situation!

The students had experience with the website on which they "shelve" books according to alphabetical order. We had done the activity using the SMART Board a few weeks ago; at that time they took turns coming up to move the virtual book to the correct alphabetical place on the shelf. Their familiarity with the website and activity made it an easy transition to going to computers on their own, finding the website, and taking turns with a partner. Some of the students even earned the Certificate of Library Assistant printout!

The first photo shows the students busy at work. The second photo features two students, J and E, doing their work with the SMART board computer. They used the touch screen; others used their computer mouse to move the book to the correct place.

Again, besides the academic value of alphabetizing, I was most impressed with their ability to work together. Being able to share computer time, decide on names and levels for the game, and collaborate to figure out the problems - to me that's a goal I hope all our young learners can achieve.

If you're interested in the website, it may be found by googling order in the library or through the URL:
http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~valmstrum/s2s/utopia/library4/src/library4.html

Have a great vacation!

Lifelong Learning

Okay, so what does a dinosaur fossil have to do with lifelong learning? Well, today when I was working with students I realized I was not sure about how to cite images from the Internet. I know how I think we should do it, but wanted a refresher course. Rather than Google, I turned to the Chariho Middle School website. The Library Media Center link on the CMS homepage is a wealth of information. Not only does it have links to many important resources, but when I know "the way they do it at CMS" then I can hope to help prepare students when they move on to middle school. In fact, I hope to add a link to the CMS Library website onto this blog to give readers a quick way to access those resources.

Well, the dinosaur fossil photo was found using www.pics4learning.com, a good place to begin a search for Internet images. I think the correct way to cite the source is:

http://www.pics4learning.com/details.php?img=monclonius_nasicornis.jpg, Feb. 11, 2011.

The citation shows the URL (website address) of the photo and the date indicates when I copied the image. I hope I got it right! The main message to our elementary students at Charlestown is that they must give credit to others' work. Lessons on copyright and giving credit begin in 2nd grade and the idea is mentioned in 1st grade. To young children, being "fair" and not taking from someone else is a very concrete idea.

The website, pics4learning, did not have my favorite dinosaur, a Triceratops, so I went with a similar herbivore, Monoclonius. If you have a dinosaur fan at home, they may even recognize that one-horned head!