Busy, Busy, Busy

I had to grab my phone and get this picture today when I realized how many different student activities were taking place at one time in the Library. If you count, you'll see 9 students (plus two at other tables). You'll also see Mrs. Renner, paraprofessional, who was helping Mrs. McGill and working with some of the students.

What made the scene so interesting to me was that it encompassed three totally independent student activities. One group of students was working on a special project. Another group was taking the STAR Reading assessment. The last two were taking Accelerated Reading Practice (AR) quizzes.

The library isn't always quite as busy as this, but keep in mind that this was going on in an "empty" block - no library classes scheduled. During this "empty" block, I was working with 5 students, Mrs. Renner with 4, and another 2 children came independently to do AR quizzes

Teachers take advantage of the sign-up sheet to reserve the library, or they are encouraged to use our resources and space if it doesn't interfere with library classes. The library is often a "hotbed of activity" and I love it!

OPAC

Do you know what the OPAC might be? Well, the official term is Online Public Access Catalog but OPAC is much easier to remember. If you use that term in a library, they will know you mean their catalog of what they own. Our 3rd and 4th graders know that if they go on the Charlestown School Destiny Quest OPAC they can look up books, get the call number, and find the book. If the book is "out", they write their name on a Hold list so they'll be in line for when it is returned.

When we went to Destiny Quest in September, it enabled us to make our OPAC web-based to allow searching outside our school. I've been wanting to add a link to our school library OPAC and hope I'm finally getting it done. That means I hope you will go to our Destiny Quest OPAC if you click the link below:

http://opac/quest/servlet/presentquestform.do?site=202&alreadyValidated=true

Destiny is the trade name for our Follett Software which is much more visual than the previous OPAC; kids like seeing the cover of the book. Of course, Destiny is the system that crashed for over a month and we're still repairing portions of it. That means, if you look at the Destiny Quest homepage for any Chariho elementary school you will see some lists for Richmond School, namely "4th Grade Battle for the Books" and "Playaways" (we have Playaways, but that list is for Richmond). I met with other district librarians last night and we're still trying to fix those problems! Meanwhile, I will be encourage students to use Destiny Quest from home.

Trying to Keep Up

The photo above shows three of the new pieces of audio equipment now available in the Library. It's part of an attempt to upgrade available resources and try to keep up with technology. With budget money we purchased one iPod/iPhone portable boombox and two stereo systems that play iPods/iPhones + CDs +AM/FM tuner. They are barcoded so teachers may check them out for use in their classroom. I expect they will be popular and hope that next year we can upgrade to furnish classrooms with newer equipment.

I expect some parents wonder why they see old, "antique" AV equipment in our school. Well, we still have audiocassettes that have wonderful read-along stories and songs. We can't just discard everything and much of it is still useful. Until we manage to equip every classroom with the newer digital resources, we need equipment that can play a variety of formats.

If you look at the photo, you'll notice VHS tapes that are part of the library collection. These have been gradually discarded for many years, but some titles reflect resources that are either not available or too expensive to replace quickly. It may be embarrassing, but it's a fact of life in most schools. We hope to get videostreaming in our budget next year and that will enable us to move away from VHS and DVDs.

And these examples just represent some of the AV issues - let's not even talk about computers! Just rest assured that everyone is trying to do a little catching up as fast as possible
I do hope everyone recognizes that keeping up with technology is virtually impossible these days. It's not easy at home or business and even more difficult in education. Have you heard of Moore's Law? Try looking it up. I'll blog a little about it next week.

C. Reiser-Jones
P.S. When I came to Charlestown in 1998, the first big task was weeding and discarding hundreds of filmstrips!

Dr. Seuss 2012

"Go Green!"


This is not a good photo with the glare from hallway overhead lights. However, it does give a good idea of our 2012 celebration for Dr. Seuss' birthday.

This year our theme was "Go Green" in honor of The Lorax book (and movie). The hallways were full of Truffala trees and children's work with ideas on how to help save our environment. My library display focused on our Lorax pencils that came from recycled newspapers. All students received a pencil; these are pretty neat because when they are sharpened, it's obvious they came from old newspapers!

Mrs. Wright arranged getting seeds to send home with each child and we hope "Go Green" results in some beautiful flowers or delicious vegetables in Charlestown School family homes this summer.

The spirit of the day even extended to our Office when Mrs. Haney came up with the idea that perhaps yummy truffles came from Truffala trees. Wouldn't we all like to pick chocolate truffles off trees in our yards? Happy Dr. Seuss Day to one and all!

We're Back! - February version

This week has brought many reminders why we're all here - it's for the kids and all that they bring to our lives. These photos of two Kindergarten students with their "response to literature" pictures make me smile just to look at them. It can ban all those concerns about technology troubles, time constraints, and being pulled in too many directions - at least for a little while.

The mention of technology troubles came first because the last time I wrote a blog posting was back in November. I looked at the date today and realized the last posting was about a week before the big crash. When the district server went down, it meant we had no "OPAC", the online library programs that run our modern libraries. As many know, for over a month we were writing down barcodes to keep track of books. It was a day to celebrate when the Chariho Tech crew got us back and running right before the holiday vacation. We're still recuperating from losing all data between June and December 2011, but it could have been worse, and I'm thrilled to be back in normal routines.
So I hope this explains the lack of blogging and now I hope to get back to weekly postings.

If you're looking for something new to try for the beginning of February vacation, you might want to look at the link below for the Providence Children's Film Festival. It runs February 16-21 and features films, workshops and other famiy-friendly activities. The website has plenty of info regarding age suggestions for various films - have a look http://www.pcffri.org/

Gr. 4 survey http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7HDPX7C

More Wondering . . .

The deer antlers have been very popular. Most children could guess what they were, but our wondering was about how and why the antlers were different. Even our youngest students observed:

• one was larger than the other
• they were slightly different colors
• one was smooth, one was rough

Why the difference between two antlers, both from whitetail deer? Well, these wondrous objects were found near a pond where we walk our dog. My husband found the larger one several years ago and it was already beginning to show signs of decay. The years of being "displayed" on our deck railing have added many more patches of moss and lichens. The smaller set of antlers was found a couple of years ago and has been inside our house, with much less decay.

Some of our students had good observations and showed background knowledge, including:
natural objects will eventually decompose; antlers may be eaten by termites, other insects, and rodents; and "one deer had larger antlers than the other". I love to hear the students' responses and ideas as they wonder - higher order thinking and critical thinking in the real world!

I've learned much after reading some of our library books shown in the photo. Did you know of these differences between antlers and horns? ( I didn't!) -

• antlers are temporary, growing each spring and being shed each fall/winter
• horns grow from year to year and are permanent (except for Pronghorn antelopes)
• horns are made of hard skin and are hollow
• antlers are made of solid bone and are not hollow

All of this information came form the book, All About Deer by Jim Arnosky. As our library poster says, "Books Open the Doors to Discovery"!

Book Fair!

This year is flying and now it's time for our annual Book Fair, October 31-November 5. This fundraiser brings in more than $1,000 and helps fund more library resources for students and faculty. It's also fun!
FYI:

• Grades 1-4 shop during their Library Class. Kindergarten students are encouraged to come with their families.



• The Book Fair is opens each day from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.



• Two Family Events: Thursday, Nov. 3 from 3:30-7 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 5, 9-12.



• Wish Lists for Classrooms are a great way to buy a nice, useful gift for a teacher.



• PTO and other volunteers make it happen - thanks!

See you at Book Fair!