Well...It's been 4 years. A move across the country and reflection time to really find out what I'm passionate about. It's taken time, but I believe I've found it again. I've found that watching students find answers to their questions through inquiry and exploration makes my heart happy. I enjoy watching students tinker, create, and discover. I've worked to write grants and held massive book fairs to secure funding to support the creation of the Makerspace Place in our library.
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Are you ready to participate in the Young Readers' Choice Awards (YRCA) for 2014? I'm excited to see how many students participate this year. Last year we had over 100! There are eight books in each category. This year at Eagle Cliffs you will be able to part in the Junior or Intermediate Divisions, or both. In order to vote in March, you must read at least two books from the division you are taking part in. All books can be found on the YRCA table. If you check a YRCA book out, please return it to the table when you check it back in so other students can easily find the book. If you cannot find the title you're looking for, I suggest you place a hold on it and it will be delivered to you personally when it's available. Please read the YRCA books as quickly as possible so others can participate too. For those that read all books in a division, I will have a special award for them. Please come see me when you are finished with all eight books. And the nominees for 2014 are: Junior Division: Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick 13 Gifts by Wendy Mass The worst years of my life by James Patterson Darth paper strikes back by Tom Angleberger The last council by Kazu Kibuishi Big Nate out loud by Lincoln Peirce The Medusa plot by Gordon Korman Intermediate Division: The son of Neptune by Rick Riordan Between shades of gray by Ruta Sepetys Scorpio races by Maggie Stiefvater Okay for now by Gary D. Schmidt The outcasts by John Flanagan Legend by Marie Lu Michael Vey: the prisoner of cell 25 by Richard Evans This dark endeavor by Kenneth Oppel Last year I did a pretty intensive Newbery unit and created a Mock Newbery Award for each fourth and fifth grade class to give to one title in our library. Each student nominated a book and followed the Newbery criteria and created a poster that he/she used to campaign and get votes for his/her nominated book. Each class voted and we had a Mock Newbery Ceremony in which we gave a mock medal to the winning book title for each class. It was an intensive unit, but the students had a lot of fun. In my tech class, my students used Webdoc (now called Urturn) to create a digital poster. (Link to example) I noticed that this project taught the students about the Newbery award and the criteria in selecting a book, but it did not increase the circulation of Newbery titles. So, this year I wanted to change that. I wanted the students to learn about the Newbery award history and criteria, but I also wanted them to know about past titles in hopes that my circulation for these titles would increase. We spent a few minutes going over the Newbery award history and criteria, but then I let the students loose on the Newbery Medal website. I've been using the Popplet web tool with my classes this year and I gave them an assignment to create a Newbery Popplet with at least three years of winners and honors. When the Popplet's were complete, students shared the link on their class' Library Media Edmodo page. Students commented constructively about the work of their peers and many about the titles. Students have started checking out many of the titles that have just been sitting on my shelves for the past few years. Some students are getting hold on books because everyone wants to read it again. I'm excited that students are putting new life into these books, I just had to share!
Let Your Imagination Take You There...READ! Thanks to my wonderful 6th grade "Shelf-Elves" for helping get this awesome display together. We have had a fantastic time in K-2 learning about Dr. Suess. The month of March is quickly coming to an end and I will be sad when the Dr. Suess books go back on the shelf. The April display the "Shelf-Elves" are planning is going to be amazing! Keep an eye out for it! This week, our 5/6th grade class earned a Library Fun Day. This class was the first class to earn four ROBOT (Return Our Books On Time) stickers. The students chose to play Library Hangman. Being just a tad bit techie, I couldn't resist the urge to step up my basic library game and integrate QR's. The students were divided into two teams. One student from the first team would scan a QR code, read the question aloud and then answer it. If the question was answered correctly, the team would earn a point. If the answer was wrong, they team got a bodypart and the other team had the opportunity to answer the question. I used my interactive whiteboard and had two hangmen, one for each team. The class had a great time and is already thinking about what kind of fun they can have next time. Here is a link to the QR's I created. Enjoy using them for your own interactive game. We are having a contest for one elementary student in Billings Schools to win an eReader. The contest will be like a scavenger hunt. Students will need to log on to the D2 eLibrary with their library barcode number to find the answers to the questions in the scavenger hunt. The scavenger hunt questions will need to be entered on the D2 eLibrary Contest page. Once all questions are answered, students will hit submit. When the survey has been submitted they are entered to win the drawing. Lets keep it one entry per student. The majority of the questions need to be answered correctly to be entered. We know that it is more complicated for elementary students to get it all filled out, so we will be understanding of this. What are you waiting for? Go explore our D2 eLibrary and get entered to win. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will be a student here at Eagle Cliffs--the students here are so deserving! On Friday the 2nd grade students scheduled extra time with me in the library to participate in a QR Treasure Hunt about penguins. The 2nd grade classes had been learning about penguins for the past two weeks and this was a culmination to the theme. Earlier in the week, on their scheduled library day, the students researched one of the 17 species of penguins with a partner. They were responsible finding out the size, description, where it lives, prey, predators, and one unique fact. The students took this information back to the classroom where they presented their findings to their classmates. On Friday the students came to the library with their teachers one class at a time. The students were paired with the same partners and given a tablet to go around the library looking for hidden QR codes and scan them with the device. The codes were embedded with text that was a question about a penguin fact the students had learned over the past few weeks. Partners read the question and wrote the correct answer on a penguin recording sheet. Partners switched from writing and scanning on each QR penguin question but answered the question together. We had 10 questions and the activity took about 30 minutes for each class. I used ClassTools QR Generator. I love this tool and I use it for most of my QR activities. It's simple to use, but can only use text. The penguin QR above links to my QR activity on ClassTools. Feel free to use it in your classroom. Spell With Flickr has become one of my students' favorite word art tools. The students used this tool to create a word poster about who they are and what they enjoy. After the students changed out the letters they didn't like and made the word just right, they took screen shots of the words. Here in our district, the students have Student G-Mail accounts, so I had them upload the pictures into a document in Google Drive. After the students had at least 3 words (some had more), we published the document and then posted a link on our Edmodo site. (More about why I love using Edmodo in the Library another time.) Students were then able to share their word art and make comments about their classmates work. Students were so excited to go home and make more posters that they could decorate their rooms with! Best thing--there were no accounts to create and passwords to remember. Just follow the link to Spell With Flickr and try one for yourself! Our district's new eBook subscription service has a new name--D2 eLibrary. If you have a Kindle, Nook, iPad, iPod, iPhone, or any Android tablet, you can get FREE eBooks from our eLibrary. Did you hear what I said? Yes, FREE eBooks!!!! I know that I have been talking about this for the past few months, but I'm so excited about this service. I want everyone that has a device to be able to get free eBooks. The easiest way to access the free eBooks is to download the free OverDrive Media App on any device. When you open the App, you will need to add a Library. Simply type in Eagle Cliffs Elementary and you will find our library. Select the library and then type in your library card number. This number is at the bottom of the barcode on your library card. If you don't have this number, please see Mrs. Fleming to get it. Search for books and add them to your backpack on the App or your locker if you want to place a hold. Unfortunately, you will not be able to add any books that were purchased at the Junior High or Highschool levels. When you have found the eBooks that you want, check them out and they will automatically download to the OverDrive Media App. You will read all eBooks from this App. A few reminders: 1. You can not have any overdue books in our library in order to use D2 eLibrary. 2. You can have 3 books checked out at one time. 3. You may keep the books for 14 days and then they automatically return. 4. If you finish a book early, please be considerate and return the book early so others can check it out. If you have any problems, first ask your parents for support with the App. If problems continue, please see me. You will need to bring your device to school in order for me to help yo |
Jamie FlemingThis is my 15th year teaching and my third year as a K-6 Library Media Specialist. Prior to my journey as a Library Media Specialist, I taught 3rd and 1st Grades, Reading Recovery, and Title I Reading and Math. I have a Master's of Education in Interdisciplinary Studies with concentrations in reading and technology and my Library Media Specialist Endorsement. I am also a facilitator for the Billings Tech Cadre, a program that provides local educators the opportunity to explore emerging technologies, collaborate on digital projects, and integrate 21st Century learning into their curriculum. Archives
January 2018
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