Advocacy for School Libraries

This week for my IST611 Class we had to post about advocacy in school libraries. Specifically, how we can engage others to be advocates of our school library.  This week I had a chance to do some of my fieldwork hours at Leilehua H.S. in Wahiawa, Hawaii. During my second visit to the library I was able to sit down with a veteran school library Ms. Sandi Maruyama and pick her brain about the role of the school librarian.  Ms. Maruyama is a huge advocate for school libraries and she shared with me her insight in to how librarians should promote their library.  

Her first point was that school librarians are integral not only to the students, but are mainly seen as a support for teachers.  They are the ones that help to bridge the gap between the administration and the teachers.  As such, she stated that librarians need to be conscious of their role to teachers and how a teacher's perception of the library can really make or break the view of the library by other teachers, students, and potentially parents.  In order to gain the support of the teachers, she suggested making lessons that compliment their classroom lessons and helping in any way you can.  That means through organization of materials, curriculum, assessments, and instruction.  Only by word of mouth by the teachers the librarians serve will the library succeed.  Success may be a few teachers or it may be many, but regardless if you offer support to the teachers, word will get around. 

Her next point was making sure the administration is kept in the loop of the happenings of the library.  She suggested providing a blog of lesson recaps and pictures.  She said be sure to include video and promote what is happening at the library.  That way the administration is kept in the loop and if your library is brought up during a district meeting the administrators are not sitting with a "deer in the highlights look."  Instead, they can further elaborate on your library and promote it to district level members.

The third point she made was to make sure you serve in your community by way of the teachers union.  This can come in the form of volunteering large amounts of time or just something small.  It really depends on your time schedule.  Ms. Maruyama had a very busy schedule, but she knew she could volunteer a small amount of time to help plan a teacher appreciation lunch for her district.  Because of her volunteer work the teachers she worked with respected her more and were more appreciative of the time she offered to them. Ultimately, by spending more time and getting involved with your staff you can begin to hear their concerns and advocate for them, which in turns means they will advocate for you.

The fourth, and last point was that it is essential to get your library into the accreditation process.  This can mean either you, the librarian, becoming part of the accreditation panel or process and thereby including yourself in the report, or making sure your name and the programs you created are in the report by way of a teacher who is on the panel and who is willing to advocate for you.  Ultimately, the budget of your library will depend on the programs and evidence you show.  That is why it is critical to have evidence based programs in place to show advocates and other officials if necessary.  

I really enjoyed talking with Ms. Maruyama and could have sat and picked her brain for hours!  She has such a wealth of knowledge and really helped me to put into perspective the role of the school librarian.  Because of her, I am even more excited to be entering the school librarianship world!

Please see my Animoto video below for school library promotion.

Makerspace: What Does that Mean?

This week my IST611 professor asked use to discuss and comment on Intellectual Freedom or Makerspaces using whatever means necessary.  I decided I would use Animoto to create a video promotion for a future makerspace using images from the makerspace in my current library at Inouye E.S.  With that said, the makerspace at Daniel K. Inouye is called Exploritopia and it's complete with both low tech and high tech tools for students to work with.  Below is a link to the Animoto video promo I made for my future library.  All the pictures of students are safe.  Meaning, all students have signed agreements that it's OK for teachers and staff to take pictures of them and use them for educational purposes. 

Link to Animoto video: https://animoto.com/play/PDkU0qSu3Jwt2GUdypic2g

In addition to making a promotional video for makerspace's I want to go ahead and dive into my thinking and logic behind makspaces and break through present notions of what does and does not constitute a functioning makerspace.  Recently, while at the School's of the Future Conference, my colleague Michelle Colte (head librarian at Inouye E.S.) overheard an educator from a neighboring school make a comment towards not only our makerspace, but makerspaces in general.  The individual stated that unless there was technology in a makerspace then it wasn't really a makerspace. This idea is far from the truth and is actually quite discouraging to those librarians and educators trying to create and implement a working makerspace at their school and/or library.  

After hearing this I immediately wanted to fire back that this individual was misinformed about what exactly the maker movement is.  Then I got to thinking, "what is my definition of a makerspace?"   After some deep introspection and reading on what current research says,  I came up with my own definition of what a makerspace constitutes:

"A Makerspace is a safe space where individuals can engage in meaningful exploration, discovery, and creation, and should be a place where individual can interact socially with other like-minded individuals.  The  creativity experience in a makerspace is enhanced through the use of various tools (either low or high) and/or for collaboration.  A makerspace should invite users to challenge their preconceived notions of what constitutes creativity and encourage individuals to express themselves freely."-Leah Stone

Simple materials for creating

There are four parts to this definition that I believe are crucial.  First, is that a library's makerspace should be a "safe" place.  With this word I'm implying that a student should feel comfortable to explore different issues or topics, and they should feel comfortable asking questions relating to those.  There should be no put-downs or discouragement, only encouragement and positive guidance towards the goal the student is trying to obtain.

Students working individually and collectively in a makerspace

The second part or parts of the definition are the words "like-minded individuals and collaboration.  Basically, a makerspace cannot function in isolation.  It needs students in it to engage not only individualistically, but sometimes collaboratively.  This can take many forms; either through students working on a project together or students bouncing around ideas to make their individual projects better.  Either way some type of communication should be taking place in a makerspace. 

A high tech tool such as Makey-Makey

The third part of the definition deals with individuals challenging their preconceived notions of what exactly creativity is.  Many students think that in order to be creative they need to incredible at drawing or posses some type of extraordinary artistic quality.  Students needs to learn that this is not true.  They need to be shown that you do not have to be an artist in order to be creative and that creativity takes many forms.  It's not all about the tool, but about the state of mind that requires you to look at the same problem, but with a different insight.  Only by students successfully opening themselves up to the possibilities of creativity will they be able to find their voice and truly express themselves.

Low tech still equates to cretivity.

The fourth, and last part of the definition, is the embedded terms "low and high" tools.  By tools I mean not only machines and technology, with it's fancy bells and whistles, but tools as simple as scissors, glue, crayons, blocks, etc.  Anything that will help students to better express the creativity that lies within them.  Anything can be used as a tool.  Heck, monkey's use a stick to get termites out of large hills in order to eat and the stick is the tool!  But the monkey's genius lies in being able to know how to use it.  Why should a makerspace definition only be limited to costly high tech tools, when really even more opportunities for exploration and discovery could take place with less.  We as educators, have to remember that the technology is not the object from which the creativity is emanating from, but just a medium through which the creativity is being transferred through. 

Low tech may mean more mess, but more fun!

   

Creativity originates from the individual not the tool; and it is the individual who has the last say on what the product will look like.  The tool is only their to enhance the individuals actualized idea, not to be the idea itself.  Thus, if a student finds that they can create a similarly appealing product using a less high tech tool, then by no means should the student be discouraged in using it.  Instead, the creativity process should continued to be fostered and developed to eventually lead to the gradual integration of high tech tools.  However, if a student does not desire to engage in creativity with high tech gadgets they should not be chastised.  Simply be encouraged to create in a way that satisfies their desire to produce.

Students creating and communicating throughout

Makerspaces differ in the tools they offer to produce, but the end goal is still the same.  We as educators should be trying to instill a spirit of making in our students instead of a spirit of consuming.  Educators are trying to show students that creating is not just in the hands of a few artistic individuals who we see on the center stage or on the television, but that it is a skill each of use posses in unique ways.  It is a skill that can be harnessed, built upon, and sharpened, but like anything else it has to be practiced and the makerspace is an area where students can practice their creativity skills!

Students practicing their creativity skills

Learning About Habitats Through A Reading of, "The Salamander Room." By Anne Mazer: IST668 Lesson 1

 This week in my IST668 we had to start formulating ideas for library lessons.  I'm in a unique situation in that I can develop lessons and implement a few.  This week the 2nd graders at our school have began researching animal habitats.  I decided that I would create a lesson for their research and link it up to language arts.  I've pulled a bunch of habitat books for the students to look at, but I wanted to tie in an Easy Fiction book to introduce the topic of habitats and get them engaged and excited about habitats.  I found the book, "The Salamander Room," by Anne Mazer.  Our library does not own it, so I looked at other libraries on Oahu.  The only library that had it was in Kapolei, but it was not available.  Luckily, I was able to find it on YouTube.  Thank goodness for technology!

Photo courtesy of Amazon.com

The lesson took place in Ms. Soares' 2nd grade class at Daniel K. Inouye E.S.  I started the lesson by asking students what a habitat was to activate their background knowledge.  Many students stated that a habitat was a animal's home and I was happy to hear that some knew what a habitat entailed; climate, plants, animals, etc.  I then further engaged students by asking them if they had ever tried to catch a gecko (these lizards are plentiful here on Oahu).  I connected with the students by telling them about my daughters' experience's catching gecko's and trying to keep them as pets.

Once I felt good about where the students were at, I started the YouTube video of the book.  The classroom teacher helped me by casting the video via chromecast onto the class's TV.  I asked her to pause during certain times so I could ask student's questions about the reading.  The student's enjoyed this activity and this got them ready for the second part of the lesson.

After the reading I asked students to pick a wild animal they would want as their pet.  I asked a few students what their animal would be.  I got such responses as cheetah, grizzly bear, wolf, and shark.  Once students had the animal in their head, I had them think about what habitat their animal might live in.  From there I instructed students to grab their computers, log on, access our library's online database Pebble Go, and go to the animal habitats page.

 I then instructed students to take short notes of the descriptions of their animal's habitat, because they were going to have to draw a picture and write some sentences describing their animal's habitat.  I instructed the students to not write down the whole sentence, but just the descriptive words or "keywords."  I gave them an example of this my note taking strategy, and at first some students were more concentrated on describing their animals than the habitat.  However, once Ms. Soares and I circulated around to see their work, we were able to steer them more towards describing the habitat the animal lived in rather than the animal itself.   To keep students on track, I reminded them that they were making a room for their animal and it would need to look like their home in the wild as close as possible.  So, we needed to research where they lived in order to make their room as real.  This activity took place for about 20 minutes.

After note taking was done and computers were put away, I handed out drawing and writing template paper that the teacher provided.  From there I explained to students that they needed to look at their notes and based on what they wrote draw me a picture of their animal in it's "home" or habitat. Students were also instructed to write a brief introduction of the animal they chose and then describe to me in writing its habitat.  The lesson went off without a hitch and the students were completely immersed and engaged in the activity.  

Sample of my lesson with my daughter Kaydence.

At the end of the day I went back to talk to the teacher about the lesson and she stated that the students loved it!  In addition, because of the lesson they wanted to learn more about the different types of habitats.  She also stated that by providing this type of research students who normally do not participate were not only participating, but fully engaged and creating.  I felt fulfilled after the lesson and honestly felt as though I had found my place.  Now to work on my second lesson.  A post of that lesson will definitely be up in a few days!

Rome loved this activity and knew exactly what he wanted to write about.

3rd Graders Animal Adaption Research

This week I was able to implement a library lesson geared towards 3rd graders.  The focus and goal of this lesson was to introduce the concept of animal adaptations and for students to practice pulling out descriptive or key words and relevant information.  I began by having students sit on the floor and asking if they knew what an animal adaptation was.  I wanted to see if I could get them to access their background knowledge on the subject.   From there I gave them a brief definition on what an adaptation was.  I made the definition more relevant by providing examples of it in humans.  I gave them the examples of teeth and skin color.  They were very interested in both these examples and questions abounded.

Before the lesson began I pulled a few books that had examples of adaptations.  Here is a picture of one of those books, "What if you had animal teeth?"  I had pulled a few examples from each book and shared them with the class.  The kids ate up the information and slowly I began to see them making the connection.  At the end of the reading I asked if they had come up with any examples during the reading.  One girl brought up the fact that whales needed a tail in order to swim in the ocean.  I praised her for making the connection and prepped them for the next activity.

Book used to give examples of animal adaptations

Before the lesson I had also pulled books on specific animals; bats, sharks, butterflies, sea turtles, wolves, etc.  I bought a pile of books at each table and asked if students could pick a table.  There were about 2-3 to a table.  I told them to investigate the books in front of them and find examples of their animals adaptations.  Once they did this for a few minutes and got a good idea of what they were looking for, I gave them note-card sized paper and pencils.  I asked them to zoom in on those adaptations and draw them.  I chormecasted an example of this from our library's website onto the TV at the front of the room.  From there I had students label what the adaptation is.

Once students had completed this step I asked them to turn in their note cards and I posted them on a chart.  The chart indicated if the adaptation dealt with teeth, feet, hair, ears, or another type of adaptation.  Once all the note cards were on the chart, I had the students gather at the carpet again and we went over the adaptations they found.

Student's pictures taped onto chart paper

The students had a great time working on this activity.  They stayed engaged the whole time and wanted to know more about examples of animal adaptations.  I suggested that they ask their parents to get on the computer and help them to find more examples.  This is just way research can be broken down for students.  I always like incorporating reading, writing, and drawing into students' research.  That way they are incorporating their senses, thus allowing the new information to be successfully incorporated into their background knowledge.  I hope to be able to do this type of lesson with other 3rd grader classes during their animal adaptation research.

Schools of the Future Conference Recap: My thoughts

Last week was an incredibly exciting week for me and my colleague Michelle Colte!  We attend the School's of the Future conference in Honolulu, HI  Mrs. Colte, our technology coordinators, and myself participated in a playground session on makerspaces.  If you are unfamiliar with playground sessions at conferences they basically offer you the chance to learn information in a small snippet, our's was a Smore poster, and engage with either with tech or materials brought from different educators.  Think of it a quick and dirty way to learn either techniques for teaching or lesson ideas.  I particularly like them because they are hands-on.  Anything to get the juices flowing and creating makes me happy.

As I said above, ours was about our school's makerspace and how we created it on a shoe-string budget.  We made a huge call out to the students and parents of our school and got a ton of stuff to get use started.  We literally have everything from bottle caps to quilling materials...literally!  On that note, since our makerspace was first initiated, we also have more high-tech gadgets as well.  iPads, Ozobots, Dot and Dash, and Bloxels are just a few high-tech items.  During the session we demonstrated how an educator could do an activity either using a low-tech or high-tech tool, it's all on your level of comfort and of course your budget.  The session was a success and I had fun working with the ladies to pull it off.  Click on the link here to view our Smore poster!

The conference was two days long and on the second day I mosied over to the librarian's session.  I was super excited to see that Jennifer Lagrade or Library Girl was presenting!  I follow her blog on school libraries and her sessions focused on not getting caught in the cycle of being a zombie librarian.  Basically, she introduced strategies on how you could make your library relevant and engaging to students in this technology driven world.  I loved hearing her words of wisdom, but I think I may have liked it more that I got a selfie with her too!

Me with Library Girl!

I think it's important to get into a subject that she really focused on, and that was that as librarians we must be connected educators.  Since our positions can seem outdated and/or irrelevant it's important that we get connected on social media and network with other educators in order to grow and gain ideas about updating and presenting innovative ideas our libraries.  We have to advocate for our libraries and in order to do that,we have to be connected and show the world what we're doing in our libraries.  This message especially resonated with me because, in the short time I've been in the education world I've seen the importance of being connected and getting ideas from other educators on how to engage students and keep the learning relevant.  The same applies to librarians.  I say this because of the education climate at the moment.  If we as librarians do not connect, become a life-long learners, explore our passions, grow, and become innovative then we can pretty much ensure that our library's will be under utilized and die.  That's right... die.  Now more than ever we as librarians need to bring our roles in education to the forefront and advocate for them.  We need to make our library's connect with student's in a way that is meaningful and challenges them to want to explore the world around them.

The importance of being a connected educator

Podcasting in School Libraries

This week as an additional activity we were asked to brainstorm ideas of how we would use a podcast in the school libraries.  My mind immediately went to students recording book reviews that could be posted on the school's website.  I then thought it would be fun to record our bi-weekly lunchtime Nene discussions.  First, I thought about providing a  podcast of the questions that would be asked during the discussions to get students thinking about them.  They could write answers down or simply wing them.  Then I thought about recording the discussions altogether and providing links to the discussions on our website.  I really liked this idea, and although it wouldn't be scripted it would provide a chance for students who missed the discussion to still feel as if they were a part of it.  In addition, students could share the podcast with their parents or students could provide a link in their blogs so that other family members could experience what they are doing in school.

After I got to thinking about podcasts more and after reading Lori Atkins Goodson and Matt Skillen's article entitled, "Small-Town Perspectives, Big-Time Motivation: Composing and Producing Place-Based Podcasts, I started hatching another idea.  My passion for education involves helping military children. Before I went back to work I was heavily involved with the Army's Family Readiness Group.  This group helps to foster a sense of comradery and community among the wives and families of a particular unit.  Since I've started working I still hold onto that passion of bringing people together and giving them a voice.   I now work at a military school located on the army installation Schofield Barracks on Oahu.  Ninety-five percent of our school population is military children.  All year children are constantly coming and going.  I also live on the base and many of the children I see at school I also see in my neighborhood.  Each child has a story they could tell you and each of them has a secret to share with you about how they have overcome the stresses and challenges of being a military child.  Giving these children a chance to tell their stories and provide them a voice would be a course of action I greatly want to pursue.

How I would structure it would be it give students the prompt of, "Tell me about a time when it was hard to be a military child?"  I would suggest telling me about when a friend moved, or a deployment, or them moving, or being away from family.  From there I would ask them to write down their story which will also act as their script.  I would once again give them the prompts, "The most challenging experience I had as a military child was.....",  and "I got over this by....."  I would also ask for them to do a drawing to go along with their picture that way we could display their work either in the library or in their classrooms.  I think this activity would get kids talking and writing who otherwise do not.  I would try to want to do it during the month of the military child in March.  I know the students would love doing this especially if they knew they would get to display their work to an authentic audience, say the general of the base.  This activity could really get students to show off their resiliency in the face of challenges.

Here I've provided a link to the podcast and pictures of an example I did with my eldest daughter Kaydence.  She followed the prompts above and did a great job!  She loved working on this and was excited to be able to record and listen to herself at the end.

Kaydence Stone's writing and drawing.

QR Codes and Your Library

Have you ever heard the phrase, "Big things come in small packages?"  Well that's a QR code in a nutshell.  It's a 2D image jam packed with information for your user to access.  I basically equate it to a wormhole for your computer or digital device.  Once you've downloaded a QR scanner onto your mobile device the possibilities are endless for the type and range of information you will find when you scan a QR code.  All you do is use the QR scanner app to capture an image of QR code through your devices camera.  Once this is done the information (i.e. website) instantly pops up and you are reading, viewing, or listening to content directed specifically towards you.  I especially enjoy using them when it's time for myself and the teachers at our school to sign into our Seesaw accounts.  Instead of having to go through the hassle of signing in, you scan the QR code for your class and your logged in and directed to the class attached to that specific code.  This is especially handy if you have multiple classes like me!  

This week in my technology in libraries class we were asked to create a QR code for a designated purpose for a specific library-related activity.  Before I even really sat down and thought about this discussion I had thought of one activity that could be linked to a QR code in libraries.  Mainly I'm thinking of student book reviews.  What a neat way for student's to be able to use technology and create something they can use for later!  Plus they could take the QR home to parents or display it on their blog and family members could see what their doing in other areas of school, specifically the library.

In our library at Daniel K. Inouye E.S. we have Nene book discussions during lunch.  Nene books are a list of books that have been chosen by the students of Hawaii.  We have bi-weekly book discussions for each book that is on the list, usually a list can range from 15-20 books.  I think it would be a great idea to link up a QR code to our library's website in regards to our Nene discussions.  Another use for a QR would be to have one linked up to our library's makerspace page.  We could either link it up through our library's website and direct users specifically to the makerspace page or we could direct users to our Instagram page where we showcase much of our makerspace creations.  This could be especially useful when displaying information at conferences, either a lecture session or a poster session.  Attendees can scan the code and go right to our makerspace page and see all the fun and engaging items are students are creating.  I also think linking a QR up to a blog would be an effective tool to increase traffic towards one's blog.  This would be especially useful if your looking to get your name out a conference!

The possibilities of QR codes in education and specifically in libraries are endless and the sky is the limit!  Use your imagination and come up with creating and exciting ways to share information with your students and users of your library!  Scan my QR code below to see what we've done in my library's makerspace!

Discussion Postings for IST 611

Hi All!
Welcome to my humble blog.  I've been posting off and on for a couple months now.  I mainly blog about things I've done around the library I currently work at and what the student's are learning in the library.  However, I really wanted this blog to document my experience transitioning from academic to school librarianship and some of the opportunities and challenges I see and experience in making this change. I usually post once every two weeks and try to add a good combination of pictures and text.  I'm just trying to find my voice and figure out the theme for my blog and how I want it to evolve.  Anyways, here's the discussion questions for IST 611 and my answers to them. Enjoy!

Discussion #1:  Imagine this scenario. You are designing a web site for your library. Reflect on how a blog might be a tool you could use to support the library program. Would it be a blog of your own? Or one that involved students? Some combination? What aspects of the Common Core State Standards and the IFC/AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner might your blog address?

I think a blog would be an excellent platform to get information out about the type of lessons being taught in the library and the type of technologies that could help students in learning and exploring different topics.  So many teachers are using blogs to connect to families of students in their classrooms.  Librarians are in a unique position, we have all students and no students at the same time.  I think having a blog that parents could visit to see another dimension of their child's learning would help them to see how their child is developing different literacy's.  I also see a blog on a school library site as being an avenue through teachers could connect with the librarian.  The librarian could show teachers practice tips for technology through the use of a blog.  

I also think utilizing a library blog in the context of a book club would be fun!  It would offer students the opportunity to engage with technology and help to reinforce digital citizenship with them.  Plus to would help them work on their speaking abilities, if being video taped, or on their writing.  Having a blog where students could contribute would help to hit AASL standards: 

• 3.1.2 Participate and collaborate as members of a social and intellectual network of learners
• 3.1.4 Use technology and other information tools to organize and display knowledge and understanding in ways that others can view, use, and assess.
• 3.1.6 Use information and technology ethically and responsibly.
• 3.2.1 Demonstrate leadership and confidence by presenting ideas to others in both formal and informal situations.
• 3.2.2 Show social responsibility by participating actively with others in learning situations and by contributing questions and ideas during group discussions.

If students were to utilize a blog to document material covered during lessons in the library or book clubs it would connect to common core through the writing standards (if there were to utilize writing specifically) or towards the speaking and listening standards.


Discussion #2:  Why not try out any "reader" and start subscribing to a few blog feeds that are of interest to you. Once you are comfortable with it yourself, consider whether this tool may be useful to you in teaching an information literacy lesson or even in planning an event or program for your school library.

I think using an RSS reader would be a great opportunity to push out information about a library event.  Although, many parents are on Facebook and Twitter, if a blog was set-up through the library and an RSS was attached to it, parents could subscribe and get blog updates without having to actually go to the site.  The link would be direct and there would be no need to have to send out events through flyers or through other email subscriptions and in the event the student was to move they could easily remove themselves.  I could also see the potential of using an RSS to for the surrounding community to get involved and stay up-to-date with the happenings of the library.  This would be especially beneficial for local vendors if they want to showcase that they have worked in conjunction with the school during an event the library was hosting.  However, I could see parents complaining about it causing too much junk in their mailboxes, and I'm not sure how frequently parents would check their emails to keep up-to-date on current events in the library or on the blog.  Maybe crowdsourcing the idea out to teachers and parents to see if would be a beneficial tool.

mLearning in Elementary Schools (Just Some Thoughts).

I wanted to take a moment to document an experience I had the other day while it was fresh in my mind.  Last week, in my IST611 class, we were discussing mLearning and it's application for students and schools.  Many liked the idea, some were apprehensive, and the total consensus was that there needs to be policies and training in place for both teachers and students.  I think mLearning is where the future of education is going.  So many people have devices, including students, and more and more people will acquire them as the technology develops and becomes cheaper.

Anyways, I was out at recess duty at my school, which is at the elementary level.  I monitor 2nd and 3rd graders out on the playground and I was approached by a young girl.  She proceeded to tell me that one of the 3rd grade students had a cellphone at school.  It is prohibited for students to bring cellphones to school (a rule which is slowly becoming archaic).  Any who, I went over and kindly told the young girl that she needed to put it in her pocket then put it away in her book bag when she got back to class.  End of story.

However, as I was walking away I was struck by the discussion and the readings I had done earlier in the week.  Why is it bad that this 3rd grader bring her device to school?  If her class had been using computers, could she have used her device instead thus alleviating the need for her to have a computer?  Could other students bring their devices and the teachers and librarians teacher them how to use them ethically in the class?  What would the tax on our school's board band service be like if students brought their own devices?  Could it be adjusted?  Are there are districts or schools in the country who have switched over to mLearning?  What are their policies regarding ethically usage?

Later on in the week, I saw the young girl again and asked if she had her device with her.  She said no, but when she gets older (maybe middle school) she would be able to use it.  I was again struck by her mention of using it later rather than now.  If we are to cultivate a culture of innovation and 21st century learners I believe we need to encourage students to utilize devices in the classroom at an earlier age.  However, we (educators) need to make sure that they are using it in a way that is conducive to learning and connected to the lessons at hand.  We need to find a way to have them experience the world in which they are going to be required to enter into upon graduation.  It's not enough to give them the opportunity when they are in middle school.  It needs to start earlier so that connections are made and ethical behaviors and responsibilities are put into place for students to utilize.  This way the students that are considered digital natives, can begin to fully navigate the information they are surrounded by to the fullest extent.  We need to get students to move from the "digital native" to the "digital explorer."

So much to do. So little time.

The title pretty much sums up how things have been for me lately.   Between work, online classes, two kids, a husband, and a dog.  I'm being pulled in a few different directions.  I'm actually down sick today at home.  With two kids, if one gets sick you can usually bet there will be a domino effect soon.  I've enjoyed every moment of my busy schedule,  and I'd much rather be too busy, than be bored.   However, having some down time to recoup from whatever this, is wonderful and much needed for me and my littlest.  With that said here are a few photos and snip-its of what I've been up to these past three weeks.

These 5th graders created an awesome marble run!

Elise and Avery (two partner team) and their marble run.

Our 5th graders Friday Clubs started.  This is from the Design Studio club.  Rachel Armstrong, Michelle Colte, and myself head it up.  The first meeting challenged students to make a marble run from PVC pipe.  This challenged students to collaborate with one another.  Our second meeting consisted of them getting their feet wet with Lego Movie Maker.  Again, the students did an amazing job expressing themselves with the materials they had at hand.  This third we asked students to make optical illusion art.  Our student Moses created a great pop out name art.  All the students did an amazing job!

Moses creating his pop out name.

The finished product.

Student making 3D hand art.

In my #IST611 class we have to do an assignment where we evaluate an application.  I chose Seesaw because many of the teachers work with it at our school as a way of curating student's learning.  Here is what Michelle Colte and I came up with to get ready for our school wide #DotDay16 celebration. These are 2nd graders from Mr. Russell's class utilizing Seesaw to analyze and reinforce our reading of "The Dot."

All of the students did an excellent job making their dots and it was fun to see everyone's interpretation of what their dots would look like.  I was excited to see student's accessing the application on their own by using the QR code.

Below are a couple of pictures from our #DotDay16 celebration on September 8th.  This day celebrates creativity, collaboration, and individualism.  It's a great way to connect a story to an event.  Dot Day this year had a couple of theme's running through it.  Students could make an outline of their hand and fill it with dots, make a parrot out of toilet paper tubes, or learn to talk like a pirate. We included the pirate theme since our Book Fair coming on Sept. 26th is Pirate themed!  It was a great way to do some advertisement out for the Book Fair.

Students at our Shark photo op.  

Some of the participants at #DotDay16

Fifth graders have been working on Explorers for their history projects.  Mrs. Colte and I decided to do an exercise that incorporates visual literacy.  We asked students to look at a photo of Christopher Columbus's landing from a textbook and document what they saw, questions they had, and what they thought.  Some of the inferences students were making was amazing!  They were taking the exercise so much further than I thought they would.  I loved seeing one girl in Ms. Park's class accessing her background knowledge of the names of the ships that landed.  It was a great exercise and I would like to see it be taken a step further by having students compare two pictures, one from a textbook and one from a painting that is maybe more realistic or has different visual elements.

5th grader making an inference based on an interesting shadow.

Below is a document I created in Google Docs that can be used in future exercises.

     
Here are a couple of pictures of students writing down the information they saw and accessing their background knowledge when making inferences about the painting.

I loved seeing this student accessing her background knowledge!

In addition to working I've also been taking classes to get my school librarian certification for New York state.  For my IST668 class Literacy Through School Libraries I had to create a Wix Website that will start outlining my plan for my literacy program once I have a library. If you would like to take a look you can find the link below!  Any feedback is appreciated or just talking library!

 http://leahrstone.wixsite.com/libraryliteracyplan.

Hopefully, this blog gives a quick description of what we've been doing at Daniel K. Inouye.  In addition to all of our classes we've also been in the process of moving our old library into our new library.  It's been a lot of work and we've been fortunate enough to have many volunteers to help us (either teachers or parents).  Hopefully we'll be done this week.  We have definitely made progress!

Building Your Base

Great news today!  I am officially signed up for my C.A.S. School Media classes at Syracuse University (good ol' Cuse!).  Classes start August 29th and I am elated!  Not only will I start learning about a passion that is literally starting to take over my life and networking with other like minded professionals, but I also realized that I will have full access to the library's online databases!  I know I am a complete nerd for thinking this way, and I happily embrace my nerdy qualities and will continue to expound upon them as I see fit.  I also know that our local public library here on Schofield Barracks has access to some online databases that offer peer-reviewed journal articles, but there is nothing having access to a large university's online database. I would almost describe it as being my heaven (I know another nerdy comment).

Picture courtesy of kindercloud.com

With all that said, I want to share this week's recent wanderings into the world of research for elementary school students.  If you recall in my last post I discussed that research strategies should be taught at an earlier age than is previously being done now.  While, I applaud school librarians for beginning to push research strategies to high school freshmen I believe that strategies should be taught earlier.  In order to build a 21st Century Learner and get children thinking more along the lines of research, teachers and librarians need to develop a sense of wonder in young children.  Peter Haiman, in the article "Developing a Sense of Wonder in Young Children," stated that "children in schools and preschools are influenced by educators who often ask, rather than teachers who usually tell" (2014).  The word "ask" is the key word in this sentence.  By teachers and school librarians modeling to younger students inquirey based questioning the younger students will start to emulate the line of questioning and can begin to make connections within in the subject they are learning or with outer lying subjects.

Picture courtesy of  r3.cpapracticeadvisor.com

Last week at Daniel K. Inouye, the head librarian (Michelle Colte) and I began the task of developing a sense of wonder in our students.  At this time our library is out of commission and we have basically became a very paired down library on wheels.  Actually, it is more of a online library on wheels rather than physical books.  We are in a transitional phase at the moment while we wait for our new library to be finished. Shelves are being put in this week so fingers crossed!  Over the summer I had suggested that since a physical space for the library is out of the question, why don't we bring a virtual library to our students and begin to focus on teaching them the in's and out's of our online collection and databases.  Mrs. Colte rolled with the idea and last week we found ourselves working with different grade levels.

 Part of 4th Grade Gallery Walk

In fourth grade the students are concentrating on natural disasters.  We decided to focus our library lessons on using the online databases for research for their projects.  Before we entered the classroom the teachers had prepped them for our research by having the students participate in a gallery walk of informational posters of each natural disaster.  There were photos and text and each students was asked to write how the pictures made them feel, and to write down questions they had after looking at pictures and reading the information. Once each child was done with the gallery walk they brought their questions back to the classroom (questions were wrote on post-it notes so they could be easily moved around).  

After the gallery walk Mrs. Colte and I introduced students to the online database ScienceFlix.  We asked them which sections would be appropriate for their research needs (i.e. Extreme Nature).  Once students had identified the proper online resource we invited them to explore the sections within the Extreme Nature tab, and based on their exploration we invited them to ask supplemental questions to their existing questions.  We also encouraged students to talk with the other students in their table groups and ask questions.  A template was made to help guide students in their exploration or as we dubbed it "pre-search" process.  We had students ask, "How was your question similar to another students question?," "What question did you think of after you heard their question?,"  "What key words did you hear when heard these questions?"  

Student's Feelings Related to Images

Questions Generated by Students During Gallery Walk 

The exercise went very well and students enjoyed asking the questions and making connections between topics.  Some of my favorite questions where connections were made were, "Does an earthquake cause an tsunami?"  "Can a tornado form during a hurricane?,"  "Do robberies happen after a natural disaster?" (I especially liked this one because although looting does not take place after all natural disasters, this student was making a connection between a breakdown in the emergency system and natural disasters.)  "How does a person survive a flood?" (I also liked this one because students began to make connections between the different warning systems).  

4th Graders Using Online Resources to Question their Questions

ReflectionThe classes seemed very excited about being able to do research.  All of the students were very eager to ask questions and to be able to find their answers on their own with a little guidance.  We did find that if the lesson went too long the students lost interest, but we redirected them to get them back on track.  I would say our biggest problem was getting the students to ask more probing questions about the information they saw during the gallery walk.  Hopefully, we can get students to open up more about their questions the next go around.