Final thing reflection

It is really hard to believe that this workshop has come to an end....  my first blog post for this series of classes was from 2010...  my how my own skills have changed, what tech I use now, and what changes have been made in my library space too....

Polly you have done an amazing job putting together resources, topics and keeping us all organized and inspired.  That is how I will end my experiences over that last several years with Cool Tools..... inspired.  I look back at the number of things I have learned, tried, and brought into my teaching space.  There are so many more that I want to try and work in.

I was at a LMS meeting several weeks ago and one of our activities was to look at goals for ourselves for next year.  My goal was to try to incorporate at least one more or new technology piece with each grade level at my school.  This year I concentrated on turning my computer lab into a makerspace.

We got some donations and I was able to purchase some hands on materials.  I was able to bring each grade level in at least every other month for a week or two so that they could use different materials.  I used some of my budget or Scholastic dollars to add things that I thought the kids would enjoy.  It was a big success, but I didn't really get to do a lot of tech projects as we went from desktop computers to iPads and cloudbooks.  So at this past meeting I realized I need a blend of the makerspace and tech.  This summer I want to look at each grade level and see what I can add in easily with what I have.  Starting with #booksnaps using PicCollage at the beginning of the school year.  I think it will be a fun way for the kids to share out a book or two, recommend books to others and practice a few tech skills.  I would also liike to add in a few more tech projects to the Makerspace: LegoWeDo, claymation, stop animation and revisit green screen photos with a few more classes.

Thing 14 -- Bitmoji and Booksnaps

I had time to log into bitmoji a few weekends ago and do the creating on the computer of an avatar... then when I got to the end, I couldn't get back... a little frustrating.  It wanted to put it into gmail, but for some reason it didn't work and there wasn't a quick way to go back into the page to make any changes.  Well as I dug a bit deeper, bitmoji works better as an app which I later downloaded to my phone.  From there I could see my creation in various additions.  I am not sure I would really use this at all.  I wasn't really happy with some of the "situations" or phrases that were used for me personally.  You really have to comb through to find something decent.  Too bad there isn't a kid friendly creation that they could use.  I think kids would really love to do this.  My 4 year old keeps asking if he can create one, as he watched me and helped pick out some of my features.  One other thing I didn't really like was I thought that there would be a little more you could do with it or picking backgrounds or details without a person's face.

I suppose students would get a kick out seeing a few of these around the library, or on bookmarks or book reviews or even letters home, etc...  Not sure I will really put these in to fore front of my mind.  I since creating them, I will at least try to use them once and a while.

One of the other topics on this assignment was booksnaps.  I love the idea of booksnaps.  I hadn't heard of them before.  As I was looking into it, I came across an old podcast with an interview of the creator.  I have for years creating book trailers with my students, but the project took months.  I think kids might have an easier time of this.  I want to start with these when we go back to school in the fall.  Something they read over the summer.  I really wanted to see if I could do this with summer reading suggestions with my fifth graders, but I am running out of time seeing them once a week if that at this point in the year.  So starting the year with it might give them a fun transition back into school to show off a favorite book for other students to learn about.  So basically:

How to make #BookSnaps

• Read, think, & be creative
• Take a picture of the passage that you connect with in some way.
• Highlight, underline, or box the part of the text with which you are connecting.
• Create a visual representation that shares your thinking.
• Use emojis, stickers, speech bubbles, draw pictures, etc.
• Include the title and author or book cover to give credit.

So I just finished Ban This Book by Alan Gratz. And decided to use this as my #bookchat subject.

A fun book with a lot of potential for discussing and talking about even more books! I can't wait to try this project with my students in the fall.

Thing 25 -- Green Screening

I purchased a green screen kit at the beginning of the school year, but never had the opportunity to open it or discover even what was in the kit, let alone try something out!  Over the past two weeks, my 4th grade scholars need to do a podcast or video PSA on concussions.  I gave them the option of just filming or using the green screen.  Half of the groups took me up on it!

Two weeks ago after they wrote their scripts, I set up the screen and let them film, (still not knowing exactly how we were going to to the green screen process, but I knew I would figure it out.)

The kids had a ball filming and getting all there takes for the video.  I even had a few want to use the teleprompter app (like real newscasters) so they had it scrolling while they were acting their scenes.

They really helped each other out with filming and starting and stopping the iPads.

Fast forward to this week where we have to edit what they filmed.  I had them use the wevideo app to start their movie and add their different video takes.  Our district has a few licenses, so I signed up as a teacher and played at home sending from the app to the account.  The details of editing work better on our cloudbooks than the app.  The kids really enjoyed editing, adding music, learning how the chrome key color worked to add a background.  Lots of fun!  We watch the videos once they were complete. Overall a fantastic project, not without a few bumps in the road but tremendous.

Here is one group's final video with green screen...

 You can see it here too.

I can see using this a little more now, even with younger students if i was the major editor, as we don't have enough site licenses.  But maybe using a few free apps like Legos or Stikbots would work as well.  I can't wait to film some students doing animal projects with the habitats in the background,etc.  Not that I have gotten my feet wet with this, I can't wait to try it in many ways next year... maybe a greenscreen club!

I also want to look further into the ChromeKey app. for still pictures, etc. And I just saw veescope-live-green-screen-app which also looks interesting.  Will have to play a lot this summer with it.

Thing 23: New AASL Standards..

I have taken a few roll out workshops to dive into the new standards, but it is definitely overwhelming.  I really enjoyed seeing and reading Paige's article.  She has thinks laid out so well and the vocabulary ("power verbs") is wonderful to use when writing your own lesson plans or think about what you want the students to do.  I did have a chance to try her exercise as well where you look at what you currently do, areas i am "close" and what you need to work on...  for me I need to work on... "grow".  As much as I like the idea of reflection, I don't always leave enough time for the students to reflect on their own learning.  I would also like to expand our "global learning community" farther than our school or outside of a grade level.  I feel like something I can get done with my scholars groups as I see them for a larger chunk of time and they are usually invested and interested in what we are doing.  But I can't get every student in a similar place with some of these bigger tasks.  Seeing students k-5 is very different than MS or HS students.  I would like to see what a lot of the shared foundations and competencies really look like at the elementary level and for each grade level.  It is hard to say that "I do this" because it would only be a certain grade levels. Yes I expect more out of the 5th grade as far as the competencies and domains.... seeing lessons and how these look with younger students might make me feel a little more comfortable with the new Standards.

I loved seeing the curated list of tech links for the AASL Learner.  It is an amazing list.  I love the Best App list and the Best Website list for 2018 put together by the AASL too.  I know many of what they shared, but what is really terrific is the fact that they put little icons to show where in the new shared foundations they fit.  If they could sort by the shared foundations that would be even better!  Maybe next year! 

Nearpod seems to be at the forefront in the last year or so.  Our school district just bought into it and teachers and myself love it.  It has so many good features including pre-made lessons,especially the ones on Digital Citizenship, ways for only the teacher to control and keep everyone together as well as a feature for it to be student paced which would be great for centers or kids who finish early, etc.  Teachers can make their own and have collaboration boards for students to use all of the shared foundations.  Our district is also at the beginning of the push for Canvas which is a management system and helpful for curation, but has many features students can use at home and school.

As Librarians we are really good at the Inquire Foundation.  Over the last 10 plus years we have all put our heart and soul into getting our students to ask questions and wonder about things that interest them.  I used to like students to work on their own in the library for several reasons: I could see what they knew, where they were, and where they were going in their own work.  Over the last several years I have started to have the students collaborate, but it isn't always easy.  This year was the hardest with an environmental project I like to do with my 5th graders... between the amount of snow days, 2 hour delays, field trips, testing, kids sick on library day, students leaving our school, I found my 2 month long project turn into a 5 month project.  One inquiry project that I wanted them to collaborate on, turned in to torture for all of us due to the length of the project, kids leaving the school, and students not being friends with other group members and not wanting to finish the project.  We all started on a high note, but we all fizzled to the end.  If I could find a way to have them collaborate, inquiry and have a finished project to share and engage other students, but at a quicker pace instead of dragging on, I would love to try it.

Over the last year, I have been working on the explore foundation and sharing Growth Mindset activities with other teachers and students.  As well as the digital citizenship piece in the engage foundation.  Because I only see my students once a week for 40 minutes (if I am lucky), I tend to concentrate on one aspect or area, but I wonder if there is a way to include multi foundations with in a shorter project....  Collaborate seems to be a tough one to cover at the elementary level... although showing them resources for different projects or activities, maybe they can curate in their own life for things that interest them...


For my own reminders and having things in one place..
crosswalk with the ISTE Standards
crosswalk with future ready libraries

Thing 20 - Social Reading and book stuff

Book Tools
I have been on GoodReads for a while.  Today I added the widget to this blog and as an added bonus I was able to play with the background and formatting of the blog while seeing some updated that I wasn't aware of on Blogger.  Yeah me!

I love hearing about and seeing what others read. Recently I became online friends with a few other local librarians, Librarian Bloggers and my Literacy Coach who I am constantly chatting about books, both adult titles and children's titles.  Now we can see each other's updates.  Of course seeing what others read adds to my own to be read pile!  But hey, summer is coming right?

I also downloaded the GR app to my phone.  Then I can easily update when I finish something too.  The app is great for another reason... It has a scan feature.  So you can be in a bookstore or library and scan a book and add it to your own shelf.  But I discovered that it saves the books you scan too.  As I know I am not alone in this and snap a picture of books I not only want to read, but ones I want to add to my library.  So if you scan a book with the app it stays even if you don't add it to your own shelf.  So you don't have to take a picture and they are all together when you are looking for books to order.

Holey Moley!!  I am so excited to add the SALS catalog to what i see when I in in my GoodReads account!  Oh man this is terrific!  Thank you for this tidbit!  Took a bit to figure out how to add it and where it showed up... But now I see it and have used it!  Awesome!  Although this is weird as it asks what order I want them to appear, but it lists them alphabetically on the book pages... so I will remove all the other places as I really only search for books at the public Library for books to borrow.

Looked at TinyCat just to be informed.  Seems like a good option for a small school library.  Like the previous private school I worked at years ago.  The first screen reminds me of the new look of Follett with the ribbons.

Looking at BookTeasers with Slide Deck would be great.  In the past I have done Booktrailers with my 4th graders, but with the change in technology and tools from our old computers, I skipped the project this school year.  But sees the Slide Deck you shared, I now want to start the school year off for my 5th graders with a book challenge.  They could create a slide similar to those shared with a teaser about the book and adding them all together to show the class.  I like the idea of adding it to Flipgrid as well.  My kids are very familiar with that and some don't necessarily like showing their faces, so this could be another way to get their work out there too.  Love the idea of the Index card book teaser.  It reminds me of the short movies I used to make with my scholar kids where they drew paper images or words and filmed them coming in and out.  Putting this in my planbook now for next year.  I think it would be great for our kids to share some fun books this way.

So many good resources with this topic.  Some I know and use: SORA, LIBBY, Epic, etc... and so many others that I want another month to look at them all.  I am working with a colleague now with crating workshops online... Maybe I should sit with our Literacy Coach and talk with her about "social reading" online.  Set up a teacher book club and have the discussion and share resources...  so hard to find times to sit together during a school day, this might be a way to share and communicate...

Seems I love widgets...I always set a reading goal for myself, now I can proudly show off that I have completed... or my progress.

2019 Reading Challenge

Maureen has completed her goal of reading 35 books in 2019!

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37 of 35 (100%)

view books

Thing 5 - Breakout Edu

Can I just say how much I really love the idea of the Breakout box.  I purchased a kit a year or so ago and was able to use one of the pre-made lessons with my 3-5 students at the beginning of the year.  I used The Dot  as our art teacher was doing the book and a creating lesson in her art room.  I thought it would be a fun one to use as the kids intro to the Box.  Most classes really worked together solving the clues and successfully broke out.  The ones who didn't wanted a second chance.  Very successful.

I also used the Mr. Lemoncello's Library pre-made lesson with my scholars to help as a team building exercise.  They really worked hard to solve the clues and wanted to open the locks before time was up.

Last week I put together a word document for the digital breakouts for my 5th graders to work on as they finished up a current project.  The theme was spring/summer/outside play and I linked each game with a QR code so they could scan it with the iPads.  There were six they were allowed to choose from.  Many students liked working in pairs or small groups to try to figure out what the locks were.  At one point two tables starting talking about what combinations they had tried and what might work next.  A great thing to watch!

I was disappointed to see that the company has changed so that they have either stopped hosting many of the free lessons and are now charging a yearly fee.  I really don't have that in my budget as it continues to shrink.  So over the last week I started to think about creating my own game to use with students.  The first one always seems to be the hardest... hopefully once I complete it then the creativity will start rolling...

I teach Mars with my 5th grade scholars at this time of year.  To introduce the unit I used a pre-made "escape room" themed with the Solar System.  They enjoyed it.  But if I could create my own with a specific Mars theme, I would be able to highlight a few key details they will be studying.  So with the brainstorming paper provided I started thinking of which locks I had and could see along with what combinations.
Locks:
3 digit - 687 (number of Earth days in a Martian year)
4 digit - 4220 (diameter in miles)
or 2025 (the year Elon Musk wants a manned colony on Mars)
letter lock - solar or water
directional lock with clues with a UV pen and black light
also a lock and key

Would like to highlight Mars Moons as well as other key facts seen here:
https://mars.nasa.gov/allaboutmars/facts/#?c=inspace&s=distance

Hopefully with a little more time I can type up any clues and print out a few colored photos for the students to use.  I am really excited about the possibility of creating my own.  Seems I need a week or so for all of the details to sink in as I came up with one more lock combination and idea as to where to hide the key to use... maybe even through in a poem about Mars, laminated and cut it into puzzle pieces to solve and hide them in the smaller box with the blacklight inside as well.  This way they need to solve a clue or two before they get a few more!

Thing 1 -- getting started... once again

So here I am once again... I couldn't let the final Cool Tools workshop pass me by without jumping in!  I am very late getting started which is totally unlike me... family life got in the way for a little while and things went that direction instead of this direction....

I am Maureen and work as a LMS in Saratoga Springs.  Have been here at this school for 17 years and a classroom teacher long before that.  I love what I do as it is a balance between books and technology.  This year we got rid of all the desktop computers in the lab next to the library and I created a Makerspace.  There are lots of consumables and STEAM objects as well as cloudbooks and iPads.  My goal is to really find better uses of these tech with this class.  I feel very comfortable with the iPads, but want to be able to use the cloudbooks for more than Microsoft Products.

As the school year is coming to a close I find myself looking back at the projects and technology I have done with my students and it feels minimal.  Which shocks me...  hence why I really need to find more inspiration here.  Thanks!