Roller Coaster

This week was Engineering Week, so I wanted to do something fun to tie engineering into the library.  What I came up with was roller coasters. (Actually, I didn’t come up with this idea. Another librarian did.)  I read the book Roller Coaster by Marla Frazee and then discussed some vocabulary terms such as acceleration, speed, velocity, gravity, friction, potential energy and kinetic energy before the students made their own roller coasters.

The students used pipe insulation that had been cut in half length wise as the roller coaster and large marbles to test them. They had to create one with 1 hill, 2 hills and 1 loop. They got so excited when the marble would complete the run, especially with the loop. After testing their roller coasters, we discussed as a group some of the observations they made while completing this task. They did a great job of realizing that the higher they started their track, the greater the force of gravity and more speed their marble would have. They also talked about friction and how it played a part in their marble not wanting to roll. Here are a few examples of what they created.

This week was a fun week. The students really enjoyed this lesson and I believed they learned a lot. I also think this lesson was the students’ favorite so far this year!

Digital Learning

There was a lot going on this week.  We started the week with President’s Day and then Thursday was Digital Learning Day.  I managed to combine the two with a President’s Day Quizizz.

Last week during our Tech Shop, the staff was introduced to quizizz.com. You are able to create quizzes that allow students to compete against each other or you can use quizzes that other people have created and made public. One of the reasons I like this website so much is how easy and user friendly it is.  Having never used it before, I was able to create an account and my quiz within fifteen minutes.  It’s that easy!  Of course, I could have taken more time to make it a little more “fancy” with images, but I just didn’t have the time this week.

The students absolutely loved it!  They were SO excited and engaged the entire time.  Sometimes almost too engaged! They didn’t want stop. They kept asking to do another one. What a way to leave a positive impression of the library.  I promised them that I would try to find other ways throughout the rest of the year that we could incorporate Quizizz into our library lessons.

Hopefully I’ll be able to keep my promise because we did have some technical difficulties and not everyone was able to participate.  I would love to do it again so that all of the students will have the opportunity to participate.

Holiday: Chinese New Year

This year the first day of the Chinese New Year started on February 8^th, which was Monday of this week.  This also happens to be the year of the Monkey.  Since this is a holiday that is rarely discussed, I thought it would be nice for our students to learn a little bit about Chinese culture.

In Kindergarten I read a non-fiction book titled, Chinese New Year by Julie Murray that talked a lot about the different traditions associated with the holiday.  After reading that book, I read Max Celebrates Chinese New Year by Adria Klein.  This fiction story had a lot of the same traditions from the non-fiction book that were woven within the story.

First Grade was a little more familiar with Chinese New Year as we had learned a little about it while discovering how to research different holidays using the online encyclopedia Pebble Go.  I read Bringing in the New Year by Grace Lin and it also had some of the same traditions that the students had remembered from watching Pebble Go.

For Second Grade, I read The Runaway Wok by Ying Chang Compestine. This story was more of a folktale and didn’t have as much of the traditions as the other books.  The students loved the story and how the “evil” rich man and his family got justice from the magic wok and the poor family lived happily ever after.  This story was a little like a Robin Hood story where they take from the rich and give to the poor.

All of the students really seemed to enjoy learning about the different traditions of Chinese New Year.

LITE UP Expo 2016

I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Library Information Technology Expo: Unlimited Possibilities (LITE UP) in Dallas last week. 

I love going to different “conferences”.  I always leave them charged up and ready to try new ideas.

Angela Maiers was our keynote speaker and her presentation was titled Literacy: Reimagined.  She talked about literacy representing power and how it was a human right.  She discussed joining the literacy club and in order to be a member you had to understand a complex message, convey meaning and rally others.  She also talked about how it’s not a technology divide, but a literacy divide and that being illiterate in the 21^st century means that you can’t learn, unlearn and relearn.  I really enjoyed listening to her and her powerful message.

After hearing our keynote speaker, we had four breakout sessions throughout the remainder of the day. I chose Collabor8: Eight Catalysts to Spark Collaborative Learning, From Halo to the Hunger Games, Coding with Kids and Google Drive + TexQuest = A Match Made in Research Heaven.

In the Collabor8 session, they talked about using various technology tools when collaborating as well as the need to set necessary parameters.  Instead of using the term “norms” use essential agreements.

From Halo to the Hunger Games they stressed the need to look at the library through the eyes of a non-reader, to put reading on your radar and to be a reading ninja. They discussed how they use social media to connect with authors of books that students had read. They also talked about how essential non-tech activities were to reaching reluctant readers.  Activities such as sustained silent reading, genrefying a collection, having a book club and author visits. It all begins with ripples that turn into waves and eventually becomes a tsunami.

Coding with Kids stressed that kids need the opportunity and unique access to do coding. They want kids to be creators, not just consumers. This session entailed a detailed list of different coding websites and apps that could be used with different age levels.

My final session, Google Drive + TexQuest, demonstrated various “tricks” to be used with Google Drive and TexQuest to make researching, note taking and citation easier and more efficient.  With these “tricks”, there should be no more excuses for incorrect citation.

I really enjoyed this Expo and plan to use at least a little from each presentation to make some changes in my library.  I look forward to the next opportunity to learn from my amazing colleagues!

“In this classroom, everyone is a student and everyone is a teacher.”