The Spartan Librarian

I have been reading Innovator's Mindset by George Couros. In the book, he explains how he taught an educator how to use twitter by having her watch a Twitter in 60 second video.  She was inspired to have her students create 60 second videos of their own to teach science concepts. I showed my 5th grade students the Mitosis in 60 Seconds videos I found on YouTube and explained to them that we would be making our own videos using Science Vocabulary! I learn so much from my students, and with a lot of trial and error using white boards, dry erase makers, and iPads to video, one student asked if they could use the Zing  Stikbot  Stop Motion app !  Genius!!!  So much easier for my young students! After a little more experimenting, my students created their own videos (not quite 60 seconds, but it is a work in progress)!  We will be using WeVideo and iMovie to edit and clean up our videos during next week's class! Let my students know what you think by le...

Mrs. Long 'somehow' locked her lesson in her toolbox.  The students had to solve clues to help her get her lesson out and save her job!! This was a modified #breakoutedu activity! Using several re settable locks purchased through Amazon and Walmart, I created clues that helped the kids decipher the combinations. (These are some of the locks and hasp on Amazon.) I knew my Digital Safety lesson wasn't going to take my entire 45 minute block and I wanted the kids to be excited to find out what was in the box, so I created the clue activity to fill some of the class time. I created simple clues that could be solved in a matter of minutes.  Each table/group was responsible for deciphering one clue.  I gave one person at each table mardi gras beads, and they were the only person that was allowed to approach the box and attempt to open the locks.  (This saved my sanity and kept 25-30 kids from fighting over the locks and box!) My clues for this activity:...

Mrs. Shepard, a fabulous fifth grade teacher here at UIS, had her students write poems about the Civil War as a cumulating project.  She had them share them with me----all I can say is AMAZING!!!!!  These kids did a faboulous job and you can tell that learning had taken place! I had her send them in to me in the media center, and they used  Audacity to record their poems in their own voices.  I then uploaded them to Sound Cloud to share with the world! Check them out!!

OMG!  That's all I can say!  Our principal purchased 12 brand new iPads for the students to use!  They arrived the end of last week.  Today, we did our first little mini lesson using them!  These kids were engaged!  That's all I know to say! Every single one of them, got started quickly, stayed on task, and even did the assignment more than once, just to get to use them! Our kids just recently took our Spring Benchmark and 5th graders scored poorly on questions dealing with multiplying and dividing fractions.  We used Fractions by BrainingCamp .  It started with a video lesson, followed by questions, then ended with a challenge mode! I can't wait to share this with our other teachers!!

Today I started an enrichment Civil War activity with my 5th graders. I read aloud Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco. As I read, I introduced actual Civil War images that correlated with the story. The Library of Congress has a huge selection of period images and artifacts. We viewed images of the colored troops, burnt out buildings, Andersonville Prison, and more. Following the story and a discussion about how Pink and Say must have felt and the impact the Civil War had on these young men, the students competed in a Civil War challenge using blubbr.tv! Isreal, Cesar, John, & Carlos from Mrs. Peterson’s room have the highest score of 385!!    They were beat!!  German, Tyquan, and Ryan from Mr. Allen's class scored 424!!  Can you beat that?