The Spartan Librarian

Although our attendance numbers were low, Technology Night Was a huge success! Union Intermediate School students, staff, and administration came together to celebrate Digital Learning Day  Thursday, February 23rd. Teachers and students were excited to show our parents all the digital tools we are using this year to make Union Intermediate School 21st century ready! Following a hot dog (Bright Leaf of course) dinner cooked by our principal, parents and students visited a variety of stations set up around the school.  Parents got to see students demonstrate different learning programs, creative tools, and presentations that teachers have been using in the classrooms. Parents were shown how to access student grades and given instructions to sign up for Accelerated Reading Home Connect Program. If you missed our event, here are links to the programs and resources we used! Power School Parent Portal   (Contact Glenda Estrada for student access codes) Accelerat...

The 4th graders have been learning all about pourquoi stories in their ELA classrooms.  After listening to several stories, the students wrote their own original pouquois.  The writing process was completed in the classrooms, and they came into the media center to publish their work. They used our new iPads and the Scribble Press app to write and illustrate each story.  The kids loved seeing their work online in a digital ebook format! Check out some examples: How some Dogs Black and White Fur by Izaya n. - read the free ebook now from Scribble Press! Why Cat's Hate The Rain by Leonilla Garcia - read the free ebook now from Scribble Press! Chameleon and parrot by Written and Illustrated by Cody C. - read the free ebook now from Scribble Press! Why the Cheetah Runs So Fast by Written and Illustrated by Kevin W. - read the free ebook now from Scribble Press! How a Shark Got Its Sharp Theeth by Written and Illustrated by Emmanuel C. - read the free e...

During a recent staff meeting, the administration put us into groups to dicuss the results of our Spring Benchmark, and what we could do to improve on our scores as a whole.  At this time, the teams discussed which items and objectives the students did not do well on. Using the information gleamed from this meeting, I, along with a 4th grade math teacher discussed creating math centers for the students to work on in the library.  The seed was planted! We created math centers focused on the objectives that the students had shown weakness in. Center #1 - Using Edmodo and EdCanvas , I created a lesson to review lines of symmetry.  The students logged into their accounts and completed the activity. (Objective 4.G.3) Center #2 - Using our New iPads, the students explored fractions using BraningCamp's Fraction app.  The students completed activities on equivalent fractions, common denominators, and adding and subtracting fractions. (Objectives: 4.N...

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!!