Need to get rid of he wiggles? Or is it raining outside and your students are stuck with no recess? Check out www.GoNoodle.com. The free version sign up has tons of videos to stretch, calm, energize, or simple get the wiggles out. Videos range from 2-8 minutes and there are quite a bit to choose from. I just watched this test taking one (link below):
But there are tons of free ones (there is a $10 per month prescription option, but I don't think that is necessary). If you right click on the video you can copy the hyperlink to embed on your page. Teachers can create classes with a mascot and watch him progress - the more videos watched the more he is rewarded.
I am definitely keeping this on the back burner for those days my kiddos need to get out their sillies or just calm down!
I'm not sure about you, but I am constantly pinning, bookmarking, saving documents to use later - then completely forget about them or I am too exhausted to go sift back through them to organize and find what I was looking for. Imagine how overwhelmed your students are when they are researching! My latest technology find will be my first step to finally get the ball rolling to become a little more organized for myself and my students.
Enter Diigo - a powerful social bookmarking tool that combines research tools and a knowledge-shared community. I love the fact that you can create groups and add specific bookmarks annotating exactly what you want your students to focus on. Here are 8 great reasons from Shakeuplearning.com as why this tool might be the magic wand for you:
Web-based bookmarks: Need I say more? Bookmarks can be made and accessed from any web-enabled device. No more losing your “favorites!” (Goodbye Internet Explorer!)
Tagging! Tags allow you to assign keywords to your bookmarks. Tagging is so much more practical than folders, when you are forced to choose one folder for your bookmark. With tags, you can assign as many tags or keywords as you like, making it easier for you and others to locate your bookmarks.
It’s Social! You can share your bookmarks with others, join and create groups and collaboratively share your bookmarks, notes and comments! You can even follow other educators to see what they are bookmarking.
Annotate the web! Did you know you can highlight, add sticky notes, and even take screenshots to add to bookmarks? You can also share a unique URL with your annotations with your students! Diigo is a great resource for student research!
Read Later is a favorite feature of mine. I often find a great resource that I want to come back to later. I just mark it as “read later,” and it is saved to my library.
The Diigo App: Yes, there’s an app for that! The Diigo Browser app for iOS is phenomenal. I can bookmark, annotate, share with my groups, AND it connects to my other social media accounts so I can pin it to Pinterest and tweet out the link.
Diigo Extension for Chrome: Yes, you know how I love Chrome! But the Diigo extension is my MVP. It keeps me connected to my library, and makes it so easy to bookmark, share, and annotate from my computer.
Connect Diigo to Twitter: Not only is Diigo social in its own right, but you can connect your Twitter account and have all of your Twitter favorites automatically added to your Diigo bookmark library!
Are you ready to try it? Need to learn a little more? Here are two great sites to get started!
I have created a general account that my library students can use. It only took 24 hours for Diigo to give me educator access. I plan on organizing groups based on my elementary library classes. Definitely a work in progress....but I'm excited to give it a go!
Do you Diigo? Any tips? Pros/Cons? Would love to hear from you!
*Are you an elementary teacher or librarian that loves to collaborate and share ideas with others? Join our FB group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/1736031856636639/
April showers bring May - worms! And lots of them! This time of the year is perfect for teaching students about the lives of these beneficial creepy crawlies. I did a few classes with my second graders geared toward the lives and importance of earthworms and hope you can use some of these ideas yourself.
First, we came up with a KWL Chart for things we "knew" about worms and what we "want to learn" about worms. This was done individually for a few minutes, then students talked at their tables about their ideas. As a class, we wrote down our ideas and questions - they did a darn good job if I do say so myself!
Next we read the book "Yucky Worms" by Vivian French. This book is a gem! No only does it offer a cute story of a grandma and her grandson sharing time together - it also shares great facts on earthworms so students have a different outlook on these little slime balls. The child begins the story by thinking worms are just plain gross! But green thumb grandma has a different idea. She shows her grandson the importance worms have in her garden and how they help plants grow. Soon the little boy is a worm hunter - looking for holes and evidence of their existence beneath the soil. He finds out that he was wrong to think that worms were just slimy little ugly things and that there are much more to these complex creatures that meets the eye. Students will enjoy the soft pictures and drawn diagrams to help them understand the basic components of worms. It was a great read aloud and beginning book to share before jumping into the world of worms!
Don't have the book? No worries! Here is a link to the Youtube video from Mrs. Worley.
We concluded our lesson with a cool video on worms hatching. The kids were amazed at how small the eggs were and were on the hunt for them in their soils. When they cot back to their classroom, their teacher had worms waiting for them to observe and look at more closely.
Stay tuned for the next lesson where we begin using Encyclopedia Britannica to find answers to some of our wormy questions!
Where does time go? I am completely embarrassed in the fact that I have only posted two times this school year. Time has completely flown and with only 36 school days left it seems almost silly to even post this now. However, as teachers we adapt, regroup, pick ourselves up, and move on. So even if this little blog is just a place for me to organize my thoughts, ideas, plans, and creations, I will pledge to try and start anew. We tell our students that it's never too late and to not give up on anything and I hope to prove that to myself. I think one of our problems as educators (and I know for certain this pertains to me) is we take on too much. We always tend to say "yes" or "sure, I can do that" on a daily basis. Projects pile up - dreams become forgotten. It is so important, though, for us to have a self realization of this and reflect on the things we HAVE accomplished once the day is done. As I look back over this school year, I have taken on too much. But the choice was mine. And I don't regret it. I have grown as a media specialist through all my crazy hats that adorned my head this year and hope that my students benefited and learned from this years programs and lessons. In time, I hope to share all of my ideas, trials (and errors), lessons, creativity, and failures with all of you. But for now, baby steps.
The first week of school is a great time for read alouds! Books are a way to build connections and unite your class. Discussions will help you create everlasting relationships with your kiddos and they will also get to know each other more. I have put together a list of 40 books for both teachers and media specialists that would be perfect to read that first week. Many of them deal with starting a new school year, while others focus on tattling, making new friends and the consequences of disrespectful behavior. I use The Shelf Elf, Tattle Tongue, and Library Lion every year during elementary orientations to teach the behaviors and expectations I hope to enforce throughout the year. The Shelf Elf is a favorite with my students. If you are a librarian be sure to get this book along with SKOOB plush to hide around the library throughout the year. I bought mine here.
Hopefully you will find this list helpful. Feel free to share your own favorite back to school read alouds!
What can be better than free? As I was making my 2015-2016 Librarian Survival binder I was on the hunt for free personal use fonts. I could spend days on www.dafont.com but having a bazillion cute fonts in one little package to install - heaven!
I used Kimberly's fonts to make my blog header. There are so many cool ones to pick from. If you have a Teachers Pay Teachers account you can find her free download here:
She also has an awesome tutorial on font pairing which will help you make your reproducibles super swag. One of these days I will figure out how to make my own fonts - but until then....thank you Kim!
Here is a link to the free font pairing guide:
The other gal that offers an amazing free font bundle is Jen from Hello Literacy. Her fonts are geared a little more towards the elementary in us and are super cute. Fonts again are for personal use only.
I can't believe the school year is here! Where did the summer go? I mean 'yes' I still have roughly a month before the dreaded teacher institute days - but still! Time can slow down at any point now - sheesh!
Besides developing this blog my "to do list" is still pretty full for what I wanted to have accomplished this summer. I've been scouring Pinterest like a mad woman making more work for myself with the amount of creative ideas I am finding. I totally can relate to students who have difficulties paying attention. I totally have internet surfing ADD. I start my computer with one or two tasks in mind and find myself hours later and I have accomplished nothing - except filling my mind with more and more things I COULD/WANT to be doing. I need more discipline in my life - lol!
With all of my time online perusing - and the addition of two new puppies which have kept me hella busy - I have not read nearly as much as I had planned. My stack of summer reading continues to grow and can easily reach my bedside table. Replace it really.
meet Olivander Jones and Penelope Clearwater ;)
One productive thing I have been filling my day with is organizing my Goodreads account. If you haven't discovered Goodreads yet - take a minute (or an hour) to check it out. It's a great social media place for book lovers to unite! You can read reviews and organize reading lists or book suggestions for teachers and students. I also like to see what other people recommend to read next after they finish a popular series. It is also available in app form so you can access it on the go - at the doctor's office or 'ahem' teacher meetings.
The "have read" list kept me incredibly entertained for a very long time. You can rate the titles you have read and then it acts similar to Netflix to then give you book recommendations. For librarians, this process might seem never-ending - but it was so much fun to see titles pop up that I haven't read in ages - or meant to read but never had the chance. So my "want to read" tab is growing rapidly each and every time I visit this site. You can also join lit groups (both personal and professional), make lists to organize titles by genre or whatever tickles your fancy, link your Amazon purchases to to rate and add to your lists.
There are so many possibilities it can actually be overwhelming. If you would like to see what I have read, am reading, and want to read - here is my goodreads page. Be sure to friend me!
Feeling overwhelmed with this whole Goodreads thing? If you are a visual learner like myself - this pdf tutorial by Erica Cote and Timothy Walsh might be your sanity ticket! They have a nice balance between print and photos.
Already have a Goodreads account? Tell me about it! What is your favorite feature?
