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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Day 19 - Jungle Book

As I arrived at Pine Street, there was a buzz of excitement in the air.  Balloons, painted cutouts of animals, and colorful tissue flowers lined the hallway and hung from the ceiling.  Day one of Jungle Book performances - two shows/day.  As the principal put it, "Welcome to Broadway!" There were over 300 students in the play and even a group of teachers playing monkeys.  Lee Anne did a great job as a dancing monkey in the opening scene - way to be versatile Lee Anne!  The play was wonderful and I enjoyed watching some of the students I have gotten to know as they sang, danced, and acted.  The performing arts are taken seriously at Pine and the whole school gets involved in some aspect of the production. 

As another example of the media center serving as a hub in the school, the library was the "holding space" for groups of kindergarteners as they put on their costumes and waited for their scenes. 

Lee Anne showed me how to create a Resource List in Destiny.  She likes to create Resource Lists of new books as they are processed.  Another use would be lists of titles on certain topics.  I pulled together some folktales and fairy tales for a 5th grade teacher.  She is planning to have her class compare and contrast different types of folklore.

The Lunchtime Book Club included 5 students this time and they were a lively bunch!  They were full of opinions on books and series that they liked.  One girl admitted that she was reading a certain book because her mother was making her.  She said she was not too into reading, but her mom still made her read each day.  Good mom!  When they heard I would be doing a booktalk with their class later on Wimpy Kid read-alikes, they wanted to check out the books right then.  Got to love kids getting enthusiastic for books.

At the end of the day, I did a booktalk with two different 4th grade classes.  I created a Prezi to go with my talk.



The best part was at the end when many of the kids checked out the books I had talked about.  I made sure to pull other titles that went with the theme and set them out for check out.

Lee Anne had the Tech Know Club join an Edmodo group and learn how to navigate and comment.
The big news of Tuesday related to our school district's technology initiative.  A perfect topic for the Tech Know Club!

All in all a great day at Pine.  It is hard to believe that I am wrapping up my internship on Thursday! 
One day more...

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Day 18 - Book Clubs and Grant Writing

Thursday was a productive and fun day.  The morning began with the 2nd grade "Pirate" crew reporting for duty.  They continued working on their PowerPoint presentations.  Lee Anne advised the students to choose a design template before adding images and adjusting fonts.  I got to provide some hands-on technology instruction on importing images and saving files.  As I have confessed to Lee Anne, I am actually a novice PowerPoint user so at times I am learning alongside the 2nd graders.  You are never too old...

At the request of a 5th grade teacher Lee Anne prepared a presentation on library reference tools.  PASS testing on ELA includes a number of questions relating to research and appropriate sources. 

I had fun listening to Lee Anne's rendition of Hattie the Fox complete with different voices and speaking parts for the students.  In preparation for the grant deadline, I continued to research Kindles.  This involved pricing as well as administration and management details.


http://stockbridgelibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Book-Club.jpg
The Lunchtime Book Club finally took place and was enjoyed by all.  Four of Mrs. Judd's students joined me for lunch in the library conference room.  Michael, Seth, Kate, and Kamayah brought their favorite books and shared a little about them. Three of the students had purchased their books at the school book fair - way to go book fair!  Yet another way to get kids books they want to read.  I asked the kids about their favorite genres and types of books.  Mysteries and fantasies were high on their list.  And of course Ninja Weenies. 

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Day 17 - Librarian for a Day

Tuesday provided many opportunities for me to practice my librarian skills.  Lee Anne was out which meant I got to read lots of stories and work with students all day.  Luckily, Lee Anne provided plans and I have observed her at work for weeks!  I like to stick to her routine as much as possible as the students know what to expect, where to go, and what to do.  Mrs. Williams, Haley, and a great sub kept everything on an even keel, but the kids (and all of us) missed Lee Anne.

Kindergarten classes listened to several stories about spring and changing seasons.  I did find that I read a little too fast and decided to add some springtime songs and rhymes to the mix.  I am used to having to speed things up at my home school versus the longer library time at Pine Street. 

First grade classes are beginning an author study of Mem Fox and Lee Anne left several of her books to share with the students.  A 3rd grade class continued their research on South Carolina and managed to fill out almost half of their definitions.

Flexibility was called for as my booktalk and bookclub had to be rescheduled.  I look forward to "lunching" with my bookclub over the next two visits. Booktalk day will be Tuesday as that is when two 4th grade classes come and I am focusing it on older students.

All in all it was a good, if busy, day and I look forward to my remaining internship days!

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Day 16 - Checklists and Order

Image from: blogs.msdn.com
At this point in my internship, I am reviewing the SLIS requirements to ensure that I do everything on the checklist.  Dot those i's and cross those t's!  One item on the list is to review or assist with the Annual South Carolina Library Media Survey.  As this year's survey is not yet available, Lee Anne shared a previous year's survey with me.  I read it over in order to familiarize myself with the scope and the requirements. 

The 2nd grade reading group began working on PowerPoint presentations based on the research template that they completed a few weeks ago,  I love seeing students combining research and technology tools to create a product showcasing their work.  Lee Anne manages to incorporate technology and information literacy skills authentically as opposed to teaching skills in isolation,.

Speaking of tech tools, Lee Anne used a MimioPad tablet with a lesson on Scholastic's new ebook line, Storia.  MimioPad can turn any screen into an interactive board.  The students loved getting to try it out and caught on very quickly.


Image from: http://www.apbspeakers.com/speaker-news/womens-history-month-profiles-courage
A 3rd grade class continued their South Carolina A-Z research using Study SC.  Students also searched for biographies for upcoming class projects.  Part of the day I focused on shelving and got caught up in alphabetizing some of the picture books and the series fiction.  I also finished setting up a Women's History display and re-shelved the African American biographies that were displayed in February.  Straightening, alphabetizing, and displaying are constant duties in libraries, but, luckily, I love to bring a little order to the books!  My main goal is to be able to find the book again - a place for everything, and everything in its place.

One observation that occurred to me this week is the importance of good working relationships among library staff members.  Lee Anne, Veneal, and Haley operate as a close knit, yet respectful and productive team and I admire the rapport they have with each other.  I truly believe it is their teamwork that makes their library a success and a central hub of the school.  It has been a pleasure to observe and work with such a great group of women.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Day 15 - Back in the Swing

It was great to get back to Pine Street after a week off.  We had much to catch up on - Lee Anne reported the Scholastic Book Fair was a huge success and they are still settling back in after such a large event.  After reviewing my internship checklist, I identified specific areas to work on over the remaining six days. 

Kindergarten and 1st grade classes came in throughout the morning and watched videos of Strega Nona and Joseph Had a Little Overcoat.  A third grade class started their South Carolina bingo activity on StudySC. 
They find a word representing South Carolina for every letter of the alphabet.

Lee Anne and I had discussed my plan to have a lunchtime book club next week.  When a 4th grade class stopped in to check out, I spoke with their teacher and she agreed to identify students to participate.  We will do a "bring your own book club" and if it goes well I might have the students do brief blog entries about their favorites books.

I got to practice my training/supervising skills as Mrs. Williams left halfway through the day and the substitute had never worked in a library before. 

It is hard to believe my days as an intern are down to single digits.  This has been such a great experience - I want to make the most of my remaining time at Pine Street.  To fit in: booktalks, lunchtime book club, Kindle program, graphic novel brochure, and more!




Saturday, March 2, 2013

Day 14 - Budgets and Vokis

Lee Anne took time to walk me through her budgeting, submitting purchase orders for approval, and ordering process.  While I know each school and school system will have its own quirks, it was very helpful to get a step-by-step look at this.  While libraries receive varying amounts of funds for books, equipment, and supplies each year, librarians can supplement that amount by fundraising and applying for grants. Lee Anne really goes all out to make her Scholastic Book Fair a success and is motivated by the funds that can be raised and put to use for the benefit of all students.  I can't wait to drop in next week and see how the book fair is going!

At Lee Anne's suggestion, I continued research on establishing a lending library of Kindles and how this can be administered at the school level.  Also on my radar: graphic novels and 101 for teachers, integrating clickers into a library lesson.

I was excited to work with Mrs. Fisher's class.  Each group had 3-5 sentences about why their biography subject was important and they created a Voki to share with the class.  This process involved some advance set-up on my part to create a class, assign passwords, and set everything up.
The process was not without a few bumps, but the students were very excited and enthusiastic about using Voki.  Here's my introduction I played for them before we went to the library:




Next time I will allow a little more time to create and edit the Vokis, but I thought overall the 2nd graders did well.

I will miss my Pine Street friends next week as they enjoy the Book Fair and I attend the SCASL conference in Columbia.  I plan to come back rested, rejuvenated and geared up for six more great days.  Hard to believe this journey is almost over!