Newsela and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I will never forget when Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday is because it is the same as my father's birthday. Also, as a teacher I always know when the next holiday is! :) As a classroom teacher, I would always have the students discuss the "I Have a Dream" speech and then create their own dreams. It was so interesting to see what the students came up with for their dreams. I enjoyed seeing the students get motivated to start a new year by declaring what their dreams for the future were. You can see a similar one below from clipartfest.com.

Besides viewing the "I Have a Dream" speech, I also made sure to read the book Martin's Big Words to my students. My favorite line from the book is "Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can." In our current times, it is a reminder that we need to come together and share love instead of hate. 

In the past year, I learned about a great website called Newsela. Newslea features nonfiction text that can be read on different lexile levels. There are quizzes and and writing prompts to go with the articles as well. I also love that most of the articles can be translated into Spanish.

I have become a Newsela Certified Educator and I am doing a pilot program for them to improve. The program I am working with is about Civil Rights. The students in the library are going to read articles about Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., and Thurgood Marshall. Then, the students will complete formative tasks written by Newsela that go along with the articles. 

I highly recommend trying out Newsela some time soon. I am looking forward to using it to make my yearly lesson about civil rights more engaging for students. It is a great example of a tech tool that does not just replace regular text...it enhances the learning experience.

STEAMing into 2017

On Tuesday, our school participated in STEAM day where students completed science challenges. Winners from each grade level will be chosen to compete at our district's STEAMposium in April. It is a fun event that I love volunteering at each year. I am looking forward to seeing all the cool science going on this year. Check the blog in April for a report on that! Meanwhile, view just some of the creativity that was going on with these kids making a rubberband car. I loved the teamwork and great ideas I heard in the library all day by 4th graders. 

Today, I was able to party with my two Bluebonnet Reading Challenge winners. These two students read 5 Bluebonnet books on their own. I do not get to see 3rd-5th grade students enough to read 5 Bluebonnet books with them so we tried making it an independent challenge this year. I am hopeful that more students will finish the challenge instead of just starting it next year. 

We watched a movie, ate lunch with a friend, and enjoyed cookies while voting!

The students also got a certificate, a book, a card game, and candy jewelry. 

I am excited to start reading next year's Bluebonnet books to prepare my questions for the next challenge. Reading is succeeding!

Welcome to 2017!

I am so excited to be back to start our second semester. My first semester goal was to blog every Wednesday and I did it! I took off the two week for the holidays of course. My goals for this semester are to continue blogging, do more screencasts for teachers, and focus more of my instructional time on what can build on the skills the teachers are teaching in the classroom. 

I got started on goal number 3 by using the Alphablocks strategy to teach nonfiction facts about whales to my first graders. 

They really enjoyed trying to find words that related to whales to go with each letter. They were shouting out words before I even opened the book!

 I plan to try it again with another topic and bring in using digital resources to round out the experience. Also, another teacher gave me a great idea of letting the students complete their own version in groups. 

Personally, my goal is to read more. I know, a librarian who needs to read more? But, I want to read more chapter books and not spend months finishing a book. I am going to try this reading challenge to keep me accountable. Happy New Year!

Holiday One Pagers

During PLC classes, students researched how different countries celebrate winter holidays. The students worked in groups to look through a book and find important facts about celebrations.

Bradfield is an AVID campus. AVID stands for Advancement Through Individual Determination. Students are taught note taking and organization skills while focusing on becoming better learners. 

The students used their AVID skills and research skills to find details for their one pagers.One pagers are an AVID strategy to show what you have learned about a topic.

Students learned a lot of facts from other countries and got experience working in groups as they completed their one pagers. 

 The final products were very informative and creative! It was so nice to see the cooperative groups working towards a goal.

This week we are reading holiday stories and comparing the books to our own traditions. Merry Christmas everyone!

#HourofCode

This week is Computer Science Education Week. Each year we celebrate computer science by doing some coding and learning facts about coding over the announcements. The official hashtag is #HourofCode although it can be for any length of time. 

In the library, we have been using Tynker's Candy Quest with 2nd grade. The students have loved moving the blocks around to make the monster walk and jump to get to the candy. 

#Girlscode is a popular thing on social media to encourage girls to enter the field of coding as well. In the library, boys and girls love coding!

Ms. Fallad's class was the first to win a certificate for completing the whole course.

For kindergarten and 1st grade, we used a new Santa coding game from Google. The students worked as a class to help Santa get to all the presents. 

On Monday, we took a pause from coding to enjoy #nationalninjaday! The students loved hearing a holiday ninja book.

Then, we practiced our ninja skills by dancing to "Kung Foo Fighting" and doing a ninja training video from GoNoodle.com. 

It sure has been a fun week in the library and it will continue next week as we learn about holiday traditions. #superspecialsholiday

Appy Holidays

This year, one of the goals for our district has been to get teachers to increase their use of technology in the classroom. I blogged earlier in the year about our fun during October with the Trick or Treat Twitter challenge.

For November, the teachers participated in a Thankful for Technology Bingo game that included many technology-related challenges. Shout out to our magnificent music teacher Mrs. Nelson on completing her Bingo card and winning a pair of new ear buds! Check out her winning card below.

For December, I have created an appy holidays display of QR codes that lead to free apps for teachers to download. The apps are comprised of time savers, note-taking, and creativity for the students to use in the classroom. The teachers will be able to stop by at their leisure to download the apps they want.

We have also been busy decorating the library for Christmas. There is holiday music playing and seasonal books everywhere!

Lots of cool holiday books on the recommendation table!

Holiday books and festive bells adorn the end of each aisle.

The Grinch in normally stuck hanging out with the other Dr. Seuss buddies but during the holidays he gets a prime spot in the library!

We even have an elf on the shelf in our library! Can you spot him?

Stop by your local library and enjoy a holiday story. There are so many fun ones. Currently, we are reading Clark the Shark Loves Christmas and Bad Kitty Christmas.

Thankful

Last week our country shifted and divides became more evident. I know that the library is a safe place where all opinions, races, ideas, and values are welcome. My hope is that the focus remains on uniting instead of separating.

I did not teach the students about the candidates or about the election process. I felt like we all needed a break so I chose to still teach the students about letting their voices be heard through voting but with two lighthearted books. We read Lauren Castillo's TroubleMaker and Nana in the City. Students across the world were also reading these books as part of #GlobalReadAloud.

The students loved how the little boy in this story changed his mind about the city. We discussed how the facial expressions of the little boy helped us, the readers, see how he was feeling as the book progressed.

This book was a clear favorite in the voting. I think many of the students found humor in the raccoon taking precious items for his own.

Our first graders had the pleasure of having Mr. Dillard from the Garland Retired Teachers bring them books for their home libraries.

The students loved getting to pick out their own book to take home. The excitement filled the library and we are very thankful to the Garland Retired Teachers.

Since Thanksgiving is coming up next week, we have been reading a book from our latest book fair called There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Turkey by Lucille Colandro. The students have been howling with laughter as I turn each page. It has been nice to laugh with the kids and know that there is still light in our world.

Lastly, I am forever thankful for my job as a school librarian. It has been my dream and now it is my honor. It is a huge responsibility to help shape a student's love of reading and it is one that I treasure.