Project Showcase

One of the highlights of my experience at Edcamp Bluewater was a lively discussion about Project Based Learning and the difference between assigning projects and project based learning. I have some ideas about how to tweak my quarters to reflect the difference. In the meantime, my library science students culminating project from Quarter 1 was to create a public service announcement for Banned Books week. They studied intellectual freedom, the 1st amendment and its application to the school library throughout the quarter by reading a book that was on the ALA banned/challenged list and following a book challenge from the Miami Dade school district that went all the way to the Supreme Court. The following are the two best examples from the student submissions. They used the CogDogRoo site to choose the best digital format for their PSA. I look forward to using these as promotional material during Banned Books Week 2013. Nice job Andria and Kristen!


Andria's Banned Books Week PSA

Kristen's Banned Books Week PSA

Edcamp Bluewater

Had a great time at Edcamp Bluewater Saturday. For those of you not familiar with the Edcamp concept, think of it as self-directed professional development. With your colleagues delivering information based upon best practices, innovation and classroom experience. Had a great time and wanted to follow up with my new Twitter and blog followers with a recap and some links.

The session I conducted was on my new favorite tool: Instagrok.   We had a great discussion about how the tool can be used from elementary through high school, its possibilities for instructional differentiation, submission options (including purchasing an app on Edmodo) and assignment options. We also discussed some concerns from a research perspective as some of the key facts come from student assignments and the depth is not sufficient for a long-term research paper at the higher levels. We agreed that this tool has a lot of potential. The conversation took a natural turn, leading to comparisons of Edmodo and Moodle as classroom virtual learning environments. The best part of the session is that the group shared, not me with as the presenter with the expert knowledge (which I admitted up front I didn't necessarily have for this tool). Other participants showed how to look at apps in Edmodo and shared student work that had used CogDogRoo storytools.  When I reflected upon the day, I though about how this would apply back in the classroom. Everyday teachers struggle with the digital shift that has created educators who are not  the experts in all aspects of our teaching. We are certainly usually the content experts, but what about the technology, applications and connections to the students world?  What I experienced at EdCamp could certainly work in a classroom. A shared expertise that left us all more prepared. This is what I envision in the new cycle of technology integration and student connection.                                             

Hurricane Sandy Reading Recommendations

 The devastation across most of the Eastern portion of the United States, as well as an inspiring conference over the last couple of days, has me thinking of books that relate to a theme. If I were to hash tag my thoughts on Twitter I would use #hurricane, #globalwarming and #evacuation. Those three hash tags have me recommending the following two reads:

Zeitoun tells the story of a man who chose to stay in New Orleans during the mandatory evacuation period following Hurricane Katrina. The story is at times warm, funny, heart-breaking and thought provoking. In addition to the personal liberties denied during the emergency situation is the opportunity to understand a unique cultural perspective of an American woman's conversion to Islam.  The detainment, while rife with examples of prejudice and mistreatment, should have the reader also questioning personal responsibility, the role of the government during times of crisis and suspension of liberty. YouTube search Zeitoun for interesting first-person interviews.

                                                                               
Carbon Diaries 2015 is an award winning YA novel of the near future global climate change world that results in carbon rationing. Wen predicted natural disaster actually strikes, many of the same themes found in Zeitoun are explored. As a bonus for my teen readers, this is the first book in a series, providing continued reading choices!

Grab a book, share it with your friends and family and let the conversations begin.

 The devastation across most of the Eastern portion of the United States, as well as an inspiring conference over the last couple of days, has me thinking of books that relate to a theme. If I were to hash tag my thoughts on Twitter I would use #hurricane, #globalwarming and #evacuation. Those three hash tags have me recommending the following two reads:

Zeitoun tells the story of a man who chose to stay in New Orleans during the mandatory evacuation period following Hurricane Katrina. The story is at times warm, funny, heart-breaking and thought provoking. In addition to the personal liberties denied during the emergency situation is the opportunity to understand a unique cultural perspective of an American woman's conversion to Islam.  The detainment, while rife with examples of prejudice and mistreatment, should have the reader also questioning personal responsibility, the role of the government during times of crisis and suspension of liberty. YouTube search Zeitoun for interesting first-person interviews.

                                                                               
Carbon Diaries 2015 is an award winning YA novel of the near future global climate change world that results in carbon rationing. Wen predicted natural disaster actually strikes, many of the same themes found in Zeitoun are explored. As a bonus for my teen readers, this is the first book in a series, providing continued reading choices!

Grab a book, share it with your friends and family and let the conversations begin.

High School Reading

A former principal tweeted me a very interesting article (thank you Mr. Case!) about how high school makes kids hate reading. It's an interesting read and I can't argue with many of the points. However, it is a fact that literature and developing the skills of literary criticism are part of the English curriculum. And should be! What we need to focus on and allow time for is choice reading. Unfortunately this can become a difficult task when many schools are forced by our tough economic time to reduce library staffing or eliminate it all together. Today as classes come to the library we are going to start our discussion by looking at the 4 ways high schools make kids hate reading. And then break all the rules by going around those 4 assumptions. Starting with the students helping me write my book order. Here's to choice reading! 

AHS students, please post your suggestions for new books below. You can post specific titles or topics that you would like to have available for choice reading. Take control of your high school reading!

Booktalking with Ms. Bokano

Given an assignment that allows you to choose the book you are required to read sounds good....until you actually have to be in charge of finding a book! Today we're going to look at some book trailers (essential the same thing as a movie trailer, a visual advertisement for the book) of books that we have available in our LMC. In fact, thinking about a book selection being like choosing a movie is a great strategy. It can help you identify your favorite genre, interests and potentially find the perfect match! 

When making book recommendations I have found that award books have been very popular. The awards were given for a reason! Today I'm going to feature the American Library Association's Alex Award books. The award is sponsored by a trust in honor of a young adult librarian pioneer who was nicknamed "Alex". Every year, ten books that were written for adults but have special appeal for young adults, are awarded the honor. The award list contains an interesting mix of genres. Here are this year's award winners:

 

 

 

And finally, a just because it's my favorite young adult book released in the last couple of years:

Welcome! 

Thank you for joining me today for Video Tutorials in 21st Century learning. This session is designed to be interactive with discussions and hands-on participation. Please begin by opening the Google Presentation. We have a lot to explore in a short hour! If you have not completed your show and tell item before the end of the session, please feel free to finish after the symposium and share on the Google Doc. The blog is updated more often during the school year with issues regarding technology integration and literacy. Feel free to become a blog follower and build our learning network.

Muskrat Summer Learning

The Muskrat 2.0 project began in the summer of 2011 as a way to bridge the summer learning gap that occurs from extended time between the school years. Algonac High School has created an incentive plan that makes the assignments fun and well worth the effort. One of the requirements for a chance to win an iPad is to complete the library challenge.

Muskrat 2.0 Librarian Challenge 2012

1. Obtain a St. Clair County Library card if you do not already have one. (You will need your parents with you to obtain a new card. Requirements are listed on the above link).

2. Check out a book! (You could try an ebook from the new SCCL Overdrive account)

3. Complete the Writing With Writers Book Review workshop. 

4. Write a book review of a book from the SCCL, using the workshop as a guideline. Check for spelling and punctuation errors! Post to this blog by clicking on Post a Comment underneath this post. Comments will be reviewed before posting.

If you have questions during the summer while you are completing this challenge, you may e-mail Mrs. Wynkoop at rwynkoop@acsk12.us. E-mail is checked weekly.

 

March is Reading Month

Creating Video Tutorials

The ability to create video tutorials is an important tool for educators in all the fields. The applications are limited only to your imagination. With the new buzz in "flipped" classrooms, blended learning and online instruction, educators need to move beyond text as instruction. We will review three tools to use to create video tutorials. 

The most basic of the video tools is the recorder found within your interactive whiteboard software. In my district we have SMART boards, so the tutorial will demonstrate the SMART brand.

The second tool for creating video tutorials is Jing. There is a free version that needs to be downloaded to your computer. Be sure you try to download this BEFORE the day you need to use it at your school computer as most schools will require administrative rights to download. Follow your district policy for software installation. Jing can be used to add instructions to screen captured images and create a presentation or to create a video. Jing videos are limited to 5 minutes.

The most advanced tool is Camtasia. Camtasia is from the same company as Jing, TechSmith. It allows advanced editing of videos and the company does offer an educator discount. And, it's a Michigan based company!

Digital Learning Day!

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012, is the first ever Digital Learning Day. Celebrate by  signing up on the official website, creating a lesson that involves digital media and connecting to the 21st Century Learners in your classroom. In library science, students will create a blog to post on their iGoogle page. Throughout the quarter, the blogs will be used for assigned reading journals.Students will then submit the link to their blog posts on their Moodle class assignment. What will you do? As always, I am available to help you design, access and implement technology lessons, starting with some suggestions linked and posted below. Let's engage our students digitally!

Social Studies: Use word clouds to compare political speeches. Students can create their own or you can have them already created and use the interactive white board to display and discuss (don't forget to have the kids up at the board interacting!). Tagxedo and Wordle are both user-friendly, free resources that make creating cloud pictures easy and fun. You could compare President Obama's State of the Union address to the Republican rebuttal or Governor Snyder's State of the State address.

English: Book trailers (movie trailers that advertise books) are becoming very popular, to the extent that publishing houses are creating them as part of their marketing blitz at publication. The storyboarding process (planning the movie) links directly writing and technology standards. In the process students should also learn about copyright as it applies to music and images, an area of copyright often ignored. Animoto allows teachers to create free educator accounts to share with students. Included are images, music and text boxes, making the process quick and easy. The link to the movie trailers can then be added to our web-based school library catalogue, setting a real-world purpose for student work.

Math: Have you introduced your students to the Khan Academy? Try setting up a teacher account to monitor student practice. What a great intervention to use for the mastery of concepts before unit and semester tests.

Science: Use the power of the Internet to take an online visit to a museum. Exploratorium offers explorations in every subject area and includes online activities, videos, simulations and lesson plans. For instance, in The Science of Baseball, the class could use the interactive white board to apply physics principles to test the angle and location of the bat and where to place a hit. Or watch open heart surgery online at The Human Heart.

For Michigan Educators, there is a chance to win a $50 gift certificate for participating in Digital Learning Day. Submit a lesson plan using digital resource from MORE. The first 20 lesson plans accepted before 8:00 a.m. March 1, 2012 are eligible. As always when using technology tools, please be sure to check access from the computer(s) that will be used for the project or assignment. Some of these tools require plug-ins or access that may not be standard and will require a day or two for technology to make the upgrades. At AHS, simply fill out a technology work order request.