STEM Fellows

I am excited to be serving as a 2014-2015 STEM Fellow with the Southeast Tennessee Innovation Hub. STEM Fellows is an amazing opportunity to learn how to implement STEM in my school.  The teachers in my cohort will meet together twice this summer in May and July.  We will also meet 4 times throughout the school year. We will work to create community partnerships with STEM businesses in our area.  As a STEM Fellow, I will be an advocate for STEM education in my community.

2014-2015 STEM Fellows Cohort

National Poetry Month

April is one of my favorite months of the year because we are able to celebrate poetry all month long.   This April each grade level is writing their own poems.  Kindergarten classes are creating I Can Poems.  First Graders are writing I AM poems.  Special thanks to Shannon Miller for the idea. Second Graders are working collaboratively to write a "What's in our Desks" Poem.  Third graders are experimenting with acrostic poems.  4th and 5th graders are writing their own I Spy Riddles.  In order to facilitate some time for me to assist small groups with editing and publishing their work we are trying a variety of Poetry Centers.  These poetry centers are a learning lab that allow students to try out a variety of types of poetry.  Students may choose from 9 different centers:

• Independent Reading-A variety of poetry books are available for students to read.  Students have the opportunity to review a poem or two.  Poem Reviews will be displayed in the library.
• Acrostic Poetry-Students may try to write an acrostic poem.  This center includes a graphic organizer to help students brainstorm a list of adjectives that begin with the letters in their names.
• Found Poetry-A selection of newspapers, glue and scissors are included in this center.  Students are encouraged to find a wide variety of words (different fonts, sizes, colors, etc.). Students cut out the words and then arrange them on construction paper to create a poem.  This center is challenging because students have to come up with an idea and then search the paper for words that will work in their poems.  
• Scavenger Hunt-Students search for Alliteration, Onomatopoeia, Rhyme, etc in a selection of poems
• Poetry Theater-Students work in small groups to prepare a poem to be performed for their class.
• Illustrate a Poem-Students practice visualization and draw a picture to represent the poem.
• Revision and Publishing-Students may bring their poems from the previous week to me for review and suggestions.  Students who have completed their poems may begin typing their poems.
• Spine Poetry-Students arrange book spines so that they create a poem.  This is a fun station as they get to look through all of the recently returned books and find titles that will work together.

Students enjoy the opportunity to choose the poetry activity they would like to complete.  At the end of class, I host a debriefing session where students are given the opportunity to share their work. Students love to read there work or share a poem that they enjoyed from one of our many poetry books. 

For the LOVE of Reading...

Crazy Hair Day

Our school celebrated Read Across America Week a little late this year due to benchmark testing that took place the week of March 3.  It was worth the wait!  This year, each day had a theme to build excitement.  Monday we had numerous Seuss characters pay a visit to our school.  Tuesday, we enjoyed a variety of crazy hair styles. Wednesday, we wore Silly Socks. Thursday, we wore our wackiest hats. Friday, was Read Across America T-Shirt day.   While this week is designed to promote reading, it had the added plus of students and teachers creating something for each day out of what they had available.  It was so neat to see how everyone interpreted each day.  I'll never forget the laughs we shared this week.  In addition to having theme days each week, we hosted a wide variety of guest readers from parents to community members.  We are so thankful for our volunteers. Every day is a great day to read with a child!

Grab your hat and read with the Cat!

A Snapshot of My Reading Life

I just learned about the WRAD (World Read Aloud Day) blogging Challenge.  I have decided to participate even though there are only two weeks left.

The prompt for this week is a snapshot of my reading life.  So here is my reading life.

This is a picture of a portion of the "Easy" Section in the Clifton Hills Elementary School library.  I chose this picture because I love sharing picture books with my students.  The picture book section offers something for everyone. There are books that make us laugh and books that bring us to tears and books that teach us about life. Students shouldn't be rushed out of the picture book section.  They should be invited to linger and stay a while. I tell my older students all the time that they may find their favorite book in the picture book section.  Some of my favorite books are found here such as Make Way for the Ducklings, Library Lion, Flotsam,  Why I was Young in the Mountains and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Maybe this summer, I'll change the name to Everybody Books.  

Hour of Code

As a part of National Computer Science Education Week, our students wrote over 2,000 lines of code during their library time.  Code.org created a great curriculum that makes learning how to code accessible for all ages.

We didn't let the lack of devices stop us from learning about coding. We used our brand new Promethean Board to complete the coding exercises as group.  Students loved the opportunity to come to the board and use the pen to move the coding blocks. Everyone cheered when the puzzles were solved correctly.  When something didn't go as we thought it would, we worked together to figure out why.

Every grade level enjoyed the opportunity to try coding and many wanted to know how they could learn more. Students can easily access coding resources from anywhere via my Symbaloo.

Gingerbread Houses

 Last week,  I read Jan Brett's Gingerbread Baby to my Kindergarten students.  We compared and contrasted the story to the Gingerbread Man.

This week the Kindergarten classes participated in a collaborative how-to writing project.  The students discussed the importance of having a plan when you are working on a project.  We talked about how Matti used a recipe to create his gingerbread house.  Together, the students wrote a list of items needed to make a house.  Then, they listed the supplies needed to make a gingerbread house.  Next, they wrote a step-by-step plan.  Finally, they used the plan to create their gingerbread houses. 
 

My students loved the opportunity to create something fun for the holidays.  We incorporated many Common Core Standards from Speaking and Listening to Writing as well as numerous information literacy skills.

The houses are now on display in the library along with a sign that explains the project lest anyone think it was just another cut and paste activity.

Strengthening Common Core Muscles for Librarians...

It's a marathon NOT a sprint. This weekend,  I was privileged to spend 3 amazing days with awesome librarians who are dramatically impacting the achievement of our students at the Tennessee Association of School Librarians Annual Conference.  The theme at nearly every single session was student learning.  Librarians are well positioned to be leaders during the implementation of the Common Core.  We can be myth busters and truth speakers in the same breath.  Current collections, especially nonfiction, can be leveraged in such a way that we cause our students to pause, think, question, synthesize and respond. We know that collaboration and ownership are the biggest keys to successful implementation of the CCSS.

Its hard not to come home with conference fog (i.e. info overload) or to be on such a high that Monday brings a crushing blow when you fall back into reality.  Saturday, my good friend and colleague, Debbie Condry, and I provided librarians with a step by step workout plan that hopefully provided direction for them.  Before I share with you a brief summary of the workout plan, let me share my favorite highlights.

A few of my favorite things...
My favorite technique that I learned this weekend was clustering from Marc Aronson.  If you are going to the AASL National Conference make sure you go to his sessions.  A cluster is a group of resources that are most likely conflicting. Provide students with the opportunity to question and comment on  the juxtapositions.  I can't wait to set up my first cluster and create displays with a learning purpose.  I really appreciated being encouraged to let students choose what interests them without getting hung up on the guided reading or Lexile level.  Could we all agree that Lexile and reading levels are guiding points for reading instruction but they should not hold a child's right to choose books hostage?

Another highlight, was seeing the winners of the TASL bookmark contest.  The winners created amazing bookmarks. I love that TASL invited them to our luncheon to accept their awards.  I can't wait to participate in the next bookmark contest.

The best part of the conference was networking with other librarians from across the state.  Librarians, so often feel isolated especially in an elementary library where the pace of class after class can leave you with little time to talk with fellow teachers let alone librarians.  Being at conference gave me the opportunity to share, listen, and reflect.

Common Core Workout: Strengthen you Core Muscles

Debbie and I  wore our yoga pants and custom t-shirts that said "School Librarian: I train your brain for life" as we led a room full of librarians through a Common Core workout that challenged them to set high goals. We warmed up with a walk- through of a single strand showing the progression of difficulty from K-12. For the cardio segment, we shared sample successful core lessons that we have both taught in the  past year.  The cool thing about Debbie and I is that we approach our roles in very different ways.  I think outside the box and Debbie has a more traditional approach. Thus in one presentation, we catered to everyone in the room and demonstrated that the approach you take doesn't necessarily matter.  Every workout needs workout enhancers.  I loved sharing the wide variety of apps, blogs, curation tools, etc. that we can use to meet our CCSS goals.  Another great workout enhancer is your PLN (personal learning network).  There are many tools for building PLNs including Twitter, Edmodo, Facebook, Skype, etc.  I wouldn't have known about Dot Day if I had not seen it mentioned on my Twitter feed.  Finally, we reached the most important segment of our workout the cool down otherwise known as "regular reflection".  We provided a list of questions that I hope served as a call to action.  From the comments after the presentation, I know that we impacted the lives of students across the state of Tennessee. Our mission as school librarians is truly about student learning.  How are you impacting student learning in your school? Share your CCSS success stories here in the comments.  One lucky person will win a "School Librarian: I train your brain for life" iron-on so that you can create your own custom t-shirt.