Sunday, October 31, 2010

1st Quarter

Wow, where did first quarter go!
I'm working on increasing the integration of the grade level themes into my Library Media lessons. I have asked the grade level team leaders to send me the themes their team will be working on in the 2nd quarter. I have received 1 set of themes so far--disappointing but my classroom teachers are so very busy. I will just have to keep trying. Lack of time is a huge issue for everyone. There never seems to be enough time and there is always more to do!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Cyber Safety

Time has just gotten away from me. Here are some of the good sites for parents and students on cyber safety.

Safety for Kids on the Internet--Child and Teen safety on the Information Highway
Get Wise on the Net (Online Safety)--Listed are a few simple steps for keeping kids safe online
C.L.I.C.K.S--Community Leadership In Cyber Knowledge and Safety
NetSmartz--Games and activities on Cyber Safety (partnership with C.L.I.C.K.S.)
WiredKids--Games and activities on Cyber Safety
Internet Keep Safe--Lessons on keeping kids safe online

If you have access to Tumble Books there are two cyber safety stories located there. The names of the stories are: Little Red in Cyber Space and Surfing Safely.com.

On the technology pretest that I gave my 4th and 5th Graders, many of them missed the question about web browsers. I went searching online, and found a great video clip. Click here to see it. But since it was posted on youtube, it wouldn't play at school. So I learned how to save a youtube video. Click here to see the directions I followed. It was A LOT easier than I tought it would be.

Stacey

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Book Fair

Well, I have survived another book fair! The generosity of our school community is truly incredible! Although the book fair can be disruptive we managed to find a nice balance between shopping & learning. My students in grades 2-5 continued to conduct searches using eLibrary. What was different this year was that I added the task of searching for the book they looked up on the shelf. Adding that piece to the assignment really helped the students connect what was on the computer with where the book was located in the Library Media Center. It really gave meaning to the call number.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

It's October already?

Where has the beginning of the school year gone? It's hard to believe that I'm already having the book fair next week! That means soon I'll have to start thinking about my reading incentive program. I've found some great computer and Internet safety sites which I will be posting tomorrow. A few of the sites are on my school computer.

But as I was searching the Internet, I found a great page with a song by Jackie Mims Hopkins. She is the author of The Shelf Elf books. The song is all about using a shelf marker that is sung to the tune of the Hokey Pokey.

Get your singing voices ready, click here for the link.

Stacey