tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84907267284558846522024-02-19T16:15:23.344+00:00Tanja's JourneyReflections from the journey of a lifelong learner with a passion for libraries and bookstgalettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664992753516795352noreply@blogger.comBlogger29125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8490726728455884652.post-28279720505335835582014-11-22T13:22:00.000+00:002014-11-22T13:22:40.817+00:00School Librarian Connection - A Brief Reflection<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Today I got to spend the day
with a group of amazing librarians from Hong Kong and various other places
around South East Asia as we all came together at <a href="http://www.schoollibrarianconnection.com/home">School Librarian
Connection</a>. The organizers, Dianne McKenzie (Renaissance College, Hong
Kong) and Katie Day (United World College, Singapore), two extremely knowledgeable
and passionate librarians, did a fantastic job in organizing the event. I
enjoyed the short presentations on a variety of topics under the main themes
curriculum support, digital resource management, visual literacy and research
skills and tools. As always after a conference or workshop, my head is buzzing.
So much to ponder about, so many new thoughts and ideas! Here just a few, that
will be at the forefront of my thinking, in no particular order:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Maker spaces </span></b><span style="font-family: Arial;">– Both Nadine Bailey and Kurt Wittig spoke in their presentation about maker
spaces in the library. Nadine brought up the idea within her presentation on
digital storytelling, providing an example what this might look like. Kurt
introduced the Collaboration, Innovation, Creativity Club (CIC) he started in
his library, where students can choose from a selection of seven domains:
electronics, engineering, fashion, gaming, robotics, materials, and virtual
environments. Especially the materials domain got me thinking as students
create origami on the entrance level and work up their way to creating pop-up
books. I think, both ideas, a digital storytelling maker space as well as a
materials maker space, might be an opportunity to move our first attempts with
a maker space in our library (simply a table with origami books and origami
paper) to the next level without requiring much additional materials or funds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">iPads in the library</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial;"> – While I have already made use of iPads in the
library for various purposes, such as reading, information seeking, creating
and video recording, Tabitha Johnson’s presentation gave me additional ideas.
After her presentation I was thinking that iPads are a great tool to use also
at the beginning of the school year, for example, as students explore the
library and reacquaint themselves with the organization of materials and the overall
set-up of the library. Younger students could simply take pictures of what they
see around the library to gain understanding of the purpose of a library, the
resources available and so on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">“Making the invisible visible”</span></b><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;"> – Katie Day, Barbara Reid and Nadine
Bailey shared some great ideas on how to make patrons aware of a library’s
digital resources, my favorites being books on walls and wheels (posters of
teachers’ book shelves on hangers for easy browsing), amplified shelves
(through QR codes links are provided to author or series information), and
placeholders (through QR codes patrons get linked to the catalog to see whether
there might be additional copies elsewhere available). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">I also loved
the idea of attaching student book talks (or other digital content) to book
posters with the help of Aurasma. Once we have iPads in our library, we will
have the opportunity to make more and better use of QR codes around the
library.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.coetail.com/about/">COETAIL</a></span></b><span style="font-family: Arial;"> <span style="color: #262626;">(C<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">ertificate of Educational Technology and
Information Literacy)</span></span></span><i><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"> </span></i><span style="font-family: Arial;">– I had heard about this program already from others but checked it out
for the first time today after Dianne introduced it. I had known that it was a
program around educational technology but hadn’t been aware of the information
literacy component – and these are the courses that I would be especially
interested in: <span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Information
Literacy and Ourselves as Learners, 21st Century Literacy Ideas, Questions, and
Issues, and Visual Literacy: Effective Communicators and Creators. Will have to
check whether it is possible to take individual courses.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">EasyBib & Diigo</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial;"> – While I was familiar with these resources, having used both already,
I knew little about what these resources can do besides the basic citation and
book marking features. Dianne McKenzie demonstrated how both can help students
during the research process, in annotating and organizing their notes, creating
citations and reference lists and even take advantage of them EasyBib as an
add-on in Google Documents. I would love to get a subscription to EasyBib for
our libraries, no doubt!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">TRAILS</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial;"> – I
had trialed using TRAILS in Ghana as a pre-assessment tool of G3-5 students’
information literacy skills at the beginning of the school year to guide me in
which skill area the emphasis needed to be. I remember finding it extremely
helpful and relatively easy to administer. Fiona Collins’ presentation was a
good reminder to make use of this assessment tool again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Visual literacy</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial;"> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">through powerful picture books</b>
– Megan Lindsay’s presentation gave me ideas on how to move our picture book
explorations forward. And the timing couldn’t have been better as I just began
looking at picture books with our fourth graders last week. Megan gives her
students a visual literacy check list as they explore the books so that
students become aware of all the features. I will definitely incorporate this
in our picture book explorations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Visual notetaking</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial;"> – I loved Shirley Chan’s presentation on visual note-taking for all
ages, as she demonstrated how she uses it with her primary school students. Recently,
I have heard and seen quite a bit on visual note-taking, especially from my
friend Nicki Hambleton (check out <a href="http://thisisallaboutart.blogspot.hk/p/visual-note-taking.html">her blog</a>).
Through images, students make their thinking visible while at the same time
retaining key information more easily. I am keen on finding out and learning more
about it, especially on how to use it with younger students. Therefore today’s
presentation was just perfect, getting me even more excited about the idea of
introducing it to our students. I have already downloaded one of the
recommended titles: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Sketchnote
Handbook</i>, which was available in Kindle format. As Shirley recommended,
learn it first yourself (there is a large number of online tutorials available),
and then introduce it to your students, focusing on the three main elements:
text, images and structure. Since she stressed several times that the focus
here is on simple images, I feel I can give it a try even though I can’t draw. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">(If you would like to
explore the individual presentations, they are all available through the <a href="http://www.schoollibrarianconnection.com/presentations">School Librarian
Connection website</a>.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
tgalettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664992753516795352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8490726728455884652.post-52376304438058891562014-09-14T10:06:00.000+00:002014-09-14T10:10:08.431+00:0010 Things I Took Away From the Google Apps Summit<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I find going to a conference
always very inspiring and motivating, coming across new ideas and getting a
chance to trying out things I have heard about but never gotten into. The
Google Apps Summit last weekend did exactly this and so, before the everyday
craziness is taking over again, I quickly want to share a few things I have
taken away from this conference. To get this post onto my blog (and not just draft
it in my head as I most often end up doing), I will limit it to just 10 things,
even though there was a lot more. So here they are, 10 things I took away from
the Google Apps Summit, in no particular order:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCHB42pwDTGv9vfjEtX68oGhIWhznoUC-9ggeAigHu_-WZFhK5f9DtqaP-VmSP6VIe1nQsq7GR-W7m8U0Hw_MQMc2SWVZ8CZktGTNK86aO9s7I4WfiIa3e6dkynlq4TRv7G2kFihuxgis/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-09-14+at+5.55.27+pm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCHB42pwDTGv9vfjEtX68oGhIWhznoUC-9ggeAigHu_-WZFhK5f9DtqaP-VmSP6VIe1nQsq7GR-W7m8U0Hw_MQMc2SWVZ8CZktGTNK86aO9s7I4WfiIa3e6dkynlq4TRv7G2kFihuxgis/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-09-14+at+5.55.27+pm.png" height="81" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Image source: http://hongkong.appsevents.com/ )</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">1. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Google Classroom</b> is Google’s answer to Blackboard, Moodle and other
online platforms that help teachers organize their classes and courses.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">2. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Google+</b> is Google’s answer to Facebook and Twitter, maybe a clever
combination of features from both of these and a few other social media sites.
For now, since I am very attached to my Facebook and Twitter accounts, the
biggest potential I see is as a PLN platform within our school – or any other
school using Google Apps.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">3. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Google Drive</b> on my iPhone – It’s really as easy to use as on the
computer: creating new folders, adding documents, photos, videos and other
files to your Drive on the go, which you can later access on your computer. I
could imagine it to be a great tool for recording learning in the library and
classroom in the form of pictures and videos, filing them immediately in a
location where they can remain. Having no additional uploading or importing to
a computer will save so much time. The only downside, if you want to add a
Google Doc, you need to download an additional app, which in its use is not as
powerful as when you create a Google Doc on your computer (for example, you
cannot insert images).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">4. Other <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">mobile Google Apps</b> to explore: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Google Capture (</b>easy tool to make, edit
and upload videos to YouTube quickly), <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Google
Search</b> (comes with voice recognition which can be very handy on the go), <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Photo Sphere</b> (360 views that can be
placed into Google maps), <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Google
Translate, </b>just to mention a few. As Lee Webster said in his keynote,
“Google Apps [is] a treasure trove of applications” – definitely something the
conference highlighted. It also showed me that so far, I have merely scratched
the surface.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">5. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Google Books</b> (<a href="http://books.google.com/">http://books.google.com</a>
) This may sound strange coming from a librarian but I did not know what a
fantastic resource Google Books is. I have to admit that I always thought that
it was just a search engine bringing up titles of books, which ultimately had
to be bought to get read. Discovering the wealth of books available at our
finger tips, and all for free, simply made my day! It was very handy too, to
get shown how to search for books by particular authors, publishers etc. (e.g.
if you want to search for all available Michael Morpurgo books, simply type
into the search box: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">inauthor:Michael
Morpurgo – </b>for a particular topic: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">subject:"hypnosis”</b>
)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">6. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Google Advanced Search</b> – I finally got to have a closer look at
some of the features of Google Advanced Search, loving especially the option to
narrow the search down by reading level. But even though it’s a great tool, I
will remain an advocate for using subscription databases like our online
catalog and World Book Encyclopedia as the first places for Primary School
students to make searches. It’s a great way to start learning the basics of
searches (especially the importance of using keywords) and finding the appropriate
resources among a manageable number of hits. Then when students move into
Secondary School, they can built on these skills, adding Google as a search
engine to the online catalog and other databases.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">7. Adding a few more
educators to my <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">PLN on Twitter</b> – learning
from the best </span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
@brookhouser @richtheteach @Cleave21 @stulowe80 @Apps1events <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial;">8. Google Educator and Google Certified Teacher <a href="http://www.google.com/edu/training/">http://www.google.com/edu/training/</a> - </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Getting a quick overview over the certification process and required exams was really helpful. I will definitely follow up, since it's a great opportunity to get more familiar with the many great applications in Google - and as the presenter Dan Taylor said, it's a quick way to advance your professional development. I appreciated the tips and advice he shared for preparing and taking the exams.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">9. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">GameSalad</b> – Even though this was the most challenging session for
me to attend, on how to make games and apps, I was totally intrigued by it,
especially when the presenter Stu Lowe shared an example of an app he put
together to help students explore Kowloon’s Walled City Park while on a field
trip there. I just loved the idea of having a customized app to support inquiry
and explorations. Here is a 10min tutorial, check it out! <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr8Q_EO_c_8">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr8Q_EO_c_8</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">10. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">World Tour Builder</b> <a href="https://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com/">https://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com</a>
This had the biggest WOW factor for me. The World Tour Builder is such an
easy-to-use tool with so much potential in education. For the library, for
example, it can help getting students interested in particular authors or
genres. I could imagine creating tours taking students to the original
locations where stories are taking place. I actually began creating a tour
right there in the session (that’s another factor I liked, that many of the
sessions I had chosen to attend allowed for time to try out the apps right then
and there) – loved it! While it’s pretty self-explanatory, here is a quick
tutorial from the presenter Jason Prohaska: <a href="http://coachescorner.rchk.edu.hk/tour-builder.html">http://coachescorner.rchk.edu.hk/tour-builder.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Overall, a great conference!
Thanks to everyone involved in organizing and presenting!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
tgalettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664992753516795352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8490726728455884652.post-84852402302744035122014-05-11T11:56:00.001+00:002014-05-11T11:56:57.141+00:00Where to Find Me... Part 2Those of you who check into my blog once in a while might have seen my last post in which I linked to <a href="http://specialists.hkacademy.edu.hk/library1.html" target="_blank">my library blog</a> where currently most of my blogging is happening. Recently, I however also had the opportunity to share a post on two other websites. Both of these websites mean a lot to me and I am therefore thrilled that I was able to contribute a small piece of writing to each.<br />
<br />
<b>1. Kirby's Lane: A Place for Readers and Writers: From the Office of the Future of Reading</b><br />
<b>"The Joys of Sharing (Recommending) Books"</b><br />
<br />
Kirby Larson is an amazing children's and young adult author (I love <i>Hattie Big Sky</i> and <i>Hattie Ever After</i>), who promotes reading and writing in so many ways. On her blog, <a href="http://kirbyslane.blogspot.hk/" target="_blank">Kirby's Lane</a>, she invites librarians, teachers and other authors to share how they help to instil a love for reading and/or writing in young people. There are so many wonderful ideas to discover - I hope you will check it out.<br />
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<a href="http://kirbyslane.blogspot.hk/2014/04/from-office-of-future-of-reading.html">http://kirbyslane.blogspot.hk/2014/04/from-office-of-future-of-reading.html</a></div>
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<b>2. Golden Baobab Literary Award - Resources:</b><br />
<b>"Stories That African Children Will Love"</b><br />
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While still living in Ghana, I got involved with this wonderful organisation that aims at promoting the writing of African children's literature. I have been a reader and a judge for the award program in the past and was thrilled (but at first also worried) when I got invited to write a post to share on their newly set up resource page. The organisation not only encourages African writers through their annual award but also provides support and guidance through workshops and the mentioned resource page. <br />
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<a href="http://www.goldenbaobab.org/prizes/resources">http://www.goldenbaobab.org/prizes/resources</a></div>
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I hope you will check out both articles and spend some time exploring the websites if you aren't familiar with them yet.<br />
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<br />tgalettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664992753516795352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8490726728455884652.post-37542333318995776972014-04-16T05:56:00.001+00:002014-04-16T05:56:29.482+00:00Where to find me...Those of you checking into this blog from time to time, must have been wondering what's happened to me. Another year in which my good intentions to blog more didn't materialise? Well, yes and no, depending at what blog you are looking. Once again I have neglected this personal blog badly. But the good news is, I have been blogging frequently on my library blog page, sharing all the exciting things happening in HKA's Primary Library. Since I only have a page on the HKA Primary Specialists website, I unfortunately can't set up automatic updates, but decided that I might try to link to it from time to time, sharing the highlights.<br />
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Here some posts that have received much interest recently:<br />
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<a href="http://specialists.hkacademy.edu.hk/24/post/2014/04/a-memorable-day-with-ying-chang-compestine.html" target="_blank">A memorable author visit by Ying Chang Compestine</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu_wcZjM9zFYBBl-C6b3LfgknKB_GWJUuQLbFtwq6PsJnocZBPAgbRz-XiXG9dxD2IJ6mLlutSaD9uTDzn7ZXElnns_uWRqkPP7uBt98xJTipqWjY-NaYgnpfcTpNMAPPJW3fFHQj_1I8/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-04-16+at+1.35.47+pm.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu_wcZjM9zFYBBl-C6b3LfgknKB_GWJUuQLbFtwq6PsJnocZBPAgbRz-XiXG9dxD2IJ6mLlutSaD9uTDzn7ZXElnns_uWRqkPP7uBt98xJTipqWjY-NaYgnpfcTpNMAPPJW3fFHQj_1I8/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-04-16+at+1.35.47+pm.png" height="197" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://specialists.hkacademy.edu.hk/24/post/2014/04/chatting-with-niki-daly.html" target="_blank">Chatting with the talented author and illustrator Niki Daly</a><br />
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<a href="http://specialists.hkacademy.edu.hk/24/post/2014/03/pk2-students-excited-about-meeting-grace-lin.html" target="_blank">A Skype session with author Grace Lin</a><br />
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<a href="http://specialists.hkacademy.edu.hk/24/post/2014/03/an-awesome-skype-with-kate-dicamillo.html" target="_blank">Another Skype session with the amazing Kate DiCamillo</a><br />
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<a href="http://specialists.hkacademy.edu.hk/24/post/2014/03/ellen-leou-inspires-and-enchants-our-young-readers-writers-and-illustrators.html" target="_blank">A visit by the lovely Ellen Leou, author of Lulu, the Hong Kong Cat</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_KCbAevUyN0VoiWJnJLEEaTnTJl6EAQ6ezfiL6g_-EEsjducB5QGbpeljs8x8ZBd5goKbQEiocBK9u6Aeoa5usncb87Uh_W256kpHhVAiugblfmV5wAdZrNfJBphSukNU2jj2zpodloA/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-04-16+at+1.40.34+pm.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_KCbAevUyN0VoiWJnJLEEaTnTJl6EAQ6ezfiL6g_-EEsjducB5QGbpeljs8x8ZBd5goKbQEiocBK9u6Aeoa5usncb87Uh_W256kpHhVAiugblfmV5wAdZrNfJBphSukNU2jj2zpodloA/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-04-16+at+1.40.34+pm.png" height="193" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://specialists.hkacademy.edu.hk/24/post/2014/03/the-continuous-reading-chairs-a-literacy-week-highlight.html" target="_blank">And a special highlight from our Literacy Week, The Continuous Reading Chair</a><br />
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I hope you stop by the <b><a href="http://specialists.hkacademy.edu.hk/library1.html" target="_blank">HKA Primary Library Blog</a></b>, check out some of the exciting events and maybe even leave a comment with your thoughts and ideas :)<br />
<br />tgalettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664992753516795352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8490726728455884652.post-8487645812230271622013-09-26T13:46:00.000+00:002013-09-26T13:46:28.152+00:00QR Codes in the Library<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIe0MTs6JbdyLOfguALbtGDiA4VVQ2jzFqiCXozbjF8HDkeojIlVYRMpUt4b62WxG1SGUvEc7SycaTxdkEIzCJPghB1dHZTT16REBZ7FxaW39GY-krJj0PWTsYq24MjoI5vin474YNvsg/s1600/IMG_2758.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIe0MTs6JbdyLOfguALbtGDiA4VVQ2jzFqiCXozbjF8HDkeojIlVYRMpUt4b62WxG1SGUvEc7SycaTxdkEIzCJPghB1dHZTT16REBZ7FxaW39GY-krJj0PWTsYq24MjoI5vin474YNvsg/s320/IMG_2758.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
I had wanted to try out QR codes for a very long time but somehow it never happened. Then, a few weeks ago, as I was thinking of an engaging way for students to explore different strategies and resources on finding books for recreational reading in our library, QR codes came to my mind. Technology is always such a great motivator :)<br />
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Before beginning to make any specific plans, I asked our fantastic IT Director for his advice. What did he think of the idea in general? Would I be able to reserve some of our iPads for the day? Would our network be able to handle a whole class of students accessing videos and other online resources through QR codes at the same time? His encouraging comments convinced me to give it a try. I made a list of the strategies and resources I wanted to introduce, created and uploaded to YouTube video tutorials where needed (everything you link to with a QR code needs to be online) and then made the actual QR codes. On recommendation of a friend, I used <a href="http://visualead.com/" target="_blank">Visualead</a>, which allows you to create, download and embed (for free) QR codes. It's really simple and straightforward as the site leads you through the process step-by-step. Once downloaded, I printed the QR codes and attached them at their respective locations around the library.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEnuqiDv7XHGiG4bUSzhAanPspKVXsJvvGj26FWlfY9bXN8zhk9nPsq1M2ar7H97wj-niMp5vu_tDuvujBnR1_BuF0N_VGfKY_ZB-yjnjiT5XhD8kFC0j68qsYFH-XJiEMSnAI9Gx9zvM/s1600/IMG_2747.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEnuqiDv7XHGiG4bUSzhAanPspKVXsJvvGj26FWlfY9bXN8zhk9nPsq1M2ar7H97wj-niMp5vu_tDuvujBnR1_BuF0N_VGfKY_ZB-yjnjiT5XhD8kFC0j68qsYFH-XJiEMSnAI9Gx9zvM/s320/IMG_2747.jpg" width="240" /></a>On the day, students worked in pairs. Each pair had an iPad and a clipboard with a check list of all strategies and resources to be discovered. The ultimate task was for students to explore each strategy and resource before creating a book mark with their favourite ways of finding books to read for pleasure.<br />
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Here is what was on the list:<br />
1. O<a href="http://tinyurl.com/MissTanja" target="_blank">ur library's online resources</a>, in particular the Kid Lit and Kid Lit Series tab.<br />
2. Online catalog<br />
3. Displays<br />
4. Display of teachers' favourite books<br />
5. Dewey Decimal Guide (the orange sign in the picture on the right)<br />
6. Librarians' reader's journal<br />
7. Quick Pick boxes<br />
8. Reading footprints<br />
9. Ms. Tanja reads (linking to my Goodreads and Shelfari)<br />
10. Ask a librarian<br />
11. Librarian's favorite search strategy<br />
12. Book trailer corner.<br />
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<b>Would I do this again?</b><br />
Definitely! Everyone was so engaged. Plus, so many students and adults visiting the library, immediately spotted the QR codes and seemed intrigued by the idea. The QR codes turned out to be a great conversation starter as well.<br />
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<b>Would I do something differently?</b><br />
I might reduce the number of QR codes for the first session as some students seemed to rush from one QR code to the next, not spending enough time to explore the individual strategy/resource.<br />
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I am also considering to upload my videos on Vimeo rather than YouTube. Even though my videos are unlisted, I just don't like the "Suggested Videos" part - you never know what might come up.<br />
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I would use a different QR code reader (we used <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/redlaser-barcode-scanner-shopping/id474902001?mt=8" target="_blank">RedLaser</a>, which worked fine but is designed for iPhones).<br />
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I will definitely explore in which other ways I can make use of QR codes in the library. If you have any experiences and ideas to share, I would love to hear about them. And here three of my QR codes for you to try out :)<br />
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<br />tgalettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664992753516795352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8490726728455884652.post-13576871987302508682013-05-14T09:53:00.001+00:002013-05-14T09:53:30.376+00:00Some Thoughts on the Role of the Librarian in the PYP<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">A draft to this post </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">has been sitting on my iPad for weeks. Instead of blogging right away about things I am pondering and wondering about, I have this habit of just jotting down thoughts on my iPad to discover them months later with the feeling it's too late to share... So many of my posts have a short life in my head or on my iPad but never make it to the blog. Here is one that survived - one that however will never be really completed as the role of the librarian keeps evolving, as I keep learning more about the PYP and about libraries in the 21st century. I love this about being a librarian - it keeps my job exciting ;)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Our school recently had an evaluation visit from the PYP and especially in the days leading up to the visit, I kept wondering what kind of questions the visiting team might bring up when I would meet with them. I thought they might want to hear from me how I saw and understood my role as librarian in the PYP. (And I really got to talk about this during the actual visit.)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">While there is clearly a long list of tasks that come to mind right away or when browsing through publications on the Internet about this topic, I would define my role mainly through the following three points:</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<ul>
<li>Providing an environment that awakens students curiosity - because without curiosity no questions and wonderings, without questions and wonderings no inquiry.</li>
</ul>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><ul>
<li>Helping students acquire the information literacy skills they need as inquirers, e.g. how to go about inquiry, how to formulate questions, how to search for information, how to evaluate the sources and use them ethically, etc.</li>
</ul>
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><ul>
<li>Supporting teachers and students with resources in different formats - print, electronic, primary and secondary sources, experts!</li>
</ul>
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Now I could take this one step further by asking, how do I put this into practice?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">How do I get students to get curios?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br /><ul>
<li>Visually appealing nonfiction books - visual encyclopedia on animals, space, weird stuff are a hit. I don't have much yet but ordered some exciting titles for next year!</li>
<li>Thought-provoking read-alouds - there are so many amazing picture books</li>
<li>Artifacts to explore - I don't have much yet but I have a basket with items from Ghana on my desk, a Hong Kong box (includes books, flyers, maps etc.) and "Ms. Tanja's box of little things"</li>
<li>Modeling my own curiosity and wonderings - I share with students what I am curios about and keep an inquiry journal on my desk (unfortunately, it isn't well used yet, but it's a start)</li>
<li>Providing many opportunities to let students ask questions</li>
<li>Displaying student questions to signal that questions and wonderings are valued</li>
</ul>
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">How do I help students to acquire the skills they need as inquirers?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br /><ul>
<li>Collaborating with teachers in teaching the necessary information literacy skills when and where they are needed during units of inquiry</li>
<li>Modeling being an inquirer and information seeker</li>
<li>Following the same inquiry process when introducing authors to students in the library</li>
<li>Through detailed <a href="http://specialists.hkacademy.edu.hk/library1.html" target="_blank">blog posts</a>, letting parents in on the skills we teach and the resources we use so that they can follow up and support the inquiring from home</li>
<li>Through online tutorials and pathfinders helping students in practicing skills in their own time</li>
</ul>
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
How do I support teachers and students with resources?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br /><ul>
<li>Compiling print resources that support units</li>
<li>Constantly looking out for new resources and developing our library's collection, providing access to local and global information sources</li>
<li>Compiling and providing access to online resources (see <a href="http://tinyurl.com/MissTanja" target="_blank">HKA Primary Library Online Resources</a>).</li>
</ul>
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">I would love to hear your thoughts on this...</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>tgalettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664992753516795352noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8490726728455884652.post-2015498626439186452013-04-02T10:47:00.000+00:002013-04-02T10:54:28.171+00:00Ellen Leou and Lulu Enchant Kindergartners at HKA<i>(This is a post I recently published on <a href="http://specialists.hkacademy.edu.hk/11/category/ellen%20leou/1.html" target="_blank">my school library blog page</a> (unfortunately password protected) after an amazing visit by Hong Kong-based children's book author and illustrator Ellen Leou. I wanted to be able for a wider community to have access to this post and therefore decided to publish it here as well - however without the many photos showing my students engaging with the author. Sorry about that. I hope you still enjoy the post - and look out for Ellen Leou and her beautiful books.)</i><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/D2uXP5WC7D4" width="560"></iframe>
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(Source: <a href="http://www.luluthehongkongcat.com/p/meet-lulu.html">http://www.luluthehongkongcat.com/p/meet-lulu.html</a>)</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: LucidaGrande, Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">From the moment she welcomed the children and shared the cutest video about the real Lulu, she had her audience - children and adults alike - mesmerized: Hong Kong-based children's book author and illustrator <b><a href="http://www.luluthehongkongcat.com/p/meet-lulu.html" target="_blank">Ellen PW Leou</a></b>. There was an immediate connection and we couldn't wait to hear about Lulu's adventures. Instead of reading the story word by word, Ellen told the story alongside the beautiful illustrations which she had projected on our whiteboard. She quickly drew us into the story, letting us become a part by inviting us to sing along as Lulu started off on her adventure.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBEkYzc6bt_WZyiczsPpP7YFqOx75zWk9raiXCmJITujn8VZXZdcqRbyblNTOyxKdE45DLb8D-u5pDIhFrASd80Bm6AXitEZpYa94b9oLxwSfWperU0s2i9B_xVqudaMsttYkBHGZIEb8/s1600/Screen+shot+2013-04-02+at+6.41.48+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="473" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBEkYzc6bt_WZyiczsPpP7YFqOx75zWk9raiXCmJITujn8VZXZdcqRbyblNTOyxKdE45DLb8D-u5pDIhFrASd80Bm6AXitEZpYa94b9oLxwSfWperU0s2i9B_xVqudaMsttYkBHGZIEb8/s640/Screen+shot+2013-04-02+at+6.41.48+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: LucidaGrande, Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">While we loved following Lulu on her adventure around Hong Kong, we were equally excited about asking questions. W<span style="border-collapse: separate;">e had so many questions about Lulu in the story, the real Lulu and the author herself. We had been well prepared, having written down our questions already the week prior to the visit. That made sure we didn't forget a single one - and Ellen Leou answered each and every question. Our questions ranged from whether the real Lulu had a tail or not to whether it is hard being a writer.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht0c3qU6sUXjOavZCDccgsMScLpN4qJG3oXaYfdBsYzCxDZz0b1rq-Br2PRmwZZS1k7dmAUdCpIGgIYaxo5jv372-rPVlrNPTQl49GLPlF4mqMFMUFfgtcV5b8fnsSjchLPWrUpEBfuos/s1600/Screen+shot+2013-04-02+at+6.29.47+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="404" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht0c3qU6sUXjOavZCDccgsMScLpN4qJG3oXaYfdBsYzCxDZz0b1rq-Br2PRmwZZS1k7dmAUdCpIGgIYaxo5jv372-rPVlrNPTQl49GLPlF4mqMFMUFfgtcV5b8fnsSjchLPWrUpEBfuos/s640/Screen+shot+2013-04-02+at+6.29.47+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: LucidaGrande, Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="border-collapse: separate;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: LucidaGrande, Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I appreciated Ellen Leou’s honesty with students when talking about the writing process. She told students that starting to write is really hard and that it takes a lot of effort to do it well, that the editing and rewriting process can be pretty boring. Yet, she encouraged students to persevere. "Writing is hard work, you keep on trying and trying until you get it right. So don't get discouraged if it doesn't work out right away." She said that trying out stories on a friend was a great way of finding out whether they were good or boring.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: LucidaGrande, Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: LucidaGrande, Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: LucidaGrande, Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">t was also interesting to hear her explain how she starts of and what media she eventually uses for her illustrations. Ellen always begins with the writing process. Once that is completed, she says she has the pictures clearly in her head which makes it easier to work on the illustrations. While she uses different media for her illustrations (e.g. water color, ink, pencils, Chinese brushes), she always starts out with pencil drawings. That's not surprising when looking at the illustrations which have such fine and delicate patterns. Just look a the Chinese vase on one of the first pages, drawn with so much love for detail. Amazing!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4bznVje-oQveUzxXdecLec_7HTJtjIrtytbokAjvCx5JUTDQiX8-ed3wjwQVcG6IIcdESnh3OkojPdmu5AVDTTmLrXoLUPdiNtEhz6XTpGUIay66TM1bhMQrNTebndY6_08Z0JJGIOmU/s1600/photo-71.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4bznVje-oQveUzxXdecLec_7HTJtjIrtytbokAjvCx5JUTDQiX8-ed3wjwQVcG6IIcdESnh3OkojPdmu5AVDTTmLrXoLUPdiNtEhz6XTpGUIay66TM1bhMQrNTebndY6_08Z0JJGIOmU/s640/photo-71.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: LucidaGrande, Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Ellen kindly stayed on after the visit and shared some more information with me about herself and her writing. One of the things that I always find most interesting when learning about an author is their motivation to write. Ellen Leou said that she loves reading. She loved and read all day long when she was little. That is definitely a perfect reason to become a writer!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: LucidaGrande, Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: LucidaGrande, Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">The reason why her stories are set in Hong Kong, she explained, is that in her opinion there aren't many stories about what Hong Kong really is like. Most stories talk about people from Hong Kong going elsewhere and finding something magical there. She, on the other hand, wanted to open the eyes of the many children growing up in Hong Kong, to the beauty of their city. It's all about perspective, she says, and wants us to focus on what we see around us. She made an amazing comparison, which was a true eye-opener for me: It's the stories that bring the magic to a place, making a city special and romantic. When we come to a city, we bring stories that we have heard from others, like some extra luggage with us. "The stories people tell about a place are part of the magic of that place". I am glad that you brought some of this magic to our library!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: LucidaGrande, Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: LucidaGrande, Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Since the author's visit, whenever I run into a kindergarten student, Lulu, the Hong Kong Cat is mentioned at some point. There is still so much talking, so much excitement about the visit in the air, it is wonderful. During the past week, we made some more time, to reflect about the experience and to think about what we learned from it. Our kindergartners did a wonderful job in sharing their learning through writing, drawing and speaking. Here a few examples:<br /><br />- the author writes a lot about Lulu<br />- the author's real cat is also called Lulu<br />- the real Lulu also has no tail<br />- the author got Lulu from her friend<br />- the author puts many animals in her stories<br />- there are different settings in the book<br />- she is a good story writer<br />- writing stories is hard<br />- authors know their stories so well they can tell them without looking at the words.<br /><br />The number one question, on the other hand was, where and how the book can be bought! And isn't this exactly what we are hoping for our students when we invite authors, that they mesmerize the kids with their stories, that they can think of nothing else but getting the book to read and treasure the story over and over again?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: LucidaGrande, Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: orange;"><b>THANK YOU ELLEN LEOU!</b></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">(Image source: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.luluthehongkongcat.com/p/meet-lulu.html">http://www.luluthehongkongcat.com/p/meet-lulu.html</a>)</span></span></div>
tgalettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664992753516795352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8490726728455884652.post-7811953379231696992013-02-16T11:08:00.000+00:002013-02-16T11:08:02.292+00:00Tuning in... to another PD opportunity
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I feel fortunate to be able to attend
some more PD beginning tomorrow. This time it will be an IB
workshop here in Hong Kong on the PYP Exhibition:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">"The Primary Years Programme (PYP)
exhibition represents a significant event in the life of a PYP school and
student, synthesiszing the essential elements of the PYP and sharing them with
the whole school community. As a culminating experience it is an opportunity
for students to exhibit the attributes of the International Baccalaureate (IB)
learner profile they have been developing throughout their engagement with the
PYP.” (<a href="http://exhibitionworkshop2013.weebly.com/uploads/1/6/8/2/16822980/exhibition_guidelines.pdf">Exhibition
guidelines</a>).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The workshop leader has set up a
website which includes some readings for the workshop. Exploring the website
and spending time with the reading materials was a great opportunity to
"tune in" to the topic – and get excited about the workshop. I especially
enjoyed reading the following three articles:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://exhibitionworkshop2013.weebly.com/uploads/1/6/8/2/16822980/misconceptions_about_curriculum.pdf">Misconceptions
about Curriculum-as-Inquiry Framework</a> (Jann Pataray-Ching and Mary
Roberson)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://exhibitionworkshop2013.weebly.com/uploads/1/6/8/2/16822980/negotiating_curriculum.pdf">Negotiating
the Curriculum with Students: a conversation worth having</a> (Kath Murdoch and
Le Mescam)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://exhibitionworkshop2013.weebly.com/uploads/1/6/8/2/16822980/developing_inquiries.pdf">Developing
Inquiries</a> (Ann Hickey)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In order not to create another super
long post, here just some quotes and thoughts that resulted from reading Pataray-Ching & Roberson’s article.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“The inquiry cycle […] provides a
curricular framework that puts the learner at the center of the curriculum and
establishes seamless and ongoing connections between learning and inquiry.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“[…] inquiry-based curriculum is
built from learners’ interests and must be personally and socially significant
to spur lifelong curiosities, lifelong wandering and wondering.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“Misconception 1: Inquiry is too
complex for young learners. - […] Research shows that children as young as
infants and toddlers actively inquire throughout their daily lives and are
indeed able to understand complex thought, even prior to school.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“Misconception 2: Inquiry is just a
fancy name for doing research. - […] inquiries involve a series of experiences
that extend beyond the simple search for answers in a textbook or encyclopedia,
making the traditional view of student research<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>subset of, rather than another name for, inquiry. A goal of
inquiry classrooms, then, is to help learner move beyond perceiving inquiry as
looking up information in textbooks and encyclopedias and to adopt a
philosophical stance of viewing learning.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">(I think this is the most thought-provoking part of the article
for me because what I usually do in the library is focus on just this small
part of the inquiry. I put too much focus on information retrieved from books
and websites, no including enough other sources of information and experiences.
I wonder how I can make that better…)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“Misconception 3: The duration of
inquiry studies should be no more than two weeks. - […] Providing children time
for inquiry exploration is vital. […] prolonged thought of, and extended
interactions with, an inquiry experience encourages interconnection and a
deeper sense of knowing.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“Misconception 4: In an inquiry
classroom where learners are responsible for gathering resources and
information, the teacher does not need to teach. – […] the inquiry teacher
works to establish and organize a climate for inquiry so that students develop
the tools to explore their curiosities and become more thoughtful, reflective,
and inquisitive individuals.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">(I would have added here that we also provide them with the
necessary skills, in my case for example in teaching them how to search for
information sources efficiently.)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“Misconception 5: Inquiring through
disciplinary perspectives and sign system perspectives is no different than
planning integrated units of study. – […] when children inquire through
disciplinary and sign system perspectives, their questions drive the
curriculum. However, in integrated untis of study, the predetermined infusion
of content areas dictates the curriculum, preventing children’s authentic
questions from emerging.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“Misconception 6: An inquiry
curriculum is impossible to implement because teachers have so many other
subjects to teach. – […] An inquiry curriulum is not intended to be another
“teaching idea” added onto the existing curriculum. It is a philosophical
framework that guides instruction.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“Misconception 7: It is worthless to
implement an inquiry curriculum because it cannot be graded. – […] inquiry
classrooms redefine grading. Evaluation is essential but its primary purpose is
to support student reflection and growth so that learners are equally
responsible and accountable for their learning. […] When children are
responsible for evaluation, they have a greater personal investment in their
own learning process and personal growth.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“Misconception 8: Implementation of
an inquiry curriculum does not guarantee that students will score better on
standardized tests; therefore, the curriculum is useless. – […] Research
indicates that students in whole language classrooms did as well or better on
standardized tests compared to students in skills-oriented and phonics-based
classrooms […] and that students’ test scores increase in inquiry classrooms.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“Misconception 9: Students should not
inquire about the same topic throughout the school year because students will
fail to learn the “common stock of knowledge” that society expects all educated
persons share. – […] Inquiry, when used to support children’s ongoing
questions, has tremendous potential for lifelong learning. Students learn the
values of longevity, persistence, depth of exploration, and continual
questioning, qualities that can be applied to learning any concept or topic,
qualities that prepare students for the 21<sup>st</sup> century.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I also liked how the authors describe the six roles the inquiry teacher takes on in the classroom:</span></div>
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<ol>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">Inquirer</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">Supporter of learning culture</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">Listener and observer</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">Question poser</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">Organizer</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;">Co-learner</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px;"> </span></li>
</ol>
<br />
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I guess I picked this article to
share a bit more because it somehow addressed one of the questions I have
regarding Exhibition: what do you do when students realize when looking
for information sources on their topic that there aren’t any or none age-appropriate?
Do you steer students towards another topic? So far, I would have said, steer
them towards another topic. But after reading this article I am thinking maybe
this is just because I think of inquiry too much as traditional research,
finding answers in books and webites… <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I hope that participating in the
workshop will help me to find an answer to this questions and show me in
general how I can support students better with Exhibition – and I am sure this
is not just during the actual Exhibition period but throughout the PYP.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->tgalettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664992753516795352noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8490726728455884652.post-17743176410156076262013-02-11T10:00:00.000+00:002013-02-11T10:00:21.846+00:0021st Century Learning Conference – Reflections from an Amazing Learning Experience
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">After years of following
this amazing event via tweets from my Twitter PLN, I was finally able to attend
in person – what an amazing experience! Since I took part in the pre-conference
for librarians with Debbie Abilock as well, I got three days of exciting and
motivating learning experience through keynotes, panel discussions, workshops
and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">unconference </i>sessions. I listened
to and was engaged in presentations on how technology has the potential - when
used in the right way - to extend and redefine learning for our students. Here
are some of my thoughts and some of the resources I took away from this.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Preconference with Debbie Abilock on developing friction in the research process<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">One of the most powerful
aspects of attending conferences and workshops is the opportunity to reflect on
my own practice and what I am learning. And just as I encourage my students to
do, I am sorting it here into three categories:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">(1) Things I knew already and/or found confirmation
to continue doing:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">Kids love the
easy-way out when looking for information, making Google and Wikipedia their
preferred one-stop.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">Giving students
choice during inquiry is a powerful motivator as it gives them ownership in their
learning – this can be in regard to the question(s) they pursue or the way they
present their learning</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">A powerful
provocation at the beginning of an inquiry is key to get students’ interest and
attention but also helps them in building context. (Debbie Abilock referred to
it as “setting the table” – I love that expression!)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">It is important
to teach students how to evaluate resources.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">Students need to
learn to cite sources manually, thereby the focus not being on the commas and
the periods but rather the understanding of the pieces of information that go
into a citation and where to find them.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">(2) Things I learned:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.thinglink.com/">ThingLink</a> is a great web tool for
annotating pictures, which can then become a powerful resource for a
provocation at the beginning of an inquiry or for introducing/teaching students
about the concept of “tagging”. Here an amazing list of links to </span><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y2jiFWg4G3qji35l99UNueDwi8lvl8g24ZlUDOgleQU/edit"><span style="color: #1237ca; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Image
Sources</span></a>.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">Noodle Tool
offers some free resources for evaluating and citing sources: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://www.noodletools.com/guide/showme/"><span style="color: #1237ca; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Show Me Information Literacy
Modules</span></a></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">. Individual pages can
easily be embedded in websites. I found especially the pages that show students
where to find what piece of bibliographic information very useful.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.wolframalpha.com/">WolframAlpha</a> – a totally intriguing
computational knowledge engine – I could imagne that this is another great
resource to get an inquiry started.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">(You can find
all of my notes in <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y8N1X42GtxadE-qJMX_QwJi7Y0KRoludIHb_Wa32g28/edit">this
public Google Document</a>).</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">(3) Things I am now wondering about:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">There was lots of talk about
Google searches and Wikipedia. Listening to the comments and remarks of the
presenter as well as the other participants made me wonder whether my practice
was the right one. I encourage/ expect our Primary School students to follow a
sequence of search strategies, beginning with World Book Online, then moving on
to the library’s online catalog (we use Follett’s Destiny - Library search for
books and WebPath Express for websites), then go to online subject
directories such as <a href="http://kidsclick.org/">KidsClick</a> – and only if
students still haven’t found enough information at this point will they go to a
kid-friendly search engine such as <a href="http://kidrex.org/">KidRex</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I have thought about this
quite a bit since the conference and while there is much value in the points
made, I am not convinced that introducing these skills in Primary School would help my students. I agree that
it is important to teach students how to use Google and Wikipedia efficiently
and appropriately, but at a later stage, let’s say in Middle School. I think it
otherwise overwhelms kids who have no or little experience with any kind of
search engines or databases. Let them practice skills such as identifying
keywords and making searches in an online catalog first. Not only will they
will find it much easier to learn how to apply and build on these skills when
learning to conduct efficient searches on Google but it also enables them to be
successful in locating and using information with little or no assistance early
on. When talking about this with my students, I compare searching the Internet with
learning how to drive a car: no one starts on the super highway, we all start
on smaller roads and as our confidence and skills increase, we try out bigger
roads. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Day 1: Keynotes and Extended Workshop<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Two fabulous keynotes and an
amazing extended workshop on the use of iPads in the classroom showed what
potential technology has to transform and enhance the learning of our students.
Here some thoughts and ideas I took away:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Nichole Pinkard “</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Digital Youth Network: a
framework for developing youth's new media literacies”</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Kids need an audience relevant to them for what they create. Creating a
global audience is a motivator for their work.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">The question is how we can begin to give credit for what kids do outside
of school.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">We need to enable kids to have learning opportunities in all spaces
(school, after school, community, home) they spend their time in.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Does digital media take away from traditional literacy? Dr. Pinkard
says no, it enforces traditional literacies!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">What does it mean to be literate? It's not just about reading and writing
anymore. Kids have to be able to communicate in multiple ways.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Participation gap: those who can create with media vs those who only
consume. Kids have access to the technology but unequal access to opportunities
to the learning on how to use them efficiently.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">An environment can be created that makes up for the participation gap, e.g.
libraries as spaces where students create!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Libraries are turning into exciting learning hubs with mobile learning
devices (I love this!).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Students need to consciously critique the media they consume before
they create their own.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Check out <a href="http://digitalyouthnetwork.org/">Dr. Nichole
Pinkard’s project website</a>.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Jenny Lane: “</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">The Power of Social Networking
to Promote 21st Century Learning”</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Don't turn your iPad into an expensive notepad when using it in your
classroom.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">An iPad is not a computer but a mobile device. It has lots of other (additional)
functions and should not be considered as a replacement.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Mobile learning is changing the space in which we are learning: pedagogical
space, virtual space & physical space.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Mobile devices allow your students to take the teacher home.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Mobile devices allow you to take your classroom into the world.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Check out <a href="http://tips2012.edublogs.org/">Dr. Jenny Lane’s blog</a>.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The most important thing I
learned, even before going into the extended special session on alternatives to
the iPad is that there is no alternative, at least not in my opinion and not for
my situation. None of the other tablets the panel speakers introduced offer
such a wide range of applications that allow technology to redefine the
learning and not just substitute the tools of traditional teaching and learning
strategies. An iPad is not meant to replace a desktop computer or Macbook but
rather provide additional and new opportunities for teaching and learning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">John Burns: Transforming Learning with the iPad<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I loved how John Burns in
his presentation introduced and provided demonstrations of apps, categorized
according to the level of transformation they provide (i.e. from </span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">substitution, augmentation,
modification to redefinition)</span><span style="font-family: Arial;">. The aim
is here to get away from merely substituting traditional tools with technology but
rather reach redefinition of the learning through the use of technology: </span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Check out all the fantastic apps he
introduced <a href="http://elearning.sis.org.cn/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/SAMR-Notes.pdf">here.</a></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">It made total sense and I
thought then and there that I should rearrange the apps on my iPad in this way.
I think it is important that we are at all times aware of what we are trying to
do with the technology. John Burns’ enthusiasm was contagious and convinced me
that at this point there is no other device that could offer so much to student
learning, all in one device. (It also made me wish I had an iPad with more
storage space ;)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The session also addressed
important issues about the implementation and management of the devices within
a school: iPads need to get into the hands of teachers first – the key element
to a successful implementation; and iPads are best managed in smaller numbers,
not more than 5 devices attached to one account.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Day 3 More keynotes and presentations<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Jeff Dungan: iPad in Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">It’s all about assessment when using the iPad in literacy instruction: assessment
by teacher, peers and self.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Big plus of using iPads in readers & writers workshop: it motivates
students – and helps teachers with the process of recording and assessing
student learning.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/confer/id387777553?mt=8">Confer
app</a> is an amazing resource for the teacher to use during reader’s and
writer’s workshop. It takes some time setting up but once it's all in place,
what a great tool to keep track of students' progress!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Recommended reading and a good starting point on how to make use of
technology in literacy instruction even though published in 2009: Troy Hick’s <i>The
Digital Writing Workshop.</i></span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">This post is becoming longer
and longer and I feel I need to come to an end even though I still haven’t
covered all, like the interesting sessions on teachers as lifelong learners, the
opening keynote on how technology affects the brain, the session on funky ways
of teaching kids about copyright, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">unconference</i>
session on making thinking visible, the inspiring and highly entertaining
closing keynote by D.D. Meyer and the many great resources shared (have a look at <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/tgaletti" target="_blank">my Diigo</a> for more). I guess it will still take me a long
time to really process everything that I heard and learned.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">But there is one more thing
I want to mention here. Something that has had a huge impact on my learning
during this conference – as it has on my professional development over the past
two years: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Twitter</b>. What an amazing
difference Twitter has made to my learning, and what an amazing tool it can be
to record and sort out my thoughts as well as share what I am learning with
others. I did a lot of learning and sharing – also as a thank you to the many
people who have tweeted from past confernces, allowing me to participate even
when I couldn’t attend in person. Here you can see all of my tweets (and the
tweets of other participants) in one place:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://eventifier.co/event/21clhk/tgaletti">Eventifier 21st Century
Learning Conference</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">It was of course also
fabulous meeting so many of my Twitter friends for the first time in person!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Last but not least, check
out <a href="http://librarygrits.blogspot.hk/2013/02/personalisation-learning-journal.html">Dianne
MacKenzie’s reflections</a> from the conference. She has done an amazing job in
writing down her thoughts and in compiling the best resources shared.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->tgalettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664992753516795352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8490726728455884652.post-57310130301496194692013-01-08T10:41:00.003+00:002013-01-08T10:44:07.044+00:00Stretching my reading (and blogging?) life in 2013<br />
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<!--StartFragment--><span style="font-family: Arial;"> “</span><span style="font-family: Arial;">No one who reads should
apologize for their preferences and reading experiences, but we can aspire to
stretch ourselves or fill any perceived deficits in our reading lives.” (<a href="http://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/2012/12/23/book-gap-challenge-by-donalyn-miller/" target="_blank">Donalyn Miller</a>)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"> I recently came across this sentence in a blog post by Donalyn Miller aka the Book Whisperer. While I follow the ideas and experiences she shares throughout the year, I especially look forward to her posts towards the end of a year. I know that she will give me some great ideas when thinking about setting goals for my reading life. The end of 2012 was no exception to this and so I decided to aim at stretching my reading experience during 2013, by aiming to include more titles from genres I usually (with much success) ignore; science fiction for example. I am really exited about this idea because I know that I will thereby discover some great new stories.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;">Once I had decided to work on stretching my reading life, I thought why not apply the stretching idea also to some other areas such as the sharing of my reading and learning through various social media and my blog. It's not that I haven't tried it before - and failed even though constantly encouraged by friends (thanks for not giving up on me, Edna) - but somehow I never got very far with my blogging. Let's see how it goes this year :)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;">If you are just like me, trying to get into blogging, here a wonderful post with excellent tips:</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://whatedsaid.wordpress.com/2012/10/07/10-tips-for-reluctant-bloggers/" target="_blank">10 Tips for (Reticent) Bloggers...</a></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span>
tgalettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664992753516795352noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8490726728455884652.post-17340551795259277022012-09-02T10:11:00.002+00:002012-09-02T10:11:39.310+00:00Ms. Tanja's Mad Minute<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I promised myself that I would blog more this year and yet I am once again falling behind even though I am constantly jotting down notes for posts... So here at least one quick idea that I shared with some of my new students during the past week. Everyone totally loved it. I am calling it the MAD MINUTE or Ms. Tanja's Mad Minute. This is how it works:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px;">I select a couple of favorite books for various reading levels (I started this week with about eight books), set an <a href="http://www.online-stopwatch.com/eggtimer-countdown/full-screen/" style="text-decoration: none;">online egg timer </a>to 60 seconds, and then try within this time to recommend as many books as possible by just saying one or two catchy phrases about each book. Students interested in a book simply raise their hand and I pass the book on to them. It is <em style="position: relative;">fast and furious</em> and so much fun! </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">I have now invited students to take up the Mad Minute challenge by sharing some of their favorite books and hope that some time soon I will have my first volunteer.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px;">In case you are wondering what titles I chose for my first Mad Minutes, here the list of titles (so far I did the Mad Minute with my two fourth grade and two fifth grade classes):</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px;">Grades 5:</span></span><br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: transparent;">
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.0469163756351918"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The London Eye Mystery; Stormbreaker; The Strange Case of Origami Yoda; The Butterfly Lion; The Magician’s Elephant; The City of Ember; The Wanderer;</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Homework Machine, Kensuke’s Kingdom, Because of Winn-Dixie, The Willoughbys, The End of the Beginning, Chasing Vermeer, The Magician’s Elephant, Hoot;</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Grades 4:</span></span></div>
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.0469163756351918" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Lemonade War; Ida B.; The Spiderwick Chronicles; Riding Freedom; The Tale of Desperaux; Kensuke’s Kingdom; The Magic Paintbrush; </span></span></b></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First Apple, The Sleeping Sword; Ida B.; The Magic Paintbrush; Spiderwick Chronicles; The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane; The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester; Akimbo and the Crocodile Man.</span></span></b></div>
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tgalettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664992753516795352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8490726728455884652.post-18643430965057847142012-08-20T12:33:00.001+00:002012-08-20T12:33:26.454+00:00New BeginningsAfter almost 19 years of Ghana, 5 years of them as Primary School Librarian at <a href="http://www.lincoln.edu.gh/">Lincoln Community School</a>, I moved to Hong Kong to take on the same role at <a href="http://www.hkacademy.edu.gh/" target="_blank">Hong Kong Academy</a>. It's been almost three weeks - an amazing three weeks - since we arrived in Hong Kong but today was my first actual day with students. I didn't get much sleep last night, wondering (and worrying) how my first classes would be. Would the students like me? Would they participate voluntarily? Would classroom management be an issue? I couldn't believe how nervous I was. And yet, everything went well. The children were just wonderful, curious to get to know me and excited about being in the library. I wish I could have spend more time with them.<br />
<br />
New beginnings are truly exciting and there is so much to be excited about, for example:<br />
- getting to know and working with new students and fellow educators<br />
- sharing with new colleagues ideas and suggestions for learning engagements that have worked well in the past<br />
- seeing and working with a different Programme of Inquiry (POI)<br />
- exploring a new library collection<br />
- being involved in the design of a brand-new library as the school is currently building a new campus<br />
- sharing the library with an experienced, knowledgeable and passionate fellow librarian<br />
- and, of course, living in Hong Kong aka Library Wonderland!<br />
<br />
But of course, new beginnings can also be overwhelming and worrying. My major concerns are related to the introduction of a partly flexible schedule (we will maintain a 30min fixed library time with a focus on literature appreciation; information literacy skills will be integrated into the UOIs and scheduled on a flexible basis) even though I am totally convinced that this is the right approach:<br />
- will classroom teachers be supportive of the new model?<br />
- will we be able to cover all relevant skills within the school year?<br />
- will the 30min weekly fixed time be sufficient to introduce students to a wide variety of literature while giving them enough time to chose their own books?<br />
<br />
The first couple of days, and in particular the fact that one grade-level has already scheduled additional time in the library, have made me very hopeful. Exciting times, new beginnings, new adventures - and lots of new sharing and learning to look forward to!<br />
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<br />tgalettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664992753516795352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8490726728455884652.post-84336622375283820382012-02-13T20:08:00.006+00:002012-02-13T20:34:16.071+00:00Inquire Within: Teachers as Inquirers<a href="http://inquiryblog.wordpress.com/">Inquire Within</a> is a fabulous blog dedicated to inquiry-based learning. Brought to life by <a href="http://whatedsaid.wordpress.com/">Edna Sackson</a>, educators from around the globe share experiences from their classroom or library. It's one of the few blogs I follow closely, never missing a post. Today I wrote a post myself about the professional development at the elementary division of my school, <a href="http://www.lincoln.edu.gh/">Lincoln Community School</a>. I will cross-post it here but hope you are going to check out <a href="http://inquiryblog.wordpress.com/">Inquire Within</a> as well. <div><br /></div><div> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:documentproperties> <o:template>Normal.dotm</o:Template> <o:revision>0</o:Revision> <o:totaltime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:pages>1</o:Pages> <o:words>7</o:Words> <o:characters>43</o:Characters> <o:company>Lincoln Community School</o:Company> <o:lines>1</o:Lines> <o:paragraphs>1</o:Paragraphs> <o:characterswithspaces>52</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:version>12.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;">Teachers as Inquirers – Reflections from a Learner<o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment--></div><div><span style="font-family:Arial;">It was back in October 2011 that I shared a post titled </span><a href="http://inquiryblog.wordpress.com/2011/10/23/more-about-teachers-as-inquirers/"><span style="font-family:Arial;">More About Teachers as Inquirers</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial;">, introducing a fabulous PD opportunity (</span><a href="http://www.lincoln.edu.gh/page.cfm?p=487&newsid=219&ncat=3"><span style="font-family:Arial;">Teachers Are Inquirers</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial;">) organized by the Learning Council at my school, </span><a href="http://www.lincoln.edu.gh/"><span style="font-family:Arial;">Lincoln Community School, Accra</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial;">. We, the elementary teachers, were embarking on a unit of inquiry with the Central Idea “Inquiry is the pedagogical approach used across the curriculum”. In the meantime, we have completed our “official” inquiry (but then there is never really an end to inquiry, right?) and I want to share a bit more with you about the process and outcome.</span></div><div> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;">As part of the </span><a href="http://lcstechnologyinquiry.wikispaces.com/"><span style="font-family:Arial;">Technology Inquiry Group</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial;">, I looked into how iPads can be used to support struggling and reluctant readers. Enthusiastic about the topic, I jumped right into the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Finding Out</b> phase, reading<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"> </b>how iPads were used by other schools and libraries and what apps they recommended. But then I had my first important lesson: while I was discovering excellent resources around iPads in education in general, I suddenly realized that I had lost sight of my main inquiry and found myself completely confused. Fortunately, my facilitator <a href="http://disting.blogspot.com/">Sarah Pickles</a> and the </span><a href="http://lcstechnologyinquiry.wikispaces.com/"><span style="font-family:Arial;">guiding questions</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial;"> for each phase of the inquiry model helped me to get back on track. It made me realize what an important role the teacher/facilitator plays during inquiry, helping the learner to stay on track by constantly reconnecting to the Central Idea.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;">I felt very much back on track as I was <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">sorting out</b> what I had discovered and made sense of what I was learning at the same time. I realized that most probably the most powerful element in the use of iPads with struggling readers is that they turn reading from a task into a fun activity. Of course, there are several features within the apps that support the reader in various ways, e.g. reading the text or individual words out loud. I began to wonder how I could best put my learning into practice.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;">These new tensions and wonderings provided the basis for the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Going Further</b> phase during which I tried to find additional answers and put some of my new knowledge into practice. However, I had to make a change to my original plan since the first opportunity I got to use the iPad with readers was with a group of confident KG students for whom this would provide an extension of their reading experience. The idea came from their teacher Miranda Rose (she is one of the facilitators of this PD inquiry and her reflections are available on this blog under “Teachers as Inquirers – Reflections from a Facilitator”). Until this point, I had never considered that iPads could be as beneficial to high-performing readers as well as to those struggling.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;">While <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Drawing Conclusions</b>, I not only summarized my findings regarding the use of iPads with readers but also my experiences in going through an inquiry cycle as a learner. I think these were the really powerful outcomes of this learning experience for me, gaining a better understanding of my role as a facilitator while experiencing the challenges the learner is faced with. I therefore want to share all of them with you as I recorded them on my wiki page (by the way, the wiki page also represents my summative assessment):</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="mso-bidi- font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;" >There never seems to be enough time to get everything done, that we would like to do.</span></i></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;" >Answers always create new questions and it's okay that the inquiry somehow never ends.</span></i></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol;"><span style="mso-list:Ignore"><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;">It's important to keep the fluidity of the inquiry cycle in mind, there are no strict boundaries between the individual stages (I have experienced that sometimes I am finding it challenging to say exactly on what phase I am, e.g. is it already Sorting out or still Finding out etc.).</span></i></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;" >The role of the facilitator is extremely important in keeping the learner on track/on task and re-connecting to the Central Idea constantly.</span></i></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;" >No matter how big or small the initial question or wondering, the inquiry process can always be applied. Often we go through the process without being aware of it.</span></i></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;" >Inquiry requires personal initiative and engagement - you can’t expect that everything gets done in the allocated time. Thinking about students, wouldn't the ideal be that they follow up in their own time too?</span></i></span></li></ul><span style="font-family:Arial;">You can read more about my journey through this inquiry cycle on </span><a href="http://lcstechnologyinquiry.wikispaces.com/Tanja"><span style="font-family:Arial;">Tanja’s Page</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial;"> of our Technology wiki.</span> <!--EndFragment--></div>tgalettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664992753516795352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8490726728455884652.post-50766923918990697772012-01-07T16:20:00.004+00:002012-01-07T16:38:44.152+00:00iPads in the Classroom<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixKE5Ho18rW4zcLiENyleJVXrLzAKE9SDdZwFhrv48AgCdhQE6BxTzuNTQa7L9FsCDmuxWKJHmhRpG2eo_mQJ-3U_QgRfYkTHYC5odKnU_H6DX08pRedNo42PRCAEvQA8hOvcgQelLbVI/s1600/iPadScreenShot2.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 183px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixKE5Ho18rW4zcLiENyleJVXrLzAKE9SDdZwFhrv48AgCdhQE6BxTzuNTQa7L9FsCDmuxWKJHmhRpG2eo_mQJ-3U_QgRfYkTHYC5odKnU_H6DX08pRedNo42PRCAEvQA8hOvcgQelLbVI/s320/iPadScreenShot2.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5694927363538980050" /></a><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">On Monday, January 9, <a href="http://www.lincoln.edu.gh">LCS</a> is having a professional development day under the motto "Teachers Teaching Teachers". With my colleague Rhona, I will be hosting a one-hour session on iPads in the classroom. The main idea is to get teachers excited about exploring the use of our school iPads in their classroom, by giving a few examples of what you can do with an iPad. Below is the list of apps we will introduce before teachers will get an opportunity to explore some of them independently. Which apps would you have added to this list?</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:documentproperties> <o:template>Normal.dotm</o:Template> <o:revision>0</o:Revision> <o:totaltime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:pages>1</o:Pages> <o:words>370</o:Words> <o:characters>2113</o:Characters> <o:company>Lincoln Community School</o:Company> <o:lines>17</o:Lines> <o:paragraphs>4</o:Paragraphs> <o:characterswithspaces>2594</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:version>12.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:"Tw Cen MT"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Tw Cen MT"; mso-hansi-font-family:"Tw Cen MT"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">You can read…<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id302584613?mt=8"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Kindle</span></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">… or let someone read to you!<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-fantastic-flying-books/id438052647?mt=8"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore</span></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">You can write<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pages/id361309726?mt=8"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Pages</span></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">You can present<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Arial"><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/keynote/id361285480?mt=8">Keynote</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; "> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">You can explain<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Arial"><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/screenchomp/id442415881?mt=8">ScreenChomp</a></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">You can search/look up<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wordbook-xl-english-dictionary/id364030280?mt=8"><span style="font-family:Arial">WordBook XL</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-atlas-by-national-geographic/id342272934?mt=8"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">National Geographic World Atlas</span></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">You can explore<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/science360-for-ipad/id439928181?mt=8"><span style="font-family:Arial">Science 360</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-book-this-day-in-history/id364739528?mt=8"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">WB This Day in History</span></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">You can practice<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/everyday-mathematics-beat/id413518042?mt=8"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Everyday Math (Beat the Computer)</span></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">You can create…</span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Arial">Artwork: </span><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/123d-sculpt/id446119510?mt=8"><span style="font-family:Arial">123 sculpt</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial">, </span><span style="font-family:Arial"><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zen-brush/id382200873?mt=8">ZenBrush</a></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Arial">Photography: </span><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/skitch-for-ipad/id490505997?mt=8"><span style="font-family:Arial">Skitch</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial">, </span><span style="font-family:Arial"><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wordfoto/id414002091?mt=8">WordFoto</a></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Arial">Music: </span><span style="font-family:Arial"><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/garageband/id408709785?mt=8">GarageBand</a></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Arial">Movies: </span><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/imovie/id377298193?mt=8"><span style="font-family:Arial">iMovie</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial">, </span><span style="font-family:Arial"><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/silent-film-director/id335148458?mt=8">Film Director</a></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Arial">Cartoons/Comics: </span><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/toontastic/id404693282?mt=8"><span style="font-family:Arial">Toontastic</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial">, </span><span style="font-family:Arial"><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/comicbook!/id436114747?mt=8">ComicBook</a></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Arial">Poems: </span><span style="font-family:Arial"><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/poetry-creator-verses-poetry/id371925480?mt=8">Poetry Creator</a></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Arial">Books: </span><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/book-creator-for-ipad/id442378070?mt=8"><span style="font-family:Arial">BookCreator</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">(… and in case the power goes off, you have an emergency light source through <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/free-candle/id434064534?mt=8">Free Candle</a> ;) )</span></span></p> <!--EndFragment--></div><div> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:documentproperties> <o:template>Normal.dotm</o:Template> <o:revision>0</o:Revision> <o:totaltime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:pages>1</o:Pages> <o:words>366</o:Words> <o:characters>2088</o:Characters> <o:company>Lincoln Community School</o:Company> <o:lines>17</o:Lines> <o:paragraphs>4</o:Paragraphs> <o:characterswithspaces>2564</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:version>12.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:"Tw Cen MT"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Tw Cen MT"; mso-hansi-font-family:"Tw Cen MT"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;"><b><br /></b></span></p></div>tgalettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664992753516795352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8490726728455884652.post-29137725675756997592011-12-29T15:31:00.002+00:002011-12-29T15:40:16.866+00:00How do you keep up?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:documentproperties> <o:template>Normal.dotm</o:Template> <o:revision>0</o:Revision> <o:totaltime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:pages>1</o:Pages> <o:words>245</o:Words> <o:characters>1398</o:Characters> <o:company>Lincoln Community School</o:Company> <o:lines>11</o:Lines> <o:paragraphs>2</o:Paragraphs> <o:characterswithspaces>1716</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:version>12.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:"Tw Cen MT"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Tw Cen MT"; mso-hansi-font-family:"Tw Cen MT"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">I love using the Internet to connect with a wider PLN and share my learning. I am a big fan of blogs, wikis, Diigo, only2clicks and other Web 2.0 tools. Whenever I discover something new, I can spend hours exploring, experimenting and creating. But it seems I am never able to keep up with it, especially posting on my blog and reading other blogs regularly. While I constantly write blog posts and comments in my head, I usually don’t get to publish them. Lately, I have even fallen behind updating my Shelfari. So often it’s only during the holidays that I get to catch up a bit. I admire others who constantly post, comment, create and share: <a href="http://mrschureads.blogspot.com/">John Schu</a>, <a href="http://vanmeterlibraryvoice.blogspot.com/">Shannon Miller</a>, <a href="http://whatedsaid.wordpress.com/">Edna Sackson</a>,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and <a href="http://librarygrits.blogspot.com/">Dianne McKenzie</a>, just to mention a few (and forgetting so many other great educators I should mention… my apologies).</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Fortunately, there is Twitter, which allows me to stay connected and feel in touch with what is going on, no matter how busy I am. I catch up on tweets through my phone whenever I have a few minutes. With messages never longer than 140 characters that’s not a big deal. When I find something of interest, a resource or tool I want to explore further, I email it to myself (I don’t like reading longer articles on my phone, my eyes aren’t that great anymore…). On my computer I can easily bookmark it and share it with others who might not be on Twitter yet. I am also never behind in sharing on Twitter what I am reading or discovering. Writing 140 characters take just a moment - that is what makes Twitter so great.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Nevertheless, I hope to do a better job in blogging next year and would love to hear your advice. What helps you in posting regularly? Any tips and tricks you can share are appreciated.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <!--EndFragment-->tgalettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664992753516795352noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8490726728455884652.post-86315902531612678952011-10-18T20:47:00.000+00:002011-10-18T20:50:56.385+00:00Children's Literature from/about Ghana<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:documentproperties> <o:template>Normal.dotm</o:Template> <o:revision>0</o:Revision> <o:totaltime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:pages>1</o:Pages> <o:words>536</o:Words> <o:characters>3060</o:Characters> <o:company>Lincoln Community School</o:Company> <o:lines>25</o:Lines> <o:paragraphs>6</o:Paragraphs> <o:characterswithspaces>3757</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:version>12.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">I recently shared on Twitter, that <a href="http://www.goldenbaobab.org">Golden Baobab</a> has invited me to be one of <a href="http://www.goldenbaobab.org/judges.html">their judges</a> for the junior category of this year’s Golden Baobab Prize. This literary award, which was established in 2008, aims at promoting and inspiring the writing of African children’s literature. The organization’s stated dream is “in ten years to see bookstores all over the world overflowing with beautifully written and illustrated African books for children and young adults”. It’s an amazing experience to be part of their judging team and I feel honored to be working alongside <a href="http://www.goldenbaobab.org/judges.html">Brenda Randolph and Meshack Asare</a> for such a worthy cause.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">In this context, one of my Twitter friends, ACob, a PYP and MYP teacher librarian, asked me for suggestions of African children’s literature. I thought this would be a great opportunity to share some of my (and my students’) favorite titles through my blog (which I have badly neglected for far too long). This is just a selection, with mainly titles from and about Ghana for elementary students. Let me know, if you are interested in more. If you have a favorite title why not share it in a comment to this post. Thanks!</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Some great fiction titles:<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Picture books<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-36.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin">Asare, Meshack. </span><i><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt; font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana">Tawia goes to sea. </span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana">Accra: Sub-Saharan Publishers, 2007.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-36.0pt">Daly, Niki. <i><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana">Pretty Salma : a Little Red Riding Hood story from Africa. </span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana">New York: Clarion Books, 2007.</span><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-36.0pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana">Milway, Katie S. <i>One hen : how one small loan made a big difference. </i>Toronto, ON: Kids Can Press, 2008.</span><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">C<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">hapter books:<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-36.0pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana">Asare, Meshack. <i>The cross drums. </i>Accra: Sub-Saharan Publishers, 2008.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-36.0pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana">Jarman, Julia. <i>The magic backpack. </i>New York: Crabtree Pub., 2004.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-36.0pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana">Johnson, Anthony K. <i>Bamboo girl. </i>Oxford: Macmillan Education, 2004.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-36.0pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana">Mussi, Sarah. <i>The door of no return. </i>London: Holder's Children's Books, 2007.</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><o:p> </o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Some great folktales:<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-36.0pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana">Aardema, Verna. <i>Anansi does the impossible! : an Ashanti tale. </i>New York: Aladdin Paperbacks, 2000.</span><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-36.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin">Asare, Meshack. </span><i><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt; font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana">Kwajo and the brassman's secret : a tale of old Ashanti wisdom and gold. </span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt; font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana">Legon, Accra: Sub-Saharan Publishers, 2002.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-36.0pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana">Badoe, Adwoa, and Baba W. Diakite. <i>The pot of wisdom : Ananse stories. </i>Accra: EPP Books Services, 2005.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-36.0pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana">Gregorowski, Christopher, and Niki Daly. <i>Fly, eagle, fly! : a Ghanaian fable. </i>Accra: Sub-Saharan Publishers, 2007.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-36.0pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana">Kimmel, Eric A. <i>Anansi and the moss-covered rock. </i>New York: Holiday House, 1988.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-36.0pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana">Musgrove, Margaret. <i>The spider weaver : a legend of Kente cloth. </i>New York: Blue Sky Press, 2001. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-36.0pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana">Souhami, Jessica. <i>The leopard's drum : an Asante tale from West Africa. </i>Accra: EPP Books Services, 2005.</span><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-36.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin">Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Some great nonfiction titles:<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-36.0pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana">Ahiagble, Gilbert B., and Louise Meyer. <i>Master weaver from Ghana. </i>Seattle, Wash.: Open Hand Publishing, 1998.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-36.0pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana">Angelou, Maya. <i>Kofi and his magic. </i>New York: Clarkson Potter, 1996.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-36.0pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana">Blauer, Ettagale, and Jason Lauré. <i>Ghana. </i>New York: Children's Press, 2010.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-36.0pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana">Currie-McGhee, L K. <i>Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah : champion for Ghana's disabled. </i>Detroit, MI: KidHaven Press, 2007.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-36.0pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana">Knowles, Kathy. <i>A is for ampe : an alphabet book from Ghana. </i>Winnipeg: Osu Children's Library Fund, 2006. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri; ">(There are many other great titles by Kathy Knowles, e.g. The Yellow Book, One Little Crab, Otu Goes To Sea.)</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-36.0pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana">Larson, Lyn. <i>Ghana. </i>Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publications, 2011.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-36.0pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana">Onyefulu, Ifeoma. <i>Deron goes to nursery school. </i>London: Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2010.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-36.0pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana">Onyefulu, Ifeoma. <i>Welcome Dede! : An African naming ceremony. </i>London: Frances Lincoln, 2005.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-36.0pt"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana">Provencal, Francis, and Catherine McNamara. <i>Nii Kwei's day : from dawn to dusk in a Ghanaian city. </i>London: Frances Lincoln, 2003. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-36.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->tgalettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664992753516795352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8490726728455884652.post-34838491694222314862011-01-03T16:27:00.003+00:002011-01-03T16:56:03.483+00:00Book-A-Day Challenge - Part 2<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEginhE9rVJNgp7I6hcbacjm4XxM0bJI3vwlWeeomT2QN-K1TMkDg6zc3ZMHScUDCcLpnbUSRX2zvciXvYeyKGub9sOe75vBHmgfoIOEX4cERFHK4ef3XGyIVbRF5kgp1JAR_V-ExMEqrdI/s320/BookADayDec2010.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558004073308366034" /></div>Tomorrow school re-opens and while I am looking forward to be back in the library, seeing students and colleagues, I am sad that reading will again have to take second (or third, fourth...?) place. After a long working day, getting dinner ready, spending some time with my family, reading is usually pushed and limited to the last moments of a long day. However, having participated in <a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/book_whisperer/">Donalyn Miller's Book-a-Day challenge</a> during the break, helped me to enjoy some wonderful reading time. While I haven't been as successful as she and other Twitter friends, I am excited to look back on 18 titles - even more that there was hardly any disappointment in the selection of the books I had picked. Inspired by the experience as well as reading through Donalyn's last blog post, I am considering to join <a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=243348159758">The Centurions of 2011</a> - a group on Facebook, aiming at reading 111 books during the year 2011, to have a new reading challenge to work on and enjoy. Maybe you feel like joining too?<div><br /></div><div>Here the list of books I read during the December break - in the order of reading (find above on my Shelfari shelf my reviews):<br /><div><br /></div><div><i>Love, Aubrey</i> by Suzanne LaFleur</div></div><div><br /></div><div><i>The Year of the Dog</i> by Grace Lin</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Born to Fly</i> by Michael Ferrari</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Secrets of a Lab Rat: No Girls Allowed (Dogs Okay)</i> by Trudi Trueit</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Anything but Typical</i> by Nora Raleigh Baskin</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Sunny Side Up</i> by Marion Roberts</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Chang and the Bamboo Flute </i>by Elizabeth Starr Hill</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Diary of a Wimpy Kid - The Ugly Truth</i> by Jeff Kinney</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Make Way for Dyamonde Daniel</i> by Nikki Grimes</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Shadow</i> by Michael Morpurgo</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Swindle</i> by Gordan Korman</div><div><br /></div><div><i>The Seer of Shadows</i> by Avi</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Any Which Wall</i> by Laurel Snyder</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Northward to the Moon</i> by Polly Horvath</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Camille McPhee Fell Under the Bus</i> by Kristen Tracy</div><div><br /></div><div><i>The Birchbark House</i> by Louise Erdrich</div><div><br /></div><div><i>The Willoughbys</i> by Lois Lowry</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Best Foot Forward</i> by Joan Bauer</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>tgalettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664992753516795352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8490726728455884652.post-69320128407912420592010-12-21T21:29:00.002+00:002010-12-21T21:41:01.075+00:00Book-a-dayDuring the summer I had followed <a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/book_whisperer/2010/12/holiday_plans.html">Donalyn Miller's </a>book-a-day challenge with much interest. Through Twitter I now discovered that she and other friends on Twitter (e.g. Paul W. Hankins and John Schu) are sharing their daily reads once again during this holiday - and I decided to join. Already equipped with a big bag of books checked out from the library, I started last Saturday and so far have been able to read one book every day. I however wonder whether I will keep up with this - maybe I should have selected some shorter books...? Anyway, I am excited about the idea and look forward to the experience. So far I have read <em>Love, Aubrey</em> by Suzanne LaFleur, <em>The Year of the Dog</em> by Grace Lin, <em>Born to Fly</em> by Michael Ferrari and <em>Secrets of a Lab Rat </em>by Trudi Trueit. My reviews are posted on Goodreads and Shelfari. Maybe you would like to join the fun? If you are on Twitter, just share what you read and add the hashtag #bookaday. Enjoy!tgalettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664992753516795352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8490726728455884652.post-7852293436389996662010-12-12T17:04:00.003+00:002010-12-12T17:25:25.012+00:00Quick Picks<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhert_vT1WiJ8mPqswounYeb2YCJJQrVqVSURTBJ62c5Dqt6wGEU8pdbQwYlcb6VJo7uCACWB5QPimalNvAompDx-xv937DN2tv8N98zSi9B1C0LKmpVoXXf1WOYOmQlmASOMyJYInuRCM/s1600/DSC04644.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhert_vT1WiJ8mPqswounYeb2YCJJQrVqVSURTBJ62c5Dqt6wGEU8pdbQwYlcb6VJo7uCACWB5QPimalNvAompDx-xv937DN2tv8N98zSi9B1C0LKmpVoXXf1WOYOmQlmASOMyJYInuRCM/s320/DSC04644.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549848111860201394" /></a><br />During a recent visit to <a href="http://www.discovery.edu.hk/cms/">Discovery College</a>, Hong Kong, <a href="http://librarygrits.blogspot.com/">Dianne McKenzie</a> introduced me to the brilliant idea of "Quick Picks". She has boxes carrying the respective label on her shelves, in which she places recommended titles. This helps students who are in a hurry to find a good book. I really liked the idea because when upper elementary students visit the library with their teachers, we usually reserve most of our time for unit-of-inquiry-related tasks, often having little time left for book check out. Students often ask me for recommendations and I have started to set up baskets with recommended titles for particular genres. Last week I wanted to give it a special touch, also with the intend (I have to admit) to get some great titles that often seem to get overlooked, into the hands of our students. I packed the books into brown paper bags and closed them. The only information available for students were some keywords about the book, arranged in form of a <a href="http://wordle.net/">Wordle</a>. All bags were gone within moments and students have asked me to prepare more for the up-coming week. In order to be able to re-use the bags and labels, I plan on having a set of simple bags made out of beautiful Ghanaian fabric to which I will attach the laminated Wordle cards. I hope that this will also encourage our reluctant readers to get more excited about checking out books from the library.<div><br /></div><div><br /></div>tgalettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664992753516795352noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8490726728455884652.post-9578241465280837112010-11-15T19:59:00.008+00:002010-11-15T22:00:41.640+00:00Taking Action - Making a DifferenceAs PYP educators it is one of our main goals to encourage students to take action as a result of their learning. When I see students taking action, I often wonder how many times I have had a chance to take action, maybe have an impact on someone's life, but didn't. I often feel I am one of those people who go through life with a head full of ideas, ideas that will always remain just that, ideas instead of becoming reality. It never seems the right time or the right place. I feel the idea is not planned enough, I don't have all of the skills I might need or the funds. I am pretty good in finding excuses stopping me from taking action.<div><br /><div>Last week I was fortunate enough to meet a person I have been admiring from afar for a long time, a person who is one of my role models for taking action: <a href="http://www.osuchildrenslibraryfund.ca/about-oclf/kathy-knowles-bio/">Kathy Knowles</a>. Kathy lived with her husband and children in Accra, Ghana, in the early 1990s. While living in Accra, Kathy provided opportunities to enjoy reading and books to the children in her neighborhood. At first she turned her garage into a small library. By the time she was leaving Ghana a few years later, the first community library was in place, i.e. the Kathy Knowles Community Library, Osu. Now, 17 years later, the <a href="http://osuchildrenslibraryfund.ca/">Osu Children's Library Fund </a>and the Osu Library Fund have been involved in the creation of more than <a href="http://www.osuchildrenslibraryfund.ca/about-oclf/libraries/">200 libraries in Ghana and other African countries</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>In addition, Kathy started writing beautiful <a href="http://www.osuchildrenslibraryfund.ca/publications/">children's books</a>. Last Friday, she launched her latest book at the Nima Maamobi Community Learning Centre: <i>Kente for a King</i>, a story originally written by the late Angela Christian. The launching was accompanied by drumming and dancing and an entertaining, yet thought-provoking production, of the Kathy Knowles Theatre Company. What touched me more than anything else was the way Kathy turned the launching into a celebration of all the people involved in the production of the book. Instead of auctioning of the first copies of her book as often seen during such events, she thanked her collaborators and presented them with copies of the book. It was wonderful seeing her interact with the community, realizing what a huge impact she has on the lives of so many. Her continued action taking is a true inspiration to me. </div><div>I hope you explore <a href="http://osuchildrenslibraryfund.ca/">her website</a> and share with me whose actions inspire YOU!</div></div>tgalettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664992753516795352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8490726728455884652.post-10671918608856803422010-09-10T14:28:00.004+00:002010-09-10T14:42:22.418+00:00How do you share what you read?Inspired by Donalyn Miller's book to share what I am reading in my reader's notebook and online, I recently looked into <a href="http://www.librarything.com/">LibrayThing</a> and <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/">Goodreads</a>, deciding eventually to sign up with Goodreads because it looked more user-friendly and inviting. Today a friend mentioned another site that I had not heard of before: <a href="http://www.shelfari.com/">Shelfari</a>. And I must say, I just like the look of this one even better: my books are all nicely arranged on a book shelf. How cool is that? Nothing beats the look of this! It was also super easy to sign up (for free), to add books and information and to create the widget I have added to my blog. There are still a few things I haven't figured out yet, e.g. why my ratings don't show. I would love to hear from you. Are you signed up with any of these sites? Which one do you prefer or find most useful? For the time being I will keep both of my accounts up, posting newly read books and reviews on both sides. Maybe I could keep one to share books with my friends and the other to allow students to see what I am reading and recommending especially to them. But that wouldn't give a complete picture of my reading...hmmm.tgalettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664992753516795352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8490726728455884652.post-27084853320787481452010-09-05T19:26:00.004+00:002010-09-05T20:41:35.786+00:00How was your start to the new school year?Tomorrow we are beginning our third full week back at school already. I can hardly believe it - but then time always flies when you just love what you are doing. A really significant move during these first days was that we made a shift in our language use to reflect the changes in the world of information technology and libraries. We are now refering to the scheduled visits of our students to the media center (consisting of libraries and IT labs) as <strong>information literacy. </strong>Everyone working with students in the libraries and IT labs is part of the <strong>IL team</strong>. We all feel really good about this decision but know that more work lies ahead to make as a real unit.<br />I also enjoyed some new learning engagements and changed my routines for the first visits of our students. Our youngest students met me as Ms. Tanja, the book doctor, all dressed up in a white coat, with glasses, mask, and stethoscope, examining books. This was a recommendation from a fellow librarian to explore book care with students and it was a great success. When reviewing genres with upper elementary students I decided to turn it into a library version of musical chairs. I prepared a basket for each genre filled with books of that particular genre. The baskets were placed in a circle on the floor and students walked around the baskets as long as the music was playing. When the music stopped, students explored the genre/basket right in front of them until the music continued playing. We had lots of fun with this.<br />What else is new so far this year? Oh yes, we created a <a href="http://lcsesmediacenter.wikispaces.com/">media center wiki</a> to which we plan on adding new resources as the year progresses and I keep a reader's notebook on my desk, as already mentioned in my previous post. Especially older students have shown interest for browsing through my notes, checking on what I have been reading lately - and I enjoy keeping track of my own reading as well.<br />All in all I am really excited about the start to the school year. It's great to be surrounded again by students, colleagues and friends, talking about books, sharing our passion for reading and inquiry, and creating new tools and resources. And how was your start?tgalettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664992753516795352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8490726728455884652.post-22885891028797834612010-08-07T14:56:00.004+00:002010-08-07T15:22:55.839+00:00Inspired by the Book WhispererI just finished reading Donalyn Miller's inspiring book <em>The <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0470372273/?tag=mh0b-20&hvadid=150951366&ref=pd_sl_666oq6djfz_p">Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child</a></em>. Yes, she very much inspired me, not just to read the book in a day, to immediately act upon some of her great ideas (e.g. I got myself a reader's notebook which I plan to keep on my desk this year and set up a <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/">Goodreads</a> account for those that prefer to follow on the Web what I read and recommend), but even to post on my neglected personal blog. While posting I also decided that the orange background needed to go, making space for a more serene, less distracting one. Of course, once again I spent far too much time playing around with the many options available - but still couldn't work out how to fit everything I wanted to show on my blog in the right spaces. I hope to figure this out with time - always learning, right?<br /><br />If you would like to read more about and from Donalyn Miller, why not explore <a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/book_whisperer/">her blog</a>.<br /><br />And if you, just like me, wonder whether <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/">Goodreads</a> or <a href="http://www.librarything.com/">LibraryThing</a> is the better option to keep track of what you are reading, here two interesting blog posts, comparing the two services: <a href="http://www.spudart.org/blogs/randomthoughts_comments/4823_0_3_0_C/">RandomThoughts</a> and <a href="http://faerye.net/post/cage-match-goodreads-vs-librarything">Match Goodreads vs LibraryThing</a>. While LibraryThing seems definitely the superior service, I decided that Goodreads would be the better option for my purpose to start with. It seemed more appealing to the eye, less time-involving to manage, and stronger on the social networking aspect. I also like the easy to embed widget for my blog and the option to have automatic updates on my Facebook and Twitter accounts.tgalettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664992753516795352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8490726728455884652.post-3883714991860639892010-05-21T19:10:00.003+00:002010-05-21T19:15:47.057+00:00New Look<div>Did you know that <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/home">Blogger in draft </a>gives you a whole variety of options to customize the look of your blog while still working with templates? It's amazing what you can achieve with a bit of time - and enough patience to apply the "trial and error" method... Well, I had fun and like the new look of my blog so much better. I am inserting a screen shot of the old look below and would love to hear your opinion. Thanks, Tanja</div><br /><div></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5473804003744653650" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 127px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrEOezKg_qkdjYbxtAAq41k6fPKY_rSHxxmuwEEF2DghYm9lA7sIMpH9kV8wRMt1B_onIlQ7DyFpZBCabzz2SgeLa8XgaI3y4Ajswx2IFwidemI23bTLP_-KTuvMkO_knAGw-sO4US3Sg/s200/blog+1.jpg" border="0" /><br /><div></div>tgalettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664992753516795352noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8490726728455884652.post-18021372473634331512010-05-18T17:43:00.002+00:002010-05-18T17:47:56.379+00:00Welcome to the LCS Elementary Library<img style="VISIBILITY: hidden; WIDTH: 0px; HEIGHT: 0px" height="0" src="http://counters.gigya.com/wildfire/IMP/CXNID=2000002.0NXC/bHQ9MTI3NDIwNDI3ODI3OSZwdD*xMjc*MjA*NDg2OTM2JnA9MjA2NDIxJmQ9YjExNDY5Mjkmbj1ibG9nZ2VyJmc9MiZvPTBlMDVh/ODgxZTk*ODQ4Mjg5Mjk5NGQ4NWE1NGY1NzczJm9mPTA=.gif" width="0" border="0" /><object height="360" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://voicethread.com/book.swf?b=1146929"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://voicethread.com/book.swf?b=1146929" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="480" height="360"></embed></object><br /><br />This is my first project on VoiceThread and while it is still "work in progress", I am amazed how easy it was to embed it into my wiki and into this blog - and how much fun it is working with Voicethread. I can just see how students will enjoy commenting on their own work or the work of peers. Great fun!tgalettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664992753516795352noreply@blogger.com1