Effective Effort in Action!!

Over the past two weeks students have been taken the Reading Comprehension component of their MCAS in both grades 6 and 7.  I have been so impressed and proud to witness the incredible effective effort being put forth by all of our students.  Students came to school prepared and serious.  They used the strategies which had been shared with them by their teachers, and took their time.  I don’t believe we could have asked for any more from our students.  Changes in schedules, and loss of enrichments for some, make this a difficult and frustrating time.  I am pleased to say, the students here ignored the negatives and moved forward in a positive manner beyond their years.  So THANK YOU students of BIS!!!  

                                                           http://photobucket.com/images/clapping%20hands%20animation/

A New Twist on an Old Assignment

With all of the up and coming changes in Massachusetts standards and curriculum, this week I am trying to get you prepared for your future.  Last week we worked on a "traditional" or "typical" assignment.  You were instructed to find a resource about a school related topic using our library databases and to paraphrase the information. The end product of that assignment was a well formed paragraph.  This week we are going to take the same assignment and update it; bring it in to the 21st century.  You will take the information your found last week, search for some images using the library databases again, and this time create a presentation.  I will not be assigning a specific presentation tool, but so recommend you use either your presentation tool in your Google docs or check out some of the others on the cooltoolsforschool WIKI.  The only other information I will give you is the following:
Topic:  same as the one you used for your paraphrasing activity
Content:  3-4 slides with images, text, backgrounds, and transitions
Sources:  must come from library databases
Sources:  must be cited correctly (not just URL's)

Have fun with this 21st century assignment!  I can't wait to see you present them in a couple of weeks!!

Spreadsheets

This week we will start off finishing up our paraphrasing and sharing the doc with me.  Once we have completed that lesson, we will start exploring spreadsheets.  You will be taking the, “School Spreadsheet Safari” using this link.  You will need to explore the definition, vocabulary, basics, and puzzle

tabs of this site.  Once you have gone through those four areas, you will take the quiz.  You will end class by completing a diagram of a spreadsheet using your Google doc (spreadsheets) as a resource.  Spreadsheets are used in many different occupations.  This will be a good introduction to the world of spreadsheets.

Databases & Research

We will take a break from podcasting and blogging as we focus on research and data. You may or may not remember your tour of the BIS Library last year. Just a reminder- you did a scavenger hunt during ILT. There are two parts to our library; the actual, physical library and the “virtual” library. This virtual library consists of a collection of databases.
We will review not only the definition of a database, but take a quick tour of the library databases available to students at BIS. You will select a topic to research, find resources in these databases bookmark and tag the resources in your diigo accounts, and paraphrase or summarize information from these sources. The final outcome of this research will be a presentation using Google presentation as your tool. We will be reviewing important digital literacy skills during the next couple of weeks such as identifying reliability and credibility of sources. As well as primary and secondary sources. In addition, we will focus on correctly citing these sources using some helpful tools. This is all a part of providing you with the 21st century skills you will need to succeed in life!

                                               http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2010/11/txtn-n-d-library-ideas-for-librarians.html

Frustrating and Exciting!

There are so many things I should be doing at this moment, but needed to share this with all of you!! We have been working on uploading our podcasts to our blogs. Such a simple sounding task I know; but as always with technology there have been glitches. I am continually telling my students I am learning right along with them; hence the name of my blog, but today was able to model that for them. Students discovered our media player was displaying their first and last names; something we discourage for our 7th graders. I didn’t have the solution, so asked my entire class to stop what they were doing at that moment and search the “Tindeck” site for answers. I also shot off a quick email to Tindeck asking for advice. Jenn timidly raised her hand and shared her discovery. We could edit our tracks and change the name of the artist, thus solving our problem. Much to my surprise, I received an almost immediate response from Tindeck, who unknowing to me is based in Australia. They didn’t have the resolve, but were willing to see if they could go in to accounts and make corrections to user names. I replied with the student resolve. Thinking that would be the end of my communication with Tindeck, I didn’t pay much attention to my email. Well, I was wrong. That was not the end of my communication. Tindeck was interested in how we were using their site (this is actually when I found out they were located in Australia). So what started off as a very frustrating lesson, turned in to one of the better and more exciting couple of classes I’ve had in a long time.
It is interesting how quickly the world becomes so small and connected. Just one of life’s great “teachable moments”!!!