Interactive Whiteboards: Your Thoughts?

Hello everyone, my name is Greg Odell.  This is my initial post on the GLMA Blog.  I am honored to be asked to contribute here.  I work as an e-Learning Specialist with Hall County Schools, and I am in my 15^th year as a teacher including 7 years as an elementary media specialist.  I look forward to the conversation.

If you were asked what the ideal 21^st century classroom should include, would you include an interactive white board (IWB)?  Do they really change instruction in today’s classrooms, or do they encourage teachers to hold on to traditional practices?  I’m still trying to make up my mind on this issue.  I welcome your comments.  Thank you.

Gregory Odell

e-Learning Specialist

Hall County Schools

Gainesville, GA

Twitter:  ugaodawg

Give Your Gift Through APPS

Having a hard time deciding what gifts to give to friends and family? As Christmas is almost here, I was reading up on a few apps (based on article by Shelly Terrell) that just might be a great alternative for standing in line at the department store…

• StoryRobe – you can wow and amaze your friends with this digital storytelling app. Even though it does not have video, through your iPhone and iPod Touch you can set up A-V stories using photos and your built-in  microphone. Stories can then be uploaded to YouTube or emailed. Since creating the stories does not require Internet access, this is a great option for a gift to share with everyone in the family!
• StoryKit – this is another story creating app where you develop a storyboard of drawn images, pictures, recorded audio, and sound effects. StoryKit allows you to drag and drop or resize pictures/images, then upload to the web server for a cool story that can be shared with others by sending your story link.
• Fotobabble – create cards with this free app. This allows you to simply “snap” a photo, add an audio message, and then share through email, Facebook, or Twitter. Quick and easy to use!
• Audio Boo – this app is really cool! It allows you to check out “who, when and where” about any audio message that has been posted at the audioboo site.  When you create your boo, you can even pull in photos and your location (through an interactive map). Import recordings you’ve made from other devices, add tags, or even embed the code on your website. You can set to autopost to Twitter, Facebook page, or other sites like Tumblr.  It is quite a social networking app, and best of all, it’s free!!
• Comic Touch Lite – this app idea shared by Shelly is a really cute way to personalize your photos. Similar to Comic Life, it allows you to create a comic with bubble captions on your photos.
• Santa Hat Sewing – by measuring your own physical dimensions, this app helps you design and create a pattern for a santa hat that is a perfect fit. Kids can see the design process from beginning to end, and can work with mathematical concepts in the process. Great activity for family fun!
• Countdown to Christmas Holiday Puzzles for iPad – this app is described as having “rib-tickling picture puzzles” that are great fun for kids. Even though it is designed for the younger generation, it is also great entertainment for any age!

These are just a few apps that might come in handy as you are trying to personalize gifts and share with others who may not be close enough to visit this Christmas. I encourage you to check out Shelly Terrell’s article (http://www.techlearning.com/blogs/35294) at Tech & Learning for some great, practical ideas about how to use these apps during the holidays – along with actual examples she’s put together of each app she mentions. These apps (except for the last two) are not just for this time of year, but are GREAT for use by students, teachers and parents during the school year. The only limit to use of them is a limited imagination!

Enjoy this season, and may 2011 bring you all many blessings!

Dr. Phyllis R. Snipes,
University of West Georgia

Still Haven’t Seen the New NoveList? Here’s Your Chance!

EBSCO updated the NoveList and NoveList K-8 interface this summer, but if you still haven’t found time to take a look, here’s your chance to check out all the great features during the holiday break – before everything starts back again in January.

Let’s take a tour of the new NoveList interface.

First of all, front and center are recommendations for the latest best-sellers. Just click the titles below the best-seller to see why NoveList makes those recommendations.

On the left of the NoveList screen is a fast way to find recommended reading lists by genre. NoveList has now broken each of these into subgenres to narrow down the search quickly and easily.

At the top of the NoveList screen are quick links to browse authors, titles, and series as well as links to award-winner lists, book discussion guides, booktalks, and picture book extenders.

Of particular interest is the Teaching with Books feature on the right of the screen. Don’t miss this feature! It organizes curriculum-based book lists and other great features for educators by grade level and subject area.

Now, on to the search box itself. As with the previous interface, you can search by title, author, series, theme, or any other term you like. You’ll get a list of books to match your search term, but notice the tabs that let you also see series, authors, and lists and articles to match your search term. Once of the nicest features of the new interface is the ability to narrow your search results by appeal terms, such as pace, tone, writing style, location, subject, and storyline. These are great for narrowing a list of books to a small, manageable, customized list for a student, teacher, or parent.

From your list of search results, click on a book title to see reviews, book information, and articles and lists that include the book. Most entries will also include more recommendations on the right. Mouse over a title to see the explanation of why NoveList is recommending this book. And, below these recommendations is the place to search for more books like the one you are viewing. There is a checklist to pick the favorite features of the book to help you get better search results.

Finally, remember that you can save books to your My NoveList folder (make sure you log in to your account to save books – or create one if you haven’t already!). This can help you keep up with your favorite books for different age groups and topics.

GALILEO will be offering training on NoveList in the coming months. Check the training calendar in January for sessions that will be scheduled.

As always, if you have questions or comments, please Contact Us.

Courtney McGough
GALILEO Support Services
Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia

Express Links for Databases Mentioned in this Post:
NoveList: http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zknl
NoveList K-8: http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zkne

Find All Your Express Links (what’s this?)

School Library Journal Resource and Spending Survey Needs Your Participation

LMC Resource and Spending Survey via kwout

All school libraries are encouraged to participate in the annual School Library Journal Library Media Center Resource and Spending Survey.  Not only will your participation help provide a fuller data set, but you will also have an opportunity to win an iPad!

Here are the survey instructions (click here to access the survey):

This survey is designed to provide information about resources and expenditures in your school library media center (LMC). For some questions we have asked you to provide figures. If you do not have exact figures, approximations may be substituted. All questions are to be answered only in terms of one school (the largest school you work in, if you work in more than one). All information should be from last year, the 2009-2010 school year. Private schools should note N/A wherever relevant. All individual responses are confidential. A complete report will be published in an upcoming issue of School Library Journal.

Please respond by December 23, 2010 and encourage your colleagues to participate.

Buffy Hamilton
GLMA Communications Coordinator

 

Leader Librarians: Students as Part of the Budgeting Process Part 2

Last year, I blogged about a project I did with 3rd-5th graders who were reading below grade level called Student Voice, Student Choice.  These students had individual budgets to buy books for the media center that they were interested in reading.  My hope was for these students to begin finding what they enjoyed in our media center and hopefully inspire other students to find things they enjoyed in the media center, too.

This year, I continued my plan of having students as part of the budgeting process, but I focused my attention in a new direction.  Our school began school-wide enrichment clusters this year.   Every Wednesday from 9-10AM every student in the school goes to a self-selected cross-grade cluster.  The cluster topics are chosen by teachers, but the students make the decisions about what happens within those clusters.  At the end of 8 weeks, students must have a product, performance, or service to showcase.

This structure gave me the perfect opportunity to try out a new way of involving students in the budgeting process.  Once again I wrote a grant for $1,000 and matched that grant with $1,000 from our book fair profits.  Twelve students in grades 3-5 selected my cluster, leader librarians, as their choice.  It was interesting that 10 of the 12 students were male and 3 of the students were participants in last year’s student voice project.  To begin our time, I told them our budget and that it was for books for the media center.  From there, the students started brainstorming how to spend the money.  I shared with them my thought process of how I set goals and assign percentages to each goal.  I shared the challenges I face in limited funding and making tough decisions about what to buy and not buy.

In the end, their plan was to buy books that could be for anyone in the school instead of only buying books that they wanted to read themselves.  They set out with clipboards and paper and began asking students at every grade level PreK-5 what they like to read.  Next, we took this data and looked for patterns and themes.  Eventually, we came up with the following categories:  scary stories, mysteries, superheroes, comics, sports, nonfiction animals, pop stars, and Star Wars.  Students divided into pairs and assigned themselves categories to focus on.  The budget was divided equally between categories.  The students were interested in what last year’s group did with Capstone Press and sales representative Jim Boon, so we invited him back.  We also invited Frieda Julian from Children’s Plus, Inc.  Both individuals brought book samples and catalogs for students to look at and helped students create lists of books to use in the final selection.  Frieda Julian even took the students’ paper lists and made list on the Children’s Plus website.  Before the order was placed, students sat down with calculators and narrowed their lists down until they spent as close to their budget allotment as possible.

As students waited for the books to arrive, they worked on an Animoto video of the process and eventually made an Animoto video of the books to use on our morning broadcast.  When the books arrived, students made two assembly lines:  one Capstone and one Children’s Plus.  In each line, one student unpacked, one highlighted the packing slip, one checked for damage, one stamped the books, and others displayed books for photographs.  Finally, we all grabbed some books, sat down, and began reading.

This month, we held an enrichment fair where the students showcased their 108 books to students, parents, and community members.  They showed their Animoto videos and talked about the process.  Some students were even interviewed by the local newspaper.  The next day the books went into circulation and only 24 books  remained by the end of the day.  The next day the rest of the 108 books were checked out.

The projects over the past two years have been so much more than just asking students what I should buy for the media center.  They have given students control in the decision making process in the media center.  Students have faced the same dilemmas that I face as a media specialist and they wrestled with the best way to spend the money they had.  Most of all, when students buy the books and materials in the media center, they create a buzz of excitement among the student population because they have a real connection to what students like.  Whether I write more grants or not, I am committed to preserving a part of my budget for student decisions, especially profits from book fair.  After all, it’s the students and their families that shop at our book fair, so why not allow them to make decisions about how the profits are spent?  I look forward to continuing this work and seeing how this process grows over the years.

Andy Plemmons

School Librarian

David C. Barrow Elementary

Athens, GA

http://barrowmediacenter.wordpress.com

http://www.clarke.k12.ga.us/webpages/aplemmons

 

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