Blog Archives
Infographics
By now you’ve probably seen an infographic or two – they are popping up everywhere. Infographics are an interesting way to display statistics for the media center, whether to administrators or to teachers and students. I also think this has tremendous potential in the classroom as a meaningful way for students to represent information. However, they are not easy to create for those of us who are not graphic designers. That’s where Piktochartcomes in handy!
I’ve played around with and it’s easy enough to use that I’ve recommended it to one of my teachers that is willing to try new web tools with her students. After creating an account, Piktochart provides 5 templates to choose from. (Think making a brochure with Publisher.) Our plan is to have kids use piktochart to represent each time period in American Lit. Last year she said her students had trouble connecting one time period to the next, so we’ll be sure to include that as a requirement in the infographic (i.e. What were the people in this time period reacting to from the previous time period?) We’ll print them and use them in the classroom as a refresher before tests.
I’ll try to remember to update this post after we complete the project. In the meantime, I wish everyone the best for a happy and productive school year!
~Holly Frilot, CHHS Media Center
Skype author visit
Gail Giles, a YA author that has appeal to guys, girls, high and low level readers, Skyped into Collins Hill HS a few weeks ago. I was a nervous wreck, anticipating the many things that could go wrong when you combine teenagers, technology, and the first attempt at something new. However, it was a resounding success! Gail Giles was witty and fun, and our students did a wonderful job asking questions and keeping the conversation going. If you want to see the highlights, see our short video here. If you want more details, keep reading…
Amy Golemme, my co-media specialist, and I brainstormed authors that would have mass appeal. Gail Giles was our first thought, so I took a shot in the dark and emailed her. She emailed back quickly and we got the details planned out – one test session a few days before, then 2 sessions during our 2nd and 3rd periods. We decided to use the media center to keep it cozy and inviting, rather than a larger space like the commons area or theater. I made signs for the hallways and classrooms and the media center. I went into all the 9th and 10th grade LA classes to promote it. Students that wanted to participate had to read at least one of her books, answer a few questions, and write a few questions they’d like to ask her. For those students, I gave them a pass out of class during 2nd or 3rd period and they were our VIPs. I also invited two language arts classes per session and any media specialists from the around the county that could come.
In Gwinnett, we aren’t allowed to use Skype, but we do have an alternative – Polycom and the Blue Jeans network. We use those tools and the author uses Skype. Kevin Tomlinson from the county was excellent technical support for us and helped put my technology fears to rest. On the day of the event, we set up about 80 chairs in the media center, created VIP seats, put out a breakfast spread, set up the technology, and hoped for the best! Gail came on, introduced herself, and then we had the students come up to the computer to ask questions. We had a webcam and external mic hooked up to my laptop. The students asked good questions, and Gail was entertaining, funny, and informative. When I polled the students after the event, they all said they had a positive experience and many expressed interest in doing it again. One student even turned in a top ten list of authors she’d like to Skype with!
If you have any questions or want templates for signs, the handout students filled out, or any other details, don’t hestitate to email me at holly_frilot@gwinnett.k12.ga.us or call at 770.682.4126. It was a lot of work, but a great experience for us and for the students.
Holly Frilot, Collins Hill High School
How to teach 3 social studies units covering over half a century in 4 weeks: A 5th Grade Glogster Project
Last year, I began a journey with 5th grade that integrated multiple social studies standards into one big project. The teachers put students in cross-classroom groups and assigned them social studies topics for a unit on the turn of the century. Each group made a glog about their topic after using print and digital resources to gather information. We were amazed by the leadership, collaboration, and innovation that took place in that project, but we made a lot of mistakes along the way too. You can read more about last year here and here.
This year, we almost didn’t do this project. The teachers were feeling even more overwhelmed by the content this year because they had to teach 3 social studies units and 2 science units in 9 weeks. You would probably feel overwhelmed too if you knew you had to teach these units in that amount of time:
Even the district planner recommends a total of 12 weeks for the units, but requires that it be done in the 3rd quarter (9 weeks).
After multiple combinations of meetings between me, the 5th grade social studies teacher, the gifted collaboration teacher, and the instructional coach, we developed a plan for how this year’s content might look. Each of the 3 social studies classes were assigned a unit. Within each class, topics were assigned to individuals as well as groups of students. These students made plans of how to divide the content among their group. On Mondays and Fridays, the social studies teacher and gifted teacher did direct teaching of some of the content from all 3 units. On Tuesday-Thursday, students came to the media center to research their topics in online databases, websites, and books. Last year, students just took notes as they read, but this year we wanted students to have a better structure that was based in questions that came from the standards. The gifted teacher combed through the standards and created 2 different graphic organizers with questions for students to consider. The organizer also had space to document resources used. Some students chose to use digital copies of this organizer while others chose to print it out and write their notes.
Once again, I pulled together a pathfinder divided up by topics. This pathfinder gave each student a handful of websites about their topic. I also showed them how to search the databases found in Georgia’s Galileo collection. My paraprofessional took the topics and searched through our print collection. If a book matched one group’s topic, she put a post-it with their names on the book. If a book spanned multiple topics, she put it in a shared stack.
To begin our journey, I briefly introduced the pathfinder, graphic organizers, and how to take notes (not copying and pasting entire paragraphs of information from websites). I also showed a glog from last year’s students to give them an idea of what they would ultimately be doing. We chose not to introduce how Glogster works at the beginning. We also chose to not give students logins and passwords to Glogster. Students then began a week of research. The social studies teacher, gifted teacher, student teacher, my paraprofessional, some college students, and me began working with students as much as possible to support them in their search.
After a week, I introduced how Glogster works by showing a very basic run-through of the kinds things it can do. Students continued to research, but as they finished, they checked in with one of the adults. Most of the time we offered additional guiding questions and support so that they had the most complete information possible. Once students reached a point where they had enough information, they received their username and password to Glogster.
Most students began Glogster with deciding on their wall background. Then, they moved to adding text from their organizer. Eventually, students branched out to include photographs from public domain searches and linked their pictures to the sources they came from. Some students also did audio introductions to their glog or recorded audio for various parts of their glogs. Some students used Screencast-o-matic to do screencasts of timelines from PebbleGo or tours in Google Earth. A few students used webcams to record themselves talking. One group even did a webcam video of their resource list rather than just creating a text box for it.
You can view some of the finished or in progress glogs here:
Recovering from the Great Depression
US Contributions and Treaty of Versailles
Stalin, Mussolini, Roosevelt, & Churchill
Pearl Harbor, Iwo Jima, & Hirohito
Once students finalize their glogs, they will present them to the rest of the 5th grade to share the responsibility of teaching and learning this massive amount of content.
Andy Plemmons
School Librarian
David C. Barrow Elementary
Athens, GA
New year…new website?
I’ve always been a bit of a website addict. The first thing I do when going somewhere new is scope out the website…a new park for my kids, a new restaurant, etc. So it only makes sense for our library media center (which I take great pride in) to have a great website!
However, I also knew I needed an easy way to create a website. I’m all about content – no time to spend fixing layouts or writing code. I settled on using Weebly to help design my webpage because it was easy-to-use, looked great, and came recommended by education and business folks alike.
That was over 2 years ago, and Weebly just keeps getting better. You can choose from a wide variety of templates, drag-and-drop the elements you want on a page, and add as many pages as you want. It’s free, but you may find you need more space (think lots of videos or powerpoints) for about $40 a year. It’s been well worth it to me!
I’ve recommended this website to so many people, and I’ve gotten good feedback from other library media specialists, counselors, teachers, and students. Weebly has recently launched a version for educators, and they’ve partnered with National History Day as a project possibility for students.
If you aren’t happy with your website, or need to create one, spend some time looking at library media center websites, figure out what you want to say to your audiences, then give Weebly a try. Create a few pages and show them to teachers and administrators, but be sure to test it out on students too. I got great feedback from some classes when I asked them to critique the site. And feel free to email me with any questions. Good luck!
Holly Frilot, Library Media Specialist
Collins Hill High School Media Center
holly_frilot@gwinnett.k12.ga.us
A “Real” Audience for Student Voice
Teachers are often the gateway to students being involved in the life of the library media center. With that in mind (and the help of a few LA teachers) I developed several ready-made assignments for teachers to use with “choice” novels that provide students with a “real” audience other than the teacher. Check them out at the bottom of this page under 
“Publish a Book Review.”
Luckily, teachers often allow me into the classroom to give a 10-minute presentation on what I’m looking for with display signs, posters, blog entries, catalog reviews, and book trailers. I can show good examples, talk about what isn’t good, and answer questions. I also get to explain the benefits – a real audience, and perhaps something to show off at a job interview, college interview, etc., plus a good grade! They also get to know me a little better and know they can come ask me questions in the media center.
The display signs and posters are used in the media center or outside the media center on the bulletin board. For the blog entries, the students are directed to email me the words and a picture; this I’ve found to be the easiest way to make sure that student names stay private (first name, last initial) and that the information is accurate and appropriate. The video book trailers are the most time-intensive but also the most interesting! I’ve been working with three classes the last couple of weeks and hope to upload some good examples to our website soon.
Feel free to respond with your own ideas or send me questions!
Holly Frilot
Library Media Specialist
