Keeping Current in the Chrysalis

Wow! My head is spinning thinking about how much I have learned this summer!  And thinking about how much more I have to learn! Who knew?

I was pretty excited to see that the AASL has lists of Best Websites and Apps. Because, let's face it, we won't be able to access Blackboard. So glad I have been bookmarking things along the way. I wish I had thought of using Symbaloo earlier! Now I need to go back and save those bookmarks in the class mixes that I created.

In looking around the websites on the 2015 list, I really liked Pear Deck https://www.peardeck.com/
for getting students engaged. I went to a workshop last summer at the Math Science Innovation Center here in Richmond, and the presenter used something similar to Pear Deck. I really like that Pear Deck is easy to set up and easy to use. There are a variety of devices that can be used for students to respond during live sessions: computers, tablets, even smartphones. There are lots of ways students can respond to questions from selecting the correct answer (multiple choice) to open ended (short answer). Then student answers can be shared anonymously for discussion, of course, the teacher is privy to how students answered. It also allows for quick "check for understanding" time, where students can share how they are feeling about their learning. Pear Deck has a free version that doesn't offer everything that the pay version offers, but I think it would be a good place to start. I think this site could be used in any classroom or library for pretty much any subject area, with any grade level. Since the teacher is creating the decks, it will be very specific to that class/grade. This would be a great tool to use in the spring when kids are starting to check out but there is still lots of review to be done before the end of the year.

I loved Bookopolis https://www.bookopolis.com/#/ and plan to use it in the upcoming school year with my second graders. Bookopolis is the GoodReads for kids. It's a great social networking site where kids can keep track of books they have read (reading log) and books they would like to read. They can write book reviews, which is great for recommending books to their friends, and for practicing that opinion or persuasive writing. They also can fill out book report forms, which allow the teacher to check for comprehension. There is a way for teachers to make recommendations to students and to monitor student work/progress. Best of all it is free! I think it would be a great tool for the classroom teacher and the librarian to know what kids are reading and what they are interested in reading. It could help with building classroom libraries or increasing circulation in the library.

What Was There http://www.whatwasthere.com/ is a cool resource that connects old photographs to the actual real places using Google Maps. In first grade, I wanted to show my students old pictures of Richmond to go along with our study of past, present, and future. This site would make that so easy. In addition, if you have old photos, those can be uploaded. For some of the pictures, it will actually show you a Google Map street view of the location now. It was very interesting to look at some places around Richmond that have historical significance and see a primary source document, photo, and see a photo of that same place today. What a great tool for compare and contrast, as well, as for the history aspect. I think students would get a kick out of seeing sites from their community as well as using this for research. It does tell you the source of the photo, if you needed further information.

I have decided to follow Shannon Miller's blog, The Library Voice.
 http://vanmeterlibraryvoice.blogspot.com/  I really enjoyed looking around on her blog. I loved her post about the new Drew Daywalt book that was just released, The Day the Crayons Came Home. She shared some fun activities that elementary students would like to do to connect with that text. (And it is the sequel to the book that I did my Literature Connections Unit for Children's Lit class this sememster!). Also, of the suggested bloggers, she seemed to be the only elementary person. I know that some of the other bloggers had things that could be used at any grade level and I bookmarked three of them in my Symbaloo Mix for this class. Additionally, I just learned that Shannon Miller will be one of the keynote speakers at this fall's VAASL conference in Williamsburg, so that is exciting.