Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Blogging for School Students- First Steps

  Before your class (or group) starts blogging, it would be a good idea to send a letter hoe to parents and guardians  discussing how the group will work.

   Include in this also a permission letter with terms and condition that both student and parent will sign and return.  This will lay out students behavior  on the blog,  and what is expected of the student. This can also include consequences for students who do not follow the guidelines. 

  We want students  to become users of blogs by sharing ideas, analyzing the work/ book given  and participating/ collaborating with their classmagtes. This may lead to more global interaction thru the internet.

Monday, June 27, 2016

First Week of Summer Vacation!

    We are off to a good start of summer vacation! I have lots of plans- let's see  how many I get done.  
     One plan is to read , read, read!  Right now I am on the 5th Poldark book- I am really enjoying the series.  I did watch the  one or two episodes of the PBS series. But I am thinking I would rather  read them  then watch them.  You may see a review - not sure yet. 
    I will eventually dive into some Ya's since I am already building my book list for next year. I am looking for good reads for 7th and 8th graders- so if you have any favorites please leave a message in the comment section!  
   One of my other plans is to get out my cookbook collection- and plan out some good recipes!   ( and then actually make then!)  One of my  favorites is the Pioneer Women. I just love love her. Her recipes are for real people using regular ingredients.
    It rained here this afternoon , so we sat  inside at the edge of the garage and read for about an hour. It was nice!

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Middle School Blogs! Middle School Book Club!

   I am  hoping to promote  that student in our 7&8  grades  will be blogging next year.  I am hoping to work with the ElA teachers  or maybe start a lunch time book club for students.  Each group - a 7th and an 8th would have a blog attached to our library website.  Then they will read the book and then discuss . The students will be volunteers!  
    I will write an intro to the book( or maybe have the students do a book review.)Then students can present their ideas about the book in the blog during the month- So I am thinking that  maybe a monthly meeting would work.   I will think about it over the summer. 
    But if you have any ideas , please comment below!  I am looking for some input

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Next Year! New challenges!

      Next year I am told  that I will not be doing all day 7th grade all day. So I will be a 'real " librarian.  So my first challenge will be  getting teachers to collaborate  with me  during the following year.  I know several of the teachers will be glad to work with me. 
      For instance , the music teacher always does several projects requiring  research  on famous   musicians.  I am trying to also remember  if there was another project that he did.  We already  have a whole packet worked up for this project.

       Both of  The 7th  grade science teachers also  do at least one project on endangered species that require  the students to do research on an animal.  So I am quite sure that they will also work with me,

      The one 8th grade social studies class does  a  project on Immigration and also I think another on Washington DC before their trip in the spring.  

   So I will springboard off of these and work on getting other  teachers to work with me on different projects.

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

It's June! End of year!

     I'm getting ready for the end of school! It's been a long  and interesting year!  7th grade has been a challenge to say the least! I think having the centers was a good idea and I will prepare some  more for next year to have set up for when students visit.   As far as I know, I will not be having 7th grade classes but will be working more closely with the teachers doing student based projects!!  So excited about that!!

      Over the summer I will be checking out some ideas  to get the teachers prepared to collaborate with me when they are doing their projects. This is really the way to run a library and have the students really learn how to use the resources that they need to use.

      I will write more about this over the summer . But I am looking for ideas on how to get teachers to collaborate so please  join in the conversation  of your ideas and suggestions, and what you do if you are in a situation where you have a flexible schedule  for student teacher collaboration.