Free Library Lesson- Moe Willems

 Moe Willems gas been a delightful contributor to the world off children's books. He combines  simple drawings , engaging character,s and funny situations to pull children into  reading, We all know the Pigeon books, and they are unique.  series. Again  Moe  uses dialogue and interesting  yet familiar. situations to move the story  along.

  I happen to love The Piggie and Elephant series. Again, Moe uses dialogue and funny situations to move the story along.

Go to Moe's website and  you can find his Bio and some activities to go along with his books.
http://mowillems.com

Two of my Favorites and somethings to do with them.
We are in a Book

  1. Have students make a book with pictures .( drawn or cut out from old magazines). Have students identify each one with word bubbles.

 2. Make a book with two characters telling jokes . This could be a class activities with each student doing one page, illustrating it and writing word bubbles. Put the book together as as class book.

The Thank You Book
Students can make a class book or individual book of  what  they are thankful for. They can describe it in word bubbles.(Think November)

Making your teaching more student centered-2

  Here are a couple of more ideas for creating more student centered learning. This is not an easy task but it is so worth while to get the students engaged and involved their learning,

  1- Design more active practice  of skills and lessons that the students need .Provide more opportunities for students  to engage with materials and activities. This will ensure that students retain information  and be able to use then skill/ information a new context. If you use guided practice and provide feedback, this will also lead to student centered learning.

  2-Reveal your practices and processes  when discussing an assignment or project. Talk about your approach and share how you choose a topic. Acknowledge that are many possibilities for solving a problem.

Great read!

  Marie Benedict has done it again. In Lady Clementine,  we learn about Winston Churchill's wife, and right hand ad visor. Benedict brings Clementine to life with her extensive research. We learn about her younger years and the years she was a helpmate to Churchill.
   All the characters come alive , you feel like you belong to the Churchill family. The details about the fashion, food ,and wartime activities are skillfully interwoven to make a wonderful story!  The writing is absolutely fascinating.
  I have also read  The Other Einstein and  Carnegie's Maid which were  equally  entertaining and  interesting.

Making your teaching more student centered

As you thinking about back to school ( hopefully) , we can be strive to have our classes and lessons more student/learner centered. In my reading, I have come across some ideas that may help,
  1. Explain to students why you are doing things. Share with them why you are asking the students to learn a skill, perform a task,or complete an activity. Emphasize why it is important and worthwhile.

2. Eliminate should or ought. Appeal to the students/ learning. Appeal to the learners autonomy / or inner motivation. Appeal to their interests and passions instead of using controlling language.
Change your language to incorporate the student ideas. This will take time and effort but will result in better communication.

3. Do less in a lesson!  Students can only process a limited amount of information at once. So plan on fewer  learning outcomes. And then provide more active practice on the learning outcome. Give more time to each essential outcome.

Do you know The Fussy Librarian?

  I only just discovered this and I am thinking it will be a great source for eBooks. Best part of this - the eBooks are free ( or very low cost)!!
  If you go to the Fussy Librarian  (  https://www.thefussylibrarian.com/   )   and sign up ,  you can get a daily email with the latest  free eBooks for your Kindle, Nook, Apple or google play reader!
  There are listings for both adult, children/ middle grades and non-fiction categorizes.
Each listing shows the cover and also gives a short summary/ synopsis of the work.,
   You can get the full listing or you can customize it to the genres you like to read. If you don't want daily emails , you can tell it when  and how often you want to receive the listing of free eBooks.
Check this out if you like to do eBooks! The site also as articles for readers and authors that are informative and interesting.

Using Common Sense Media

Check out Common Sense  media for your remote  learning!  Or just to use for your informational /Digital literacy classes!   There is a lot of resources for librarians and tech teachers .

 First of all they have a new guide to Google  Classroom.

 There are Classroom Management   articles:
      How to find great resources.
     Guide to teaching  with Technology
     Classroom Management Tools
      Kick off the school year with interest driven projects

 Under ED Tech
      Using video for Project Based learning
       Using Video to collaborate on Project Based learning

Finally: Basic tools for Virtual and Distance learning

I  hope some of these will be helpful for you!

Brain Pop- site for remote learning/ Google Classroom

  Brain Pop is another tool I have used to add to my Google classroom. There are many activities lessons, videos, games, and quizzes that go along with my 7th grade Information Literacy Curriculum
  If you have this available in your district , I urge you to check it out and see what you can use for your remote learning.
  Some of the lessons I have used are the following:

Tech: Cyber bulling, digital animation, social media

Computer Sciences: 3d printing,computer history, Internet, hackers

Digital Citizenship: I have used most of these units which are excellent
.
English: Famous authors & books, Study & Reading Skills, Writing / Book reports ,Citing sources, copyright , fact & opinion

Each unit has a video,a quiz, related readings, and other activities.

Brain Pop is a very helpful source that will engage students and support teaching and leaning,
There is also a BrainPop Jr for students in grades k- 3.