As I have been planning out the next weeks I realized how fast this year is flying by. Next week I will be in a district training for several days. Then, the book fair is looming and I want to give the students a preview. After the book fair, there is only one week before Spring break. Wow!!!

I have been trying something this week that last year I wouldn't even have considered. I am teaching the 2nd graders how to navigate the school computers including the network drives. I want them to be able to write some responses to the books we read, and to be able to save their work and find it again the next time. Ultimately they will learn to save their final effort on a shared drive. It's all pretty complicated, but 2 classes this week were brave enough to try some basic tasks, and some of the kids actually had success on their first effort. It amazes me.

Yesterday, while attending my ESL class, I suddenly got hit with a wave of fever and chills. By the time I got home, there was no way I would be at school this morning. But, just as suddenly as it came on, it fades (at least for now.)

Some of the higher grades are involved in an activity centered around the Warsaw Jewish Ghetto at the beginning of WW2. After giving them a little background of the time, I share with the classes the book The Cats of Krasinski Square.

After the story, we used Google Earth to go to Warsaw and actually to Krasinski Square as it is now.
Then the students went to a different blog I have set up and wrote some sentences around a question I asked. I think I will use this blog more often as a way for students to interact with things. Since it is unmoderated, I have put it password protected and the students know the password.

This morning I am very excited, especially for a Monday. As you may have noticed in Friday's post, I went to a technology conference on Friday and Saturday. I learned enough new things that I am excited to explore them.

Activities in the library today range from a story called Louder Lili, to a video on Roald Dahl, to a class finishing their Olympic video. should be interesting and I will not get bored.

Here is an example of the Olympics videos we created. This one was created by the sixth graders in Ms. Lewis's class.

I am writing today from Murray High School where I am attending a technology conference. I have a few minutes in between sessions and thought I would add an entry from here. Yesterday we made some Olympic movies in some of the classes.

As I introduce the early grades to non-fiction books, and the Dewey Decimal System, I decided to create a video which highlights the section we are focusing on. My first one proved to be popular enough that I am thinking of creating a few more as we move through some of the non-fiction sections. Here is my 597 episode.

On another technology front, I did some Wimba activities with the fifth and sixth graders in the past week. I actually got the idea in the middle of the night a couple of weeks ago. It was on the 20th aniversary of Nelson Mandela's release from prison. Students log into my virtual classroom and then I am able to push out items which everyone sees. I put out a picture of Mandela followed by a question as to to the person was. Students can immediately type in their answer and then I publish everyone's reply. It is a good way to get everyone involved. If you have a fifth or sixth grader, ask them about it.

Man, you really get used to shortened weeks and shortened days. This is the first full week in about three weeks, and I am not ready. Plus, I have some cold symptoms again this morning. I don't know if this is a carryover from my last one or if it is a brand new one. Regardless, I am not happy about it. We will be doing a variety of things today depending on the grade. Kindergarten will be having a book called The Chicken of the Family. Henrietta's sisters convince her that she is really a chicken.

With a short week now, and many missed classes last week, I will just try to tie up some loose ends this week. We will be finishing up some projects, completing some unfinished activities and investigating some new technology.

Perhaps it is the euphoria which precedes a four day week-end, but I just have to say what great students we have at Beacon Heights. I have tried so many different things in the library, and almost always the students respond in such a positive way. I am so lucky to be at this school. Congratulations to the parents.

This week will be anything but regular. Short days will mean that not all classes will have library this week. That, along with the days off on next Monday and Tuesday, mean that I will be mostly tying up loose ends in the near future. Most classes are working on library catalog skills, while the early grades are having literature and some practice in navigating the library Web page.

I have been experimenting with some video projects. I recently discovered a site called Animoto. I am going to try to embed a video in this blog post. I basically created a Power point, saved the slides as jpegs, and then let this site create a video. For just a few minutes work, I think it is pretty cool.