Online Book Communities

Have you ever wanted to keep track of the books you read?  Well now you can and you can even share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.  The following Online Book Communities are the ones that I checked out to see which would be user friendly and have the best look.

First one here is Booklikes, http://booklikes.com/.  It reminds me more of a Facebook page or Twitter.  Not the one for me, it was a little confusing to get around on and I really didn't like how it was set up.

Second one was Goodreads, https://www.goodreads.com/.  This one was easy to get started on.  When you first signed in a page came up with different genres for you to choose from.Then it brought up books from those genres that you might be interested in.  This would be my second choice for doing a book community.

  

The third one I looked at was LibraryThing, https://www.librarything.com.  I believe LibraryThing has more tabs and more things you can do on their site then the others.   For me this was a little harder to navigate through then some of the others.  

The fourth one was Shelfari, http://www.shelfari.com/.  I liked this one the best.  When you signed in it gave you a list of genres to choose from and then brought up books that fit into those genres.  When you picked a book it would come up with a page to click if you were going to read it, reading it, or read it.  Once you picked one of those then it came up with other information you could add or you could just skip it.  This site was easy for me to navigate through.  I was even able to add this to my blog page.

All of these Book Communities are good, it is just a matter of what you prefer and how much time you are willing to put into it.  Each site is useful in that you can see what other people are reading and reviews of books.
If I was going to use one it would either be Shelfari or GoodReads, just because those two for me where easier to use.  As far as using one or the other in school I am not sure how I would use it with prek-third grade students.  I can see this being done at the junior high or high school where the students would be able to put the books they have read and write a review for it and share with their friends there at school.  I think it would be fun to see what others have read and what they think of the book.
If any elementary librarians see this and would comment back if they have an idea on how it would work in their library, I would love to hear from you.

Whose Talking Now - Podcasts

Who is talking and why are they talking?  Podcast in the classroom or library can be a wonderful way to get students interacting with others and learning in a new and exciting way.  Students can do book talks, book reviews, bibliographies on famous people, explaining math problems and interviewing people using a simple free Podcast sight like PodOmatic.  These are just some of the ideas I found while searching on the Internet on how Podcast can be useful in the k-12 classroom/library.

This is a short Podcast I made on Taking Care of Library Books.  This is one that I would use at the beginning of the year with books that have the type of damage I mention and since you are able to pause it, I would do so after each type of damage so we could discuss it further.  






If you would like to listen to some good Podcast, The Elementary Librarian has some on topics of interest to fellow librarians.

YouTube, Animoto, QR Codes

YouTube is one of those sites that can be very helpful to a teacher or librarian or a site that is not appropriate for school.  YouTube has many wonderful videos on how to do different projects, stories to listen to, and short videos for teaching students different concepts.  Here are some that I thought were interesting in helping students or just some that the students might like to view.

https://www.youtube.com/user/bbmsmedia/videos

This YouTube caught my eye because I think younger students would enjoy watching it and maybe it would remind them to turn in their books at the end of the year.


This video would help students who are looking for different books where the female is the lead character and she is strong and knows how to get the job done.

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheNHSLibrary/videos


This one I think students from all ages would enjoy, since it is librarians acting out Pete the Cat.  Many students like to watch their teachers/librarians do fun things.



This video was made to help students do their poetry project.  I like that it is very detailed, easy to follow and that the project is set up on Google docs.

https://www.youtube.com/user/theunquietlibrary/videos



When watching this video, I thought wow what a great idea; a mobile library able to go to the students. Even the students seemed a little surprised to be able to check out/ check in books during their lunch time.  I really believe this would help get books out to the students.



This is a short video for seniors, to show them how to do their final project in PowerPoint.  It is quick, but I think it is a refresher on how to do it.  It is a good idea to do this for students who may have a few questions on  basic tools in PowerPoint.

https://www.youtube.com/user/pikesvillehslibrary/videos




I really believe that students would enjoy watching these students as they use the Wii to do some dancing and relaxing in the library.  Short but fun to watch the students having fun.




This is a good video on the registration process at this school.  Students could watch it and get the basic idea of what they need to do to finish the process or to change their schedule.  It is also good that it can be watched at home so the parents would know that process also.

Using YouTube in the library would be a lot of fun.  The students could do skits using Fairy Tales, they could do simple book reviews and tell a story or poetry.  These are just a few ideas that could be done with students in pre-k through third grade.  If you have any ideas please share.

Animoto

I did not know what Animoto was until I started doing some research on it.  It is like movie maker, but a lot easier to use.  This would defiantly be something that younger students could do to make book trailers of their favorite books.

I did a book trailer on A Baby Elephant in the Wild, I just received this book from JLG today and really liked the pictures and the story that went with it.

Last summer, the Sibert Honor–winning duo Caitlin O'Connell and Timothy Rodwell witnessed the birth and growth of a baby elephant. In this intimate account for preschool through elementary readers, find answers to questions such as: What do newborn elephants look like? How big are they? What threatens them in the wild? Do they bully each other? Are they stalked by lions? What happens if they don't get enough food or water? Are they at risk of extinction?

With irresistible photographs and a text that places the reader in the wonder of the Savannah, this is a book to treasure for all animal lovers.

Click on the QR Code to see the book trailer.

QR Codes

What are QR Codes?  They are Quick Response Codes, like a Bar Code, but can hold more information than just numbers.  Teachers and librarians are using them more and more in the classroom, in the library and in the school. One idea that I found while searching the Internet was putting QR codes on books that link to a trailer about the book, to the authors website, or listen to reviews from another students.  Other ideas where adding QR Codes to worksheets or homework that would link to a help site, putting QR Codes on a QR Tree with information that was happening at school or in the library when they were scanned. 

I thought of putting a QR Code on notes going home so parents can go to the library webpage to see what events are coming up in the library, also making one for the Book Fair to get the word out and the parents could see some of the books that are on sale.

Have fun making QR Codes!

Blogs, Blogs, Blogs, and More Blogs

Keeping up with the many Blogs that are out there can be an every hour by hour job.  Thank goodness for Blog Readers; tumblr, Bloglovin', Feedly, Digg Reader, etc.; there are many of these also. Looking at them reminds me of Pinterest; all the different Blogs were there when you opened up the page. On some of the readers you had to create an account before you could see more of the blog, which was a little frustrating. There were two of the readers that I liked better than the rest; these were tumblr and Bloglovin'.  I opened an account with tumblr just to try it out a little more.  If you would like to visit the address is http://dpolitsch.tumblr.com. 

I came across some great blogs for elementary library/librarian, also.  One that I will be following is the Elementary Librarian, http://elementarylibrarian.com/  , Jocelyn Sams is the author of this blog.  She has many great ideas in using centers in the library and she also has lesson plans for the whole year for kindergarten through sixth grade; of course these you will need to purchase. She even does Podcasts with many interesting people and information to help librarians.


Another one I liked was Great Kid Books, http://greatkidbooks.blogspot.com/, authored by Mary Ann Scheuer.  Her first article caught my eye; How Comics Create Life-Long Readers an Interview with Jennifer Holm.  This site does say it's for parents but I believe it will be good for librarians also.

I really liked Library Learners, http://librarylearners.com , authored by Cari Young. She has posted many interesting things on her blog.  I really like the one about markerspaces in the library.  I also spent time looking at the You Tube videos about this 9-year-old boy who created an arcade out of boxes.  Wow, to have that much imagination.  

Another blog that is a must to visit is Mrs. Lodge's Library, http://www.mrs-lodges-library.com/.   Mrs. Lodge is the author of this blog and she has many wonderful ideas about library centers, too.  She also has some nifty ideas on how to keep bookends from slipping and ideas to use for lessons on her blog.

The last blog I think would be a good one to keep handy is Mrs. ReaderPants,  http://www.readerpants.net/.  This blog is more middle school or high school, but I found some good ideas that I might be able to use for third graders.

If you have a blog or know of one that would be great for an elementary librarian please commit so I can check them out.  

Happy Blogging!

Who Reads More? Moms VS Dads

Rainie, L. (2013, May 1). Parents, Children, Libraries, and Reading. Pew Research Internet Project.      Retrieved July 11, 2014 from http://www.pewinternet.org/.

Have you ever wondered who pushed reading and going to the library the most?  Well a survey was done asking parents many questions on who reads to their children, who visited the library more, who has read a book in the last 12 months and why libraries are so important to have in our communities. These questions were answered by some 2,252 Americans ages 16 and above with some 584 of these being parents with children younger than 18.  After all the results were in the moms were the ones who spent most of their time with their children reading to them and taking them to the library, even with all the technology they may have.  

Click here to view it on line.  https://magic.piktochart.com/output/2327969-children-and-the-library

3 pages

After looking at all three info-graphic sites, I chose Piktochart.  It looked to have all the information I need to create an info-graph and this site also had more samplers to choose from.

Twitter for a Newbe

Twitter, what is Twitter?  According to Wikipedia it is a social networking and microblogging system that people use to tweet to their followers what is happening around them or share important information in a 140 characters.  WOW!  You can get Twitter on your phone, your iPad, and your computer and I am sure there are other devices that you can use.Since I'm new to Twitter it has taken me some time to read what some of the tweets say and what the hash tag stands for, but by playing around on it I have found some very interesting people to follow.

One of those interesting people is Tony Vincent, @tonyvincent.  Tony started as a fifth grade teacher, worked his way to technology specialist and now has his own business helping teachers and students with technology.  The Tweet that caught my attention was his iPad app, Stick Around, to help students recall and review content from all of the core subjects.

LWB Another person I found to have a lot of knowledge about technology was Linda Braun, @lbraun2000.  One tweet I found interesting from Linda was the one on "College students likely to graduate w/o real-life research skills.  Librarians can help: http://bit:ly/1jgydsa via @yalsa".  The main point in this article was that college students don't know how to do an in depth search for a specific topic.  They are not using all the tools available to them, especially one very important one: the librarian.

Here is another fabulous person on Twitter.  She is The Daring Librarian, @GwynethJones.  Gwyneth has a blog page that she shares all her new and exciting tech ideas she has.  Her newest was using Vine App for the iPad to make short video clips of book reviews.  Her middle school students took a book and made a short clip of what the book was about. I really enjoyed how she tweeted about her cruise to Alaska.

Jim Lerman, @jimlerman, is another person I am following on Twitter.  He has many tweets concerning technology and others that are just fun.  I like the one on "Can you pass a US Citizenship test?"  I went there and yes I did pass!  He also has Into the Driver's Seat website that he post things that matter to him.

Kathy Schrock, @kathyschrock, is another technology guru that I will follow on Twitter, her websites and blogs.  She has a lot of information that will be very beneficial to me and the teachers I work with.  Her website iPads4teaching is very helpful.  This site has app links that can be used to assess students, create projects with the iPad, and many more apps to help teachers and students to become comfortable using the iPad for more than just games.



Getting on Twitter has helped me see a whole new world of social networking.  By following the right people you can learn many, many valuable ideas.  Just being on Twitter I found out that Reading Rainbow is an app on the iPad and that LeVar Burton raised 5 million dollars to get this program into 7,500 schools and classrooms.  Also, by following the tweets of Kathy Schrock, I now know where to go for help with the iPad and even found more information on the Chrome Notebooks that our school purchased.

Facebook

I have only been communicating on Facebook for about a year; now I am looking at school library's that have Facebook pages.  I have even created one for my school library.  It is amazing how far social networking has taken us and that I am in the center of it all.  

When looking at the different school library's Facebook pages I found many similar things and a few different items on the pages.  I noticed that high school pages posted items such as new book releases, notices about what was happening in their school, and videos and pictures of the students doing different activities.  One of the activities that I liked best was when students put pictures of books with a face on the cover in place of their own face.  Middle school pages had pretty much the same items.  The pages I was most interested in were the elementary pages.  I found three that I really liked.   Each one had many good ideas to offer for a person who is starting their own page.  One had many pictures and sayings about reading and reminders of when books needed to be turned in.  Another had a survey for parent volunteers to fill out on a Google form.  Each of these schools also posted lists of activities that were happening in their schools.

As I mentioned earlier, I recently started my own Facebook page for our school library (www.facebook.com/OBryantPrimaryLibrary). 

 I can see many advantages of having a Facebook page; it helps promote your school library, it gets information to the public about library and school activities and special functions,  and it helps to reach a wider audience.  

One drawback to maintaining a Facebook page, though, is finding the time to keep it updated  along with your other duties.  I saw several pages that weren't up to date, some as much as a year behind.  Of course this can hurt your credibility.