Skype-a-Thon 2016 was a success for us. We have never participated in Skype-a-Thon before or really used much Skype in the classroom before this year. We had 3 Mystery Skype sessions and a virtual fieldtrip/Skype with a Yellowstone park ranger. Let me back up just a little bit and fill you in on part of my story as a Teacher Librarian. I do not have technology in my library. I have a computer that I use to perform my administrative duties as well as one for the students to use the OPAC. That is it. I do not have a projector, iPads, Chromebooks, or anything else that is considered technology. I was very excited last week when my principal found a projector for me to use. We used it to Skype with Salina Yoon last Monday. We used it the next day to for our accidental Mystery Skype with a class in Brazil that was part of Skype-a-Thon.
As I said before, on that Wednesday, I had 2 Mystery Skype sessions and the Skype with the Yellowstone park ranger. I was in the library getting everything set up because, again, I was so excited to be able to actually project the Skype sessions on the wall and not have to find a classroom or rearrange a classroom to do them. I got my computer hooked up and the projector turned on. The projector was no longer working! My heart sank. I was beginning to feel like this library was becoming a real library all because of a projector. I had dreamed of so many different things that I could display and do and felt the whole world open up in my library because of a projector. Now I was back to having to scramble because I absolutely refused to cancel our Skype sessions. The kids deserved these opportunities no matter how much inconvenience it causes me. One of the Mystery Skype sessions scheduled that day was for 4th grade and one was for 5th grade. I sent a message to the 4th grade teacher at our school who said her students would be thrilled to participate in two Mystery Skype sessions that day so we could just bring the 5th grade students to her room. I moved all of my equipment (my personal laptop that I use and the speakers that I borrowed) to her room. I also had already set up maps and atlases that I had to move. We set it all up and connected it to her projector. There were still a few issues such as the screen blinking on and off, but we made it through it and the students had so much fun and learned even more. Our first Mystery Skype session was with a 5th grade class in Pennsylvania. They sang us a song about the presidents that they had learned through some of their recent studies. Our second Mystery Skype session was with a school in Arkansas. The 4th grade students were definitely not expecting them to be in Arkansas. We will be doing more connections and collaborating with the teachers in both states in the future. So now how to solve the problem of the Skype with the Yellowstone Park ranger? Well, there was not much of a solution other than put my laptop in a chair in the library, gather on the carpet, have the speakers plugged in and hope for the best! Our first graders had not gotten to participate in any type of Skype sessions before so they were very excited. When I say very excited, I mean very excited. They also thought they needed to talk a little louder for him to hear them, as well as felt they needed to be able to see themselves on the computer as well as the park ranger. It was a very neat and informative experience. He showed them so many different animals, talked about them with them, discussed geysers, and so much more all on a level they could understand. All in all, we had a great Skype-a-Thon. We ended up traveling over 7,000 miles in two days. That is huge for our school. I am not afraid to have to get creative or for things to maybe not go quite as planned as long as our students are getting to learn, are being empowered, and getting educational experiences they have never gotten before. It is truly all about the kids.
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Yesterday, December 5, 2016, was National Ninja Day Story Time. It was our first year to ever participate. We had so much fun! I dressed as a ninja and was Ninjabrarian for a day. I have always wanted to be a ninja. I may not have known any really-totally-awesome-superly-cool ninja moves, but I definitely felt like a ninja librarian. We started the day off by me stealthily entering classrooms to read ninja stories to the students. I made sure that I read a different story to each class. Some of the stories we read were Hensel and Gretel Ninja Chicks by Corey Rosen Schwartz and Rebecca J. Gomez, The Three Ninja Pigs by Corey Rosen Schwartz and Dan Santat, and Dojo Daytrip by Chris Tougas. After we read a story, we painted paper plates to look like ninja faces. I got washable paint just in case the tiny ninjas accidentally got paint on more than just the paper plate ninjas. Kids love to express themselves through art and hands-on activities, and I think they all did a great job with this activity. We had paper plate ninjas with black, green, and blue masks and big eyes, small eyes, and no eyes. They were so cute!
We ended our day by having one of our amazing teachers teach the kids about the 5 tenets of TaeKwando, show them a few stretches, and perform his Kata. He is testing for his brown belt today. The students were all completely engaged. He held the attention of 90 K-6 students for quite some time. What he said was great for character education and development. It is definitely a program I would like to expand on next year. I love what National Ninja Day Story Time is promoting! To learn more go to ninjasread.com/ or find @ninjasread or @beabookninja on Twitter. If you have never participated in National Ninja Day Story Time, I encourage you to find out all the information you can and plan for next year. It was ninjatastic! (Keep calm and be a reading ninja!!) Skypeathon was November 29th and 30th this year. I signed our school up on Microsoft in Education's website and began sending out tweets to find schools to partner with for Mystery Skype sessions. I was contacted by a teacher at a school in Brazil. Unfortunately, our schedules didn't match for the times we had available. I received a tweet from the teacher in Brazil on November 29th asking what our 9th and 10th graders were doing for the next 15-45 minutes. I told him I would check with their teacher. We decided to go ahead and do a test Skype in case things worked out. I told the teacher we were not prepared to do a Mystery Skype at that time, but our students could chat with his and learn about their country and vice versa. I spoke with the teacher at our school and the students came down to the library. I explained to them that we were going to do a Mystery Skype, but schedules just didn't work out. They were going to get the opportunity to speak with students in Brazil though. They were excited!
I could tell there was a bit of a language barrier, but was not prepared for the miscommunication that had happened during the chat with the teacher. We called the class via Skype. The teacher began talking and asked if our kids knew Mystery Skype. They told him no. I had not yet had a chance to speak with them about it since our schedules hadn't been able to match up with other schools. The teacher then asked if they would like to play. The kids said yes! I had been standing closer to where the projector was projecting the other class. I immediately turned around and began frantically whispering and motioning for them to pretend they had no idea they were in Brazil. I knew they did not know where in Brazil, but I just kept whispering, "Pretend you don't know where they are! Pretend you don't know where they are!" Our students did an excellent job. They let the other school go first. They asked us if we were in North America. Our students then asked them if they were in South America. Not having technology in the library other than a Chromebook that inconveniently decided not to connect to the network, we began pulling out pocket technology to look at maps. The kids asked if they were from Venezuela, Uruguay, and a couple other places before asking Brazil. Even with having the upper hand to begin with, the other school still figured out our location first! Watching the students from both classrooms interact was interesting. They were both very engaged in this assignment, but the cultural differences were very evident. The manner of speaking, body language, and accents were very different. It was a very unique learning experience for us all. It took a few minutes afterward for it to sink in with some of our students that they had actually connected with students in another country without having to leave our school. And though this Skype turned into an accidental Mystery Skype, it was an unforgettable experienced that reinforced how much I love Skype in the classroom! Our 2nd and 3rd graders are participating in a connected Google Classroom project with other 2nd graders in Iowa. I made a connection on Twitter via Stony Evans (the LMS at Lakeside High School) with Lynn Kleinmeyer. She asked me if I would like to join them this year in a Mock Caldecott project that they had done the previous year via Google Classroom. I told her I would love to and so would our students. I had never heard of a connected Google classroom before so it was a learning experience. I found out that it was not hard to do once the districts had white listed the other schools. Okay, Lynn is a Rockstar. She makes it look easy. She was actually the one to create the classrooms and add us all in. She, Alyssa Calhoun, and Miranda Kral are the main brains behind this project. There are 3 of us as the teachers and students from two classes in each classroom. I had also not had the opportunity to participate in any mock Caldecott projects before since I came from the high school world. We began the project the week of November 14th with Be a Friend by Salina Yoon. Salina Yoon was so excited we were using her book that she wanted to Skype with all of our students! I honestly felt slightly like a kid in a candy store that had just been told I could get whatever candy I wanted. It was so neat! Before I get too much into the Skype with Salina Yoon, I am going to post the books we are using in our project.
Be a Friend by Salina Yoon Twenty Yawns by Jane Smiley and illustrated by Lauren Castillo It's Not Time for Sleeping by Lisa Graff and illustrated by Lauren Castillo The Airport Book by Lisa Brown Are We There Yet? by Dan Santat They All Saw a Cat by Brenden Wenzel Horrible Bear by Ame Dyckman Samson in the Snow by Philip C. Stead Henry and Leo by Pamela Zagarenski Maybe Something Beautiful by F. Isabel Campoy and Theresa Howell The Night Gardener by The Fan Brothers Shy by Deborah Freedman This Is Not a Picture Book by Sergio Ruzzier We Found a Hat by Jon Klassen Ideas All Around! by Philip C. Stead School’s First Day of School by Adam Rex The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles by Michelle Cueva Each week, we read two books and have something for the kids to do in Google Classroom. It may be answering a question, doing a Google Drawing, completing a form to name a few things. At the end of our project, the students will vote on which book they feel deserves the Caldecott. We also discuss the illustrations in each book each week. As I said, through this project, we were connected with Salina Yoon. She is such a sweet person. She took so much time talking to the kids, showing them some of her books, telling them how she gets her ideas for writing, how many books she has written versus how many she has published, as well as told the kids some of her personal background. She read her book Be a Friend to them and was dressed like the character Joy. She was great and all of the kids loved her! We are now setting up dates and times to Skype with Lisa Brown and Ame Dyckman. One of the ways that the four librarians involved in the project collaborate and communicate is through Voxer. We are constantly bouncing ideas off each other during the day, evenings, and weekends. This is a project that I am thrilled we have been able to participate in, and our kids think it is neat to be connecting with students in another state. Twitter is one of the best resources for teachers. Through Twitter, I was able to connect with Kelly Hincks. She is a librarian in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. She and I discussed connecting her junior kindergarten class with our kindergarten class via Skype. They had been practicing their reading skills in class and wanted to share their progress. We scheduled a date, November 9, 2016, tested our equipment, and made the call. Kindergarteners and junior kindergarteners anxiously awaited meeting each other. When the call began, our kindergarteners crowded around the laptop fascinated with the fact that it was not a movie they were watching, but other kids their ages in real-time visiting with them! Mrs. Hinks' class read The Pout Pout Fish to us. Her students joined in on the blub, blub, blub and other parts of the book. Before long, ours were reading along with them. Mrs. Nowlin read Pete the Cat and the Magic Sunglasses. She did a great job! Afterward, the classes each took turns asking questions about each other, where each other lives, and so much more. We also showed them where the other class was on a map. This was something I definitely enjoyed and want to do more of! I am hoping Mrs. Hincks' class will be able to connect with us again before the school year ends.
Back on October 28, 2016, we had our very first #mysteryskype with our 8th grade class. Our students were broken into groups. They had to figure out which school we were Skyping with by only asking yes/no questions. Some students used Google maps, others used atlases and printed maps. They were not given a starting point. They could have been Skyping with anyone anywhere in the world. The students played rock, paper, scissors to see which school would begin asking questions.
We had Inquirers/Responders (at the webcam/my phone. They were responsible for asking the questions), Atlas Checkers, Google Map Checkers, Logic Reasoners (these individuals decided which questions to ask next), Question Keepers (they kept up with what questions had been asked). A larger school could also have students that take pictures and record videos. Our students did well for their very first time at this. We discovered we were Skyping with an 8th grade class in Hot Springs. The students all gathered around the webcam at the end of the Mystery Skype to talk about where they live, what they do for fun, sports, sizes of schools, etc. We all had a blast! |
Kimee ReedI am a Teacher Librarian that believes in out of the box experiences to make learning fun, inspire, encourage, excite, and empower students. Archives
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