As part of the participatory culture of the Barrow Media Center, we like to feature student art exhibits. We haven’t had as many this year due to our temporary space while our school is rebuilt. However, today one of my favorite displays returned. Ms. Foretich, our fabulous art teacher, setup the PreK Not a Box display. Students read the book Not a Box by Antoinette Portis and designed their own artistic creations out of boxes. This book always inspires creativity. One of the things I love about this display is how each design is accompanied by a digital photograph of the creation that is labeled so that visitors can understand what each box represents. In the future I could see this project evolving to include some QR codes to make the exhibit more interactive. There’s always something new and innovative that we could include. Time always creates some limitations on what we can do. If you happen to be near the Barrow Media Center, please stop by and take a look. If not, then take a look at the gallery below and feel free to leave comments for Ms. Foretich and her students.
Monthly Archives: April 2013
Found Poetry with the Word Mover App
I always love collaborating with Ms. Hocking in Kindergarten. A few weeks ago, she shared a great iPad app by Read Write Think called Word Mover. It’s basically a magnetic poetry app. You can choose from a word bank or from several famous works such as the I have a Dream speech and America the Beautiful. In each word bank, you can also add your own words, change the font, and the color. You can also choose from several backgrounds to put behind your poem. Students drag the words in any order that they want to create their poem just like you would do with magnetic poetry on the fridge. Students give their poem a title and save it to the camera roll. From there, you can use the image however you want. Ms. Hocking plans to display the poems on her smart board during April. 
This was a great tie-in to found poetry. We also talked about how you could walk the halls f the school and borrow words from the student work that is hanging on the walls in order to write a new poem. The Kindergarten class used this tool without a lot of instruction. Ms. Hocking and I walked around and helped students with questions. The most common help needed was being able to read one of the words. They really didn’t have problems using the technology.
Take a look at the poetry gallery below.
More Great Little Free Library News
Labels, bumper stickers, ideas, and more were in our package from Little Free Libraries.
I love that I get to continue to share great news from our Little Free Library Project. Here are some more great things that have happened:
- We were approved to put our library at Lay Park. This was in response to a student letter and a great phone call with Randy Haygood, facility supervisor
- Camilla Bracewell, amazing superhero library volunteer & Barrow grandparent, became a supporter of our project through a donation and conversations with people in the community.
- Our Little Free Libraries are now registered. We received our signs in the mail!
- Our libraries are now in art waiting to be painted once we have a design decided.
Our official signs will be mounted on our libraries once they are painted.
I love that the signs are made from reclaimed wood from Wisconsin’s Amish Country.
Exciting Little Free Library News
Kenny Sims, Operations Manager with Athens Home Depot, donates the 2 Little Free Libraries to Barrow
Two major things happened today with our Little Free Libraries. I began talks with a possible location for our 2nd library and our 2 libraries were delivered by Home Depot!
I have to say again that we went into this project with a lot of faith in our community and amazing things are happening. Here are a few recent things:
- Several students from other grades have come to tell me that they are cleaning out their home libraries to bring us books that they no longer need.
- Several people have brought in books to fill the libraries already.
- People donated money during the book fair which was almost enough to register both of our libraries. The 5th graders are about to each bring in $1, which will help us reach that goal. Our library numbers will be 5559 and 5560
- A student who wrote a persuasive letter was beaming when he found out that his letter had been received by the recipient.
- Home Depot #0129 continues to be a very generous donor to this project. They have built and donated both libraries and are now working with our art teacher to get supplies for painting the 2 libraries. They will also help us with the final supplies for installing both libraries. I can’t thank them enough for their generosity. They definitely have my future home improvement business!
5th graders immediately came to see the 2 libraries
Skyping with Anne Marie Pace
Back on March 6th, we celebrated World Read Aloud Day with Skype sessions with authors and schools around the country. On that very same day, a major winter storm was making its way across the country creating chaos, power outages, and librarians frantically rescheduling connections. Anne Marie Pace was scheduled to Skype with Ms. Wright’s and Ms. Yawn’s 2nd grade classes. We had read Vamperina Ballerina and written several questions to ask her about writing and the book. However, the snowstorm knocked out Anne Marie’s power. Fortunately, we were able to find a time to reconnect and the students were so excited to finally meet her on Skype today.
We did a brief “hello” and then Anne Marie read us Never Ever Talk to Strangers. She had the book on a presentation so that the kids could easily see the pages as she read. After that, the students begged to hear Vamperina again. Because our schedule wasn’t so rushed today, we had time, and Anne Marie graciously gave the kids a 2nd reading of Vamperina Ballerina.
We printed all of the students’ questions from a Google Doc so that they were prepared to quickly ask their questions. Here’s a look at our questions:
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Natalie: Who is your publisher?
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George: Why did you make Vamperina Ballerina?
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Tykeria: Why did she turn into a bat in the story?
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Lucy: Is it a long process to make a book or does it depend on the book?
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Nikolas: Do you only write picture books?
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Olonix: Do vampires change into anything else?
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Grace: How did you come up with the details?
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Myles: Why did you put the vampire into the spotlight?
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Sam B: What are your other books?
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Sam G: Why did you put a vampire in a ballerina class?
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Miles: Do you make chapter books or comic books?
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Mr. Plemmons: Do you feel like the illustrator drew what you were thinking when you wrote your words?
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Ms. Wright: Did you have to write multiple drafts of the book?
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Harper: How do you know so much about vampires?
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Danny: Do you ever have writer’s block?
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Repp: Have you ever messed up on a published piece?
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Eddie: Do you have more books than 3?
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Jeremiah: Why do you like books so much?
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Diana: Who inspired you to write books?
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Ty’Najia: How long does it take to make a book?
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Tom: How did you come up with these book ideas?
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Xander: If you do have chapter books, how many do you have?
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Mrs. Yawn: How young were you when you first started writing?
This year we have been so fortunate to make so many connections through Skype. I can’t wait to incorporate it even more next year. The students left this session energized about reading and writing. I just know this will translate into what they do in the classroom. Thank you, Anne Marie Pace, for making our day so special! We can’t wait to read the Vamperina sequel!
March 2013 Monthly Report
Take a look at the great things that happened in our library during the month of March.
Poem In Your Pocket Day 2013 is Coming!
We are so excited that National Poetry Month is already here! In just 2 weeks, we will be celebrating Poem In Your Pocket Days. On April 11th & 12th, students in every class will come to the library to our open microphone poetry cafe. The tables will be setup with tablecloths, lanterns, and poetry books. A stool and microphone will be available for students to come up and read their original and favorite poetry for their class to hear. Once again, we will be broadcasting all of this live online via Adobe Connect. This has become a very special event for students because they are able to get their writing and favorite poems out to a much larger audience. When people type comments in the chat feature of Adobe Connect, I always share those with students in the moment. It creates a big pulse of energy in the group. We’ve had family, friends, and other schools tune in from as far away as Afghanistan and England and as close by as the classroom next to us! We hope you will join us to listen to our poems and leave some comments. Here is the schedule:
Thursday April 11, 2013
| Time | Class |
| 8:30 | 3rd Shealey |
| 9:00 | 1st Wyatt |
| 9:30 | 1st Watson |
| 10:00 | 1st Hart |
| 10:30 | 4th Selleck |
| 11:00 | 2nd Wright |
| 11:30 | 4th Freeman |
| 12:00 | 1st Stuckey |
| 12:30 | 1st Em |
| 1:00 | 2nd Brink |
| 1:30 | K Hocking |
| 2:00 | 2nd Yawn |
Friday April 12, 2013
| Time | Class |
| 8:00 | 5th Cross |
| 8:30 | K Carney |
| 9:00 | K Boyle |
| 9:30 | K Li |
| 10:00 | PreK Doneda |
| 10:30 | 3rd Spurgeon |
| 11:00 | 4th Olin |
| 11:30 | K Vertus |
| 12:00 | 5th Slongo |
| 12:30 | PreK Clarke |
| 1:00 | 2nd Ramseyer |
| 1:30 | 3rd Griffith |
To login to Adobe Connect, follow these instructions:
- Go to http://clarkecounty.adobeconnect.com/barrowmediacenter
- Click “enter as guest”
- Type your name
- Click “enter room” & wait to be approved
- Enjoy listening to the poetry and type your comments for students in the chat box.
Leading up to the event, we are having an original poetry contest. All entries are due by this Friday and prizes/certificates will be awarded in multiple categories in PreK-1st, 2nd-3rd, and 4th-5th grades.
Students and teachers are also contributing to a crowd sources poem that I will carry in my pocket on Poem In Your Pocket Day called “Our Library is Not a Quiet Place”. They are submitting lines through a Google Form. You are welcome to submit lines, too. Just go to this link.
Expect the Miraculous 