March 20, 2014 by plemmonsa

University of Georgia #Geniuscon Research Partners

Mrs. Ramseyer’s 2nd grade class has been participating in #Geniuscon since January. Geniuscon is an opportunity for students to show their “genius” by exploring a real-world topic that matters to them. Students go through an inquiry research process that centers around their interests and questions. This year, the overall question for Geniuscon is “If you could change one thing about your school, what would it be?”

First, students kicked off the project with some brainstorming.

Then, they chose topics and spent time developing questions around those topics.

Next, they continued to develop their questions, fine tune their topics, and make a plan of where to find information or who to ask questions.

While this step was going on, Mrs. Ramseyer and I started having a conversation with Gretchen Thomas, teacher at the University of Georgia. Gretchen first reached out to me on Twitter for another project at our school, and our conversations led us to Geniuscon. Her undergraduate students do 20% projects, which is very similar to what our students are doing. We thought that it would be wonderful for her UGA students to partner with our 2nd graders. Her UGA students would learn about working with kids as well as how we were journeying through this type of research project, and our students would benefit from having an older learner facilitating the research process. Gretchen’s class is not all education majors, which actually brings even more interesting perspectives and connections to our project. Some of her students are football and basketball players at UGA, so the students really liked that too.

Gretchen actually teaches 2 different groups of UGA students who are able to come to our school, so Mrs. Ramseyer worked with her through email to pair up UGA students and Barrow students. Today, the first group of UGA students arrived. We briefly met on the carpet to set the focus and then UGA and Barrow students paired and moved throughout the library to work. Students grabbed a computer from cart and logged into their Google drive.

This is what it looked like:

Using their list of topic questions, they had a conversation with their UGA partner. We quickly saw that many of our Barrow students just wanted to answer their research questions with their own words. This is certainly a valid piece of the process, but students weren’t all thinking about where they might go to research beyond themselves.

Mrs. Ramseyer, Gretchen, and I all walked around and checked in with groups and nudged them to start thinking about where they might go to find more information. There were some amazing things happening in a short amount of time. During the debrief at the end, students shared what they accomplished during the work time.

Here are some examples of what students said:

I learned how to make a spreadsheet and started adding things to it
I’m making a Google form survey to send to teachers
I learned that playground equipment is expensive. Some of the pieces are thousands of dollars.
I sent an email to our principal and assistant principal
I looked at our daily schedule to see where we could put another recess

I wish that I could have sat in every conversation because it was amazing to see the variety of learning going on. One of the great things is that there will be so many students experts on so many different tools and strategies that it will support further learning in the class this year. Students who learned Google forms can teach others. Students who don’t know what a spreadsheet is or how to make it now have someone to ask.

I also checked in with our principal because I had not told her that she might get some emails. She had already read the emailed and is planning to give the student a menu and suggest that she analyze the nutritional facts for the items on the menu. She was very excited about the potential of the project and collaboration with UGA.

We are so fortunate to have a university right next to our school. Thank you, Gretchen Thomas, for sharing your UGA students with us. I hope they learn as much from us as we learn from them.

March 20, 2014 by plemmonsa

An Author Visit with Nancy Krulik

I love our local independent bookstore, Avid Bookshop. They work very hard to bring children’s, young adult, and adult authors to our community. They also reach out to schools and connect us with these authors. Today, Nancy Krulik visisted 3 Athens Clarke County schools: Barrow, Oglethorpe, and Stroud.

Nancy Krulik is the author of more than 200 books! The books that the kids get the most excited about are her 3 series:

Katie Kazoo
George Brown
Magic Bone

She started her talk with a game between 4 students who answered questions related to the Magic Bone series. The questions were all based on inferences and point of view. This gave kids context for the section of the book that she planned to read aloud to the students since the dog doesn’t necessarily know the human terms for the things he sees in the world. I loved how she set the stage for them to understand this part of the story.

She spent some time talking about her writing life, her first book, and her 3 series. Finally, she took student questions. She really wanted to answer every single question that students had. I think they could ask questions all day. They had a great time learning that she wrote some of a George Brown book while she was in her hotel in Athens.

They also loved burping like George Brown.

Students who purchased books from Avid were able to stay after the visit and get their books signed. They loved sitting down with an author, chatting, and watching their book get signed.

Many thanks to Avid Bookshop, Penguin, and Nancy Krulik for a fantastic visit. I’m sure there are many new Katie Kazoo, George Brown, and Magic Bone fans in Athens. In-person as well as Skype author visits always inspire our students to read more but also to write down their stories and work hard to make them the best stories that they can be.

March 19, 2014 by plemmonsa

Using Skype in the Classroom to Connect with Rube Goldberg’s Granddaughter

Second grade has been studying force and motion as a part of their science standards. We kicked off this unit in the library by learning about the inventions of Rube Goldberg and exploring the Rube Works app for iPad.

In class, students explored force and motion through a Picture Perfect Science lesson about roller coasters. During this exploration, they learned key vocabulary and concepts for force and motion. After exploring, they learned even more about force and motion through informational text. Finally, students worked in collaborative groups to build their own Rube Goldberg invention. During this process, students were able to apply many of the concepts and vocabulary that they learned through the other experiences. I loved peering into their classrooms from time to time to watch them try to get their inventions to work. I loved how they tried something, failed, and then tried again. This is something we’ve had a lot of conversations about.

Today, thanks to Skype in the Classroom, students had the chance to Skype with Rube Goldberg’s granddaughter, Jennifer George. If you haven’t taken a look at Skype in the Classroom, you should! Teachers and guest speakers can post topics or lessons and classrooms can sign up to participate in those lessons. Once you sign up, you go through a process of communicating with the creator of the lesson or topics in order to schedule your Skype connection. Also, educators get a free Skype premium account for signing up.

Our connection lasted from about 40 minutes. During our time, Jennifer George shared some Rube Goldberg facts that only a granddaughter would know. For example:

he wore shoes when he went swimming
he was always on time
he ate whip cream for dessert and when cool whip came out he ate it by the bowl
when he got his 1st car, there were only 12 cars in New York City

She talked about how Rube Goldberg never built the inventions that he drew, but many people have taken his drawings and built the machines or designed their own. I loved how this fact fit in with our collaborative project and how each member of the team brings something different.

We also loved meeting Jennifer’s cat. The students couldn’t contain their excitement when the cat jumped up behind her on the counter. Jennifer gave us a close up view of him.

After Jennifer gave us some facts, she spent some time letting students ask questions. They love to do this. I loved how she listened to each student’s name and repeated it in her response. It made the conversation connected and personal.

It was during these questions that we learned things like:

Rube Goldberg created over 50,000 cartoons
He started drawing when he was about the age of our 2nd graders
Jennifer is a fashion designer who has designed clothing for several big celebrities like Madonna and Aretha Franklin

The students really wanted to see some of Rube Goldberg’s drawings, but thankfully thankfully many of them are available in a new book called The Art of Rube Goldberg. I think that students are going to be demanding that we get this book in our library. Thank you Jennifer George for sharing the stories and inventions of your grandfather with us. Thanks Skype in the Classroom for this fun time.

You can learn more about Rube Goldberg at http://www.rubegoldberg.com/

We have another Skype in the Classroom connection coming up soon with David Fox, developer of the Rube Works app that we have been playing. We can’t wait!

March 7, 2014 by plemmonsa

World Read Aloud Day 2014 (Day 5): Final Thoughts

Our final day of Read Across America and World Read Aloud Day was once again filled with special memories.

We read Crankee Doodle with Meghan Nels and her students.

Matthew Winner and I got creative about how to read Open This Little Book with our students.

Cathy Potter and I had fun reading I’m Bored and letting our students show the many ways you can say “boring”.

Shawna Ford, Shannon Hyman, and I all found students to read parts of a reader’s theater of One Cool Friend. We loved hearing voices in 3 states reading the story.

Stacy Ford and I had a great time being Elephant and Piggie with our students as we read I’m a Frog.

Randie Groden and I had some impromptu skyping as I had a class cancel! Several 5th graders who were checking out books gathered around the projection area to meet her first graders and read Same, Same but Different. Sometimes the unexpected is fun!

We ended our WRAD week with a connections between Shannon Miller and Barbara Terracciano along with author, Tom Angleberger. He read aloud the part of Crankee in Crankee Doodle, and it was the perfect ending to our week.

There is not a day that goes by that I don’t read aloud. Every day is read aloud day.

When I think of World Read Aloud Day, I think of connections.

Kate DiCamillo, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and 2-time Newbery winner, says “Stories Connect Us”. In Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett and illustrated by Jon Klassen, all of the characters are connected to one another through strands of yarn as the main character knits sweaters for everything and everyone in sight. In Same, Same but Different by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw, we learn that we really are all connected in the world by common strands of life even if those strands might look a bit different based on our cultures, locations, and beliefs.

World Read Aloud Day is about all of these things. Even though we should read aloud every day, World Read Aloud Day raises our awareness of the importance of reading aloud. It reminds us that when we read aloud, we connect. When we read aloud, we expand our world. When we read aloud, we learn that the world really isn’t as big as it seems. We are all united through power of story and spoken word.

This year, our planning for World Read Aloud Day/Week began in December. My wonderful friend and collaborator, Shannon Miller, created a Google Doc for educators around the world to use as a space to share their schedules and ideas. The two of us shared the doc through blog posts, twitter, facebook, and conversations. Over 3 months later, the doc is filled with conversations that each tell a story of a connection between multiple groups of students. When you look at this single document, you know that students, teachers, teacher librarians, and families around the world are being impacted by powerful experiences of hearing stories read aloud, participating in conversations about books, and building connections to new friends around the world.

Our school:

engaged in 36 skype sessions
made 50 connections in these sessions
met new friends in 22 states and 2 other countries

Along the way, we built a Google Earth Tour using Google’s tour builder. This tool allowed us to quickly add pins to a world map, add photographs and videos, and write a summary of each skype session and what we loved and learned. I love how at the end of the week, we instantly have documentation that allows us to remember, reflect, and celebrate the fun that we have had during this week.

View our Google Tour Here!

Today, I received several thank you letters from students. Organizing this many Skype sessions is exhausting. I won’t lie about that, but the rewards that come from the hard work make up for all of the time I spent organizing this week. Receiving these letters reminded me why I advocate for World Read Aloud Day and why I believe in the power of connecting with one another through story. Thank you Litworld for creating such an amazing world-wide event.

March 6, 2014 by plemmonsa

World Read Aloud Day 2014 (Day 4)

Our skype connections continued today with 7 more fun read aloud experiences for our students.

Edie Crook Gastonia, NC

Okle Miller Tampa Fl

Cherie Smeltzer New Hampshire

Shawna Ford Texas

Jenny Lussier e Connecticutt

Wendy Garland Massachussetts

Shannon Miller Iowa

We started our day connecting with Edie Crook and her students in Gastonia, NC. We had fund reading I’m Bored and then saying the word “boring” in different ways.

Next, Okle Miller and I read aloud Same, Same but Different. Our kids had fun talking about what was the same but different about life in Athens and Tampa.

We did our very first skype with PreK today when we connected with Cherie Smeltzer and her students. They read Yes Day to us and we had fun thinking of what we would ask for on our own yes day.

Shawna Ford’s students read Mr. Tiger Goes Wild to us, and I read Same, Same but Different to them. We had a great discussion about the importance of reading picture books at every age. Shawna compared it to how Disney movies have something that kids understand but some deeper meaning that mostly adults understand. My kids really grabbed onto the idea.

Jenny Lussier and I had a blast reading aloud Crankee Doodle to our students. It is a hard book to read without cracking up! I loved how our students suggested great books to read.

Wendy Garland and I read aloud This is Not My Hat. Our students had a lot of opinions about what happened at the end. We had a great discussion about the term “just right” and how this book was chosen as a “just right” book for our skype.

I loved ending the day by reading aloud Flora & Ulysses to Shannon Miller’s students. We had to get a bit creative on how to show the comics since Shannon’s copy was checked out, but we made it work. The kids are all excited about the book and our copy that just arrived today was immediately checked out.

I can’t believe there’s only one day of connections left. Tomorrow has several fun and surprising moments in store. I can’t wait t end our week with some more great stories, authors, students, and librarians.

March 5, 2014 by plemmonsa

World Read Aloud Day 2014 (Day 3): The Official Day

Today is officially World Read Aloud Day. We have been celebrating all week and will continue on Thursday and Friday. Today can only be described as miraculous! Here’s a look at our day.

We started by connecting with Donna MacDonald and her students in South Burlington, Vermont. Our students did a reader’s theater of One Cool Friend. We divided the parts up between our students so that voices in both states were helping to tell the story. Students got a chance to find out about state symbols and the weather, but we loved meeting all of Mrs. MacDonald’s library pets!

Next, we connected with Matthew Winner and his students in Elkridge, MD. We shared the book The Story of Fish and Snail by Deborah Freedman. We took turn reading pages. He had 1st graders who read the pages with him, while I had Kindergarten where I read the pages. Our students also had a chance to ask once another questions.

Next, we began connecting with several authors. Our first connection was with Anne Marie Pace. She is the author of Vampirina Ballerina and Vampirina Ballerina Hosts a Sleepover. During our connection, she taught the kids a great song about how a book is made and had them sing along.

Then, she read Vampirina Ballerina. It has so many interesting vocabulary words. On one page, she had the students stand up and dance with her to practice one of the ballet moves.

Another thing I love is when authors point out details in the illustrations and how they connect with the rest of the story. Anne Marie pointed out Vampirina’s final pose and how it was the same pose as her ballet idol posted in her bedroom.

Next, a very miraculous thing happened. We skyped with Kate DiCamillo! As you know, she has won 2 Newbery medals and has just been named the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. A few weeks ago we were contacted by the amazing people at LitWorld with an opportunity to be in a multi-school Skype. I immediately said yes and the planning began. Most of our 2nd grade attended with a few 3rd graders. It was so inspiring. We started with a roll call of schools.

Kate shared a poem from one of my favorite poets, Joyce Sidman. Then, she started taking questions from schools. This was followed by some reading from Flora & Ulysses. The moderator also read aloud part of Kate’s first draft of Because of Winn Dixie, and I loved how Kate covered her ears because she didn’t want to hear how it sounded.

Kate took some more questions from schools and ended by having the adults at each school share what they were reading to students. When it came to me, I just had to tell Kate how I have read p. 130 of Flora & Ulysses numerous times to the students of Barrow and how “Expect the Miraculous” has become a mantra in our library and throughout our school. She turned to p. 130, found the part, and read it aloud. It was such a special moment (as you can see from my reaction at the end).

This was an amazing experience for our students. They were hanging on every word and sat attentively for 1 hour and 15 minutes! Our local newspaper was also in attendance to document the event. I can’t thank LitWorld and Candlewick Press enough for this opportunity. It was inspiring and definitely connected us with so many people through stories, which is Kate DiCamillo’s National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature platfrom. During this call, we connected with the following schools along with Kate DiCamillo:

Mason-Rice Elementary School Newton, MA
Minnetonka Middle School West Minnetonka, MN
Van Meter Community School Van Meter, IA
Saint Mary Catholic School Paw Paw, MI
Ducketts Lane Elementary School Elkridge, MD
American School Foundation Mexico – ASFM Monterrey, Mexico
Roosevelt Elementary Jamestown, ND

Later in the day, we connected with author Barbara O’Connor along with Sherry Gick and her students in Rossville, Indiana. Barbara read aloud from How to Steal a Dog.

Then, students in each state had a chance to ask her some questions. We learned about her 2 dogs, Martha & Ruby, as well as where the inspiration for the book came from. Mrs. Wright’s 2nd grade class loved connecting since they had just finished the book as a class read aloud.

Mrs. Stuckey’s class connected with author Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw and Shannon Miller’s students in Van Meter, IA. She read her book Same, Same But Different. We loved hearing her sing Kailash’s alphabet.

Then, she gave us a peek inside her art studio where we saw some paintings from her new book Luna and Me, which will be out in spring. We can’t wait to see this book in print! Students also got to ask her questions about her work. It was fun to see her thought process as the author and illustrator of the book, and we learned that she does both together.

We ended our day with the entire 5th grade skyping with author Tanya Lee Stone. She read to us from Almost Astronauts.

This was followed by a chance for students to ask her questions. They had several specific questions about the book, but we also learned how thorough Tanya is when she researches. I loved that she included that she uses the Internet to research, but that she makes sure she is using reliable sources. It was also fascinating to hear that books like Courage Has No Color took 10 years to write! That was a powerful statement after students were complaining about a 2 hour writing test.

I love World Read Aloud Day. I love sharing stories aloud, but even more than that, I love knowing that words are filling the air all around the world on this day and across this week. I love that people are using social media to publicly profess their love of reading, their favorite books, and their celebrations of their freedom and right to read. I love that stories really are connecting us to one another on this day and every time we share a story out loud.

Our celebration will continue for the next 2 days before we are off for spring break. We will continue working on a Google Tour that will show all of our connections with a summary of each one. Look for that in Friday’s post! Happy World Read Aloud Day!

March 4, 2014 by plemmonsa

World Read Aloud Day 2014 (Day 2)

We had another incredible day of connecting with classrooms and authors. At the end of the week, I will share our Google Earth tour that summarizes our entire week. For now, here are some pictures and videos from our connections today.

Erika Victor 3rd grade Berlin, Germany

Jennifer Reed Kindergarten Massachussetts

Heather Temske 4th Roswell, GA

Laura D’Elia 3rd Massachussetts

Christy Brennan 5th Pennsylvania

Shanon Miller Iowa

Shannon Miller 4th/5th grade Iowa & Author Deborah Freedman!

March 3, 2014 by plemmonsa

Read Across America and World Read Aloud Day 1

What a way to start the week for Read Across America and World Read Aloud Day. Our morning kicked off with about 40 guest readers (2 in every classroom PreK-5th). First, these readers gathered in the library to select books. Many thanks to Kim Ness for checking all of the readers in and Julie Moon for setting up our Signup Genius which kept us organized. They were full of energy and spent time connecting with one another, sharing stories, and getting pumped up to read to classrooms.

After a group picture, our 5th grade BTV crew escorted readers to classrooms and they got started sharing Dr. Seuss books, laughing, and learning with our students. It was so much fun to go around the school and hear Seuss words filling the air, seeing kids smiling, and hearing their laughter.

Following this, we started the first of 36 Skype sessions to celebrate Read Across America and World Read Aloud Day. We are creating a Google Earth Tour as we connect, so I will post that at the end of the week. For now, I’ll share some images and video from our week. Today, we connected with:

Okle Miller 2nd grade, Tampa FL

Crystal Hendrix Asheville, NC

Wendy Garland 4th grade Massachussetts

Jennifer Reed 3rd grade Massachussetts & Peter Reynolds

Jenny Lussier 2nd grade Connecticut & Ame Dyckman

Nancy Edwards 6th grade, Seattle

Shannon Miller K/1 Iowa

Kathy Schmidt Gwinnett GA 1st

March 3, 2014 by plemmonsa

World Read Aloud Day Blogging Challenge Week 4: Raising Our Voices with Flipgrid

I’m participating in the World Read Aloud Day blogging challenge. Each week, I will respond to a question along with many other bloggers participating in this global celebration of reading aloud. Our students, teachers, and families will also be involved with these questions each week as I invite them to respond through Flipgrids, Thinglinks, and more.

For the final week, I’m asking students, teachers, and families to raise their voices by reading aloud parts of their favorite books. We are using a Flipgrid to capture these read alouds because it gives students 90 seconds to read aloud. To get them ready, I made a Youtube video of myself reading my favorite part of this year’s Newbery-winning book, Flora & Ulysses: The Illuninated Adventures.

Kate DiCamillo’s writing speaks to me in so many ways, but this particular part of Flora & Ulysses has proven to be inspiration for our whole school this year as well as our library. We are expecting the miraculous every day!