April 15, 2011 by plemmonsa

Poem In Your Pocket Day 2011

Amazing! Global! Collaborative! Snap! I’m overjoyed by how today’s Poem In Your Pocket Day went. For the past 3 years, we’ve been observing national poem in your pocket day by carrying poems in our pockets, wearing stickers to promote the day, and holding a day of poetry reading in the media center where every child (and adult) has a chance to read poems into our open microphone. This year, we tried something new: a live webcast. Using Clarke County’s new purchase of Adobe Connect, Joel Frey setup a room for the Barrow Media Center. The link was sent directly to the PTA listserve and an online registration was setup via Google Forms for anyone else interested. Registrants on Google Forms were emailed the room link.

Today, 18 classes came to the media center for 20 minute poetry reading sessions. Students came up one at a time and read their poems. We all celebrated with snaps. At the same time via Adobe Connect, parents, media specialists, classrooms within our school, classrooms across the district, and family members in other parts of the United States and the world were watching, listening, and making comments about the student poetry. As online participants made comments, I shared the comments with the students in between poets walking to the microphone. Amazing things started to happen. Students started huddling around the computer waiting for the next comment to come in. They got excited when they saw that someone was typing. They wondered why someone didn’t make a comment about their poem. They kept asking, “You mean people can really see us? They’re watching us right now?” It was electric.

Online, participants made comments about how much they appreciated being able to connect with their child, nephew, cousin, etc. People joined us from multiple locations: Mrs. Marsha West, Barrow’s former media specialist, joined us from Lincoln, Nebraska. One student had family members join us from Chicago, Illinois, Cohutta, Georgia, and Chattanooga, Tennessee. Another student had an uncle tune in from Afghanistan. Parents explored a technology that many had never tried, and they appreciated this opportunity to think about learning and connecting globally in a new way.

At the same time, every teacher in the school got to see a new technology in action, and now the ideas are beginning to spark about how this can be used in the future. At least two teachers have already approached me with ideas for future events or lessons.

This afternoon, as I walked down the halls, a student stopped me and said, “Mr. Plemmons, did anyone else make a comment about my poem?” Kids want authentic audiences beyond their classroom walls. Thank you, Clarke County for giving us this tool. Now, our task is to keep using it, seeking out authentic audiences, connecting with experts around the globe, and collaborating with classrooms in our own district and beyond.

You can listen to every class recording on Adobe Connect below. At each link, you will hear and see the students reading poetry. You will also see the chat comments that took place during the webcast and hear my announcements to the students each time a comment came in. I hope you will take some time to see what an important day this was for us in the media center.

You are also invited to tune in on Monday April 18th, where several PreK, Kindergarten, and 1st grade classes will read their poems between 8:00AM-12:20PM EST.

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April 14, 2011 by plemmonsa

Battle of the Books 2011 District Champions

Once again, Barrow Elementary 5th graders have won the Clarke County School District Battle of the Books. The Fantastic Five has read books and practiced tirelessly since December. As always, it was so much fun to have all 14 elementary schools in our district come together to celebrate reading with a fun competition.

When we returned to school, our superintendent, Dr. Lanoue, just happened to be hear and stopped by to speak to the team and praise them for their accomplishment. Congratulations Jack, Katy, Gabby, Olivia, and Suvitha. You earned it!

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April 11, 2011 by plemmonsa

UGA Poetry Support

Today the University of Georgia Athletic Association had a day of service in Clarke County Schools and the community. We used these volunteers to support the many poetry lessons that are happening in the media center and in individual classrooms. Along with send twelve readers to go into classrooms, the athletic association also purchased 12 new poetry books to donate to our media center. Volunteers went to 5 classrooms: Ms Spurgeon’s PreK, Mrs. Hart’s 1st grade, and Mrs. Oprey, Mrs. Slongo and Mrs. Beshara’s 5th grade classrooms. They read poetry to students and worked alongside students as they wrote poems for our poetry contest and for Poem in Your Pocket Day.

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Thank You! to the following volunteers from UGA:

Steve Colquitt

Carol Capitani

Tim Cearley

Julie Clark

Jay Clark

George Cleare

Sara Bradburry

Manuel Diaz

Kelley Hester

Todd Grantham

Claire Foggin

Greg McGarity

Also many thanks for donating the following books:

You Read to Me I’ll Read to You: very short fables to read together

A Dazzling Display of Dogs

Messing Around on the Monkey Bars

The Underwear Salesman

Every Second Something Happens

The Wonder Book

Change Up

One Big Rain

Our Farm

The Carnival of the Animals

Poetrees

Poem in Your Pocket for Young Poets

March 10, 2011 by plemmonsa

Battle of the Books 2011

Congratulations to the Fantastic 5 for winning today’s school level 5th grade battle of the books competition. It was a very close match and went into a tie-breaker round, so a huge congratulations is also in order for Dumbledore’s Army who came in 2nd. The Fantastic 5 will compete against the other 13 elementary schools on April 14th.

1st Place Fantastic 5: Jack, Suvitha, Katy, Gabby, and Olivia

2nd Place Dumbledore’s Army: Suncana, Aneesa, Gabe, Zoe, and Mary Carroll

March 4, 2011 by plemmonsa

Exemplary Media Open House

Exemplary Media Open House.

March 4, 2011 by plemmonsa

Exemplary Elementary Media Program Open House

After weeks of pulling together projects from throughout the year to showcase to media specialists, the David C. Barrow Elementary Media Center open house finally arrived today. Almost 20 educators form around the state spent the entire day in our media center asking questions, taking pictures, sharing ideas, and most importantly, listening to students showcase the work that they had created.

The morning started early with several media specialists arriving in time to watch our morning broadcast. As more of our day’s guests continued to arrive, I spent time fielding questions the media specialist had about our program. We focused on topics such as flexible scheduling, collaboration, research skills, pathfinders, fair use/creative commons, and more.

Next, Mrs. Hocking’s preK students arrived to show off the weather forecasts that they had created using our BTV studio equipment. At each student showcase, I did an introduction to the projects, and then media specialists were able to walk around and view the projects and talk with the students who created them. Even these smallest students were able to voice what they enjoyed about this project, and their teacher talked about the collaboration that went into the project and what she might do differently in the future.

The 2nd grade spectrum students showed off their graphic novels and walked our guests through the process of creating their own graphic novels and book reviews.

A group of 4th grade students showed off their Animoto book trailers and taught our guests the steps that go into making an Animoto using images from creative commons.

Another 4th grade group of spectrum students held a work session to continue producing their digital inquiry projects, and guests were able to see the work being developed and ask questions about how students had gotten to the point that they were at today.

Our 5th grade battle of the books teams held a practice today in preparation for the school competition which will take place next Wednesday.

Several 5th grade students shared their final products from the bigger, better, faster unit. Their projects included power points, animotos, movies, glogsters, and combinations of all of the above. After showing their final products, students showed their double entry journals and how they collected direct quotes from online sources and translated those quotes into their own words to put into the projects. At the same time, the leader librarians, a group of 3rd-5th graders, shared their process for purchasing books for the media center that students would enjoy reading. The media specialists had many questions about students making decisions about how media center money was spent on books, and the students did a wonderful job answering every question.

In fact, I was very impressed all day by how students were able to vocalize the process they had gone through to create their projects. They taught the media specialist several web 2.0 tools that were new to them. I’m sure that many of these tools will start to be used in these other schools.

The day closed with Mrs. Slongo’s class sharing the digital photographs of themselves and the poems that they wrote to complement their photos. This project was a collaboration with art teacher, Rita Foretich. Over several sessions students explored mentor poems, took digital photographs, edited those photos with Picnik.com, and wrote poetry that was supported through conferences with Mrs. Foretich and me. Mrs. Foretich had the photographs printed at Snapfish and mounted them on matting board to create displays to sit on tables. In April, the entire 5th grade’s poetry will be displayed throughout the media center for poetry month.

Today was an amazing day with many talented educators. I can’t wait to hear about how spending a day in our media center inspires projects in other media centers across the state.

Still to come….a video clip of the day’s events and an article in the Athens Banner Herald.

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March 2, 2011 by plemmonsa

Dr. Seuss Day 2011

We had another successful Dr. Seuss Guest Reader Day today with a record attendance of readers. All readers read to Dr. Seuss books to students at 1:30PM and spent some time talking with students about the importance of enjoying great books. Thank you to everyone who attended from the community and from UGA’s Sigma Phi Epsilon and Pi Beta Phi.

Mr. Ralph

Terry Nestor

Anisa Sullivan Jimenez

Leland Barrow and Christie Purks

Janet Geddis

Hester Meyers

Jeanie Trotochaud

Susan Rodrigue

Jenny Penney-Oliver

Nancy Denson

Rachel Watkins

Kevin O’Neil

Tad MacMillan

Shawn Hinger

Jamie Tuttle

Taylor Richardson

Joe Garrigan

Cody Schmelter

Matt Matuszewslew

Jeremy Howard

Jake Phiilpohs

Brad Glisson

Jess Milner

John Manack

Andrew Walker

Andrew Henry

Robert Holmes

Robert Knotts

Heghan Dugan

Sarah Beatty

View an Animoto of today’s event here.

February 24, 2011 by plemmonsa

Author Visit with Laurel Snyder

Today, Barrow students were honored with a visit from talented author, Laurel Snyder. We’ve been planning this visit since the beginning of the school year and building the anticipation of her arrival. Before she came, students in Prek-1st grade heard about all of her chapter books and read Baxter the Pig Who Wanted to Be Kosher. Students in 2nd & 3rd grade read Inside the Slidy Diner and Baxter the Pig Who Wanted to Be Kosher. Students in 5th grade read Inside the Slidy Diner and part of Any Which Wall. I also surveyed teachers in all grades about what they would like their students to gain from an author visit. All of these details were sent to Laurel before the visit, and after hours of work to prepare, she magically wove these elements in her talk.

Prek-1st grade students walked through a PDF version of Baxter the Pig and saw how the words and illustrations had been revised from the original version. They also read Inside the Slidy Diner and began writing their own version of the story called Inside the Leaky Library. Students thought very carefully about the words that they chose so that the words painted the best picture they could for the reader. Many classes continued working on this story when they got back to their classrooms. Finally, students were able to walk through the pages of Laurel’s newest book, which isn’t going to come out until next spring! She had to get special permission to be able to show it to us…..so shhhhhhhh!

Students in 4th and 5th grade heard a story about Laurel’s life as a writer from the time she was in 4th grade until now. Along the way, they saw how Laurel’s writing has come full circle to the kinds of things she wrote about as a child and how her writing is developing into things that are more personal from her life. Students saw how Laurel’s first novel, Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains, took 8 years to write and had multiple rejections and revisions before it was finally taken into the publishing process. Finally, these students worked with Laurel to brainstorm the beginnings of a book and looked a the story arc of where the book needed to go by the end. Students were encouraged to continue working on this brainstorm and share the finished stories with Laurel and the media center.

Students in 2nd and 3rd grade had a similar program as 4th and 5th grade, but they also had the opportunity to listen to Laurel read Baxter the Pig and worked on their own version of Slidy Diner.

Today was an incredible day, and the energy that the kids had about Laurel’s books and writing was electric. They had so many ideas stirring in their minds. I can’t wait to see the stories that students create after this inspiring day. Thank you, Laurel!

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January 29, 2011 by plemmonsa

Exemplary Elementary Media Program Open House

Mark your calendars. On Thursday March 3, 2011, the David C. Barrow Elementary Media Center will hold an open house in honor of its distinction as the Georgia exemplary elementary media program for 2010. The event will last from 7:30AM-4:00PM with student showcases of work and opportunities to tour and explore the kinds of learning that take place inside the Barrow Media Center. Everyone is welcome to attend. RSVPs are greatly appreciated, but not necessary. Stop by for a few minutes or spend the whole day!

If you plan to attend the Georgia Conference on Children’s Literature on March 4-5, 2011, this is a great reason to head into Athens early and explore a media center that is just one block away from the Georgia Center for Continuing Education.

David C. Barrow Elementary is located at 100 Pinecrest Drive Athens, GA 30605. Parking is limited in Barrow’s upper and lower lots on Pinecrest Drive, but additional parking is available across Lumpkin Street at the Campus View Church of Christ. Do not park on Rutherford Street or in any UGA lots.

We hope to see you in March.

Send RSVPs or questions to plemmonsa at clarke.k12.ga.us or call (706) 543-2676 ext 38280

January 27, 2011 by plemmonsa

4th Grade Colonial Wax Museum

Each year, the entire 4th grade works on a huge project called the Colonial Wax Museum. This project incorporates all of the social studies standards related to Colonial America. Students spend many sessions in the media center and in their classroom researching one historic figure from the Colonial period. Some of these people are well-known, but some are very obscure, so it makes for a very interesting search online for information that is reliable. Students used many search engines found on our research tools pathfinder that was created by the great Joyce Valenza.

The culminating project is to host a wax museum. Students dress up in costume and pose around the media center and in classrooms. They place a construction paper “push” button in front of them. Teachers, students, and community members come and step on the push buttons and the characters come to life and recite a short speech about themselves that comes from their extensive research. This is always a fun project to be a part of in the media center. The 4th grade teachers and students did an outstanding job in this year’s museum.

Check out a glimpse of what the museum looked like here.