July 16, 2011 by plemmonsa

Northeast Georgia District Library Media Specialist of the Year

I am excited to announce that I have been chosen as the Northeast Georgia District Library Media Specialist of the Year for 2011-2012. In October, I will speak on a panel with other incredible district library media specialists of the year at the COMO conference and attend a luncheon where the state media specialist of the year will be announced. I am honored and humbled to be recognized with this award. Media specialists around our state and our country are doing critical work with our students, teachers, and families, and I’m proud to be among so many dedicated professionals. The past 3 years in the David C. Barrow Elementary Media Center have been amazing. The work that our students have accomplished in collaboration with the media center is inspiring. Students have published their own work in a variety of formats from print to multiple forms of web 2.0 technology. This year promises to be another innovative year as projects are already beginning to take shape. Every year I look forward to what seeds get planted in my work with students and teachers and can’t wait to see how those seeds of ideas sprout and blossom into thriving learning experiences.

June 18, 2011 by plemmonsa

The Reading Promise: A Review and an Idea « Georgia Library Media Association

The Reading Promise: A Review and an Idea « Georgia Library Media Association.

May 22, 2011 by plemmonsa

E-readers: Kindles? Nooks? iPads? Who knows? « Georgia Library Media Association

E-readers: Kindles? Nooks? iPads? Who knows? « Georgia Library Media Association.

May 21, 2011 by plemmonsa

Young Imagineers Digital Workshop

For the past few months, I’ve been working with 20 second graders on a project using Glogster. These spectrum students have been studying inventions and have taken existing inventions that could be improved upon or invented their own creations. As part of their study, they talked about costs, benefits, risks, and more.

None of these students had used Glogster before, so I started them out with a brief overview of what Glogster could do. Then, as I’ve done in other projects, I let them explore. As students had questions, they were more comfortable asking one of the adults (myself, Ms. Hicks, and Ms. Saxon). Over time though, we pushed them to begin asking each other questions and sharing expertise with one another. Students discovered things such as:

how to capture audio with a microphone and embed it on their glogster
how to use a webcam at home to video themselves talking about what was on their glogster
how to search Schooltube and embed a video
how to create a photostory and upload it
how to scan images of their invention and upload it or use it in a photostory

Each time a student learned something, the other students immediately wanted to do that too. It was another great example of the power of students collaborating with one another and taking risks in their learning by diving into the unknown and figuring things out. These students will now go into 3rd grade with a better understanding of how this tool works. I just finished collaborating with the 3rd grade team and the art teacher on a project that will call upon these students as the experts who will teach the other students in their grade level how glogster works when this project launches next year.

I invite you to check out their work on the Spectrum Webpage.

May 3, 2011 by plemmonsa

April Monthly Report

April 2011 report

View more documents from David C. Barrow Elementary

April 25, 2011 by plemmonsa

5th Grade Poetry Contest Winners

Last week, the two students who had the top poems in the 4th and 5th grade category of our media center poetry contest came in to read and record their poems. You can listen to them here.

Entranced by Delia

World Cup by Zoe

April 21, 2011 by plemmonsa

First Grade Botanists

A first grade class has been studying plants and practicing being botanists with their student teacher. Over the past few weeks, they’ve worked on a Photo Story of their learning. They invite you to take a look at what they’ve done.

April 18, 2011 by plemmonsa

More Poem In Your Pocket 2011

Today, 7 more classes came to the media center to read their poetry. Even with power outages and our wireless network crashing, we were able to get every class’s reading recorded. Some of the recordings will have moments in them where the video feed is lost, but all students were recorded. Here are their poetry recordings.

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

2011 Poetry Contest Winners

Today we announced the winners of the 1st annual Barrow Media Center Poetry Contest. We had a staggering 156 students who submitted a poem. After many hours of reading, debating, and discussing with others, two top poems were chosen from PreK-1st grade, 2nd-3rd grade, and 4th-5th grade. We also recognized 43 other poets who had outstanding poems in the following categories;

Most Unique (a poem about a napkin written on a napkin)

Acrostic Poets

List Poets

Shape Poets

Digital Poets

Group Poets

Rhyming Poets

Pondering Poets

Nature Poets

Form Poets

Story Poets

Personal Story Poets