YA Literature in the Library and Classroom

Selecting and Incorporating

YA Literature

into the Curriculum

 

Asking For It by Louise O’Neal

 

 

All American Boys by Jason Reynolds & Brendan Kiely

 

 

March: Book 3 by John Lewis & Andrew Aydin; Illustrated by Nate Powell

 

 

https://www.smore.com/nvqdz-ya-lit-in-the-library-classroom?embed=1” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Beloved by Toni Morrison

 

 

https://www.smore.com/r3pxs-ya-lit-in-the-library-classroom?embed=1” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>The Only Road by Alexandra Diaz

 

https://www.smore.com/36d0b-ya-lit-in-the-library-classroom?embed=1” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton

 

677

FIND A BOOK BY

WALTER DEAN MYERS

 

• Search the catalog for “Myers, Walter Dean” and click “Author”

 

• Find the call number of your book and locate it on the shelf

 

• Using your device, take a “shelfie” with your book

 

• Scan the next clue!

Fast Times at Your School High

Fast Times at Your School High:

Encouraging Interaction and Engagement Through Technology

 

Having trouble harnessing adolescent energy while you try to meet curriculum guidelines and SOL standards?  Don’t let them be salty; learning can be lit!  Squad goals?  Engage students with tech-savvy learning that meets both your requirements (teaching) and theirs (to be constantly entertained.)  This presentation promises to be on fleek.

Presentation602

Staying Current

BLOGS

One of the advantages of working in the library is that I feel it affords more of an opportunity to stay current.  Let’s say, for example, that you’re a classroom teacher and you’re wrapping up a unit on Greek Mythology.  A week after you’ve completed the unit, you discover an exciting new lesson or activity that you would have loved to have used . . . but now you’ll probably have to wait an entire year to add those elements to your unit plan.  The great thing about the library is that you can add these exciting new elements at any time.

I already follow The Unquiet Librarian.  She always seems to have fun, student-centric ideas, and I love that she’s young and hip.  She doesn’t fit the stereotype of the elderly, bespectacled, tightly-bunned librarian.  (Of course, neither does ANY OTHER librarian I’ve ever met . . . )  Because I already follow her, however, I decided to do a little searching among some suggested blogs, and I found The Daring Librarian.

Honestly, I like the look of The Unquiet Librarian better – I like the crisp, streamlined appearance.  The Daring Librarian is a bit more cluttered and busy, which I find overwhelming, but it has a lot of great content.  Again, the author is a young hipster, which is a trend I keep seeing, both online and in person at ODU’s most recent Summer Institute.  Her most recent post is about how necessary it is for educators to recharge over the summer, and she makes a great point about education being one of the few (if only) careers that allows for an annual period of reflection.

FUN NEW EDUCATIONAL WEBSITES

The first website I explored was Booktrack Classroom.  At first it seemed kind of silly; the premise is that you can build a soundtrack to anything you’re reading, like in a movie.  This video explains how it works.  What a great way to teach theme or tone!  In the classroom, it would be fun to have all the students read the same passage or short story and then have them assign their own soundtracks.  It would be interesting to hear the different interpretations they have about what they are reading and to study how music infuences understanding.

Another fun website is DIY.org.  Students complete projects: a violin performance, a knitting project, or a fashion ensemble, for example.  Then they upload the video and they earn a badge indicating that the project has been completed.  It is marketed as “a safe online community for kids to discover new skills, meet friends who are geeks just like them, and be awesome.”  That pretty much sums it up!  This would be a great tool for a Library Maker Space as it provides interactive activities that don’t appear to take too much time, but require participants to be actively engaged in their task.

My favorite find, however, is What Was There, which “ties historical photos to Google Maps, allowing you to tour familiar streets to see how they appeared in the past.”  This would be a great tool for History and Social Studies students to search historical landmarks and significant locales, but it could also be used to see where Van Gogh painted or where Shakespeare wrote.  It is interactive as well – the website asks visitors to post their own photos in an attempt to “build a history of the world.”

This is the Eighth Regiment Armory building as it appeared in the early 1900’s, the facade of which is currently located across the street from our apartment in New York City when we lived there from 2006 to 2009 and which is now a part of Hunter College High School.  The lot behind the facade has been converted to a play yard, which is where my son learned to ride a bike.  How cool is that?

PORTFOLIO / PRESENTATION FINAL PROJECT

While I am not looking forward to the time crunch (which my children do not understand or respect because apparently nothing is more pressing than ME pouring the milk onto the cereal or ME explaining the mechanics of the dust buster . . . ) I am actually looking forward to designing my final Presentation.  It will be a 45-minute presentation featuring many of the tools I have featured here on my blog.  I love the creative aspect of it and I feel confident that I can design an interesting, timely, useful presentation that could theoretically be presented at the regional or state level.  Of course, I haven’t actually begun yet, so maybe ask me how I feel a few caffeinated midnights from now. . .

 

QR Codes and Augmented Reality

This has been quite the week for Augmented Reality!  Richard Byrne, in his article “QR Codes & Augmented Reality – When and Where to Use Each,” (2014)

Tim Gouw.  Retrieved from www.Unsplash.com/photos/LmYcS4nwj8w

describes augmented reality as “intended to layer digital information on top of what we see in the physical world.”  Pokemon Go is the perfect, timely example.  Pokemon Go has become the “it” thing to do this summer.  It combines the real world with technology so that players can catch virtual Pokemon characters at real locations around them.  I like the idea that players are up and moving around physically while searching for characters, but apparently there have been some safety issues as well . . . traffic jams and wandering into unsafe areas, for example.

QR codes are used to share textual information.  For instance, I’ve used QR codes to comparison shop or to find more information about a certain product.  Recently, I’ve seen it used at the local elementary school during presentations.  Any time the audience can be more personally involved in the information being presented, they’re going to be more likely to retain that information.  This is a link to the weekly PTA newsletter I distribute during the school year:

I see a lot of use for QR codes in the library.  Students could use their own devices to hover over QR codes and learn more about specific books.  Byrne suggests using it as a link to contact information.  My favorite idea, however, was one one Terr Eichholz suggests in an article on Interactive Bulletin Boards (2012).  I love the idea of using QR codes on a bulletin board so that you could fit a lot of information in one place.  In fact, I might borrow this idea for this year’s PTA bulletin board at the front of the school.  Parents would have easy access to forms, calendars, and information, and it would cut down on how much paper we need to use.  We could support technology initiatives while going green!

I find the Augmented Reality arena to be much more intimidating, although I can see how students would be enthralled with using it in school.  I explored the Aurasma website, and it all seems very simple, but I haven’t quite wrapped my brain around it, and I certainly couldn’t get design something in as little time as they claim.  I have seen Augmented Reality programs used at museums, and it seems that it would be easily adaptable for visitors of varying age groups (as what a 10-year-old finds interesting might not be the same thing a 65-year-old finds interesting,) different cultures, and speakers of other languages.  In the library, it would be an easy way to direct students to specific areas  of research or subject matters.  You could virtually bring something to life, like a piece of art or a historical artifact, and allow students to explore items that are not physically in their space.  Augmented reality would also be a fun way to introduce students to the library at the beginning of the year.  Students could go on a virtual scavenger hunt!

 

 

Byrne, R.  (2014, June 16).  QR codes & augmented reality – when and where to use      each.  Free Technology for Teachers.  Retrieved from http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2014/06/qr-codes-augmented-reality-when-and.html#.V4vAU1eTVBw

Eichholz, T.  (2012, February 22).  Interactive bulletin boards – guest post.  Free Technology for Teachers.  Retrieved from http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/02/interactive-bulletin-boards-guest-post.html#.V4vAyFeTVBw

 

 

 

3D Printing, Coding, and Robots, oh my!

Talk about stepping outside of my comfort zone!

I’ve never been a “computer person” so my experience with technology is very basic.  I know how to do what I need to do, but any tangents have always been more creative than technological.  I don’t know ANYthing about coding – it literally seems like a foreign language to me.  I love the Hour of Code initiative and the fact that it is being introduced to kids at a young age.  Children are fearless when it comes to computers because the internet and computers have always been a part of their lives.

For future generations, coding and maker technology will be their livelihood.  Gone are the days of pencil and paper.   In “Coding Skills Empower Us All,” Chad Sansing agrees, saying “coding and other forms of student-driven maker education in our classrooms serve as antidotes to the strictures of a test-based educational system.  Coding gives us a way to write and build with students that requires close attention to detail, creativity, problem-solving, and an appreciation of the failure as a constructive step forward” (2015).  Lessons are becoming less about the instructor and more about the student and hands-on learning, complete with inherent trial and error.  Students no longer take a test that is designed to assess their mastery and then wait for a grade; their learning is immediate and follows a logical path from skills, to mastery, to advancement.

Robots still seem so sci-fi to me.  Musio, for instance, is a cute little robot who seems to have a personality.  Weird.  I am totally on board with robots who perform surgery, or detonate bombs, or explore space.  The whole artificial personality aspect creeps me out a little.

I first heard about 3-D printing when Dr. Christina Chang made a heart on Grey’s Anatomy.  I mention this because I think it goes to show how this particular aspect of technology is making its way into the mainstream.  I explored two 3-D tools: Sketchup and Tinkercad.  I started with Sketchup because Tinkercad had a disclaimer about not being fully compatible with the Safari browser.  However, after about three hours of playing around and still not being able to figure it out, I downloaded Firefox and switched over to Tinkercad.  Much like Tinkercad and Safari, my brain and Sketchup were not compatible.  After only a few video tutorials and maybe an hour of tinkering, I started designing a mockingbird.  No, it’s not a chicken.  It’s a mockingbird.  Obviously.

 

Right now, the entire process of designing and printing takes a loooong time, but anyone who remembers dial-up knows that in the future, it will probably only take minutes!

 

 

 

 

Sansing, Chad.  (2015).  3-D printing: Worth the hype?  Retrieved from http://www.slj.com/2015/05/technology/3-d-printing-worth-the-hype-the-maker-issue/

Preppy Presentation

This week we are discussing presentation tools.  One I discovered recently is Prezi.com.  It’s much more fun and lively than the same old Powerpoint.  I like that you can move between slides in a  logical manner.  Click here to see a Prezi I developed on the subject of 1:1 technology initiatives.

Prezi is free, it’s intuitive, and it’s easily sharable.  There are plenty of templates to choose from, along with editing tools and fun fonts and images.  It’s easy to follow as a presenter, and the audience can anticipate the direction of the narrative.

I have never used Blendspace, but I recall some other students experimenting with it in past classes.  It looks so easy and fun!  I love that presenters can combine their own information with content from the web, and finding relevant sources on the internet is as easy as typing in your topic.  This would be another fun way to mix it up in the classroom, but I can also see it being useful for sub plans, upside down classrooms (like my son had, where the lesson was given on the computer as homework, and then they discussed and did activities using their classroom time,) or even as student presentation tools as it allows for easy assessment.

Finally, my fake website is ready to hit the world!  But is the world ready for my fake website?  Check it out here!  I’m especially proud of the podcast links (under Summer Learning) and all the great creative commons photos I found on a site called Unsplash.

Video Vixen

This week I messed around with video tools.

The program that I ended up using for my assignment was Sharalike.  It was similar to many of the other programs, but I chose this one because I wanted to add my own music, instead of the stock music that is usually supplied.   It’s so simple and it only took me a few minutes to complete.  Just create an album of pictures, choose your music,  give it a title, and share!  You have the option to create the order in which your photos appear, choose a background and showcase style, adjust speed, and add music, either from Sharalike’s choices or from your own downloaded tunes.

Unfortunately, because I’m cheap, I can’t embed the video here, so please click here to see the Sharalike video of Boston.

I also played around with RealTimes, which is a free app I downloaded directly to my phone.  The advantage of this is that I have lots of photos on my phone that I haven’t put on my desktop yet.  Much like Sharalike, it’s easy and quick to use.  You can choose your title, scenes, effects, and audio . . . but I couldn’t figure out how to add my own music, and I really wanted to use the Cheers theme for my Boston video.  Click here to see what I made when I was messing around with it – I don’t love the way some of the photos are chopped or that I didn’t have more music choices, but, like I said, it was quick, easy, and FREE!  And we’ve already established that I’m cheap.

Finally, I tried Animoto.  Again, it was so easy to use and it was very instinctive.  I loved the music choices – so much more fun than that stock audio you get on Facebook movies, etc.  You can choose a style based on your theme; I chose Memory Box in Education, and then perused Sports-themed music.  I was even able to add a logo and text to my video.  Click here to check out the finished product.  There’s a watermark because I chose the free trial.  I’d be interested to know if paying for the upgrades is worth it – I bet it really opens up some fun options.  You know, if you’re not CHEAP.

Using videos would be a fun, interactive way to get students really involved in their learning.  They could do book reviews, new school year introductions, foreign language “films,” and the like.  Teachers and librarians could showcase student work,  tease new lessons, or wrap up a unit.  I can even see the PTA using it to show examples of different programs, student involvement, or a brief organization overview.  I think students, especially, would really enjoy using this type of media to present their ideas and their learning.

In closing, here’s a picture of two of my babies.  Mama’s proud.

 

 

School Library Websites

In preparation for making a website as part of our next assignment, I looked at several weebly school library sites.  

I liked hcslibraries.weebly.com for several reasons.  First, this is the high school my dad attended – which is funny because he lived in a teeny tiny map-speck of a town, Hamilton, New York, so I found it interesting that his alma mater popped up in my Google search.  The site is attractive and easy to navigate, which was not the case on all the websites I found.  My favorite tab, however, is the Library Links tab.  The media specialist has organized a comprehensive list of relevant websites, ranging in categories from book trailers to productivity sites to school links.  So many links are listed, in fact, that it would be difficult to organize them another way without making them appear cluttered.  I also like the tab devoted to free images, which I’m sure makes student (and teacher!) projects easier to cite while avoiding plagiarism.  Being a former high school English teacher, I also appreciate the consistency with which interests are listed.

I also found the Hingham Middle School Library site.  The site itself is a little busy for my taste, but it includes a lot of information and resources, my favorite of which is the tab for Citing Sources.  It includes the definition of plagiarism, ways to avoid plagiarism, and specific instructions and resources on how to cite sources.  I also like how the Research tab is broken down into subject areas, which makes the information less overwhelming.  Once you click on each subject area, however, the available information is sparse.

I found one more site that I really loved – sullivancentrallibrary.weebly.com.  It’s interactive and inviting, and includes links to popular magazines.  The hours are clearly listed along with links to Twitter and Instagram, though it looks as if posts are irregular.  The MLA/APA tab has useful links with downloadable handouts and the calendar tab allows teachers to check out devices or to book time in the library.

On my own website, I’d be most likely to use the calendar and some sort of citation resource.  The interactive calendar would enable everyone to see available times and cut down on administrative confusion.  It just seems logical to have a citation tab in a central location so that students of all subjects can use it as a reference.  I’ll probably use weebly to make my own website, mostly because it seems to be the most user-friendly and least frustrating.  All of these sites were good and looked like they are maintained well beyond the basic hours and intro to the library.