Narrable

I was playing around with Narrable today as I was completing my project and I made a simple one with a trip my husband and I took a few years ago to Grandfather Mountain. Can I just say that I hate the sound of my own voice!!

Staying Current

In this ever changing world of technology, it is important to accept and embrace the changes.  As educators, we owe it to our students to remain on the cutting edge of technology.  This week we were asked to take a look at several blogs and choose one to follow.  After looking at each blog, I have decided to follow Richard Byrne's blog Free Technology for Teachers.  He highlights new free technology tools, gives the link, and explains how to use them. I find this extremely helpful, because I am not the most tech savvy teacher.  I look forward to adding more tech tools into my lessons to engage my students in their learning. Teachers and school librarians will find this site to be an enormous help to use when developing lessons for students.

AASL Best Websites for Teaching & Learning 2014

Each year AASL, the American Association of School Librarians,  releases a best list websites for librarians and teachers.  The great thing about these websites is that they are all free and we all know that free is always good!  While exploring this list, I discovered a few sites that I thought would be fun to use and helpful in my school.

     1. Recite This is a site where you can create posters using quotes.  You can type in your own quotes or use the list on the site.  They have categories such as dreams, friendship, leadership, motivational, success, etc.  Once you type in your quote, next choose a template, and then you can download it, email it, or share it.  This could be used by students to research a quote that might represent the theme of a story or students could use it to write a brief review/summary of a story.  The posters could then be displayed in the classroom or hallway bulletin board.  I created one of a quote I just love by Martin Kaymer, Pro Golfer.

     2. Kaizena is a site that allows you to give feedback to your students.  You highlight on their document and either type in comments or use voice comments.  It is especially important to give students feedback when they are writing and this program will make it easier for teachers to give feedback in a variety of ways.  One of the best things about this site is that you sign in automatically through your Google account.  Also, say a student is having problems with run on sentences....you can attach a link to a review/mini lesson on run on sentences.  I think this is a must for English teachers.

     3. Kahoot! is a site that is a game-based classroom response system.  You can make up questions, quizzes, and surveys.  The best part is it doesn't matter what kind of device the student has and there is not log-in.  The student will be given a pin number in order to join the game.  I think students would absolutely love this!  This could be used in any subject and grade as long as students had a device to play. 

Book Post #40- Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed the Apollo 11 on the Moon by Catherine Thimmesh

Sibert Award Winner 2007

Thimmesh, C. (2006). Team Moon: how 400,00 people landed Apollo 11 on the moon. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co..

Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon by Catherine Thimmesh is a wonderful book that tells the story of how we came to land on the moon.  From the challenge by President Kennedy to have man landing on the moon before the decade was over to the seamstress that sewed the space suits to the engineers that developed the heat shields- it was a group effort!  There were many worries and concerns throughout the process, but there was success in the end.  The author uses transcripts and quotes from archives along with pictures to help tell the story.  This book could be used when studying about the moon in science or when studying about the 1960's in social studies.

Book Post #39- Children of the Great Depression by Russell Freedman

Freedman, R. (2005). Children of the Great Depression. New York: Clarion Books.

Children of the Great Depression by Russell Freedman is a heart wrenching book with pictures, diaries, letters, and memoirs documenting the time during the Great Depression.  The young people were faced with many challenges such as:  parents who lost their jobs, having little or no money, having little or no food, terrible dust storms, and closed schools.  Even though times were tough, they did try to find some joy in playing their favorite games, listening to their favorite radio stations, or going to the movies.  This book would be a great resource to use when studying the Great Depression.

Book Post #38- Who's Saying What in Jamestown, Thomas Savage? by Jean Fritz

Fritz, J. (2007). Who's saying what in Jamestown, Thomas Savage? G.P. Putnam's Sons: New York, NY.

Who's Saying What in Jamestown, Thomas Savage? by Jean Fritz was published in time to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown settlement.  She follows the life of young Thomas Savage who comes to Jamestown and lives with the Indians to learn their language. Pocahontas teaches him and he becomes an interpreter until trouble arises between the Colonists and Indians.  He is torn and doesn't want to choose sides.  What will he do?  Jean Fritz has several historical books for children.  Social Studies teachers could use this book in class when learning about Jamestown.

Book Post #37- A Faraway Island by Annika Thor translated by Linda Schenck

Batchelder Award 2010

Thor, A., & Schenck, L. (2009). A faraway island. New York: Delacorte Press.

A Faraway Island by Annika Thor and translated from Swedish by Linda Schenck is a story of two sisters from Vienna that are sent to live in Sweden to escape the Nazis.  Nellie seems to do well.  She learns Swedish fairly quickly and lives with a nice family.  Stephie, on the other hand, doesn't learn Swedish as quickly and lives with a critical old woman.  She worries about her parents and whether she will see them again.  She finds herself bullied at school and struggles feeling like an outcast.  This book could be used to support Social Studies classes when learning about WWII.