Art and Novels (or should it be Novel Art?)

Collaboration between teachers is an important part of education these days. No longer is it the "old school" of teachers being an island of independent knowledge behind the closed classroom door. Collaboration is also a very important part of the media center.

This week will focus on two things. Can you guess?

Art.

Last year I collaborated with the art department regarding large paintings for the media center. These will be a permanent art display above the bookshelves. (One painting, done before I came, is already in place.) Three student submitted ideas were chosen last year, and the remaining three ideas will be selected from entries into a contest in the spring.

Canvas #1 is almost complete:

Canvas #2 is in the beginning stages of work so a picture of it is forthcoming. Once #1 is finished, the work on #3 will begin! I'm trying to determine the best way to give credit to the artists and all the students helping them with the 36" x 48" paintings. 

Here is the fascinating painting already in place.

Now for part two of this blog: novels.

Our English and Social Studies departments have always used novels within their classroom. This year, I have several teachers in other departments working on incorporating novels in the curriculum. They inspired the following video, in hopes of collaborating with teachers across the school in every department.

Budget Woes

As always, the wish list is much longer than the budget will allow. Knowing the budget amount from last year, I have been creating a wish list through one of my library vendors since last January. Students would ask for the latest in a series or for a book that had been lost in the past. Naturally, the list seemed to multiply itself overnight!

Today I received the news of my preliminary budget. Unfortunately, it is only one-third of the budget from last year. Obviously, the list is too long. Now how do I cut a list by two-thirds?

This was truly difficult. I kept the items teachers had asked for since it is for classroom instruction and will benefit a lot of students. However, that still left the vast majority of books on the list to look at and reduce.

What is on the original list?

• The continuation of the 3 most popular graphic novel series
• The books in the middle of 12 series that have been lost over time
• The continuation of 8 novel series
• Updated nonfiction books on topics used in a lot of research projects
• Highly recommended books students suggested
• And even more.

What is on the current list?

Well, I did keep the "in the middle" books since students starting a new series get frustrated when the books in the middle are missing. I postponed the nonfiction books until later since databases and reference books on those topics are available. As for the continuation books? We can only get one-third of what we need to finish out the series, but at least students will be able to continue them. Unfortunately, I could only get a few of the highly recommended books at this time. I tried to be fair and cut it all down by the "two-thirds" amount.

Naturally, budget concerns are always present in education. However, I know the only way to "fix" the problem is to raise taxes which then create budget woes for everyone, not just the library.

Advertising Books

How to advertise a book? Let me count the ways....

1. Bulletin boards or other wall displays. This would be great if I had a bulletin board! For many media centers, this is the easiest and most colorful way using book jackets and posters. Themes are easy to utilize for deciding what books to advertise, too.

2. Book displays. New books? Set them out for everyone to see! Banned Books Week? Go ahead a pull a few titles from the ALA list of the top 100. (Hey, if you've got the Harry Potter books and any by Mark Twain, you've got books from the list!) Maybe for October you would like to display mysteries, ghost stories, etc? Easy to do! Use the tops of the shelves and just set the books out with an introductory sign inviting students to "check them out"! (Be sure to let students know they CAN check these out...often students will hesitate since it is part of a display.) Downside? You may have to reshelve a lot of these books if you pulled too many!

3. Audio Book Talks. These little MP3 talks can be done by students on their favorite books. Tape them using mini-microphones, cell phones (where allowed), or any digital audio device. Then, upload to the media center's website! These are great for all students, but especially for younger students who can't read a book review yet. The personal recommendation helps a lot!

4. Book of the Day or the Week. If your school has any type of news broadcast, have a book of the day or week segment. This is also great to recommend a series or author. (And it's a great student involvement piece!)

5. Commercials. Whether the video uses still images and a narration or students use an animation program, commercials generate the most interest. (Students can even act out scenes if they would like and time allows! This is a lot of work, but has great results.) A commerical is only 30-60 seconds, so students have to learn to edit their ideas to get the most powerful infomercial on their book. Stay tuned for the library assistants' videos! Currently, the commercials are "works-in-progress"!

Classrooms - Discovery versus Google?

Most schools are now well into the digital world, adopting technology initiatives in many different shapes and formats. Our district is a "Google" world, and Google Classroom is a great alternative to Moodle, Edmodo, and other formats for organizing and assigning digital resources and tasks to students. With Google comes You Tube, Google +, Google Docs, and a whole lot of other things Google. Before we had Google, however, we had Discover Education (also known by some of us "oldtimers" as Unitedstreaming). Although not every school's faculty has been trained in recent years on this feature of Discovery Ed, it also has a classroom aspect for assigning videos, assignments, quizzes, and writing prompts.

So which is better?

On the one hand, Google is everywhere, and easy to log into since everyone in our district has a gmail account. With Google +, it's all linked together in our drives, and opening the classroom app is just a few mouse clicks away. The class discussion postings are private so all students can participate in them (unlike on a public discussion board where parental permission is required). Google forms can be used as quizzes to test comprehension of a topic, and embedding links, images, videos, etc. is incredibly easy.

So why even bother with Discovery Ed? Well, you never have to worry about the videos being blocked for one thing. That new iBoss and Guardian filtering system sure does make using You Tube a bit more challenging these days! All videos in Discovery Ed will play with no blocking (although previewing all videos in their entirety is a definite must). Discovery Channel shows, some from National Geographic and the History Channel, as well as a huge host of nonfiction video clips are all available for anyone in our system. You just log in and go! The videos can be bookmarked and organized in your account for easy reference next year too. This is all well known to most teachers who've been around for a few years. The classroom part is what most never knew existed.  All students are in the process of being updated (it hasn't been done due to some sync issues with Power School and the iCloud), and they just use their school log in to open DE. A teacher can create a class, enroll his or her students easily, and then create assignments for videos. These can be quizzes, discussion questions, and writing prompts. For some types of assessments, DE will even score the answers!

So, once again, which is better?

Why choose one?  I recommend using Google Classroom as the overall class setup. Then, make an assignment to log in to DE and watch the video clip, answer the questions, etc, just like any other assignment. This gives you and  your students the best of both worlds: the ease of Google with the videos of Discovery Ed...and you don't have to download, upload, or cringe that the software has been overzealous in its video blocking!

Introducing M.A.C.H.!

It's here (well, once the final piece arrives, but we're close enough)! Welcome to...

M.A.C.H.

(Makerspace At Corinth Holders)

Mondays: Engineering 

For this M. a. C. H., you will be able to choose:

• designing and testing virtual bridges
• creating rollercoasters and towers
• making mini-catapults
• and other feats of engineering.

Tuesdays: Animation

For this M. a. C. H., students will be assigned a student account for GoAnimate to: 

• Create animated videos using basic backgrounds and characters
• Learn to upload and design new backgrounds and characters
• Compete in the CHHS Oscars for Animation.

Wednesdays: Fashion Design

In this M. a. C. H., students will work on:  

• learning how to design with duct tape in order to enter the Stuck at Prom challenge
• compete in the Van’s shoe challenge representing Corinth Holders High School

Thursdays: Coding

In this M. a. C. H., students will use the Johnston County Schools access to code.org: 

• to learn basic block coding
• to learn Java Script coding

The Forensics Makerspace is on hold pending the acquisition of all the materials needed.

Sign-ups will start after Labor Day. You may, at this time, only select one M.A.C.H. to join so more students have a chance to participate. Each M.A.C.H. is limited to 16 students PER LUNCH due to seating and space limitations in the library nook area. Be sure to choose the correct SMART lunch!