Creating Book Trailers with Elementary Students

If anyone is interested I just agreed to do this.
#eeeek #startthenervesnow #nobutreallyIdohaveacluewhatImtalkingaboutIDO

Apologies for the double posting two days in a row. That's what happens when you schedule posts ahead of time! And if the linked image doesn't work (which I'm guessing it might not but you can't tell in the preview ... but a comment from a lovely reader gave me an explanation that made more sense than anything I ever saw when googling) go here for more info on my presentation. Then here for more on the rest of their webinars. The Day of Learning stuff is free. Just a note ... they will send you plenty of emails for more free resources AND for the stuff they'd like it if you paid for ... but you can easily delete them if you are not interested. Shhhh! That's what I do. :]

Must Have Picture Books Link Party

Apologies for the double post today but when I saw this I sort of had to participate. :]
It's hard to limit to five. And a couple have very clear "teacher" possibilities while a couple are just plain FUN.

I'm going to link them to Goodreads ... if you go to that book page (not necessarily the author or my review page) there are links to all sorts of different places you could purchase the books ... big box and indie bound stores.



Chloe and the Lion by Mac Barnett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

LOVE. Definitely a must get for our school collection and maybe even personal collection. The different art styles are super cool (puppet type figures! paintings! crayon-style drawings!) and I love how it definitely shows author and illustrator working TOGETHER. Break the fourth wall anytime you want, guys. We'll come running.


How to Teach a Slug to Read by Susan Pearson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Kids will love the pictures but they may not "get" the irony in the illustrations and book titles (but what does that matter?). I'm going to recommend it to parents cause it really does give some great tips that would transfer well to helping teach to teach their children how to read.

I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I like snarky dry humor. I think the kids will, too.
(And since I wrote this original review? I can say with certainty THEY DO. Cannot wait for the next one! #hatback)



My Life as a Chicken by Ellen A. Kelley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Didn't write a formal review for this one but have read it with kids almost every year since. HILARIOUS.


Shark vs. Train by Chris Barton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Kids will love it for the pictures. Adults will love it for the irony and seeing their own "battles" depicted. 8]   Plus ... duh. Possible writing prompt!





PS I don't give out all that many 5 stars (dunno why!) so don't let that deter you. It's not like that means 80% in my book. I LOVE ALL OF THESE!

What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week.

Our Kid Lit to YA version is hosted by Teach Mentor Texts.
Have I mentioned how much I love this idea? Check out all of the What Are You Reading? participants for new books you'll want to read. Debating how to use this in school ... a video blog entry? Or just like a graffiti table with some cool markers so that they can sign it? At least there are still a couple weeks to think about it!


Let's see ... no picture books this week. Will have to remedy that with a visit to a bookstore. Anyway:
The Phantom of the Post Office (43 Old Cemetery Road #4)
3 Humphrey books (Betty Birney)      
(Go here for the reviews for those four books. I already posted them. All VERY good if you've got a ... oh, what. Kiddo reading on a third grade or up? The next books are more for fourth through sixth.)

Spy School by Stuart Gibbs
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Fun! I agree with Mrs. Yingling ... this one is not quite as believable as Gallagher Girls or Alex Rider but for all of it's goofiness it's still enjoyable. Ben is a reluctant hero but a hero all the same.

Will we see Mike again? I don't know why but I sort of hope so.

If I were in a middle school library this would be a definite. Because I'm in an elementary ... hmmm. Will have to think. Definitely have some 4th and 5th graders that could read it and would enjoy it. But ... I don't know. Good thing there are still at least a few weeks left to decide!


The Awakening by Michael Carroll
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I can't quite decide--this was in the juvenile section at my public library but the main characters were 13 and 14. So juvenile or YA? Anyway, that said I can now go on.

I liked it. The idea is cool ... "What if there had been superhumans ... and what if they disappeared?" Their powers were different than many of the comic book movies recently released. But I was a little lost at least a couple of times along the way. I don't know if that was on purpose ... to sort of make us feel like the characters that were developing super powers? Anyway. In all a successful if slightly imperfect impulse pickup from the library stacks. Now I want to read more.


Racing the Moon by Alan Armstrong
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It was fun for the sense of time (Cold War and space travel in their infancy). By the end I was getting tired of the journal entries from Captain Smith. And ... seriously? Chuck and Alex need to learn some common sense.
Or maybe I am just a fuddy-duddy with no sense of adventure.
Three. But barely. The author is a Newbery Honor winner. I just don't see a lot of kids really enjoying it.


 YA BOOKS

A Curse Dark As Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I stayed up too late last night finishing it. Which perhaps was not the best idea because the story really picks up steam and gets spooky right in that last ... oh, fourth of it. So I couldn't go to sleep for a while after I did finally finish it.

Charlotte is stubborn. Sometimes that is a very good thing and sometimes it is not. I got a little frustrated with her by the end. Lots of great characters and an interesting setting. I guess you would say this is loosely based on Rumplestiltskin?


Invisible Sun by David Macinnis Gill
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I wish I remembered the first one better. Of course, this one had so much heart pounding action I almost couldn't put it down from the first moment I started it.
Can be read w/o reading the first one but you're missing out if you do that. Sci-fi fun at it's best as the story takes place on another planet. Characters would make more sense knowing more of the backstory. Only the cover? Awful! Embarrassing to be seen picking up.


Winter's Child: A Retelling of "The Snow Queen" by Cameron Dokey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Three because it seemed like it needed a little more time to truly do the story justice. Four for some of the random beautiful written lines.

View all my reviews




I did not get to the Negalley or Edelweiss ARCs. #oops. Which is silly because I am excited about them, too! One Year in Coal Harbor, Ashen Winter, The Classroom, Unspoken, In a Glass Grimmly, and Almost Home?

On deck ...
I'm in the middle of The Gathering (super heroes). I also have book three. Maybe it's the frustrated fangirl in me but even though these books have some faults I like the whole superhero element!

And I have three professional books that I've started.
Choice Words
In Words and in Pictures
I See What You Mean

And since my #leagueoflibrarians shirt came in I've realized I need to remedy the situation that is that I've never read a Lunch Lady (even though JK visited our school-in my defense only a couple of them were out back then) or a Babymouse. So a couple of both of them are coming in.



PS Anyone aware of a nice explanation for how to get a picture to link (I usually cut and paste the HTML from Goodreads but there has to be another way)? I've Googled but not found one that I can get to work. Also ... know that I am totally blogstalking because I want to improve my review system. Maybe do better at the pros/cons like Mrs. Yingling? Or post each review separately and more clearly tag items so they can be searched? Or like our lovely hostesses and give more teaching ideas? Still mulling it over. You'd think after two years I'd have a clue but oh well. :] The thing is to always move forward!

FB Blog Page

So ... I decided to try adding a FB fan page so that if you prefer to get updates that way instead of through Google or Twitter you can do so easily (a pox on TPTB for canceling iGoogle even though they gave us like what, 15 months notice!). Though I will admit I am still working on figuring out how to get the "Like" button on there w/o having to actually go to FB. For now the badge with the link to the page is on the right hand menu bar. Or if you like Sharing the Shelves you can get updates on mine and several other library blogs that way.

Will keep fiddling with it later. Now? I make cookies.

photo credit: rottnapples via photo pin cc

Cool E-Reader Covers

So our school ones are pretty boring ... function over form, right? It was hard enough to get the funds to purchase the e-readers! But if I had unlimited budgets I'd get these.
Might just get one or two of them for my personal Nook. Even though I already have a cover that my Mom made me that is also cute.

(Also ... my apologies in advance but the layout of this post is doing VERY STRANGE THINGS as I work on it. I wonder what it will do when it goes live?)

Source: slashfilm.com via Angie on Pinterest

Unfortunately this just goes to the pic and not the original link. Which I did try to find (not super hard but I did try) cause that is just poor pinning etiquette. Other than that ... I LOVE THIS COVER.

(And ... HERE IS THE LINK TO ORDER IT! WOO-HOO!)





Fanny pack? No thank you. Bag for e-reader (so it doesn't get put in a backpack)? Perhaps. Love the colors. It would get dirty, though, if KIDS actually used it.

Source: etsy.com via Beth on Pinterest

Definitely can't spend $60+. But I love this. I do. If any of our withdrawn books ever had nice covers I'd try to make my own. They don't, though. Cover is usually the first thing to go.

Basically, I love just about every one the Etsy shop Chick Lit Designs has in the shop.





Here is a relatively simple DIY one. I wonder how well it really protects? And how easy it would be to cut out the pages and properly smooth and fasten the fabric.




Would sort of prefer one where you could read the Nook without having to take it out of the cover (at least for school). But this one is doable with ugly old covers because you PAINT them.







A classic chevron is always nice.





This one is for an iPad but I LOVE IT. Already asked my Mom to make it for me for my school iPad (though not in these colors). Yes, I am a grown-up. :]






I've followed this blog with interest in her Nook program. This is what I WANTED ours to be last year. No luck. WE'LL TRY AGAIN.

Tech Goal #2: One iPad in the Library Part One

I wanted to say One iPad in the Library to Rule Them All. But that would have been quite a long title, no?

So maybe you've been following the S'more Tech Camp? And her posts on what to do with your one iPad? I won't try to replicate that here ... just sharing my take/possible plans for our one iPad in the fall library. There is actually the chance that we'll have one more but still don't know about apps and which account to sync them with. So I might be lying. It might be TWO to rule them all.

Book-Related Apps
This is what we have. Yes, I did have some $. After kicking and screaming and giving up some magazine subscriptions. So to counteract that sacrifice I have to make this as useful as possible for everyone!

Any I should add? I just read about Ed Emberley's today. That one sounds cool. Given the choice I would NOT get Press Here or Spot the Dot again. Press Here is cooler as a book (I think, anyway). Spot the Dot has never worked properly since I downloaded it. I should probably contact the developers. The Crayola one is what you'd expect from a freebie. Pete the Cat was a bit disappointing in terms of content but it was only $.99 and the kids still liked it. On a personal iPad I think the Pigeon one would get a little old (and it's pricey at I think $6 or $7?) but on a shared device you get your money's worth out of it. I think ... Morris Lessmore is my favorite but second might be Harold and the Purple Crayon. Or the first Monster at the End of This Book. Sandra Boynton's Barnyard one is also pretty cool.

The app I am most excited about future possibilities? READING RAINBOW, of course. (The freebie version is loose on another page ... that's why it's not in the screen shot!) Please, please, please let them have a school friendly subscription package through the Education Volume Purchasing store! And please, please, please let me figure out more $ to pay for it! On the one book I saw they did a very nice job of balancing a bit of iPad interactivity with just a nice e-reading version of the BOOK. Not so many games to distract from the story!

For right now? The plan is projecting this on the screen and it being a full group activity with the occasion small group visiting and viewing some of the books on their own. I may or may not make up some task cards for that purpose. Thoughts? (Speaking of task cards ... I like Rachel Lynette's for other things so I imagine I might try to model them after hers for the older kiddos. Or these for the younger kiddos because they are quite nice as well. Check her blog for an editable PPT version.)




Then there are some of the Science and Social Studies apps. You'll see we have several of the Smithsonian/ Oceanhouse Media apps. Thinking about some task cards for research center rotations with these ... I know we have at least a couple different grade levels that study animals, habitats, ecosystems, and space.

The Weird But True is a favorite (Shh! I let them use it on my iPhone before we got the iPad ... because they love the books so much).
















The Look and Learn one is not my favorite. Creatures of Light is just COOL. Haven't tried it with kids yet. Not much to the Inventions one but it was free. Discovery Kids Sharks is AWESOME.

I'm not sure what use the Heritage or France ones will be ... but they sure do have some pretty pictures. I still have hopes for the National Parks one with landforms. Stack the States is fun and my focus group kiddos were surprisingly fond of the Wood Maze app.















The other folders I have set up are Media Creation, Ed Videos, Math, Reference, Reading & Writing, Arts, Notes, Mind Mapping, and Puzzles. Oh and the Utilities folder and "my" (ie the teacher) folder. I will save those for future posts.




PS The little white dot that you see? Handy little tool I learned about at iPadpalooza. When I find my notes on how I to set it up I'll post and tell you what it does. :/ See? If I used Evernote properly my notes would probably be right where I want them.

Tech Goal: Evernote

So ... it had been my goal this summer to really learn Evernote. I've had an account for at least a couple years now but hardly ever login. #oops

Haven't really followed up on that goal yet. But if it truly would save me from paper clutter/misplacement? (We're talking BOTH at school and at home, here. :/ For an information professional I can be a bit of a mess.) It would CHANGE MY LIFE.

And hopefully you are not annoyed by all the Pinterest repinning? This is sort of a way for me to organize them. I've been on it for a year and have started to get way too many pins. :/




Now, as a librarian our conferences are obviously quite a bit different than the regular classroom teacher. But I still can't help but think ... in theory this would be cool. I tried creating a pensieve of the 4th and 5th graders last year. And here's the thing. I flipped through it several times and did manage to make a few connections I might not have otherwise. But if it was electronic ... could I filter it so that I could easily figure out which 15 kids from four classes in two grade levels all liked sports books? And perhaps facilitate some sort of social reading activity? We all do some of this in our head everyday ... just wondering if this would be able to do it better. Or if it would not be worth the set up work?

Source: richlambert.edublogs.org via Angie on Pinterest

From this post I'm particularly interested in the Checklists, Running Records, and Displaying Student Work. Checklists for student participation, or maybe tracking returns (easy enough to hit a tic mark when they tell me than trying to go back and run circulation reports). If it's in my Evernote account I can go through and snap photos with my iPhone, school iPad, or school iTouch and then not worry about having to "sync" anything. That automatic text detection thing could be MOST useful.




This is a list of how one person has used Evernote both personally and professionally.





This one goes to a livebinder specifically for educators ... so there's lots of info. I'm curious about the browser extensions.

Then of course you can also go to YouTube and get loads of tutorials.

Also, of course ... Evernote owns SKITCH. I <3 Skitch. Wish I could have it on my school PC.


I do believe that just about all of these pins came from one person that I mentioned on my earlier Pinterest post. We've never met but I've already learned a lot from just following her pins.





I do get tired of many of the "Hey Girl" pics ... but this one still makes me laugh. Just thought I'd add it to this little public declaration of my goal. Within ... well. Shall we say by October I will do MY OWN post of how I've been using it? Instead of regurgitating others' content? Hope to see you around then!