Sharing Books with Biblionasium

All seventh graders and students in Mr. Wegner's class are using the awesome website Biblionasium to share their love of reading.  Biblionasium is an online reading community where students can create their own virtual bookshelves, participate in reading competitions, share book reviews and suggestions, and log their reading.  The students have been enthusiastically sharing their recommendations with one another.  Check out the shelf that I have started.

 

Here are some students at work creating their shelves.  What fun they are having! 

Advice to New Students

The end of each year is bittersweet. While it has been an exciting year, and it is awesome to see how much everyone has grown, I will miss the connections that have been made and working with such a great group of kids! Each year I have the current fifth graders end their semester in Integrated Technology by creating a voki sharing advice for next fall's new fifth graders. It's a nice way to reflect on the year, welcome our new students into the building, and learn how to use one more technology tool. Below highlights the advice given by this year's group. These students have some important lessons to share!

5th Grade Creative Writers

The 5th graders in Mrs. Dachelet's classes have taken their writing to a new, creative level by publishing their stories using Storybird.  After learning how children's books are written and structured, and viewing several examples, they wrote stories of their own and used Storybird's publishing tools to share professional-looking projects with the world.  Many of the students used the collaborate feature to write and edit stories together.  View some of our students' highly creative stories below.

Animoto Book Trailers

To culminate their group readings of various novels related to the themes found in Lois Lowry's The Giver, 8th graders in Mrs. Koshollek's Language Arts classes created Animoto book trailers.  Below are some examples of their work.  They certainly make me more interested in reading these titles.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
 

 Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
 

Behind the Bedroom Wall by Laura E. Williams
 

Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli
 

Bar Code Tattoo by Suzanne Weyn

Indian in the Cupboard Character Scrapbooks

To reinforce their understanding of the characters and events from the the book The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks, 5th graders in Mr. Wegner's class created character scrapbooks using Biteslide.  Their scrapbooks had to portray events that occurred throughout the story from the point-of-view of a chosen character.  View a few of our students' creative examples below.

Greek Mythology Trivia Challenge Skype

Our 7th graders' knowledge of Greek Mythology was put to the test today when they connected with a group of 6th graders in Houston, TX, to challenge one another to a Greek Mythology trivia competition. Students at each school prepared this past quarter by learning about the different Greek gods and goddesses and reading various stories associated with each. Then, each class prepared questions to ask one another to determine who is the ultimate Greek Mythology trivia champion. Before the friendly competition began, students warmed up to one another by introducing themselves. They shared information about their respective cities and asked one another questions about everything from favorite foods to music. (Houston seems to have many One Direction fans as well!)

Next, it was time to get serious.  Each school assigned a team captain to answer all of the questions on behalf of the class.  We did rock, paper, scissors to determine who would go first. 

Students from each school took turns asking questions.  Questions were mostly open-ended, but multiple choice was offered when additional help was needed.

Although we kept score throughout the competition, what ultimately mattered was the experience.  Students had the chance to meet a new group of kids from somewhere else in the country and discover that kids from another part of the US are just like them in many different ways.   In addition, we proved that New London students are awesome learners who really understand and know their Greek Mythology. Who was the ultimate victor in this challenge?  I think that we could agree that both schools were winners. 

Our Year in Review

It's hard to believe that another year is almost over.  We have worked hard and done some very exciting things!  It has been awesome to watch students learn and grow and create new knowledge using 21st century tools.

Below is a video that highlights a few of the ways in which we have worked with students this year.  This video was originally created as a way to highlight our program to parents and community members who will be visiting our school during our student showcase on May 30, but I thought that it was also a great tool to share with the world to demonstrate how our library serves students and teachers in the 21st century.  We are more than just a place to check-out books.  We teach the essential research and technology skills to ensure student success in today's connected world.

Thanks for another great year!