Connecting with our Brook Forest Friends Using Edmodo!

On November 24th I wrote about connecting with John Schu and his amazing students at Brook Forest Elementary in Oak Brook, Illinois. Ever since I met John at the School Library Journal Summit in Chicago this last fall we have thought of fun ways to connect our students in the library.

In this project we focused on the 4th graders at Brook Forest and Van Meter. We both have two sections of 4th grade in our school so it worked out perfect having two groups....Fourth Grade Reads 1 and Fourth Grade Reads 2.

The students started out by introducing themselves and posting something of their choice about school, their town, what they liked to read, favorite authors, and more.

The next time they came to library it was fun to see them read about their new friends and reply to comments. They were excited when they read about similar interests and hobbies.

Today in the computer lab, I loved watching them also respond to their classmates at Van Meter. The conversations are growing in our two groups and this is becoming exciting and challenging to the students to think about what they are writing. The connections they are making mean something to them and give them a VOICE in their learning.

We created this Animoto video as a THANK YOU to Mr. Schu and all of the 4th graders at Brook Forest Elementary. We wish you a very happy holiday season and cannot wait to connect again in 2011.

The Edublog Awards Meets the Geek Tribe!

Posted by joycevalenza on December 5th, 2010 on the Neverending Search Blog from School Library Journal

Yesterday, the Edublogs folks announced the short list for the seventh annual Edublogs Awards. As I examined the list, I began to realize how far we’ve come as a tribe. It probably started just over a year ago when we first got together as a group to prepare for AASL Charlotte.

This morning Gwyneth and Shannon and I Skyped about our upcoming Educon2.3 session, but the conversation kept returning to the presence teacher librarians have developed in the larger edtechosphere.

Awards are really nice. Personal recognition is really nice. But you can’t help but notice that it has been a year of serious accomplishment and dramatic school library creep across the board. My hope (always) is that a rising tide lifts all boats.

So explore ALL the wonderful contributors who made a difference and were nominated for an Edublogs Award. But also take a good long celebratory look at this Google Doc and see what a difference our own Geek Tribe has made. And then vote for your favorites!

The three of us starred all the library/librarian-connected projects we recognized. Please add stars to any we may have missed. (23 blogs in the official category of best librarian/ library blogs were nominated this time around!)

Congratulations all. Great work, tribe!

And as Gwyneth says, let’s embrace & welcome our new voices and recruit new Geek Tribe members! And no matter who wins the Edublog awards — really, we all win!

We are stronger when we share!

~ Gwyneth – Joyce – Shannon -

Celebrating Ivy + Bean Day with Brook Forest Elementary

This month in the Van Meter Elementary Library the second graders celebrated Ivy + Bean Day! Ivy + Bean are two wonderful characters in a series of books by Annie Barrows.

To make the celebration even more exciting we connected to Brook Forest Elementary Library in Oak Brook, Illinois. Mrs. Miller met their librarian, Mr. John Shue when they attended the School Library Journal Summit in Chicago at the end of October. They just knew that all of the students would have a GREAT time connecting and sharing their celebrations with one another.

During the celebration, we created Double Dare Cootie Catches, designed Ivy's bedroom just like we wanted, dressed Ivy + Bean in awesome clothes, and shared the seven books with one another. As a special surprise, Ivy + Bean even left us tiny cupcakes in the library for us to eat. Everyone had an awesome time and it was so much fun getting to know more about Brook Creek Elementary too!

You can find out more about Ivy + Bean on the Van Meter Elementary Library and Tech Voice Google site at littlevanmetervoice.com on the Second Grade page.

And don't forget to check out the library for all of the Ivy + Bean books!

The Power of the FIRST Connection With Merton Community School!

On Monday morning before school, 2 kindergarten teachers, 2 second grade teachers, 2 third grade teachers, the Merton technology teacher, the Van Meter Elementary principal, and the Van Meter teacher librarian sat down to talk about how they could start connecting their two schools and the different classrooms. The meeting was so exciting and everyone enjoyed the conversation of how the two schools could connect, learn, and create with one another. The unique piece of the meeting is that we were over 300 miles apart in two different towns.

On this day, Van Meter Community School in Van Meter, Iowa and Merton Community School in Merton, Wisconsin were collaborating through Skype and taking their students' learning outside of the school walls. Lisa Morowski, Merton's technology teacher, and myself, the district teacher librarian, connected on Twitter a few weeks ago and soon after started planning our first activity to kick off this new partnership. We shared the idea with the teachers, collaborated on times that would work, and set our plans into motion. What an exciting week this would be!

Today was the first day our students connected! It happened in the two kindergarten classrooms. As I watched our kindergarten students being read Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak from the classroom in Wisconsin, I could feel the connections starting. The students were engaged, excited, and sharing. It was hard not to smile as I watched them meet their new friends. And I loved it when one asked, "When are we going to get to go and visit the Wisconsin students?"

I have had people ask me before, "What is the power in these Skype connections? What do students really get out of them?"

After school my son Hagan, who was one of the lucky kindergarten students at Van Meter today, came up to the library and got a new book from my desk. Hagan and I had read it together last week and he knew there was a map of the United States inside the front cover. Hagan got up on a chair where I was working and said to me, "Mommy, I can show you where our new friends live on this map. They live in Wisconsin. It is right here by Iowa."

There is your answer! Our students are gaining knowledge, experiences, and relationships that they might not have had before. Hagan not only learned where Wisconsin and Iowa were on the map, he was now able to make a personal connection to this knowledge. And he also has a whole other classroom full of wonderful children and teachers that he will be learning with throughout the year. This is something that I want for not only my own children, but for all the students at Van Meter and around the world.

That is the POWER of the first connection!

You can follow the story of these two schools throughout the year at the Van Meter Merton Connect blog!

Why I Love Being A Teacher!

Yesterday I was showing the 5th graders the new Van Meter Elementary Library and Tech VOICE Google site. On the "Important Information" page I posted a video called Be The Change You Want To See, which I used in two library presentations last week. When the kids saw that it was a YouTube video of our library they all wanted to see it, so I played it for them.

As the video and Hey There Delilah started playing the students began to sway back and forth while singing the popular song quietly. When it got to the chorus, everyone of the students in the lab were singing the song without any hesitation with their sweet little voices. It was just beautiful to hear and to see how happy that song was making everyone of them.

I am so happy I got this moment on video. And the best part...everyday I experience little moments like this with the kids at Van Meter and with my own children. I might hold the title of teacher librarian and mom, but they teach me more than I have ever learned in a classroom, online, or from a book. They teach me to embrace spontaneity, to find fun in little moments, to be noisy, to smile even on the worst day, and most of all....to have a VOICE all of your own!

And this is why I love being a teacher.

Announcing the NEW Van Meter Elementary Library and Tech VOICE Site!

This year I am teaching technology to 3rd through 5th grade at Van Meter School along with their library time. The students come to the library and computer lab for 45 minutes once a week for this collaborative time.

With these changes and a focus on technology in our district, Jen Sigrist, Van Meter Director of Teaching and Learning, and I have been working on my curriculum. The library and technology curriculum includes four different strands: information literacy, technology literacy, digital citizenship, and love of reading.

After a couple weeks of school behind us and lots of time working together in the library and lab, I saw a need for a new site just for the elementary. I have created a new Google site called the Van Meter Elementary Library and Tech VOICE Site. This site will be geared towards elementary students but has a ton of fun things on it for everyone! There are lots of awesome fun brain and game websites; reading and book resources; typing games; Iowa AEA Online resources; and much more.

Since the vanmetervoice.com has been taken by the Van Meter Library VOICE Site, I asked the students at Van Meter what address they thought I should look for at GoDaddy.com. A few suggestions were littlevanmetervoice, vmvoice, and voice. We decided on bulldogvoice.com for the Elementary VOICE site. This will be easy to remember and share with everyone.

The Van Meter Elementary Library and Tech VOICE is a great place to connect, create, collaborate, and be HEARD! So check it out today and please let me know if you have suggestions of other wonderful resources to add to VOICE.

You Need to Visit Mrs. P's Digital Library

I hope everyone is having an amazing summer! I am enjoying spending time with my family and friends, traveling, and learning new things.

This week my friend Kyle told me about a fun interactive digital storybook website called Mrs. P's Magic Library. Mrs. P, also known as actress Kathy Kinney, has created an amazing site that contains a Magic Library to listen to stories, fun activities, annual writing contests, and other learning resources. While you are listening to Mrs. P read a story, you can even play a spelling game or stop to send her a letter. And one thing I loved...she even has her own dictionary for help!

Mrs. P's stories are free on her website. Hagan has loved listening to Mrs. P read Jack and the Beanstalk and The Frog Prince this week. You can also purchase and download her wonderful stories to take with you too from iTunes, kidthing, or Audible Books. I have already downloaded several onto my iTouch for Hagan to listen to and I can't wait to share these with you in the library too!

Mrs. P has also included valuable teacher and parent resources on her site.

Have fun checking out Mrs. P's Magic Library and remember to KEEP ON READING this summer! I will see you all soon.