Joined American Library Association

Today I joined American Library Association online.  What an experience that was!!  It was quite lenghty.  First I had to go on the site and create an online profile within the site.  I had to fill out the membership application- which consisted of the regualr items like email and my preferred mailing address so I can get the mail, demographics, etc...  In my email preferences I choose to receive communications from ALA, chapters and affliates.  I wonder how that is going to fill my inbox. I might go back later and change some of that.  Time will tell.  One cool thing about membership is I am now connected to ALA connect!  I choose the membership type of regular member.  The price of a regular membership is $65.00.  You can learn more about the American Library Association from their website.  http://www.ala.org/aasl/    I found myself lost for about an hour on the site.  The links within the site are awesome too.  I found a site that I am going to show my students within ALA  http://www.ipl.org/div/kidspace/.  It was filled with goodies!  Thanks ALA!  You rock!!

Leading My Teachers

This week I planned to help train my teachers with a testing program we are using at our school by a company called NWEA.  The test is called MAP.  That stands for Measures of Academic Progress.  All first and second grade students will be administered the test by computer.  All teachers will have access to a score report 24 hours after their students take the test.  My job is to help the teachers utilize their score reports better.  Also, they need help accessing the reports that the nwea site has to offer.  Too often teachers are bogged down with too things to learn so I thought I would take advantage of my candidate as a leader requirements and create a staff development unit to teach the teachers with their MAP scoring.  I created pdfs and documents as well as a PowerPoint to aid them in learning.  It was quite rewarding making all these tools for the teachers.  I think they really appreciated the help.  We scheduled grade-level meetings and taught each grade separately.  The meetings were quite a success, and each teacher received a PLU for attending the meetings.  I am so excited at how successful things went- I am now working with second grade, first grade and kindergarten to create grade-level wikis to store their units.  If these things are the job of the Media Specialist then I LOVE IT!!!
Link to Wiki site>>>   http://pikeprimarymaptest.pbworks.com/w/page/50484242/FrontPage

Jan Brett Display for our School.

I was reading my expectations for my practicum and one of them was to create a display that the entire school was working on.  That was so easy!!  After talking with my Media Specialist, she told me the entire school would be reading The Mitten by Jan Brett.  Well, my virtual component was an even easier choice.  www.janbrett.com is the most fabulous website I had to include it in my display.  Because I work in Early Childhood, I tried to make my board nontraditional than just the regular butcher paper and die cuts.  I made my snow out of cotton balls and sprinkled the cotton with glitter for an extra glimmer.  I included the website URL so all could see.  I made sure to include all the characters from the story in two different sections of the board.  I had so much fun making the board.  The best part was the fact I made the board for the ENTIRE school.  How cool!!!   I truly felt like a Media Specialist while making something for everyone.  I have taken a picture to share.  I hope you enjoy!!  And, don't forget to go to www.janbrett.com that site is totally AWESOME!!  Way to go Jan, your site is equally as cool as your books.  I hope my board is worthy of your name.  Our studnets love The Mitten and all the cool characters. 

Reading + Enrichment = Enjoyment

When reading is enriched with sharing, displaying, listening and visuals it becomes an enjoyable experience for all those involved.  Being a teacher of little ones, I have heard the statement that reading is work.  At this age it sometimes seems like a chore because it requires work to learn to read. I want to create a project with students that makes them excited just talking about it.  I figured out the perfect lesson.  I am going to take a second grade teachers class and start a class blog with them.  Most students will not even know the term blog- this will be a huge learning experience.  I am going to use an easy blog service.  I want to find one that does not require an email so I might have to look a little.  I do know I want my students to use one Web 2.0 tool to display and share their thoughts.  The subject that I want to theme around is Reading with a concentration on our Jan Brett Unit. I am so excited to start a class blog. I calculate that this project will take at  least 4 sessions to be a success.   Don't worry I will be blogging about my class blog. Hmmm....whatever shall I call it.  Perhaps I will let the class vote.

The time has come.



Winter vacaction.  Ahhh.  What a wonderful thing.    The holidays were so perfect for our family.  My son, husband, and I shared many smiles! Santa was wonderfull to us all. However, like all good things, they usually come to an end. Time to swirtch gears. The time has come. January came in just like fireworks bring in the new year.  Our first online meet for my Practicum course gave me insight as to what my new year will hold.  It looks as though it will be very busy.  After looking at all my requirements for this class it seems as though I need to create a to do list and try to keep a steady momentum of getting things done.  My portfolio as of now is nothing like the one that is requuired.  I dont have a resume, or a philosophy written.  The last time I wrote those was many moons ago while I was working on my B.A.  I have come to the conclusion I am going to scratch my previoius portfolio and create a new one with suggested Weebly site.  I am excited becasue Weebly looks much prettier than PBWorks( my orginal choice).  I guess you can call it the Early Childhood in me- but I love things that are pleasing to view.  Weebly seems like a great choice.  The time has come to get this party started, I am off to start my porfolio! The road ahead seems bright.