Thursday, January 7, 2016
Sharing New Stories
Ever wonder how your school librarian decides how to spend the money earned from our one fundraiser, #Scholastic Book Fair? @MTCES last fall we had our most successful book fair in eight years so we had $2,000 to work with; sounds like an awful lot but with so many books choices and reasons for choosing, it's quite a challenge to begin selection.
In our library we have a well loved and worn Wish List 3-ring binder. Throughout the year, student and teacher request are added to the notebook. Sometimes the request might be just one title, author or subject, sometimes it may be several pages of books an entire grade level it working with for a new focus on sharing literature in their curriculum, and of course favorite titles wear out and awesome new books are published. Weighing the needs of our teachers and students is very important and the Wish List notebook is never empty.
This week in the library we expect a couple of very important shipments from two of our favorite vendors, #Capstone and #BoundtoStayBound. Because our books are used by so many children, library binding is our preferred binding. This increases the cost of the book, but the number of circulations per book make this a worthwhile trade. As these books are processed and ready to shelve you will see lots of happy faces in the school library!
Sunday, November 15, 2015
MakerSpace Mentors
Engineer-Mom Volunteer, Amy Vandiver, Shares Friction, Speed, and Gravity Concepts
After fourteen successful MakerSpace Friday events I can safely say that MTCES loves MakerSpace! Getting started was a little scary and overwhelming, but with the help of parents and community volunteers, we have reached over 350 students with STEM opportunities that engage the learner and challenge the mentors and students! The challenge has come from learning new technology tools to share and in scheduling volunteers and students. Here at Mt. Carmel we are also fortunate to have STEM projects developed for Mt. Carmel Elementary by University of Alabama in Huntsville, Engineering Design students (sponsored by Women in Defense) like this Marble Roller Coaster, that we include in our MakerSpace Friday offerings.
As part of our Community Mentor outreach, UAH Engineering Design Student, Danielle Lewis Volunteers to help with MakerSpace Friday
Teachers have learned to love the MakerSpace Friday opportunites and use the SignUpGenius posted for Teacher & Students I create based on Community Volunteers that have signed up on their own SignUpGenius link. It is very exciting to see our program grow as more volunteers come forward. UAH students have been amazing to help alongside our parent volunteers. Each volunteer works with 2 students or more, depending on the activities being offered that particular day.
Cory Copeland, UAH Mechanical Engineer, has worked with our program from the first day to help us tinker with our new technology and get us all up and running for MakerSpace Friday.
The library used Scholastic Book Fair funds to purchase 3 very important tools to begin our MakerSpace: OSMO, Sphero, and green screen equipment (iPad mount, tripod, and lens). Using the free Touchcase app for creating green screen videos, we have been slowly finding the many functions available in this app and helping our students to find their presentation voices.
UAH Students, Taixing Bi, Electrical Engineer, and Cory Copeland, Mechanical Engineer,
helping 2nd grader create puppet show utilizing green screen technology
One of the most popular stations offered at MakerSpace Friday is Sphero. This little robot ball, affectionately known as Roger, has been used/played with to teach place value, direction, speed and velocity relationship and coding. We look forward to learning more with Sphero as we get to know his capabilities. Meanwhile, the students think he is fabulous!
Character Day and MakerSpace makes for crazy pictures!
Dixie Smith, UAH Engineering student learns from classmate,
Cory Copeland on how to program Sphero
Friday, November 6, 2015
American Association of School Librarians Conference 2015
While it is hard to leave our students for days on end, this week is the AASL2015 conference... What does that mean for Mt. Carmel? By providing this opportunity for your librarian to participate, you are providing access to the latest books, children's authors and professional development from the leaders in field of school libraries; it's fresh ideas and problem solving solutions relevant to school libraries, and it's inspiration that is contagious. Learning alongside several thousand school librarians at a conference of this quality gives me, your school librarian, a pinpoint focus and renewed energy that sustains me to share with my students the very best of today's library.
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Mt. Carmel/ UAH / Women in Defense Collaboration
Please join Mt. Carmel Elementary as we welcome a
team of brilliant UAH Engineering Design students striving to “design an
environment in which children can be exposed to STEM early in their academic
lives”. Monday, September 14th, 2015, UAH professor Dr.
Christina Carmen’s Engineering Design students Project Team, sponsored by Women
in Defense, will present an interactive
STEM/Maker Fair to the Pre-K through 3rd grade students of Mt.
Carmel.
Directly following the school’s PTA meeting at 6:00,
parents and students are invited to investigate STEM topics ranging from simple
construction designs to robotic toys.
There will be six different STEM stops to visit with a chance for hands
on learning and family fun.
Since
June, 2015, this team of eight mechanical engineers has been working with Mrs.
Cyndy Dunning, Library Media Specialist for Mt. Carmel Elementary, to
reconfigure and improve the original sound-dampened STEM Station project built
by UAH students two years ago. Mt.
Carmel students are anxiously awaiting the return of the STEM Stations sometime
in early November, but they have been busy learning about the excitement of
STEM topics through weekly MakerSpace Friday sessions organized by the school
librarian and manned by parent and community volunteers like former engineer/new
Kindergarten mom, A. Vandiver; former teacher/now volunteer mom, K. Harris,
and Buckhorn High School senior/future librarian, L. Evans. Cory Copeland, Customer Liaison for the UAH
project team and Boeing intern has been pivotal in helping train volunteers in
the new technology purchased by the librarian in preparation for MakerSpace
Friday and has shared his enthusiasm with many students.
Having
short enrichment opportunities each Friday to participate in creative STEM play
has created an excitement at Mt. Carmel that we would like to share with you on
Monday evening. Thank you in advance for
planning to attend the STEM/Maker Fair. We would love for you to join us in celebrating how libraries
can be a pathway to STEM careers in the future.
Cyndy Dunning
Library Media
Specialist
Mt. Carmel
Elementary
335 Homer Nance Road
Huntsville, AL
35811
@MTCESLibrary http://www.facebook.com/Mt.CarmelLibrary
Project
Team Members: Garrett Bosse,Team Lead; Chris Hill, Co-Team
Lead/ Manufacturer; Angela Crittenden, CAD/Meeting Secretary; Cory Copeland,
Customer Liason; Seth Hill, CAD /Manufacturer; Michael Sanderson, Documentation
Lead; Daniel Lewis, Co-Documenter; and Skrlett Perkins, Collaboration Manager.
Dr. Christina Carmen,
UAH Professor
Mrs. Deborah Fraley,
Women in Defense
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Sharing stories with children is such a privilege; helping them discover a love for reading is why being a librarian is the best job ever! This year at Mt. Carmel Elementary, our students are stepping up to a new library reading challenge to become Genre Geniuses. Inspired by author Jackie Mims Hopkins ' book, "Joe Bright and the Seven Genre Dudes" and encouraged by our teachers to revive my former genre reading program of years past, I spent a good bit of my summer modifying the old to blend with new to create this school-wide reading challenge. The final result has been very exciting!
Students have loved hearing the story of Joe Bright, the Storyteller, and his new found Genre Dude friends and have begun looking at their books with new eyes. Each of the Genre Dudes tells the reader about his genre and what type of literature they represent in the "Friends of the Forest Library". As a K-3 school, the focus so far has been mainly with 2nd and 3rd graders. The idea of describing a book within the context of a genre has been quite a discovery to share. The discussion has spurred excellent questions, which have led to even move questions! Each book identified by genre leads to the consideration of the next. Connections are sparking and common interest are coming to light.
With this new challenge to read across the genres in our library, the students are earning Genre Brag Tags for reading three books in one genre. After reading their chosen book and then taking an Accelerated Reader test on it, students then enter information about the book in a Google Form and submit the entry to the librarian using the online form. Genre Genius Submission Form Initially the form seemed a bit foreboding to students not too familiar with inputting through the keyboard, but with assistance and encouragement the participation has doubled in one week's time (as of 9-3-15).
Parents can help students enter information in the Genre Genius Form by accessing Home Connect Accelerated Reader program. Most of the information needed to complete the form can be found by viewing the student's "AR Bookshelf" in Home Connect. Students will need to know how many pages are in their book to complete the form though, so this might require a search for the book on Amazon,com, a trip to the library to search for it on the computer, or remembering to enter this information in their AR Reading Log in the classroom. To log into Home Connect you can use this link Mt. Carmel HOME CONNECT
Each student will receive an document describing the Genre Genius reading challenge and a Genre Dude Tally Sheet that has a description of each genre. You will notice that there are eight genres listed on the tally sheet. Although the seven genre dudes story is cute and reminds us of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as their librarian, I have included one more genre, Fantasy, to be sure and cover some of our favorite titles at Mt. Carmel like Clifford, Franklin and Thomas the Tank Engine, because these story lines could not possibly be real but don't fall under the folklore genre or any others represented by the seven genre dudes. If you misplace your forms, here is a link to the documents stored online and available for sharing with our students and parents: Genre Genius Forms Please email me if you have any questions about our Genre Genius Reading Challenge Mrs. Dunning, Library Media Specialist
In closing, I would like to thank my friend and fellow Library Media Specialist, Jane Scott, LMS for Legacy Elementary, for sharing her genre brag tag program with her fellow librarians of Madison County Schools and sharing her time to walk me through the steps she took to set up an online accounting system that could help to manage a large number of participants. It was also wonderful having the support of author, Jackie Mims Hopkins as I worked out the details of adding one more genre to extend her story (she called me personally to discuss the program plans at length) and my students just love to know that the author really cares about their reading. And finally, I would like to thank John Manders, Illustrator for the support he provided in developing our brag tag design. Although we could not ultimately use his drawings to create the brag tag illustrations, it's a wonderful lesson in copyright to share with the children. Those illustrations Mr. Manders drew are now the property of Upstart Promotion, the company that published the book, the matching posters, the Genre Dude Trading Cards Activity guide and Library Lessons that are free to download.
Students have loved hearing the story of Joe Bright, the Storyteller, and his new found Genre Dude friends and have begun looking at their books with new eyes. Each of the Genre Dudes tells the reader about his genre and what type of literature they represent in the "Friends of the Forest Library". As a K-3 school, the focus so far has been mainly with 2nd and 3rd graders. The idea of describing a book within the context of a genre has been quite a discovery to share. The discussion has spurred excellent questions, which have led to even move questions! Each book identified by genre leads to the consideration of the next. Connections are sparking and common interest are coming to light.
With this new challenge to read across the genres in our library, the students are earning Genre Brag Tags for reading three books in one genre. After reading their chosen book and then taking an Accelerated Reader test on it, students then enter information about the book in a Google Form and submit the entry to the librarian using the online form. Genre Genius Submission Form Initially the form seemed a bit foreboding to students not too familiar with inputting through the keyboard, but with assistance and encouragement the participation has doubled in one week's time (as of 9-3-15).
Parents can help students enter information in the Genre Genius Form by accessing Home Connect Accelerated Reader program. Most of the information needed to complete the form can be found by viewing the student's "AR Bookshelf" in Home Connect. Students will need to know how many pages are in their book to complete the form though, so this might require a search for the book on Amazon,com, a trip to the library to search for it on the computer, or remembering to enter this information in their AR Reading Log in the classroom. To log into Home Connect you can use this link Mt. Carmel HOME CONNECT
Each student will receive an document describing the Genre Genius reading challenge and a Genre Dude Tally Sheet that has a description of each genre. You will notice that there are eight genres listed on the tally sheet. Although the seven genre dudes story is cute and reminds us of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as their librarian, I have included one more genre, Fantasy, to be sure and cover some of our favorite titles at Mt. Carmel like Clifford, Franklin and Thomas the Tank Engine, because these story lines could not possibly be real but don't fall under the folklore genre or any others represented by the seven genre dudes. If you misplace your forms, here is a link to the documents stored online and available for sharing with our students and parents: Genre Genius Forms Please email me if you have any questions about our Genre Genius Reading Challenge Mrs. Dunning, Library Media Specialist
In closing, I would like to thank my friend and fellow Library Media Specialist, Jane Scott, LMS for Legacy Elementary, for sharing her genre brag tag program with her fellow librarians of Madison County Schools and sharing her time to walk me through the steps she took to set up an online accounting system that could help to manage a large number of participants. It was also wonderful having the support of author, Jackie Mims Hopkins as I worked out the details of adding one more genre to extend her story (she called me personally to discuss the program plans at length) and my students just love to know that the author really cares about their reading. And finally, I would like to thank John Manders, Illustrator for the support he provided in developing our brag tag design. Although we could not ultimately use his drawings to create the brag tag illustrations, it's a wonderful lesson in copyright to share with the children. Those illustrations Mr. Manders drew are now the property of Upstart Promotion, the company that published the book, the matching posters, the Genre Dude Trading Cards Activity guide and Library Lessons that are free to download.
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