iMovie!

The fifth grade students are doing some really cool things using Menus. The teachers have given them choices for products. Some of the products are easy and the students can quickly produce, others are quite intensive. One whole group of students have decided to create movies. If they do it well...they get 100 points. So...we sat down the other day to brainstorm how to create a movie...from the storyboard to the final product. We talked for about 30 minutes about the basics and then we started talking about perspective. Wow...did we get a long way. We went from starting with "talking heads" to doing green screens. The students decided to experiment with Keynote/PPT for the title slides. The flip cameras were put to use quickly. For the second part of the class time, they started putting the videos together. Each student started with a different piece...I can't wait to see how they all go together. It never amazes me as I work with students how they can so quickly learn the skills and never hesitate to try anything new. Just a suggestion and they are off with new ideas...they are so interested in trying new things....sometimes you just learn things from your students!

Monday, October 11, 2010

Again it's a Monday to write about the week in the Rummel Creek Library....last week was a great week...a busy week...it was wonderful. On Monday, my schedule was a bit sketchy....a few classes here and there, but time to get some cataloging completed. By Monday afternoon, I knew the week was going to be different than my schedule reflected. The fifth grade teachers are doing some really great things...students are doing menus and can select a project from a menu or list of possibilities. Most of them involve the library some how. It's great! That's the math/science side, the language arts/social studies teachers also have projects going...so....most of the week the fifth grade students camped out in the library...literally...the entire grade level most of the day most of the week. It was GREAT! we had every computer in the library and labs going. Students were in groups and using books as well as any resource available. The students were all in fifth grade, all doing projects...just everyone on their own choice. One moment I was helping out with PowerPoint, the next iMovie, some were using web 2.0 tools and then we threw in pages and keynote. The flips and digital cameras were all checked out and in use. I wanted to take photos...but I didn't have a camera left. The best part was watching the students share what they learned. What I shared in math, they applied in social studies...it was the best week ever!

But that's not all...in and around fifth grade students camping out, we finished the primary GT experiences, story time and lessons for second grade classes on the fiction section and the different kinds of genre available to them. It was a whirlwind week.

But...that's still not all. We had scheduled a day for volunteers to come and process the books from the book exhibit. (Since my schedule had originally looked a little slim, we thought this would be a great week) so 8-10 volunteers joined us in the library on Wednesday for several hours to process the new books. It was great...nearly everything was completed. (Thank goodness for a library assistant!)

But that's still not all...I had staff development for teachers in grades K, PreK and 1st grade. I shared new technologies and books.

This was definitely the week to be in the library....it was the place to be!